Taking a break

I have things I need to do,
Things I want to do.
Maybe when the weather is to cold for shooting. I was going through old things and found the rifle I got for my 16th birthday. Either sell it or shoot it. Shooting is a lot more fun.
UPDATE 29 June 2012:  I took first in our clubs spring .22 LR league.

Crusin’ On LSD

A blast from the past. Enjoy!

I remember the traveling Lake Shore Drive, from the back seat as my father drove us downtown, always a big event itself. Then driving it to school and later to work - and of course crusin' on a Friday night.



But it’s just not the same drive since they renamed the Playboy Tower.

9/11 Hustlin' Up Stragglers

A couple weeks after 9/11 I was in the hospital waiting room. The television was droning something that someone else was watching; when Robin Williams came on with one of those short commemorations to the heroes of 9/11. I glanced at the screen and saw . . .




. . . Major Rescorla was the squadron executive officer of our reserve unit.


Something of a legend, he had served in three armies, in Viet Nam a hero of the battle of Ia Drang, a Silver Star, Bronze Star with Oak leaf Cluster and “V”, Purple Heart, and too much else to count. At first glance a snake eater, but when you talked to him you realized the tough exterior hid a deep intellect and compassion.




Loud, larger than life, and full of fun, he could take the joke as well as give it out. As he was walking back to our area one day the Sergeants decided to from a “chain.” They walked past him with just enough interval that he had to return thirty some hand salutes one at a time. He was laughing out loud by the end of the chain.

As XO, he was the chief of staff, a staff that didn’t call attention to itself, but plans worked and soldiers were supported. And always, more than most any officer I ever met, he would always make the extra effort to take care of his soldiers. To the point of making a trip to Division HQ to get a privates records straightened out.

When we had Squadron runs he would finish close behind the nineteen year olds, and without missing a step turn around go to the rear, set a pace and hustle up the stragglers.

He had the stereotypical command voice of a British Regimental Sergeant Major. A little less effective when we realized his bark was worse than his bite. One summer camp the officers were put in the Hospital area for quarters. The lieutenants and captains in one wing and the Major and Colonel in the next, they wanted some quiet. However it turned out the next wing over housed the enlisted soldiers of the hospital. And inclined to spend all night partying on the lawn between the wings. Until one night about 0100 hours Major Rescorla stood on the porch in his skivvies and with that command voice put them to bed.

He was promoted and took command of another squadron and then moved to New York for his civilian job..


When the planes hit, the evacuation plan was sound and rehearsed. He took 2500 people out of the building on the sound of that voice. When informed some his people were still in the building he went back to hustle them out. Last seen going up.





. . . And as Robin went off and the TV returned to the regularly scheduled commercials I was thinking. . .

“Husslin’ up stragglers, couldn’t do any thing else!”


Richard C Rescorla, Colonel, Infantry, USAR, Retired.
Grant him Eternal Rest Lord - and let Your Eternal Light shine upon him.

Five Year Mind

Addie Love

Many women have done excellently
But you have surpassed them all
Your Charm is not deceiving
Your beauty is not fading
But a women who loves the Lord
You will be praised
Forever

Cf: Proverbs 31


Addie B Jorden February 2, 1948 – September 5, 2006

V: Lord, grant her eternal rest;
R: And let Your perpetual light shine upon her.

A Family Friendly Blog

This blog is certified Cuss Free by the Blog and Website Cuss-O-Meter


Created by OnePlusYou

Full Disclosure: They must only count English. I did use a French cuss word once.

Explaining Algerian rioting in France: A large number of foreign workers were imported from the former colonies, especially Algeria, to do all sorts of menial work. Paris apparently does not have pooper scooper laws, every day the Algerians were out on the street with large sweep brooms cleaning up Fido’s mess. The French treated the Algerians as lower than the merde de chien they were paid to sweep up. Paris is Burning

HT: Almost Chosen People

Storms - Stoplights - Equality

Last Monday a storm came through. Sustained hurricane force winds in Northeast Illinois!? I suppose the usual suspects will allege global warming or cooling as a cause though common sense meteorology would say just an extreme local variation, no matter the long term pattern. As I drove home from work the closer I got the more and more trees and branches were on the ground - and power lines. When I got home, aside from lesser problems like a flying branch wrecking the fence gate, the electricity was out, it did not come back until Friday evening.

