The Last Hour Of 2016

As 2016 comes to a close, it's been quite a year.

We lost a lot of people of note and entertainment greats this year, a sure sign the baby boomers are getting older.

We had one of the bitterest and drawn out presidential elections so far, with Democrats still not getting through the five stages of grief to this day. Hopefully Trump lives up to the hype and expectations of him.

Personally, its been an interesting year, with some losses, some gains, lots of experiences both good and bad, and lots of family events and watching the kids grow into the awesome young ladies they are.

May 2017 be even better for us and for all of you and yours.

The Dog Playing Cards

To while away some time yesterday before Abby's friend was picked up, we played Rukus.

It's a fun family game that the kids enjoyed playing quite a bit. I think they modified the rules a bit and made it an even more hectic game, complete with delighted shouts of "Ruckus!". We spent quite some time shuffling cards, playing cards, and quickly discarding cards to get to the winner of each hand with much giggling and shouting and the occasional groan when the cards didn't go the way someone wanted them.

Jett decided he wanted to play too, and he collected the most cards while he doggedly imitated a card table:

A very laid back family-friendly dog indeed.

So About All That Russian Hacking Evidence....

The FBI/DHS and Obama administration are touting evidence that the Russians were behind the DNC email leak.

But, a professional anti-hacking group looking at the evidence provided is far from convinced: Wordfence: US Govt Data Shows Russia Used Outdated Ukrainian PHP Malware

In short, the professionals are of the opinion that the odds that the Russians were using outdated Ukrainian designed malware from sites outside of Russia and mainly in the US is rather remote and this is pretty darn weak tea for proof that the Russians hacked the DNC and were responsible for the leak of the emails.

I realize the Democrats are pissed that their and John Posdesta's security awareness in particular was so piss-poor that their email showing their rather bad acts was leaked to the world and hurt them badly at election time. I understand that they need to deflect from their failings and the content of the emails with this bit of kabuki theater to make it the big bad Russians responsible for the leak rather than their own stupidity, but come up with better evidence than this before you cause a diplomatic incident, ok?

Jett's First Trip To TO

We're spending The New Year in Toronto with family. 

Abby had her best friend from New York over with us in Michigan for the past 5 days and we took her with us to Toronto to meet up with her folks and transfer her back to her parents.  They had a great time together and they're great kids.

This was also Jett's first international trip and he had his first border crossing in the back of the SUV and he enjoyed the trip albeit being rather tightly squished in along with the rest of us - five people, one dog and luggage made for a tight fit.  He traveled like a champ and had a good time.

Jett on his first walk around Toronto found this sign rather offensive:

Why U No Like Jets?

Basically the No Jets TO group is your typical Baptist and Bootlegger coalition in action - developers would love to get their hands on Toronto Island Airport, but to keep it viable, Porter Airlines is proposing having some rather quiet commuter jets operate from the airport, which is not SWPL.  So, the developers and BANANA types are conjuring up the false image of big loud bad jets disturbing people's property values.  Basic nonsense, but it may prove to be effective which would be bad as once I get my private pilots license,  flights to CYTZ will be a given.

Flying Lesson #95 - The Serious Pre-Checkride Program

By the act of simply scheduling a solo I can make the weather absolutely sucky. Two cancelled days in sequence where I had booked to fly solo on Saturday and with Monday having been scratched due to thick fog, rain, wind, and a Low IFR overcast layer all at once it was time for a dual lesson with Bob the new instructor. Ray is now no longer a part of the picture, possibly more on that later.

I get to the airport and before even checking over the plane, Bob pulls me in for a preflight brief as to what were going to do - a serious pre-checkride flight where he'll call the maneuvers, I'll do them and then he'll go over them if they need something pointed out to improve them. This sounds good.

So I preflight the plane and N73455 is ready to go. We get a bit of a lowish overcast around 2,500 that slowly works its way upwards as the flight progresses.

