Air Force Story

 The Air Force cam out this past week and said they would 'ease-up' on restrictions on tattoo work on their folks....on necks and hands.  

Reason given?  A 'new' view of the 'hobby'.

Real reason?  I think the shortage on personnel is reaching a point where even chubby guys/gals are simply give a 'worry' note and told to proceed on.  

I remember the day when piercings on guys (off-duty) was finally accepted.  About every decade.....the shortage issue comes up.  

Will it get worse?  Based on chatter....I'd say the next round of evolution will occur by Thanksgiving. 

I was reading a piece today.....the AF is missing around 1,000 pilots minimum and there's heavy competition with passenger airlines.

The idea of bringing back Warrant Officers?  It wouldn't shock me if by spring of 2024....you see the idea discussed.  It wouldn't be the end of the world if Warrant Officers were allowed to exist again....within the Air Force cargo plane world.  

Observations

 1.  What is 'Whataboutism'?

Basically, your co-worker brought up some intense discussion over a topic which either you know mostly nothing about, or it's opening up a 45-minute discussion which has no end.  So....you deflect this, by bring up an entirely different topic.

2.  Are there really a couple of thousand Russian folks in Mexico....who've applied for US asylum?

Well.....YES.  The story is that around 5,000 to 5,500 are there presently, and just in limbo....waiting for the US to 'grant' them 'permission'.  Odds of this?  Biden's folks aren't saying much.  You almost get the impression that they expect some payment or bribe-money....to sign each one.

Why aren't they just crossing....like the other half-million folks?  Unknown.  

3.  If you were an idiot with $100,000 of student loan debt and constantly weeping over Biden's lack of progress on your problem?

My advice....you'd best give up on Joe Biden, and get that second job at the bowling alley or Piggly Wiggly.

4.  Far-left in 1976.....would be just 'right-of-center' today....politically speaking.

5  I noticed the mayor of Coronado, California did a interview on his homeless problems in the city.  

Republican guy....100,000 resident town.  They had some homeless issues, and then invented a new policy....'no-pity' is what I'd call it.  Zero-tolerance. 

If you try to camp out on public property....cops come and encourage to get real  help or leave the town.

6.  A majority of Democratic-voters were shown in a 6 Jan topic poll....to believe that some elements of what happened on the 6th.....were faked-up or scripted.  If I were a candidate for the Democratic Party for President in 2024....it'd be a problem that I'd have to explain, or offer to clean up.

7.  Any threat at this point from Putin to NATO.....being worth worrying about?  No.  

Other than talking nuke warfare....there's not much of a threat left.

Movie Review: Ad Astra

 This week, Netflix put up Ad Astra, and I sat down to watch it one afternoon.  

First, I will readily admit that watching a science fiction piece....requires a good bit of accepting the core story....whether it makes sense or not.  They did lay out the basic story over the first 15 minutes.....but it really didn't make much sense.

Second, about halfway into the film.....the craft that is carry the main character deep into space gets some distress call, to a Norwegian science station.  The pilot of the craft, and our 'hero' get into the suits, and 'walk' over to the station (no contact).  You can sense....things aren't going well.

Upon getting into the station....we find that this is a primate study situation and the monkeys got loose.  They also seem pretty violent and tend to murder folks.  Our 'hero' dispatches one of the monkeys, and drags the dead pilot back to his ship.

By the end....the basic element of the story has been resolved, and mankind can rest assured of things.

Just shaking my head....it was one of the more crappy stories of the past decade or two....that involved BIG production.  If you are going to watch it....I'd advise at least four shots of something at the beginning, and do another shot about every ten minutes until the end.  

Observations

 1.  I sat and looked at a poll that men responded to.....98-percent of guys said 'no, they would not date a trans-woman' (meaning a former guy who'd orchestrated himself into another gender.  

The two-percent group saying 'yes'?  I'd have a question or two....if they were bi or gay.  

So the key thing here....if there were 300,000 converted trans-women existing in America....it's going to be awful hard to find companionship over the next decade or two....unless you hung out with other trans-women.

I'll just make this prediction....where you find an isolated small number of guys open to this situation....they probably will be having pick-up's with a dozen-odd trans-women each.  

2.  If you go look up statistics on UFO sightings....worldwide....the bulk since 1906....lead back to the US (something like 90-percent).  It just begs questions...if aliens were visiting...wouldn't the numbers reflect a worldwide thing?  Or are these aliens fixated on the US landscape?

3.  Just an obvious thing from the Ukraine-Russia war....we've reached a point on inventory of weapons...where the only category still at the 100-percent point....are the nuke missiles.  Hard to escape that reality.

4.  Hard to miss category: Twitter geek employees held more sway over medical knowledge.....than actual licensed doctors.  

5.  There's a draft bill floating around in Minnesota that would mandate the state to build a 3,000 MW energy storage 'facility'....in roughly a decade.  One has to assume that lithium-ion batteries would be the choice to use, and that roughly $4-billion would be necessary to complete the facility.

