I believe so.
We also have the red ones around here.
Both are very fastidious and precise.
ghostsniperJune 21, 2024, 2:10 PM
So, you’ve always wondered what a squat toilet looks like, right?
It is said that a squat toilet permits a more thorough evacuation of the bowel.
I could probably get down OK but my airborne knee may present a problem getting back up without a grab bar.
Many, many moons ago, while I was in the Air Force and stationed in the Philippines, my wife and I decided that this was a good time for me to separate and pursue civilian life. The AF required that I do much of the adminstration of my separation from Travis AFB in California. That was the end of the tale of my separation, but let me back up a bit.
Our kids were then very young, and we decided that we’d send my wife, kids and the cat back to Arizona ahead of me, where they’d stay with her mom as we (meaning “she”) found a more appropriate housing arrangement. If memory serves, she did this about 4 weeks prior to my separation.
On my end, I’d get our household goods packed up, check myself out of my squadron and get me and the golden retriever back to AZ. That was an important detail as having the dog meant that I couldn’t travel on AF planes. So on the appointed day, I got myself and the dog to Manila International where the AF had a seat for me on a United flight bound for San Francisco. The plane was a 747.
So there I was in the boarding area for this United flight, and I noticed one thing: There weren’t many Americans for this flight. In fact, the only other Americans were 2 Navy enlisted guys. Moreover, there weren’t many Filipinos travelling either.
Not counting we three Americans, the entire Coach section of that 747 was filled with what I’ll call “Boat People”. I use that term without disparagement….I had had a roommate one semester in college who was a Vietnamese Boat Person and I admired the courage and work it took to be dropped into a new country and culture, where you don’t know the language, but you (and in his case, his family) knew that staying where you were born would mean that you would be killed. Honestly, I don’t even know the nationalities of these 200+ Boat People on this flight. They could have been Vietnamese, Hmong, Lao, or anything from the region. This was in the late 80’s and they had been in the P.I. in refugee camps since the end of the war in ’75.
Of course, the 747 is a wide-body aircraft. This term means that the aircraft is wide enough to require 2 aisles. The Coach seating on this 747 was laid out (if memory serves) in a 2-4-2 configuration. Two seats next to a window, then an aisle, then 4 “middle seats”, then another aisle, then 2 more window seats on the opposite side of the aircraft.
The good part of the story: It was me (on the aisle) and one of the 2 Navy guys next to the window (I have no idea where the other Navy guy was seated).
The bad part of the story: The lavatories on this 747 were located in the middle of the plane, and I was seated just opposite to these lavs.
A big caveat here: I have to empathize with these Boat People. They had been ripped from their relatively simple lives and dropped into a world for which they had little preparation. How many times has the average reader here been on an airplane? Even if it has been relatively few, you probably have some idea of what to expect. You’ve got to wear your seatbelt. The tray table drops out from the seat in front of you. They’re going to give you a meal, and it is going to be some mostly-sad “airline food”. When you need the bathroom, the lavatory is small and it works a bit differently than what you’re used to at home. These Boat People knew none of this.
And so, when the Boat Person needed the lavatory, s/he had several things to learn, the first being: the lavatory doors. The lav doors on this 747 were accordian doors. The doors don’t open outward or inward, but fold in half. I watched one-after-another of these Boat People struggle to open the door. They’d push and pull and when that failed, they’d push and pull again, which of course, didn’t work either. They’d pull the ash tray out of the middle of the lav door. None of this would open the door, until finally, by the brute force of their bladders screaming at them, the Boat Person would succeed in sliding the door to fold it…..
….Only to find the the previous Boat Person hadn’t yet learned the next lesson: How to lock the door on an aircraft lavatory.
And there he’d be, in full view of everyone, squatting on lav seat as the door suddenly flung open.
On this flight from Manila to San Francisco, I probably watched this story repeat itself three dozen times. I don’t want to learn how to use their squat toilets, but they have difficulty learning how to use Western toilets too.
ghostsniperJune 22, 2024, 11:08 AM
LOL
He don’t talk much, but when he do it’s a scream.
