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I think compulsory service is a better idea than a draft.

Your average American pays no price for continually voting for politicians who will vote for military evolvement and nation building. Yeah, I'm a volunteer. I also quit voting for incumbent politicians.

Didn't you know? There is only one black tanker, and Chuck Norris is the only black tanker boomer. You don't tell Chuck Norris your tail number, he tells you whatever number he feels like your jet should be. When you land, the jet is immediately sent to the paint shop so your new tail number is what Chuck says it should be. And there is no such thing as tanker or fighter rejoin. He's EVERYWHERE, when he wants to be, where he wants to be, and pre-contact on YOU whenever he damn feels like you need more gas. Don't get me started on EMCON. You don't talk to Chuck. EVER.

My vote would be for Clancy's "Red Storm Rising", although it would probably take 2 sequels to cover the 800+ pages.

I think I got some gas from a black tanker today...he didn't ask for my tail number, he told me my tail number. It's like he just knew...or read it right off the fucking jet, either way. That boomer deserves a bronze star, stat.

I thought he was a way better Peter Parker. I admit to reading Spider-Man as a kid, and this character was much closer to the real one, especially when trash-talking or cracking jokes as he caught the bad guys. I liked this version much more than the Tobey Maguire versions, and I think Sam Raimi is an awesome director. Army of Darkness...

I is hard to describe the awesomeness!

Walther P-1 (Or A Long Strange Trip) I finally got to shoot this today. Back in January, Bud's was running a special on these as surplus for, I think, $399, so I ordered one. My alibi was I was moving from northern Virginia in late February to Omaha, Nebraska, but as Bud's had a great reputation on-line and with me for fast service, I figured no problem. Wrong as usual. A sub-contractor was actually running this with Bud's marketing for them. Ordered, then an auto-delay of several weeks as soon as "submit" was hit. Crap... Fortunately, my FFL (hat tip to Dominion Arms in Manassas if the mods will allow a plug) agreed to hold the gun until I could get back to move my family when school was out in June. Meanwhile, I moved to Nebraska. Virginia is a very gun owner friendly state. This new one, surprisingly to me, not so much. There's a purchase permit required before you can even buy a gun which is a $5.00 gouge to get some bucks, but ok. After that, the state is ok with it. Omaha, however, is down right anti-gun. They require a new resident to register all guns with the police department (right, I'll get right on that...) and the gun license can't be used until you do register the newly purchased gun with the PD. The solution, of course, is not to buy within the city limits. A way around all this BS, strangely enough, is to obtain a CCW, which I am doing. Wait six months as a new resident, take a class, shoot, fill out way too many forms, and bam!, the purchase permit and the registration is moot. Of course, in the meantime, I can't exercise my 2d Amendment right for six months. I thank my friends across the Missouri River for stashing my firearms until I complete the hoops. Now on to this review. The pistol with one clip arrived in a cardboard box, wrapped in some wax paper inside a plastic bag. It came with one magazine of 8 round capacity. The standard grips are black plastic/bakelite. I replaced 'em with after-market wood grips as the photo shows. The guns were sold surplus, so the luck of the draw existed. I, for once, got lucky. If mine had ever been issued, I would be surprised. Not a mark, scratch, or slightest bit of wear to be found. Mine was stamped "4/80" meaning it was manufactured in April, 1980. I have never seen a firearm as completely, utterly dry and unlubed as this one. After dissembly, not the slightest trace of oil/grease/gunk could be found. The barrel was pristine and clean. Lubed and checked, it was time to shoot. The P1 is an aluminum descendant of the steel-framed P38 and is the same thing with lighter metal. This is a big gun. As big as a Government model 1911 but in a 9mm flavor. That size soaked up recoil magnificently. There was basicially none. I imagine a steel-frame version would barely buck at all. The workmanship and fit of the gun is really, really good. Nothing loose, nothing rattled, no rough edges. If I got the history right, the P38 was the first successful double-action semi-auto pistol. The slide is open-top like the Beretta M9 which I think borrowed heavily from this way back when. The double-action trigger is heavy. As in cranky lawnmower rope pull heavy. There's no "accidently" pulling the trigger on this with the hammer down. In single action, it is great. A light (for a service pistol) clean, crisp break. No creep at all. The design seemed to be idiot-proof. Like the trigger, the magazine release is not something you are going to manipulate accidently. It's a small slide-like switch at the bottom butt of the grip. Hard/impossible to do one-handed, but clever in placement and design, it only took a few magazines to get used to it. The sights are big. A white dot on the front with a smallish white horizontal line between the two sides of the large rear sight. Kinda Heinie-like, but not exactly. I'd rather just go without it, but it's already painted on, so no worries. The gun was accurate. I put 150 rounds (by the way, this is an older design so no "modern" +P or hotter loads) at a B-27 target at 25 feet. All but 2 flyaways were in the 9 ring and most in the upper 10 ring. Most were untimed, placed shots with only a few magazines used on rapid fire and/or double-action. Accuracy suffered accordingly during those. Don't know what the problem was, but at first the slide wouldn't lock back when a clip was empty. As the morning progressed, it did. Break in the springs and/or magazines? One problem that really is an issue is this got hot. At 100 rounds, the frame was hot. The wraparound wood grips helped as I imagine the side-covering only plastic grips would allow the frame in the grip to transfer that heat to my palm. At 120 rounds, the trigger was hot. By the end, it was painful and raising a blister so it was time to call it a day with this one. Take down is pretty standard; drop the magazine, slide to the rear, rotate the takedown lever down, slide forward, barrel out of the slide, and there you go. There are is a small spring on each side of the slide instead of the one in the center as in most semi-autos. Of course, since the barrel is sticking out there on its own and not inside the slide where the recoil spring can push against the mechanism, this was Walther's early 1940s way of solving the problem. One of the reasons why +P ammo is frowned upon. That and the frame isn't going to stand up to the higher pressures over a lifetime as it wasn't designed for them either. This gun does have the "hex screw" in the frame which was a way to increase frame strengh, but still, just don't do it. So, for a historical service weapon, I'm happy with it. It's well-made, it's in great shape, it shoots great and it makes the 5th Walther in my cabinet. The standard issue of the German Army and most police forces until replaced in the 1990s and later, it proved it's longevity and reliability. It would never be my "go to" gun for anything other than the range, but I like it and recommend it for the right price and in the right condition.

Agreed. I liked that they didn't speed through the origin story to jump right into the action. They took the time to build Peter Parker as a character, they showed him practicing with his powers and gizmos, and they did an excellent job developing an actual relationship between him and his aunt & uncle. I also liked that this one was pretty explicit in how Spiderman was moving through the city, something many versions gloss over.

If this were a real squadron bar, I would bring the requisite handle as penance.

The train wreck that has people talking about a stop loss is still a few years down the road. It has to do with the draw down of current fighter/bomber cockpits and the spin up of the F-35. There will be a couple year gap between sending the F-15/F-16/A-10 to the bone-yard and when the F-35 goes operational. Given our current track record on acquisitions, this gap will be larger than anyone is predicting. Regardless of what the actual MWS manning is, the A1 guys will be panicking because they have no idea how to fill projected experience shortfall and/or ramp up the UPT T-38 track when the new squadrons stand up.

Agreed Hollywood's lack of originality in rebooting/remaking movies is incredible (or maybe not). I will say, however, that the new Amazing Spiderman was better than the 2002 version with Tobey Maguire.

"please"

...Red Air?