I do a nice takeoff and we start heading northeast, with a slight delay as the tower has us stop our authorized turn and to fly north for a bit for separation from another flight.

We get out to the practice area and we start with slow flight. I'm a little ham-fisted and while my procedure is perfect I lose more than 100 feet of altitude while setting up for it, so we go over it again and I get it right.

Then we move on to a power off stall and again good procedure but I lose a bit more altitude than I should during setup but then get it done right after he shows me a bit more of the finesse that should go with it and the recovery.

Then we do a power on stall, which I haven't done in a long, long time, and I do it perfectly.

Then we turn to turns around a point, which again I haven't done in a long while but once I settle down I do a very nice one and he's quite happy with it.

Then on to one of my personal hang-ups, the S-turn across a road, and amazingly enough I just did it and did it pretty darn well.

Then on to an engine-out emergency landing which I flub again due to lack of practice, and we go over it, he demonstrates it, and then I do it and do a good job of it but it still needs practice though.

Then we head back to Pontiac and we initially get a base call at 2 miles, but before we hit that they have us extend for traffic and then clear us to come in and I do a perfect, and I mean perfect, approach and cross-wind landing all on my own.

After the flight we have a debrief and he says my flying is good and my procedures are good, but I need to look outside the plane more and there's just a bit of polishing to do on those maneuvers, and he expects that we will work on those and get this done and get me ready for the checkride.

That's 1.4 and one darn nice landing.

This Latest European Idea Makes The Children's Crusade Seem Like An Act of Strategic Brilliance

Breitbart: European Lefties Plan to March on ISIS While Waving White Flags

Someone tell me this is a bit of satire gone off, but it seems to actually be real.

Of course, it's going to end in tears as these Euro-idealists with zero real-world experience encounter reality head-on, assuming they even get past a couple initial steps or deal with the logistics of the task. Verily the idealistic organizer of this insanity expects the march to be well received:

But she was unconcerned about the prospect of being bombed, saying: “People like me think that if five or ten thousand people are marching and getting everyone’s attention, then it’s impossible that they would bomb you,” she said.

Yeah, keep thinking those happy thoughts there sunshine - the civil war in Syria has killed Hundreds of Thousands. Your few thousand empty-headed marchers would be a rounding error to the combatants at most and a tasty snack on arrival to ISIS at the very least.

It seems that at least on a subconscious level she understands the insanity of the idea:

The precise route the march will take is yet to be finalised, but the group will leave Germany via the Czech Republic, then head through Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Greece, and Turkey before finally entering Syria.

Lawyers in each of the countries en route are preparing paperwork to ease the crossing of borders along the way. “If no-one will stop us, we will go all the way,” Alboth said.

That sounds an awful lot like this:

My bet is they'll be blocked from their journey and turned around by the first European government that bans assisted suicide along the route. Once that occurs they'll declare they've sufficiently raised awareness and declare a moral victory because of their good intentions and go home.

Volunteering Today At Forgotten Harvest

For Christmas morning we had signed us to volunteer through our synagogue to deliver meals for Forgotten Harvest to bring Christmas meals to the less fortunate and shut ins in the area. We delivered 32 meals and Christmas gifts to people who couldn't get out themselves this year. So we delivered meals to the disabled and elderly in the area, and wished them all a Merry Christmas. It was a good way to spend Christmas morning.

Then we went to celebrate the Jewish holiday that always coincides with Christmas Day: Yom Dim Sum.

Yes, we had lunch at a Chinese restaurant. Tradition, ya know?

Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas!

Yesterday we cleaned the house and then went to the movies - I to see Rogue One and Tash and the kids to watch Sing. Rogue One was pretty darn good and I'll not post any spoilers, and watching it in 3D in a practically empty theater was just about a perfect way to see it.

Then, for the first night of Hanukkah and Christmas Eve we went to a friends house for a dinner party.

One of the guests made these two cakes from scratch:

Rather impressive and very festive.

So we lit the Menorah, had drinks a festive meal and good times with all who were there.

