I think it’s the name of the sub that makes this story particularly delightful:
LONDON — The Royal Navy hastened to assemble an official inquiry Friday evening to explore why Britain’s newest nuclear submarine, H.M.S. Astute, ran aground while undergoing sea trials off the coast of northwest Scotland on Friday morning and remained stuck on a bank of sand and shingle for nearly 10 hours before a tug pulled it free at nightfall. A spokesman for the Royal Navy said divers would be deployed to check concerns that the submarine’s rudder had been damaged.
__
The episode was particularly embarrassing for the navy because the vessel, one of the most technologically advanced submarines in the world, is designed for maximum stealth and use in such delicate operations as delivering special forces troops secretly and eavesdropping off the coasts of hostile nations. Its design features and propulsion mechanisms are considered top secret, naval experts said, but both were on display during the grounding…
__
Residents along the shore of Broadford Bay — close to the spot on the mainland where Prince Charles Edward Stuart, a k a Bonnie Prince Charlie, set sail for Skye after the collapse of his 1745 rebellion against the British monarchy — said the Astute had gone aground well inside red buoys that mark the navigation channel on the approaches to the Skye Bridge….
__
Critics noted that another British submarine, H.M.S. Trafalgar, ran aground off Skye in 2002. At that time, an inquiry found that a crewman had placed opaque tracing paper over a navigation chart to protect it, leading to the submarine’s running onto well-charted rocks.
moe99
This, now this is genius!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkRLxD-aZi0&feature=player_embedded
Moses2317
I’d like to use this open thread to show some love to President Obama for standing up for LGBT youth today with his It Gets Better video. Sure it is a largely symbolic thing, but hopefully it will have some importance for some LGBT youth struggling with bullying. And, it is something that I cannot imagine a Republican President doing.
Winning Progressive
Redshift
Thomas Dolby on Twitter this morning:
Cain
It was probably using a broadcom GPS chip. Sorry, I’m just bitter. I’m returning Samsung captivate today, and Samsung didn’t write a prpoer driver for the all-in-one broadcom chip.
Why is it when we talk about driver FAIL broadcom is in the middle of it? God I hate that company.
cain
Cris
@moe99: Wow, the remix is as fabulous as the original is horrible.
jank_w
At least they didn’t name it the HMS Water Resistant because then… oh wait, what? The Carson Palmer/Jimmy Fallon Joke-a-thon is in Auditorium C12?
Fuck. Wrong floor.
(I don’t even know what this means)
OT: If you were from the US and starting a small manufacturing company, would you make sure all parts you assemble to make your product were made in the USA?
Mike in NC
The Royal Navy once had a destroyer named “HMS Broke”. Wouldn’t have wanted to have been the captain of that one.
lamh32
Alright, just saw this joke from Dave Chappelle, way before Obama. It’s the GOP’s worse nightmare, if Obama had picked an Hispanic VP. He probably wouldn’t have won though if there is one thing that would really scare racist old white people, it would be mexicans and blacks “togetherness”
Anyway, Chappelle says it funnier: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDnYB61o1EU&feature=related
lamh32
@Moses2317:
I agree, here’s what I wrote in another thread:
MeDrewNotYou
The other day, Rocky Horror Picture Show was on one of the movie channels and I finally got it on DVR. It had been ages since I’d last seen it and I forgot how great it was. One thing I noticed that I’m shocked I missed when I first saw it at 13 or so* was Columbia’s boobs fall out during the stage show. Since all of the songs are stuck in my head, and I’ve been meaning to do it for awhile, I’m going to try to lose my virginity. My sister and a few of her friends usually go around Halloween, so I’m going to ask to tag along.
*At that age, I was pausing Return of the Jedi on the mere rumor that one of Jabba’s dancers flashes a nipple. The answer? Oola kinda shows what might be one, but it could very well be the costume.
Martin
@Moses2317: Joe Beese says Obama is still a bigot. If you play the video backward, Obama says “Get your homo dicks away from my generals”. It’s hard to make out, but Joe says if you hit yourself in the head with a brick several times, it comes through clear as day.
Sharl
~Shudder~
Also, too.
Zifnab
@Mike in NC: I guess “HMS We Spent All Our Money On Coke And Hookers” wouldn’t fit on the side of the ship.
Martin
@Zifnab: Hey, it was a British ship, not a Republican one.
Origuy
Flora MacDonald‘s revenge!
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
I’m hoping to take my mother to Skye sometime in the next year or two. We’ve always wanted to go, and as she rounds birthday #75 in November, it occurs to me that we need to keep our word to each other.
I will make a note of this, though, and not travel by sub.
Roger Moore
@moe99:
Already gotten a take-down notice.
jank_w
@Martin: Is it wrong for your comment to make me second guess my party affiliation?
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
@Moses2317: “When progressives vote, everyone wins”
Ain’t that the damn truth!
