November 11, 2019: Reader Tips

Reader Tips 79 Comments

I’m a huge fan of air shows and at the top of the list of performers are the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels. Here’s some slow motion video from a recent performance.

If you have any tips, be they focused on aviation or politics, please do share!

79 Replies to “November 11, 2019: Reader Tips”

    1. Blackie the Groper is an attention whore. Carving Alberta (and supposedly Saskatchewan as well) out of Canada, see them grow into small powerhouse nations, with no gov’t debt, low tax rates, prosperity and plenty of money from oil/gas/potash revenues to ramp up the world’s best infrastructure and just perhaps rival Dubai while strictly controlling immigration would be plenty nice while Canadastan freezes in the dark, ridden by debt, diversity and chronic underemployment. Plenty of attention on the post nation state “leader” for sure.

      #WEXIT

      P.S. Queerbekistan will never separate.

      1. Alberta alone without Canadian Welfare Bums would be the 10th richest economy in the world. Get out Alberta Go UDI.

    2. Watcher, thanks for this. I am sometimes hard on Mr. Manning, so it is good to hear this.

      1. I do not care for “The Parson” either DM, but after many years, of trying to achieve equality inside Canada. I think reality is sinking in for “The Parson” much as it is for many Albertans.
        Just a tired of the shit, resigned determination to end it. No one in Eastern Canada feels it. But it is very real and the attitude is widespread. It’s that lets get it done feeling much like a couple getting a divorce that have tried endless sessions of reconciliation for years and they have all failed,
        The gulf is too wide, and the actual vitriol and hatred and contempt for Albertans is very real.
        That attitude has been in our faces for years.
        There are even physical threats on some forums from Eastern Canadians that the Canadian Military will just squash us, and we better damn well shut up.

        1. Yea…well seems to me that much of what is left of our Military is composed of those with a visceral hatred of the LIberals. Fat chance of that. As it ever was.

          Lest we forget.

        2. So eastern bastards are threatening to send the military to keep the west in confederation against it’s will for the third time?

          I have found 6 different petitions on change.org calling for leaving confederation. People I know say that they are blocked from sharing them on facebook and such, but they range from 5k to 120k signatures.

          We should not just look at the status quo benefits of if the west left, we should also consider how much we could create if freed from the eastern shackles. No more need to spend more time and money asking for permission for a project than are required for the project. No more Quebec dairy cartel would help the poor (everyone really, but poor most of all) with food costs, and allow expansion of many food production industries like cheese making. A civil service that could actually be run by people based on merit and qualifications in the department rather than fluently incompetent french ability. How much more investment and job creation if we restored the rule of law vs. the current lawless cronyism that is the rule in Canada. How many port jobs would switch to the west if our industry expanded and we did not have a federal policy of funnelling everything through Montreal, Churchill would require icebreakers, but is just as close to European ports as Halifax.

          How fast would the east collapse if they had to rely Bay Street and the civil service for job creation? They deserve it, for the first time ever the Liberals campaigned on attacking the west instead of doing it after the election without mentioning it. The east voted for it. Anyone who thinks we can work through that is suffering from battered spouse syndrome.

          I am somewhat amused how for my entire life CBC et al have pushed the narrative that we needed to vote Liberal for the sake of national unity, but it has only ever been an issue when Liberals are in power.

          1. Yah go on twitter to any Alberta or Sask. Independence or Western Separatist page. You will see a lot of hatred for particular Albertans. Occasionally the threat of sending the Military to straighten us out.

