In Uncertain Times, Size Does Matter

We recently learned that, due to budget cuts,  the British Navy is not able to deploy a surface warship to provide a 24 hour emergency response capability. Of course England is not at war right now even though her forces are involved in Afghanistan and, until recently on a limited basis in Libya.

But how much is enough in so-called peace time?

Truth be told, the US did not have a modern  battleship until 1895 when three were added to the fleet: the USS Maine, USS Indiana and the USS Texas. The USS Massachusetts and the USS Oregon came on line a year later. Of course we lost one of them, the Maine, on 15 FEB 1898 which brought us into conflict with Spain. The cause of the explosion that sank the Maine is now questioned. In any event, the Maine was re-floated and then scuttled at sea in 1912.

From the following site, Naval History and Heritage Command, we see the US Navy increase it's capacity for surface warfare dramatically after the loss of the Maine and the declaration of war. Of course this involves the cooperation of Congress to approve the funds necessary to build these war craft. Look at the increase in size of the "Steel" Navy.

SPANISH - AMERICAN WAR
Date	Dec 1896	Dec 1898	Change
Battleship	5	6	20%
Cruiser	16	18	13%
Monitor	6	14	133%
Torpedo Boats	1	12	1100%
Steel Gunboats	11	34	209%
Auxiliaries	1	30	2900%
Screw Steamer	7	16	129%
Screw Sloops	6	4	-33%
Gunboats	5	25	400%
Sailing vessels	1	1	0%
Steel Navy	40	114	185%
Old Navy	19	46	142%
Total Active	59	160	171%

The Great White Fleet - 1907






For a decade after the end of the Spanish American War, the fleet grew to about 175-180 ships. Uncertain political conditions in Europe saw the fleet increase to 245 vessels prior to the commencement of WWI hostilities. Look at the difference in the number of battleships, destroyers and cruisers from the prior war against Spain. By Armistice Day our fleet had increased by over 200%. But this was nothing compared to what would happen to our Navy less than three decades later.

WORLD WAR I
Date	Dec 1916	Nov 1918	Change
Battleships	36	39	8%
Cruisers	30	31	3%
Monitor	3	7	133%
Destroyers	61	110	80%
Torpedo Boats/Frigates	18	17	-6%
Submarines	44	80	82%
Auxiliaries#	25	87	248%
Gunboats/Patrol	28	350	1150%
Total Active	245	774	216%

By 1924 the fleet had been reduced down to 137 surface warships and 376 total active vessels.  However, the biggest decrease was in the number of gunboats, from 350 to only 37. The number of battleships and cruisers were reduced by almost a half.  When the Great Depression hit, it got worse. Nothing changed much until the late 30's and then - 1940 when even the doves and isolationists in Congress saw the handwriting on the wall.

WORLD WAR II
Date	Jun 1940	Aug 1945	Change
Battleships	15	23	53%
Carriers, Fleet	6	28	367%
Carriers, Escort	0	71	n/a
Cruisers	37	72	95%
Destroyers	185	377	104%
Frigates	0	361	n/a
Submarines	64	232	263%
Mine Warfare	36	586	1528%
Patrol	19	1204	6237%
Amphibious	0	2547	n/a
Auxiliary	116	1267	992%
Surface Warships*	237	833	251%
Total Active	478	6768	1316%

*Surface warfare ship totals do not include submarines, mine warfare, patrol or auxiliaries

By 1943 the US Navy had more ships than all other combatant nations combined - that includes allied and enemy navies - the Brits, the Canadians, the Fwench, the Germans, the Japanese, the Italians, everyone.

