Far East Cynic

When its time for the FITREP debrief. If any of you have spent time, in or around the Air Force, this little video is going to ring very, very, true.

Especially the discussion of Squadron Officers School-my roomate from college, who went in the Air Force used almost those very words!

And staying in the hotel across from hers.

Natalie Tran can have my baby!

My Canadian counterpart has done a first rate bit of fisking of Andrew Breitbart’s despicable foreign policy web site, Big Peace. (Sorry-no link. I won’t link to that erstwhile perpetrator of human stupidity.).

He’s made the same point I tried to tell the Phibian way back when: Andrew Breitbart is a bad guy-who cares not a whit about the truth. “I read Breitbart so you don’t have to. Chances are that you might have actually learned something that way, which I can guarantee you wouldn’t happen otherwise.”

I tried to warn you.

While I was at my father’s place-we took the last night we would all be together, and decided to head on up to a place my Dad had heard about. It is just south of the Virginia border near Yanceyville NC. Dad had heard the owner on the radio, a week or so back and decided he wanted to try it. Boy, am I glad he did.

While it is a bit out of the way-and Yanceyville is hardly what can be described as a bustling Metropolis, the food at the Yancey House was excellent. They have a good selection of wines-and other drinks, and you can end up leaving there pretty full if you do the whole three course monty. And I would advise you not to eat all day-just so you can.

For an appetizer-I recommend the crab cakes or the fried oysters. Especially the fried oysters. They were superb. Talking with the owner-he says the secret of them is not overdo them-either in the amount of batter or cooking time. His description of the coating?  ”Just give ‘em a light dusting”. And only cook them for 50 seconds. I concur with his method.

The rest of the menu is compact but varied. I had the Pittsburgh steak-which is well seasoned then pan fried. Outstanding. It was served with onions and mashed potatoes.

For dessert? Jack Daniels covered Bread Pudding of course!

The house is historic-having belonged to Bartlett Yancey, who started living there in 1806. They make good use of the space-but you better have a reservation if you get there after 6:30 PM. ( Make a reservation regardless).

If you find yourself in the Research Triangle-head to Hillsborough exit on I-40 (exit 261) and head north on NC 86. You will have to drive about 50 miles to Yanceyville-but the restaurant is not hard to find.

Regrettably-took no food pix.

I think I would prefer a package check from the TSA to the 10 hours of driving I have to do tomorrow.

See you on the other side!

Went to a pretty neat place for dinner tonight with my father though. If you live in the Virginia-Northern North Carolina area-it is worth the trip. Details to follow.

For those of you who do have to work today-especially for anyone works at a shopping mall, the Red Army Choir has a message for you:

That Russian accent adds just the right amount of dreariness to the tune, don’t you think?

Note to self. When your sister says, ” Hey, running a 5k on Thanksgiving Morning would be a great way to start the day.” -SAY NO!

As it turned out it was an 8K -the final part of the Tour de Carrboro. And my legs felt it all the way home-and they still feel it now. I finished-but my time was nothing earth shattering for a 5 mile run. I count it as a blessing that there were still some of the 1500 people who turned out behind me though.

Made eating the dinner better-but now, I am ready for bed. Happy Holiday to you and yours.

To utterly despise the Tea Party. Reason number 345 why this so called “movement” is dangerous-and needs to be opposed:

In an exclusive review for Whispers of their plan, FreedomWorks president Matt Kibbe says: “Tea Party activists are willing to tackle progressive CEOs just as they tackled progressive politicians. Judging by the results of the midterm elections, progressive CEOs should buckle up, because Tea Party activists are going to give them a very bumpy ride.”

Center for Public Policy Research’s Free Enterprise Project, added: “Big businesses are now on notice that there is a measurable business risk for actively supporting the Obama, Reid, and Pelosi progressive public policy agenda.”

Their initial focus will be on consumer firms that lobbied for passage of Obama’s agenda items that helped their firms. “We are going after the rent-seeking corporations feeding at the public trough,” said FreedomWorks’ spokesman Adam Brandon.

Umm…….. right. So I presume that DOD contractors will be right at the top of your list to boycott? I didn’t think so.

If you do not find the teabagger point of view very disturbing-especially for a movement that is about “free market solutions”-then you need to have your head examined. Because read this for what it really says, ” Conform to our view point or else!” It’s crap and should be denounced as such.