As I already said on another thread, that video moved me to tears, it really did (which, regular readers of this blog will know is not that hard to do, but still). And I, too, wrote a little something about it!
On an imperfect POTUS, gay kids, & the arc of the universe.
(Actually, I wish I had a dollar for every time this President has moved me to tears. And I wish he were way less frustrating).
Comrade Dread
Clearly the work of Magma-ist terrorists.
This gives us more proof of the insidious nature of our enemy, the Earth, and clearly calls for more off shore drilling to keep our own coasts secure from the scourge of Igneous Earth Devices.
I move to give the oil companies more tax breaks. .
Dennis SGMM
The H.M.S. Astute runs aground in spite – or because of – being packed with advanced technology.
When I was fighting in that other, other, other, war 39 years ago our small and isolated outfit would occasionally be tasked with field testing some new weapon or an add-on to one of the old ones. I once observed that we’d be so busy adjusting all of the settings on one of those mothers that the enemy would easily be able to sneak up and brain us with stone clubs.
lamh32
Only extreme Rahm-haters would be surprised by this. Here’s hoping they can refrain from any “dog-whistles” in their efforts to destroy Rahm!
In Obama’s shadow: Chicago’s blacks warm to Rahm
Once again proving the loyalty Black voters feel towards Obama, GOP could care less they ain’t even trying to get the Black vote (even with MC Steele’s “hip-hop caucusing”), but Dems should also be wary of pissing off Obama MOST LOYAL voting bloc that Dems will need to keep after he’s gone.
lamh32
Nothing to see here folks. It’s late Friday and since it doesn’t fit the MSM meme, it’s gonna be ignored/forgotten come Monday!
NEWSWEEK Poll: Obama Approval Rating Jumps, Democrats Close ‘Enthusiasm Gap’
As the president’s numbers climb sharply, results suggest that Democrats may be succeeding in firing up their base.
jank_w
How the hell do people follow comments on fast moving threads? I got some kind of blog comment dyslexia, start thinking about what I’d write to respond to first commenter, refresh like a dumbass and then there’s ten more. It’s like. Whoa. Kaus for Senate 2010!!101!!
Comrade Dread
@Dennis SGMM: I’m getting more convinced that Lucas had it right.
The most invincible army of the future will be Ewoks with pointy sticks.
Omnes Omnibus
@Martin: The Tories are past masters at this kind of thing. Let’s take the way back machine to the 1960s…
MikeJ
@Omnes Omnibus: A submarine is a hell of a way to clean a moat.
Dennis SGMM
Suspicious package sent to Rep. Grijalva’s office spurs evacuation
LINK
Grijalva is running for his fifth term. Look for the perp, if one is ever caught, to assert that mailing the powder was an exercise of Free Speech. Look for SCOTUS to support that contention.
jwb
@Comrade Dread: “Ewoks with pointy sticks.”
The horror!
eemom
since it’s an open thread, I will just publicly ask myself why I am spending my Friday evening listening to fucking David Brooks play the horse race on Snooz Hour instead of doing something productive like banging my head on the wall.
I need help. I recognize that.
Comrade Dread
@lamh32: I fully expect, however, that this will be largely ignored by everyone.
And if the Democrats happen to rally together and avert a GOP takeover of the House or Senate and minimize their losses, that most of the right wing blogs, radio, and media will be screaming ACORN and voter fraud rather than admit that they were off living in fantasy land with their rosy images of a Republican Resurgence.
Dennis SGMM
@eemom:
Halloween is just around the corner. Some of the movie channels must be showing “The Monster with the Radioactive Brain That Wouldn’t Die,” (1956) – or something similar.
lamh32
Okay, it’s stories like these that really just pisses me off.
Bill Clinton Races to help Democratic candidates
So essentially, if the Dems somehow don’t get blown away on Nov 2, then it’s thanks to Bill Clinton??? Forget about Obama criss-crossing the freaking country having rally after rally, that the MSM seemingly don’t even bother to cover, and it’s Bill “Big Dog” Clinton who will actually get the credit for “saving the day”…REALLY…REALLY!!!
Reporters/journo/commentators/heck ev’rybody knows that the reason some Dems rather have Bill Clinton than Barack Obama is as plain as the “color” of the nose on each of there faces. Bill Clinton’s able to go where Obama doesn’t not because Obama doesn’t “dare” go to these places (I actually think that if the candidate asked him to, Obama would gladly go), but because they know damn well, that “Slick Willy” is just white, I’m sorry, I meant “just right” for their particular electorate!
But hey, telling the whole non-colorblind truth, would be too much for the MSM…ugh, disgusting!
Arclite
And Britian needs stealthy attack subs because…? Argentina is going to attack the Falklands again?
jwb
@lamh32: If those numbers are even close to being true, the Goopers don’t stand a chance. They’ll be lucky to pick up 20 seats.
