What if, just for speculative purposes, we formed a deliberative body of elected officials. We then chartered them to formulate procedures and processes by which we would manage our society. Next, we might, via our voices in print and in polls and via the ‘net, collectively indicate what we felt the most seriousness about, communicating to them our priorities. Then we agree to pay them for this work and we then get back to our work of construction buildings, laying asphalt, fixing power generation plants and downed bridges.

Sounds like a good plan to me.

But….what happens? This esteemed group, by their actions, decides they would rather divide up into smaller factions and adopt a philosophy or “anything EXCEPT what the opposition wants!” Oh, then they begin to demand that their solution is the only acceptable one, and everyone else MUST do as they say, or they will do nothing but lay constant roadblocks in the way or any other progress. And…don’t get me started on endless cycles of hearings to find some fault with circumstances you just don’t like.

And top it off, with many serious issues unresolved, the body decides to further endear themselves to the working man and women, by taking off from work in the high heat of August, after promising to get it all done when you come back.

Congress: you have to love their way of collecting a fat paycheck and racking up an incredible retirement benefit package, while still not getting significant issues taken care of…

Now, consider for a moment, could I have been describing the Iraqi legislature? The actions of their elected officials seems very much like the constant, infantile squabbling coming out of our own hallowed institutions of the Senate and the House.

Here’s the irony I see: If one of our strategies was to build up democratic governments in the Middle East, beginning with Iraq, I would submit we just might have become overly successful, but somehow, we have failed to see the outcome for what it is. The Iraqis went to the polls, as we did, voted in people who promised to tackle the many issues that “We the People” have confirmed are worthy of their attention, but what have they, like us, received in return for our statement of confidence at the ballot boxes? Lots of talk, lots of back-biting, lots of wasted energy and certainly, not any worthwhile decisions. Quite a striking parallel, I’d say.

To be fair, there have been some Iraqi politicians who have lost their lives going to work. I can’t say that for our elected representatives, nor would I wish it on any of them, but I do see how there is some degree of courage the Iraqi must muster that ours need not actually have to have to get to their offices daily.

I think that the Iraqi politicians have, for the most part, modeled themselves after what our “democracy” style of today represents, which is something more like a “ME!-ocracy,” (I think that may be my 4th original/phrase concoction) were the “I” or “Me” is the ultimate customer of the process and the rest of us are supposed to “eat cake” while also sometimes standing up and yelling “I want it MY WAY!” or “WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?!?!?!?!”

Maybe we expected that the Iraqis would have gone through a series of historical events of fiery oratory from modern day Jeffersons and Madisons and Washingtons and Henrys, and since that has not occurred, we don’t recognize they have skipped right over all of the hard work of getting it out on the floor, in speeches that will be recorded and repeated and quoted for centuries to come, then coming to a common ground, acceptable to the many, and from that unity of view, begin to take on the daily irritations of life, once the nation has a foundation.

So the irony of it all comes in many words and actions, with our own elected officials, who have yet to complete some important bills, for one the annually written (SURPRISE! – It happens every year!) Defense funding bills, moan and complain that the Iraqi parliament will take the month of August off for not only vacation, but because it’s so darn hot. Our elected reps make such remarks, while wiping the sweat from their brows, claiming Global Warming has made Washington, DC hot this same August (like so many other Augusts before), then they hop on their jets and beat feet out of town for…yes, “vacation”….Maybe they somehow justify theirs as superior to the time off of the Iraqis because they will be out at fund raising events, which, is their main work, so they are really not on vacation in their mind. Nice rationalization, but what they consider work is merely an investment in their future in a job where they can decide their own priorities and not perform, with little fear of being called to account for a lack of measurable results.

Note to Iraqis who might be reading this: You’d be better served studying our history before the late 60’s – early 70’s “flower children” brought their “do your own thing” mentality to the halls of government.

One more ironic point: I bet we could never get the libs to stand up and say “Hey! Time to bring the troops home in VICTORY because we have given them democracy! The Iraqi politicians are just like us, and we’re a democracy: Do nothing, lazy, power hungry, entrenched careerists, on vacation in August with nothing accomplished for all the pay, in it only for ourselves! Hooray for America!”

They didn’t think of Windows, they had to wait for someone else to make it work…

Consider now, the possibility of copying a wildly successful product line and calling it their own…

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BUT….this is not merely a philosophy from Bill Gates, but it seems
to be prevalent in Russia these days, too…

And two something extras for the Mac loyalists out there:

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Sighted! 7 of them at once, all together!

And…some driven by boredom fun from the surrogate Wayne and Garth of VQ-2:

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Warning: Some “non-diversity sensitive” wording may be involved in this video….

Don’t stop before it ends…it’s not what you might think it is.

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H/T: Neptunus Lex reader ASM826.

Today will not be devoted to some hero who had a ship named after them, but rather to a particularly American tree that made a difference in our early history. Yesterday, I posted about the famed battle between the USS CONSTITUTION under Captain Issac Hull and the HMS Guerrière commanded by Captain James Dacres. That 25 minute battle, resulting in an astonishing one sided victory for the American Navy was, in part, due to the foresight of the US Navy’s first shipwright, Joshua Humphreys (who’s story led off this series of Monday postings).