  2. Kenji,
    You must be expecting this, and I can give you no less.
    Oh how glorious! The Liverpool Reds destroyed the Manchester City gushers, the best team money can buy (unless that title belongs to PSG.) And this happens just before the international break, so City can stare at the table for two whole weeks and find themselves in FOURTH place. And it isn’t undeserved because they have had the easiest schedule of the four top teams.
    I find it very strange this aspect has not been brought up by anyone. City should have coasted through that schedule, but find themselves nine points adrift. Now of their seven matches left in the first round robin, they have yet to face #2 Leicester City, #3 Chelsea (whom they’ll have to face first thing after the break), #5 Sheffield United, #6 Arsenal, and #7 Manchester United (who has been inconsistent but surely they’ll be up for the Manchester Derby.) Liverpool has played and defeated every one of those teams, except Man U who managed to get a draw at home. City would do well to go 3-1-1 in those matches.
    I have to admit to a bit of paranoia. The VAR on Alexander Arnold’s “handball” could have gone the other way, and it could have been a two goal swing — taking away Fabinho’s thunderbolt, and giving City a PK. But I have to say, something is wrong with a system that can cancel so much play which has very little to do with the actual offense. And a more egregious handball committed by Aston Villa in Liverpool’s last match was also not called.
    Fabinho makes the number of Reds who have scored a goal so far this season in the EPL an even dozen. And no matter Salah’s sore ankles makes his shots less than pinpoint. His head is just fine.

    1. Liverpool’s attack was so much more lethal than Schitty’s … partially due to Liverpool’s counterattacking stance. Funny, in the pregame interview, Klopp insisted he would be playing “positive, attacking, football”. Well, yes … but. Liverpool packed it in and counterattacked. The flanks were available for Schitty … but the central channels were packed. Liverpool’s counterattacking offense and quality of chances built were FAR superior to Schitty.

      I believe that Morino has totally LOST the necessary temperament to coach, but he really knows his stuff in analyzing futball and yesterday- the failures of Schitty. I especially liked his comment about the Schitty defenders needing to play closer together to each other. Indeed. Kyle Walker was making deep runs into the attacking third, but was leaving his defense a bit exposed for counterattacks. I believe Morino was super-simplistically correct … Schitty’s defenders were leaving far too large gaps for Liverpool’s brilliant attacking players to exploit.

      And d’ya remember when Liverpool’s defense was their weak point? Just prior to the arrival of Virgil? Yeah, neither do I. Perhaps with ONE great, great, player … Klopp completely turned his defense around. Nobody talks about Liverpool’s defense anymore. There’s nothing to say. It’s as solid as any in the EPL.

      I still believe that Schitty was really missing David Silva. He is such a creative force and really quick touch player, that when he’s missing … everyone around him drops a bit. But to my eye (it’s hard to see everything on a TV broadcast) it appeared as though Pep played his tactics and squad a little too safe. Where was DeBruyne yesterday? I’m used to seeing him flying around in attack. It appeared as though Pep had him sitting deeper, providing cover, as Pep sometimes positions him. Schitty are at their best when Kevin is flying around the pitch serving screaming balls into the box. That was AWOL yesterday. Schitty’s ball movement was half a beat slower yesterday, than when they’re at their best.

      After the handball and ensuing goal, Liverpool were class. Pure class.

          1. Kenji, me too.
            I think I’m watching Sports when I read your descriptions of English soccer with OB!

  6. The main story on Blackie’s media this Remembrance Day, is Don Cherry. In Trudeau’s Canada we must recognize Remembrance Day by censoring free speech and recognizing that only acceptable viewpoints are allowed. Please refer to the Toronto media on how to behave.

  7. Myself, I can’t stand the Blue Angels – not because of them, but because of their aircraft. The F-18 is just too d@mn loud – blows my eardrums out doing aerobatics just overhead, and I’m nearly deaf as it is.

    I prefer the Snowturds (which is just one of the many ‘colourful’ names the CF has for them) because their aircraft, the Canadair Tutor, is not supersonic, much less powerful (but powerful enough) and a whole lot quieter. The “Toot” was our primary jet trainer and is widely considered one of the best jet trainers ever made; but nobody else bought them, and eventually they were just too old to do the job for us. So we retired the fleet, except for those the Snowbirds use.

    – But that’s just me…

    1. The Blue Angels used to be the main attraction at the Kelowna Regatta back in the ’60’s. They were the hero’s of every young lad running to the beach to get a view of them up close. The overwhelming sound, the speed, the agility. They were spectacular!!! Dream makers.

