Free Republic

You were right...ANYTHING would be better than what we have now!

“I’d really love for somebody to compile a list of “the world’s great civilizations,” with their starting and ending dates showing an average of 200 years.

The Chinese civilization is arguably at present around 3000 years old, the Japanese around 1500.

Rome lasted somewhere between 800 and 2000 years, depending on how you figure it.”

The keyword is “democracy”! Chinese and Japanese “civilizations” were never democracies!

The Roman democracy only lasted for 300+ years until it was destroyed by the establishment of the empire with its autocratic, imperial leaders.

I agree that there would seem to be collusion. I also wonder why none of the “pundits” have brought this up after all the agonizing scrutiny of the debate.

By the way, I like your byline concerning how to fight the current “wars”!

“I still want to know how Obama knew Crowley had the Rose Garden transcript in front of her.”

BINGO! Obama should have had no way of knowing Crowley had that particular transcript. Crowley also seemed to have it in immediate readiness. HMMMM!

O’Reilly has been totally one-dimensional in his crusade against oil companies. His position that producing more oil would only increase exports deliberately ignores the benefits of increased domestic production such as: JOBS, Oil Extraction royalties and more national energy security.

“All very pretty. But it won’t give him one more second of life when an FA-18 Super Hornet acquires him and locks a Phoenix missile on his arse from 40 miles away”

UHHHH The Phoenix was a system used on the F-14, not the F-18. No longer in service.

“There will always be friendly fire deaths in war. They have been greatly reduced, but “#^&%* happens” as the saying goes. I found out three years after leaving Vietnam that my platoon were very nearly casualties of a friendly fire Time On Target that Division had aimed at the NVA platoon we were waiting to ambush. Thankfully, a diligent radio operator noticed the conflict and alerted our company artillery forward observer who called “Check Fire” in time.”

You are so right about “accidents” happening. In 1967 I noted that two friendly units had accidentally came into contact with each other and had called for artillery support. Fortunately, the Fire Direction Center involved noted that each had called for fire on the other. This not only stopped the artillery, but notified the two units about the identity of their “adversary”!

“There will always be friendly fire deaths in war. They have been greatly reduced, but “#^&%* happens” as the saying goes. I found out three years after leaving Vietnam that my platoon were very nearly casualties of a friendly fire Time On Target that Division had aimed at the NVA platoon we were waiting to ambush. Thankfully, a diligent radio operator noticed the conflict and alerted our company artillery forward observer who called “Check Fire” in time.”

You are so right about “accidents” happening. In 1967 I noted that two friendly units had accidentally came into contact with each other and had called for artillery support. Fortunately, the Fire Direction Center involved noted that each had called for fire on the other. This not only stopped the artillery, but notified the two units about the identity of their “adversary”!

I’m not a French apologist, but enough is enough. The French fought valiantly in WWI and in WWII were basically let down by their leadership. The following stats speak for themselves:

World War I cost France 1,357,800 dead, 4,266,000 wounded (of whom 1.5 million were permanently maimed) and 537,000 made prisoner or missing — exactly 73% of the 8,410,000 men mobilized, according to William Shirer in The Collapse of the Third Republic. Some context: France had 40 million citizens at the start of the war; six in ten men between the ages of eighteen and twenty-eight died or were permanently maimed.

I’m sceptical about McCain’s sincerity. Obviously, there is much political hay to be made by saying he wants to raise oil/gas production. But...

“Quite rightly, I believe, we confer a special status on some areas of our country that are best left undisturbed. When America set aside the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, we called it a “refuge” for a reason.”

I would like to see McCain visit the part of the ANWR “refuge” where drilling would take place in November (or any other month).

As I understand it, he may “support” offshore drilling 50 miles out, but only if the state (like Florida and Calif) want it. Both states currently (with R governors) aren’t in favor. He can thus make his statement about drilling with no real attribution.

He has swallowed the Cap and Trade business hook, line and sinker to gain enviro’s support. Somethings don’t necessarily compute.

“I guess Killer giant would be an 8 inch round, but there are no more 8 inch howitzers in the US Army.”

I did some experimenting with this in Vietnam and it certainly was an attention getter. Also 175mm used in direct fire and 175mm powder charge only for close in.

