Lets state for the record that I’m often fearlessly stupid. I heartily recommend it. Man was not put on this planet to meekly watch TV until the clock runs out. An interesting life of physical and mental exuberance is the place to be (at least some of the time).
However, I’m still alive. I do have limits and (with caveats) observe them well enough.
<Warning: nostalgic memories ensue… all details scrubbed for obvious reasons.>
I remember one night in my long ago youth when shit got too real. I was 95% of the way through a bottle of tequila. If you’ve ever been in a bottle of tequila you know what I’m talking about. (Yes I wrote “in”… at some point you’re “in” the tequila and not the other way around.)
This wasn’t anything new. It was a place I’d been many times. I’ve explored the internal geography of someone who drinks like he’s Thor and doesn’t give a shit what happens next so long as it’s loud. So have many men.
That night was destined for the kind of epic misadventure that involves ER visits and broken furniture. I was young and bulletproof and usually up to live out a good story. It was that magic time in life when a few stitches or a burning car or whatever else happens is just part of the fun.
This time was different. I don’t know why but I didn’t let the story happen as it was written in the stars. At the very last minute, I showed just enough common sense to know I had no common sense. My ego was writing checks my body couldn’t cash and it was time to bail.
There was only an inch left in the bottle and we had plans to do something (I forget what) as soon as I was done. Obviously, the right and proper thing to do in the middle of that already well developed night of unwise decision is to finish the bottle. Upend it like the lunatic you are and ride the burning madness all the way to wherever you end up! Everyone around (who was just as drunk as me) was chanting. “Drink! Drink! Drink!” I was the center of attention. I was in the spotlight. I was having a hell of a night!
We’ve all been there. If you haven’t you’re a wimp. For whatever reason, this time I showed a bit of wisdom.
I’m out.
That’s all I said. I set the bottle down; or rather I tried to and needed assistance to get it settled on the table (which was moving like a ship in a hurricane, as was the floor, and ceiling, and planet). I flagged down someone (I don’t remember who) and instructed them to get me somewhere (I don’t remember where). On the way to wherever I wound up, I vomited on a bush… which was right and proper. Because tequila.
The point is there’s a time when you have to say “I’m out”.
This week, I was out.
The “news” exceeded my physical limits for stupid. The fake and gay propaganda stream that passes for current events was just too fucking dumb. I stopped watching the circus and wandered off… it was time to get some pancakes, drink some water, and sleep it off in the safe refuge of ignorance.
So this is my concise summary of this week and the continuing balloon thing:
I’m out. I can’t go this dumb.
How did this come to be? Last week I ranted about the marvelous massive Chinese spy balloon of mysterious mystery. It demonstrated the First Rule of Clown World*.
* “No matter how fake and gay you think it’s going to be (for any value of “it”), it will always somehow end up being so much faker and gayer.”
I’m not naïve enough to expect ensuing events to be anything other than dumb but I’m only human. Perpetual logarithmic increases in weirdness to infinity (and beyond!) are hard on my more or less sane mind. Some levels of stupidity are physically painful to grok when you are not insane yourself.
Here’s the best I can make of the muddle.
A few days after “America let the Chinese Balloon drag its geopolitical nutsack across America’s face all the way to the coast” I was told that balloons spy on us all the time. Apparently we just sorta’ let it happen. The public was never informed because why would they be? It’s all the fault of Trump or something.
I also learned that an American ICBM had been launched into the Pacific… because “shut up, it’s a thing”. Nukes are a thing?
Yep. I’ve now learned that we (or at least someone) considers it completely normal to launch American blank nukes. A quick search turned up American nuke launches in: 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2023.
I did not know that. Let the record show that I was totally unaware that firing blank nukes was commonplace.
Did you know that? Whether you knew or not, it’s true.
Let’s all take time to assimilate this true fact.
America periodically ejaculates a nuke.
That’s a fact. It’s verifiable.
Let us stop here and give this warm steamy nugget of truth the attention it merits. Let it roll around in your head for a few minutes. STOP AVOIDING IT! Quit surfing Tik Tok and scratching your nuts… reflect on the fact that it’s totally normal for America to fire ICBMs into the Pacific because that’s what we fucking do.
Whether it’s based on some logic (testing purposes) or just for shits and giggles doesn’t interest me. Am I the only one sane enough to think that launching nukes is a bad fucking idea?