The end of WWII saw peace dividends realized through the shrinking of our armed forces.  By 1950 we were down to 634 warships, less than a tenth of our WWII levels.  But as the Cold War heated up, our Navy increased again.  By 1968, during the peak of the Vietnam War, we were at 932 warships

COLD WAR / VIETNAM
Date	Jun 1950	Jun 1968	Change
Battleships	1	1	0%
Carriers	15	23	53%
Cruisers	13	35	169%
Destroyers	137	219	60%
Frigates	10	50	400%
Submarines	72	148	106%
Mine Warfare	56	83	48%
Patrol	33	3	-91%
Amphibious	79	162	105%
Auxiliary	218	216	-1%
Surface Warships	161	296	84%
Total Active	634	932	47%

This didn't last long.  As the Vietnam War ended and our nation transitioned to an all volunteer force (1973), our Navy shrunk by 44%; from 932 in 1968 to 523 by 1977.  From then on, our highest level of active warships was under President Reagan - in 1987 we deployed 594 warships.  It has been all downhill since then.  In 2007 we are at our lowest naval strength since 1916; we were down to 278 ships.  When President Bush took office, the Navy was at 318 ships; when he left it was 282.  We are now at 285.

THE 21ST CENTURY
Date	Sep 2007	Sep 2011	Change
Carriers	11	11	0%
Cruisers	22	22	0%
Destroyers	52	61	17%
Frigates	30	26	-13%
LCS *	0	2	n/a
Submarines	53	53	0%
SSBN	14	14	0%
SSGN	4	4	0%
Mine Warfare	14	14	0%
Amphibious	33	31	-6%
Auxiliary	46	47	2%
Surface Warships	115	122	6%
Total Active	278	285	3%

The question still remains before us.  How much is enough? Naval technology has come a long ways to be sure and the capabilities of our warships has changed accordingly.  But it seems that our conflicts are not-state-of-the-art affairs, but more along the lines of combating low-tech thuggish cretins armed with AK-47's and butcher knives.

So if I'm wise I had better leave this question in the hands of military professionals who are vastly more qualified than I to render judgement.  I know they are obsolete and expensive as all get out to man, but I'd sure feel better if we had an Iowa class battleship or three or six floating off the shores of Egypt,  Palestine, Somalia, Iran and Venezuela.  Just to piss them off.

Sad, Very Sad

Whatever happened to the cry,"Millions for defense but not a penny for tribute!" that served to straighten the backbone of many a right minded citizen?

Oh, that was the United States - uttered by Robert Harper in1797 after the fwench demanded a bribe to stop attacking our ships - not the British.

Apparently the Brits were not listening either then or now as their run-away social spending to keep the wogs and white trash happy (tribute) has stripped them of their ability to maintain simple, single ship coverage of their island in the event of an emergency.

No warships left defending Britain after Defence cutbacks

Defence cuts have left the stretched Royal Navy unable to provide an emergency standby ship to protect British waters for a month.

The Navy normally provides a minimum coverage of a frigate or destroyer fulfilling the role of Fleet Ready Escort (FRE) in order to be able to respond quickly to a potential threat at home or abroad.

However, slashed Defence budgets and the war in Libya has meant there hasn't been a vessel available since the start of October.

The last ship to fill the role, called the FRE, was HMS Portland but that left for war games off the coast of Scotland in October, and it is now having a rest period in Plymouth on the south coast.

Former First Sea Lord Admiral Lord Alan West said: "I would hardly say it is a luxury. If there was a terrorism incident in UK waters, this would historically be the ship sent in to deal with it.

"It's a big problem. If we haven't got a ship ready to do this role then it's worrying. It's a very unsatisfactory position to be in."

Toss Another Penguin On The Barbie

As global warming theories circle the drain, its adherents become more shrill and more willing to misrepresent the facts.
From the Daily Mail:

It was hailed as the scientific study that ended the global warming debate once and for all – the research that, in the words of its director, ‘proved you should not be a sceptic, at least not any longer’.

Professor Richard Muller, of Berkeley University in California, and his colleagues from the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperatures project team (BEST) claimed to have shown that the planet has warmed by almost a degree centigrade since 1950 and is warming continually.

