Go for Broke

88 thoughts on “Go for Broke”

1. IDA:
   1. Poliparkav 2. Po-2
   2. Martin P5m Marlin
   3. Xf-103
   4. Nakajima ki-87

   1. You do know your Japanese aircraft!

      1. X2

         1. My grandfather was a Gunners mate during world war II in the South Pacific. God rest his soul but he did teach me Japanese aircraft. Along with a plethora of knowledge, discipline and wisdom that I am blessed to have from that generation.

      2. Japanese and Germans knew how to engineer aircraft that’s for damn sure.

         1. Precision…like Toyota and BMW, which forced the Big 3 to get on track with quality control and fit & finish.

            1. Exactly! Ferdinand Porsche for example, who designed Hitler’s VW Bugs among others before he threw him into prison. Bavarian Motor Works (BMW) theirs a reason behind there signature logo. The Japs and Croutes had the engineering down back then. So much so that we were playing catchup. There’s a reason why the English drink warm beer…because they cannot engineer shit!

            2. What, Lucas Electrics were…uhh…sorta okay, until it rained, which we know never happens in The Mother Country.

2. Identify the Aircraft:
   1. Polikarpov Po-2
   2. Martin P5M Marlin
   3. Republic XF-103
   4. TBD

3. Used an Australian stock saddle a lot when I was young. Doesn’t have roping saddle horn but otherwise similar to some western saddles I’ve seen.

   No rattlesnakes here just Western Brown (worlds most venomous land snake), Taipans and lots more.

   Death adders worry me most as they are lazy and you tend to step on them. Teenage me almost did that on foot one day about a mile from nearest house. Just had joggers and shorts on, nothing for first aid. Don’t think I would have got home.

   1. RCC, you have a lot more venom down under – some seriously wicked venom. Most of the problem in the US is the pit vipers (blood toxin), and the rare coral snake (neurotoxiin).

      1. The only good thing is most of our snakes have relatively short fangs. Good boots and heavy pants will stop most bites. Exactly what I was not wearing that summer.

         The two deaths I was near both involved some stupid behaviour. Mechanic on training exercise didn’t put away sleeping bag as per protocol as they were in support and were not going to move. Taipan bit him 13 times including his face and neck. He was only a few hundred metres from field hospital and still died.

         The other one involved alcohol and trying to pickup the harmless snake. Again a Taipan.

         1. In the case of rattlesnakes, they can control the venom. Not all bites deliver a full load. Once expended, they take time to regenerate more, and the snake doesn’t eat until they do. Of course, the recipient never knows what the snake’s intentions are. If they break a fang, they need to regrow a new one, so that’s a problem, too. They bear their young live, not through eggs, and don’t hibernate. They live in “dens,” and females babysit the young of other females while mom goes out to hunt. The economy of movement and preservation of energy is their life’s work. They’d rather you leave them alone – thus the famous rattle.

      2. Just have the northeastern rattler and water moccasins up here.

         1. Was always petrified of cottonmouths growing up in SE PA, swimming in some water only to have one swim by. At least rattlers sound a warning (leading to snake shot being deployed or given a wide berth if out an about).

            1. That where I’m from. Small world. My friend Freddy and I would take our machetes to the water moccasins heads down by the creek then chase our sisters of w the decapitate entrails. Think we were 8. Not dumb but just fearless and wanted to torture our sisters away.

            2. A boy’s mission in life is tormenting sisters in so many ways.

         2. Rattlers, coral snakes, pythons and everyones favorite – politicians. Ya’ll know which one is the worst of all.

            1. The pythons in Florida are new to me. When I wandered through the Everglades as a lad in Navy garb, I don’t recall them. That was in the 1970s.

4. Fox News/disinformation –
   It’s really sad to see you so many news outlets that I used to look to for good journalism are all dead. You really have to dig in these days to get to the bottom of both sides, wash rinse repeat bull out of everything and finally you might find something factual. It’s made me more cynical, jaded and disgusted and enraged for so many reasons. Just when you think the mainstream media/journalism can’t be any dumber or go and top the last piece of garbage they’re told to go turn out why don’t you know it they go and top that! Laugh if you want but Newsmax has the best conservative news out there in my opinion. I have a few close to your friends that contribute on there from time to time.
   Bunker –
   Somewhere on my property there is one of this located that’s about the size of a 12-man hyperbaric chamber. Maybe young to a lot of you gentlemen but I do remember doing tornado drills and nuclear fallout drills in elementary school a long time ago.
   Paul M’s warning –
   I like it. Suttle but gets the point home. 👍
   Finished rant

   -STA lethal

   1. Told LL I left off the Trespassers Will Be Violated part as that overshadowed the larger contemplative aspect…besides making the sign too wordy (especially with modern attention spans and the inability for some to comprehend the English language).

