Friday Reading

CDR Salamander: Fullbore Friday covers USS South Dakota (BB-57)

Dusty of the Castle reminds of how where fiscal crises begin. Sorta like crazed arsonists who start fires, run around investigating everyone else and then claim they have the solution to stopping fires by pouring gasoline on them . . . sorta.

What, you like more taxes? Here you go.

A disagreement in the intel world regarding domestic terror threats? Hmmm. Last time we got 9-11.

Odd Russian admiral antics.

A nice find.

The more things change, the more they remain the same.

UPDATE: Fiddling while Rome burns. Thomas Sowell:

In another sense, however, looming ahead of us — and our children and their children — are dangers that can utterly destroy American society. Worse yet, there are moral corrosions within ourselves that weaken our ability to face the challenges ahead.

One of the many symptoms of this decay from within is that we are preoccupied with the pay of corporate executives while the leading terrorist-sponsoring nation on earth is moving steadily toward creating nuclear bombs.

Does anyone imagine that we will care what anyone’s paycheck is when we see an American city in radioactive ruins?

Yet the only serious obstacle to that happening is that the Israelis may disregard the lofty blather coming out of the White House and destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities before the Iranian fanatics can destroy Israel.

If by some miracle we manage to avoid the fatal dangers of a nuclear Iran, there will no doubt be others, including a nuclear North Korea.

Although, in some sense, the United States of America is still the strongest nation on earth militarily, that means absolutely nothing if our enemies are willing to die and we are not.

See the Sgt. Goldich quote in the header.

UPDATE2: If we don't say the word "terrorism," maybe it will go away. (H/T:CI Centre)-- Perhaps we can banish the words "death" or "cancer" the same way. Where are the grownups in the Obama administration? Will this work for "taxes?" That's a dodo nearby . . .

UPDATE3: Steve Schippert has a problem with cognitive dissonance. Something about sending money to Hamas while Pakistan burns . . .