19 June 2007

Kaijo Jie Tai FTW!

JMSDF recruitment video:


Sensuikan!!!111!11!

This one is a lot worse:

Taiwan not interested in defending itself

At least that's one way of looking at this. Another is that they see the value in not provoking their neighbor, who just happens to be the big bully on the street.
Legislators also declined to purchase diesel-electric submarines as suggested by Washington but promised to study the issue further.
President Chen Shui-bian and his pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party battled long and hard to get the arms package funded, calling it vital for Taiwan's defense. But the opposition Nationalist Party, which controls the Legislative Yuan, refused to endorse it, saying the suggested purchases were too expensive, inappropriate for Taiwan's needs and likely to fuel an arms race with the mainland.

18 June 2007

SCORPION sunk by Soviets - new book

In his 482-page book, "Scorpion Down: Sunk by the Soviets, Buried by the Pentagon: The Untold Story of the USS Scorpion," Offley maintains that the USS Scorpion and its crew of 99 submariners were lost May 22, 1968, during an undersea battle in the Atlantic with a Soviet sub.

I've always thought that the conspiracy theories around this loss would only be based on wild speculation. This explains why it is so tough to eliminate the speculation:

Craven, who is now chief scientist for the Common Heritage Corp., said the details behind the sinking and the search for the Scorpion are still classified, which opens the entire operation to speculation.
Oh, and you can get a book deal for some light summer reading.

17 June 2007

What would a Dem presidency mean for GWOT

Victor Davis Hanson again:

We shall see what liberal therapeutics accomplishes in this war that started on September 11 when Hillary & Co. come to power—or rather relearn the lessons of everything from the Khobar Towers and East African embassy bombings to the USS Cole.

After all the lectures about not being safe after 9/11, and taking our eye off bin Laden, we await her revocation of the Patriot Act, wiretaps on terrorists, etc., and planned intrusions and hot pursuit into nuclear Pakistan—and, of course, calls for national unity during time of war, a renunciation of the politics of personal destruction, and a plea to tone down the strident rhetoric.

Imagine, if she were elected, that a Bush emeritus played Jimmy Carter to her presidency, or documentaries came out calling for scenarios about her demise, or Alfred Knopf published a book about shooting the president— or any of the other reprehensible things we have witnessed the past six years, all to the silence of the liberal opposition.

To get to the presidency, the Democrats must demonize the war effort and assume we will lose in Iraq; but to run the country, they would almost immediately have to reverse course, call for unity, and explain why we must continue anti-terrorism at home, and fighting al Qaeda abroad. And if they adopted a truly pacifist stature, a single 9/11 like attack would ruin their fides for a generation. Politics is to be accepted, but in wartime one expects a modicum of national interest first.

05 June 2007

Guess there aren't any good clubs in Taiwan

Deputy navy commander denies wrongdoing

Vice Admiral Shen Po-chih, deputy commander of the navy, denied yesterday he did anything wrong while he was on a visit to Hawaii in 2002.

In a statement, the Navy Command said Admiral Shen, charged with visiting a strip-tease show instead of the USS Santa Fe, does not mind being investigated.

The Liberty Times published an expose yesterday, quoting a retired navy commander as testifying Shen, the then deputy fleet commander, refused to visit the U.S. nuclear submarine in Hawaii in order just to watch the strip-tease show.

The retiree was with Admiral Shen on Hawaii from December 17 through 22.

Earlier on the floor of the legislative Yuan, Lee tien-yu, minister national defense, promised an investigation of the scandal.

"The navy," Lee told lawmakers, "has formed an investigation committee."

According to the Liberty Times, six naval officers, including Shen, were invited to visit the U.S. Pacific Fleet after President George W. Bush approved in 2001 a major arms sale to Taiwan in 2001.

Lee said the navy has taken a serious note toward the case. But he added it is necessary to find out whether the strip-tease show was "an ordinary floor show, which is quite normal in the West or anything erotic."

Any guesses as to where he was?

Don't think it was any Waikiki clubs. He wouldn't likely be expected to tour the SANTA FE at night. That's when those tourist traps are open, I am told.


TB Andy was a mid?

It appears that the Atlanta lawyer, who got in the news recently for (probably not) potentially infecting many people during his honeymoon trip to Europe, was...a Naval Academy midshipman for two years.

He must have chickened out prior to 2 for 7 night.