Time for a Chat

I feel one of those "Monkey Brain"attacks coming on so let's just about about "stuff" in the news today...

I see we have taken another step down that road called "absurd". It seems some inmates on death row have found a new way to delay their executions. They sued the FDA. Yep, the Food and Drug Administration -and they won. It seems that one of the sedatives, used to humanely put them to sleep before the lethal drugs to stop their hearts is administered, is manufactured overseas and was never approved for import into the United States. A federal judge has ordered the FDA to confiscate supplies of the drug from the states and bar it's use. Several states simply switched back to using sodium penathol as the sedative. --But never fear, the inmates are organizing another suit to stop it's use because "it takes too long" to sedate the prisoners..... Yeah, only in America...

On a more positive note, it has been six months since DADT was repealed and the doom and gloom predictions of a mass exodus from the service by straight members, the ruination of our fighting capabilities and violent retaliations towards gay service members has not happened. In fact, it has pretty much been a non-issue. I am sure some of the neanderthals who thought the rest of America was as prejudice as themselves are deeply disappointed. The military has seen thousands of former service members, whose initial training cost us taxpayers millions of dollars and whose skills are sorely needed, but were forced out of the service by DADT, re-enlisting, anxious to once again serve their country. Six months -and there has not been one major incident and only a handful of minor complaints -far fewer then complaints arising from women or Muslims serving in the armed forces (which, by-the-way, are just as unfounded and ludicrous).

Oh, I have to apologize to my fellow naval history buffs because I missed an important historical anniversary this week. On March 27th, 1794 the United States Congress authorized the construction of 6 frigates -the first warships designed and constructed specifically for our Navy. Thanks to George Washington, they chose a radically new design which would produce the finest, fastest and most powerful frigate class ships in the world at that time. In an unusual move, Congress authorized a budget that would use the best, and most expensive, materials available in the construction. The result was a Navy which went on to defeat the French in a Quasi-war fought mostly in the Caribbean, defeat of the Barbary States in 2 wars fought in the Mediterranean, and important victories over the British Navy during the War of 1812. The British were so upset that they complained that Americans "had cheated" in constructing frigates more powerful then the Europeans had at the time. They spend millions of pounds designing and building ships specifically to fight our frigates and, during the war, they committed over 700 warships to be stationed on our Atlantic Coast to try and keep our 6 little frigates from even getting to sea (unfortunately for them, that effort failed). Ships such as the USS Constitution, the USS United States and the USS President, in a space of just 20 short years, defeated and fought the 2 "super powers" of the time to a stand still and helped establish the United States as an up and coming power on the world stage.

And for those of you who asked for another of my Grandfathers "Irish Jokes":

Irish they were and drunk for sure and they sat in the comer of Mulligan's newly refurbished bar. Across the wall opposite was a huge mirror, fourteen feet long and stretching from floor to ceiling.
Glancing around the room Pat suddenly spotted their reflection in the mirror.
'Mick, Mick,' he whispered. 'Don't look now but there's two fellas over there the image of us!'
'In the name of God,' said Mick, spotting the reflection. 'They're wearing identical clothes and everything.'
'That does it,' said Pat. 'I'm going to buy them a drink.'
But as Pat started to rise from his seat, Mick said, 'Sit down Pat one of them's coming over!'

Well, enough rambling for today, but don't worry, like MacArthur -I Shall Return.... (I wish Nimitz or Halsey had said that...)

Live Long and Prosper....