      1. I like that you left out, “we have firearms and backhoes,” enter at your own risk!

         1. That’s on the main entry gate…MrsPaulM had a sign made. (kidding, but now that you mention it…)

         2. Discourages most, but has the pesky side-effect of attracting the specialist backhoe thief.

            1. That’s why you invest in claymore mines.

            2. …or a Hydra-6 connected to your Ring – which has the added “benefit” of attracting The Boys in Sunglasses at 3am…but…you still have the Hydra-6 so can sleep easy knowing the perimeter is secured with auto-overwatch connected to Ring. Win, win.

      2. Gal in my high school class put up a No Trespassing sign that ended with “Survivors will be prosecuted”. Her dad thought that be a bit much.

         1. Sounds like a MAGA gal.

5. My apologies for the spelling. Stupid speech to text.

6. Saddles – one person’s take on the western saddle versus the English saddle: the English saddle requires one to assume a position that no gentleman should take in public.

   1. I’ve done some long days on a stock saddle. Can’t imagine trying on an English style.

      These days a 4wd preferably with AC and let the young people do the mustering.

      1. MrsPaulM rides both Western and upper level dressage, English saddle fare…all about the core. Was showing over in Cheyenne, couple of cowboys sat behind me in the stands, one says to the other, “You can put run a rod straight down through her head through the middle of the saddle.” A compliment.

      2. RCC, I thought the buffalo herders used roll over cab 4×4 trucks with a mechanical arm to grab the buffalos rather than an air conditioned one just to move them around.

         1. Dave

            Buffalo catchers use those. Used to know a few of them when I worked in some remote areas.

            We had cattle. The stud bulls etc that got handled every day were fairly tame.

            Friends had Brahmans on one 50 square mile property that got mustered once or twice a year. Combination of horse, motorcycle and 4wd.

            One of my cousins runs cattle on 160 square miles. Helicopter if cattle prices are good.

            40 years ago horse or open 4wd for big properties. Now as I said give me the AC if possible.

7. Fox is dead to me, the propaganda is as you say. If I’m out and about “fixing fence” (or making a goofball sign) and want to hear Gutfeld trash the sitting Lefty, I sometimes tune into The Five…still mid-propaganda, especially when Tarlov is on, who is so warped in her thinking that I find myself yelling back at the air around me. Harold Ford Jr. (like we care if he’s junior or not) isn’t so bad but panders like a typical Liberal still resting on his Congressional laurels…tolerable, but everything isn’t “because of both sides of the aisle”.

   There are better outlets for good info (VM being one). I’m back listening to Dana Loesch, who is direct, often funny, and not wrong. Stigall out of Philly is my morning go-to (had David Limbaugh on this morning, who sounds like us when describing our Senile _Resident, who’s looking like Captain Pike in that strange video from AF1 yesterday, sans box wheelchair). Prager is my mid-morning fare…measured and fair.

   Absolutely miss Rush tho, a sane voice in our insane world at the hands of The Bums in DC and Statehouses. We are in – as David Limbaugh said earlier – in a Spiritual battle for our Nation.

   1. Twitchy, American Thinker, SOFREP, Zerohedge and last certainly not least VM! Victor David Hanson is always good.

      1. Getting harder to discern truth via electrons, but yes, those are a good sampling of the go-to sites (VM is always first tho, especially now CV’s heads-up to hit Ctl+ that pops the pictures for easy viewing).

8. Not to pile on…read this over at Ace’s place (American Thinker report), felt it was important to disseminate:

   “Speaking from her home in Israel, Glick said, “We are in danger of losing … sovereign control over our military.” She then presented what sources told her really happened when secretary of state Tony Blinken met with Israel’s war cabinet on Monday.

   “From what came out of the meeting, Tony Blinken wasn’t trying to help Israel at all. What he was doing was demanding that Israel enable resupply to Gaza, the euphemism of which is ‘humanitarian aid.’” She continued to say that Blinken threatened to withhold American war materiel from Israel, such as bunker buster bombs and regular ordinance.

