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Pirates seize NKor tanker crew
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-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Global Warming Threatens Italy's Pasta Supply
Scientists will this week warn that Italy may be forced to import the basic ingredients for pasta, its national food, because climate change will make it impossible to grow durum wheat.

In a report to be released by the Met Office tomorrow, scientists predict that Italy's durum yields will start to decline from 2020 and the crop will almost disappear from the country later this century.

The report will say: "Projected climate changes in this region, in particular rising temperature and decreasing rainfall, may seriously compromise wheat yields."
I project that this is nonsense, that durum wheat can handle a 1 degree increase in temperature. If the temperature increases by 5 degrees the Italians can import wheat from Finland ...
The warning is the latest example of the impact climate change could have on lifestyles and diets across Europe. It has emerged from the five-year Ensembles project, an EU-sponsored study straddling 66 research centres in 20 countries across Europe.

The project has been led by the Met Office which will host a conference to unveil its findings this week. The aim was to combine the power of various super-computers used to predict climate by different research groups across Europe. This would enable the researchers to generate climate projections for particular countries and regions.
GIGO ...
One element involved predicting how rising temperatures and changing rainfall might affect food production. Italy was chosen as a case study because it is a leading food producer and its southerly position means it is especially vulnerable to temperature rises.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 11/17/2009 11:57 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  BS. Australia grows lots of Durum wheat in districts that are hotter and drier than anywhere in Italy.
Scare tactics aside...
Posted by: Grunter || 11/17/2009 12:16 Comments || Top||

#2  History of the Pasta Harvest
Perhaps Europe needs strong root stock from America again.
Posted by: ed || 11/17/2009 12:17 Comments || Top||

#3  I saw on TV when I was a kid that it grows on trees.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 11/17/2009 12:45 Comments || Top||

#4  The classic Swiss Spaghetti harvest.
Posted by: ed || 11/17/2009 12:47 Comments || Top||

#5  I'm hoping the AGW lot go and say "April Fools!" soon before they completely destroy any respect for science in the general public.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/17/2009 13:28 Comments || Top||

#6  The same British Met Office which has become legendary for the inaccuracy of their summer weather predictions?

Posted by: SteveS || 11/17/2009 14:52 Comments || Top||

#7  I was under the impression that most of the durum for Italy's primo pasta came from North Dakota. Has it changed for some reason?
Posted by: 3dc || 11/17/2009 15:26 Comments || Top||

#8  CHEF BOYARDEE > Awwww, #3 I was just thinking/reminiscing about that.

ION GW = DUBYA, SPACE.com >[University of Bristol,UK Study] CO2 ABSORBED/AIRBORNE BALANCE UNCHANGED SINCE 1850.

No effect on SUNSPOTS = SOLAR FLARES ["2012" MOvie], or SPACE ROCKS.

10/8/2009 INDONESIA SPACE ROCK EXPLOSION > shows highly trained, dedic US-WORLD SPACE PERTS + SPASYS can be caught wid their pants down, + CAN BE AGAIN E.G 1990'S RUSSIAN [anti-Arrogant Fascist Male Brute Must-Be-Controlled US?]SPACE ROCKS???

We are all People of OUR TIME(S).
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/17/2009 21:49 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Gadhafi hosts Italian women, tries to convert them
Running low on fembots, Moamar?
Posted by: ed || 11/17/2009 07:51 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yeah, saw that in my local rag. Two thoughts :

- K-daffy loves nice-looking broads (no mysteries about it, if you believe some rumors that have been floating around for years, based on his numerous marriages to african princesses, top models & all... seemingly, he LOVES to wear female undergarments, Prince-style);

and

- when it comes to islam, if you believe his speeches in tumbuctu, at the Un and all, he really does think that Europe is soon going to convert (and/or will be submerged demographically), and that Christianity is a perverted faith (just as the koran asserts, Christians are just rebellious muslims who have forged their holy scriptures), which immorality soil wimen, very much unlike empowering, pious islam.

Thus, this PR stunt (he craves attention, doesn't he?) allows him to oogle italian girlz, and to try nd convert them, as he probably genuinely believe they will be attracted to the purer, more moral islam trhat will free them from western corruption.
In any case, he's a loon (he's a legend in his own mind) AND an hypocrit (not only religiously eluded, but think of his spawns getting busted for abusing femakle slave servants, or beating their girlfriends to the point the police has to rush their luxury hotel suite because the victim is screaming for her life).
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 11/17/2009 9:46 Comments || Top||

#2  OR the despicable, inhuman ways his goons tortured the (innocent) bulgarian nurses who went working in his sh8thole country to help his people, and ended up as hostages in traditional lybian fashion - the only part muslim lybia has ever played in human History is barbary coast slave-raidings and piracy. Past that, nothing, zip, zero, NOTHING constructive, nothing at all.

