War is a lot more than just pretty uniforms & flags.
The Battle for Bataan 1942 California National Guard Tanks*
https://en.wikipedia.org/
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Categories
Leaving California some day
The man mentions a lot of Good reasons on why I want to leave this state of Insanity.
Grumpy
California, Adios!
I just got back from California, and boy, is my soul tired.
I always feel trapped, surrounded, and claustrophobic there—or at least in the LA megalopolis that eats up the state’s bottom quarter. California has more people than Canada. Almost twice as many as Australia.
The place is also a wall of cars. One of the days I was there, it took about nine hours merely to run two errands through LA and Orange County. Less than 90 miles roundtrip. But NINE HOURS, all of it staring at exhaust pipes and the brown strip of smog that’s always slung over the horizon like an executioner’s hood.
But even when you’re outside of the LA hydra, the state still manages to feel overcrowded. On Friday night, I faced an endless beeline of red taillights climbing up into the high desert all the way from Rancho Cucamonga to the Nevada border. When you’re a born misanthrope and you’re somewhere way out between Barstow and Baker late at night and there’s still so much traffic that you can’t even go the speed limit, living on the moon’s surface seems preferable to being trapped in this overpopulated wasteland.
It was the first time I’d been back in ten years. I’d lived in Hollywood—a half-block from Frederick’s, to be exact—in the late 80s and early 90s. I made it through the Rodney King riots, the OJ chase, the Northridge earthquake, and the state’s increasing Mexifornication until I finally heard a deep rumbling voice—divine or demonic, I’m not sure—telling me GET OUT BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE. So about a quarter-century ago, I ran from California screaming and haven’t regretted it for a minute.
“If you remove California from the USA, America is truly Trump Country.”
There are beautiful places in California, almost always where there aren’t too many people around. The ever-shrinking non-congested areas are among the nation’s prettiest. I love Death Valley and the redwoods and the Salton Sea and Yosemite and Mono Lake.
I imagine that in the 1940s and 50s, California was nearly paradise. But the state’s main problem is also the main problem with Florida—it seems as if maybe a half-dozen people were born there and the rest moved there. It feels like most of the residents came there because they were fleeing from somewhere else. There’s a rootlessness that engenders a soullessness. There’s really no common bond except for the fact that there’s no common bond. Socially and demographically, California is one big melted chunk of plastic cancer.
So as I drove out of California on Friday night, I realized that if the state were to leave the Union, I would not stand in its way.
I spoke with friends who are planning to leave the state because they’re terrified of saying a positive word about Donald Trump for fear of having their heads smashed in with bike locks. And I don’t blame them, seeing as how the state has thrown a collective conniption ever since he announced his candidacy. Californian radicals threw some of the most violent tantrums at Trump rallies during the entire campaign, and, of course, Berkeley gets incinerated every time someone to the right of Che Guevara tries to make a peep.
If you removed California from the 2016 presidential election, Trump would have smashed Clinton in the Electoral College in a 306-177 rout. He also would have flogged her in the popular vote by nearly 1.5 million.
If you remove California from the USA, America is truly Trump Country. There’s a cultural rift in this nation deeper and potentially more catastrophic than the San Andreas Fault.
Most Americans ain’t too fond of a state that recently downgraded intentionally infecting someone with HIV from a felony to a misdemeanor. One opinion poll after the next shows that most Americans wouldn’t think too highly of a state that offers sanctuary for illegal aliens, and right now California is the only one that does that. Most Americans probably aren’t too cool with a state where public schools insist on the right to ban American flags.
And most Californians—or at least the ones who speak English, because at least I can understand what they’re saying—seem to think that every American who lives between the enlightened coasts is an incestuous retard.
So maybe it’s time for a split.
Ever since the California Republic shed its sovereignty to become an American state in 1850, there have been more than 200 formal proposals to secede—that averages out to more than one per year. The most recent push to get the hell out of the USA was originally called such unwieldy names as “Caleavefornia,” “Califrexit,” and “Calexit,” but it seems as if the momentum is tilting toward an organization that calls itself Yes, California. They propose a ballot initiative for a statewide vote in 2021 as to whether Cali should perform nationus interruptus with the United States.