Once home, we gave presents for the first night of Hanukkah to the kids and then the kids went off to bed.

So a very Merry Christmas to all of my Christian friends and readers, and a very Happy Hanukkah to all of my Jewish ones.

Sorry About The Weather This Morning In Oakland County

So we have icing occurring last night as the temperatures fell, and today the streets are sheets of ice and it is misty with the ceiling a solid overcast at 900 feet.

Sorry, my fault, I had booked a solo flight for this morning.

Expect the weather to clear now that the solo flight has been cancelled due to IFR conditions.

And Obama Gives The Back Of His Hand To Israel As A Hanukkah Present

Legal Insurrection: UN Security Council Passes Anti-Israel Resolution, U.S. Abstains

Nice - instead of vetoing a pernicious, counterfactual, and one-sided resolution against Israel, the Obama Administration abstained, allowing it to pass.

More than just declaring"settlement" illegal, the way it is drafted would make Israeli control of the Jewish Quarter of the old city of Jerusalem and any territory retaken after 1949 illegal as well. In short it's a one-sided anti-Israel resolution that normally would not have passed as the US, as an honest broker would have vetoed it.

Instead, Obama now that the election is over, decided to get back at Netanyahu and screw Israel.

January 20, 2017 and the end of this reign of error can't come soon enough.

The Muslimas Who Cried "Trump"

In this age of progressive hate and rage, we have the specter of a plethora of fake and staged "hate crimes" against muslims:

In Lousisiana: HotAir: Police: Reported crime against woman in Muslim headscarf was a hoax

A young Muslim woman claimed she was attacked and robbed of her headscarf and wallet by two men, one of whom wore a Trump hat, but police are now saying it was a hoax. The attack supposedly took place in Louisiana where the woman is a student.

In New York: NY Post: De Blasio says he’s ‘really angry’ about Muslim teen’s attack tale

Seweid, 18, of North New Hyde Park in Nassau County on Long Island, admitted to cops Wednesday that she’d made up a story of being accosted on a subway on Dec. 1 by three white drunks who called her a terrorist, taunted, “Donald Trump!” and tried to pull off her headscarf.

The Baruch College business major told cops she’d actually been out drinking with friends and lied about the attack to distract her strict Islamic father, who’d been furious over her being out late, sources told The Post.

In Ann Arbor: The Detroit News: Police: Woman who was told to remove hijab was lying

A University of Michigan student whose story was reported worldwide was not telling the truth when she told police she was threatened by a man who told her to remove her hijab and could now face felony charges for filing a false report, Ann Arbor police said Wednesday.

The woman told police that the man would set her on fire with a lighter if she did not remove her hijab, a headscarf worn by Muslim women, so she complied then fled the area of East William near State Street. Her story appeared in global publications last month couched as a hate crime following the win of President-elect Donald Trump.

But her report did not add up after Ann Arbor and UM police and the FBI interviewed multiple witnesses and reviewed video surveillance in the area of the alleged incident, said Detective Sgt. Matthew Lige of the Ann Arbor Police Department.

“This crime never happened,” Lige said.

Note that all of these false reports received very favorable and uncritical initial press treatment as this fit the media and Democrats' narrative far too well: All those evil Trump-supporting, cousin-humping haters were going out committing hate crimes in the wake of his winning. Apparently not so much as so many of these supposed hate crimes keep coming up as either false, staged, or by Muslims and directed at other groups while trying to sell it as a Trump supporter's acts.

If it weren't for fake hate crimes against and perpetrated by Muslims, there might very well be damn few hate crimes against them at all. False reports in the wake of Trump's victory certainly seem to be skyrocketing.

Flying Lesson #94 - Short Fields With A New Instructor

For lunch I dropped by Flight 101 for a lesson. I had it scheduled with Ray as going to Crosswinds during the week is pretty much out and I still have money on my account there I want to burn through.

