Archive for July, 2006
Coker tells Miami players no guns allowed on Hurricanes
In the wake of a shooting incident last week near the Miami (Fla.) campus, Hurricanes coach Larry Coker said he plans to discourage players from owning handguns.
“I don’t really want our players to have firearms. I’d rather they would dial 911 to come and handle those type of problems,” Coker said at ACC Football Kickoff media days Monday.
Hurricanes reserve safety Willie Cooper was shot in the buttocks outside his home last Friday morning by an unknown person who fled after Cooper’s roommate, safety Brandon Meriweather, the Hurricanes’ leading tackler last season, returned gunfire. Police said Meriweather used his gun legally because he has a permit for the gun.
This story is in the USA Today, which recently explained that a bystander “tackled” a person who went on a rampage with a knife, rather than write that the bystander had used a 9mm handgun to scare off the attacker.
I’m wondering why they didn’t write this time that Cooper was tackled (he’s a football player, after all) rather than shot, and that Meriweather tackled (he’s a football player, after all, and the team’s leading, um, tackler) the attacker. (via GunPro)
Friday Linkzookery was shelved until a new and improved Perpetual Linkzookery was launched. Then Perpetual Linkzookery was canceled, leaving Linkzookery fans in the lurch like Marines on a hostile shore calling for naval gunfire support.
Anyway, here are a few interesting links:
- Chickenhawk Talk
- Strategy Page on Lebanon
- Winds of Change in Georgia’s 4th District
- Topographical map of Australia
- Animated Map of Areas Targeted by Hizbulla Missiles
- Bloggers save destroyer
- Carnival of the Liberated
- Carnival of Homeschooling (School House Rock Edition)
- Carnival of Cordite #66
- Carnival Cruise Line
- Catamaran to the Rescue
- Strykers Done Ten Million Kilometers
- CNN Reporter Admits He was Propaganda Tool for Hezbollah
- Gun Blogger Rendezvous
- Battle for Bent Jbail as World Convulses
- Somalia Goes from Bad to Worse
- Bill Roggio: IDF, Hezbollah battle over the “Hezbollah Capital”
- Ninety-four percent of Iraqis support a “unity” government
For what it’s worth, Murdoc thinks Somalia has gone from “Worst” to “Even Worster”, but I don’t want to split hairs. In any event, Somalia is still not a prime vacation destination.
Linkzookery. Yes? No?
Via Instapundit comes this at Clayton Cramer’s: Is USA Today Making Stuff Up Now?
From the USA Today on the 21st:
Eight employees were stabbed Friday by a co-worker at a Memphis suburban grocery store, and four were seriously injured, police said. The victims were identified only as six females and two males who worked at the Schnucks grocery.
Memphis Police Sgt. Vince Higgins said the man suspected in the attack was in custody after the incident that was reported at about 9:25 a.m…The suspect was tackled by a witness as he tried to run from the building and was held until officers arrived, Higgins said.
“Tackled by a witness.”
What’s interesting about this is that each and every other news report on this incident claims that the witness ran to his car and retrieved a 9mm handgun. No tackling involved. Here’s how the AP (which USA Today noted as the source of its story) reported it:
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Crew to abandon listing ship in North Pacific
Rescue copters sent to stricken vessel off Alaska; 22 crew members aboard
The Cougar Ace, 230 miles from Adak Island, Alaska. She’s carrying 4,813 new cars headed to Canada from Japan. The cause of the list is unknown.
The Sea-Based X-Band radar has returned once again to Pearl Harbor for repairs. This is the second time it’s been back since setting out for Alaska on March 31. I’m telling you…they should have let the USNS Mercy take a look at it… (via Defense Tech)
Mediterranean Sea (July 22, 2006) — A U.S. Navy Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC) assigned to the Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) and the cruise ship Orient Queen departs Beirut, Lebanon with U.S. citizens. Orient Queen, under contract with the U.S. government, is part of the larger U.S. military mission to assist U.S. citizens in their departure from Lebanon. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Robert J. Fluegel (RELEASED)
I had expected a fairly large-scale invasion by the Israelis by yesterday. Though they’re stepping up their presence across the border, no general invasion so far. Meanwhile, an Israeli helicopter crashed near the border. Hezbollah claims to have shot it down, though the Israelis deny this. Last week, two Apaches collided and crashed, likely due to pilot error.
Last Wednesday, an F-16I crashed during take-off. This is the first and only word I’ve seen that indicates that the F-16Is are taking part in the Lebanon operations.
UPDATE: A reader comments that the UK media is blaming the US for “not doing enough to try and stop fighting”?
We’re already shipping the Israelis more precision weapons. What more do they expect us to be doing?
I had missed the reports of this crash at the Oregon International Air Show last Sunday. It destroyed one house and damaged three others.
The pilot was killed, but fortunately no one else was hurt. There were no “communications of distress” from the pilot before the crash.
Via Alert 5 comes this video:
Download Hawker Hunter Crash (1:42 3.4 MB .wmv)
KOIN news has some before and after photos.
As my update to Thursday’s post indicated:
F-14 delay all about war games, not war
The F-14D Super Tomcat loan program has been put on temporary hold, but not because the aircraft carrier serving as home base for the Navy’s final active squadron is headed for standby duty in the Middle East as reported Tuesday.
The USS Theodore Roosevelt, Navy sources confirmed Wednesday, is actually headed out to sea to engage in a series of long-planned multi-national war games with the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and an array of other Navy vessels.
It’s Operation Bold Step, and it runs through the end of the month.
The exercises and training will see the last-ever carrier landings for the Tomcat.
I know that Tomcat fans had been hoping to see their plane in action one last time, but it was an extreme longshot at best.
Say good-bye to the Belleau Wood (LHA 3):
She was used as a target off Hawaii. Although she absorbed several hits by anti-ship missiles, she did not go down until scuttling charges were detonated along her bottom.
For more info and pics, see Strategy Page.
Lawmaker Calls for Study on Small Carriers
Military.com:
“I think we need to have a working group that’s involved in a more deliberate consideration” of the issue of reducing the size of traditional aircraft carriers to enable procurement of more vessels that may be smaller, but can be distributed across the globe, House Armed Services projection forces subcommittee Chairman Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) said.
The lawmaker’s comments are in part based on discussions from a closed-door roundtable held last week where subcommittee members, Defense Department officials, Navy leaders and defense analysts discussed “the benefits and limitations of smaller carrier platforms as an alternative to the supercarrier,” according to a July 7 panel memo.
The light carrier concept has been discussed previously on MO at Comparing carriers and at European CVLs. I think that the idea has some merit, especially if the F-35 turns out to work as advertised, but I’d caution against writing off the super carrier any time soon. (Comparison pics below the fold)
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