Why should Californians vote to secede? According to Yes, California:
The best reasons are because you love California and want her to excel and be all that she can be; because you know California is more than just a state and can do more good in the world as a country; and because you support the right to self-determination and self-government. But we also understand that California’s electoral votes have not changed the outcome of an election since 1876, so our votes don’t matter. We voted against Trump and we got stuck with Trump. This campaign believes Californians deserve to always have a president we voted for, never one we just got stuck with.
Good. Can’t disagree with a word. So go. Leave. Do it. Get the hell out.
Take your tanning salons and Apple Stores and your plastic-surgery casualties and your naked pregnant underwater yoga classes and build your new feudalistic utopia consisting of a thin crust of tech elites.
Who nobly protect their huddled masses of about 900 million Mexican gardeners.
There’s already a red star on your flag. Just remove the bear, and you’re set.
Let the new People’s Republic of California be a sanctuary for ALL the world’s refugees, for all of the poor and disenfranchised who are just lookin’ for a better life.
Let it be a safe space for all of the HIV+ swingers who wish to infect unsuspecting partners without being stigmatized by homophobic bigots.
Let us all discard the idea that the American Empire could ever last, and let us all go our own ways in a gentle, peaceful, bloodless divorce.
We’re incompatible. We will never get along. Let’s be adults about it. Another Civil War could be a huge pain in the ass, or at least a major bummer.
If they really want to leave the United States, I’d have no problem giving them a hearty shove.
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Here is another reason why
You can really see the Weatherby influence with this rifle!
Categories
The Anti Gun Folks out there
Now I find this hard to write and I am going to assume that a lot of folks are going to do a pass on this one. But hey it’s still a somewhat free country. So here goes.
Now a lot of these folks are not the Devil incarnate. Hard to believe in spite of what a lot of our folks think or have been told. 
Now the Bell Curve Theory* tells us. That anything humans engage in is covered by this theory.
I.E. folks basically divided into threes. In that Group is for something. One group is seriously opposed to it. The Last third can go either way.
So far from what I have seen in life. His views on this has held up pretty good so far.
Plus my Dad who was a hell of lot smarter than I, Taught me this. So it must have a pretty good basis.
So here is how it applies to our situation:
In that you have the true believers about one third of this group. This could because of economics, social / political upbringing or issues. I can almost guarantee that you will never change their mind on this issue.
Then you have the folks who have never had a chance to talk to someone that shoots for fun or work. This is really true.Especially now that the Number of Veterans is at an all time low. Plus most of the folks do not run in these social circles.
Now most of these folks if approached properly. Can be a good recruiting area for our side. But one must remember not to push it too hard. Like some folks have on our sides. Who go full John the Baptist Mode on folks.**
For Example- I have some married friends from the UK, Who never even seen a gun up close even at most museums over there. Much less having the chance to give it a try.
No not them, Jeez, frigging computer!
So somehow or other my wife talked them into going to the Range with me.
The wife now is one hell of a good shot. Who whenever she comes over here. Just can not wait to go to the range & crank off a few hundred rounds or so.
Which really freaked out her friends over in London. When I accidentally spilled the beans at a dinner with them. My bad!
By the by. She really likes my S&W Model 29 with full mag rounds going downrange. Go figure.
But the Bottom line is this. We can improve our position with these fellow Americans. Now it is going to be a hard uphill battle. But if we use our brains, charm and manners it can be done.
* The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life is a 1994 book by psychologist Richard J. Herrnstein and political scientist Charles Murray, in which the authors argue that human intelligence is substantially influenced by both inherited and environmental factors and is a better predictor of many personal dynamics, including financial income, job performance, birth out of wedlock, and involvement in crime than are an individual’s parental socioeconomic status. They also argue that those with high intelligence, the “cognitive elite”, are becoming separated from those of average and below-average intelligence. The book was controversial, especially where the authors wrote about racial differences in intelligence and discussed the implications of those differences.
**
Categories
A Good Idea from One of my Buddies
It’s all your Fault, Leonard! So blame him not me!
One of my Former Substitute Teachers from LA Court School, named Leonard. Who was one of the few Subs that I could trust with my class & students completely.
