More Transit Attack Woes, Now In Chicago

On the Blue Line Train in Chicago, at 9:25 pm a 26-year-old white woman was set on fire by a 45 or 50 year old man. Depending on the reports, there was either an argument before the man doused her with a flammable liquid and set her on fire, or was simply sitting there when the man poured the liquid on her and set it on fire in an unprovoked attack. Update:  It's been confirmed that there was no argument, this was an unprovoked attack.

The man is not being identified by the media, so you can draw your own conclusions.

While not identifying him nor providing identifying information, the media has helpfully reported almost every other detail about him.

He had previously been arrested 53 times, and has a record with 9 felony convictions with only having jail time for two of them. His latest assault before this one took place in August when he knocked out a female social worker causing a major head injury when he was being held in a psychiatric hospital. 

So much for replacing cops with social workers. 

He was released and set free, after that last attack, because of course he was. Set free by a Cook County Judge and sent home on home monitoring which was apparently not being monitored very well at all. Should we mention he has no home of record, either?

CWBChicago.com:  CTA fire attack suspect knocked a psych ward employee unconscious, but a judge decided to let him walk the streets: court docs

Yep, let mentally ill criminals continue to walk the streets no matter how many crimes they commit, let them roam free on public transit, then go on about how violence is down and Chicago and its transit system is very safe after an attack inevitably happens.  Much like the Iryna Zarutska  event a mentally ill criminal arrested multiple times but always given a slap on the wrist, if that, and returned to commit crimes again and again and again until someone gets killed or seriously maimed.

Anarcho-tyranny at its finest. 

It's Getting A Tad Sporty Out There.

So far, three Jewish students in three separate incidents at University of Michigan have been attacked for the crime of being Jewish. Perpetrators were the progressive and Islamic types - not a MAGA hat in sight.

Now, courtesy of Instapundit, we learn that this weekend in Chicago,  an Orthodox Jew being shot by an illegal immigrant from Northwest Africa who shouted "Allahu Akbar" before shooting him. The illegal was here due to the Biden-Harris administrations' weak border policies crossed our open southern border a year and a half ago and made his way (or was he transported by the feds?) to Chicago.

Labor Day 2024 - First Flight To Indiana And More

This morning I got up and headed to the airport. The sky was severe clear with light winds and a perfect day to fly for my first ever trip to Indiana.

I filed my flight plan, and then once at the airport got the Archer fully fueled, picked up my clearance and then took off and headed west.

 

I got handed off to Detroit Approach who had me climb first to 4,000, then 5,000 and finally the 7,000  that I had filed.  Then on to Great Lakes Approach, and on to South Bend Approach in Indiana and I overflew South Bend's airport and then brought me back down to 5,000 and then down further to my destination.

Landed, taxi'd to the FBO and met Mr. B.

We then drove into Chicago.

 Destination:  The Griffin Museum of Science and Industry.

Lots of cool things to see there:

There was a Stuka, a Spitfire, Trains, Space craft (Including Apollo 8 the first capsule to go out of Earth's orbit, as well as a SpaceX Dragon capsule) and a darn nice Dusenberg.

We stopped for lunch at the museums kitchen and I had a Chicago-style hotdog:

Very tasty, even with the radioactive green relish.

But what I had come to see for the first time was:

U-505!  The IXC class submarine captured by Task Group 22.3.

It was brought to the Museum on September 2, 1954 - 70 years ago today.

While it seems large, it was a tight squeeze for its 59 member crew. 

Junior crew members got the enjoyment of bunking with torpedoes filled with high explosive all around them in the forward torpedo room. There were less than 59 bunks on board, so some crew got to use them in shifts.  Nor were there showers and only two small toilets, one of which was unusable at the beginning of a war patrol as it was filled with food for the voyage.

The lack of bathing and other creature comforts gave the boat quite a stench.  So much so that in the control room, there's a control with multiple fart settings on it, and a setting to stopp all farts - which it is thankfully set to today.

 The U-boat is tight squeeze throughout, from the forward torpedo room, to  the engine room, to the battery compartment beneath the floor.

The U-505 since the exhibit has opened has received new artifacts, including a diamond engagement ring that slipped off a poor woman's finger last week . The ring  fell through this very grate and further down in between the batteries to become a part of the sub. It will not be recovered while it is a museum ship as they are not going to disassemble it to try and find it.  

The Sub has also claimed victories over numerous cell phones and other hand-held items.

The U-505's galley is an extremely small place to prepare meals for 59 men,

This  blue ring on the floor is the scuttling tube that was opened by the German crew as they abandoned the U-Boat.  It was then successfully closed by the boarding crew of the US Task Force from the USS Pillsbury led by Lt. Albert David who earned the Medal of Honor for his bravery in capturing the ship.

Touring the U-505 was fantastic, and it was my first time to do so. The museum is definitely worth a visit if you go to Chicago.

We then saw a few more exhibits at the museum, and then headed off to a Pizza joint for dinner.

Then I headed home.

Again the weather was great.

I flew off into the sunset.

I arrived at Pontiac in the dark and did my first night landing in one heckuva long time.