SBJules
From a Calitics blogger at Obama’s rally at USC today:
Now Antonio Villaraigosa introduces John Perez. If there’s a more potent symbol of a changing nation than 40,000 young people cheering on a Latino mayor introduce a gay Latino Speaker of the House at a rally for our first African-American president on behalf of a stellar progressive female Senator who happens to be Caucasian, all under the banner of “MOVING AMERICA FORWARD”, I can’t think of one. Republicans may or may not make big gains this election. But unless there’s a drastic realignment, their gooses are simply cooked long-term. Demography is destiny; Millennials will only become a bigger and bigger share of the electorate. This crowd is an image of the future; Tea Party crowds are an image of a dying past.
MikeJ
@Arclite: Look at how long it took them to get the actress who played Evita off one of their directors.
celticdragonchick
@Arclite:
Britain keeps a permanent miltary garrison in the Falklands just in case.
Dennis SGMM
@Arclite:
Ze Germans?
lamh32
@jwb:
Here’s the thing, the GOP has gamed the expectations game so much, that now if they don’t pick up “8000 seats” like the Onion parody headlines says, then it should be considered an utter failure.
But these numbers are out so late today, that they will be gladly forgotten by Monday, and just to make it so, expect another Juan Williams/Ginny Thomas/some other GOP trick, distraction tactic.
MikeJ
@jwb:
If the Democrats don’t pick up at least 160 seats in the senate and 3,792 in the house it will prove that murkins have completely refudiated the Obama presidency.
General Stuck
Politics is a disease, Radio waves and wire are the carriers. Blogs fuel the pathogen. Someday, someone will create a brain chip that filters all the bullshit out, and leaves only peaches and cream. When I turn on my computer, I want to see nothing but Unicorns and Fairies, and maybe a little softcore pRon now and then. Until then, it’s white nuckle one day at a time to keep the worst under control. That is the good news.
edit – in my dream, a posse of Balloon Juice trolls chased me all night long, drooling, flaming, and being some nasty little asshats. I woke up before being caught. Sheer dumb luck, I suspect.
jwb
@lamh32: Think of it this way: The media needs a story to cover their asses if the Gooper wave fails to materialize and they can’t give credit to Obama without doing material damage to both their credibility and the attempts that will continue after the election to discredit him. Nevertheless I think the fact that the media is floating this story of Clinton as potential savior is recognition that the media now sees the Dems doing ok in the election as a real possibility.
Comrade Javamanphil
@Redshift: I saw and retweeted. Always my favorite song of his.
lamh32
@jwb:
you might be right, at this point, I’m seriously beginning to believe that the press right now today is just for some reason, maybe cause they have to compete with the crazy that is FOX, just don’t want to give Obama his due, less they be labelled “too liberal”!!!
If Fox News is their idea of Fair and Balanced, then stories like these are NOT surprising!
marcopolo
@Comrade Dread: Well, perhaps you weren’t aware, but Dick Armey is pre-spinning positive Democratic election results by stating strong Democratic early voting in a lot of places is evidence of increased voting fraud in this year’s election which would, of course, cast suspicion on any good Dem results. Here’s the video from TPM.
Kyle
It was soon followed onto the rocky shoals by HMS Drunk, HMS Lost and HMS WhatTheHellLet’sTryGoingThisWay.
eemom
oooh, look at that sweet young nerdy NYT reporter on Olbermann who broke that awesome “follow the $$” headline today.
Soooo cute.
Sort of like a Nate Silver for 2010 — except he already works for the NYT so there’s no need for him to sell out.
soonergrunt
@celticdragonchick: And there have been recent incidents with the Argentine Navy since oil was discovered in the Falklands a couple of years ago.
Of course, the British keep nuclear attack submarines because they feel they need them. It’s the aircraft carriers they’re building that I couldn’t figure out. Two carriers even as they were only ever going to buy/build enough aircraft to warrant one ship.
jwb
@lamh32: oh, yes, the media will take great care not to mention these numbers—and I’m sure Rasmussen will be out with 35 polls by Sunday showing the Dems are as doomed as ever to give cover to the talk shows. The issue is whether these polls are registering something real, because if they are then whether or not the media reports the results is basically immaterial (it’s not like the media has given us any help so far). Given my experience at the call center, I think these numbers are real. The people I called are pissed and motivated—and they are certainly not pissed at Obama and the Dems. Judging by activity around here, I think the enthusiasm of the Gooper base seems to be flagging.
Mike in NC
@SBJules:
There was yet another article in the paper this past week about what a phenomenal election this’ll be for the GOP.
Couldn’t help but notice not one of the individuals interviewed was under the age of 70!
Our amazing brain-dead MSM in action…
Maude
@lamh32:
#33
Saw that and got angry. This is the guy who signed 2 financial biils that helped bring about the meltdown in 2008, put the offset onto Social Security, did Welfare Reform, NAFTA and 3 strikes you’re out, etc. What a humanitarian.
