History Will Be the Judge

January 18th, 2009 by Chris Penningroth

     I don’t know that we’ll ever hearken back to this period in history as "The Good ol’ Days."  But maybe even more than after the Roosevelt administration in the 1930s, we’ll look back and realize that it might have been a whole lot worse without pretty solid leadership at the top.  "Solid" doesn’t mean "Mistake-free," and there were certainly a lot of mistakes.  Lucky for us, the most of the mistakes (thus far) weren’t strategic ones (I take certain points of view from certain folks in the MSM who would disagree with me as confirmation that I’m correct).  The current Commander-in-Chief was no Ronald Reagan, but then as Victor Davis Hanson would point out, Ronald Reagan himself was sometimes "no Ronald Reagan." 

     That said, I was pleased (and not a little astounded) to read this.  (H/T Uncle D)

Posted in History, Internet, Media, What\'s Right | No Comments »

Top This!

January 18th, 2009 by Chris Penningroth

     For the year 2009, I believe the only event that could top this one would be landing a man (preferably me) on the planet Mars.  I think the last thing that President Bush should do before he leaves office is award this man, US Airways Capt Chelsey Sullenberger the Presidential Citizen’s Medal or maybe even the Presidential Medal of Honor (the Congressional Medal of Honor is the one for military members only, and although Capt Sullenberger is a veteran USAF F-4 fighter pilot, he’s not really eligible for that award, nor would it be appropriate in this situation). 

     Great going, Capt Sullenberger! You handled a difficult emergency procedure well.  You know what they say, any landing you can walk away from. . . .

     Perhaps the new Sullenberger Corollary to that rule would be ". . . or the passengers and you can swim or boat away from. . ." is a good landing! The best part was walking up and down the aisles making certain everyone else was off safe. 

     Given the good outcome, I think it might actually have been fun to have been aboard (except I would have ended up losing my laptop as I egressed the plane).  Oh, well.  One can’t be everywhere.  I’ll have to settle for the one time I pointed out to some pilots that our small turboprop passenger plane’s cabin pressure wasn’t enabled. 

     Thanks to LifePundit for inspiring me to write this post!

20090119 Update:  I am remiss in not giving credit to the co-pilot, the flight attendants, and indeed to the passengers who by all accounts sounded like they remained pretty calm during the event.  The Captain may get most of the credit, but the Airbus is a crewed airplane, and whatever the crew did or did not do that helped the Captain land entitles them to an heroic part in this event as well.

Posted in History, Travel | 1 Comment »

You Could Fool All of the People

January 11th, 2009 by Chris Penningroth

     I ran across this gem at the Motley Fool this morning while speeding through my e-mail.  It was a post called Sizing Up Banking’s New Giants and was written by Morgan Housel.  I emphasized my favorite part of the quote. 

Back in August, I wrote, "If something is too big and complex to fail, perhaps we should make it smaller and less complex." Now’s probably not the time to throw another wrench in the financial system, but someone, someday is going to have to realize that if something’s too big to fail, it’s also probably too big to bail.

Posted in Banks, Business, Finance, Politics | 1 Comment »

Another Favorite E-mail

January 4th, 2009 by Chris Penningroth

     I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas (or appropriately enjoyable holiday if not Christmas) and a happy New Year!

     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)

Posted in Humor, Internet | 2 Comments »

Ewa Kupiec Online

December 14th, 2008 by Chris Penningroth

     My favorite concer pianist now has a home on the web! Click here for Ewa Kupiec’s home page!

     My wife and I got to see her perform George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue in Mainz, Germany.  It was a fantastic event! The Mainz orchestra was pretty good, they played four other pieces that night withougt Ewa, but Ewa basically was the show during the Rhapsody. 

     My two caveats for this post:  1) In the interest of full disclosure, Ewa provided us with some choice seats in the second row; and 2) I’m not a classical music critic by any stretch of the imagination, I just enjoy listening! 

     Please check out her site, and if you get a chance to hear her in concert, I highly recommend it!

Posted in Arts, Music | No Comments »

Seventy-Nine

December 7th, 2008 by Chris Penningroth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbK3RhCQoI8

     Here’s an academic take on the financial crisis.  This is 58:19 long, so grab a break and a cup of coffee if you mean to watch this! [Update - Sorry, for some reason embedding it did not work this time.]

     I also just ran across a new favorite quote by Brian Rogers, T. Rowe Price Chairman and Chief Investment Officer:  "Statistically speaking, the world does not end that often."   

     In case you were wondering, seventy-nine is 2008 minus 1929.   

Update 2 - Attempt 2 to embed is below:

 

Posted in Banks, Business, Corporations, Finance, History, Real Estate | No Comments »

Raptor Punks

November 5th, 2008 by Chris Penningroth

     Congrats to the first F-22 B-course graduates!

     (In our squadrons, we refer to the first-operational-assignment lieutenant pilots as "punks.")

Posted in Military Affairs, USAF | 1 Comment »

Mentally, but not Physically

November 5th, 2008 by Chris Penningroth

     If anyone needs me, I’ll be clinging to my religion. 

Posted in Politics, What's Left | 3 Comments »

Sunset

October 19th, 2008 by Chris Penningroth

Ft_Walton_Beach_Sunset_Photo.pngGreetings from Ft Walton Beach, Florida! The sand is white, the Fall is warm, and the water is mild.

It’s good to be back in the USA!

Posted in Travel, United States | 3 Comments »

Laying Low

September 21st, 2008 by Chris Penningroth

     Not that I’ve been posting a lot lately, but I’m going to be mostly offline for the next 7-10 days.  We’re getting ready for one of those "Major muscle movements" that occurs every 18-36 months in the life of a government employee in my line of work. 

Posted in Homelife, Travel, USAF | No Comments »

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