It turns out that Ray isn't there and I've got a new instructor for the day, Bob. This is a bit surprising as its an unannounced change.

New to Flight 101 but with 2,000 hours to his log book, while he's another younger fellow, but he's been instructing at another school and just started two days ago with Flight 101. So we head out to the plane and I get it preflighted while he scrapes off a good layer of frost from it. So we talk about where I am in the process and what I feel I need to improve on, then he has me start it up and we head out to the runway. And I handle the entire process.

First takeoff he wants me to hold it in ground effect as the speed builds up just in case there's any frost left on it causing problems....no problems and we get a good takeoff in.

Performance in the cold air is excellent and I'm hitting pattern altitude while turning crosswind from upwind. Then he has me do a couple regular landings which were decent with a bit of fun thrown in from the tower - first having us do an extended downwind after I've already start to turn base, which throws things off a bit. On the next landing on quite short final they have me sidestep to 27L as they've just had a plane cleared to takeoff from 27R after clearing me to land and I'm approaching with a plane in front of my windshield and I'm preparing to do a go round before they call for the sidestep. So I sidestep and land just fine on 27L. Overall not my best two landings but not bad and I did them all by my happy self.

Then we move on to short fields. Bob has me try one first and then we analyze and go over what needs to be worked on. While the setup and landing wasn't bad s far as landings go, it wasn't within standards for a short field and I was a tad too high and fast on final and as usual my aiming point was not right.

Bob demonstrates one and then I do some more and get better with each one. He has a different approach to it and it helps quite a bit in terms of focus on the aiming point and how to do the landing by setting the trim to set the pitch and feel to exactly make it all just so that when you think you need to push you just reduce power and when you think you would need to pull on the yoke you would add power without changing the pitch attitude to keep the airspeed locked in.

This was extremely helpful.

My final two short fields, I'm on target and stopped on 27R before taxiway Whiskey and able to turn off on it to turn back to the numbers and takeoff again.

By the end of the lesson I've got this pretty much down and have a ton more confidence in my short fields and can actually do them.

He also has me do a short field takeoff that I ace (my short field takeoffs have always been good), even though the runway is a tad slick and the right brake is feeling kinda soft while holding the plane in place at full power.

Maybe a different perspective is all that is needed and we can get this thing done finally.

That's 8 landings and 1.5.

That's It! Three Strikes And She's Out!

First Strike: Losing the election.

Second Strike: Losing the recount led by her cats-paw Jill Stein, wiht the recount actually revealing Democrat-led fraud in Detroit and elsewhere (Ironic that a claim of fraud revealed fraud by those who claimed it was occurring, neh?).

Third Strike: Electoral College confirms Trump in face of Democrat pressure to overturn the election (Yes the same electoral college Democrats were complaining about in 1 above the Democrats were then trying by hook or by crook to use to overthrow the election - ironic, isn't it?).

Indeed, the Democrats last stand in Michigan to stop the electors voting for Trump was solidly crushed by reality.

Perhaps the Dems can now move on to the next stage of grief - depression, followed by acceptance as their rather epic episodes of denial, anger, and bargaining (if you call threats of violence bargaining) certainly haven't gotten them anywhere.

Sunday Miscellaneous Day

Woke up and did the driveway yet again as another thin layer of global warming fell upon it overnight, requiring cleaning to make it passable. On the upside its a good workout and now that the yellow ball in the sky has finally deigned to visit, the remainder of the snow has melted off, hurried along by a decent application of ice melter making my driveway now both passable.

Next I headed off to teach the legal portion of another NRA Instructor's CPL class. A good class of six serious students and they listened well, asked good questions and enjoyed the presentation and are now briefed on Michigan's CPL and deadly force laws, which is good.

Then it was home repair time. The water feed tube for the humidifier had snapped in half when I went to change the filter. The tube, being semi-flexible plastic, broke as the filter was being put back in, which was pretty annoying as it broke under almost no pressure. A replacement was ordered via Amazon and I changed it out with a new tube assembly including the brass nut and plastic lock washer. Now it works with no leaks (so far nayways) and we'll no longer be giving off static shocks soon. Overall, not as bad a repair as I feared.