      That was until done of the Jets fell behind during the morning practice and pierced through the sou0nd barrier for an instant. The resulting boom shattered windows in the downtown core, causing $250K damage in 1969 dollars. The event put Kelowna in the national news, increasing the crowds for that show 10X’s. Best publicity the city had.

      I remember the boom. Still a fond memory.

      https://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/1969-sonic-boom-smashes-kelownas-windows

      1. I watched the RCAF Golden Hawks perform (off script at the time), in 1960 or so, can’t remember the exact year. A practice “show” low over Wasaga Beach. Right side up and upside down and about 150 ft above ground at times, for about 20 minutes, waving at us youngsters waving back. They were low and close enough to see the pilots.

        1. – A story of one of the all-time great test pilots, Jan Zurakowski; senior test pilot at Avro and flew many aircraft such as the CF-100 and the Arrow. One of his routines once he got a fighter jet safely into the air, was to roll inverted and apply rapid +/- gee with the stick, to see what would shake-loose and land in the canopy above (under) his head. He was looking for objects like forgotten tools, pocket change etc, that might have fallen out of somebody’s pocket and work their way down into the controls and jam them – such items are called “FOD”, standing for ‘foreign object damage’, and have crashed many aircraft. If anything like that did fall loose and land in the canopy above (under) him, he would fly over the maintenance lines inverted – and the maintainers would know they were in for a bad fifteen minutes once he got back on the ground.

          He saved an Arrow, which was one of the first fighter aircraft with an autopilot – and himself. His test flight required taking-off on autopilot; just above the ground, the aircraft commenced a rapid roll. He pulled the disconnect and took-over manual control, and landed the aircraft; it was discovered that one of the connectors was plugged-in backwards, so instead of the autopilot correcting the roll, it made it rapidly worse. If he hadn’t been that quick, the aircraft would certainly have crashed – indeed, a U.S. fighter jet had recently crashed from the same cause, killing the two people aboard. The solution was to make the connecting plugs unique, so they could not be plugged-in backwards – and the plugs are still made that way.

          1. When my kids were small, their buddy who lived with his Grandpa was a very interesting character. He was in his mid 70’s and had been the Chief Engineer on the Avro Arrow.
            He had many artifacts in his home and news clippings of him and the Arrow. He told me one story about Zurakowski.
            Understand the Avro went straight from the drawing board into manufacturing. No mods. The very 1st test flight, he said they all went to the very end of the runway at Malton. Expecting Zurakowski would need the whole runway.
            He said not many folks knew that the runway at the time about halfway down had a small rise. He, Zurakowsi came off that hump airborne and climbed and went into an inside roll, at full throttle. He said they were all stunned. He had more stories, I was young and in those days no cell phones etc or I could have taped him and taken pictures he was a very nice and highly intelligent man. His last name was Floyd. I went back years later, and the house was empty and the yard a mess. Many inside stories on the politics. Thanks for jogging my memory.

      2. I Saw the Golden Hawks in the early-mid 60’s flying very low right over English Bay in YVR. F-86 Sabres. It was AWESOME…twas a kid at the time, but have never ever forgotten that..!!

        Besides the P-51, the Sabre has to be considered one of the most awesome looking aircraft ever designed.

        1. To this kid, growing up post ’52, the Sabres and Super Sabers were awesome mean looking aircraft for the times. Then we got VOODOOs. The name says it all.
          Used to hear, then see ’em as pairs, straight up and headed for the moon over Chatham NB, while unloading jet fuel to fuel ’em via tanker at Mirimachi. Back when we had some kind of a military and the men who populated them.

        2. We left Beaverbank N.S. In ’64.
          Sometime before the place shut down, us kids were in a field and the Golden Hawks did a very low flypast overhead. Yeah, its something you don’t forget…

  8. God bless our fallen soldiers and those who have and are serving.Thanks to Don Cherry for speaking his mind and the truth.

