Your tax dollars hard at work.

On 9/11 we had to fuel, arm (and some went up unarmed), launch and vector fighters. That just flat takes time...and they were restricted from going supersonic

Not true. The F-15 scrambled out of Otis went ballistic and were on station doing CAP over NYC 14 minutes after wheels up, armed and ready to go - from alert to wheels up was just 6 minutes.
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/09/9-...

They were on stand by, fueled and armed, and flew at Mach 1.2 to NYC, a distance of just 153 miles. The alert was received at 8:46 AM, the same moment the second plane hit the WTC. They were wheels up at 8:52 AM. - so their time on station was just seconds off from Cold War standards - and they got the order too late.

There was also armed, fueled, ready to go F-15s at Langley and Homestead. Homestead would be out of the game, Langley would have likely done CAP over DC.

Amen - a lot of vets won't do the debarking surgery. It is cruel.

The state is now investigating Briskey's practice after a kennel owner brought in 13 dogs to be debarked and one of them died five days later. She blames Briskey, claiming he used the same surgical instruments on all the dogs without cleaning them.

Niiiiiiiiiice. Debarking dogs is beyond cruel - and then - after finding a vet willing to do it (not all vets will even do the procedure) complains that one of her dogs died. He's a dirtbag for doing the surgery - she's a dirtbag for asking for. Thirteen dogs have paid the price, one with their life.

They deserve each other - and those 13 dogs deserve better.

Ya. It's called braids.

<eyeroll>

Ready Five (also called Alert Five) was ended when the Cold War ended. The idea behind Ready Five in the USAF was a squadron of fighters at selected military bases were ready to go in "five minutes." From the horn going off to the aircraft being wheels up. Air crews on Alert Five would stay at special block houses. Think of it almost as a bunk house at a fire department. There is a day room, ready room, dorm, kitchen, etc. etc. But they cannot leave the room. The hangars where their aircraft are kept are a short run away. The ground crews that would support are also there. The aircraft are fueled, armed, and ready to go. Start the engines, guide to the taxiway, combat tight formation takeoff, intercept.

Ready Five is also a USN term for when aircraft are armed, fueled, in the catapult on a carrier, with the pilot in the cockpit - again ready to "launch" in five minutes.

During 9/11 Ready Five had been ended as a Cold War relic, and due to budget cuts. In the days after 9/11 the US military flew an active CAP (Combat Air Patrol) across CONUS, and then along the "Northeast Corridor" from Boston to Washington D.C., then from NYC to Washington D.C., and now no longer fly the CAP (it's damn expensive).

Not anymore. Loring was closed in 1994. Through New England, Loring, Devens, Pease, Westover, NAS Brunswick, most of Hanscom, and Otis are all closed, turned over to the reserve or guard, and/or used for civilian use.

Loring was an amazing base. It had the largest fuel depot and weapons munition depot (nuclear and conventional) of any USAF SAC base in North America during the Cold War. It had almost 100 million pounds of munitions and over 9 million gallons of aviation fuel. At one point 100 B-36 bombers were stationed there, and it was a key operating base for Operation Chrome Dome. I believe, because it was so remote, typical assignments at Loring were six months (I was told that, don't know if it was true).

The only major military base still operating in New England is the New London Naval Base - which is a key installation for submarines in Connecticut. The Coast Guard Academy is also in Connecticut. That's it.

If a bicycle rider runs a red light - it is a red light violation just as if he was driving a car. Bicycles are supposed to follow all rules of the road that cars follow, with a few exceptions. The exceptions are largely around the use of bike only specific lanes, when bikes have right of way over cars, and transitioning across lanes say to get to a turning lane.

Exactly. You won't see someone standing on the corner in NYC waiting to cross at a four way signal intersection with no cars coming in any direction. They are going to cross.

Haters will hate - Seattle natives think Seattle is the center of the universe. Those puny, throwback cities of the world don't know what they are doing.

And you're right - you haven't seen jaywalking until you go to NYC