The Clintons are trying to stage a political comeback.
marcopolo
@SBJules: You know, I really, really want to believe that the whole demographics portend the end of the Republican party thesis; however, this is the United States where the average attention span of the average citizen seems to be about 15 minutes and in the brief span (to me at 47) of 20 months a huge swath of the country seems to have forgotten the rotten job Bush and his party in Congress did in leading this country from 2000-2008. Where an eighteen-year-old Hispanic’s head and voting will be at 20 years from now (or what propaganda the Republican party will be pushing by then) seems fairly unknowable, like predicting what the weather will be like on election day in 2012.
lamh32
I love the snark that is Wonkette:
DYING AFRICANS CAN WAIT: Old Man Clinton Trots Self Out To Save Democratic Party
jeffreyw
It’s the mustard.
Omnes Omnibus
@soonergrunt: They need the second one for when the first one is in the shop. Cue jokes about Lucas (the Prince of Darkness) lights and how the pieces falling off the car/motorcycle, etc., are “genuine British parts.” These are funny/sad if you ever owned a classic British sports car or motorcycle.
PurpleGirl
@Maude: He also had a Republican Congress which would have been able to over-ride a veto. Just saying…
General Stuck
@lamh32:
You could be the answer to my discontent madame. Your dispatches of OH noes!! good news, is in dire need for the forlorned obot. Who cares about anything else with the wingnut ghouls pounding the trail, nipping at our heels?
I will pay anyone a passel of praise to invent a pie program that only lets the lamh32 signal thru the maelstrom of stupid.
Make that two passels of praise.
jwb
@marcopolo: I don’t think there is any danger of that 18-year-old Hispanic changing political allegiances without the Republicans radically changing tactics. And if the Republicans change tactics, then we’ll really be playing the game on entirely different ground, and that ground will on the whole be more favorable. I think that’s one reason we’re having such a pitched battle right now: the ground of the future does not look very good at all for traditional conservative constituencies but at the moment those constituencies still have enough money and power to live in denial. They also have enough money and power to cause the country a world of hurt as it moves to the new ground, and it’s not yet clear that they won’t take that option.
jank_w
Don’t know what Terry ManCauliff has against yellow legal pads, but when he says
[“He literally sat down with a yellow legal pad,” said McAuliffe, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee]
I kind of want to punch him in the left eye.
Ok, that has nothing to do with yellow legal pads, but my point still stands.
Martin
@jwb: Registered vs likely voters. Don’t count your votes until they’re cast.
calipygian
My favorite is still HMS Beaver. You know, cuz, heh heh, heh heh heh, HMS stands for, heh heh, “Her Majesty’s”, heh, so, it’s, you know, heh heh heh, Her Majesty’s Beaver.
Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh.
Steeplejack
Rangers just scored in the bottom of the first inning. Die, Yankees, die!
Omnes Omnibus
@calipygian: HMS stands for Her Majesty’s Ship. But don’t let my pedantry stand in the way of a joke.
Maude
@PurpleGirl:
He signed the bills. He didn’t veto them.
He was in line with the Republicans.
He said recently that he didn’t think the 2 financial bills had much to do with the financial crisis.
A few weeks later he said he would have like to be known for standing up against one of the bills, but I can’t remember which one.
lamh32
Okay,
this has nothing to do about nothing, but I just had to post it here, cause my reaction was “oh damn”!!
Ain’t none of my business, but I like Jamie Lee Curtis (True Lies is probably one of my fav movies evah. If it comes on tv, I’m watching it, regardless of the fact that I have it on DVD. In fact, hold up, I may actually go ahead and watch it before I go to sleep tonight…lol!
Source: Jamie Lee Curtis Written Out of Father’s Will
Anyway, it seems that Jamie Lee and her dad weren’t really close, but still damn.
Cat Lady
@jeffreyw:
That’s one great looking dog you got there jeffreyw. Kudos.
David Fud
Speaking of the US military, wikileaks just finished their document dump…
For the truly intrepid (and I am not): warlogs.wikileaks.org
According to Wikileaks: “The Iraq War logs show how US ignored torture, according to the UK Guardian analysis. The numerous reports of detainee abuse, often supported by medical evidence, describe prisoners shackled, blindfolded and hung by wrists or ankles, and subjected to whipping, punching, kicking or electric shocks. Six reports end with a detainee’s apparent death.”
Unfortunately, not much of a surprise, though the documentation may prove quite a case of heartburn for the US. I guess at this point, I shouldn’t count on that, though.
MikeJ
@Steeplejack: We could very well have a Texas-San Francisco World series, with game 5 the day before the election and game 6 the day after. Do you think any other cultural baggage might get attached?
Fuck the yankees!
Go SF Sodomites!
calipygian
@Omnes Omnibus: That’s okay. I didn’t get the joke when the Brits giggled over USS Ponce until I went back to make deep dives into my Monty Python collection.