K-daffy is a loon, but he's an evil one, he' snot just a wannabe playboy with fembots and all, he's a bona fide dictator, muslim supremacist, racist and demanding oil-tick. Wasn't he supposed to be dying off cancer a couple years ago? Croak, already.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 11/17/2009 9:51 Comments || Top||

#3  cockroaches won't die
Posted by: chris || 11/17/2009 10:18 Comments || Top||

#4  Righteous rant, anon5089.
Posted by: ed || 11/17/2009 10:20 Comments || Top||

#5  hMMMM, HMMMMM, wehell, hope THE KOLONEL = UNCLE MOHAMAR[ + UNCLE FIDEL] keep in mind EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND > "FRANK BARONE" Character = "WOMEN LIKE THAT... AREN'T BUILT/MADE FOR FRIENDSHIP"!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/17/2009 21:55 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Rise up before you are crushed, former Niger PM says
Niger's former prime minister has urged his people to rise up before they are crushed.

Hama Amadou called President Mamadou Tandja a dictator whose decision to cling to power has led to international sanctions on the poorest country in the world. Amadou, who is based outside Niger, called on his people to rise up against the "dictatorship" of President Tandja on Monday.
Based outside the country. Makes it easier to call upon the people to rise up ...
"People who bow to dictatorship without reacting, will die under the feet of a dictator... I know Niger people will not be willing to die under Tandja's boot," he told Radio Anfani, a private radio station in Niamey.

Tandja has faced criticism at home and abroad since staging an August 4 referendum, boycotted by the opposition, that allowed him to stay in power until 2012 - he was supposed to step down in December after two successive five-year terms.
That's the trick, you see: call for a referendum, win it by hook or (frequently) crook, and then use that as a justification to stay in power. That's what Zelaya in Honduras was trying to do.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) suspended Niger in the wake of the disputed polls, and the European Union this month provisionally froze development aid to Niger.
Posted by: Fred || 11/17/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Britain
Health and safety snoops to enter family homes
Health and safety inspectors are to be given unprecedented access to family homes to ensure that parents are protecting their children from household accidents. New guidance drawn up at the request of the Department of Health urges councils and other public sector bodies to "collect data" on properties where children are thought to be at "greatest risk of unintentional injury".
When the nanny state grabs hold, it does so by grabbing the things it can grab from people who don't resist. You won't see the nanny-thugs try to ban the hajib -- the Muslims might kill them. So instead the nanny-thugs hassle you and me; we're too civilized to fight back.
Council staff will then be tasked with overseeing the installation of safety devices in homes, including smoke alarms, stair gates, hot water temperature restrictors, oven guards and window and door locks.

The draft guidance by a committee at the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) has been criticised as intrusive and further evidence of the "creeping nanny state". Until now, councils have made only a limited number of home inspections to check on building work and in extreme cases where the state of a house is thought to pose a serious risk to public health.

Nice also recommends the creation of a new government database to allow GPs, midwives and other officials who visit homes to log health and safety concerns they spot.
"allow" means "mandate" in British English ...
The guidance aims to "encourage all practitioners who visit families and carers with children and young people aged under 15 to provide home safety advice and, where necessary, conduct a home risk assessment". It continues: "If possible, they should supply and install home safety equipment."
So bring your toolbox, Doctor, we have hand-rails to install!
The proposals have been put out to consultation and, if approved, will be implemented next year.

Matthew Elliott, of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "It is a huge intervention into family life which will be counter-productive.

"Good parents will feel the intrusion of the state in their homes and bad parents will now have someone else to blame if they don't bring up their children in a sensible, safe environment."

About 100,000 children are admitted to hospital each year for home injuries at a cost of £146m.
This is where a national health system goes, folks: everything is justified if one can say that it will cut health care spending.
Posted by: Beavis || 11/17/2009 10:09 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ringworld was a fun book. "If the Patriarchy tried to force such a law on kzinti, we would exterminate the Patriarchy for its insolence."
Posted by: James || 11/17/2009 16:07 Comments || Top||

#2  I don't think many Americans would stand for this.

the nanny-thugs hassle you and me; we're too civilized to fight back.

