Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Ridiculous ROE Jeopardizes A Career
Today's Washington Examiner has another story of the effect our ludicrous Rules of Engagement (ROE) is having on our troops.
My dad said the most vicious killers her encountered during the Korean War were teenagers. The genital-eating tyrants of sub-Saharan Africa know this all-too well, along with the the jihadist masterminds.
Once the teen-titans decided to evac the Taliban bombmaker they became legit targets.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Obama's State of the Re-Election Address
Last night, Our Dear Leader gave his State of the Union Address, which was watched by 38 million viewers. I wanted to avoid it, but I was on duty and the speech was on every station. There was no escape. Fortunately for me, this is what mute buttons were invented for. I know it's bad form of me not to listen, even if it's to hear directly what I would disagree with.
However, from what I've heard since, it was as I suspected--the same leftist rhetoric of more government programs to solve individual problems, higher taxes on all those rich folks (which will trickle down to anyone with some money in a savings account), more not-so cost-effective green programs, etc, so-on and so-forth.
Most of our Lamestream Media are singing praises to Obama's speech. The UK's Telegraph, though sounds the warning of where Obama's plans will take us as a nation--into further decline.
The Week's Weak Logic Regarding the Muslim Brotherhood
Comrade Karla stumbled across a Yahoo News editorial section called The Week. Today's offering was an attempt to re-assure us Islamophobes that there is nothing to fear from Egypt's Islamist parliament.
After reading the article, I came up with the following rebuttals:
1. The religious parties are divided.
Yes, they are. However, the scholars at The Week forget the Mideastern motto--The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Islamist hatred towards Jews and other assorted infidels outweighs whatever intra-parliamentary bickering the different parties engage in. Just ask the Coptic Christians.
2. The military is still in charge.
For now. But for how long? The same was said for Turkey--until the AKP took over.
3. Liberal parties will (slowly) gain influence.
Really? Where? The only Mideastern country where liberal parties have gained influence, that I know of, is Israel.
4. Egypt's Islamists won't seek trouble abroad.
Oh? Just like the Hamas and Hezbollah Islamists won't stir-up trouble with Israel? Once all the Coptic Christians are killed, or driven out of The Land of the Pharaohs, the Islamists will have to look beyond the borders for enemies.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
"Women and Children First"--So Hundred Years Ago
(Image from: The National Post)
On 13 January, the Costa Concordia ran aground off the coast of Isola Di Giglio. Last week's National Post contains several dramatic photos and illustrations.
Captain Schettino was one of the first to abandon ship. However, the behavior of many of the men on board the stricken vessel was equally contemptable.
What does this maritime tragedy say about social norms of the 21st Century?
On 15 April 1912, when the RMS Titanic struck an iceburg, the call went out for "women and children first." Now it's "every man for himself." No one clarifies how far our society has sunk than Mark Steyn.
Update, comments added, 7:25 PM:
Kind of like the episode of Seinfeld where George was at his girlfriend's son's birthday party and there was a fire in the oven and George went screaming out the door pushing people (including an old lady in a walker) out of the way and later in the show Jerry said to him, "So I guess for you, the idea of women and children first is a little outdated?"
Kind of sad how life is imitating art.
Lockhead-Martin--We Have a Problem
The F-35, like previous aircraft progams, has had it's teething problems. But a major issue has now come to has come to light.
Unlike this computer-generated photo: The F-35 cannot land on an aircraft carrier--one of the critieria for calling this aircraft a "Joint" Strike Fighter. Aviation Intel has the story.
Several of my friends were, or still are, in the Navy. So this story spawned the following comments:
No kidding! This one is particularly scary, because it means almost every weight distribution parameter on the F-35C’s simulated and model-based tests were inaccurate. So I cringe to think what the other 1st, 2nd, and 3rd order effects will be.
I'm hesitant to take this at face value. The F-35 has suffered through a lot of problems but so have plenty of other weapon systems. I have very fond memories of some of the great stuff that people wrote about the B-2 when I was working on that program like, "It won't fly very well because it doesn't have a tail," (thank you Senator Glenn) to claims that the airframe disintegrated when it got wet because of the composite materials needed to make it stealthier.
...the particular issue we were discussing (carrier landing tests) is genuine and accurate and—this late in the program—not a good sign at all. I am sure that 15 years down the road, most people (except GAO and other watchdogs) will have forgotten all the teething pains for the F-35, just as we tended to forget the teething pains from the F-14, F-18, F-16, F-15, B-2, B-1, and just about every major combat aviation program. The principal concern is that those “teething pains” are trending in an ominous direction (much more costly and indicative of systemic management, engineering, and other weaknesses). At least with all the other aircraft I listed above, what we got on the other end made all the previous pain worth forgetting. I am not sure we will be able to say that of F-35, given the expectation gap that surely exists between what industry/DOD posits about what that aircraft will be able to do and what we will actually get in the final product.