Phrased another way-we would rather punish your employees for the views of their CEO.  Even when the employees have done nothing wrong-except show up for work and do their jobs.  I wonder who will be the first to complain when unemployment rises if this is successful.

“But what about the boycotts of Glen Beck and Limbaugh”, you ask? Well to start with-there are more than a couple of differences between the output of Beck et al and what is being challenged at GE and Johnson and Johnson. Beck was proposed for boycott because of verifiable incorrect statements, made with malice of forethought, to attempt to destroy the reputations of individuals. In the case of these companies-it is for excercising their rights ( as reinforced by the Supreme Court) to advocate for a point of view or a candiate.  They-by any reasonable standard of inquiry-did not publically attack an individual and skirt the border of the libel laws.  And second, by Kibbe’s logic,  it is impossible to get behind a policy prescription because : 1) you might actually believe in it and 2) it might actually improve your bottom line. Clearly there must be something more sinister at work. Godless capitalists!

It seems that it is not enough these yahoos won some elections-now they want to ensure that if you do not agree with them, you will be relegated to the outer darkness. I don’t recall that as being one of the aims of the Founding Fathers in forming a democracy and building a Constitution.

The good news is that boycotts seldom seem to work-so GE and Johnson and Johnson are probably still in good shape. A good product with name recognition seems to beat ideology. At least in a proper world it should. Otherwise-all you would see on the road is America cars right? In support of Buy American campaigns? How well did that work? People-myself included- will buy the products they think are best for them, regardless of what side of the aisle their CEO is on.

Nonetheless, it is troubling, because it makes me wonder what is next? Harassmentof that firm’s employees? Demands to divest their shares from 401K’s? Even when- in several cases-the target actually makes sense to buy? And if the company grows it puts American back to work.  It will now be a crime to employ Americans?  Will someone be thrown out of the GOP for owning GE stock? What about all that nonsense of rugged individualism and building your business?

Sadly this is  just the opening round-because our galtian overlords are after even bigger game-namely the creation of a climate of fear and conformity to their belief system. To your everyday tea party moron-freedom is only useful when it is given to their like minded folks. Otherwise, STFB.

Welcome to the 50′s all over again.

Fighting traffic all the way. Talk to you later when we get where we are going!

My Canadian counterpart explains why the current TSA kerfluffle is nothing but rank hypocrisy on the part of the GOP.

Of course, with everyone flipping the fuck out, it tends to be forgotten that half of America is being more than a little hypocritical. It wasn’t too long ago, after all, that we heard the constant refrain of “We’re at war! The government needs to do everything in it’s power to keep us safe!” As a matter of fact, it was only last Christmas that the federal government was being accused of not doing enough to secure airliners.

I encourage everyone to read through some Republican-leaning blogs this week. Note the outrage over the sexy scanners and feel-coppers at an American airport near you. Then go back through the archives to last Christmas, through the middle of January. And, just for giggles, skip back to late 2005, when the National Security Agency’s “wireless wiretapping” program was exposed. You’ll likely notice a … change of tone over the last five days or so.

One thing that I’ve noticed this week is that Republicans are using the phrase “privacy rights” quite a bit these days. That’s special insofar as these people have spent most of the last forty years denying that such a right even exists, except in the special circumstance of Rush Limbaugh pretending to be Keith Richards.

The hated Raiders are on the schedule this week.

What is your favorite pro team? College team?

I have finally gotten off my dead ass and updated the Pix page. All my Bucharest pictures are now up there.

Another year spent in Shopping Mall.-Still, one has to count his blessings, at least I have a job ( for now-next year, who knows?).

And the arrival of that time of year means that at the Shopping Mall Botanical gardens-they have the Festival of Lights. The S.O. suggested we walk it this year, which they allow for the first five days its open-then after they they have people drive the route. It was a good idea:

I played with a lot of different settings-and I discovered yet again-why I need a tripod for some things. You can see why over at the Picasa site.

But the ones I did get to come out where some interesting displays:

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I ought to leave the topic alone, but…..

It seems to me, the easiest way around this whole mess is to hire a lot more Hooters girls to do “pat downs” for male travelers. Something tells me the whining would drop in a New York minute.

But what about the ladies you may ask? Well Hooters girls for them are a pretty good idea too. It would put a whole new definition to the term “Security Theater”.