I greased it.  Probably one of my best landings ever.

That was a great Labor Day, thanks to Mr. B.

2.0 there, 2.0 back, and a great landing in the day, and one fantastic landing at night.

An American Arab Jihadi In Chicago

The Detroit Free Press: FBI arrests teen trying to blow up Chicago bar

A man in the Chicago suburbs was using an account to distribute chatter about violent jihad and the killing of Americans.

Two undercover agents reached out and began to talk to him online. In May, they introduced him to another agent who claimed to be a terrorist living in New York.

The operation ended Friday night, an affidavit describing it says, when the man was arrested and accused of trying to detonate what he believed was a car bomb outside of a Chicago bar. Prosecutors said an undercover agent gave Adel Daoud, a U.S. citizen from the Chicago suburb of Hillside, a phony car bomb and watched him press the trigger.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago, which announced the arrest Saturday, said the device was harmless and the public was never at risk. Daoud, 18, is due to make an appearance in federal court Monday morning on charges of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to damage and destroy a building with an explosive.

.......

After he settled on a downtown bar, he conducted surveillance on it by using Google Street View and visiting the area in person to take photographs, the affidavit said. The document does not identify the bar, but says he told the agent it was also a concert venue by a liquor store.

"It's a bar, it's a liquor store, it's a concert. All in one bundle," the document quotes him as saying. It said he noted the bar would be filled with the "evilest people ... kuffars." Kuffar is the Arabic term for non-believer.

Remember kids, it is not entrapment when you jump right in and try to trigger what you believe to be a car bomb so you can go off and kill kuffars in the name of Allah.

Sure enough, he apparently received outside help and inspiration:

The affidavit said Daoud was active in jihadist Internet forums and was accessing articles written by Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S.-born radical cleric who became a key figure in the Yemen-based al-Qaeda offshoot known as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

At least Daoud can't blame this attempt on a movie snippet - he had been planning this attack for months.

Good job on the part of the FBI catching this guy.

When Life Gives You Carp, Make Gefilte Fish

Or sell the invasive species of Carp to China as a delicacy.

Asian carp's next stop: A dinner plate in China

The invasion of Asian Carp into the Illinois river and likely from there into the Great Lakes poses both a crisis and an oppotunity and it looks like some people are finding the opportunity:

Gov. Pat Quinn announced Tuesday that the state will put $2 million into refurbishing and expanding a fish plant in Pearl River, Ill., that plans to process 30 million pounds of Asian carp a year, turning the feared fish into frozen fillets and shipping them back to their native China. The fish will be sold there as high-end restaurant fare.

"The rivers in China are so polluted, people now eat farm-raised carp," said Ross Harano, international marketing director for Big River Fish Corp. "They're excited about our wild carp."

 I predicted the usefulness of fishing for the carp and its nice to be proven right, not to mention this looks like a serious money-maker:

State officials hope the plant will reduce the thriving Asian carp population in the Illinois River before the fish approach the electric barriers meant to keep them out of the Great Lakes.

"The high quality and taste of the wild Asian carp from Big River Fish far exceeded our expectations," said Liang Chang, chairman of Beijing Zhuochen Animal Husbandry, which will import the fish in China. "We see a tremendous market in China for the wild Asian carp."

So, who's got a good Gefilte fish recipe for Asian Carp?

Chicago Trip - Getting there's half the fun, getting back is worse

I went to Chicago on Wednesday and Thursday on business and expected to get a flight out Thursday afternoon so I took the el train from the hotel, got to the airport, threw out my shaving cream, got thorugh security and went to my gate in plenty of time to get going.

It was not to be.

The weather closed in and we were stuck with the flight canceled and a three hour line-up at United Airway's Customer service counter.

Why they didn't open up more counters or let people rebook flights at the gates is unfathomable as there were plenty of United poeple standing at idle at the now closed gates.

So after 3 hours I headed back to my hotel on Chicago's el train - the Blue line. Of course as this is an elevated train there were substantial delays due to a tree falling on the track during the storm so a 45 minute trip took over one and a half hours.

I was glad to get back to the hotel, got a room and was so wired I couldn't sleep, after a while I finally dropped off.

In the morning on Friday it was a great repeat - the el train to the airport, through security (sans shaving cream and sans a shave as I had already thrown out the little thing of shaving cream I had picked up in Chicago- damn stupid regulations).

Then with some delay we finally got off, all the while worrying about another storm coming in. The flight took 45 minutes - less than the train trip. In fact I spent more time in those three days in the airport or on the train than I did anywhere else in Chicago.

On the upside I did get to order real Chicago deep dish Pizza at the Giordano's restaurant in downtown Chicago - we're talking seriously good pizza. The Pizza, a large was too much for three people to split and it was possibly the best pizza I'd ever had, so if you end up in downtown Chicago get to Giordano's for a real treat.

So I finally get back to Detroit, get to my car and play in traffic until i get home. 30 minutes after I arrive the skies darken and the Tornado warning sirens go off and the heavens open. Yep the storm followed me home. Massive rain and wind and loss of power for a few hours ensued.

Quite weather-full few days.