[Thanos]

Lot of good gals out there too.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-c ... -1.4772568

$1:

When Jaye Edwards takes a moment to reflect on her service during the Second World War, the first thing that comes to mind is a clear sky.

"All the beautiful blue sky, nothing but blue sky," Edwards said, with a nostalgic sigh. "Maybe there was the odd little white puff."

"You never really thought about the past — you just lived for the moment," she recounted.

Edwards served as a pilot during the war. She flew more than 20 different types of planes — from Spitfires to bombers — and took flight hundreds of times.

Now just a few months shy of her 100th birthday, she's one of the last surviving members of the famed "Attagirls," a group of just over 160 women who flew war planes from factories to the front lines.

Born on the outskirts of London, U.K., Edwards found herself fascinated by small planes that would take residents for joyrides over long grass fields and farmlands.

When she was in her early 20s, she made good on a childhood dream to become a pilot by enrolling in the National Women's Air Reserve — a small flight school that would convene on Sundays.

Five hundred training hours later, she was certified. Then, the war machine took over.
"It was in '39 when I got my licence. It arrived the day after war was declared," she said.

Women weren't allowed to fly planes for the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. For the first few years of the war, Edwards was employed as a child-care worker, then as a nurse.

Meanwhile, the war machine was grappling with a desperate need for pilots. The British government enlisted the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) — a group of civilian pilots that were deemed either too old or physically unfit to serve in the RAF — to ferry planes from factories and airports to military outposts.

To keep up with demand, the group began recruiting female pilots from across the world.

In 1943, Edwards received the call. She became one of 168 women that would fly with the ATA. The group employed 1,320 pilots.

"The difference between our training and RAF training is that we were trained to fly not just one type of single engine [plane] — but any type of single engine planes," said Edwards.

The women became known across the globe as the Attagirls. Edwards said the team would often learn how to fly more planes than many RAF pilots would learn in their entire career.

The ATA pilots could learn a new aircraft in a matter of days, often flying through storms and without the use of radio communications.

"The [RAF] pilots would be amazed," said Jerry Vernon, an aviation historian and president of the Vancouver chapter of the Canadian Aviation Historical Society.

"This new bomber would fly in — a big four-engine bomber — and a single pilot would get out: a five-foot [tall] woman would be flying it, and [the men would] be amazed."

When the war ended, so too did the demand for pilots. Edwards said there were few jobs for female pilots, so she moved on, eventually making her way to British Columbia, where she became a teacher and raised a family.

She has only flown a plane once since the war days. She was in her early 80s, riding passenger in a small plane flying over White Rock, B.C.

For just a few moments, the pilot let her take control.

"We just did a very gentle turn … and I thought, 'I haven't forgotten,'" she said. "It gave me great satisfaction."

Today, Edwards is one of three remaining female ATA pilots, alongside Eleanor Wadsworth of the United Kingdom and Nancy Stratford of the United States, according to the ATA Association.

Fellow pilot Mary Ellis, 101, died in July.

Thank you for your service, ma'am.

[PluggyRug]

Thanos Thanos:

Damn right.

Sounds like fun. My own vision would be an endless golf course along the sea-shore with no heavy wind, no rain, the sun's out but never going above 20 C, and a drink-cart girl in a bikini driving by every second hold. The dogs and cats would be there too, playing in the rough chasing gophers. I must be in Heaven, man!

Nice one Thanos. Back in England we once had a house close to a par 3. Our cat would collect all the golf balls that landed in the garden and stash them under a stack of wooden pallets.

She's now in golf heaven collecting them for me when I eventually arrive there.

[Thanos]

Top 5 Heavens:

1) Golf heaven
2) Beer heaven
3) Bikini heaven
4) Rock 'n roll heaven
5) Dungeons & Dragons heaven

[raydan]

Will you actually be any good at golf when you get to heaven?

[Thanos]

Hope not. Searching around in the rough on a nice summer day and finding lots of balls is all part of the fun.

[raydan]

My first house's yard ended on the other side of a dog-leg par 4. We found a lot of golf balls.

[PluggyRug]

Thanos Thanos:

Hope not. Searching around in the rough on a nice summer day and finding lots of balls is all part of the fun.

When me and my buddies play the conversation after the game......

"How did you do?"

"Three over"

"Nice"

Which usually means I found 3 more golf balls than I lost.

[Thanos]

Final card score - 116
number of my own lost balls - 5
found balls - 2
What a great day!

[raydan]

The first course I played was the Old Lennoxville Golf Club, neighbour to Bishop University. It cost us students $1 to play a round at the time, and that included the rented clubs. It's the oldest nine-hole course in Canada.

I thought that one hole was over 600 yards, but looked it up and it's only 592.