Here above is a close likeness of what he looked like in my classroom.
But enough of usual libel & other stuff. Anyways, He was kind enough to up & gave me this idea about this story. He also mentioned this great line about Watches & Guns.
Cherry: There are only two things more beautiful than a good gun: a Swiss watch or a woman from anywhere. Ever had a good… Swiss watch?
It’s a great line because it is absolutely based on cold hard facts. Now I have been lucky enough to own both of these objects. a Breitling (Grenchen) for example and maybe a gun or two.
.
As they are also one of the few things that have never let me down so far. That and flowers for the Boss when I push the envelope too far.
So here are a few examples of them. As you can guess they are not a cheap hobby to acquire. Some of them rank up there buying a rifle from Holland & Holland price wise.
But if it makes a man happy. Who am I to quibble? Right?
Here also are a few of the gun scenes also from this fine film.
Of course it’s only Colt Single actions and Winchester Lever Actions. Shotguns? What’s a shotgun. They did not have them right?
Plus the good guy is always crack shot and the Baddies can’t hit the broad side of the ocean. But then hey it’s a Mid Century Film, what did you expect?
Not him right?
It must of been an interesting collection of conversations between Montgomery Cliff and the Duke off scene. I can not imagine two different kinds of folks / life styles.
Here is some more information that is probably true also!
Thanks for your time on this matter! My Paypal Button is also lonely.
Grumpy
Red River (1948 film)
| Red River | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Howard Hawks |
| Produced by | Howard Hawks |
| Screenplay by | |
| Story by | Borden Chase |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Dimitri Tiomkin |
| Cinematography | Russell Harlan |
| Edited by | Christian Nyby |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
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Release date
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Running time
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133 minutes (Pre-release) 127 minutes (Theatrical) |
| Country | United States |
| Language |
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| Budget | $2.7 million[1] |
| Box office | $9,012,000[2] |
Red River is a 1948 American western film directed and produced by Howard Hawks and starring John Wayne and Montgomery Clift, giving a fictional account of the first cattle drive from Texas to Kansasalong the Chisholm Trail. The dramatic tension stems from a growing feud over the management of the drive, between the Texas rancher who initiated it (Wayne) and his adopted adult son (Clift).
The film’s supporting cast features Walter Brennan, Joanne Dru, Coleen Gray, Harry Carey, John Ireland, Hank Worden, Noah Beery, Jr., Harry Carey, Jr. and Paul Fix. Borden Chase and Charles Schnee wrote the screenplay, based on Chase’s original story (which was first serialized in The Saturday Evening Post in 1946 as “Blazing Guns on the Chisholm Trail”).
In 1990, Red River was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
Plot
Thomas Dunson (John Wayne) is a stubborn man who wants nothing more than to start up a successful cattle ranch in Texas. Shortly after he begins his journey to Texas with his trail hand Nadine Groot (Walter Brennan), Dunson learns that his love interest (Coleen Gray), whom he had told to stay behind with the California-bound wagon train with the understanding that he would send for her later, was killed in an Indian attack.
Despite this tragedy, Dunson and Groot press on. That night, Dunson and Groot, keeping watch, hear a group of Indians planning to attack them. They kill the Indians, and on the wrist of one, Dunson finds a bracelet he had been left by his late mother. One day before, he had presented it to his young love as he left the wagon train. The bracelet reappears significantly later in the film.
The next day, an orphaned boy named Matthew Garth (played as a boy by Mickey Kuhn and as an adult by Montgomery Clift) wanders into Dunson and Groot’s camp, traumatized and babbling incoherently. He had been part of the wagon train Dunson had left, and had come back from finding a strayed cow to see the ruins of the train. He is the sole survivor of the wagon train. Dunson adopts him and ties the boy’s cow to his wagon, alongside a bull Dunson already owned.
With only the bull and the cow, Dunson, Groot and the boy enter Texas by crossing the Red River. In search for land they travel through Texas, finally settling in deep South Texas near the Rio Grande. Upon arrival, Dunson proudly proclaims all the land about them as his own.