Snakepit KansasJune 23, 2024, 4:41 AM
Azlib,
I have not traveled nearly as much as you, but much more than the average dood. Your C130 story is still one of the best ever…. One Vietnamese guy at work escaped Vietnam in the 80s, lived in Thailand in a camp for a while and eventually got on a boat and made it to the US. He was hired as an electronics tech at my workplace. Never missed a day. His English has improved over the years and he sponsored his family members one by one to come to the US. His brother and sister worked a the same company for a while too while they went to school. Hard working folks. I found out later that after his 40+ hours at the factory he would work another 40/week at the family restaurant. They bought a nice house and all lived together in it. Achieving the American dream.
Then we have local half wits that won’t come to work. When they do they are bitching. Purple hair, bad tatts and god awful piercings.
I’ve been on the 747 many times to/from Asia. I absolutely love the PI. Work used to fly me back and forth in business class. If a guy can get an upper deck seat in business class on the 747 then that is living. The passenger to restroom ratio is good and you don’t have to wait long if you have to go. I’ve also flown cattle car/economy a number of times and that is a long flight from Minneapolis to Nagoya. Some of the worst airline restroom experiences were on a flight from Kaula Lumpur to Mali. I was on vacation but many people were working folks and they completely destroyed the restroom. Use you imagination and it was worse than that.
ghostsniperJune 21, 2024, 2:17 PM
Now that there’s talk about women being included in a military draft….
….all of a sudden LIEberals and feminists know what a woman is.
Snakepit KansasJune 23, 2024, 5:49 AM
I recently saw a picture of a bunch of gals all sitting in plane all rigged up to jump. All wearing 173rd Infantry Brigade patches. FFS. That group during the Vietnam era was known as “The Herd”. Stomping around for a few weeks in the hot jungle with occasional Huey resupply. Women are not physically built for that.
ghostsniperJune 23, 2024, 7:24 AM
It’s their hormone driven emotions that is the worst of it, and then their absence of logical thinking especially under duress.
I’ve often said a person doesn’t understand the full human capacity until they’ve been punched in the face. I’ll add another axiom to that. Until you’ve heard and felt a live fragmentation grenade detonate about 50 feet away you have not experienced true terror.
A new first sgt came on board the unit I was in in Germany in early 1977. When he headed up the first company formation the next day after arriving the first words out of his mouth were, “My name is First Sgt Harris, and all you married guys need to go ahead and start packing your shit because I’m going to put everyone of you out of my army.” “A soldier has no room in his schedule for family emotional issues and I will not ask all the unmarried soldiers to put up with it.”
Top Harris was right. A line soldier is trained to do a job no matter what and he must at all times be ready to put it all out there. It is a unique role and it can’t compared to any other.
On the other hand, look what you get when Top Harris’s ideal is not followed. The tragic situation that currently exists across the board in all the US’s military. The whole thing is a maniacal collection of emotional basket cases. If not for the implied threat of the US veterans this country would be ripe for picking right now. They know what it’s like to get punched in the face and what goosebumps on the spinal cord are like from experiencing a frag exploding.
ghostsniperJune 21, 2024, 6:08 PM
And what is to be gained from all of this nonsense?
===================================
It simply cannot happen, and anybody that has been there knows it.
A BIG part of the problem is that grown men that NEVER served are the ones that are approving this nonsense.
People like former Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus.
I looked him up.
He did 2 years in the Navy.
The NAVY!!!!
Jeez.
That shitstain wouldn’t last 2 hours in an Army engineer unit.
Throw airborne and Mechanization into the mix and he’d run like a little gurl.
But common sense will never prevail until complete annihilation occurs.
Simply, huevos and logic have left the building.
ghostsniperJune 22, 2024, 11:34 AM
Speaking Of Planes
==============
World’s biggest radio controlled plane. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIojIhEubH0
Yes, it’s a Concorde.
