This Is The Kind Of Thing That Gives Idaho A Bad Name

I have a confession to make. For my own twisted entertainment, I've spent way too much time baiting a kindly old gentleman moonbat up in the Idaho panhandle who blogs at morialekafa. I'm not proud of what I've done (like the time I badgered him into admitting that no, he doesn't believe in the concept of the "soul") but I've been concerned that, since he's supporting the same candidate for Congress I do, someone would have to call him on some of his more outlandish conspiracy theories before it caused problem for our candidate. (Plus, I appreciate absurdity, and many of his rants are classic examples of the most profound kind of absurd thought.)

Tonight, though, both he and Idaho Rocks brought to our attention the kind of beliefs that have given Idaho such a bad reputation over the years. Here's part what Janney Chandler of Bonners Ferry, Idaho, had to say in a Letter to the Editor of her local paper:

Barak Hussein Obama, a Muslim wants to be our next president.
How can a good Muslim be a "good American," much less the President of the United States of America?
Politically he can't because he must submit to the mullah (political leader) who teach annihilation of Israel and destruction of the great satin they refer to as America. Death to all who are not Muslim...
...Philosophically he cannot because Islam Mohammed and the Iran do not allow freedom of religion. Democracy and Islam cannot co-exist. Every Muslim government is either dictatorial or antrocatic.
Spiritually he cannot because when we declare "One Nation Under God," our Christian God is loving and kind while Allah is never referred to as a Heavenly Father nor is he ever called love in the Iran. Muslims cannot be both a good Muslim and a good American. Their personal preference and allegiance is to Allah and not our Constitution, nor our God.
A state of our nation has already elected a Muslim (Obama) to the House of Representatives.
He is in the current session of Congress 2007 and during his swearing in he used the Muslim Iran instead of our Bible...
...Also four Senators along with many others voted against English as our official American language. Senators Biden, Clinton, Dodd, Obama, Boxer, Kerry, Kennedy, Lieferman and many more. Where is their loyalty to America?...

It goes on in that vein. As much as I appreciate the absurdity of all the spelling (antrocatic?) and grammatical errors in a letter complaining about people who don't want to make English our official language, and the complete absence of any actual facts (Sen. Obama is not a Muslim, it was Rep. Keith Ellison who was sworn in using the Koran, the Muslim Holy Book isn't called the "Iran", and so forth) I'm still disturbed that a paper would print something so inflammatory without some sort of Editor's Note. Mrs. Chandler has every right to publicize her opinions, just as I have the right to mock and belittle them. I believe a newspaper, though, has a higher responsibility to at least correct completely erroneous information that makes its way into their print editions -- the standard disclaimer that "we're not responsible" just doesn't do it for me.

I for one am worried about the falsehoods being spread about the Muslim faith, such as that they don't worship the God of Abraham. We are at war with some Muslims (albeit only a small percentage of them, and are friendly with many more), but it doesn't do anything to help our military capabilities to not know everything we can about our enemy. If America's youth, some of whom may soon serve in our Armed Forces, are not being taught the truth about our enemies, I fear they'll be less effective at fighting them -- or making peace with them when the time eventually comes.

Update 0031 29 Dec: Two Idaho newspapers, including the one up north, have published apologies for their original publication of demonstrably false letters. It's a good start. (Personally, it's OK with me if they print the letters, as long as they attach an Editor's note to each one pointing out the obvious falsehoods.)

USS Tautog (SS 199) Draws First Blood

Most students of submarine history know that USS Tautog (SS 199) was one of the most successful of the WWII submarines, with 26 enemy ships to her credit. What they may not be aware of is that the Sailors of the Tautog were credited with shooting down one of the first attacking Japanese planes 66 years ago today. From the Tautog's After-Action Report:

On 7 December, 1941 Tautog was moored at pier two U.S. Submarine Base manned by one section of Submarine Division Sixty-One relief crew. Tautog has returned from a 45-day patrol on 5 December and only one fourth of the regular crew was on board. At 0750 several men on deck observed three planes flying in the general direction of the U.S. Navy Yard from over AIEA fleet landing. When the first plane dropped a bomb and turned revealing the insignia, it was realized that an attack was being made. General Quarters was sounded immediately and about 0755 the first cal. .50 machine gun was brought into action. Torpedo planes, some of which passed very close astern of Tautog had commenced an attack on Battleships moored at Ford Island. At about 0758 the fourth plane in line burst into flames with a loud explosion when about 150 feet astern of Tautog. Tracers from the after cal. .50 machine gun and the starboard cal. .30 machine gun were going into the fuselage of this plane at this time. U.S.S. Hulbert was also firing at this plane. It is certain that it was hit repeatedly by Tautog, no other ships in the vicinity had opened fire.

Other after-action reports can be found here, and other good information on the Pearl Harbor attack is here. On this day of remembrance, it's good to take to heart the lesson that we've shown before that we can defeat a seemingly implacable death-worshipping enemy, and we can do it again if we remain united.

Update 0736 07 Dec: Here's an article from a Missouri paper with the recollections of a submariner assigned to USS Narwhal (SS 167) during the attack and its aftermath.

SSGNs On Parade

There's been lots of SSGN news going on the last couple of months. With the initial deployment of USS Ohio (SSGN 726) and the upcoming return of USS Georgia (SSBN 729) to her namesake state, all four submarines in the conversion program are well on their way to finishing one of the most successful naval conversion programs ever. I'm looking forward to the first stories of USS Ohio's first deployed crew swap in Guam early next year.

The other two boats, which are between Ohio and Georgia in the conversion process, are also featured in some new multimedia on the 'net. Here's a YouTube photo slideshow of a tour of USS Michigan (SSBN 727) that happened earlier this year; the video was posted by a national officer of U.S. Submarine Veterans:



Also, here's an article that mentions the upcoming deployment of USS Michigan along with a discussion of the saga of the ASDS she'll be carrying.

Finally, there are some new pictures of Seal Delivery Vehicle operations from USS Florida (SSBN 728) that took place earlier this summer, but were just released recently by the Navy. Here's one picture:

Two other are here and here.

Edited 1540 06 Dec to correct the hull number of USS Georgia.

A Sure-Fire Moneymaking Scheme

Whenever people start doing stupid things, I like to figure out what the best way is to make money off of their stupidity. One area that I think offers a lot of potential is in the area of carbon offsets, where rich liberals and the companies who fear them are giving people money to neutralize their carbon footprint -- frequently by doing something like planting trees or capturing methane.

Many organizations that offer carbon offsets are planting new trees that take a while to get big -- they're not as good at being CO₂ scrubbers as a big tree. My idea is this -- buy some land that already has trees, and sell "Mature Tree Saving" carbon offsets to gullible celebrities; that is, if the celebrity pays you enough money, you won't cut down the trees you own. The effect on net worldwide carbon is the same as planting many more new trees. The best thing is, you can sell the rights to save the same trees multiple times by not specifying the length of time the offset is good for, or by using strange units of time in the contracting language. ("This offset will ensure 10 mature trees will be left unmolested for one (1) Jovian diurnal cycle.") If they buy into that, you can expand into methane reduction offsets -- buy a cow (it can graze in your forest), and if the celebrity gives you enough money, you'll kill the cow so it won't emit methane anymore. As an added bonus, you get to eat the cow!

Video From Inside Iranian Ghadir-class Submarine

It looks like Iranian TV showed some sort of "Meet the Iranian Sub Force" documentary lately, because clips have been showing up on YouTube. Here's a clip where they go on one of the Kilo-class boats (supposedly the Taregh), and here's one where they go inside one of the new mini-subs:



It's sooo cute!