PurpleGirl
@Maude: Yes, I know he signed them. But had he vetoed them the Republicans would have passed them over his veto. Not saying the bills were good; I believe that losing the regulation did lead to the current economic problems. Just that they would have been become law anyway.
jeffreyw
@Cat Lady: Thank you, Ma’am. He’s just a mutt, but he does what I ask of him.
soonergrunt
@Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, I can see that, but the planes typically go into the shop when the boat does. At least, that’s how Navies that operate multiple aircraft carriers (the USN and the USN ONLY) do it.
Odie Hugh Manatee
I was listening to Tweety a bit earlier and when he went to a segment about Sharon Angle I looked up (busy working out in the garage) and watched a short clip of her uttering her ‘Man up Harry’ line over and over in a ‘speech’ she was giving. Angle has this weird thing about showing her lower teeth while talking and pausing between lines and applause. It almost looks like the reverse of what I would consider normal, like a reverse smile. I notice that the more conservative a person is, the thinner their lips are and they tend to have frown creases engraved into their faces from a lifetime of pressing their lips together and frowning because of their being bitter and angry all of the time.
Angle takes it to whole other level by having what I would describe as the lip action opposite that of a runway model (and a lot of people). Where models show most of their teeth (upper and lower) while smiling, Angle’s upper teeth rarely show yet her lower teeth are there to check for cavities. She is stretching her lower lips outward and down, pulling the upper lip over her upper teeth.
I know it’s odd to note this but it just looks creepy to me. It kind of looks like a wild animal that wants to take a chunk out of your ass.
Davis X. Machina
@Comrade Dread: There is a non-insignficant slice of the left that will also be pissed, albeit secretly pissed.
The long-awaited purge of DINO’s, sellouts, hacks, trimmers and waffle artists necessary before the emergence of the real Democratic party and a real progressive politics — rather like the birth of a new Spinal Tap — may have to a bit more long-awaited.
If only those contradictions heightened themselves….sigh.
jwb
@Martin: That’s really the rub, isn’t it? Who shows up at the polls. In any case, I stand by my claim that if the numbers in that Newsweek poll are accurate, gains by Republicans will be very modest.
joeyess
Seems as if Palin and Beck are BFF’s again. I found this over at Digby’s place, in which the Wasilla Snowbilly and Professor America were discussing Alan Grayson:
A while back they weren’t so chummy:
Here’s Teh Professor in response:
I submit that we refer to Beck as “Professor Hoot” from this point forward.
Just sayin’.
Cat Lady
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
I’ve noticed that too – they all look constipated, or teh CrAzEe.
lamh32
So I have this friend who was my roommate in college. We are both African Americans, I’m straight, she’s a lesbian. So I posted the vid of President Obama’s “It Gets Better” video, and I wanted to ask her opihion on it. So what started as an intial convo about the vid became a smaller discussion on her personal inteactions with the LGBT community.
Her final comment was interesting, so I though I’d repost it here.
Robert Sneddon
The Astute is the newest British attack submarine design and it was on its shakedown cruise after commissioning. Stuff breaks and goes wrong on such cruises. The A-class subs (each sub in a given class has a name starting with the class letter, in this case A) might end up carrying Britain’s nuclear deterrent using submarine-launched cruise missiles if the replacement programme for the V-class Trident SSBNs is cancelled as is likely.
As for the aircraft carriers currently being built nobody is sure what aircraft they will actually carry. They don’t, as of this moment, have catapults so they would be limited to STOVL aircraft and helicopters. There aren’t any suitable STOVL aircraft available to embark on them when the first carrier is due to enter service around 2014 (they should be carrying F-35 STOVL variants but we may not have the cash to buy them) so it might end up being the world’s largest helicopter carrier instead. The contracts to build the carriers can’t be cancelled without penalty clauses that mean it would cost more not to complete them thanks to the Labour government.
To pay for the carriers the Royal Navy is going to have to accept cuts in its frigate and air defence destroyer replacement programme so the carriers will lack an effective anti-submarine and anti-air screen if they are ever deployed. The hope is that they never have to fight more than a third world enemy armed with pointed sticks otherwise Britain could well suffer an expensive Belgrano incident.
lamh32
btw,
the las vega rally is on C-SPAN I believe, and I read somewhere that MSNBC may be showing it as well.
I’m not too sure though, since i no longer have cable.
MikeJ
@Robert Sneddon: Bye-bye empire, empire bye-bye
Shallow water – channel and tide
Mark S.
@joeyess:
Are there any non-closeted Republicans anymore?
And as a straight male, I’m hardly an expert on this, but Todd Palin is better looking than Alan Grayson.
tom p
OK, I have decided to comment here at least once every day…
Posters, I read your posts every day and appreciate the time and thought you put into the things you say, I don’t always agree, but I always read.
Commenters,….
You need to get a life.