“Don’t launch nukes” is a good solid rule of thumb that applies everywhere and always. I’m sure there’s a good reason for this and it involves testing equipment and I’m equally sure that launching nukes is still a dumb fucking thing to do. It’s dumb if you’ve got a reason to test the gear. It’s dumb if you think Trump is a spastic orange gibbon who’ll start WW3. It’s dumb if the president that got more votes than any other candidate in history can’t complete a coherent sentence. It’s dumb if Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley is a shitweasel who subverts the chain of command. It’s dumb when NATO is at war with Russia in the Ukraine to defend the Ukrainian border using money from a country that won’t defend its own borders. It’s dumb when we did an act of war. It’s dumb in a house. It’s dumb with a mouse. It’s dumb here or there. It’s dumb anywhere.
I not sure I was ready for that final bit of stupid. Firing blank nukes after a balloon pantsed the continental US seemed fake and gay. So I find out we do it all the time because reasons. We do it all that time? Does doing it all the time make the world more sane?
Then, for no reason I can discern, the Biden administration started shooting down shit all over the place. High altitude objects apparently fly over us all the time and only now we’re hearing about it. And these objects can’t possibly be domestic spying on Americans by Americans because only a tinfoil hat wearing weirdo would ask such a question. And they’re popping up in February but not last November because of course they are. And for some reason this week it’s wise to shoot them down… unlike last week when we waited for thousands of miles. And for some reason Canada asked us to shoot down one of these objects over Canada because apparently Canada doesn’t own airplanes.
And these objects which are shot down are always shot down in places where there’s no wreckage, like Lake Huron. And since nobody can identify them they’re unidentified… even though they’ve been happening all the time and including under Trump but we didn’t know because “shut up”.
And if nobody is willing to identify them, then maybe they’re space aliens… because of course that’s a possibility that normal rational adults consider when they see a balloon.
Oh look, a mushroom cloud over a train track in Ohio.
I look at all that and say…
I’m out.
When things get too insane, I go do a small project I was avoiding or needed more effort. That tiny act of CONTROLLING some aspect of my existence gives me a mental break from Alice in Wonderland.
What kind of project I suggest, look to the Rule of Threes.
Could I suggest building a few 5-gallon food buckets? I was at Walmart yesterday and noticed the 8-pound bag of dry pinto beans finally jumped in price. Was 5.49 now 6 something. The 20-pound GV white rice also jumped a buck and a half.
I checked the packing date we are now eating last year’s beans. Older stock is done I suppose.
Still a bucket with lid (yep price climbed a bit from last month) about 7 dollars, a 20 pound bag of white rice, two 8 pound pintos (or slightly more expensive per pound mixture of various beans (I favor White-Navy Beans myself). Two 26 ounce salt, pepper, hot sauce, jar of bullion, and some black tea bags is a pretty nice start.
I did a large post of this over at Busted Knuckles with (now OLD Prices) and calories and protein for man months worth of basic food.
I could repost it here if you want.
Food, THAT’s for dinner.
Interesting. Please send a link to the Busted Knuckles article.
Steady my friend. The crazy shit is just ramping up. That town in Ohio should be evacuated, the entire zone and miles downwind is contaminated with dioxin and other really nasty chemicals.
There is so much happening at the same time that it cannot be happenstance.Another train just derailed near Detroit not to mention dozens of food processing plants and poultry facilities that appear to be suffering from “sudden unexplained fires”…
I live about 1/2 mile east (downwind) from a main rail line that goes from Detroit to Chicago and points west. Heavily operated, lots of tanker cars and coal cars. The track here is very well maintained but there is literally nothing to protect the way from people with ill intent. If things every go sideways en masse, will be better to be far away from any major population centers, so count your blessings in that regard.
If I was an evil man I would just destroy a few dams. The east and west coast would probably die within a week without water.
Apparently amateur radio balloons….
https://thesilicongraybeard.blogspot.com/2023/02/did-usaf-shoot-down-ham-radio-balloon.html?m=0#comment-form
We did NOT “launch a nuke.” We did, however, launch a rocket capable of CARRYING a nuke. And again, we HAVE done that all the time. Where do you think the Atlas rocket came from? And the Titan? Those were initially developed as ICBMs. And one needs to test such rockets from time-to-time to make sure they STILL work, since Congress is reluctant to upgrade them.
Yes, of course you’re right. There are shades of grey in all things and details matter. Plus, I simplify for comic effect.
On the other hand America “launched a Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile from Vandenberg Space Force Base (formerly Air Force Base)”. Such a phrase, to a layman, is only mildly less concerning than the term “nuke”. It’s not the same as a “nuke” but when you say the words they rhyme.
