I am being lazy today, but the issue is still in the forefront. So, here is a re-post!
I LOVE American history! I love being in the places where the history happened. The battlefield at Yorktown, the freedom trail in Boston ( now THAT will make the hair stand up on the back of your neck, standing in Fanueil Hall where the founding fathers plotted the revolution!) My favorite part of our country's history is WWII, specifically the Pacific Theatre. As a teenager, I devoured every book I could find on the subject. My father had served on an aircraft carrier in that war and I guess that is what sparked my interest.
We now have floating museums all around the country as monuments to that war and the men and women who served in it. There are aircraft carriers, battleships, destroyers and submarines that anyone can tour and get a feel for what these brave men endured for our freedom. On the USS Hornet in Alameda I saw where Neil Armstrong took his first steps upon returning from the moon. Heady stuff, these floating monuments, but therein lies the problem. They don't float forever!
We have left these venerable ships where they served, in the ocean. The problem with that is, since they are now immobile, they don't get into drydock for their regular repair and refitting that they so desperately need. Salt water has no feelings, no loyalty, no empathy, no patriotic zeal. It destroys everything steel with equal efficiency. And salt water is sinking our naval history.
In Charleston, SC, Patriots Point is home to the USS Yorktown, USS Clamagore and "The Ship That Wouldn't Die" the USS Laffey. (You should google the story of how she got her nickname. Goosebumps will follow!) The Laffey is sinking. Eight million dollars is needed to keep her afloat. For a while. Then, more millions will be needed to keep the Yorktown and the Clamagore afloat. For a while. That is the problem, folks, for no matter how much we spend and how good a job is done on the repairs, they will be temporary, for salt water never stops destroying metal.
If we want to preserve these magnificent fighting ships so that future generations can see and appreciate how their freedom was saved, then we must get the ships out of the ocean! Spending millions upon millions on constant, repetitive repairs is insane. The rust will not stop. The leaks will continue to appear and the money will continue to be dumped into a bottomless pit.
I, for one, do not want to see these monuments to our fathers' sacrifices disappear. And the only way to save them that makes sense to me is to get them out of the water. Building drydocks seems like the best solution to me, but I am neither a ship builder nor an engineer. I don't know what the best solution would be, but those who are experts in the field better come up with one soon because, especially in this economic climate, Americans are NOT going to keep donating money to a cause that is hopeless.
Save the ships!! Get them out of the saltwater!! Allow our children and grandchildren the chance to feel the same goosebumps we feel when we go aboard!! They are history. They are important. They need to be saved just as much as the Olde North Church, for they are just as much a part of our history!!
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Pirates Are The Gunslingers Of The Old West
The Somali pirates are just the 21st century version of the gunslinging outlaws of the Old American West. They are the Dalton Brothers, the James Gang or the Clantons of Tombstone. There may even be a Billy the Kid among them. The difference is, they aren't robbing trains, stagecoaches or banks, they are stealing ships and kidnapping crews and holding both for ransom. And, just like the outlaws of the old west, they need to be cleaned out.
What is needed for this is relatively simple. First, you put someone on the ships riding shotgun, just like the old stagecoaches did or the trains finally did when they hired The Pinkerton Detective Agency to protect them. Do you really think Wells Fargo was worried that firing back at the outlaws would put them in greater danger than they already were, as todays shipping lines have stated in their explanation of why they don't want to arm their crews? This passive action will not work with pirates any more than it would have worked with outlaws. Remember The Ballad of Liberty Valence - "The point of a gun was the only law that Liberty understood...when the final showdown came to pass, a lawbook was no good!" Like Liberty, all outlaws and all pirates know only one language, the language of violence, and, as distasteful as that language is to some people, it is the ONLY way to get their attention and to stop their attacks on innocent people.
Secondly, if the powers that be are still too terrified to arm their crews, then a few well placed military men could to the same job. I understand that there are not enough warships to escort every merchant ship through the pirate infested waters. But how about putting a few soldiers or sailors on each ship as it enters the danger zone and then take them off when the ship is safely through the peril. People, it is not going to take a company of men to keep these ill trained pirates from boarding a ship, a squad or a platoon would more than suffice to do the job. Kill enough of them, and the attacks will stop.
