The following Thursday I was homeward bound. I arrived at my home airport and noted on the TV that the Cards were down 6-4. As I got into the car and started on my way home, Texas went up 7-4. There were no more runs scored by the time I got home so I simply finished up a couple brief projects and went to bed. The radio had reported nothing worthy of note.

I awoke the next morning and checked Drudge before going to work. The main page had a photo of one of the Cards (I don’t recall who) with the sub-link “Game 7.”

Radio! Why didn’t you warn me Game Six was about to go down as one of the best games ever!!?

     I’ve received the e-mail below on a couple occassions.  I figured it was worth posting here.  I’ve received a Navy and a USMC version, but I’m posting a USAF version.  Hat tip to whomever started this one, it looks like it was written by someone who knows an airline pilot.  Enjoy!

*****

In addition to communicating with the local Air Traffic Control facility, all aircraft in the Persian Gulf AOR are required to give the Iranian Air Defense Radar (military) a ten minute ‘heads up’ if they will be transiting Iranian airspace.

This is a common procedure for commercial aircraft and involves giving them our call sign, transponder code, type aircraft, and points of origin and destination.

I just flew with a guy who overheard this conversation on the VHF Guard (emergency) frequency 121.5 MHz while flying from Europe to Dubai. It’s too good not to pass along. The conversation went something like this…

Air Defense Radar: ‘Unknown aircraft at (location unknown), you are in Iranian airspace. Identify yourself.’

Aircraft: ‘This is a United States aircraft. I am in Iraqi airspace.’

Air Defense Radar: ‘You are in Iranian airspace. If you do not depart our airspace we will launch interceptor aircraft!’

Aircraft: ‘This is a [United States Air Force F-16]. Send ‘em up, I’ll wait!’

Air Defense Radar: (no response … total silence)

     What are some of your most ironic ironies?

     It may have been a little tougher going for her!

     Since no one died, I can say I’m glad to have been through it.  Call me insane.  Natural disasters (or natural near-disasters) don’t really frighten me, and this is probably not much of a surprise to anyone, least of all my friend the LifePundit.  I regard them as problems requiring solutions, if it becomes severe enough to warrant. 

     Starting at about 0026, a pretty good sized jolt hit the house, followed by some wobbling back and forth.  It knocked a few glasses over and kicked a book out of the shelf.  It also toppled my wife’s stereo speakers. 

     Initially I thought a large construction truck was driving down the street.  This was common last year as a new neighborhood went up in the lots next to us.  They shook the house a little bit.  However, when my wife bolted upright and said "Earthquake!" and started to grab the family heirloom, I shouted a triumphant "YES!"  I finally got to play in an earthquake! No more sleeping through the little 3-point-somethings the New Madrid Fault offered or even the 4.X on the California Central Coast back in 1995.  This wasn’t exactly the big kahuna, but it’s about as big as it could have been and not have been deadly.  In any case, it was all over within short order, only about 45 seconds of shaking. 

     Since I’ve always wanted to experience an earthquake of decent size and no one got hurt, I’m declaring victory with regard to this objective in my life. 

     I once saw a blog quote generator come up with something to the effect "You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake."  I need to get in touch with the author of that quote and set him/her straight on both counts. 

 Because of safety concerns and potential for abuse, we do not believe Tasers should ever be used as a low or medium level force option by police officers. Nor should they be permitted for sale to the general public.

     As soon as everyone gets a 24/7 armed bodyguard contingent from AI, they can then take positions like this with some credibility.  AI does not have the right to declare that I don’t have the right to defend my family and myself with force I deem appropriate for the situation.  

     AI needs to stop picking the low-hanging fruit in the western world and concentrate fully on the serious problems in places like Darfur, Zimbabwe, Iran, and North Korea before it moves on to other slightly less serious problem areas like Russia, Saudi Arabia, and China.

     *Update* From Hobbes’ The Leviathan:

And therefore there be some rights which no man can be understood by any words, or other signs, to have abandoned or transferred. . . A covenant not to defend myself from force, by force, is always void.

“All your buddies are gonna rip you a little bit,” Ripley said. “It’s all in good fun, and there were some pretty funny comments that got thrown around the ol’ e-mail chain from different buddies.”

     I will offer that I was the recipient of one of the e-mails that went around the USAF (yes, the entire USAF).  I gave some consideration to simply copying it into this post, but due to language and OPSEC considerations, I decided not to.  Suffice it for me to summarize that "Ripped" would be putting it mildly; sort of like saying "Jeffrey Dahmer hurt some people."  In any case, I didn’t forward the e-mail, so it doesn’t really make sense to post it here, either.   

     But then, at the beginning of that e-mail train, he had asked a bunch of guys to vote for him in whatever contest it was in a womens‘ magazine!

     I’ll leave the commentary to you. . . .

     Nice try, though!

     I guess this means I’ll have to actually save Day by Day as a ‘favorite’ now instead of navigating there from C&F.