   And Israel didn’t just decide to invite Biden. His administration demanded that Israel invite him, she said, adding, “I don’t know; ask his presidential campaign.”

   We are being directly lied to with damning evidence this Administration is actively seeking Israel’s destruction along with America by aiding and abetting our enemies. The despicable rest is here:

   https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/10/is_israels_biggest_danger_from_the_biden_white_house.html

   1. I think that was a great article haven’t been to thinker in a while. But I mean come on are we supposed to be surprised about this? Our Secretary of State and defense are heavily financially invested into an array of defense contracts as well as the rest of the regime. “War Pigs”
      In a different note I thought you might enjoy this read. 22 years ago today man now time flies.

      https://www.linkedin.com/posts/green-beret-foundation_greenberet-specialforces-horsesoliders-activity-7120740495747674112-xpQL?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android

   2. I thought it telling that when speaking about the hospital rocket strike Biden said that Hamas should learn how to shoot straight. What was described as a gaffe struck me as the president was really saying what he thought https://nypost.com/2023/10/18/biden-says-palestinians-gotta-learn-how-to-shoot-straight-after-hospital-blast-that-killed-about-500-people/.

      1. His filter/governor is faulty when the Chinesium Special Sauce wears off, so he says bits of truth every now and again (with increasing frequency as the brain further Swiss cheeses). But yeah, that and calling Hamas “the other team”…Geez Louise this is a bad moon rising.

         1. Old Pedo Joe, come on, man, he doesn’t work for YOU, Jack. You’re just a dog-faced pony soldier if you think that he does. I think that he might work for you if you pretended to be Chinese or Ukrainian and offered a bribe to Hunter, the smartest man Pedo Joe ever met.

            1. “he doesn’t work for YOU…”

               Tell me something I didn’t already know (heh)…while he’s starting WW3 and feigning “assistance”. Rather be a DFPS than him, even with the Vette and Ray-Bans.

   3. https://youtu.be/9xwPA57xOXA?si=WyhsMOWCpbTDb0Bj

      1. The source…thx Ed, she’s amazing.

9. As intelligence professionals would tell you, one must evaluate the information and the source of the information separately. Sometimes reliable sources give you crap (like Collin Powell or 51 intelligence professionals), other times the unreliable (National Enquirer) is spot on.

   1. Wait do you mean “Cracked,” and Hustler aren’t good sources of info/intel!?

      1. Why would you read Hustler if not for the intel?

      2. Hustler always knew what a woman was, though everones idea of quality may vary.

10. Ah dunno; ‘pears yuh all’s lookin’ s’ hard fer a good news source; I got me one that here (plus the comments).
    ELK! That’s what I tried to teach my son – y’ git too horny n’ y’ kin git strung up.

    1. Boron, I know that you’re faking the accent. You can’t culturally appropriate here on VM. It would be like me wearing a sombrero or eating a taco.

       1. I absolutely refuse to speak “dental”:
          most will just open wide and from there on look like Poor Ole Joe – or open the other end just as wide trying to prove themselves well up on the current science.
          Whatever: it’s a no-win both ways from the middle.
          Anyhoo, it’s easier to blend in with the local population down here (where I can find something decent to drink that comes out of a tap).

11. So, instead you bridled up an elk to go bareback riding?

    1. We’re Americans here in Arizona. We do those things. If there are wild elk or bison (which we have here too), we ride them to get to the trading post to buy chips, cheese, and salsa. We do have a civilized side, though. We melt the cheese on the chips (which doesn’t take long in the Arizona sun) before we dip the mess into the salsa—before shoving it into our cake hole. Sometimes we also dip the chips into beans fried twice, and cheese and salsa. Nachorally, our bowed legs fit comfortably around an elk (or bison) when making these treks for grub. If it’s on a wagon, it’s called “chuck” (not Charles, like your king, just Chuck).

       1. P. S. Can you imagine driving a “Charles wagon” across the prairie, through sagebrush, and over basking rattlesnakes? Of course not. We colonists could never have pushed inland if we stood on those formalities. We’d have been stuck on the East Coast eating baked beans instead of frijoles.

          1. I’ll include an excerpt from an e-mail that I just sent to Jules and then I’ll let it be for now – There are subtleties to colonial behavior that are lost on the mother country. It’s like the need to drink pre-sweetened tea over ice with two squeezed lemons into it in order to call it “tea”.