A similar analogy might be that a Bradley Fighting Vehicle is not a tank. If a normal person saw a Bradley Fighting Vehicle rolling down the street toward a riot at a shopping mall in Nowheresville Nebraska they’d say “I saw a fucking tank at the shopping mall!” Technically correct? No. Reasonably correct from a practical standpoint? Probably.
It might merely be a tracked armored fighting vehicle on its way to a mostly peaceful protest but it looks, feels, smells, and tastes like a tank. For the non-technically inclined readers I included a photo of the thing that’s absolutely not a tank. If you saw that thing in the slow lane going through traffic on the way to the shopping mall you should have no concern whatsoever, just like if you saw an ICBM streaking through the sky over your sand castle on the beach in Santa Barbara. (Please forgive my desperate need to put a joke on every topic.)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/Decisive_Action_Rotation_13-04_130218-A-ML570-001.jpg
We do these launches as a show of force under the guise of ensuring the technology still works. Kind of like pointing a gun in somebody’s direction and pulling the trigger, saying “You know, this could be loaded.”
Provocation is in the eye of the beholder.
I’m a ways away, but not very far, from the mushroom cloud. Some internet rumors say it’s pretty bad. Lots of dead animals in the area, meaning if people don’t stay out until it all reacts to neutrality, there could be dead people too.
Sounds like someone was being cheap on maintenance. It takes a different kind of mindset, a different kind of human being, from a bean-counter or bureaucrat to create and maintain machinery. I have a story about that: (will post below)
I’m guessing (as you are) that bad maintenance played a role. Obviously an overstressed system finally gave out at a weak moment. It could have been in Ohio or it could be somewhere else. It could have been last week or it could have been tomorrow. Sometimes a thing becomes inevitable and the only uncertainty is where and when.
I suspect it has a lot to do with the narrowly avoided train employee strike that was scheduled for late last year. Train employees had legitimate gripes about being overworked and underpaid. Trains have special laws that apply just to them and the strike was averted in part by the government saying “no, you can’t strike”. I don’t think much was done to alleviate the underlying stresses. Therefore the underlying stresses continue to build.
Predictably for a complex system run at the very edge of efficiency and manpower there have been “incidents”. Notable ones were last week in Ohio (Feb 5), a collision in Missouri last June, and apparently one in Houston this Monday (Feb 13th). Any system has points of failure and nothing is perfect; but perhaps a less stressed system would have been less prone to catastrophe. There will always be train wrecks so long as there are trains, but the question is their frequency and damage. If that’s increasing, we’ve got problems.
An overstressed society is worse at keeping the plates in the air than a “normal” one. Things like train derailments, grounded airplanes (NOTAM system breakdown January 11), sabotaged power grids (North Carolina December 3), sketchy elections, baby formula shortages, and a thousand other things are hints about the edge of society’s capacity. They’re nothing taken by themselves (though tragic for those harmed) but they might also hint that Pre-Covid America did things that Post-Covid America can’t. Nobody wants to live through the first few chapters of “Atlas Shrugged” just for a hearty “I told you so”, but if it’s happening there’s no point of denying it and it’s very wise to watch it closely..
Bad maintenance and homeless camps along the line….
Only takes one or two nutjobs to screw the integrity of a rail line.
Study industrial accidents (Author James Reason). Place people under stress, especially fatigue and productivity. Add a culture where short cuts are allowed and encouraged. Palestine doesn’t have to be specific sabotage, you can sabotage the entire rail system by they way you treat the employees. This accident leads to more stress for every rail worker. AC, you sum up some of Reason’s work. Can’t predict exactly where or when, only that it will take place. Complex systems are most at risk.
From what I’ve read the people responsible were active stupid ignoring a temperature alarm on an axel. Unfortunately you can train people to be active stupid.
We are a wealthy country (or were) and should be able to afford the number of rail workers to keep high risk trains safe (I had to move some large freight via rail in an old job about 20 years ago, I was not impressed by the rail roads. Given entropy, the whole system needs an overhaul, and rail is CRITICAL infrastructure-Make no mistake). However, currently our wealth is being siphoned off via wall street, health care and the Ukraine so all the big guys can get their 10%.
So there I was: In Los Angeles airport trying to head *home* after a work trip. It’s always an overcrowded dismal psychological assualt. I think that trip I had also gotten food poisoning from a microwave meal, so I was desperately looking forward to wheels up and getting out of there. You don’t need a movie set to depict a hideous cyberpunk dystopia, you just need to point the camera over the parking lot at the actual LA skyline, on the days you can make it out through the smog.
