The Village Hemorrhoid: April 2025

Friday, April 4, 2025

Random Political Memes/Cartoons Dump

Friday Rides - The Good - The Bad - And The Ugly - Pontiac - Firebird Type K

1977-1979 Firebird Type K

The original Camaro/Firebird F-Body platform was barely off the drawing board when General Motors stylists began toying with sporty station wagon versions of the pony car package. The idea just seems natural, intuitive somehow. While this example, the 1977 Firebird Type K / Kammback, (re-bodied as a Trans Am for a role in The Rockford Files two years later), and then again in 1985 in Trans Am form (serving as IMSA pace cars), wasn’t GM’s first F-Body experiment in station wagons, it is by far the best known.  Based on the clean second-generation Firebird body shell sculpted by famed GM designer Bill Porter, the wagon variant was styled by another accomplished GM studio man, Gerry Brochstein. The K stands for Kamm tail, a reference to the abrupt chop at the rear of the body, which reduces aerodynamic drag. While the rear glass was fixed in place, a pair of glass side hatches hinged in gullwing fashion allowed full access to the rear cargo compartment, which was nicely trimmed in carpeting with bright metal rub strips. (Seen in the overhead shot of the silver K-body) 

In 1977, GM commissioned Italian coachbuilder Pininfarina to build two working prototype vehicles with steel bodywork, one silver and one gold, though the silver Type K seems to have gotten all the glory. Both cars, born as 1978 production Firebirds, were reportedly equipped with the 403 CID, 185 hp V8 (an Olds division engine, actually) with shaker hood scoop and screaming-chicken hood decal. The Type K was displayed around the country including at the Chicago Auto Show. The silver K Type took a bow before the television cameras in March of 1979, appearing in a two-part episode of The Rockford Files, “Never Send a Boy to Do a Man’s Job.” Rockford star James Garner, a certified car guy and a Firebird fan in real life, didn’t much care for the wagon, it’s said. Instead, the car was driven in the episode by the character Odette Lependieu, played by Trisha Noble. In The Rockford Files role, the Type K has been updated with a 1979 Trans Am nose, as shown in the GM publicity photo with Garner and journalist and PR guru Eric Dahlquist.
For a time, it was even possible to order a Kammback conversion kit from a company called Deco International that would give any 1977-1981 Firebird the Type K look. As we know, the K Type never made it to the showrooms. Production studies showed the Pininfarina wagon would need to be priced in the $25,000 range, far too expensive to sell in any useful number.

I Still Do All Of These

I still need drugs but the ones I use now aren't the same drugs and definitely aren't for the same reasons. I take a pain pill every now and then but these are prescribed and they are for the pain.

I still listen to Rock & Roll, usually after I take my pain pill and not nearly as loud as I used to.

I still have sex, most of it is oral now. Why just this morning my wife and I passed in the hallway, looked at each other and she said "F**k you."

Oh yeah, I still drink coffee to wash down my handful of morning pills.

h/t Cederq @ bustednuckles

Stephanie Turner Stands Up For Women’s Sports By Kneeling Out

https://x.com/Riley_Gaines_/status/1907530614498029749

Women's fencer opens up on refusing to face transgender opponent, accepting punishment and backlash.
Turner says the issue has turned her from a lifelong Democrat to a conservative Republican.
Ahead of a bout at the Cherry Blossom Open in Maryland over the weekend, Turner, 31, made the decision not to compete against trans athlete (MALE) Redmond Sullivan. And Turner also wanted to make sure her refusal was caught on video for the world to see.
Turner came to the decision the night before the event when she checked the competition pools and saw that she would be competing against Sullivan, (a male) whom she had read about in an article last year.
"I saw that I was going to be in a pool with Redmond, and from there I said, ‘OK, let’s do it. I'm going to take the knee,'" Turner told Fox News Digital.
Turner went through all her warm-ups that day and went on to fence in four bouts before her matchup with the trans athlete (MALE). When it came, she was "nervous and shaky," but was sure about her decision.
"I knew what I had to do because USA Fencing had not been listening to women's objections regarding [its gender eligibility policy]," Turner said.
"I took a knee immediately at that point. Redmond was under the impression that I was going to start fencing. So when I took the knee, I looked at the ref and I said, ‘I’m sorry, I cannot do this. I am a woman, and this is a man, and this is a women's tournament. And I will not fence this individual.'
"Redmond didn't hear me, and he comes up to me, and he thinks that I may be hurt, or he doesn't understand what's happening. He asks, ‘Are you OK?’ And I said, ‘I’m sorry. I have much love and respect for you, but I will not fence you."
And right after that, Turner's punishment by USA Fencing commenced.
"Redmond says to me, ‘Well you know, there is a member on the board of directors here who supports me, and there is a policy that acknowledges me as a woman, so I am allowed to fence, and you will get blackcarded,’ and I said, 'I know," Turner said.
Minutes later, the referees dealt Turner a black card, which represents the most severe penalty, leading to expulsion from the tournament or event for serious rule infractions or unsportsmanlike behavior.
Turner said she was then escorted to the bout committee where she had to explain what she did. She says the members then handed her a copy of the association's transgender policy and made her sign a document acknowledging the black card. Turner said she signed the document under objection.
Then, Turner was escorted out of the venue, she said.