Lots of little things getting done today.

I think i'll do a little dry-firing to celebrate the lack of leaks before we head out to a family holiday party this evening.

Not Flying Lesson

Last night with the snow coming down the TAF for Pontiac was predicting lousy weather for this morning - snow, rain, low viz so i halfway expected the lesson to be cancelled.

After clearing off the Driveway of Doom™ and putting Jett back in the house and drying him off I headed to Pontiac for a scheduled flight with Ray as the weather had cleared at least enough for some pattern work. My clearing of the driveway was clearly merited and I made it down without incident. However, to say the roads were terrible would be an understatement, many looked like they had not been cleared at all and I was driving in ruts.

So it took awhile to get to KPTK and when I got there I saw this:

It's kinda snowed in and the taxiways are not yet cleared.

Worse, on closer inspection under the snow was:

A pretty solid layer of ice on the windscreen, wing, and horizontal stabilizer which means no flying for you.

We then were able to tow N73455 and N757MK into the hanger, where they should have been overnight really but for various reasons were not. Once in the hanger they defrosted nicely but not in time for my lesson and that student owes me a beer for the prep work.

At this point I'm kinda stymied - it would have easily taken at least 2 hours to just get to Crosswinds today given the roads and the weather made any planning for such a flight rather iffy anyways - driving 2 hours there and 2 back if a flight is cancelled will suck mightily, but Flight 101 is screwing the pooch here nicely as well. Then again, even if they had the plane in the hanger getitng it to the runway would have been iffy considering the taxiways were not cleared yet so it may have just not been my day to go flying. On the upside I did save money by not flying... I have a solo flight set for next weekend and we'll see what the weather brings.

Jett. In The Snow. On The Driveway.

After another snowfall that went all through the night, I awoke and after a coffee commenced to clear the Driveway of Doom™.

Jett wanted to come out with me so he gallavanted about on the driveway, barking ferociously at the snowblower and daring it to try and catch him.

As you can see, there's a fair bit of snow about. He had fun racing about, digging through the snow and barking away as I cleared the driveway to standard and then I headed off to a flight lesson that was not to end up involving flying.

Michigan Court Of Appeals Decision Hammers Legal Open Carriers

The Court of Appeals decision in Michigan Gun Owners v Ann Arbor Public Schools upheld the Ann Arbor Public School's position that it can prohibit people from carrying firearms even as state law specifically states people with concealed carry permits may open carry (only no concealed carry with the concealed carry permit mind you) in schools.

The Michigan Court of Appeals, without any irony whatsoever, was able to declare it the law inapplicable as they determined, with a straight face no less, that a local school district was not a local unit of government, unlike a library district in a previous case which had been found to be a local unit of government. This of course is an awfully outcome-determinative decision considering all those elections for school boards, and the rules and regulations they promulgate, not to mention the public funding for them.

The Court also determined, likely with a nod and a wink, that the law exhaustively allowing such did not specifically and entirely preempt the field of firearms regulation prohibiting the school district from banning carry in compliance with state law.

We'll see if this gets appealed to the State's Supreme Court as the Supreme Court tends to be less anti-gun than our Court of Appeals.

Or better yet, would the Republicans please send another bill to Snyder to get rid of the no carry zones and amend the law to say pistols may be carried concealed with a concealed permit in schools rather than the current stupid mix of only being able to carry openly with a concealed permit in schools and other listed places? That would likely get rid of the pearl-clutching craziness as if the Lefties don't see the pistols they won't be alarmed by it, and there won't be people out trolling and trying to cause them to become so alarmed so that we get to this situation in the first place.

Winter Is Really Here

So I get home at 6:40 tonight after a long day at work and find out the road in front of my house has turned into a solid sheet of ice.

