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I’m not surprised, when I was a submarine tactics instructor in Hawaii, we’d get an Aussie Wardroom visit once a year for training. Those guys were awesome to hang out with, we had a real blast, but the comments they often made, you got the impression they were one step above South Africans on the whole racial tolerance issue.

I question the sanity of those that question the sanity of living below sea level without having the same opinions about living: on an earthquake fault line, near a location prone to forest fires, mudslides, avalanches, tornados, flooding rivers, blizzards, extreme heat or cold spells, etc.

I'd love for her to tell me "Anything you say can and will be held against you"

To which I'd reply...... well you get the idea...

ping for future reference

rgr, thanks.

Does anyone know what the individual gun ownership laws are in Mexico?

I thought personal gun ownership was illegal, how could there be any crime with guns already banned.

I wonder if all they did was say, "That bit of halibut was fit for Jehovah......"

Normally, I'd say it was probably something as simple as having the wrong crypto loaded into the radio gear or some other PEBKAC (problem exists between keyboard and chair), but that part about the red flare really gets my attention, that is very unusual.

"Man-generated CO2 is 0.5% of the CO2 out there"

Do you have a link or reference for that, something I can use as ammo against a greenie?

"Sounds like you were never much of a Catholic to begin with. I mean no insult, but going to Catholic school, or even attending Church regularly doesn't make you one"

I don't mean to insult you or your faith either, but where I came from, yes it does.

As long as you went to church and dropped your envelope in the basket, you were considered a good catholic.

There are several reasons why I'm not Catholic anymore and I don't feel like anything is missing in my life, but for those that find something meaningful in whatever religious convictions they have, I'm happy for them.

This would've been in the early 70s, I have no idea when Vatican II was or what it was about.

I haven't considered myself Catholic for over 15 yrs now. Thanks for the update.

"Should he also ban those bigots who don't believe there can be salvation outside the Roman Catholic Church?

Sure, good idea. But since the Catholic Church itself does not believe that, that list should be pretty small. And, of course, anyone who thinks that way is rejecting Catholic doctrine, and is therefore not a Catholic. But thanks for playing."


Oh, when did this change? Throughout the 8 yrs I spent in Catholic School we were taught that Catholics were the only ones that went to heaven. But that was many years ago.

CONSULTING: If you're not a part of the solution, there's good money to be made in prolonging the problem.

www.despair.com

"If it's really that dangerous, then transiting the SOH while submerged is nuts. Our subs should SURFACE when transiting the SOH. "

Yeah, it is nuts going through there submerged.

That is what subs do. Their purpose is to remain hidden and not let the bad guys know where they are. On the surface, some raghead in a speedboat with an RPG can compromise the boat's ability to complete its mission.

Someone somewhere has done all the risk assessments and decided that submerged is best. Its the individual boat skipper that has to carry out that order, placing his career on the line.

Strait of Hormuz, the most heavily trafficked chokepoint in the world.

As was expected, no surprises.

So here's what a submarine has to deal with for this transit. The strait is about 40 miles wide and maybe 100-120 feet deep, not a whole lot of maneuvering room for three dimensional travel. In that 100 or so feet of water, you have a tanker with a draft (distance from waterline to keel) of anywhere from 40 feet to who knows how much depending on how much he's carrying, sinve he was going in, I'd assume he was near empty. Next, you have the sub ranging about 30 feet from deck to keel + about that much more to the top of sail and there is no way to avoid overlap.

Couple that with the fact that your driving through a canyon so the acoustics are all hosed up and sounds are bouncing off everywhere and throw in numerous vessels since its the most heavily traveled chokepoint in the world, etc. You get the idea. Just because its done successfully so many times before doesn't make it easy or routine.

An unwritten but accepted practice when going through chokepoints like this is to find the biggest ship in the area and stay close to him figuring that everything else will be giving him plenty of room. I suppose thats what this CO had in mind.

"And there are no RVs allowed."

Its Miami!!!!!!!! Isn't the entire caucasian population of the city a retired RV owner? :)

No, thats the norm -> market conditions determining the wages, what a concept. They feel they have to pay them that to keep them around.

Here in post-K New Orleans with its huge unskilled labor shortage, starting salary at burger king is about $9.50 an hour plus a signing bonus worth a few hundred bucks.

ping for later

No. Do a google search for "labor statistics minimum wage earners" and see the data that liberals don't want you to see.

The majority of minimum wage earners are not heads of household and trying to support a family, sure some are. But most minimum wage earners are part time workers, in the 16-24 age bracket. If this group gets a pay raise they are likely to just blow it on Ipod downloads or dope.

Lets take a look at raising the wage by $1. Does that $1 go into the worker's pocket? No, after you take out FICA/FITW/SITW etc, they will probably see maybe 80 cents.

Does that $1 raise cost the company $1, no after you take into account their part of SS, plus any other benefits etc, it costs the company probably around $1.20

All this is doing is funneling more money into government regulation.

People who will really win out on this are the unions who's hourly rates are based on multiples of the minimum wage. And who do the unions support?

I know there are some people out there that are trying to raise a family on minimum wage, but the majority of minimum wage earners are not heads of household, they are under 21 and living with someone else. Furthermore, minimum wage is entry level, if you're working in that position for more than 6 months, you really need to evaluate yourself.

"You cannot benefit the wage earner at the expense of the wage payer" - unknown, perhaps Ben Franklin