Archive for April, 2006
Solemn ceremony marks 17 years since USS Iowa explosion
Hadn’t noticed anyone pointing it out. A detailed account is here.
The Urban Combat Skateboard madness continues, this time with a Murdoc Junior theme…
Images are screwed up once again. I’m in the middle of fixing them.
The big DreamHost experiment failed miserably. Thought it was worth a shot. I’m setting up yet another off-site image storage location. Hopefully this one will be more reliable.
My early testing (even with a clone of MO) went extremely well at DreamHost. But it just isn’t up to snuff for Murdoc. I guess I can see their astounding bandwidth allowances coming in handy if you’re feeding video or something. As long as you don’t mind intermittent outages that seem to last 15-20 minutes.
But it certainly isn’t good enough for your main content. I will be removing my DreamHost affiliate badges shortly.
UPDATE: Everything should be set now.
I will be attending this weekend’s MilBlog Conference in Washington, DC. I know that a number of cool folks are going to be there. Here are the registrants as of this moment:
Total Registered 187
Total Military Bloggers 52
Total Military Family Members 33
Total Supporters 63
Total Others 36
Murodc, of course, is a “Supporter” and is looking forward to meeting some of the fine folks he’s communicated with in the past three years. If you’re going, give me a shout.
I’ve written several times (most recently here) that not only do I believe that Iraq is in the midst of a civil war, but that I think it’s been going on since the invasion in early 2003. Not only that, but that the current civil war is really only an extension of a civil war that has been raging (at various levels) for decades.
This puts me at odds with nearly all those who support the invasion of Iraq and even with the military’s own press releases. In the minds of many, calling the situation in Iraq a “civil war” is basically defeatist talk and surrender to the critics of the campaign, especially those calling for the withdrawal of our troops. I certainly am not one of “those” types, as regular readers will already know.
In his latest, Michael Yon writes at length about this issue. Here is the meat:
I’ll say it as clearly today as I said it more than a year ago from my perch in Baquba: the civil war is real. It is not abating, it is growing. And it’s growing in part because we have been spackling over the truth about where much of this violence derives, and not addressing the true nature of the enemy.
The kneejerk reaction would be to figure that Yon is dismissing the cause as lost. But, again, anyone who reads him regularly will know that he thinks nothing of the sort.
The Civil War did not start subsequent the invasion; it was already underway. The former Iraqi regime had slaughtered unknown thousands of civilians and buried many of them in mass graves that are still today being discovered and catalogued. If anything, the previous Civil War has merely changed shape, the advantage has clearly shifted, and now that Americans and Europeans are in the combat zone, the war gets more complicated.
Engineering Technicians for Computer Science Corporation (C.S.C.) Beddy Mcbride and Allen Dunbar, overlook the decommissioned aircraft carrier USS Oriskany (CVA 34), during preparations to sink the vessel. Known as the “Big O,” the 32,000-ton, 888-foot Oriskany is in Pensacola, where it is being prepared for its final journey. Oriskany is schedule to be scuttled 22 miles south of Pensacola in approximately 212 feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico May 17, 2006, where it will become the largest ship ever intentionally sunk as an artificial reef. After the Oriskany reaches the bottom, ownership of the vessel will transfer from the Navy to the State of Florida. U.S. Navy photo by Photographers Mate Airman David R. Quillen (RELEASED)
A quick hit by Matthew Cox on Army Times notes that the first M1135 Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Reconnaissance Vehicle Strykers are ready to roll with the newest Stryker Brigade. Previously, Stryker brigades had been using the Fox vehicle for the NBC recon role.
Though the 2nd Cav is headed to Europe this summer, it won’t actually be this 2nd Cav. The 1st Brigade of the 25th Division will reflag as the 2nd Cavalry Regiment and cross the pond. The current 2nd Cav will then reflag as the 4th Brigade of the 2nd Division.
ALSO: Defense Industry Daily notes that the money for an additional 300+ Strykers has been approved. These must be the Strykers for the sixth SBCT, the 56th Brigade (Mechanized), 28th Infantry Division (Mechanized) of the Pennsylvania National Guard.
The other evening I noted that I was busy putting wheels onto an aircraft carrier. Here are the results.
My son’s Cub Scout Pinewood Derby racer:
It raced well but not great. Though he was aiming mostly for a cool-lookin’ car, he wouldn’t have minded winning a lot of races, too. He did win one of his eight heats, but mostly ended up with second-place finishes. A good night overall, and a lot of scouts and parents really liked the car.
A few asked what it was, and he just said “the USS Nimitz”. Like, can’t you see the number, people?
During the preliminary design stage (paper and pencil), he was drawing water droplets onto a basic car shape and I suggested that he make a jetboat racer with water shooting up along the sides. His eyes went wide and he goes “The Nimitz!” We had watched ‘The Final Countdown‘ a few days earlier. At first I wasn’t sure that it was a good idea, but the end product is pretty cool.
He wanted to add outlines of elevators and catapults, but we ran out of time and artistic ability. Although I helped with suggestions and making sure no fingers were lost to the Dremel tool, he did the lion’s share of the work.
Read the rest of this entry »
Iran Appointed to UN Commission on Disarmament
Business as usual at the United Nations, ain’t it? Steve at Threat Watch writes:
Instantly, the ears perked up and the digging began in earnest with memories of Libya chairing the UN Human Rights Commission in 2003.
He notes that this is, if possible, even more laughable. And frightening.
It occurs to me that I haven’t tossed up the old babUN lately. This appointment is exactly the sort of deranged, irrational, world-threatening United Nations maneuver that the babUN was designed to mock.
Have no fear. The United Nations is on the lookout. (And when the babUN is wearing a blue helmet, you know he means business…)