If anyone thinks I'm too "civilized" to fight back, they're either delusional or don't know me at all. Most of the people I associate with can become totally barbarian if pushed far enough. This would be way too far. Britain needs to regain its Pictish heritage.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 11/17/2009 19:58 Comments || Top||

#3  ION PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > FOURTEEN YEAR HIGH: EVEN IN THE USA 49.0MILYUHN GO HUNGRY.

and

CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > USDA: NUMBER OF AMERICANS GOING HUNGRY INCREASES [up to 14.6% from 11.1% back in 2007; increased hunger rates for US Children since same].
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/17/2009 21:31 Comments || Top||

#4  In most states you can shoot home invaders. In Iowa, you just have to make sure that the body falls inside the house.
Posted by: rwv || 11/17/2009 22:59 Comments || Top||


Archbishop of Canterbury claims higher taxes would be good for society
Dr Rowan Williams said that taxation should not be seen as a way of stifling business or redistributing wealth but helping to make the world a better place in which to live.
Spoken like a man who doesn't pay any ...
He called for new levies to be introduced on financial transactions and carbon emissions, and an end to the idea that unlimited economic growth is desirable.
Let's not work to help the poor, just to impoverish the wealthy and middle-class so as to make everyone 'equal'. Is that Leviticus or Acts of the Apostles?
Aye, 'tis a problem beyond the ken o' the likes of us! We must ask the vicar! He'll know!
The archbishop also claimed reality television gives us "alarming glimpses" of what the world would look like were everyone to be governed by self-interest.
That bit is true, but unconnected to his main point.
Dr Williams, the most senior cleric in the Church of England and a self-confessed "hairy lefty", has made a series of critical statements since last year's banking crisis on the excesses of the financial sector and Labour's attempt to spend its way out of recession.
Few of his statements, from what I've seen have made any sense. Those that have made sense have involved dinner. Poor Christopher Johnson's becoming incoherent just trying to keep up with the vagaries of Anglican self-destruction.
In his latest comments, delivered to the TUC Economics Conference on Monday, he pointed out that the term "economics" derives from a Greek word meaning "housekeeping" and should be about "creating a habitat that we can actually live in".
So when is the Anglican church selling its treasures to help the poor?
Don't be silly. They're holding that as a sacred trust.
He's talking about a world that's comfortable for vicars and hospitable to hairy lefties.
However he said that over the past few decades, the market has been treated as an "independent authority", creating social disruption around the world and the "extraordinary phenomena" of debt trading. Dr Williams claimed that the "fantasies of unlimited growth" had led to a "vicious cycle" in which consumers are encouraged to buy more goods, which also uses up limited energy and raw materials. Instead, he said the economy should be geared towards creating a secure and sustainable environment for families.
Let 'em stay poor, that way they'll flock to the church and turn over their few coins in the plate.
He prefers quaint country folk who tug the forelock as they pass the vicar...
As part of this, the archbishop said: "We have to ask about 'green taxes' (including 'green' tax breaks) that will check environmental irresponsibility and build up resources to address the ecological crises that menace us.
So that everyone can be green. And poor. Except for the bishops.
"It is of course connected with other proposals about currency exchange taxation -- the 'Tobin tax' idea: the point is that we should be thinking about taxation neither as an unreasonable burden on enterprise nor as a simple mechanism of redistribution but as a potentially sophisticated tool for long-term 'economy' -- housekeeping. "Taxation builds a habitat -- already, quite properly, through state welfare provision, but potentially in other less familiar ways."
Spoken like a man who understand the need to reach into the till.
Moving on to describe a "human life well-lived", Dr Williams said: "If you live in a world where everything encourages you to struggle for your own individual interest and success, you are being encouraged to ignore the reality of other points of view -- ultimately, to ignore the cost or the pain of others. "The result may be a world where people are very articulate about their own feelings and pretty illiterate about how they impact on or appear to others -- a world of which 'reality television' gives us some alarming glimpses."
Not like the life of a holy man, lived close to the common folk, empathizing with them, feeling their pain, sharing their triumphs, if any...
He admitted it is not necessary to believe "Christian doctrine" in order to develop a "three-dimensional humanity",
"Certainly not! Why, the Mohammedans have values just as valid as ours, and likely more valid!"
but added: "Politics left to managers and economics left to brokers add up to a recipe for social and environmental chaos.
Yup, no need to believe in a Christian doctrine. Heck, the archbishop doesn't, so why should you?
"We are all a bit shy, understandably so, of making too much of moral commitment in public discourse; we are wary of high-sounding hypocrisy and conscious of the unavoidable plurality of convictions that will exist in a modern society. Yet the truth is that the economic and social order isn't a self-contained affair, separate from actual human decisions about what is good and desirable."
Posted by: Fred || 11/17/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wow! You mean the Church of England is going to give up its Tax Exempt status? cool!

What? No?

Then shut the f**k up.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 11/17/2009 0:32 Comments || Top||

#2  What part of 'thou shall not covet' does this man not understand? It's not like recalling 10 basic instructions would be that hard.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/17/2009 8:18 Comments || Top||

#3  But P2K you forget that all those nasty rules are not for the elite of which he considers himself one. The same with the Gores and Obamas of this world.