Since it's dark, that's not readily apparent until I slide right past my house. So I'm able to stop, back up and then get up my driveway which is still wonderfully clean, an interesting contrast in the difference between private and public property that.

Just got back from walking the dog in this sudden cold snap. At 10 degrees F with a real feel of -1F, it felt pretty darn cold. It was cold enough that the beer Casey gave me from his fridge tasted warm by comparison as we stood out there and watched the dogs play. Shorts The Double Magician is a red double London style ale which is rather tasty and probably the best Shorts product I've quaffed yet.

Meanwhile, as we were being warmed by the fridge-cold beer, Jett had figured out how to make Rocky actively play with him - he made sure to go stand right near Casey and bark which causes Rocky to charge at him to "protect" his owner. This worked very well the whole time to make sure Rocky's attention was on Jett so they could get some good running and wrestling in.

So the dogs having played themselves out, I've returned to the warmth of home to check in for the night and prepare for court tomorrow.

Winter has truly dropped in with a vengeance after giving us a darn pleasant November and early December, with absolutely no build up. One day it was feeling like autumn, the next it was 12 inches of snow followed by freezing cold. A little global warming to melt this ice rink where a road once stood would not go unappreciated..

Snow Far The Roads Are Snow Good

With about 12 inches of snow falling from yesterday through this morning, schools are closed throughout the region.

This seems less due to the conditions of the roads, which really weren't all that bad this morning, but more of a strategic call to get as many people off the roads as possible after the first major snowfall.

This likely led to a decline in a ton of accidents and stupidity, avoiding a repeat of much of what we saw driving home last night.

It takes people awhile to realize that their necessary stopping distance just significantly increased from what they're used to, and that their happy zippy sports cars don't have the traction in this snow they need and they will get stuck nicely, typically in the middle of an intersection. They also don't realize that the laws of physics really apply when you make a turn at speed on a slippery surface.

Traffic was markedly diminished this morning from the usual Monday mess as I headed to court.

Here's the same scene last night now in the light of day as I cleared off the Driveway of Doom™ yet again for those of you who want to see some more snow:

Having made the driveway very clean I can happily report I had no issues navigating it down, and then making my way on the roads to court and then the office.

Of Snow Pics And Horses

The snow continues to fall and it's been doing so without pause all day.

I'd say we've cleared 9 inches and they figure it will be at least 12 by morning.

I've had to clear the driveway three times today so Tash could get to and from work and so we could return from an important event.

The event was for Leah.  She had her first Horse Schooling Show where she competed in judged events and demonstrated what she's learned having started horse riding at the stable in September.

She did very well indeed:

A first place in overall equitation for her level, and third in pole pile equitation.

She rode her favorite horse at the stable, Chief, an Appaloosa of excellent temperament and enthusiasm. 

 After her great results from all her hard work, we went out for a bite then came home and I cleared off the Driveway of Doom™ yet again and we got the car into the garage. This was more complicated due to the plow leaving one heckuva snow berm at the entry to the driveway. I got a good workout in today.

As requested, here's a shot of the snow as it currently lies.

The things I'll happily do for my readers.... Stay tuned for more exciting snow clearing news and reports of my aching muscles to follow.

First Snowstorm Of 2016 Hits Michigan

This should be a good one, they're predicting up to 10 inches and I'd say a couple have already fallen. We were lucky avoiding any serious snowfalls up until now.

I've already cleared the driveway once so Tash could get to where she needed to go this morning and less than 45 minutes later it will need it again.

French toast making supplies are already laid in, the house is toasty warm and Jett is enjoying the snow.

On the downside, the feeder tube on the furnace humidifier actually snapped in half while changing the filter so there's that new pain in the home maintenance for me. Other than that, it's all good. Kids are hoping for a snow day tomorrow and I have to be in court bright and early tomorrow so the commute is going to be interesting.

Flying Lesson #93 - Crosswinds in The Cold

A rather large weather system is heading for Michigan and it seemed that everyone wanted to go flying this morning.

