Open post for those with something to share, updated through the day. New, complete posts come in below this one. Note: If trackbacking, please acknowledge this post in your post. That's only polite.
You're advertising here, we should get an ad at your place...
***********************************************
(Mouth agape and hands on face like that kid in the Home Alone movies.)
Fuzzy?! What’re you doing in a dog pile of 6-10 military men?!
(I think Werekitten and the rest of the SB Brigade are going to be jealous.)
+++++
[Continuing the view from the counter-to-Castle-consensus round up started yesterday.]
The next Saladin will be a product of McWorld and blowback.
-
We should’ve seen Sadr coming according to the people who run Conflicts Forum.
--
Counting the human cost, E-ring style. [The Armorer heartily endorses this selection of Ry's]
--ry
*********************
I’ll post the link to this, even though I won’t be signing it myself.
I largely agree with the main message: science is under attack by ideologues and the disciplines need defense. But I won’t be signing it because it stops well short of naming all the enemies while making it seem like attacks only come from people of Faith or from the right. That’s WELL short of the full list, and excludes some of the worst offenders(some of whom get to cloak themselves in the guise of scientists). But this place, The Castle Argghhh!, is squishy, a real friend of science(we count some real eggheads in the membership), and typically supports resistance to Medieval-ism.
I’m a bit put off by some of it though. Decide for yourself whether to sign it. The cause is a good one, even if I don’t agree with who is running it.
--ry
[While the cause is a good one, the people running this particular defense of it border on delusional, if, as Ry notes, they think the only threat to science are Luddites clutching their religious tracts. The threat they define is an open one, and can be met with argumentation and open debate - the threat they ignore, the one they don't mention, is the hijacking of science for political purposes - and the useful idiots in the community of science who aid and abet, for personal gain or political reasoning. The threat that causes them and the secular left to shout down, excoriate, and belittle honest scientific debate by asserting that un-PC findings are illegitimate, and that the act of research on the alternative itself is a fault, rather than the application of... the scientific method. I don't mind the cause, but I'd rather find a champion of it that isn't quite so myopic Stereovision is good. -the Armorer}
**********************************
John Hawkins has the latest pulse of the Rightospheric Blogworld - at least the self-selected amongst the "Choice Right Blogs"
*********************************
Bloodspite and Operation Kudzu. Methinks BS is *not* happy with the immigration "deal" from yesterday. -the Armorer
********************************
Destroyer names honor heroes of Vietnam, WWII - Navy Times
A well-respected admiral known as much for his integrity and dignity as for his accomplishments, and one of the greatest naval tactical commanders of World War II will be commemorated by two new Arleigh Burke-class destroyers to be built for the Navy.
Names for the USS William P. Lawrence (DDG 110) and USS Spruance (DDG 111) were to be announced May 11 by Navy Secretary Donald Winter. The choices continue the recent practice of applying well-deserved new names and perpetuating classic ship monikers for the Navy’s destroyers.
H/T to Steeljaw Scribe who has a great post up on this.....Maggie
********************************
Ry put up a link about the cost of a human life in yesterday's H&I Fires post. A comment at Army.ca yesterday had me asking a similar question as it affects the use of indirect fire: which is more detrimental to the NATO mission in Afghanistan - a dead Afghan civilian or a dead coalition soldier? - Damian
********************************
431 Air Demonstration Squadron, better known as The Snowbirds, lost a pilot today in Montana while practicing for an airshow there. While we don't yet know his name, we mourn for him and for those who cared for him. - Damian
*A term of art from the artillery. Harassment and Interdiction Fires.
Back in the day, when you could just kill people and break things without a note from a lawyer, they were pre-planned, but to the enemy, random, fires at known gathering points, road junctions, Main Supply Routes, assembly areas, etc - to keep the bad guy nervous that the world around him might start exploding at any minute.
*Not really relevant to today's operating environment, right? But, it *is*
The UAVs (oops, can't call 'em UAVs anymore - they're now Unmanned Aerial Systems... some Colonel got his Legion of Merit for that change...), er, um UAS's we fly over Afghanistan and Pakistan looking for targets of opportunity are a form of H&I fires, if you really want to parse it finely. We just have better sensors and fire control now.
I call the post that because it's random things posted by me and people I've given posting privileges to. It's also an open trackback, so if someone has a post they're proud of, but it really isn't either Castle kind of stuff, or topical to a particular post, I've basically given blanket permission to use that post for that purpose. Another term of art that might be appropriate is "Free Fire Zone".
15 Comments