    1. Terry..as one who served, albeit during somewhat peacefull times, I could not agree more on both counts.

      Respect Earned
      Respect to be shown.

      1 Poppy for them ALL

  10. In Delhi, India breathing the air is like smoking 50 cigarettes a day.

    https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2019/11/8/20948348/delhi-india-air-pollution-quality-cause

    “That means reducing urban air pollution by deploying vastly more renewable energy and clean transportation. At the recent United Nations Climate Action Summit, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged that his country would more than double its renewable energy production, going from 175 gigawatts to 450 gigawatts by 2022. However, Modi did not commit to any reductions in fossil fuel use or greenhouse gas emissions.”

    I repeat … India has not committed to any reductions in fossil fuel or greenhouse gas emissions, even as its citizens “smoke 50 cigarettes a day” of air pollution. This explains why Greta Thunberg has not bothered to visit India. Too much pollution, not enough money.

    1. Thanks Nancy. No words of any politician can bring it home like reading this story privately again, as I am wont to do on Nov. 11 each year. That and listen to the Pipes. Have a good day, my friend.

        1. Very sad Nancy, I had many family who served willingly. Read a book by a Canadian author on the war effort of Canadians. It was historical and factual. Most of the young Canadian Lads, figured they would be home by Christmas. Some just wanted 3 meals a day and some new shoes. The grip of the Great Depression still affecting Western Canada very badly.
          I have an old picture of 5 of my Uncles, all who joined up by the end of Sept 1939, the youngest Wally, holding his small dog. Kids. They were never all together again.
          They fought through Italy and Europe to the end. Wally never returned home, he was RCN and had very bad time. He was on those convoys in the North Atlantic. He had PTSD and in those days they were just told to suck it up. He wandered the rest of his life. My Mother always worrying over him. He would pop in to the farm then we would not see him for years. A lost soul.
          Angers me when I see the attacks on Don Cherry, full well knowing that in every little town many of our young men never came home.
          Empty places at every table. And ungrateful city folk in Toronto etc denouncing a guy like Cherry for saying what our greasy bastard politicians should be saying far and wide.
          God Bless Our Men and Women in uniform today, and our long suffering veterans.
          I always think of my cousin Carl, who at 16 left Edmonton and went to Montana and joined the FSF or First Special Forces. A joint US and Canadian Unit.
          He was an old man and dying and still the stupid ungrateful brass in Ottawa never recognized these men, who with the blessing and cooperation of the Canadian government made up half of this unit.
          The USA gave him citizenship, and Veteran Benefits and finally a Congressional Gold Medal.
          He was a kid. Although his nickname was “Tiny” only way he bullshitted his way in, he fought all the way through Italy, in the mountains.
          His unit was the tip of the spear. He parachuted behind the lines at D Day and was wounded 5 times and kept going.
          Finally the FSF could not muster enough men anymore, and they were rolled into a Parachute Regiment and he finished the war in Europe. Why can these people not understand what our men and women went through. Disrespecting this in anyway is very disgusting. They all need to be called out to their faces and shunned. Lower than a snakes ass in a wagon rut.

          1. Your family history matches so many.

            My parents were teenagers when the War began. They met and married after the war. In some ways they too never got over it, as did many in their circle. Some were traumatized and never really grew up. They never shared much about their war years. They just got on with it.

            Many Europeans migrated to North America after the war. Montreal was a mini Europe. I was always pretty curious about some of the characters that came our way.

            Eventually stories got around as to what some individuals went through during the war. Many were soldiers who fought, (Dad too, in Europe) some were captured and survived Stalag xxx. I knew one neighbour who survived a Concentration Camp. A few were French Resistance fighters throughout the war. As for the women, no one talked. Who knows what they did. Some came to this Country with gold teeth. Ya gotta wonder about that.

            The Canadian born people, like my parents, enlisted towards the war effort. ( Mom was a Rosie the Riveter type) They had no choice. Many worked in factories. That was that.

            After the war the women lost their well paying jobs to the men that survived. The women were expected to stay home and raise children. Many resisted and continued to work albeit at lesser paying jobs that the men wouldn’t do because the men became their bosses.