Published last week ahead of a major United Nations climate summit in Durban, South Africa, next month, their work was cited around the world as irrefutable evidence that only the most stringent measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions can save civilisation as we know it.

Of course the rhetoric gets hotter as their position gets weaker. Draconian measures must be adopted now, right now, if we are not to die tomorrow. It's the same kind of panic-stricken rhetoric that surrounded the TARP debate just before the politicians pissed away a trillion dollars.

But today The Mail on Sunday can reveal that a leading member of Prof Muller’s team has accused him of trying to mislead the public by hiding the fact that BEST’s research shows global warming has stopped.

Prof Judith Curry, who chairs the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at America’s prestigious Georgia Institute of Technology, said that Prof Muller’s claim that he has proven global warming sceptics wrong was also a ‘huge mistake’, with no scientific basis.
Prof Curry is a distinguished climate researcher with more than 30 years experience and the second named co-author of the BEST project’s four research papers.

Her comments, in an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday, seem certain to ignite a furious academic row. She said this affair had to be compared to the notorious ‘Climategate’ scandal two years ago.

Ant Tossing

You'll just piss her off if you toss your dad's sister onto the sofa.

No, we're talking about those pesky six-legged, formic acid-leaking fellows. Ants get into everything.

But when ants invade a wasp picnic, the wasps have away of dealing with the little pests. The wasps pick them up and take them for a ride. If the wasps have been drinking, they also give them wedgies.

AIRBORNE from Science News on Vimeo.

That's Why It's Called The Death Penalty

Pick your poison, noose, amperage, caliber, axe or sword - it is called  the death penalty and not the death deterrance. We do not execute people because it deters others from committing the same crimes. We do it because they deserve to have their lives taken from them and perhaps others will learn from this. If not, they will meet the same fate.

In Florida this fate has been awaiting Oba Chandler for some time.

The criminal justice system often is not perfect, but justice cries out for Oba Chandler to take his last breath Nov. 15 for the horrific murders of an Ohio woman and her two teenage daughters on Tampa Bay 22 years ago.

The latest development in one of the region's most ghastly cases occurred last week when Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court Judge Phillip Federico turned down a last-gasp appeal by Chandler and his attorney. Chandler, whose death warrant was signed by Gov. Rick Scott, is scheduled to be executed Nov. 15, but Federico's decision has been appealed.

Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Susan Schaeffer sentenced the former aluminum contractor to death in 1994 after a jury recommended he pay with his life for killing Joan Rogers and daughters Michelle and Christe, who had been vacationing in the Tampa area, in the spring of 1989.

Their bodies, nude from the waist down, were found in the bay bound with ropes and duct tape, and with cement blocks tied around their necks. They had been lured on a sunset boating cruise by Chandler.

According to trial testimony and forensic evidence, the three either were strangled or drowned after more than likely being sexually assaulted. And they probably saw the one before them being thrown overboard.

Scripture tells us that God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezek. 18:23), but He does delight in justice. For 22 years the Rogers family has been waiting for justice. Give it to them. And give it to Chandler.

Just How Big Is Our Deficit?

Just how big is a dollar?

A dollar bill is 2.61" wide and 6.14" long and weighs about one gram.

A trillion is a million millions. A trillion one dollar bills would weigh over one million, one hundred thousand  tons (1,102,311 tons).

How big are one trillion one-dollar bills? If your grandma knitted a dollar bill blanket that was as wide as a million one dollar bills side by side and as long as a million dollar bills end to end it would be over 41 miles wide and 96 miles in length. It would cover 3,992 square miles.

If you used it to cover Disney World in Florida it would look like this:

Our national debt has increased from $5.8 trillion in 2001 to the current level of $14.9 trillion - $14,939,575,648,588. As the square root of one trillion is one million, the square root of our national debt is $3.8 million, $3,865,174.72 to be precise.