1/16 scale
wingspan 4 meters
length 10 meters
height 1.85 meters
weight 149 kg
engines (4) JetCat P300 Pro
If you didn’t know, radio control planes are the hobby of they with ample wallet.
And, if you build from scratch, over the top skill and patience.
I dabbled in kit built control line planes in my yoot but like many of the other time occupiers I was involved with at the back then, when I got my drivers license and a ride, they were quickly forgotten.
About 10 years ago I bought the plans for a Fokker DRI triplane 1/6 scale, but as of yet have not built it.
I’m just guessing that Concorde rig cost $30k or more.
azlibertarianJune 22, 2024, 11:48 AM
I had a buddy in high school who was into RC planes. He said that once he finished a plane, he’d fly it for about 30 minutes, crash it into about a hunnert pieces, and then take about 30 hours to rebuild it.
If you’re hand-building your RC plane, you’re more into building planes than flying them.
ghostsniperJune 22, 2024, 1:28 PM
On my 10th birthday (1965) my dad gave me a fat 10 dollar bill. WoW! Then he took me to the hobby shop downtown. My dad bought stuff there when he was a kid. They didn’t have plastic models in his day so he encouraged me to by a Guillow balsa airplane kit like he used to build. Looked it up and amazingly they still make it. Messerschmitt ME 109.
Don’t know why I chose that particular model but I did. It was quite an undertaking, but I liked it and did many more over the next few years. I even bought blank sheets of balsa and made my own parts based on the original plans. Balsa building is a whole nuther way of building and thinking from the plastic stuff.
azlibertarianJune 22, 2024, 1:59 PM
“…Messerschmitt ME 109.”
I know exactly why the 10 year-old you got the Messerschmitt.
If it wasn’t going to be the Messerschmitt, it would have been the Fokker, and Mom and Dad couldn’t have you telling all your friends about the Fokker you were keeping in your room.
I know that when in a physically threatening situation women will pull together. I also believe that when they are not under threat deep deep down women basically don’t like each other.
Good morning
Haven’t dropped in here for a while, although I do stop by each day for the comments. When the big steal of 2020 was going on, the most vocal, and enthusiastic Trump supporters were the Vietnamese. They ran big caravans down to Huntington Beach every weekend, gave it everything they had. God bless them.
JWM
azlibertarianJune 24, 2024, 10:07 AM
“…They…gave it everything they had. God bless them.”
I agree, JWM. Those who have seen how bad life can be under the thinking of the left side of the spectrum, are the best proponents for a conservative view.
A number of years ago, the Mrs. and I did one of those river cruises through Europe. We flew into Prague for a couple of days prior to the cruise, then began the cruise down the Danube at the southeastern-most corner of Germany, then through Austria, Slovakia and ended in Budapest, Hungary. It was notable to me that at every stop which was once ruled by Communists, the tourguide would point out something related to their lives back then. Maybe it was the former headquarters of the secret police, or the square where the people demanded democracy. In Prague, we visited The Museum of Communism. Those who have lived under communism will tell you that we really, really do not want to go down that path, yet there are some here who are committed to doing just that.
Real World Address for Donations, Mash Notes and Hate Mail
Gerard Van der Leun
1692 MANGROVE AVE
APT 379
Chico, Ca 95926
Green Pants Interior by Klahn
Who Am I? by Carl Sandburg
My head knocks against the stars.
My feet are on the hilltops.
My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of universal life.
Down in the sounding foam of primal things I reach my hands and play with pebbles of destiny.
I have been to hell and back many times.
I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God.
I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible.
I know the passionate seizure of beauty
And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs reading “Keep Off.”
My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe.