Read the rest at:
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/womens-fencer-reveals-why-she-refused-face-transgender-opponent-accepting-punishment-backlash

Veterans Affairs Paying $350K Per Month For Website Modifications

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), under the leadership of Elon Musk, the agency created by executive order on President Donald Trump's first day in office, has uncovered yet another striking example of wasteful federal spending. This time, the target is the Department of Veterans Affairs, which until recently had been paying nearly $380,000 a month for relatively simple website modifications, work that a single staffer now handles internally with just 10 hours of effort each week.
DOGE broke the story via a post on X, formerly Twitter, praising the VA for not renewing the contract. "VA was previously paying ~$380,000/month for minor website modifications," the agency wrote. "That contract has not been renewed, and the same work is now being executed by 1 internal VA software engineer spending ~10 hours/week."

And My Brother Tells Me The Computer Only Does What You Tell It To Do

The computer only deals with what you input into it. It doesn't try to screw with your head or f**k up on purpose.

MY ASS !

R.I.P. - Four U.S. Soldiers Who Died In Lithuania Training Exercise

Near NATO’s eastern border recovered, being repatriated.
VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) – Lithuania’s political and religious leaders joined thousands of people on Thursday to bid farewell to four American soldiers who died during a training exercise in the Baltic nation.
President Gitanas Nauseda and other dignitaries were among those who stood in respect as hearses carried the bodies of the four young Americans to Vilnius airport before being flown to the United States for burial.
“For us, it is more than a duty, it is an emotion. We have experienced trials in our history and therefore we understand well what loss is, what death is, what honourable duty is,” Nauseda said in a speech to those gathered.
Schoolchildren accompanied by teachers waved Lithuanian and U.S. flags to honor the soldiers, who died in an accident along NATO’s eastern flank, a region that is on edge due to Russia’s aggression in nearby Ukraine.
The soldiers, part of the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, were on a tactical training exercise when they and their vehicle went missing a week ago, the Army said.
Lithuanian, Polish and U.S. soldiers and rescuers searched through the forests and swamps at the Gen. Silvestras Zukauskas training ground in the town of Pabrade, 6 miles (10 kilometers) west of the border with Belarus. The M88 Hercules armored vehicle was pulled from a peat bog Monday and the final body was recovered Tuesday.
“I feel sorry for these young men,” said one mourner from the town of Pabrade as he watched the hearses make their way towards the airport. “I live nearby, and I know that swamp. Dangerous places for anyone who enters that area.”
The U.S. Army has identified the soldiers as Staff Sgt. Troy S. Knutson-Collins, 28, of Battle Creek, Michigan; Staff Sgt. Jose Duenez Jr., 25, of Joliet, Illinois; Staff Sgt. Edvin F. Franco, 25, of Glendale, California; and Pfc. Dante D. Taitano, 21, of Dededo, Guam.
About 3,500 soldiers from the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team deployed in January to Poland and the Baltic states for a nine-month rotation as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve, which supports NATO allies and partners following Russia´s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

A few pictures from the excavation / recovery site in Lithuania.

Thursday, April 3, 2025

Random Political Memes/Cartoons Dump

Trump distraction technique

This was supposedly a liberal meme ... and I ain't even mad. This just makes me like orange Trump even more.

Darrell Issa Uses Jasmine Crockett’s Past Actions To Negate Her Blathering

I love watching Rep. Darrell Issa calmly and totally dismiss liberal nutcase and fraud Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s self-aggrandizing, self-righteous outrage performance at Thursday’s hearing on Judicial overreach.
Rep. Issa had receipts ready when Rep. Jasmine Crockett opined on the hallowed duty of the judiciary to be final arbiter, pointing out Crockett co-sponsored AOC's attempt to impeach two Supreme Court Justices because she didn't like their decisions.
The outmatched libs spent the day getting spanked by Newt Gingrich, but it was Issa who delivered the final dropkick to the Daytime Emmy effort from House grifter Crockett, who was doing what Democrats do whenever they’re on the hoisting end of their petards: namely pretending to suddenly revere whatever it was they wanted to destroy when they weren’t in charge of it, and wanting to destroy whatever they previously revered.
So we find the woman who, with a fake street accent, has spent her time in the House trashing judges and the Supreme Court and voting for more Executive power to the President when Biden was in office, now intoning gravely about the valuable and worthy Constitution and its guardians, the Judicial branch.
After the show, Issa took her entire soliloquy and threw it in the trash for her, using her own previous actions. And AOC’s.