Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche
"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke
“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier
"Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas
"Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex
So…
Izzat the USS NYC or New Orleans on a public relations mission? Oh, I get it! the PLAN is merely flattering us over and over and over again–meanwhile, one commenter at that site wondered just where China’s “Catalina Island” might be located–as if we don’t know already.
Sorry, Taiwan. It was nice knowing you and all that but well, it’s just too much to ask that we honor our commitments nowadays, what with Arab Springs and such.
Boy, talk about in a Galaxy far, far, away long, long ago, but my 1st cousin Lt. Gen C. M. Talbott (USAF, ret.) was one of the last US Chief’s of Staff in charge of the old, now long-gone Taiwan Defense Command (as an O-7) when I took leave to visit him in Taipei in ’68. My, my, how things have progressed.–SO MUCH improvement!
Comes a point, you know, where a mass of armaments are accumulated, supported by +20M young males w/little to no chance of finding a spouse (domestically), a pronounced disparity in wealth between two major segments of the populace, an economy predicated on unnaturally high levels of growth to keep said populace happy and a paucity of the necessary resources to do the same…
… comes a point when all that reaches critical mass and sharp elbows begin to be applied in the near-abroad and supported by a nationalisitic ferver at home that things, as the saying goes, can get — ugly.
Interesting times ahead to be sure…
w/r, SJS
By the way, the Chinese for “lebensraum” is 人居 (Rén jū). Get familiar with it.
While their numbers are daunting, I feel that these “ships” will likely be like most goods from China….nice & shiny when new and all but they have a limited life span.
Think about it – what have you bought that said ” Made in China ” that lasted more than a few years? Nothing I can think of.
They may be good at producing these flattering copies of our arms, but if they are of the same quality as everything else they have produced lately, these ships will be “rusty Yugos” of the Naval world in short order.
Here’s hoping…..
SK1 – It’s a marketing tactic. Disposable goods are easily replaced with more, readily available, disposable goods. The useful life of a Chinese manufactured product is just another way for you to spend $19.99 at Walmart, again.
Nothing to see here. Move along…
At least that’s what the administration would say. We don’t need a robust defense when we’ve got the greatest orator, diplomat and messiah ever to sit in the Oval Office. He can talk to them and fix whatever arises, the One We’ve All Been Waiting For.
No carrier groups. Save that money for redistribution to contributors or the poor and downtrodden, the losers of “life’s lottery.”
We don’t need missiles. We can use that money to fund green energy schemes that could give us “energy dependence,” which translates to reading by candlelight while munching on salted pork.
What I want to hear asked during the national discussion when it comes, always, to budget cutting and the military budget gets axed: So how is it that money spent by the government on military goodies doesn’t help the economy? Military salaries get spent, largely in the USA; military equipment is made here with civilian workers, etc; and the military has a list of ‘shovel-ready jobs’, too. If we build and maintain ships, how come that money is not good for the economy in the world of the democrat?
That was the moment I realized Obama was an uncritical, unthinking, ideologue. We need to throw a trillion dollars at
my campaign contributorsthe economy, but we need to ax the F-22 because it’s a waste of money.One of my favorite (and less famous than is just) SF writers, L. E. Modisett Jr. wrote several novels about a future in which this goes on and those guys conquered us; because, among other reasons, we let the size and efficiency of our Navy lapse. He’s also a United States Naval Aviator.
Maybe we should reinstate “Duck and Cover Training” in our elementary schools, if this keeps up?
I am not sure they can afford to dump us as a trading partner yet..WMT is still a buy here, lol…
” Wicked pissah ” as we in BAWSTON say…..Dennis is one of our Irish brothers….Now if we could get the RED SOX to pull their heads outta their arses , things would be much better….
If I were Vietnam I’d be worried. Taiwan poses too much risk of nuclear exchange with the US for it to be a sensible choice for China. Similar arguments exist for Siberia, the ‘Stans and India. SE Asia offers very little risk, and eliminating one of the competitors over the Spratleys would offset some of the expense.
With the current morons in the White House, anyone with the South China Sea on their littoral should be worried.
Hey, I went to Wallyworld and got sucha deal on over sized shirts to cover my .45.
Sumbiches shrunk two sizes and a sleeve fell off.
What me worry? Naw.