Duty, Beauty, Liberty, Country, Honor, Family, Faith — Plus a few simple easy to follow rules for guys
Men saw the stars at the edge of the sea
They thought great thoughts about liberty
Poets wrote down words that did fit
Writers wrote books
Thinkers thought about it
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
Many’s the road I have walked upon
Many’s the hour between dusk and dawn
Many’s the time
Many’s the mile
I see it all now
Through the eyes of a child
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
And close your eyes
Leave it all for a while
Leave the world
And your worries behind
You will build on whatever is real
And wake up each day
To a new waking dream
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Change, change come over
Change come over
Talkin’ about a change
Change, change
Change come over, now
Change, change, change come over
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
Gerard Van der Leun
Comments on this entry are closed.
goldfinch?
I believe so.
We also have the red ones around here.
Both are very fastidious and precise.
So, you’ve always wondered what a squat toilet looks like, right?
It is said that a squat toilet permits a more thorough evacuation of the bowel.
I could probably get down OK but my airborne knee may present a problem getting back up without a grab bar.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Cafeteria+cum+PC+at+Bodhkharboo/@34.338532,76.5660331,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1sAF1QipPdqF8iGFmZMF5NRvYFYWV5JAt2u8p-FFWBhdwF!2e10!3e12!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPdqF8iGFmZMF5NRvYFYWV5JAt2u8p-FFWBhdwF%3Dw203-h152-k-no!7i4000!8i3000!4m9!3m8!1s0x38fd2f31af5e79c7:0xc98c9b00bca90783!8m2!3d34.338357!4d76.5658366!10e5!14m1!1BCgIgAQ!16s%2Fg%2F11t831_z1v?entry=ttu
On squat toilets…..
Many, many moons ago, while I was in the Air Force and stationed in the Philippines, my wife and I decided that this was a good time for me to separate and pursue civilian life. The AF required that I do much of the adminstration of my separation from Travis AFB in California. That was the end of the tale of my separation, but let me back up a bit.
Our kids were then very young, and we decided that we’d send my wife, kids and the cat back to Arizona ahead of me, where they’d stay with her mom as we (meaning “she”) found a more appropriate housing arrangement. If memory serves, she did this about 4 weeks prior to my separation.
On my end, I’d get our household goods packed up, check myself out of my squadron and get me and the golden retriever back to AZ. That was an important detail as having the dog meant that I couldn’t travel on AF planes. So on the appointed day, I got myself and the dog to Manila International where the AF had a seat for me on a United flight bound for San Francisco. The plane was a 747.
So there I was in the boarding area for this United flight, and I noticed one thing: There weren’t many Americans for this flight. In fact, the only other Americans were 2 Navy enlisted guys. Moreover, there weren’t many Filipinos travelling either.
Not counting we three Americans, the entire Coach section of that 747 was filled with what I’ll call “Boat People”. I use that term without disparagement….I had had a roommate one semester in college who was a Vietnamese Boat Person and I admired the courage and work it took to be dropped into a new country and culture, where you don’t know the language, but you (and in his case, his family) knew that staying where you were born would mean that you would be killed. Honestly, I don’t even know the nationalities of these 200+ Boat People on this flight. They could have been Vietnamese, Hmong, Lao, or anything from the region. This was in the late 80’s and they had been in the P.I. in refugee camps since the end of the war in ’75.
Of course, the 747 is a wide-body aircraft. This term means that the aircraft is wide enough to require 2 aisles. The Coach seating on this 747 was laid out (if memory serves) in a 2-4-2 configuration. Two seats next to a window, then an aisle, then 4 “middle seats”, then another aisle, then 2 more window seats on the opposite side of the aircraft.
The good part of the story: It was me (on the aisle) and one of the 2 Navy guys next to the window (I have no idea where the other Navy guy was seated).
The bad part of the story: The lavatories on this 747 were located in the middle of the plane, and I was seated just opposite to these lavs.
A big caveat here: I have to empathize with these Boat People. They had been ripped from their relatively simple lives and dropped into a world for which they had little preparation. How many times has the average reader here been on an airplane? Even if it has been relatively few, you probably have some idea of what to expect. You’ve got to wear your seatbelt. The tray table drops out from the seat in front of you. They’re going to give you a meal, and it is going to be some mostly-sad “airline food”. When you need the bathroom, the lavatory is small and it works a bit differently than what you’re used to at home. These Boat People knew none of this.