Two Mexican men appear on horseback and inform Dunson that the land already belongs to their boss, a Spanish grandee whose family held the land by patent from the King of Spain. Dunson dismisses this inconvenient fact and, thanks to a quicker draw in a showdown, kills one of the men and tells the other man to inform the Spanish don that Dunson now owns the land. Dunson names his new spread the Red River D, after his chosen cattle brand for his herd. Fatefully, he promises to add M (for Matt) to the brand, once Matt has earned it.
Fourteen years pass and Dunson now has a fully operational cattle ranch. With the help of Matt and Groot, his herd now numbers over ten thousand cattle, but he is also broke as a result of widespread poverty in the southern United States. Due to its loss of the American Civil War, the South cannot afford Dunson’s beef. Dunson decides to drive his massive herd hundreds of miles north to the railhead at Sedalia, Missouri, where he believes they will fetch a good price.
After Dunson hires some extra men to help out with the drive, including professional gunman Cherry Valance (John Ireland), the perilous northward drive starts. Along the way, they encounter many troubles including a stampede sparked by one of the men, Bunk Kenneally (Ivan Parry), making a clatter while trying to steal sugar from the chuck wagon. This leads to the death of Dan Latimer (Harry Carey Jr). Despite Bunk knowing what he did caused all these problems, Dunson wants to make an example of him by whipping him; but when Bunk draws his gun in self-defense as Dunson is about to whip him, Matt shoots Bunk in the arm, knowing that Dunson would have shot to kill. The wounded Bunk is sent to make his way home on his own.
Continuing with the drive, Valance relates around the campfire one evening that the railroad has reached Abilene, Kansas, which is much closer than Sedalia. When Dunson confirms that Valance had not actually seen the railroad, he ignores what he regards as a rumor in favor of continuing on to Missouri.
Deeper problems arise when Dunson’s tyrannical leadership style begins to affect the men. One of the two chuck wagons was destroyed in the stampede, causing morale to drop as the men live on nothing but beef and roasted grain “coffee”. Dunson tells the men he is broke and cannot buy more supplies, even if they turned back to get them. When he announces he intends to lynch two men who had deserted the drive and taken a sack of flour and 100 rounds of ammunition with them and been recaptured by Cherry Valance, Matt rebels.
With the help of Valance and the other men, Matt takes control of the herd in order to drive it along the Chisholm Trail to the hoped-for railhead in Abilene, Kansas. Valance and Buster (Noah Berry Jr.) become his right hand men. Face to face, Dunson curses him and promises to kill him when next they meet. The drive turns toward Abilene, leaving the lightly injured Dunson behind with his horse and a few supplies. Matt and his men are well aware that Dunson will try to recruit a posse to pursue and attack them.
On the way to Abilene, Matt and his men repel an Indian attack on a wagon train made up of gamblers and dance hall girls. One of the people they save is Tess Millay (Joanne Dru), who falls in love with Matt. They spend a night together and he gives her Dunson’s mother’s bracelet, evidently given to Matt by Dunson in earlier years. Eager to beat Dunson to Abilene, he leaves early in the morning—the same way Dunson had left his lady love with the wagon train 14 years before.
Later Tess encounters Dunson, who has followed Matt’s trail to the gamblers’ wagon train. He sees her wearing his mother’s bracelet. Weary and emotional, he tells Tess what he wants most of all is a son. She offers to bear him one if he will abandon his pursuit of Matthew Garth. Dunson sees in her the same anguish that his beloved had expressed when he left her. Despite that, he resumes the hunt. Tess Millay in her wagon accompanies him.
When Matt reaches Abilene, he finds the town has been eagerly awaiting the arrival of such a herd to buy and ship it east by rail. Unknowingly, he has completed the first cattle drive along what would become famous as the Chisholm Trail. He accepts an excellent offer for the cattle. He also meets Tess again, who has preceded Dunson into town.
Shortly thereafter, Dunson arrives in Abilene with his posse, to fulfill his vow to kill Matt. Cherry Valance tries to keep the two apart, but Dunson beats him to the draw, badly wounding him while Valance inflicts a flesh wound on Dunson. Dunson and Matt begin a furious fistfight, which Tess interrupts by drawing a gun on both men, shooting wildly and demanding that they realize the love that they share. Dunson and Matt see the error of their ways and make peace. The film ends with Dunson advising Matt to marry Tess, and telling Matt that he will incorporate an M into the Red River D brand as he had promised 14 years before, because he had earned it.