Lastly, what we really need are a few Pat Garretts, Wyatt Earps, Bill Hickocks and maybe some Texas Rangers to root out the pirates where they hide. These would not be individuals as in the old west, but instead would be governments sending groups of military or hired mercenaries (which, if you break it down to the bare bones, is really what the old west sheriffs and marshalls were!) into the pirate's waters and lairs to "convince" them to stop pirating. If convincing doesn't work, and it won't, then you take them out of the pirate business forever. Know why pirating died out the first time? Because enough of the pirates were hung to convince the rest of them that pirating wasn't such a good way to make a living after all. ("Diein' ain't much of a living!" - Josey Wales) Imagine how many of these pirates would want to change "jobs" when they see a fast boat armed to the teeth (think PT Boat) baring down on them with guns blazing! Or something akin to a Coast Guard Cutter firing relentlessly on one of the pirate mother ships. Take out their mother ships and they have no way to reach the shipping lanes in those small speedboats.
And lastly, we have to ignore all of those bleeding heart liberals who will decry the bloodshed and who think they can turn all of these pirates into fine, upstanding citizens. Does anyone really think that even one of these men is going to start flipping burgers for a living unless he thinks his current job is threatening his life?
They have to be stopped. They have to be cleaned out. The seas have to be made safe again. It won't be pretty, it won't be easy, but it has to be done.
What is needed for this is relatively simple. First, you put someone on the ships riding shotgun, just like the old stagecoaches did or the trains finally did when they hired The Pinkerton Detective Agency to protect them. Do you really think Wells Fargo was worried that firing back at the outlaws would put them in greater danger than they already were, as todays shipping lines have stated in their explanation of why they don't want to arm their crews? This passive action will not work with pirates any more than it would have worked with outlaws. Remember The Ballad of Liberty Valence - "The point of a gun was the only law that Liberty understood...when the final showdown came to pass, a lawbook was no good!" Like Liberty, all outlaws and all pirates know only one language, the language of violence, and, as distasteful as that language is to some people, it is the ONLY way to get their attention and to stop their attacks on innocent people.
Secondly, if the powers that be are still too terrified to arm their crews, then a few well placed military men could to the same job. I understand that there are not enough warships to escort every merchant ship through the pirate infested waters. But how about putting a few soldiers or sailors on each ship as it enters the danger zone and then take them off when the ship is safely through the peril. People, it is not going to take a company of men to keep these ill trained pirates from boarding a ship, a squad or a platoon would more than suffice to do the job. Kill enough of them, and the attacks will stop.
Lastly, what we really need are a few Pat Garretts, Wyatt Earps, Bill Hickocks and maybe some Texas Rangers to root out the pirates where they hide. These would not be individuals as in the old west, but instead would be governments sending groups of military or hired mercenaries (which, if you break it down to the bare bones, is really what the old west sheriffs and marshalls were!) into the pirate's waters and lairs to "convince" them to stop pirating. If convincing doesn't work, and it won't, then you take them out of the pirate business forever. Know why pirating died out the first time? Because enough of the pirates were hung to convince the rest of them that pirating wasn't such a good way to make a living after all. ("Diein' ain't much of a living!" - Josey Wales) Imagine how many of these pirates would want to change "jobs" when they see a fast boat armed to the teeth (think PT Boat) baring down on them with guns blazing! Or something akin to a Coast Guard Cutter firing relentlessly on one of the pirate mother ships. Take out their mother ships and they have no way to reach the shipping lanes in those small speedboats.
And lastly, we have to ignore all of those bleeding heart liberals who will decry the bloodshed and who think they can turn all of these pirates into fine, upstanding citizens. Does anyone really think that even one of these men is going to start flipping burgers for a living unless he thinks his current job is threatening his life?
They have to be stopped. They have to be cleaned out. The seas have to be made safe again. It won't be pretty, it won't be easy, but it has to be done.
Monday, April 13, 2009
A Little Luck at The Masters
We All Know Golf Is A Game Of Skill, But A Little Luck Sure Comes In Handy! Just Ask Angel Cabrera!
The man wearing the Green Jacket today almost gave it away with his ill-conceived second shot on the first playoff hole. Stymied behind a Georgia pine, Angel Cabrera's best chance to stay in the hunt for the Masters title was a chip back into the fairway leaving a chance for an up-and-down par. The shot he tried, a low hook through several trees, had a really low-level chance of being successful and a better than average chance of being disastrous. Angel swung hard, jumped around the tree to watch his ball sail through the trees and roll up onto the green, and promptly lost sight of it when it hit another Georgia pine and caromed who knew where! Certainly Angel didn't know where the ball ended up, he was looking left into the fairway and right into the 10th fairway and behind every tree within his vision trying to see exactly what kind of trouble he had gotten himself into now. But the golf gods were smiling on Angel today! The ball went left off the tree and directly back into the 18th fairway, the same result he would have gotten if he had played the safe "chip-back-to-the-fairway" shot. Angel made his up-and-down par and won the Masters on the second playoff hole.