They are wannabe dictators whose creed is "What's mine is mine and what's yours is mine".
Posted by: AlanC || 11/17/2009 9:09 Comments || Top||

#4  The diiference between charity and "forced charity" is deeper than the marianas trench.
Posted by: flash91 || 11/17/2009 10:32 Comments || Top||

#5  Y'mean that loon is still walking around loose? I thought they tossed him into an asylum...
Posted by: mojo || 11/17/2009 11:09 Comments || Top||

#6  The Archdruid is on a roll. He's in favor of Sharia law also as only a hairy leftist could.
Posted by: Muggsy Glink || 11/17/2009 13:25 Comments || Top||

#7  I love how so many churches are so eager to advocate using the power of govt. to force people to pay for the things the churches want done but can't get their own members to pony up for. Just one of a long list of reasons I walked from the Episcopal/Anglican Church.
Posted by: xbalanke || 11/17/2009 14:43 Comments || Top||

#8  CrazyFool, why would a branch of the government pay taxes to itself? As for Williams wanting forelock-tuggers who pay their tithes, he doesn't *want* tithes, he wants his fair share of the loot taxes.

Frankly, I'm waiting for the rest of the Anglican communion to put the Archbishop on trial for heresy. He's pretty much thrown the Nicean Creed out with the bathwater.
Posted by: Mitch H. || 11/17/2009 16:02 Comments || Top||

#9  Sorry Mitch if I'm ignorant here on this side of the pond. Are you saying that taxes support the COE?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 11/17/2009 17:15 Comments || Top||

#10  > The diiference between charity and "forced charity" is deeper than the marianas trench.

I like to highlight this by calling rape "vagina redistribution".
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/17/2009 17:29 Comments || Top||

#11  D *** NG IT, IMO at least the good ARCHBISHOP is one of the very few world personages to formally admit or infer it.

AMERIKANS = IRANIANS, etal = WHERE'S OUR VOTE, not only for OWG-NWO per se but also for TRANS-NATIONAL, REGIONAL, + GLOBAL TAXATION TO SUPPOR SAME. among other???

"2012" MOVIE > IMO "powers that be" trying to scare the US-World into OWG-NWO THAT NO ONE PRO FORMA = DE FACTO ASKED, EXPLAINED, OR VOTED FOR, NOR INTEND TO [for a long while to come, iff evar].
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/17/2009 21:18 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Juarez Descending Into Anarchy
Posted by: Anonymoose || 11/17/2009 13:21 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Behold! Dawin's Natural Selection.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/17/2009 14:30 Comments || Top||

#2  Quagmire! Civil war!
No? I guess the lefties don't want their drug dealers to be out of business.
Posted by: Spot || 11/17/2009 15:44 Comments || Top||

#3  Short trip...
Posted by: mojo || 11/17/2009 16:58 Comments || Top||


Colombian Troops Kill 5 FARC Rebels
Army troops killed five Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, guerrillas and rescued a girl who had been forcibly recruited by the rebels five months ago in Meta province, officials said.

The guerrillas were killed Saturday morning during an operation targeting the FARC's Policarpa Salavarrieta unit.

Army rapid deployment force troops attacked the rebels with air force support.

The girl rescued by the troops, identified only as Yudi, was serving as a sentry when the attack on the FARC camp was launched. "As of now, 18 rifles, a mortar, landmines, explosive devices, personal belongings and several documents" were seized in the counterinsurgency operation, the army said.
Posted by: Fred || 11/17/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Chavez Says U.S., Colombia Have Made 'Pact for War'
(Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said the U.S. and Colombian governments have made a "pact for war" with a deal to allow American troops to use facilities at seven military bases.

Chavez said the U.S. will use technology installed at the bases to spy and plan attacks on strategic targets in Venezuela, and that President Barack Obama is following the same path as his predecessor, George W. Bush.
You know, O, if you're going to be condemned for acting like W, mayhaps you could, you know, go ahead and act like W ...
"We've condemned the war pact between the governments of Uribe and Obama," Chavez said in comments on state television, referring to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. "It's a pact for war, a diabolic pact, and they lie to their people."

Venezuela, the largest oil producer in Latin America, must prepare for the defense of the country by reorganizing the armed forces and arming civil militias due to the threat of a U.S. invasion from Colombian territory, Chavez said.

Colombian officials say that the military agreement is designed to fight drug-trafficking in the Andean nation and have filed complaints over Chavez's comments with the United Nations and Organization of American States.

Relations between Venezuela and Colombia have deteriorated this year after Uribe accused Chavez of financing and supplying leftist Colombian rebels.