             There’s a lot of culturalization that needs to take place in Old Blighty if you ask me (you didn’t, but you know…). It’s like eating nachos with your fingers while watching an AMERICAN football game, and licking the salsa off your fingers before grabbing for your sweet tea to wash it down.

             1. Goodness, did I hit a nerve, Mr Lambert ;) You wouldn’t have felt that if you’d got yourself used to smashing the jewels on a more refined, contoured seat. It’s all about feeling the ride, see. That way you have a lot more control over your beast and can navigate hazards such as rattlesnakes, bumpy ground and quicksand. A much firmer grip with the legs helps.

                Here, in the beginning of all great life, we have to get around tiny spaces, sharp bends, undulating land,(very nasty swans I’ll have you know, that you can’t shoot, eat or stab because they belong to the Queen. Moot point now but still of right Royal belongings) and country bumpkins. Besides, a horse can buck at a white line or a fallen twig if it’s inclined.

                Having eaten my way round America I can quite agree that licking your fingers is a must given the chemically induced, taste sensations that smother your crisps, and I have done the same, relishing in the drug induced addiction that they bring. You’ve seen me with your jars of bacon. Washing it down with sweet tea, mmm, not so much, but each to their own. I’d prefer a root beer float in that given scenario or a giant, Texas margarita. Riding elk though, this I want to see. Bulls I have seen. stories of riding emu’s in your land, I have heard of, but elk, no. I want photographic evidence.

                As for the culturalisation, there is no shame in a warm, hand crafted ale, with a bag of fish and chips, next to a roaring fire with a table full of snarky punters to keep your wits on edge. This is the true art of being Great. Remember, I went to hunting camp in Texas as the only woman and won a tequila drinking game. I’m made from Great British stock, me.

                Luv ya then!

             2. What’s the difference between a “punter” and a “wanker”?

             3. Came in for a water break…this is really funny, please, don’t stop!

             4. I’m just back from cooking and eating a BLT and drinking a diet Dr. Pepper. I couldn’t have done that in the UK (maybe American bacon is more available there now as civilization bled through the cracks. It wasn’t when I lived there. We had to get the Navy to send it in special and then we’d share it with the Royal Marine Commandos, who liked it as much as we did).

             5. PS – Jules only drank the people on the Texas ranch under the table because I had not been invited (I suspect on purpose). I’m not claiming “CONSPIRACY” at this point. Not yet, anyway. Since I’ve gone off demon rum now, she’s safe — conveniently safe.

             6. If it was a Dude Ranch Jules drank with Long-Islander city-folk, not real Texans…so not a true test. {[:-)

12. Saddles. McClellan was arguably the worst General of the Civil War/War of Northern Aggression. The Calvary saddle bearing his name must rank as the most uncomfortable one ever made. If you ever have a chance to ride one, don’t.

    A Great Uncle, who spent the WWI years chasing around Mexico, could curse for several minutes when discussing them.

    We had a couple but my Dad modified them for use as a pack saddle.

    1. MrsPaulM would saddle Mr. All That dude’s horse with a McClellan, after an hour he’d be whining how “his bits” hurt (h/t Jules). She dis say the saddles were pretty indestructible.

13. McClellan was the worst among a notoriously incompetent and bad group of generals. He deserves to ride that saddle through hell for all time. It is a fit punishment. They were okay as pack saddles because they were light. However, a pack frame was better, so they didn’t make great pack saddles.

    McClellan had a high opinion of himself. The widows and orphans of the soldiers who died under his misguided orders should have flayed him.

    1. Then keel hauled his ass down the Delaware River out to the Atlantic Ocean!

       1. Make sure you use a wooden hulled ship without anti-fouling cladding or paint to get the full effect. Please. Especially a ship that’s not been defouled for over a year.

          Why? Because all the fun of keelhauling went away when people started cladding their wooden ships with copper sheets as it kept the barnacles from growing.

          You need the barnacles to get the full effect of keelhauling.

          Damn these modern times!!! Damn them to heck!!!!

          1. A sincere longing for the good old days. The Romans put horns, nails and glass in the tips of their scorpions (cats-o-nine-tails)

    2. Ahh… how to explain this. Let me think.

       Right. A punter back in the day would be someone who visited the painted ladies. However, a punter over here nowadays is basically a customer, particularly in a pub – or a trader of sorts.

