Youthful Indiscretion

As a Reminder:

You can say you care about America, but if you’re sending $100 billion to foreign countries right now, you’re lying. pic.twitter.com/jFmBlAW3qG

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) October 25, 2023

From the Virtual Mirage Short Story Archive:

Stormbringer

In an age of magic, when the pantheon of gods decreed the outcome of men’s lives; long before the arrival of the destroyers from Earth; Sorah sat by the edge of the amber ocean and tossed flowers over the cliff to appease Arok.

Pleasing Arok ensured the safe return of her father, a fisherman, who navigated the great expanse. After school, she returned home, kissed her mother, ate her snack, and gathered flowers.

Sometimes she gathered flowers first and ate her snack on the cliffs, watching the waves crash against the rocks below.

It was on one of those days while she ate her tispachi that the Storm-Bringer came. Her visage could not be mistaken for any other because a firebird sat atop her head and screamed. The firebird became her voice and it declared that Storm-Bringer was a jealous god. Offerings to Arok pacified the sea itself and the monsters who lurked beneath its surface, but Storm-Bringer caused the wind to blow and the sea to toss. Most ships that foundered fell prey to the tempests, and not to the monsters of the deep.

The firebird’s eyes grew beady and accusing, “Not once has Sorah made a genuine offering of blood.”

Sorah cowered beneath the awful, yet beautiful gaze of the Storm-Bringer and her terrible firebird.

“Storm-Bringer delights in offerings of blood and gore,” The firebird continued as the woman-god floated in the air, surrounded by dark clouds. “It shows devotion, while flowers merely show that you can pluck things from the Earth.”

Storm-Bringer lifted Sorah from the ground and the wind hoisted her over the lip of the cliff, then spinning her around and around until she rested on the sandy shore below, with the din of waves crashing on rocks, blasting water to foam all around her.

“I will sacrifice you to Arok, and in that way you will ensure your father’s safe return!” Storm-Bringer’s firebird spread its wings and as it prepared to incinerate Sorah, a huge whale burst up onto the shingle and swallowed Storm-Bringer and her firebird, whole.

Sarah jumped back in fear but the fish spoke with the voice Arok. “Do not fear, my child. The demon is contained so long as the gods live.”

* * *

Finding Earth-like planets had been the holy grail for millennia. The mission to the planet called Charm took thousands of years even traveling at near light speed. Probes proceeded with the principal mission but only by a few years so that the colonists might know what they were up against before they made planetfall. Once they broke containment in their hibernation chambers, the view of the new world took their breath away. It was all they had been promised and so much more.

Their journey and their sacrifice had been completely vindicated, unlike so many over the years to other worlds, which had ended with disappointment or mishap. The question of where to land in the world comprised almost completely by oceans, was decided quite early in the final planning phase. They would land on the ocean, near land.

Captain Randolph Smith claimed the honor of leading the first landing ship as was his right. He would claim the planet for Earth and as soon as the initial survey had been completed, the colonists would begin landing. The military would naturally subdue all opposition.

As the ship descended, a huge fish rose to the surface to greet it, but unfortunately, the engines caused the ocean around the landing site to boil, killing everything including the welcoming party.

The fish rolled to its side, quite dead, and another creature rose from within it – a near-human form with a bird of prey perched on its head. Her eyes flashed with vengeance and Fire ushered from the bird’s mouth! In response, a laser from the landing ship bored a three-inch hole through the center of Storm-Bringer, killing her dead as a stone.

Bullet Points: 

** CNN admits the “vast majority” of US money to Ukraine is going to American companies that are democrat party contributors. A massive transfer of wealth from our pockets to the wealthiest among us. Nothing more than a MASSIVE grift. It’s what keeps the Swamp alive.

** Claudio points to this article about intelligence failures in Gaza.

** CDRSAL asks if we should give Iran the war that it wants.

Nuke ’em until they glow and use their asses for runway lights?

**@TerryTheDude73 – I live in Indiana and was just at

** From WAPO – KYIV — The cluttered car carrying a mother and her 12-year-old daughter seemed barely worth the attention of Russian security officials as it approached a border checkpoint. But the least conspicuous piece of luggage — a crate for a cat — was part of an elaborate, lethal plot. Ukrainian operatives had installed a hidden compartment in the pet carrier, according to security officials with knowledge of the operation, and used it to conceal components of a bomb…

** Ilhan Omar was rescued from a Kenyan refugee camp by America. She was elected as a member of Congress and the only thing she wants to do is hate and destabilize America. What that should tell us all is that allowing people to come here who hate America is not sustainable.

** “General Motors is abandoning a self-imposed target for the number of electric vehicles it aims to produce through the middle of next year because of softening consumer demand, a surprise move for a company that was an early mover in this space.

The Detroit automaker walked back the goal while reporting a healthy third-quarter profit, despite the hit from the continuing United Auto Workers strike.

The walkout, which began in mid-September, is now costing GM about $200 million a week.

GM planned to have produced 400,000 EVs over a roughly two-year stretch by the middle of next year, but has abandoned that goal.

Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson cited a slowdown in the market for battery-powered cars. Last week, the company said it would delay by one year the opening of an EV truck factory in suburban Detroit, among several recent signs that the burst of consumer interest in electrics over the past few years has faded.”

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Another Shameless Plug: Hunting in the Shadows by Mike Watson

This is a non-fiction book of history. The events described here took place in Borneo during the Indonesian Confrontation in the latter half of 1964 and in the Republic of Vietnam during that country’s fight for its very existence throughout 1965-1968. Malaysia, with the assistance of its allies, prevailed in the Confrontation. Unfortunately the Republic of Vietnam, after being abandoned by its allies, succumbed to a full sale Communist armored and infantry invasion in April 1975.

This is the story of an Australian Army officer who was seconded to support the efforts of the Republic of Vietnam in their clandestine war against the National Liberation Front. The story is told precisely as events unfolded without efforts to minimize or maximize. It’s a story of a brutal civil war, of a proxy war, of love, death, and revenge in a wartorn setting. Both the government of the Republic of Vietnam and the National Liberation Front (Viet Kong) engaged in systematic assassination as a matter of policy. Reading this book requires that you lens it in the context of people and events as they took place.

Thanks to those of you who reviewed this book. If you haven’t, please take the time to do it.

First the bugs, now this…

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Identify the Aircraft

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