[Thanos]

Bumping this one for defusing the tempest-in-a-teapot that got stoked when a comedian insulted a GOP candidate running in the midterms. Good on Dan Crenshaw for telling everyone to lighten up & that not everything has to be turned into a moment for the tribes to go on the offensive against each other, for SNL & Pete Davidson for manning up to eat some crow, and even to Greg Gutfield for using this article to help Crenshaw and SNL calm things down a bit:

(Pete Davidson was eight years old when his dad, a NYFD member, was killed at the World Trade Center on Sept 11, 2001; he's still just a mouthy New York kid, but he's also one with a lifelong broken heart)

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/gutfeld ... nce-on-snl

$1:

On SNL last Saturday, comic Pete Davidson apologized to congressman-elect Dan Crenshaw for mocking his war wound.

“I made a joke about Lt. Commander Dan Crenshaw, and on behalf of the show and myself, I apologize.”

“It was a poor choice of words. The man is a war hero, and he deserves all the respect in the world.”

In case you forgot, this is what Davidson had said initially about Crenshaw: “You may be surprised to hear he’s a congressional candidate from Texas and not a hit man in a porno movie. … I’m sorry; I know he lost his eye in war or whatever.”

Now you need to remember that Crenshaw hadn't demanded an apology. In fact, he tapped the brakes on the always revving outrage machine. “I want us to get away from this culture where we demand apologies every time someone misspeaks,” he said. “I think that would be very healthy for our nation to go in that direction. We don’t need to be outwardly outraged. I don’t need to demand apologies from them.”

But SNL knew what it had to do to quell a PR nightmare.

Man up.

Pete: I’m sorry.
Crenshaw: Thank you, Pete. I appreciate you saying that.
Pete: So are we good?
Crenshaw: We’re good! Apology accepted. ((Ariana Grande ringtone goes off)) It sounds like my phone is ringing. …
Pete: It’s cool! Ariana Grande is cool, man. Yeah.
Crenshaw (commenting on a photo): This is Pete Davidson. He looks like if the meth from Breaking Bad was a person!
Pete: All right, not bad!

Yes, a face-to-face! So rare these days when we hide behind firewalls and lawyers. But SNL went further, giving Crenshaw the space to speak at length about veterans, and unity.

“Americans can forgive one another,” he said. “We can remember what brings us together as a country and still see the good in each other.”

“This is Veterans’ Day weekend. It’s a good time for every American to connect with a veteran. … Tell a veteran “Never Forget.” When you say “Never Forget” to a veteran, you are implying that as an American you are in it with them.”

“And never forget those we lost on 9/11, heroes like Pete’s father. So I’ll just say: ‘Pete. Never Forget.’”

“Never forget,” Davidson said.

That’s legitimately awesome.

So there were three winners here:

Crenshaw, for his reasonable response to a careless comment.

SNL for finding a clever way to clean up a mess.

And America, for being handed an honest-to-god blueprint for dealing with future outrages.

Instead of ramping up the rage, it dialed it back.

We've said it here before: it’s beyond time to stop chasing scalps, demanding apologies, only to then refuse them. Haven't we had enough of the mob, the constant indignation, the judgmental hordes of bored souls spoiling for a fight?

I know I have.

So here Crenshaw initiated the new way forward: express opinion, don't condemn, see what happens.

SNL responded with humble, good humor.

And it's all good.

And dare I say it, human.

Finally, a skit worth repeating.

[BartSimpson]

Ran into a guy who had a horse trailer filled with some fifteen dogs. He was fleeing the fires and he hooked up his trailer to get his horse into it and the horse bolted and ran off. So he threw some stuff into the trailer and started making his way out of harm's way. He stopped to pick up four dogs that were faithfully sitting at the end of a driveway. Then he took a dog from someone else who was being evacuated on a bus. The bus would not take dogs. Then as more people came to the bus he took their dogs. The bus went one way and he went another.

They live in the same neighborhood so he's confident that he'll get the dogs back to their families.

No idea what happened to his horse.

[llama66]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Ran into a guy who had a horse trailer filled with some fifteen dogs. He was fleeing the fires and he hooked up his trailer to get his horse into it and the horse bolted and ran off. So he threw some stuff into the trailer and started making his way out of harm's way. He stopped to pick up four dogs that were faithfully sitting at the end of a driveway. Then he took a dog from someone else who was being evacuated on a bus. The bus would not take dogs. Then as more people came to the bus he took their dogs. The bus went one way and he went another.

They live in the same neighborhood so he's confident that he'll get the dogs back to their families.

No idea what happened to his horse.

This story makes me both happy and sad.

[Thanos]

More on Pete Davidson and Dan Crenshaw here:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/never-for ... ons-father

$1:

Davidson’s body was recovered in November, right around Pete’s 8th birthday. Then came the holidays. Scott Davidson had always loved Christmas so much he was nicknamed Mr. Christmas and festooned his car with lights connected to the battery. He now was searingly absent this and every Christmas to come. We can only imagine the effect all this had on the boy.