Chavez ordered an increase of troops along the 2,000- kilometer (1,250-mile) border between Venezuela and Colombia last week and said he may declare a state of emergency after two officials from the National Guard were shot and killed by unidentified Colombians.
Posted by: Fred || 11/17/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Shut up and seed some rain clouds, dumba$$.
Posted by: Spot || 11/17/2009 8:16 Comments || Top||

#2  SOP - lookin' for a fight to take the proles minds off their misery.
Posted by: mojo || 11/17/2009 11:07 Comments || Top||

#3  Chavez really needs to control his cocaine addiction. The psychosis's are showing.
Posted by: 3dc || 11/17/2009 11:38 Comments || Top||

#4  he reminds me of the ape who is hopping mad insisting that he is a human
Posted by: 746 || 11/17/2009 12:05 Comments || Top||

#5  I have heard that early in 1944, British Intelligence considered assassinating Hitler, but decided Hitler was making so many boneheaded decisions that the war would be shorter if they left him alone.

Question for the professors at Rantburg U:
How likely is it that Chavez will attack Colombia? Or that his policies will bring his government down around his ears soon?
Posted by: mom || 11/17/2009 14:24 Comments || Top||

#6  No
and
No
Posted by: .5MT || 11/17/2009 17:27 Comments || Top||

#7  No and yes - the food riots, violently put down will do it
Posted by: Frank G || 11/17/2009 17:35 Comments || Top||

#8  Frank food won't be a problem for a long time. In fact that situation has improved in the near term. Cadvi has realeased big-money for imports. Shortages are less apparent that 4 months ago. That said - the power supply is very iffy and might bring out the crowds. But I see the old quick fixer band aid approach might work with that too. In time it will be food and inflation - but that's still years off.

/hoping I'm really wrong.

Posted by: .5MT || 11/17/2009 17:41 Comments || Top||

#9  Water and power. Once the paychecks to the military start bouncing.....
Posted by: Frank G || 11/17/2009 18:29 Comments || Top||

#10  Once the paychecks to the military start bouncing...

They don't need to bounce, Frank. When they reach the point where the paycheck won't cover housing and food, Chavez is toast. That day isn't too far off, even for senior officers.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 11/17/2009 20:07 Comments || Top||

#11  .5MT, when you are serious you bring an awful lot to the discussion. Thank you.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/17/2009 22:09 Comments || Top||


Europe
Czechs celebrate fall of communism 20 years ago
Repels Obama admin like garlic.
Nov. 17, 1989, began with fiery speeches at a university campus in Prague, inspiring thousands of students to march downtown toward Wenceslas Square. As darkness fell, police cracked down hard, beating demonstrators with truncheons and injuring hundreds in the melee.

Uncowed, the crowds mushroomed in the ensuing days, with demonstrators chanting: "You have lost already!"

They were right. Following the collapse of the Berlin Wall and communism in the region, by Dec. 10, Czechoslovakia had a new government. On Dec. 29, Vaclav Havel, a dissident playwright who had spent several years in prison, was elected the country's first democratic president in a half century by a parliament still dominated by communist hard-liners.
...
Ten years ago, Havel, as president, honored former President George H.W. Bush, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Poland's 1980s pro-democracy leader, Lech Walesa, at the Prague Castle for their contributions to the fall of communism. This time, only heads of Eastern European parliaments will participate in a conference in the Senate.
Posted by: ed || 11/17/2009 07:11 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Of all the countries I've been to in Europe, as a people I like the Poles and the Czechs the most.

They are hotheads, in the fine American tradition.
Posted by: Mizzou Mafia || 11/17/2009 10:58 Comments || Top||

#2  Mr. Wife has Czech colleagues who lived in Prague at the time. They were convinced the Soviet tanks would roll as they had in Hungary a generation before, but they all came out anyway. I don't know about hotheads, but when they get the bit in their teeth...
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/17/2009 15:50 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Tea Party Effigy Burn Called Off
Good. That really was not necessary to make the point that the Tea Partiers are actually the mainstream, in contrast particularly to the Democratic Party which these days has moved too far away from the center.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/17/2009 12:39 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  No need to seek a Giant Puppet race either with the other side, though a Macy's Day Parade balloon might be interesting.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/17/2009 15:39 Comments || Top||

#2  We need to have more Militia and TeaParty action with our giant puppets - it'll make our point much more clearly and win converts from all over.
Posted by: .5MT || 11/17/2009 17:35 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
VTOL Technically Difficulty
It's now official. The new generation of high-tech hovering aircraft - namely the famous V-22 "Osprey" tilt rotor and the upcoming F-35B supersonic stealth jump-jet - have an unforeseen flaw. Their exhaust downwash is so hot as to melt the flight decks of US warships, leading Pentagon boffins to look into refrigerated landing pads.

