Opinion

It was a dark and stormy Sunday morning in 2005, the kind of day that demands coffee and staying put. At 6:56 a.m., Mary and I were awake, eyes glued to the laptop’s radar, where Northern California drowned in angry swaths of yellow and red. The phone rang, slicing the silence. Bud, the on-duty Lead Mechanic, sounded calm but firm. “Mark, head to McClellan Air Park, grab a company truck, and get to Ukiah to cover the Cal Fire Base.” I studied the radar, rain blanketing the region. “Bud, it’s a monsoon out there. No pilot’s flying in…

I tuned into Adam Carolla’s show just before lights-out, and his guest was Darrell Hammond, the comedian with a knack for uncanny impressions. Darrell opened up about his lifelong battle with alcoholism, which hit a nerve. Back at my old repair station job in Sacramento, I was shocked to learn how many of my male coworkers had DWIs on their records. Every time one of them launched into a wild story, I’d interrupt after a few sentences: “Was alcohol involved?” The answer was always a sheepish, “Well, yeah.” I stopped asking. To those guys, I must’ve been…

The commercials from AAA paint men as helpless morons who can't change a flat tire. Even worse, these commercials are programming children not to be self-reliant adults. A fit woman should be able to change a flat tire for the spare tire. The worst AAA commercial shows five adults in the wilderness. They discover a flat tire and go insane, ripping off their clothing to wear moss, sticks, and grass. The fifth adult calls AAA. In the picture above, the family sees the flat rear left tire. Neither of the adults can change the tire. They called…

The GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) has an explosive payload of approximately 5,300 to 6,000 pounds (2,400 to 2,700 kg) of high-explosive material. The explosive yield is estimated to be around 4,000 megajoules (MJ), equivalent to roughly three to four tons of TNT. Additionally, when dropped from 50,000 feet, the MOP delivers 800 to 900 MJ of kinetic energy due to its impact velocity, which exceeds Mach 1. This combination of explosive and kinetic energy makes the MOP highly effective against deeply buried targets; however, the exact destructive impact depends on factors such as target composition and…

Over my 64 years, I’ve observed a decline in the mental and physical resilience of our society. Many people have succumbed to sedentary lifestyles and unhealthy habits, leading to widespread obesity and diminished self-discipline. A recent pharmacy commercial featured a woman who described herself as “having obesity,” as if it were an unavoidable condition rather than a consequence of her choices. She mentioned taking Pioglitazone to prevent fatty liver disease, seemingly without considering changes to her diet or lifestyle. This mindset baffles me. Losing weight doesn’t require expensive programs or medications—it starts with eating less, which also…

Proposal from President Donald J. Trump to Prime Minister Benjamin NetanyahuSubject: Revised Cost Estimate for U.S. Air Strike Support Against Iranian Targets, Including Tanker Operations and SurchargeDate: June 19, 2025 Dear Prime Minister Netanyahu,To advance Israel’s strategic goal of neutralizing Iran’s nuclear and energy infrastructure, the United States is prepared to deploy two B-2 Spirit stealth bombers and two B-52 Stratofortress bombers to conduct precision strikes on the Fordow nuclear facility and area saturation bombing of Iran’s oil fields. This revised proposal includes all costs associated with the operation—flight operations, munitions, maintenance for the bombers, and tanker aircraft…

I do not understand why the police are cowering in fear before people burning vehicles. I do not understand why the police are cowering in fear before people throwing rocks and concrete fragments. The rules for the use of lethal force provide for shooting those who are throwing hard objects. Anyone holding or throwing a fire bomb should be shot dead. No media that I know of has condemned those persons who set vehicles on fire. The emissions are toxic and add to the greenhouse effect. Anyone holding a flag of another nation at a violent event…

By Mark, with Grok 3In 1978, a high schooler nearly drowned at Lake Tahoe. A track star (4:31.6 mile), he swam 200 yards to a buoy at 5 a.m., alone, driven by a 2% mindset—fortitude too stubborn to quit. Too lean to float, freezing, he clawed to shore, blacking out, wrists failing, jumping for air. “Thirty seconds more, I’d have drowned,” he recalls. In 2012, now a retired Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) mechanic with Primary Lateral Sclerosis (PLS), barely walking or speaking, he cleared a carburetor Airworthiness Directive—his final task. His 1970s high school and a brilliant…

I, and many other intellectuals, agree that the Democrats' unchecked four-year run was ultimately a good thing. The Democrats displayed their insanity by advocating for the cutting off of healthy body parts from children and/or pumping them full of chemicals to make them present as a different gender. The Democrats showed they can't be trusted to govern at the federal level, the state level, or at the municipal level of government. President Biden's injection of the WOKE virus into our military drove down recruitment numbers, crippling all military branches.As I watched the confirmation hearings, the conversation between…