Anybody recall reading about ‘teething problems’ of earlier aircraft? Seems like we always had three or four types going all at the same time, each more suitable for one sort of deployment, less for others. Of course, there were many other, different problems to be dealt with in those days, and there were usually greater numbers involved. Today, we have one type intended for many tasks
Not only do we only have one type, but we have no real give in our industrial base to have say, Corsairs and Hellcats. We just have the F-35.
Better make sure that F-18 line stays open.
The problem for the F-18 production line is that once the USN stops buying them that is pretty much it because the Australians are the only foreign customer for the Super Hornet. On the Air Force side, the F-16 and F-15 lines are still open because of numerous export customers. However, the USAF does not seem to be interested in more of those. Granted the air frames are a bit dated but with AESA radar, new avionics, and new weapons the 15, 16, and 18 are all still pretty bad ass jets and they are a lot cheaper than the 5th gen fighters - that's why they are still competitive in the global market over the newer designs like the Rafale and the Eurofighter.
I understand that. Two thoughts; We (Navy) were about to shut the DDG-51 line but didn't so there's precedent and we are the only customer. Obviously some differences b/t ships and planes, but doable and worth thinking about. Second, I think industry and program managers over inflate the capabilities of an adversaries weapon systems, particularly aircraft. I'm with you and agree that the 15, 16, 18 are all good a/c and with our pilots training and experience should be able to wipe the floor with our adversaries.
Having a Wildcat equivalent in case the Buff...I mean "Lightning II" doesn't work out would be prudent.
Mind you, the Buffalo does sometimes get a bad rap—there’s an Air and Space article (IIRC) that was pretty good covering this. Similar conclusions can be drawn about the P-39. If it sucked so bad, how come V-VS pilots racked up 30, 40 and 50+ kills with it? Right now we have a problem on an order of magnitude far larger—it seems we’ve shrunk our industrial base to the point where we can only build one or two really high tech things—and if they don’t work, there’s no back up. So if your P-39 performs below specs, you can’t turn to a P-40 or design a P-51 in short order to fill the gap.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Our Mouseketeer-in-Chief
A few days ago our Dear Leader gave a jobs speech at Disney World--right after axing the Keystone Pipeline. This was wrong on several levels and Michelle Malkin puts it best in her Land of Obama Make-Believe article.
Obama's latest excursion sparked a few great observations from my friends:
...what is the point in going to Disney World to talk about job creation and tourism. If there is one place in the US that is not hurting for tourists, it's freakin' Disney World. Plus, I'll argue that it is incredibly rude and insensitive for POTUS (any POTUS not just the current) to go to a place like Disney World given the security requirements. I'd like to know how many people's vacations got screwed up because of this. How many "working class" families saved their money to take a trip there and in some way shape or form had it disrupted because of all Pratorian Guard like security protection that POTUS gets. I'm sure if Bush had gone to Disney World, we would have been subjected to seven or eight weeks of human interest stories on the news with little kids crying because they didn't get ride Space Mountain or the Flying Dumbos because POTUS and his entourage took over the park that day.
Tourism is also a lousy economic model because there are only so many good paying jobs in the restaurant and hotel industries. Everything is minimum wage or not much higher. A number of cities, Cleveland and Baltimore to name two based their urban renewals on the false logic that new stadiums downtown with flashy waterfront districts with bars and restaurants would bring their cities back from the dead. They're nice places to visit, go see a ballgame, and have dinner but at the end of the day the tourists go back home and the locals with a few exceptions are stuck with low paying, low skill service jobs.
This admin is pretty much bankrupt when it comes to economic ideas that work (they’re trapped in some sort of hellish 1970s government-control model). He’s getting a bit desperate to do something like this—sort of how the Italian economy works “come and see where the gladiators walked…”
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Adding "Ad Sense"
Writers are always on the lookout to earn money for their work. With this in mind, I finally signed up for Google's Ad Sense this evening. After Google reviews my blog, there will be advertisements placed in the side bar. I could have opted to have ads attached to each post, in addition to the sidebar notes, but I didn't to bombard my readers with "This post brought to you by..." messages.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Endangered Species?
(Image from the movie: Willard)
Washington DC is infested with rats. No not politicians, but the real-rodent variety, thanks to the Occupy DC movement. Instead of calling the exterminators, DC officials are opting for a catch and release program. This of course, has DC's neighbors in Virginia very concerned.
Reading--Important for a Healthy Civilization
Victor Davis Hanson (VDH) comments on why reading is so important. Otherwise, societal decay ensues.
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