Stories of buckled flight decks caused by Osprey exhaust have been circulating for a while, but confirmation that the issue is seen as serious comes with the issue of a military request for proposals yesterday for "thermal management systems (TMS) for aircraft landing decks".

The proposal makes it clear that the Osprey - which is now in active combat service with the US Marines following a painful twenty-year gestation - has already been fingered as a deck-damaging craft. The F-35B stealth jumpjet, which has just commenced hover flight testing, is also expected to be fielded soon by the Marines, and could be an even worse pad-melter.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 11/17/2009 17:36 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And hence, Virginia, we learn once again why that Guy from Guam promoted DECK DRAFT BLOWERS + VERTICAL CATAPULTS, etc. long ago to DARPA-USDOD.

ION WAFF > REGISTER.UK > BOEING RAYGUN DREADNAUGHTS WILL RULE THE OCEANS BY 2019.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/17/2009 21:25 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Soldier mom refuses deployment to care for baby
SAVANNAH, Ga. -- An Army cook and single mom may face criminal charges after she skipped her deployment flight to Afghanistan because, she said, no one was available to care for her infant son while she was overseas.
Any new family additions hanging fire also?
Spc. Alexis Hutchinson, 21, claims she had no choice but to refuse deployment orders because the only family she had to care for her 10-month-old son -- her mother -- was overwhelmed by the task, already caring for three other relatives with health problems.

Her civilian attorney, Rai Sue Sussman, said Monday that one of Hutchinson's superiors told her she would have to deploy anyway and place the child in foster care.

"For her it was like, 'I couldn't abandon my child,'" Sussman said. "She was really afraid of what would happen, that if she showed up they would send her to Afghanistan anyway and put her son with child protective services."

Hutchinson, who is from Oakland, Calif., remained confined Monday to the boundaries of Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, 10 days after military police arrested her for skipping her unit's flight. No charges have been filed, but a spokesman for the Army post said commanders were investigating.
Per published orders, place of duty - Afghanistan. Soldier not at place of duty - AWOL. No excuses, no exceptions!
Kevin Larson, a spokesman for Hunter Army Airfield, said he didn't know what Hutchinson was told by her commanders, but he said the Army would not deploy a single parent who had nobody to care for his or her child.

"I don't know what transpired and the investigation will get to the bottom of it," Larson said. "If she would have come to the deployment terminal with her child, there's no question she would not have been deployed."

Hutchinson's son, Kamani, was placed into custody overnight with a daycare provider on the Army post after she was arrested and jailed briefly, Larson said. Hutchinson's mother picked up the child a week ago and took him back to her home in California.

Hutchinson, who's assigned to the 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, joined the Army in 2007 and had no previous deployments, Sussman said. She said Hutchinson is no longer in a relationship with the father.
No father figure available. How very strange.
It's not strange, it's typical in modern western society. Let's not miss the larger point ...
The Army requires all single-parent soldiers to submit a care plan for dependent children before they can deploy to a combat zone.
Submit and UPDATE as necessary and sign attesting to its validity and accurancy.
Hutchinson had such a plan -- her mother, Angelique Hughes, had agreed to care for the boy. Hughes said Monday she kept the boy for about two weeks in October before deciding she couldn't keep him for a full year.

Hughes said she's already having to care for her ailing mother and sister, as well as a daughter with special needs. She also runs a daycare center at her home, keeping about 14 children during the day.

"This is an infant, and they require 24-hour care," Hughes said. "It was very, very stressful, just too much for me to deal with."

Hughes said she returned Kamani to his mother in Georgia a few days before her scheduled deployment Nov. 5.

She said they told her daughter's commanders they needed more time to find another family member or close friend to help Hughes care for the boy, but Hutchinson was ordered to deploy on schedule.
Ok, I got it.... they "TOLD COMMANDER!"
Larson, the Army post spokesman, said officials planned to keep Hutchinson in Georgia as investigators gathered facts about the case.
Facts are the soldier is AWOL! Discharge under less than honorable. NEXT!
"Spc. Hutchinson's deployment is halted," Larson said. "There will be no deployment while this situation is ongoing."
And there will be NO ARMY if this crap is allowed to continue.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/17/2009 06:37 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Single parents are suppose to have a family (child) care plan or be separated out of the service. She wanted the pay and benefits, but didn't want the responsibilities. Now someone else has to pull her duty. If it is a determined a critical position, then someone else with little or no notice will have to clean up the mess by being yanked from their stabilization and shipped to join the unit. Screwed that family. As a minimum, she'll be administratively discharged.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/17/2009 8:30 Comments || Top||