Robert Sneddon
@soonergrunt:
The Royal Navy has been operating multiple carriers pretty much since they were invented and there are currently two in service, the Ark Royal and Invincible. I don’t know what the manning and flight operations schedules for the Harriers on the existing carriers are when one of them is dry-docked but it is possible the air wing is rotated onto another carrier.
HMS Ocean is a large helicopter carrier used for amphibious operations and it can ferry Harriers but can’t support them in an extended combat role.
morzer
One truly excellent post on what journalists are failing to do and what the teabaggers are really like:
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/sharron-angle-nevada-senate-race-102210
morzer
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
What worries me about the right-wing people I’ve encountered is the strange glazed eyes that appear to be looking into some other dimension, even as the mouth repeats meaningless talking points, known lies and shameful slogans directed against their fellow Americans.
Robert Sneddon
@MikeJ:
We still have the subs and the drivers too. It is said by the US Navy that the one thing they fear in an all-out war would be a British attack sub and its driver coming after their carriers or as the drivers call them, “targets”.
As for Empire, we had it and we gave it up. It wasn’t the initial cost, it was the upkeep that eventually screwed us financially. It’s a lesson the US is slowly learning (700 billion a year and rising…).
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Cat Lady:
That scared the shit right outta me. Yer a meanie! And you are right. They look like they haven’t taken a dump in years.
Conservatives could measure their ‘conservativeness’ using what I call The Couch Cushion Test. All you need is a couch, a stopwatch and a test subject. Have the subject sit down on a couch and then stand up. Start the stopwatch when they stand and time how long it takes for the couch cushion to fall off their ass.
If the cushion doesn’t stick to their ass, they’re liberal. If the cushion falls off after any length of time then they’re somewhere between liberal and conservative, with the more conservative subjects clenching the cushion longer. If the cushion stays stuck then they’re definitely conservative. If they complain that the couch is very uncomfortable to sit on, then they’re libertarian.
If the cushion and couch disappear and the person denies that there was ever a cushion or a couch then they’re REALLY, REALLY conservative.
The Institute For A Meaningful Apocalypse
trap
Anne Laurie
@Arclite:
Never, never never trust a Viking. Sure, the fvckkers have been quiet for a few centuries now, but you know they’re just lying in wait. Skye is crawling with red-headed, ski-jump-nosed Scots whose ancestors could’ve warned you about those
NorwegianDanish bustards…Odie Hugh Manatee
@morzer:
I agree. Bachmann is a prime example of the shiny-eyed crazy on the right. Another thing I notice is that the more conservative tend to have what I call a ‘cruel face’. When they smile it isn’t a nice smile, it’s more like a croc smiling right before they snap at you.
Faces are fascinating in that they tend to reflect the inner personality of an individual. Cruel eyes live on cruel faces. Look at pics from an Obama/Democrat rally and those from an equivalent Teabagger/Republican event. The facial contrasts are like night and day.
stuckinred
I’m reading “The Measureless Peril” about the “Battle of the Atlantic” in WWII. It’s a great read but I understand that there are much more detailed histories of the many aspect of that campaign. One interesting thing about the UK-US relationship is that the Brits did not tell us that they had broken the German code until after Pearl Harbor.
stuckinred
@Anne Laurie: Thank you, thank you very much. We conquered the world and then said, nahhhh, you can have it back!
Omnes Omnibus
@Anne Laurie: @Arclite: Don’t forget the French.
Mike in NC
The reality for the RN and every other NATO navy is probably no carriers, period. We can’t really afford more of them either, but don’t tell that to Congress, who insists on keeping obsolete mothballed WW2 battleships on the books, because Saint Reagan coughed up the money to reactivate them way back in the 1980s.
Anne Laurie
@stuckinred: Be careful about taking too much credit, there. Karl Rove looks exactly like my Norwegian-American brother-in-law, but I don’t think the rest of you want to claim kinship…
stuckinred
@Anne Laurie: My people are from Stevanger and look nothing like that toad!
Corgi Fun for friday.
stuckinred
@Mike in NC: I visited the North Carolina in Wilmington this spring. I thought it was really interesting that they investigated replacing the analog fire control system with a computerized version but found the analog to be too accurate to make it cost effective.
Anne Laurie
@stuckinred:
__
The Spousal Unit’s people are from Nordfjord, but fortunately only one of the four brothers is Karl’s physical twin. My people are from Galway Bay, out of the Scottish lowlands, but I’ve got some Viking genes and the coloring to prove it.
Thanks for the corgis — I’m saving that link for the Spousal Unit. When I first announced I was getting a dog, he was voting for a corgi, but they’re more dog than I thought I could cope with as a newbie. I’ve known a few since, and they are cute, smart, inventive & one hella handful!
El Cid
This was so obviously going to happen that I said it right here last day or so.
The right always looks for opportunities to cut public broadcasting funds.
This is just another great occasion to do so.