Why don’t you ask Alaskans and the State of Alaska what they think about ANWR. For your information an extremely high proportion of Alaska is tied up by the Feds and is thus unusable. Further, our ANTI-energy federal legislators continue to interfere with most aspects of develpment of natural resources.

Ref ANWR: an estimated 2000 acres out of 5 M acres is the amount asked for to explore the field. As you may know, the economy of Alaska is largely dependent on resource development, to include oil.

It appears to me that you are like the individual who said, “don’t confuse me with fact...my mind is made up”!

There are varying estimates on just how much oil is available in ANWR.....with some being a little more optimistic than yours. Obviously, we also need to drill numerous other places as well. As of now we have no real positive energy policy, and haven’t for 25 years.

Oil alone is not the answer, but all other really useful sources are also presently off the table.

Having lived in Alaska for over 20 years, I’m quite aware that the caribou have adapted quite nicely (thank you) to oil, gas and pipeline development.

As for ANWR being a “pristine wilderness”... it would more likely be on the short list for the best place to give the earth an enema!

OOPS! 2006

What’s really ironic is that Crinton’s “reason” was that the oil “wouldn’t be available for at least 10 years”! Gee, you mean we could have had the oil available in 1006?

We are being sold down the river by both the democrats and our very own presidential candidate (and a few others).

Our illustrious “leader” lead a small group of RINOs to kill ANWR (and offshore drilling) just a couple of years ago (2005 or 2006). I’m sure he’s hoping that some of the people from the “Short Attention Span Theater” will forget this in November. You may have noticed that he managed to be absent from this vote.

Also don’t forget that the repubs actually passed a bill to open ANWR and offshore drilling 12 years ago, but it was vetoed by Crinton.

Sacrifices? You betcha. Hopefully your military service was easier.
You want to talk about sacrifices?! I remember one time in Hawaii when our hotel was a block from the beach. Another time it was on the beach, but we didn’t get beach view rooms. And don’t even get me started on the times the TV remote didn’t work.

I presume this is supposed to be humor?

My curiosity has been aroused as well, so I did a short google search. I found that welding became more common during WWI because it speeded repairs, etc. During WWII welding, rather than riveting, greatly speeded up construction and repairs. I vaguely recall that Kaiser shipyards were producing ships in unheard-of short times and were using prefabrication. I was pretty young during WWII, but recently found several copies of prints of Liberty Ships among things my parents left. These prints were apparently were given to shipyard workers.

excerpt from a google reference:

Modern ships, since roughly 1940, have been produced almost exclusively of welded steel. Early welded steel ships used steels with inadequate fracture toughness, which resulted in some ships suffering catastrophic brittle fracture structural cracks (see problems of the Liberty ship). Since roughly 1950, specialized steels such as ABS Steels with good properties for ship construction have been used.

Modern shipbuilding makes considerable use of prefabricated sections; entire multi-deck segments of the hull or superstructure will be built elsewhere in the yard, transported to the building dock or slipway, then lifted into place. This is known as Block Construction. The most modern shipyards pre-install equipment, pipes, electrical cables, and any other components within the blocks, to minimize the effort needed to assemble or install components deep within the hull once it is welded together.

My curiosity has been aroused as well, so I did a short google search. I found that welding became more common during WWI because it speeded repairs, etc. During WWII welding, rather than riveting, greatly speeded up construction and repairs. I vaguely recall that Kaiser shipyards were producing ships in unheard-of short times and were using prefabrication. I was pretty young during WWII, but recently found several copies of prints of Liberty Ships among things my parents left. These prints were apparently were given to shipyard workers.

excerpt from a google reference:

Modern ships, since roughly 1940, have been produced almost exclusively of welded steel. Early welded steel ships used steels with inadequate fracture toughness, which resulted in some ships suffering catastrophic brittle fracture structural cracks (see problems of the Liberty ship). Since roughly 1950, specialized steels such as ABS Steels with good properties for ship construction have been used.

Modern shipbuilding makes considerable use of prefabricated sections; entire multi-deck segments of the hull or superstructure will be built elsewhere in the yard, transported to the building dock or slipway, then lifted into place. This is known as Block Construction. The most modern shipyards pre-install equipment, pipes, electrical cables, and any other components within the blocks, to minimize the effort needed to assemble or install components deep within the hull once it is welded together.

I do believe that by the 1940s ships were mostly welded, not rivited. Both my parents worked in the Kaiser shipyards in Portland, OR......welding liberty ships.