            As a result, we Boomers became latch-key kids. We raised ourselves. We became increasingly independent and studied hard in an effort to move out in our own world.

            The kids today seem to think that we had it easy and had everything handed to us on a silver platter. They couldn’t be more wrong. We worked for everything we got.

            We are still trying to survive the Communists just like our parents.

            Many thanks to Pierre Trudeau, and others… and thanks to … his son…
            who is still screwing us.

  12. There is a lesson here for Canadian Tax Payers. Why is Canada spending very scarce Defense money defending the EU one of the 3 rd largest and richest areas in the world. Canada has 36,000 miles of undefended coastline. Much of it in the Arctic. An area that Communist China is rapidly moving in on. China now has bigger and more Ice Breakers than the USA. Gee I wonder why?
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/end-nato

    1. “China now has bigger and more Ice Breakers than the USA.”

      And zero square miles of territorial ocean ice.

  13. CTV has a poll on Don Cherry.
    They want to know if poll respondents are offended by his comments.

    So far no side is at 67%

          1. 60% No with 1298 votes cast.
            Lets face it, Cherry called a spade a spade and some people don’t like that especially ones who voted for Blackie McBlackface.

  14. For those who like history a pdf of what was shipped to the USSR under the Lend Lease program of the USA. So the Russians could fight Hitler. Staggering.
    To understand how bad it was read how the agriculture of the USSR fell under NAZI attacks. Info I never knew, like how farmers harvested crops under fire from the German guns.
    Here is the link. It’s a 19 page report chock full of interesting reading (if you delight in finding the obscure as I do . Take a look.
    At the same time Britain would have fallen within weeks if the USA and Canada had not kept the Convoys going to Britain and kept them alive.
    https://histrf.ru/uploads/media/defa…2770550653.pdf

    1. What? Not all of us read Russian.
      Your link shows a Russian ? man shaking his head.
      Do you have a new link?

    1. Used to see the Fitz’ pass by on trips up to T-Bay. Used to sail on Texaco tankers in those days, before the Fitz’ sank. Spent a few times dragging anchor in Whitefish Bay, waiting for the weather to settle down before heading out. Even the ocean going boys would wait.
      Yeah, I’ve been everywhere.

    1. Such a loss, since he may not be able to find work as a hockey commentator in Canada. The establishment media cartel must be happy right now, but they are drunk with power given that they engineered Trudeau’s win, and now Cherry’s firing.

  17. So Don Cherry has been fired. Here in Trudeau’s Canada censorship is the rule, and freedom of thought is not allowed.

    1. I will only buy Calgary Co-op Beer
      I will only Buy Virginia Maple Syrup

      KEBEC can kiss my ass….forever

    2. Watch

      My old Ma raised her kids with a healthy distrust for all things quebekkie. She had a boycott of the fwench traitors going until the day she died. I’ve instilled the same in my kids.

      1. Hey funny story under never trust Women. I am fooling of course. My dear old Dad back when PET was PM would have constipated conniption fits whenever PET came on the TV. He would go into a rant about those Dang Fwenchmen.
        Anyway I finally did the Family tree, and found out my Mom’s family was pretty much half French. Her ancestors came to Quebec city about 1670. Her ancestor after leaving the Fwench Military became a Cour de Bois, and travelled by canoe from Quebec City to what is now Detroit by canoe many times trading furs etc.
        He had 3 or 4 Indian wives and a French wife too.
        Then his offspring went to Upper Canada and fought the Americans in the war of 1812. And the King gave them 200 acres, and this is were my Mom’s family got the 50% French thing.
        Anyway. I did the Genealogy, you should have seen Dear old Dad’s face. I said Dad, I know you don’t like Pierre and all. But did you know that you have had a French woman in your camp for over 50 years now?
        Poor guy he was floored. He had to pour a shot to digest that one. And boy did I have fun. With the both of them.
        Louis Depuis Cour de Bois. The next generation went to the USA in 1830, as a Fur Trader for the American Fur Company, married a Native woman Good Elk Woman, whose people fought Custer at Little Big Horn. His name was Fredrick Dupius and is known in Pierre SD as the man who saved the Buffalo in the USA. I’m rambling

        1. Watch

          I’ve read and researched a fair amount about the American fur trade. A very different model from the HBC and the Northwest Co in Ruperts Land.