One thing I learned to appreciate during this is the common stoplight. One thinks of them just as a safety feature so many cars can get through an intersection safely. However when the light is out you go to stop sign rules. Every one gets through safely, but it takes forever. Even if one catches a red light at the beginning of the cycle one get through the intersection much faster than one gets through on stop sign rules. One intersection regularly had back up of over a mile in three directions.

While sitting in that four lane parking lot waiting my turn I mused that this is a good example of an equality of results. It takes every one about the same amount of time to get to the light and through the intersection. Stop lights are a great source of inequality, some cars get to the intersection with a green light and zip though at 60 miles an hour. Some catch the beginning of the red light cycle and sit there for a few minutes waiting for the green. This is so unequal, yes everyone gets through much faster with the stop light, but shouldn’t radical equality be a goal, it commonly espoused for economics and politics, why not traffic control?

While equality is certainly important in some areas, i.e. everyone should be equal before the law. Everyone should have and equal opportunity to seek education and employment of their choice. But when an equality of results is promised how do you get them?

The items that have been driving the growth of western and now world economies for the past few hundred years are the concentration of capital, free trade, and technological development. But all of these produce uneven results. While even those on the lower end do better than they would otherwise the discrepancy between the top and bottom is larger than before this development. The only way to equalize the results in to put such major impediments in the place of concentrating capital, free trade and technological development that these discrepancies cannot exist which means every one gets poorer and poorer. But it is closer to equal results!

That wait for my turn to go through the intersection was way to long.


See also:
Freedom
The Fourth of July

“The Water Tastes the Same!”

My friend Addie was vocal on some subjects. “Mister Lincoln freed the slaves . . “ was the beginning of a rant on the history of race relations, good and bad, in the US that was something to behold. When Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas accused the Judicial Committee of conducing an electronic lynching, she stood up and yelled “That’s right, you tell ’em” loud enough that I’m sure he heard the encouragement a thousand miles away without electronics.

I can here her cry “You tell ‘em Herman!”



From Little Miss Attaila and Allah pundit who comments ““[S]egregation laws were so vicious and demeaning that they insisted on stigmatizing blacks even when doing so produced no material advantage for whites.”.



NB I am not endorsing Mr. Cain about whom I know very little - his message here needs to be told often enough that we do not forget.

When I Was a Boy.

Well I’m sixty today, so I guess I get to bore everyone with tales of When I Was a Boy



And expound on the great unanswered questions.




Joe Bethancourt plays acoustic instruments and sings mostly Traditional American Music. Check him out for some great music at Old Songs for the New West.

Be back in July

I'm on the road for vacation and work untill then.

You Are My Sunshine

Elena of My Domestic Church presented me with with her Sunshine Award.







You are awarded the Sunshine Award!
Link it to your blog or to a post and pass it on.

A Short Break

A blessed and fruitful Lent to one and all.

Previous Lent and Easter posts are in a list on the sidebar.

I will be scarce for a while, I have several other activates that require my attention.

Golly Schazamm! This Blog is Five Years Old!

I made my first post on, Cause Not Harm five years ago. I was trying to think of a good first post. Then Glen Reynolds said something to annoy me, and I meandered into it.

I was tired of just leaving comments on other Blogs. But I was not sure where I wanted to go with a blog. Since my interests are eclectic and I meander between them “Eclectic Meanderings” seemed like a good name. I did a Google search, and while I did not find a blog named “Eclectic Meanderings,” it seemed to be a rather common expression so I put my name in front to avoid conflicts.

