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Ghost of LL

Burnt Ends
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Everything posted by Ghost of LL

  1. The audio makes pretty obvious this was the fault of ATC. And it’s not the first one of these at AUS. There was another near-miss just a few weeks ago involving American and Delta. There’s a real problem at Austin ATC, and it needs fixing now. Even without a collision, it’s remarkable that Southwest didn’t get caught up in the turbulence from FedEx. The 767 is a big plane, and a 737 trying to take off really shouldn’t be that close to one.
  2. We've had our trash cans out since Monday night. Trash day was Tuesday. Trash guys obviously didn't come. And I wasn't going to hump those things back down the driveway in the ice. Our office is empty. We have people who are without power and even without water. But they're still not coming to the office. Man--some fuckers are really committed to this work-from-home bullshit.
  3. I'm sorry about that Monterey Oak, but damned if that isn't the perfect tree for Austin. It does just fine in the heat, and it doesn't really mind the cold. I lost two branches off one of mine (there are four on my property), but for the most part they're hanging in there. They are oaks, after all. And the best part is that if you replace it, they grow so goddamned fast that it'll be huge in just a few years.
  4. I really don't know what you're talking about. I can show you the Texas Bar Journal, which every month publishes the list of lawyers who have been disbarred, suspended, or otherwise disciplined for ethical lapses. It's pretty clear evidence that members of the legal profession do face consequences for unethical or illegal acts. There are nine people who are not subject to those ethical constraints. That's it. Nine. And if you want to enforce some ethical constraints on them, then you need to petition your Congressman to do that. It's not the legal profession's job (or within its ability) to enforce standards the Constitution hasn't created.
  5. The drive in to downtown wasn't bad. There is a bit of ice on some of the bridges, but the roadways are fine. I think it just rained so goddamned hard overnight that it was impossible for any ice to form on the roads. Oh, and by the way--props to the half-dozen people I saw on bicycles riding around downtown. That's a special kind of stupid/dedicated/insane.
  6. I have to go into the office, as I have no power and a hearing today. So I can’t do my Zoom hearing from home (unless I want to go do it from my car). So I’ll report on the roads from downtown after a while.
  7. I thought it was lightning out there, but nope—it’s just the flashes of transformers exploding.
  8. I really hate to be like this, but on our way out the door I kind of think we need to be honest. Nobody gives a fuck about either ISU or KSU.
  9. No, but almost as random. I saw that the Astoria was due to be broken up and that it was the oldest cruise ship out there. So I went on a little Google dive, until I came to the story of Mrs. Hardberger, when I was like
  10. The MV Astoria is going to take her final trip to Rotterdam next week where she will be broken up for scrap. She is currently the oldest cruise ship out there. Astoria first went to sea in 1948 as the SS Stockholm. In 1956, the Stockholm collided with the Andrea Doria in heavy fog off Nantucket Island. The Andrea Doria sunk, 52 people were killed. Among the people aboard the Andrea Doria was 14-year old Linda Morgan, who was in bed in cabin 52 at the time of the collision. Cabin 52 was right above where Stockholm struck Andrea Doria, and Morgan was launched onto the deck of the Stockholm. Her mother and step-sister were killed. Twelve years after the collision, Linda Morgan married Phil Hardberger. They moved to San Antonio in 1970, and Phil became mayor in 2005. Linda is still around at age 81. She's a very nice lady.
  11. I mean, this has to be an inside job, right?
  12. This is uninformed cynicism masquerading as sophistication. I deal with public officials right across the state on a damned-near daily basis. There are a lot of them that I don't like personally. There are a lot of them whose positions I find noxious, if not downright un-American. But I'm also going to tell you that, broadly speaking, they're people who are trying to serve the public as they see the public interest. They're serving their constituents, and often their positions--noxious as they are--reflect their constituency. But they're not crooked. They do these jobs for shockingly little money. They're not violating campaign-finance laws or soliciting kickbacks or taking bribes. They could. But they don't. There are exceptions, of course. There's John Wiley Price. There's Ken Paxton. Those people are fucking criminals. But they're the outliers. And then there's George Santos. He's the outlier that goes far beyond the outliers. When you say George Santos isn't "any worse than the rest of them," you actually show how little you know about our public officials. And your cynicism may convince some who are just as uninformed as you that you have some inside scoop. But you don't. What you bring to the table isn't insight or information or knowledge. You just bring a malignant cynicism that has infected our body politic, convincing it that everyone is a crook and that our democracy isn't worth saving. It's the cancer that led to January 6. It's a cancer that continues to grow today. And it's fucking threatening the life of our country. So stop being a moronic asshole and shut the fuck up about shit of which you have no knowledge.
  13. Kursk? Bitch--that's a quarter-century in the future when they're fighting right now with World War I tactics.
  14. And the alma mater is the same tune as the Okie State fight song (though obviously Okie State plays their fight song at a significantly swifter tempo).
  15. A flight of F-18s went over the Capitol about a half-hour ago. Standard finger-four with #3 missing, which implies to me that it was probably doing a missing-man formation over the Texas State Cemetery.
  16. I'm just saying--if I were Yevgheny Prigozhin, I think I'd say away from any windows for the time being. Perhaps just hang out in basements for a while. Or maybe stay on ground floors. No. Basements. That's it.
  17. Oof--that last one is tough. For one thing, I'm not sure Estonia can do that as a practical matter. And for another, I am certain that they can't do it legally. The Estonians appear to be itching for a fight even more than the Poles.
  18. I don’t know what you’re talking about.
  19. It's not exactly a fantasy. It's a legitimate concern. In March last year, Ukraine signed a mutual defense treaty with Poland and the UK. I'm not sure if it's been ratified by all parties, but it wasn't interpreted (or intended to be interpreted) as having retroactive effect to apply to Russia. What it was intended to do is indicate that if a third party (i.e., Belarus) were to join the fight and invade Ukraine, then Poland and the UK would declare war on that intervening third party (i.e., Belarus). Now, that's a little bit of a problem because Belarus has its own mutual-defense treaty with Russia. So if Belarus joins Russia in a new Springtime offensive, this could get really messy real quick.
  20. Damn, Dan—it’s a schedule for human beings.
  21. Don't mind me, just casually walking into @Brisketexan's office, grabbing his wallet off his desk, and taking a couple quick pictures of his DL.
  22. I am skeptical of the logistics excuse for not sending the M1A2. If it frees up some Leopards, then there's no reason not to send some Abrams. The Ukrainians are concerned that the Russians are planning a big offensive from Belarus toward Kyiv or even Lviv. Fine. And so they have to leave a reserve force in place to counter that threat. Great. So let's outfit that reserve force with Abrams. Surely there's no real logistical challenge in using those in a defensive posture around Kyiv/Lviv. And if that enables the importation of Leopards, then those can be used in an offensive posture on the Southeastern Front. But without the Abrams, you know some of those Leopards are going to have to be devoted to defending against a potential Russian offensive from the north anyway.
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