I was flying with Ray and first I preflighted N757Mk as it has decent cabin heat. Pre-flighting in the winter is a cold experience. Unfortunately after all that, 757Mk it would not start so me switched over N73455 and I did the preflight on it as well. I like N73455 more anyways even though its cabin heat is about non-existent. During the flight we actually were able to make it snow in the cabin as it cooled our breath to the dewpoint.

There were six planes in the run up area and KPTk switched to dual towers. Since most were going to stay in the pattern we decided we would not do so and headed to Romeo. The cloud cover was low at about 2,600 so we stayed under it at 2,000 and picked up a little ice on the way to Romeo but not very much. The winds were gusting quite a bit with a crosswind so Ray did the first landing and figured it would be challenging but good for me so I did the next two and he liked my landings and thinks I'm doing quite well. I certainly felt a lot more confident and did very nice crosswind landings if I say so myself. Then we headed back to KPTK and started picking up a fair bit more ice that was vidsible on the tires. It was more than we would like so we did the final landing without flaps just in case some had accumulated on the wings.

That's 1.2 and 4 more landings.

I need to schedule a lesson over at Howell and start getting all this stuff figured out.

The Recount Chaos Stumbles In Michigan's Blue Zones.

Funnily enough there seem to be a number of severe irregularities in Michigan's highly Blue areas - Detroit, Flint and Lansing that may prevent a lot of ballots being recounted due to "problems".

Problems like Poll Books not matching the number of ballots cast. I.E. an indication of a high potential for ballot stuffing with more ballots than those that were shown to be issued by the books. Problems like a hole in a "sealed" ballot box in Lansing. Par for the course in these areas.

The Detroit News: Half of Detroit votes may be ineligible for recount

Funny how these irregularities crop up so regularly in Democrat strongholds - the very same ones that handily delay getting their totals in until late in the game so they can "adjust" as needed, eh?

Whether Stein's game is to delay the confirmation of Michigan's totals as to put the state's 16 electoral votes in jeopardy, or just done to threaten Trump's legitimacy at the outset, or whether this is just a fundraising stunt is open to question. Even if the recount doubles Stein's votes received she and the Greens would go from all of 1% to 2% - which just won't carry the state for her.

Either way the State and people of Michigan are going to bear a large amount of the cost for her tilting at windmills, but the Left does so enjoy spending other people's money.

The Movie That Would Have Kicked Off Clinton's Gun Control Push Is Released With A Whimper

There's a movie trailer popping up on Facebook and getting an awful lot of play for a movie now being only released to select theaters but is no longer relevant after flopping on its opening weekend US release making all of $59,797 which is one helluva flop by any description. It looks like the producers were banking on Hillary Clinton to have won the election and release this with a bang. Had Hillary Clinton actually won the election the release timing would have been dead on, but now it seems to be dead on arrival.

Miss Sloan, a not even thinly veiled portrayal of "Nasty Woman Takes On The Gun Lobby Troglodytes To Get More Gun Control In America" is every but the hit piece you think it would be. Yes, the words "Nasty Woman" even flash by in the trailer and the whole thing was pretty clearly produced to help a push for gun control on the assumption that Hillary Clinton would have won the election.

Unsurprisingly, the Facebook based trailer leads off with the false statement that "Any nutcase can buy an assault rifle at the Bowlarama without an ID", and it goes downhill from there.

If you think it's a coincidence that Miss Sloan was timed to be released now and its trailer features a fearless female lobbyist taking on the "gun lobby" with a catchphrase of "Nasty Woman", think again.

This was pretty clearly designed to be released under the assumption that Hillary would be elected and free to push for more gun control.

As a result, this political emotive hit piece of gun control propaganda masquerading as a movie is now only being "released to selected theaters". In other words, it's a propaganda piece that lost the leader it was written for and will likely fade out as a result, which is a darn good thing. On the upside for the film it's about to be released in France and will likely do well there amongst the chattering classes and perhaps will even bust its US opening weekend gross of $59,797.