Since them I have had a lot of fun looking things up to post. Getting my thoughts in shape to post has helped clarify a number of issues. My writing has improved marginally. So as I find things that are interesting, important, or entertaining I’ll keep posting. Who knows maybe some one will read them.

Bobby Goldsboro - Honey

Fireworks: Fourth of July 2009

The War on Terror must be going well. For the second year in row the Great Lakes Naval Base has resumed it’s annual Fourth of July fireworks display.










Music



Entertainment



A crowd of thousands.



The best fireworks in Lake County








And more pictures Enjoy

The New Computer is Up

and connected to the internet.

I still have some clean up to do and data to recover.

I suppose talking to four help desk people until I found one who could help is retributive justice.

Lightbloging will continue

My compter is about to give up the ghost after much long and mostly faithful service. I will be pretty much off line until it is replaced and the new one is set up. About two weeks I hope

Richard John Neuhaus 1936 - 2009

From First Things

Our great, good friend is gone.

Fr. Richard John Neuhaus slipped away January 8, shortly before 10 o’clock, at the age of seventy-two. He never recovered from the weakness that sent him to the hospital the day after Christmas, caused by a series of side effects from the cancer he was suffering. He lost consciousness Tuesday evening after a collapse in his heart rate, and soon after, in the company of friends, he died.

My tears are not for him—for he knew, all his life, that his Redeemer lives, and he has now been gathered by the Lord in whom he trusted.

I weep, rather, for all the rest of us. As a priest, as a writer, as a public leader in so many struggles, and as a friend, no one can take his place. The fabric of life has been torn by his death, and it will not be repaired, for those of us who knew him, until that time when everything is mended and all our tears are wiped away.


His writing was always interesting and informative. Even when I disagreed with him I came away wiser. And when I first read him, hope and inspiration when I needed it.



O Lord
Grant Richard Eternal Rest
and may Your Perpetual Light shine upon him.
Amen

Oshkosh 2008 AirVentrue - II

More photos from AirVentrue 2008

See my previous post




The old and the new.





People came from all over the world for the show.





A bi plane during the preshow warm ups. It looked for a bit like weather would close the show but a few minutes later it was sky blue flying.





The venerable DC-3 aka C-47. I think the smiley face on it’s nose is because it has survived so long. During the National Anthem it dropped the parachutists who carried the American Flag.






Oskosh’s brand new Air Traffic Control Tower opened just in time for the Air Show.

See my previous post

And more photo’s in a while.

Oshkosh 2008 AirVenture

I went to Oshkosh AirVenture was held last month. The show is sponsored by the Experimental Aircraft Association located at Oshkosh Wisconsin and is one of the premier air shows in the world. I had a great time




A racing Rocket plane. Rocket Plane’s have two options engine on and engine off. The plane would come in fast and do some maneuvers than turn the engine off and become a glider as it went around for another turn. This is the first for the Racing Rocket League at Oskosh which hopes to make this a NASCAR style sport.




This ultra light plane was doing “touch and goes” before the show.


And of course Acrobatics.



More


Julie Clark


And more.


Debbie Rhin-Harvey




I’ll post some more later or you can see more pictures here.

Going North

Made my occasional visit to our Marquette Michigan office in the Upper Peninsula.




I took a driving break at a good half way point



At another break I stopped at Florence Wisconsin and checked the weather station.



This is part of the National Network of weather stations that collects data on “global warming” as well as more mundane purposes, like the weather report. The network has come under considerable criticism lately because many (over half surveyed so far) have a larger margin of error than the alleged extant of global warming. I didn’t do a formal survey but this looks much better than most. The white boxes at the bottom are old equipment, the weather station is the little box on the antenna near the top of the picture.


I always plan to travel in the good weather



This the land of the Great North Woods.










Took a wrong turn going home and got to visit Norway



Michigan that is. This town in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth centurys was the last transit point for settlers from the Scandinavia, from here they went to set up homesteads or got jobs in the mines across the Upper Peninsula and Northern Wisconsin.



More pictures