#2  This story is all over Open Salon - lots of leftish wailing about how un-family friendly those dreadful, dreadful military services are. One commenter even began wailing about how the military just shouldn't recruit women. I pointed out how terribly retro that attitude was, and how women had to fight like hell to enlist, then fight to stay in if they got married, or got pregnant. Lots of good fun with this, especially how the story is being framed.
Posted by: Sgt. Mom || 11/17/2009 8:52 Comments || Top||

#3  I don't beleieve it is legal for the mother too be caring for 3 family memebers plus running a daycare out of her home with 14 additional children under GA state law either. Not unless she has help and I somehow doubt the residence would meet cod of a daycare center. Someone joined up for the benefits and paycheck and didn't think they would ever get sent away from the mainland.
Posted by: chris || 11/17/2009 9:04 Comments || Top||

#4  Sounds about right. I'll bet the talk show circuit is lining up to tell 'her' story (but never the story of the poor smuck who has to replace her) about what a meanie her CO was.

What made her think that her mother, already overloaded, would be able to take up a new baby?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 11/17/2009 9:15 Comments || Top||

#5  One of Hasan's victims was a pregnant 21 yo just returning from a tour. I would think the military would require birth control such as the implant while on active duty.
Posted by: Lumpy Elmoluck5091 || 11/17/2009 9:19 Comments || Top||

#6  Unfortunately in our continuing rush to social egalitarianism, breaking the military rank progression glass ceiling, etc, the services did away with entirely professional Womens service branches. The US Army Womans Army Corps (WAC) freed up the equivalent of 7 divisions of men for combat in WWII. Those services policed their own and had very rigid standards of conduct and professionalism which did NOT recognize the bullshi* that permeates our system today, ie, my p**** hurts I'm on sick call, I'm preggies/have kids so I can't deploy, duh...I'm deployed and now preggies, etc.

Having said that, some of the best and most dedicated soldiers I have served with have been female, which only proves the cream will rise to the top in spite of a dysfunctional system.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/17/2009 9:26 Comments || Top||

#7  I wonder where Kelly Flynn is now?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/17/2009 9:35 Comments || Top||

#8  I'll bet the talk show circuit is lining up to tell 'her' story (but never the story of the poor smuck who has to replace her) about what a meanie her CO was.

Yep, never time for those who truly soldier.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/17/2009 10:03 Comments || Top||

#9  "She said Hutchinson is no longer in a relationship with the father."

That would be lawyer-speak for…"her baby daddy is no good no how".
Posted by: DepotGuy || 11/17/2009 10:08 Comments || Top||

#10  Well, I can see her point. I mean, whodathunk that maybe you might get sent overseas if you join the Army?

And chris, grandma took the little guy back to her home in California. As long as she's respecting their rights to speak Spanglish, she could probably keep 30 kids in the house under their laws.
Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie || 11/17/2009 10:36 Comments || Top||

#11  This is more common than one would think. The only thing out of the ordinary is it made the press. There are a large number of reasons a troop does not deploy and having a family care plan fall apart at the 11th hour is just one. Before we go hammering away at her they really need to look at it. Sounds like she sent the kid to mom as promised. Mom failed her. How many of us could, in a few days find a place for our infant child, for a year. The single parents in the units I had the honor to command worked twice as hard for half the credit. I would ask to see the other soldiers with clingy wives and troubled kids that also did not deploy. Sounds like her case was a last minute issue. She joined to serve, and serve she should, but there is not a commander out that wants to send her back from Afghanistan when the kid is in trouble...
Posted by: 49 Pan || 11/17/2009 13:07 Comments || Top||

#12  Comments are from a bunch of arm-chair soldiers.
Posted by: Albemarle Clotch1793 || 11/17/2009 13:38 Comments || Top||

#13  agree w/49 Pan. Every deployment I've been on has always included that one last minute incident where someone gets pulled off for something weird or off the wall. I'll reserve judgment until the investigation is done.
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 11/17/2009 13:48 Comments || Top||

#14  Spc. Alexis Hutchinson, 21, claims she had no choice but to refuse deployment

Bullshi*

All she had to do was request...thru her chain of commmand, a deployment delay until she could get her Family Care situation resolved or she could be discharged. Unattended infants are not generally left lying at the edge of the Tarmac.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/17/2009 13:58 Comments || Top||

#15  Armchair soldiers? Yes I guess I qualify for that :).

Am curious why she had to outright refuse deployment. And why all the publicity? Even an armchair soldier knows that this is not that uncommon.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 11/17/2009 14:10 Comments || Top||

#16  Besoeker, Ya I'm wondering that as well. It will flush out, the bad press is the crap I hate. She is either going to take care of it or get thrown out, she is not worth the press. But this crap about being armchair soldiers?? WTF? I would bet we have 100 years of combined service in this thread alone, I got 27 locked out and 6 1/2 of company command alone, could not get it right the first time and had to try two more times to get it right.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 11/17/2009 14:17 Comments || Top||

#17  Soldier not at place of duty - AWOL. No excuses, no exceptions!