And so, when the Boat Person needed the lavatory, s/he had several things to learn, the first being: the lavatory doors. The lav doors on this 747 were accordian doors. The doors don’t open outward or inward, but fold in half. I watched one-after-another of these Boat People struggle to open the door. They’d push and pull and when that failed, they’d push and pull again, which of course, didn’t work either. They’d pull the ash tray out of the middle of the lav door. None of this would open the door, until finally, by the brute force of their bladders screaming at them, the Boat Person would succeed in sliding the door to fold it…..
….Only to find the the previous Boat Person hadn’t yet learned the next lesson: How to lock the door on an aircraft lavatory.
And there he’d be, in full view of everyone, squatting on lav seat as the door suddenly flung open.
On this flight from Manila to San Francisco, I probably watched this story repeat itself three dozen times. I don’t want to learn how to use their squat toilets, but they have difficulty learning how to use Western toilets too.
LOL
He don’t talk much, but when he do it’s a scream.
Azlib,
I have not traveled nearly as much as you, but much more than the average dood. Your C130 story is still one of the best ever…. One Vietnamese guy at work escaped Vietnam in the 80s, lived in Thailand in a camp for a while and eventually got on a boat and made it to the US. He was hired as an electronics tech at my workplace. Never missed a day. His English has improved over the years and he sponsored his family members one by one to come to the US. His brother and sister worked a the same company for a while too while they went to school. Hard working folks. I found out later that after his 40+ hours at the factory he would work another 40/week at the family restaurant. They bought a nice house and all lived together in it. Achieving the American dream.
Then we have local half wits that won’t come to work. When they do they are bitching. Purple hair, bad tatts and god awful piercings.
I’ve been on the 747 many times to/from Asia. I absolutely love the PI. Work used to fly me back and forth in business class. If a guy can get an upper deck seat in business class on the 747 then that is living. The passenger to restroom ratio is good and you don’t have to wait long if you have to go. I’ve also flown cattle car/economy a number of times and that is a long flight from Minneapolis to Nagoya. Some of the worst airline restroom experiences were on a flight from Kaula Lumpur to Mali. I was on vacation but many people were working folks and they completely destroyed the restroom. Use you imagination and it was worse than that.
Now that there’s talk about women being included in a military draft….
….all of a sudden LIEberals and feminists know what a woman is.
I recently saw a picture of a bunch of gals all sitting in plane all rigged up to jump. All wearing 173rd Infantry Brigade patches. FFS. That group during the Vietnam era was known as “The Herd”. Stomping around for a few weeks in the hot jungle with occasional Huey resupply. Women are not physically built for that.
It’s their hormone driven emotions that is the worst of it, and then their absence of logical thinking especially under duress.
I’ve often said a person doesn’t understand the full human capacity until they’ve been punched in the face. I’ll add another axiom to that. Until you’ve heard and felt a live fragmentation grenade detonate about 50 feet away you have not experienced true terror.
A new first sgt came on board the unit I was in in Germany in early 1977. When he headed up the first company formation the next day after arriving the first words out of his mouth were, “My name is First Sgt Harris, and all you married guys need to go ahead and start packing your shit because I’m going to put everyone of you out of my army.” “A soldier has no room in his schedule for family emotional issues and I will not ask all the unmarried soldiers to put up with it.”
Top Harris was right. A line soldier is trained to do a job no matter what and he must at all times be ready to put it all out there. It is a unique role and it can’t compared to any other.
On the other hand, look what you get when Top Harris’s ideal is not followed. The tragic situation that currently exists across the board in all the US’s military. The whole thing is a maniacal collection of emotional basket cases. If not for the implied threat of the US veterans this country would be ripe for picking right now. They know what it’s like to get punched in the face and what goosebumps on the spinal cord are like from experiencing a frag exploding.
