If anyone took the original post seriously then I goofed. I initially posted it to the chit chat section to try and lighten the mood over there but Admin moved it.

I recently decided to conduct a very exhaustive and scientific study to determine if Nikon or Canon is the preferred camera. In order to conduct the study my wife and I went on a ten-day cruise to Bermuda and I counted the number of Canon camera users versus the number of Nikon camera users. I counted only DSLR cameras since a number of the females with smaller cameras refused to let me close enough to determine their camera type or anything else for that matter. My wife said she understood why they refused. I accused her of being a sexists and she accused me of being a dirty old man, which is where we left that issue.
For the Nikon users I am happy to report that Nikon by a margin of four to one beat out Canon. Ok I discounted thirty or so Canon users who were technically illiterate and thus had purchased the camera without knowing what they were buying. I still do not understand how the ship’s captain could have owned a Canon and still be permitted to captain the ship. Well maybe because the captain was a female and did not know any better. My wife pointed out that at one port all the other ships were parked with the pointy end of the ship (a nautical term) facing into the dock while our captain had the roundy end of the ship (another nautical term) pointed into the dock. I asked our cabin steward why we had backed in and he said, “Oh she’s just showing off,” which is typical of a Canon camera owner.
I had planned to take some pictures to post here, but since I have only had my Nikon 5200 for a little over two months, I have not figured out how to turn it on. I am just about to the point of getting out the owner’s manual but not quite there yet. My wife said if I have not figured the camera out by the time we head to the Vietnam Helicopter Pilot’s reunion she is going to start using it for a door stop. Typical of a woman who uses an almost eight year old Canon Sure Shot and thinks she is a real photographer. Once I get my Nikon turned on I’ll show her what a real camera will do.

I take issue with only the part about turning the flag into an item of clothing being disrespectful.

Over the week of the 4th of July the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association will hold our annual reunion and you will see more American Flag shirts, hats, shorts, socks, etc. than you can imagine. You will also be hard pressed to find a more respectful group of men and their wives toward our flag than this group.

I'll bet our Saturday movies were sponsored by our parents. We spent most of the day at the movie because there were the movie shorts, several serials, the coming attractions and then a double feature. By the time we got out it was beginning to get dark. If either or both of the movies were cowboys then we had to check our cap guns with the movie owner and he put them on a peg board with our name below each gun. This was due to our helping out the good guys/cavalry and the cap gun smoke would get so thick it was hard to see the screen. Probably can't take your cap gun to the movie today but growing up in the 40's was a whole different ball game.

I was three years old the night my Dad jumped into the night sky over Normandy, France. He was one of the lucky ones to make it through most of the war before being badly wounded at the end of the battle of the bulge. I know there are some here on the HOG who will probably say he was a war monger or that he was fighting for the Zionist or some other such rot, but the letter he wrote my Mother two days before D-Day said differently. He really felt he was in a fight to defend freedom for people who deserved to live free. Dad died relatively young not from war wounds but from many years as a coal miner. He was proud of his military service and loved the country for which he fought. Please take some time to remember these brave boys, who became men, that night in the skies and on the beaches of Normandy, they were young and scared but so very brave. They are old men now but talk with them about their old unit and watch the twinkle in their eyes come to life. They were a wonderful generation and so proud to be Americans.

If having lost touch with reality is all it takes to have to leave office then Obama should be packing his bags right now.

I have not seen all the evidence on how Berghal wound up in the hands of the Taliban but listening to his father's comments and reading the tweets both he and his father are supposed to have sent sure have me leaning toward him being a deserter. If that turns out to be the case then a long stretch in Leavenworth is where he needs to be.

You're lips are moving but you aren't making any intelligent sounds. :thumbdown: :thumbdown:

You are not going to see the appeal to testosterone go the way of the dinosaurs so long as there are young men
who love the excitement of the military. Try throwing yourself out of an airplane along with hundreds of others in a mass parachute jump and tell me you didn't get an adrenaline rush. You won't experience that because you are too timid to even try.

No, you are one despicable excuse for an American.

I don't know the answer to the question when it comes to the past 800 years, give or take, but in the past 200 plus, give or take, there have been none because an American serviceman was standing between the lion and the Christian with a BAR ready to send the lion to an early grave.
Now for the original thesis that American soldiers did not die "defending our freedom". I suspect most who have been on the receiving end of enemy fire will tell you, they were fighting for themselves and the guy in the foxhole beside them. When someone is trying really hard to kill you it becomes much more personal than Mom, baseball, apple pie or "defending our freedom", but to see if I'm right why not try it yourself Larry?

I noticed, as the years went by in my Army flying career, the instruments for navigation were increasing in reliability and complexity and I seemed to be lagging behind in ability to use them. It also seemed to take the fun and adventure out of flying. Being able to look at a glass panel display and know exactly where you are when the twenty minute fuel warning light comes on sort of takes the fun out of aviation. sadly the passengers couldn't see the sweat pouring out as I argued with the copilot over where we were. Now days, if the navigation instruments fail, you just look at your iPad with the navigation app on it and you can even do Facetime with some putz in North Snowshoe Alaska. Yeah it was more fun to just drop down and read the town name off the water tower.:D :D

You really need to be careful throwing facts like those around, someone might get their bias overturned.:?

Hi Bobo,
I'm actually from Port Orange (off Spruce Creek Rd.) but usually say DB. If you say Port Orange to someone not from around here you get that strange look and they say, "where?" and you have to explain where you live in relation to DB anyway. You know the drill.

No, that would be killing the goose that lays the golden egg. We need the constant supply of snowbird cash or we will have higher taxes. We may moan it while they are here but certainly relay heavily on their migration each fall. Plus we are teaching a few of them from places like Mass., Main, New York, and New Jersey that words such as PARK and CAR actually have the letter R in them.:?

Yeah! the snowbirds are going back north and Daytona Beach will return to the small, sleepy Florida town for us old codgers. We are still trying to figure out a way to get the snowbirds to get their money to us without actually showing up.:D :-D