          I have heard of Fredrick ‘Dupree” from Pierre SD (pronounced Peer) and am familiar with the American Fur Company (Jacob Astor) and Pierre Choteau. You have some interesting ancestors.

          1. Yah ABT I love my family. Some real rascals.
            Fredrick went to Centralia Illinois in the 1830’s to work for the American Fur Company. By 1838 he was in Pierre SD.
            He was there a few years and went on his own. He married Good Elk Woman and had I think 8-10 kids. He owned 10,000 acres, had a creek named after him and a small town Dupuis SD.
            Anyway as an old man he decided to save the Buffalo, he felt bad that so few were left. He and his sons and some Indian Relatives built extra heavy wagons and went into the Black Hills.
            They found some young Buffalo and they rounded them up in corrals they had made in coulees and loaded them and brought them back.
            The herd expanded to several hundred head, and a man came along and bought almost all of them. This man later sold them to the Government. And the Government re established them from that point.
            When Fredrick died, his horse stood in the yard with the saddlebags full of silver coins. Everyone who came to his funeral took a handful. In the Cheyanne tradition. Everything was given away.
            And Good Elk Woman lived with her oldest son until she died.
            Here is another twist, the Chief Medicine Woman of the Souix Nation, is a blood relative of mine. Looking Back Woman Susan Dupuis.
            A lot of controversy over that, as she is obviously not a man. But she holds the 7 council stones and the White Calf Pipe of Sitting Bull.
            I was just telling my DIL this evening sitting around the table. That this spring I am going camping in the Rockies, because the most beautiful thing is being in the mountains in the springtime when she breaks up.
            I have been adventuring all my life. I think I know were my spirit comes from, the wanderlust and the wild spaces. I have always followed my heart, I am who I am and I roll with it.
            I much prefer Nature to people. My family and my Loves are my lasting treasure.
            To quote my Cour de Bois ancestor. “We Were Caesar’s Then. There Being No One To Contradict US” he died alone in the forest and no one knows where. But he was a Free Man.

    3. The biggest difference between Quebec and Alberta is Quebec politicians scheme while Quebecers play, and Albertans scheme while Alberta politicians play.

      Alberta, your politicians are useless.

  21. Had a nice evening last nite. The terminal bachelors get together and we cook and visit. Three of us met in SK last nite.

    The cooking is done by two of us, a rancher buddy and myself. The third guy is an engineer (PhD) who can’t boil water.

    The conversation is intense and we eat well. As we were getting ready to leave the engineer blurts out ( the google speaker is in another room), “Hey google play Tom T. Hall’s Faster Horses.” This is a kinda theme song haha. We listened and had a good laugh at cowboy logic and took our leave.

    The drive home is an hour on gravel. The moon was almost full on the new fallen snow. The night was bright and only met one vehicle
    (rural SK). It was -23c when I got home. Good friends, brisk conversation, a good meal and a few laughs. LG

    1. Yes ABT you make me wish I was young again, and off on a ramble. A quest. An adventure. My feet are getting itchy. And it is not even spring. I had a Native friend years ago in BC, and I used to go salmon fishing with him and his wife and kids. We were like brothers. Best salmon I ever ate, smoked and cooked on the river bank on the open fire. All the very best.

    1. One more, Tie A Knot In The Devil’s Tail. Chris LeDoux.
      1st heard this one around the campfire years ago back in by Mount Assiniboine on horseback. A few beers help and a campfire helps. Fresh trout out of Marvel Lake helps too. You ain’t half bad yourself NR. I think you can keep up just fine to a pair of rascals.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvQeaR4c6Yk

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