The end of the Enterprise: an outrage, an insult and a crime

The US Navy will soon no longer have an active aircraft carrier named Enterprise:

The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN 65) departed Norfolk Naval Station March 11 on the ship's 22nd and final deployment.

Enterprise is slated to deploy to the U.S. Navy's 5th and 6th Fleet areas of operation as part of an ongoing rotation of U.S. forces supporting maritime security operations in international waters around the globe.

[...]

For Enterprise, the Navy's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the deployment represents the culmination of more than 50 years of distinguished service.

Commissioned in 1961, the Enterprise is both the largest and oldest active combat vessel in the Navy.

Enterprise's age, however, does not impact its effectiveness.

"Enterprise is as ready and capable as she has ever been throughout her 50 years," said Capt. William C. Hamilton, Commanding Officer of Enterprise. "The ship and crew's performance during work-ups demonstrates that the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier has never been more relevant."

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Everything wrong with today's social support system

Encapsulated in one hilarious video from Judge Judy:



Thanks to the always-excellent blog Power Line for posting this piece of unintentional yet informative comedy.

Not Winston Churchill's proudest moment (or "New additions to the library")

Hostages to Fortune:Winston Churchill and the Loss of the Prince of Wales and Repulse, by Arthur Nicholson.
The Sinking of the Prince of Wales & Repulse: The End of the Battleship Era, by Martin Middlebrook and Patrick Mahoney.

(Gee, are you seeing a theme to these books?)

Many consider the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Imperial Japanese Carrier Striking Force Kido Butai to be the end of the era when battleships ruled the seas, but the actual end, in my opinion, came three days latwer, on December 10, 1941 when the British Royal Navy's Force Z, centered on the new battleship Prince of Wales, and the old but fast veteran battlecruiser Repulse, was caught without air cover off Malaya by bombers from the Japanese Naval Air Force. Both were sunk in dramatic fashion.  The sinkings were so momentous that even the Japanese pilots were given pause.  For the British, it was extremely traumatic, the end of their empire and the end of the battleship era.
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Drug warriors don't care if you're sick

By golly, they're going to get Sudafed off the streets even if it kills you:

Cold and allergy sufferers would face limits on the amount of medications like Mucinex D and Sudafed they could buy in Kentucky under a bill passed by the Senate on Friday.
The goal is to limit access to large quantities of products that contain pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient in the illegal drug methamphetamine that's being widely abused in the state.
The compromise bill brokered by Sen. Jerry Rhoads, D-Madisonville, passed 25-11 to limit any one person's purchases to no more than 7.2 grams in a month or 24 grams in a year. People who need more that that would have to get a prescription.
Republican Floor Leader Robert Stivers II of Manchester, sponsor of the legislation, said he would have preferred requiring prescriptions for any amount of medications containing pseudoephedrine. But he had been unable to garner enough support to get that proposal through the Senate.

This is happening more and more across the country. And, yes, there are, uh, "warriors" who are trying to do the same thing in Indiana.  If Kentucky actually passes this garbage, the pressure to pass similar restrictions here will increase.

We need to draw the line and tell our lawmakers to not sacrifice the health and well-being of their constituents for useless cred in the even more useless Drug Wars.

Sorry for the light posting.

Been buried in work. And I'm trying to make the final push to get the last edits to the Adrianople article done before turning it in. When I'm trying my hand at scholarly writing, I get very nitpicky about cites and evidence. But I firmly believe the piece will be worth it.

New addition to the library

Cruiser: The Life and Loss of HMAS Perth and Her Crew, by Mike Carlton.

Aside from the works by Ronald McKie (Proud Echo, The Survivors), I've found very little that focus on the experience of the Perth during the Java Sea campaign. And McKie's works tend to only focus on the Perth somewhat during and after her experience fighting alongside the USS Houston against hopeless odds in the Sunda Strait.  Cruiser deals with Perth's entire war career. Damn good ship.

Curiously, I've identified no books that focus on the career of the cruiser HMS Exeter.  Her last commander, Oliver Loudon Gordon, wrote Fight It Out, which apparently dealt with her combat record, in 1957, but the book is now out of print and almost impossible to acquire.  Considering the incredible record of the Exeter -- helping to cause the sinking the German "pocket battleship" Admiral Graf Spee off the Rio de La Plata, fighting in two battles in the Java Sea, the second against hopeless odds -- I find this to be an amazing oversight.

A great American warrior has been lost

RIP Andrew Breitbart. Condolences to and prayers for his family.