And what is to be gained from all of this nonsense?
===================================
Women in Combat
https://www.cnas.org/publications/commentary/women-in-combat-five-year-status-update
=============
It simply cannot happen, and anybody that has been there knows it.
A BIG part of the problem is that grown men that NEVER served are the ones that are approving this nonsense.
People like former Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus.
I looked him up.
He did 2 years in the Navy.
The NAVY!!!!
Jeez.
That shitstain wouldn’t last 2 hours in an Army engineer unit.
Throw airborne and Mechanization into the mix and he’d run like a little gurl.
But common sense will never prevail until complete annihilation occurs.
Simply, huevos and logic have left the building.
Speaking Of Planes
==============
World’s biggest radio controlled plane.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIojIhEubH0
Yes, it’s a Concorde.
1/16 scale
wingspan 4 meters
length 10 meters
height 1.85 meters
weight 149 kg
engines (4) JetCat P300 Pro
If you didn’t know, radio control planes are the hobby of they with ample wallet.
And, if you build from scratch, over the top skill and patience.
I dabbled in kit built control line planes in my yoot but like many of the other time occupiers I was involved with at the back then, when I got my drivers license and a ride, they were quickly forgotten.
About 10 years ago I bought the plans for a Fokker DRI triplane 1/6 scale, but as of yet have not built it.
I’m just guessing that Concorde rig cost $30k or more.
I had a buddy in high school who was into RC planes. He said that once he finished a plane, he’d fly it for about 30 minutes, crash it into about a hunnert pieces, and then take about 30 hours to rebuild it.
If you’re hand-building your RC plane, you’re more into building planes than flying them.
On my 10th birthday (1965) my dad gave me a fat 10 dollar bill. WoW! Then he took me to the hobby shop downtown. My dad bought stuff there when he was a kid. They didn’t have plastic models in his day so he encouraged me to by a Guillow balsa airplane kit like he used to build. Looked it up and amazingly they still make it. Messerschmitt ME 109.
https://www.guillow.com/messerschmittbf-109-2.aspx
Don’t know why I chose that particular model but I did. It was quite an undertaking, but I liked it and did many more over the next few years. I even bought blank sheets of balsa and made my own parts based on the original plans. Balsa building is a whole nuther way of building and thinking from the plastic stuff.
“…Messerschmitt ME 109.”
I know exactly why the 10 year-old you got the Messerschmitt.
If it wasn’t going to be the Messerschmitt, it would have been the Fokker, and Mom and Dad couldn’t have you telling all your friends about the Fokker you were keeping in your room.
lol
Enjoy.
https://youtu.be/lEM5nJ-AUiM
Maybe this is something worth looking into.
Watch the video.
https://tinyurl.com/yr66uyvn
I know that when in a physically threatening situation women will pull together. I also believe that when they are not under threat deep deep down women basically don’t like each other.
Good morning
Haven’t dropped in here for a while, although I do stop by each day for the comments. When the big steal of 2020 was going on, the most vocal, and enthusiastic Trump supporters were the Vietnamese. They ran big caravans down to Huntington Beach every weekend, gave it everything they had. God bless them.
JWM
“…They…gave it everything they had. God bless them.”
I agree, JWM. Those who have seen how bad life can be under the thinking of the left side of the spectrum, are the best proponents for a conservative view.
A number of years ago, the Mrs. and I did one of those river cruises through Europe. We flew into Prague for a couple of days prior to the cruise, then began the cruise down the Danube at the southeastern-most corner of Germany, then through Austria, Slovakia and ended in Budapest, Hungary. It was notable to me that at every stop which was once ruled by Communists, the tourguide would point out something related to their lives back then. Maybe it was the former headquarters of the secret police, or the square where the people demanded democracy. In Prague, we visited The Museum of Communism. Those who have lived under communism will tell you that we really, really do not want to go down that path, yet there are some here who are committed to doing just that.