Friday Reading

CDR Salamander: Fullbore Friday featuring one of the heroes of the X-craft.

Early dive bombers at Steeljaw Scribe: Flightdeck Friday: Planning, Building and Training for the Future, which he labels as a "cautionary tale."

An early look at the Heritiage Foundation's new report on piracy from MaritimeTerrorism.com here. I've got my own copy of the Special Report (and you can get your for free, too) so when I get time . . .

Another thing to lose some sleep over, with Galrahn's peek at Chinese Anti-ship Ballistic Missiles.

While Congress fights hard to relieve you of all that extra money you've been carrying ("Less weight in your pockets means better health care!"), some Democrats have found another windmill to tilt at - the use of spy satellites to help emergency responders - so they got it killed. Spook86 finds the usual high level of understanding among the gaggle of those protecting our 4th Amendment rights. Common sense, First and Second Amendmen rights and other rights seem to be a lower priority:

As a friend of this blog reminds us, the need for an applications office (or similar department) became painfully evident in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 1995. Faced with incredible devastation across a broad section of the Gulf South, local officials begged the federal government for satellite imagery--and other intel products--that would allow them to pin-point the hardest-hit areas, and concentrate relief services in those communities.
***
But Democrats on the Hill viewed it as a threat to civil liberties, and so did the ACLU. Never mind that the "local" consumers had no "eavesdropping" capabilities--in other words, they had no real ability to task the system, so concerns about "domestic spying" and invasion of privacy were overstated, at best.

Yes, you ought to read it.

Speaking of terrorist groups, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea a/k/a North Korea is making semi-creative threats against the U.S. and its allies. A few years ago it was the threat of a "Nuclear sea of fire". Now, it's a "Fire shower of nuclear retaliation" among other things. I say we threaten them with an endless supply Congressional speeches on the banking crisis.