Free Republic

Longish article. Several embedded videos. Good stuff. Excerpts below. “The latest incident to befall the U.S. Navy’s troubled Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) was an embarrassingly public one, and one that left the brand-new USS Cleveland (LCS-31) damaged in the process of being launched, in front of around 3,000 people, including members of the media. The Navy has now issued a statement providing more details of the collision between the Cleveland — which is the last of the 16-strong Freedom class — and a tugboat involved during the warship’s recent christening.” “No personnel injuries occurred, but there was limited damage” to...

In a heated Senate Armed Services Committee hearing today, Alaska’s Senator Dan Sullivan accused the Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) Carlos Del Toro of breaking a critical shipbuilding law that legally requires the Navy and the Department of Defense to build a specific number of ships. The recent fight over amphibious warship procurement, as reported in a previous gCaptain article, played a significant role in the argument presented by Senator Sullivan. This comes two weeks after Congresswoman Betty McCollum – ranking member of the powerful Defense Appropriations Subcommittee – told Del Toro and Chief Of Naval Operations Admiral Mike Gilday...

Bah... Here’s a no good rotten Vanity! LOL! I downloaded the DuckDuckGo web browser on my IPhone today and have been messing around with it. The app is in the AppStore and downloads and installs like any other app. Nothing uncommon to note. Setup was simple with 2 or 3 settings to enable or not. The descriptions were clear enough on what the settings are for and there’s a click button on the bottom of the Duck’s webpage so that you can change them later if needed. First impressions... So far, so good. It does have a bit different personality...

...On behalf of what she calls the Republican Party, Wall Street Journal columnist and former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan bids adieu to the past decade and to the Bush Doctrine, to what she calls "un-Republican" conduct, aka "bullying dreaminess." But who defines what is "Republican conduct?" Calvin Coolidge? Dwight Eisenhower? Robert Taft? Or Theodore Roosevelt, the "bullying dreamer" himself?... ...Rubio's maiden speech talked of a world that needs an "American century" and an America that needs to defend humane aspiration. Sounds like a proper idea of "Republican conduct." Sounds like a bullying dreamer to me... Read more at the Washington...

AXING the RAF's Nimrod spy planes leaves Britain's defences so weak we will have to depend on the FRENCH to stave off a naval attack on us. French Atlantique planes operating from UK bases will monitor and intercept unauthorised ships and submarines. The humiliation comes exactly 205 years to the day after Nelson's fleet saw off Napoleon at Trafalgar. And The Sun can reveal that just as Prime Minister David Cameron was announcing the axing, TWO Russian submarines were intercepted less than 70 miles off our shores. They had to be tracked by American P3 Orion jets because our Nimrods...