But it certainly made him no less like his dad.

“It’s amazing he grew up to have so many of his father’s qualities,” Sorrentino says. “He’s funny, fast, sharp. He’s brutally honest. He says what’s on his mind.”

And there was a shared something else.

“They both got a heart of gold,” Sorrentino says. “Both of them.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Crenshaw

$1:

While serving in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan in 2012, he was injured by the detonation of an improvised explosive device. He lost his right eye and required surgery to save the vision in his left eye. After the injury, he was deployed to Bahrain and South Korea.[10] As a Navy SEAL, he earned two Bronze Star Medals, the Purple Heart, and the Navy Commendation Medal with Valor. He was medically retired from military service in 2016.[10]

----

Crenshaw won the runoff to advance to the November general election.[20] Writing in National Review, Crenshaw argued for working and partnering with the Mexican government to reduce illegal immigration to the United States; he also called for rebuilding Central American countries as a long-term solution to illegal immigration.[21] On November 6, Crenshaw was elected, defeating Democrat Todd Litton.[22]

Following the election, Crenshaw called for de-politicization of comedy and sports, and wanted political rhetoric to be toned down.[23] On "Amanpour & Company", Crenshaw spoke about improving infrastructure in his district due to the impact of Hurricane Harvey on it, and the impact that Beto O'Rourke had on his race for a seat in Congress.[24]

Maybe if more of this kind of fence-mending happens the lid on the box of horrors that was recklessly opened up over the last few years by the irresponsible extremists on both sides can finally be put back into place.

[rickc]

Thanos Thanos:

More on Pete Davidson and Dan Crenshaw here:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/never-for ... ons-father

$1:

Davidson’s body was recovered in November, right around Pete’s 8th birthday. Then came the holidays. Scott Davidson had always loved Christmas so much he was nicknamed Mr. Christmas and festooned his car with lights connected to the battery. He now was searingly absent this and every Christmas to come. We can only imagine the effect all this had on the boy.

But it certainly made him no less like his dad.

“It’s amazing he grew up to have so many of his father’s qualities,” Sorrentino says. “He’s funny, fast, sharp. He’s brutally honest. He says what’s on his mind.”

And there was a shared something else.

“They both got a heart of gold,” Sorrentino says. “Both of them.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Crenshaw

$1:

While serving in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan in 2012, he was injured by the detonation of an improvised explosive device. He lost his right eye and required surgery to save the vision in his left eye. After the injury, he was deployed to Bahrain and South Korea.[10] As a Navy SEAL, he earned two Bronze Star Medals, the Purple Heart, and the Navy Commendation Medal with Valor. He was medically retired from military service in 2016.[10]

----

Crenshaw won the runoff to advance to the November general election.[20] Writing in National Review, Crenshaw argued for working and partnering with the Mexican government to reduce illegal immigration to the United States; he also called for rebuilding Central American countries as a long-term solution to illegal immigration.[21] On November 6, Crenshaw was elected, defeating Democrat Todd Litton.[22]

Following the election, Crenshaw called for de-politicization of comedy and sports, and wanted political rhetoric to be toned down.[23] On "Amanpour & Company", Crenshaw spoke about improving infrastructure in his district due to the impact of Hurricane Harvey on it, and the impact that Beto O'Rourke had on his race for a seat in Congress.[24]

Maybe if more of this kind of fence-mending happens the lid on the box of horrors that was recklessly opened up over the last few years by the irresponsible extremists on both sides can finally be put back into place.

Wait a minute now. You seem to be all for fence mending and forgiveness when some left wing douchebag like Davidson majorly crosses the line (on company time no less). No fines, no suspension, no public reprimand, no firing, no repercussions whatsoever for Davidson. Just some clowning around with the war hero who he insulted, and a forced insincere apology, and everything is back to normal for Davidson. Lets all get along right?

Thats funny because you did not seem to be nearly so conciliatory a few months back when it was someone from the right (Roseanne Barr) who had crossed a line. You were all fire and brimstone then. She HAD to be fired!!! There was no other recourse. She supports Trump, she has to be fired!!! No other punishment would do. You did not want any debate or discussion whatsoever. Never mind that she was on her own time and talking about a public figure.

We on the right are always being asked to accept a double standard. When one of ours speaks out of turn, the world is supposed to stop spinning. Every time some leftwing snowflake gets offended by something said from someone from the right, the person on the right HAS to be fired! They have to lose their job, and everything that they ever worked for. Whenever someone on the left speaks out of turn, its a "misunderstanding". We on the right are supposed to let it go. We are supposed to hold hands with the snowflakes and sing Kumbaya together. Well I am calling bullshit on the double standard.

[BartSimpson]

Roseanne is still right that Valerie Jarrett looks like she was featured in the 1970's version of 'Planet of the Apes'.