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
Deployments can and do get called off up until the day of boarding the plane all the time for reasons less serious than this one. Her chain of command should, in fact, help her out. If they don't they are ALSO violating a family care plan. Nobody can sue the Grandmother for not holding up her end of the bargain and foist anything on the grandmother. Therefore, an alternate plan should be used. Take a chill pill yall.
Posted by: GirlThursday || 11/17/2009 14:19 Comments || Top||

#18  Her chain of command should, in fact, help her out. If they don't they are ALSO violating a family care plan

Somehow I KNEW it had to be the chain of command's fault, lol.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/17/2009 14:27 Comments || Top||

#19  Besoeker you are out of line you kak filled Afrikaaner fossil. This isn't your war, and how good was your Army anyways when YOU LOST! Loser.

Sticking to the facts, this sounds like she had the FC Plan in place as required, was ready to deploy and her mom failed her. What she did wrong was she reacted the wrong way, flailing around instead of notifying her CO, First Sgt, Bn SGM and the Chaplain's office as well as the unit/base FRG.

Anyone that has really commanded support troops knows there is more to this than made the spin in the papers. There are ARs that govern the steps when an FCP fails. Wait the whole story is out before condemning.

Until then step the hell back Boer trash.
Posted by: Jeager Panda5130 || 11/17/2009 14:36 Comments || Top||

#20  Jeager Panda5130, it's a shame you had to surround a good point with such unnecessary nastiness. Please do not do that anymore.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/17/2009 14:51 Comments || Top||

#21  Twenty-one years old with a baby and a care plan that fell through days before deployment... She probably was not thinking clearly, and a superior telling her the baby would be put in foster care. It's a tribute to the caliber of people who sign up for our military that she didn't hole up somewhere with a gun.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/17/2009 14:52 Comments || Top||

#22  Thanks MODs, I was typing someting really unacceptable to this troll when you snip'd it. I dont always agree with B and a good boxing match is really more fun but that was out of line.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 11/17/2009 14:53 Comments || Top||

#23  "My mother failed me" as well Panda. That's why I've become a blathering old fossil. However comma, I always had my personal affairs in order, I never missed a phueching deployment order! Manifest call! Or a jump command!

Posted by: Besoeker || 11/17/2009 14:57 Comments || Top||

#24  JP, it may not be Besoeker's war as you say, although I think you're wrong about that, at least he supports you, which you didn't do for us.
Ever get displaced? I hope you cope half as well when it happens to you.
As for the issue, I would opine it's just a life issue, life goes on. What they gonna do, send her to 'nam?
Posted by: rhodesiafever || 11/17/2009 15:07 Comments || Top||

#25  Jeager Panda5130 good clean kill thar!

LOL!

o7z to you buddy - you know kak when you smell it.

Enjoy the wallpaper, Ship. Come back when you can be civil. Say, in a week or so.
Posted by: .5MT || 11/17/2009 17:32 Comments || Top||

#26  What they gonna do, send her to 'nam?

Send her to ...Detroit!

Hey, how come she can't take the baby with her? Do we have some sort of liberal feel-good law against babies in combat? It's no wonder American kids are turning into soccer playing wussies.
Posted by: SteveS || 11/17/2009 20:02 Comments || Top||

#27  I think my 26 years' service gives me the right to state an opinion here, especially since 22 of those was in an NCO supervisory position of one type or another.

I've had several (too many) young ladies with small children and no co-provider. It's hard on them, on the children, and on the unit. It's rough building a deployment roster that doesn't discriminate against any member of the unit, but also recognizes the needs of the individual members. My wife and I (and my wife, alone) have stepped in on many occasions to care for the children of those I supervised. Usually it was only for a day or two until family members could arrive and take over. The only person I've had refuse to deploy was a young jack$$$ that I wouldn't recommend for cleaning stables, and it had nothing to do with dependents.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 11/17/2009 20:27 Comments || Top||

#28  Leadership and a watchful eye such as yours Old Patriot, produced results and not empty headed responses and subsequent AWOLS. Thank you for taking care of soldiers. I salute you!
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/17/2009 20:34 Comments || Top||

#29  Indeed, OP, discretional judgements. Thank you and your wife for wise decisions.
Posted by: rhodesiafever || 11/17/2009 20:57 Comments || Top||

#30 
Enjoy the wallpaper, Shipman.
Posted by: Pappy || 11/17/2009 21:32 Comments || Top||



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