Cast[edit]
- John Wayne as Thomas Dunson
- Montgomery Clift as Matthew “Matt” Garth
- Walter Brennan as Nadine Groot
- Joanne Dru as Tess Millay
- Coleen Gray as Fen
- Harry Carey as Mr. Melville, representative of the Greenwood Trading Company[3]
- John Ireland as Cherry Valance
- Noah Beery Jr. as Buster McGee (Dunson Wrangler)
- Harry Carey Jr. as Dan Latimer (Dunson Wrangler)
- Chief Yowlachie as Two Jaw Quo (Dunson Wrangler)
- Paul Fix as Teeler Yacey (Dunson Wrangler)
- Hank Worden as Sims Reeves (Dunson Wrangler)
- Ray Hyke as Walt Jergens (Dunson Wrangler)
- Wally Wales as Old Leather (Dunson Wrangler)
- Mickey Kuhn as Young Matt
- Robert M. Lopez as an Indian
- Shelley Winters as Dance Hall Girl in Wagon Train (uncredited)
- Dan White as Laredo (Dunson Wrangler) (uncredited)
- Tom Tyler as Quitter (Dunson Wrangler) (uncredited)
- Ray Spiker as Wagon Train Member (uncredited)
- Glenn Strange as Naylor (Dunson Wrangler) (uncredited)
- Chief Sky Eagle as Indian Chief (uncredited)
- Ivan Parry as Bunk Kenneally (Dunson Wrangler) (uncredited)
- Lee Phelps as Gambler (uncredited)
- William Self as Sutter (Wounded Wrangler) (uncredited)
- Carl Sepulveda as Cowhand (Dunson Wrangler) (uncredited)
- Pierce Lyden as Colonel’s Trail Boss (uncredited)
- Harry Cording as Gambler (uncredited)
- George Lloyd as Rider with Melville (uncredited)
- Frank Meredith as Train Engineer (uncredited)
- John Merton as Settler (uncredited)
- Jack Montgomery as Drover at Meeting (uncredited)
- Paul Fierro as Fernandez (Dunson Wrangler) (uncredited)
- Richard Farnsworth as Dunston Rider (uncredited)
- Lane Chandler as Colonel (uncredited)
- Davison Clark as Mr. Meeker (uncredited)
- Guy Wilkerson as Pete (Dunson Wrangler) (uncredited)
Categories
NSFW
A Break from just Guns & Stuff. Thank you Gentlemen & Ladies for your time spent reading my Blogs.
007
Speargun
Any ideas on what this pistol is?
The Walter PPK
The Longest Day -Bren Gun
Outland Riot Shotgun
A Bridge Too Far
Browning Hi Power
The Rock – AR-15
The Untouchables -Thompson SMG
Winchester Model 12
S&W 38 Special model 10
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Mocked up machine gun
The League of Extraordinary (his last film)
One very long barrel Double Rifle
Something interest that I would found out/ Was the fact that most British Army Officers were encouraged & taught how to draw. I think that they could then draw up maps and other things. Like the above and the War that the British had in the Sudan.
Now I will be amongst the first to admit that the Old Empire was not perfect. But all in all. I think that it helped the 3rd World more than it would like to admit.
Anyways, here is some of their better art for you to ponder upon. I myself can not imagine fighting in some of those Uniforms that Tommy Atkins had to wear.
Bunker Hill 1775 American Revolution
The Battle of Quatre Bras & Waterloo 1815 Napoleonic Wars
The Last Stand at Isandlhula (Zulu War 1879)
Last Stand of 44th Regiment near Kabul
Remnants Of An Army by Lady Butler (1st Afghan War)
Roll Call (Crimean War)
Roukes Drift (Zulu War)
Storming the Heights 2nd Afghan War
Battle of Abu Klea 1898 Sudan
There will be some more later on!
Thanks for reading my very humble blog!
Grumpy