       Now a wanker is something entirely different. People on here might shout this at Joe Biden, for example. Over here we shout it at anyone we don’t like from idiots, to dipsticks on the road, or any other kind of pond life.

       A wanker wouldn’t visit a painted lady, he would be putting his hand to a bit of DIY, if you catch my drift.

       I think I handled that well. Thank God I haven’t had a drink.

       As for Doctor Pepper and BLT’s, we are inundated with these in every shop and on every menu. As your foods become ours so does our football become yours. And about time. Now you’ve got Beckham AND Messi.

       1. Who’s Beckham?

          The half-black actress drama oppressed chick that married your prince brought HIM to the US. We didn’t want him, and you can have him back. Take her, too. I forget her name. Is she Messy?

          1. Has the UK fully embraced rootbeer floats yet? When they do, you will have arrived.

             1. Please call that sport you play soccer to avoid confusing it with football.

             2. And, funny, the word “Soccer” was invented in…. Survey says…. ENGLAND!!!!

14. To be fair, “Duck and Cover” works against a distant explosion, from the damage the pressure wave does.

    Against a direct hit or within the Circle of Fire, well, you’re hosed.

    The military used to teach “Ass to the Blast” back a ways. Same principle. As long as you’re not directly in the blast, protecting your head and groin by crouching down facing away from the blast and tucking your head will result in you mostly surviving.

    1. Given that I attended grammar school in Los Angeles (I attended in 3 states, California being the one of them where duck and cover was stressed), I’m sure that my meat would have been splattered against the far wall along with 30 other kids if we’d been nuked.

15. Well we don’t want him either, not now he’s been spoilt by a B class diva. Ewww. Class – gone!

    Beckham is a football God. Part owner of inter Miami CF. Messi, greatest footballer on Earth, plays in that team now he’s retired. Ha. Perhaps now you’ll get mushy peas and chips in your stadiums instead of hot dogs and peanuts!

    1. How did your Red Prince get to be so oppressed? Maybe they’d accept him somewhere in Africa – Kenya or another old dominion sort of place? Maybe Rhodesia? Oh, that’s not a place anymore. You get my drift. He just doesn’t fit well in the Colonies. He’s simply too good for us. Just ask him, he’ll tell you. What about Australia – life down under – would sort of go with his oppressed theme – “they’re just keeping me down (under) again”. Would they worship him like a God there (as he justly deserves?) or could he become King of Australia?

       Ok, I’m clear. The black princess is messy but is not the Messi who used to play soccer but moved to the US.

       I would welcome quality fish and chips of the sort available there sold everywhere here. We throw away the parsley garnish, and we can do the same with mushy peas. There’s sort of a habit of doing that going on here and I can’t see a problem with it. Its nearly impossible to get proper fish and chips in the US. It’s like trying to get the right kind of beans for beans-on-toast. I have to mail order them. Same with HP sauce. I don’t need donations of old clothes to sell to afford the postage, but we’re down to mail order. Fish and chips can’t be mail ordered or flash frozen and microwaved. It’s not like I can open a can of fish and chips and put them on toast.

       1. Rumor has it, though, that you have been known to open a can of whup-ass from time to time (everybody needs a hobby).

16. He used to be alright until he met that skank. Now he’s a mardy little cry baby who wants to be First Lady. Good luck when Markle’s your sparkling president.

    You need to start triple frying in lard. There’s got to be a British chef out there! Go and find Gordon Ramsay and demand it.

    I’m happy to open up black market trading on sauce.

    1. Just release The Wolves, that’ll send the Man-Boys screaming like little girls (which is an insult to little girls).

       1. You’re talking to Boudica reborn. She would release the wolves to watch the Roman centuries dissolve before the British hoard.

          1. Thinking Jules would be a MAGA Gal if she lived here in the lowly Colonies…already has the boots…bribing with root beer floats and a rack of ribs might bring her further around to even liking iced tea..with actual ice. (Earl Gray is so pedestrian.)

             1. She wears a TRUMP hat around Nottingham.

    2. Princess Michael of Kent chose her brooch appropriately for her first meeting with Ms Markle.

       1. It did set the bar.

17. Tying together football and “wanker”.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=10jvKlqOgn8

    1. It meshes more completely with “punter,” but your point is taken.

18. Surely we all understand the importance of riding English and Western?

    But I like this: “At least 50% of what they put out is complete propaganda bullshit. You can sift the other 50% to get some shreds of truth here and there.”

    Right on, Mr. Wolf.

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