A one dollar bill the size of our national debt would be 159 miles wide and 374 miles long and would cover 59,637 square miles. It wouldweigh 15.5 million tons and look like this from outer space covering parts of five states:

The Nimitz class aircraft carrier, USS Ronald Reagan, has a flight deck 1,092 feet long and 257 ft.wide which equals 280,644 square feet. A dollar bill is 16 sq. in; it would take 2.5 million one-dollar bills to cover the flight deck. The national debt is large enough to cover the flight decks of almost six million aircraft carriers (5,924,189) the size of the USS Ronald Reagan.

Stuck In Obama'$ Prison

Johnny Cashless sings the blues.

H/T to Charlie

Tuesday News Update

No matter where I turn, it all looks bad.

Under it's new and improved Sharia Law v AD 686.01.23 (yeah, right...), Libya will be lopping off heads and hands in no time flat. Time to invest in Islamic sword manufacturing. I tried looking them up via Google ...  they're all made in China. Bwaaahahahahaha!

Syria will probably be the next country to be invaded  by NATO. The new USAF song, "Off We Go Into A Wild Blue Clusterf**k." President Assad may take heed of Qaddafi's fate and become the next President-for-Life of Uganda. Life can be very good when you run the country like a news stand and you have a fast jet.

Obama's going balls-to-the-wall on his "Congress, Who Needs 'Em!" tour of the US. He will ram his new stimulus package disguised as a jobs bill down the throats of America like Rosie O'Donuts abusing Denny's all-you-can-eat bean burrito buffet. Obama leaks taxpayer money like a Louisiana dike hit by a six-year old with a sprinkler.

The entire European Union is a mess, a fiscal boil ready to pop. In order to remain solvent, Germany will have no choice but to invade Greece by way of France. In a severe cost control move, Italy's Prime Minister Berlusconi announced price controls on all hookers.

The 57 US States are now in the hole for a combined $4 trillion. Estimates on the extent that pension liabilities are responsible for this shortage range from $770 billion to $2.8 trillion. Speaking of unfunded public pension liabilities, the president of the SIEU has announced that it was a union negotiator attempting to gain access to Qaddafi's $200 billion who was responsible for the blunt object being forced up you-know-who's-you-know-what. Qaddafi wasn't swallowing any of it.

After swapping a kidnapped IDF soldier for 127,000 Hamas terrorists, Israel is now about to swap 25 Egyptian terrorists for one Israeli spy. In a related story, the Minnesota Vikings announced that defensive cornerback Chris Cook will be swapped for 9 future parolees from the state's maximum security facility.

The Boy With The Golden Gun

Recent revelations about Libya's newest frozen food entrée indicate that insanity may have been a contributing cause to Qaddafi's death. You have to be insane to have $200 billion stuffed in your mattress and still risk a sweet, sweet retirement party by scurrying  from one sandtrap to another chased by the Sharia mafia.  You end up getting capped by some kid with yellow teeth who just stole your gun.

Muammar Gaddafi secretly salted away more than $US200 billion ($A196 billion) in bank accounts, real estate and corporate investments around the world before he was killed, according to senior Libyan officials.

That's about $US30,000 for every Libyan citizen and double the amount that Western governments previously had suspected.

The new estimates of the deposed dictator's hidden cash, gold reserves and investments are "staggering", one person who has studied detailed records of the asset search said Friday.

If the values prove accurate, Gaddafi will go down in history as one of the most rapacious as well as one of the most bizarre world leaders, on a scale with the late Mobutu Sese Seko in the Democratic Republic of Congo or the late Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines.

Revelation of the stunning size of the portfolio may stir anger among Libyans-about one-third of whom live in poverty.

The kid wearing the Yankees cap allegedly shot Muammar in the head.

Would you have stuck around Libya with that kind of money available to support you and your family in exile? I'd be on a beach somewhere looking at building a cabana half the size of the  island and ordering a few dozen thongs for my bodyguards.