So I was reading an article about how one American Airlines maintenance guy was arrested for sabotaging the avionics. The guy was apparently hired because he was cheap, and they later discovered he was an actual member of ISIS. But they’ll confiscate your pocket knives in the security line, because you might decide to disassemble the airplane with the flip-out screwdriver if you get too bored.
My flight got delayed, then delayed again. The airline personnel were having some kind of heated argument over their microphones with someone. A pissed off manager with a clipboard was marching from the main desk to the boarding attendants and back. We finally boarded. The plane pulled away, then stopped on the tarmac. For 3 hours. During that 3 hours, there was this 3-way argument between the pilots, the airline schedulers, and a maintenance crew on the ground. The maintenance crew kept trying to get the flight scrubbed. The airline schedulers kept telling us “be patient while the technical issues with the plane are worked on.”
Finally one of the pilots mentioned: “The maintenance crew says that there is a problem with the hydraulic system. We are going to deboard the plane and get another flight scheduled.”
15 minutes later, some other voice comes over the intercom with some platitude “Just be patient. We may be able to take off once the issues are resolved.”
10 minutes later, the pilot comes back on: “According to the maintenance chief, and I agree, it is not safe to operate the plane until the hydraulic system is fixed.” (No shit, if you can’t maintain pressure in the manifold, you’ll lose your control surfaces.)
The other voice (presumably the airline scheduler) starts arguing with the pilot. “The issue with the engine starter can be resolved by bringing a ground air-start assist to the plane. Sit tight – you *will* be in the air shortly, and the pilot will make up for lost time during the flight.”
Finally a third voice, presumably the maintenence guy comes on the intercom: “The hydraulic leak was traced: It’s leaking fluid into the engine nacelle, which is why your starter wasn’t working. I am *grounding* this plane.”
Pilot: “Thank you. We will return to the gate.”
Airline dweeb: “You are throwing the schedule completely to hell.”
….
I am still alive because the maintenance crew was able to pull rank on whatever managerial shitheads were running their planes into the ground. They were able to countermand the orders of their “social superiors”. When this no longer is the case, and at some point it won’t be the case any longer due to the way that heirarchial organizations assign status and make decisions (badly), you will start to see planes falling out of the sky.
(I then spent a night in the LA airport after getting my flight reassigned, like a hobo, ocassionally barfing into a trash-can due to the food poisoning. It sucked, but I was grateful that the maintenance cheif still had some authority to stop frankly insane and shortsighted idiocy from proceeding along its natural course.)
Holy Challenger Shuttle O-ring! You came damn close to death by bureaucrat!
our missiles were designed and built in the 1960’s and 70s. Remember when the space race started and about every other rocket blew up on the launch pad? Yea that era. Now remember that they have been stuck in a hole in grounds since then. Some one with Russian, Chinese, or Korean accent might star to wonder if they will really work. so every year or tow we pull one out of its hole, refurbish it so we know it will work. tell the world watch this, and launch out over the Pacific carefully aiming at big empty spot in the ocean.
We also keep a bunch of B52 in service that we know will be able to fire missiles and drop bombs, jut in case.
I turned wrenches on B52 as part of SAC back in the 1980’s. I never did work on missiles. We were launching these test missiles once a year back then.
Fun to read the comments. Some of us left before you, some are with you and some will follow. It’s nice to know that others are on the path.
We’ve all been to fearlessly stupid. But maybe not ALL THE WAY THERE … like this guy has… https://twitter.com/itsgoneawry/status/1623675932899700736?s=12&t=skcVAqJ4zW9l3teiCQS-9A
Outstanding! Both nuts and glorious at the same time. Maybe he’s completely insane but when I was 19 I might have given it a try. I might not have pulled it off; “who threw the nerd off a cliff?” but the spirit was there. Then again most of us come to our senses pretty quickly, unlike this guy who went pro!
I served a full tour on one of our boomers. We practiced launched those on occasion. Our boat marked the tubes launched from with a missile pictogram. I was so disappointed when my old boat did a test launch about 15 months after I transferred.
As for crawling in the bottle, young bullet proof Turtle never got the wisdom to say “I’m out” before I hit the bottom. I took waking up in the emergency room after my sober friend dragged me in to pump my stomach. Not a fun lesson.
I have learned from that and other similar lessons that I have to occasionally call “I’m out” and disconnect before I hit another bottom.