Please don't get me wrong, Angel Cabrera played very good golf all four days and deserved the win just as much as anyone there. Just as much a Fred Couples did when he won the Green Jacket after his shot on number 12 somehow, inexplicably, stopped on the slope instead of rolling into Rae's Creek as every other shot that was in the same place had done all day. I'm just saying that, good golf aside, a little luck sure comes in handy once in a while!!
The man wearing the Green Jacket today almost gave it away with his ill-conceived second shot on the first playoff hole. Stymied behind a Georgia pine, Angel Cabrera's best chance to stay in the hunt for the Masters title was a chip back into the fairway leaving a chance for an up-and-down par. The shot he tried, a low hook through several trees, had a really low-level chance of being successful and a better than average chance of being disastrous. Angel swung hard, jumped around the tree to watch his ball sail through the trees and roll up onto the green, and promptly lost sight of it when it hit another Georgia pine and caromed who knew where! Certainly Angel didn't know where the ball ended up, he was looking left into the fairway and right into the 10th fairway and behind every tree within his vision trying to see exactly what kind of trouble he had gotten himself into now. But the golf gods were smiling on Angel today! The ball went left off the tree and directly back into the 18th fairway, the same result he would have gotten if he had played the safe "chip-back-to-the-fairway" shot. Angel made his up-and-down par and won the Masters on the second playoff hole.
Please don't get me wrong, Angel Cabrera played very good golf all four days and deserved the win just as much as anyone there. Just as much a Fred Couples did when he won the Green Jacket after his shot on number 12 somehow, inexplicably, stopped on the slope instead of rolling into Rae's Creek as every other shot that was in the same place had done all day. I'm just saying that, good golf aside, a little luck sure comes in handy once in a while!!
Friday, April 10, 2009
IOP Beachgoers Endangered by Plane
SOUTH CAROLINA DNR EMPLOYEE ENDANGERS HUNDREDS ON I.O.P. BEACH
A SouthCarolina Department of Natural Resources employee endangered hundreds of beach goers today at the Isle Of Palms beach. He was piloting a small, single engine aircraft that had fuel problems ( they had to refuel the plane on the beach! What, he forgot to fill up when he took off just 30 minutes earlier?) and he quite cowardly landed the plane in the middle of hundreds of innocent bystanders.
Well, here is the world according to Tommy - when anyone makes the decision to go up in an airplane they assume all of the risks involved. They know they may run into bad weather, have engine malfunctions or a myriad of other things that can go wrong with an airplane. Those are the risks they have decided to take. So, when something does goes wrong, they should NEVER pass any of those risks on to anyone who did not willingly sign on for such risks. That would be a cowardly and disdainful act and that is exactly what happened at the IOP beach today!
The ocean was only scant yards away and THAT IS EXACTLY where the pilot should have put his plane, thereby endangering no one but the people on the plane who willingly boarded his plane and strapped on their seat belts. That is what Sully Sullenberger did when he put Flight 1549 into the Hudson River. But, then again, Captain Sullenberger has courage, lots of it. Too bad this DNR fellow has none.
A SouthCarolina Department of Natural Resources employee endangered hundreds of beach goers today at the Isle Of Palms beach. He was piloting a small, single engine aircraft that had fuel problems ( they had to refuel the plane on the beach! What, he forgot to fill up when he took off just 30 minutes earlier?) and he quite cowardly landed the plane in the middle of hundreds of innocent bystanders.
Well, here is the world according to Tommy - when anyone makes the decision to go up in an airplane they assume all of the risks involved. They know they may run into bad weather, have engine malfunctions or a myriad of other things that can go wrong with an airplane. Those are the risks they have decided to take. So, when something does goes wrong, they should NEVER pass any of those risks on to anyone who did not willingly sign on for such risks. That would be a cowardly and disdainful act and that is exactly what happened at the IOP beach today!
The ocean was only scant yards away and THAT IS EXACTLY where the pilot should have put his plane, thereby endangering no one but the people on the plane who willingly boarded his plane and strapped on their seat belts. That is what Sully Sullenberger did when he put Flight 1549 into the Hudson River. But, then again, Captain Sullenberger has courage, lots of it. Too bad this DNR fellow has none.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)