Qaddafi's unemployed bodyguards in happier times.

For a short time Qaddafi hired Michael Jackson as a bodyguard.

I Won't Grow Up

That's what Peter Pan and his little fairy-dusted pals sang to Wendy in the 1960 broadway musical, "Peter Pan," made famous by Mary Martin.

Peter Pan the musical is now Peter Pan the the socialist maneuver, produced by George Soros, directed by the DNC and financed by the US taxpayer through stimulus funding by the company that owns the company that controls Zuccotti Park.

You remember... Brookfield Asset Management, Inc., the corporation that owns Brookfield Renewable Power Fund, which owns Brookfield Office Properties, whose holdings include Zuccotti Park (One Liberty Plaza). And as of December 7, 2010, Brookfield also owns the Granite Reliable wind farm project that just recently received a $168.9 million loan guarantee from the Obama administration. (H/T to Business Insider)

We should all get front row tickets to this show.

But every show needs a star; and there is now a new Wendy.

The Florida mom who ditched her banker husband and four kids to live in Zuccotti Park squalor is a hippie homemaker whose neighbors are horrified by her latest antics -- but are hardly surprised that she flew the coop.

Stacey Hessler, 38 -- a self-described “vegan freak” who’s into dreadlocks, roller derby and “unschooling” her kids -- acts like a self-obsessed college sophomore who never grew up, said a neighbor in her hometown of DeLand, Fla.

“I’m not disgusted she took off [to protest] -- because I’m not surprised,” seethed one next-door neighbor who asked that her name not be published.

“She believes everything should be free,” the neighbor added.

The bong hits of fairy dust will do it every time.

One angry neighbor said yesterday it was hardly surprising that Hessler would leave her kids behind and go radical.

“She’s very bizarre,” the neighbor insisted.

On her Facebook page, Hessler wrote about being a surrogate mom. She also boasted of a panoply of California-style beliefs.

She called herself a “radical unschooling mom of four, midwives assistant, roller-derby queen, rock-star musician, activist, dreadlock princess, African-bee keeper, organic vegan freak and a surrogate for the second time.”

Hessler has gotten even more hippie since she arrived in New York. In Zuccotti Park, she’s been sharing a tarp with a Brooklyn waiter and plans to stay “indefinitely.”

I won't grow up!

I don't wanna take a bath!

I'll be unemployed forever!

Shit on police cars for a laugh!

If growing up means serving my family,

Instead of screwing some waiter under a Zuccotti Park tree,

I'll never grow up!

Never grow up!

Never grow uuuuup!

Not me!

Making America Safer - One Crotch At A Time

Work it baby! Work it!

America has spoken!

We just can't enough degradation and harassment in our nation's airports, so the blue clad bully boyz of the TSA are taking their show on the road!

From the State of Tennessee where dangerous crotches run rampant:

PORTLAND, Tenn. – You're probably used to seeing TSA's signature blue uniforms at the airport, but now agents are hitting the interstates to fight terrorism with Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR).

"Where is a terrorist more apt to be found? Not these days on an airplane more likely on the interstate," said Tennessee Department of Safety & Homeland Security Commissioner Bill Gibbons.

And in your crotch where C-4 grows wild and angels fear to tread.
The TSA motto: "All Your Crotch Are Belong To Us."

Tuesday Tennessee was first to deploy VIPR simultaneously at five weigh stations and two bus stations across the state.

Agents are recruiting truck drivers, like Rudy Gonzales, into the First Observer Highway Security Program to say something if they see something.

Never mind that busload of nuns. Are you ready for the magic?

"Not only truck drivers, but cars, everybody should be aware of what's going on, on the road," said Gonzales.

Now the TSA will randomly yank you put of your car, stand you on the side of the road and root around for any IEC's (Improvised Explosive Crotches) in traffic. Somehow that all makes sense in the land that spawned Al Gore.

I feel a lot safer already.