Such a pity they just don't get that Americans really aren't interested in gun control hit pieces to aid a political candidate masquerading as a movie.

Undoubtedly, there would have been a full court press for gun bans had Hillary been elected with the media, entertainment industry, and the Clinton administration relentlessly pushing for it and we've dodged that particular scenario.

A Bright Idea - A Pack Of Lights

As days get shorter, dog walking gets colder and people drive even stupider it was time to get a better flashlight for walking the dog and other duties. The cheapy ones I was using were the multi tiny LED type with the 3 AAA battery insert and were only good for letting a car know you're there but not enough to actually see what you're doing. It was free, but still.

So on Black Friday I decided to take a chance and ordered from Amazon the Goldenguy 5 Pack Mini Cree Q5 LED Flashlight Torch 7w 350lm Adjustable Focus Zoomable Light (Black). For the price, which then was $13 and even now is still very good at $18 for a five pack of lights, I figured it would be worth the risk.

I was pleasantly surprised when I received them to find that every single one of them worked.

As an upgrade its impressive - 350 lumen and with a single AA battery its single rectangular Cree LED throws and impressive amount of light. Excellent visibility in the dark, the focussable light can be broadened into a round beam or tightened into the square focused ray of light to really punch through the darkness. The strobe function is pretty good to let cars with their highbeams on blinding you know that you're there and get their attention away from their cell phones.

The case is rather a heavy duty feeling aluminum and has the weapon-light style frame with push button on the rear and an rectangular instep on the tube for holding it in a fist for illumination, or punching with it should such a thing be needed and the bezel has a few sharp points for such a use.

For $2.60 (now $3.60) a light they're practically disposable for what used to cost twenty times that. I've replaced the crappy flashlight in my car, and the dog walking jacket, and now each member of the family also has a bright pocket-sized flashlight with impressive illumination to carry around.

Not a bad deal at all.

Flying Lesson #92 - Recon of Diversionary Airfields

Lesson 92 started as KPTK was humming with Operation Good Cheer.

Operation Good Cheer is when volunteer pilots deliver gifts to children in need all across the state from KPTK.

To say the airport was bedlam would be an understatement. Not only were they rocking dual tower operation (which happens on busy days every so often), they had dual ground going which is the first time I've seen that.

I did a straight out departure to the West to get out of the craziness and headed off to Howell staying at 2,000 feet.

Since Howell tends to be one of the local group of examiners favorite diversion points on a check ride, Ray thought it would be useful to fly there. Since I've driven there already and flown out of there it was quite a comfortable spot. I found Howell ok as a result.

I did a downwind entry and a touch and go that went quite well and then we were off to Linden, another favorite diversion points and one that is a bit harder to find - forested, three nearby lakes and a displaced threshold and it really doesn't stand out amongst its surroundings. Found it and did a landing followed by a full stop taxi back as there really isn't enough runway there for a touch-and-go, or you may end doing a touch-a-tree, which is bad form. Kinda a cool airport there are houses on the field and you can park your plane in your attached hangar if you own a house there. Pretty sweet even if you do have Flint water. But, if you mix the water with 100 octane you'll get 100 low lead for your plane so it's not all bad.

Then back to KPTK where they had us cross the incoming flight path of another plane heading on final for 27R to shift to 27L on a very tight base, Ray took that landing as it was rather tight indeed and needed to be expedited and there was a plane still on 27L aswe were on very short final so it was not a typical approach.

Overall a pretty relaxing flight and the landings were not bad.

I think I'll stick with Flight 101 for solo flights (should I ever book one in weather decent enough for solo) and depending on weather head to Howell and Crosswinds for instruction for the most part (or try to find someone else that is closer) then get signed off by Flight 101 for a check-ride once I get the nagging issues resolved and try to get this thing finished off.

That's 1.1 and 3 landings.