The good news?  Once done.....a quarter of the state would have four hours of power sitting there and of use.  The remaining three-quarters?  Well....you'd have to just accept the situation of no power.

Who would pay the $4-billion?  You the consumer.

6.  Minnesota announced that across 19 school districts in the state....they had no students who passed the math proficiency test for their grade level.

In simple terms.....it would not matter if you had a non-degree or degree person teaching....you have no need to spend any money to accomplish math proficiency.

Hate to suggest it....but in Minnesota, you probably peaked on math-knowledge by the end of the 5th grade.  

7.  Mentally unwell people....are probably not people you want in charge of anything (even stocking shelves at Piggly Wiggly).

8.  The term 'big boned'....really has zero science or facts behind it.  

9.  There must be 300 different 'shades' of color on Meghan (Prince Harry's wife).  Just about every picture you see....has some light angle adjustment, and she's whiter or darker than usual.  

What is '2S' of 2SLGBTQIA+?

Well....it means two-spirits.

In the American Indian gender business....they stood up and said they have a belief where you could be male and female....at the SAME time.

The idea that LGBTQIA will go past the 2SLGBTQIA-plus?  

I would argue within a year.....at least twenty additional genders will be added....making LGBTQ impossible to keep 'balanced'.

You will have witches with different genders.....Haitian witch doctors with various genders....ghost-gender....cartoon character gender, and maybe even BDSM added for the really freaky bondage folks as a gender (not a fetish).  

Nine Observations

 1.  After a while....watching the drama in East Palestine, Ohio unfold....you get the impression that the whole government staff that ought to be there for the emergency....is off on some vacation.  

2.  After watching AG Garland's answers to Senator Cruz yesterday....I'd say Garland is also suffering 'old-mans-syndrome' like President Biden.

3.  I'm of the opinion that 12-percent of the American population probably ought to be either in some rehab mandated structure, or mental asylum.  

4.  You noticed.....all that anti-Twitter hype....just kinda stopped in the past two months.  

5.  So far in 2023....I've come to four odd conclusions.....(1) whatever was spoken by the US gov't over Covid....was fake, (2) most all of the vax chatter from 2021 has been false guidance, (3) the majority of what's claimed over climate change needs more analysis, and (4) gov't economists and bankers probably aren't that wise or clever about money or the economy.

6.  Just something that hit me this week....back in the 1990s before Trans came along....were these Trans-like people existing and how did they survive in that era?  It just appears like they came out of a hidden 'cave' five or six years ago to exist, and it makes little sense.

7.  It used to be if you said someone was 'provocative'.....you were inferring them to be a lady showing two blouse buttons undone, and showing 'something'.  Apparently, that definition no longer works today.

8.  Whole lot of people walking around and asking for 'gatekeeper-services' today.  What the hell do they really mean?

9.  When you accept four-year-old behavior out of adults and don't discipline them to change behavior....don't be shocked over the crap you get later.

Ten Observations

 1.  It's just odd.....half-way through the Biden era....various gov't agencies are now saying 'yeah, Covid probably did come from a Chinese lab leak'.  They couldn't rationally say this by the end of 2020?  Whole lot of explaining to do...if you ask me.

2.  Elon says he'll create an alternate version of Chat GPT (the AI program that thinks and answers questions).  If you ask me....it'll be programmed to think like Elon.....which might open up a Pandoras Box.

Eventually, the Chat GPT will seek out Elon GPT, and try to 'think' like Elon.  

3.  Some hype dumped this week....CNN now on the lowest ratings since 2014.  

4.  Shocker.....no money/profit to be made from natural immunity.

5.  I'm reaching the stage where I think of every one-hundred problems presented by the news media and the social media.....probably thirty-percent of the problems are fake (created to keep you focused away from the other seventy-percent).  

6.  Without really thinking about it....I've probably created a lies-index, where I evaluate some journalist to some degree, and regard anywhere between 10-to-100 percent of their 'story' to be bogus.  

7.  There's a Oregon state draft bill shuffling around....where the state would issue $1000 a month to homeless people.  Chief use of it?  I'd suggest that on average....$950 will be spent on drugs.  Will just disturb state residents even more....as they fund out-of-state residents who arrive to be their new homeless.

8.  Some PhD group finally completed a study where they say marginalized irregular sleep....causes heart problems.  I could have told you that twenty years ago....it's unhealthy and puts more stress on your body.

9.  I don't think the Democratic Party (as most of us over the age of 50 remember things) exists anymore.  It seems to be more of a activist/irrational party.  

10.  According to USDA....the cattle inventory of the US....is currently at the lowest point since 1962.  I'll go out on the edge and predict....by the end of 2024....a national beef shortage will be announced....as the next thing to worry about.  Meanwhile....back on the farm....the freezers are full of home-grown beef, and guys are grilling beef of some type five days a week.  

Some journalist will ask Biden about this, and he'll remark he worked for six months on a cattle ranch in Montana...discounting the shortage as being fake.