Why can’t we have “honest debate of today’s issues” on how Muslims are scary and make people think they’re going to kill us? Why can’t we have an honest debate about how black people make me think of criminals and drug dealers? Why can’t we have an honest debate about why we are nervous about Asian people because they might kill and eat our pets?
morzer
If anyone cares about these little things, the Rangers are 5-1 up at the top of the 6th….
J. Michael Neal
FTFY! FTFY! FTFY! FTFY! FTFY! FTFY! FTFY! FTFY! FTFY! FTFY! FTFY! FTFY! FTFY! FTFY! FTFY! FTFY!
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!
stuckinred
@Anne Laurie: I’ve also got Limey and County Clare up in here!
Viva BrisVegas
@Mike in NC:
I wouldn’t get too snarky. It was named after Capt Phillip Broke, the captain of HMS Shannon which handed the USS Chesapeake it’s arse in the War of 1812.
soonergrunt
@Robert Sneddon: I wouldn’t call them carriers, certainly not on the scale that the two new ones are supposed to be. The ships the RN calls carriers today are more like the US Amphibious Assault Ships with their inability to project offensive air for more than short surges, and even their defensive capabilities near too small to protect themselves.
As far as the VSTOL F-35, I think that the money can’t buy the physics to make it work. It can’t produce enough lift to be able to do anything more interesting than make some noise, and what little capability it has is too damned expensive even for us. The USMC (and the RN and RAF by extension) is about to get out of the STOVL game for good. That body is dead, it’s just still walking around for a few more minutes. With the USMC’s eventual cancellation of the STOVL version, the costs on that model for anyone else who wants it, which is to say only the RN and RAF, will go through the roof. The naval RTORL version will also end up going to the Marines, and the RN will end up putting arresting gear and catapults on at least one of their new carriers.
But I could be wrong. Never underestimate the ability of the US Congress to throw billions of dollars at a problem in forlorn hope of making it violate the laws of physics, cough Future Combat Systems cough
stuckinred
@soonergrunt: I’m taking a wild ass guess that you are feeling pretty well?
J. Michael Neal
Six more outs.
stuckinred
@J. Michael Neal: Are the Rangers still all evangelical and shit?
Mike in NC
@stuckinred:
I drive past it every day going to and from work. Often called the “Art Deco” battleship from its inception in the late 1930s. Very interesting for museum ship fans and model builders like me.
SpaceSquid
As one of our resident Brits, I guess it falls to me to point out what is obviously going on. This is clearly a Tory plot to prevent the abolition of Trident!
“We don’t need four submarines to adequately defend the UK!” say the lefties.
“Well, what if one of those three submarines CRASHES INTO SKYE!?!” comes the reply.
It’s strategic incompetence; just like when my housemate washes up so badly that I have to re-do it in any case. It’s also the latest iteration of a long-standing hawkish strategy: “Vote for more military spending, because there’s no telling how badly we might fuck up with what we have right now”.
stuckinred
@Mike in NC: Ah, you are a modeler! My dad was an APD sailor in WWII, USS Crosby DD164- APD-17. I bought a resin model of the Roper and realized I was in WAY over my head. I went online to the Ship Model Forum and found a fellow in Iowa that was willing to build it for me for free. It’s taking some time but the photo’s he has sent are great. I visited the Alabama with the old man in 96 and I was amazed how much he knew about that ship. He was enlisted in WWII and after her graduated from college took a commission and served on a DE in Korea.
M. Bouffant
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
Saw that too. Angle is disturbingly lacking in plain old human affect, as well.
And how amusing that the big Republican slogan this yr. is “man up,” which they seem to have appropriated from Miller Lite adverts. As in MillerCoors. Hmmmm.
Mike in NC
@stuckinred:
I can hook you up with a few good sites.
jl
The Brits seem to have a long standing problem with their stuff running into rocks on, or in the vicinity of, their own coast. Good thing this one came out better.
Scilly naval disaster of 1707
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scilly_naval_disaster_of_1707
J. Michael Neal
@stuckinred: They aren’t the Yankees, so I don’t care.
Besides, Elvis Andrus is one of the most entertaining players in the game.
Edit: I do think that Vladimir Guererro is evangelical, but I don’t know for which god, and he probably doesn’t, either.
morzer
@jl:
That does tend to happen when you live on an island. Any naval nation is going to have shipwrecks. It’s just cost of business.
Maody
the front fell off
SpaceSquid
@jl: We can cope with one major disaster every three hundred years. Besides, have you ever been to the Isles of Scilly? That place has more jagged spikes than a S&M disco.
stuckinred
@Mike in NC: Here’s where he was this summer. USS Crosby I find it very interesting but with my eye’s and old hands it’s beyond my capability to build one. I have enough trouble working on my 66 Chevy Fleetside!
soonergrunt
@stuckinred: Mostly. I get tired very easily these days for some reason. The doctor doesn’t think anything about it though, so maybe that will go away. I’m now just about six weeks post-op. I go back to working out next week. That will no doubt suck at first. Thanks for asking. How are you doing?
stuckinred
@J. Michael Neal: I thought I recalled a time in the recent past when the would only hire thumpers.
