Flotsam and Jetsam

Barry Soetoro; Profiles in Chaos or "The current leader of the free world is not in touch with reality." From Canadian Free Press;

It takes a bit of narcissism to wake up in the morning and think: “Hey, I really ought to be leader of the free world”. Coming to such a conclusion in the fourth grade is, to say the least, ambitious. Having some narcissistic traits does not a narcissist make. However, according to the Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders, grandiosity is the most important single trait in narcissism.

Why Do Sled Dogs Run? From the New York Times;

I listen to the one-way singsong between Murphy and his dogs, encouragement and caution and admiration. I watch the driving legs ahead of me — 28 of them — on dogs whose frames are small and light, nothing like the creatures I’d imagined. And as we cut through the white ash swamp, hissing across the ice, I find myself wondering, why do sled dogs run?

It is not a matter of driving them. All the work is in pacing them, restraining them. When Murphy stands on the brake and sets the snow hook — a two-pronged anchor — the gangline quivers with tension. The dogs torque forward again before he can shout, “Let’s go!” All the one-word answers to my question are too simple: love, joy, duty, obedience.

Race season is getting underway in Alaska, no I don't mean Nascar. The Irondog race began Sunday and the start of the Iditarod is less than two weeks away.

Hanger flying: "The Fastest Sled in the Sky" by Brian Schul - former sled driver.

"There were a lot of things we couldn't do in an SR-71, but we were the fastest guys on the block and loved reminding our fellow aviators of this fact. People often asked us if, because of this fact, it was fun to fly the jet. Fun would not be the first word I would use to describe flying this plane - intense, maybe, even cerebral. But there was one day in our Sled experience when we would have to say that it was pure fun to be the fastest guys out there, at least for a moment.

Link courtesy of our friend MrTex.