J. Michael Neal
Three more outs.
No one could have provided greater leadership with that strikeout than Captain Derek Jeter.
stuckinred
@soonergrunt: Hell I’m fine. Had some issues with my leg and went in and it turns out it’s just tight IT bands. I swim about 3/4 of a mile everyday and we walk a couple in the am so I’m doing well for almost 61. We have a new CIO that came directly from West Point and, after he said he wasn’t a hit man, we lost 15 people to a reorg a couple of weeks ago. Besides the fact that I live in this asshole Paul Braun’s district and the Bulldogs got off to awful start, I’m fine as frog hair. Thx.
J. Michael Neal
@stuckinred: I don’t know of such a time. Josh Hamilton is a thumper, but I think it was the baseball thumping that John Hart cared about. Besides, Hamilton is fairly low key about it; his troubles seem to have taught him humility.
C.J. Wilson is kind of annoying, but I can forgive a few faults in a lefty with a 129 ERA+.
MikeJ
I’ve never seen it, but the on screen guide describes TCM’s 8:15 as “Fascinating mixture of science fiction and social comment, sparked by a motorcycle gang and radioactive children.”
What’s not to like?
Tattoosydney
@Viva BrisVegas:
Hee.
stuckinred
@J. Michael Neal: I must be wrong.
Tattoosydney
@Maody:
Genius, as ever.
Wordsmith
Since this is an open thread, I’ll ask this question here. Someone told me today that the Obama administration had a law passed that protected Barack, Michelle, their family, their administration, AND Congress from prosecution for illegal activity.
Now I seem to recall something like this during the Bush administration but so help me Dog! after yesterday and today at work, I cannot THINK! Does anyone have any idea about what I’m talking?
J. Michael Neal
One. More. Out.
MikeJ
One. More. Strike.
stuckinred
backwards k
J. Michael Neal
Woooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!
My mother has to scare up a couple of World Series tickets.
MikeJ
The Yankees lose the pennant! The Yankees lose the pennant! The Yankees lose the pennant!
Binzinerator
The H.M.S Astute, which ran aground.
Ah, what’s in a name.
There was the H.M.S Invincible, which when it met German shells it wasn’t anything of the sort; it blew up and sank in a minute.
And the H.M.S. Repulse, which when Japanse torpedo bombers attacked, it couldn’t.
Though truly, I do love the names the Brits give their ships. And neither of the last two ships went down due to lack of seamanship or fighting spirit.
So as for the Astute, I can’t image an island nation that possesses neither numerous battalions of tanks nor wings of aircraft but whose identity, security, history and national pride is so intertwined with its navy that it would hand off the command of its finest and most advanced naval asset to some incompetent bumble-fuck twit of a skipper.
[Looks over shoulder at years of Bushco at the helm of our ship of state]. Awww fuck!
calipygian
Good thing George isn’t alive to see this.
Crza
FTFY!
Er, I mean, congrats to the Rangers!
Davebo
Yes, someone told me today that from now on all milk would be chocolate milk.
I ignored them because I didn’t want to sound like an idiot in public.
To each his own I guess….
Nick L
I know most of you are as tired of hearing about Juan Williams as I am, but here he is hosting the O’Reilly Factor tonight, calling for the removal of federal funding for NPR (along with sole guest and deficit-hypocrite par excellence Tom Coburn):
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201010220051
What an asshat.
YellowJournalism
@Davebo: Both of those statements sound like something Brittany from Glee would randomly say.
Cain
@lamh32:
The portland weekly, had an almost triumphant headline about how teabaggers have not found a foothold in Oregon and even better Obama is very welcome here.
There is no sign of a single tea bagger running here in Oregon. The people the Republicans have been running are fairly moderate, but they don’t have any ideas. The guy running against Ron Wyden is a constitutional scholar and a law professor. The guy running for governor against kitzhaber is a former trailblazer. He doesn’t seem to have any ideas other than tax cuts.
Any candidate that talks about tax cuts especially republicans are dead to me. Tax cuts == no new ideas.
cain
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Cain:
Ummmm…. Art Robinson is “fairly moderate”?
Are you feeling ok? You might need to see a doctor.
moe99
@Arclite:
Actually there is a problem because oil has been discovered in the Falklands and the Argentinians want it.
losingtheplot
@SpaceSquid: HMS Asstoot is a ‘hunter-killer’ sub, i.e. protects the ‘boomer’ Trident subs that carry our ‘independent nuclear deterrent’ missiles, you know, those missiles that we lease from the US, and can’t fire without US satellite assistance. How independent of us!!
Wordsmith
@Davebo: Sometimes ya just need a reality check. I mean – a REAL one.
SpaceSquid
@losingtheplot
Yeah, I realised that after I wrote my post. Still, maybe Cameron just wants to make the point without risking an actual nuclear-armed sub…