Quercus virginiana, better known as “Live Oak,” was a specific ingredient in the building of our first six warships.

Angel Oak, John’s Island, SC. Photo Credit: © Cedric Baele

The tree, which is a live oak, Quercus virginiana, a species prevalent in the sea islands of South Carolina, is 65 feet high and has a circumference of 25 feet. While its height may not be impressive, the shaded area covered by its foliage extends over 17,000 square feet, making it a delightful place to catch some shade in the summer months.

One of its largest limbs is 89 feet long, with a circumference of 11.5 feet.
[…]

Why this type of wood for our ships? According to the research of Ian Toll, author of “Six Frigates,” it has to do with it’s strength, resistance to salt water, weight per cubic foot up to 75lbs, among other fine qualities:

Humphreys was exacting in his specifications. The beams and decks would be made of Carolina Pine, he wrote, and the planks of red ceder. But most important,-here he was both explicit and insistent-key pieces of the frame, including the futocks, knight heads, hawse pieces, bow timbers, stanchions, knees, transoms, and breasthooks, must be made of live oak.

So where does one get this wood? Along the coasts of the US, from Virginia to eastern Texas. What type of coast line does this mean? Swamps….mud that sucks leg into the ankle or knee when it’s nice and wet. Mosquitoes, and all sorts of others vermin that make men deathly ill in the living conditions of the late 1700’s. But, as we know, it made it’s way into the ships.

“Moulds,” that were actually full sized models of the finished pieces were laid out at the building yard from light wooden battens. These models were taken into the swamps to determine which trees would yield a match to each model.

Getting these trees became an monumental task. First to strike out in August 1794 to the coast of Georgia was a Boston shipwright named John T. Morgan. His hopes were to then be assigned as one of the master constructors. All support would have to come the camp by sea and soon, no wood was collected and most of the party was disabled with disease, most likely malaria. Soon, no amount of money could entice the workers, of the original 90 from New England, who had not died to remain.

in late October, Captain John Barry proceeded to Georgia to assess the situation. He found the camp inhabited by sick men. He sent for reinforcements. Slaves from the local area were used to help clear a road to the best timber and work commenced. The trunks and branches were floated and/or drug from the swamps by teams of oxen and did eventually get to Philadelphia, albeit 6 months late for the work schedule.

While this wood is an excellent material for ships at sea, it is not what ship’s caprenters like to see hauled into the building yards. From “Six Frigates:”

BUt the shipyard workers also dreaded the extra work it took to cut, shape and manipulate live oak, and they rolled their eyes whenever a new load of raw timber sections was brought into the yard. A nail driven into it was nearly impossible to extract. Axes bounced off it and saws moved back and forth across it again and again, making little or no discernable progress. Nothing took the shaprness out of a ship carpenter’s tools as quickly as well seasoned live oak.

So, there is a salute to another American resource, this time a natural and not human one, that earned the USS CONSTITUTION the nickname “Old Ironsides.”

I had often wondered about this, as I was homeported in Charleston in September 1989 when Hurricane Hugo devastated the area. I recall there were a number of large live oaks that the storm toppled, mostly due to the wet ground, that no longer afforded a secure hold for the roots. The comments in the news reports were the salvaged limbs and trunks would be useful in maintaining old sailing ships, the complete significance I did not understand until reading “Six Frigates,” and finding the story of the decisions and the effort to get this type of wood for ship construction.

On this date 195 years ago, a historical naval battle took place, which spawned a legendary nickname for one of the first warships built in the course of our nation’s history: “Old Ironsides.”

Painting by Michael Corne Captain Issac Hull, commanding USS CONSTITUTION, would take on the British Frigate HMS Guerrière (44 guns), commanded by 28 year old, but experienced, Captain James Dacres, in a short and furious engagement in the vicinity of 41° 42’N 55°48’W, approximately 750 miles East of Boston.The CONSTITUTION’s crew sighted sails at 2PM and the ships closed for the deadly engagement. Shortly before 6PM, at the CONSTITUTION closed within gun range of the British ship, the HMS Guerrière began firing some long range shots. Captain Hull held fire, even after having taken a hit in a gun port at 6PM.When the CONSTITUTION was broadside to the HMS Guerrière at a distance of about 75 yards, First Lieutenant Morris asked “Shall we fire now?” At 6:05PM, Captain Hull replied to LT Morris with “Yes, sir, you may now fire.”

Double shotted loads spoke in a single thunderous voice from the side of CONSTITUTION, and the entire structure of the ship shook from the blast, and the crew gave a triple cheer that was clearly heard aboard HMS Guerrière. The result of this fire discipline? When the smoke cleared, the HMS Guerrière’s mizzenmast had ruptured just above the main deck and falling into the sea and the mainyards were shot away, taking the sails, too. The American sailors gave another triple cheer.

It was in this interval, when an American sailor saw a British 18lb cannon ball bounce off the Ship’s side and said “her sides are made of iron!” The nickname for the USS CONSTITUTION was born.

Captain Hull maneuvers his vessel into position, providing the Marine sharpshooters the opportunity to fire at the confused British crew, then a second, close range broadside was loosed with the same fury against the enemy. The ships closed and became entangled, and boarding parties was called for. Stern chasers and bow guns were employed at close range, and the CONSTITUTION’s main batteries could still fire into the HMS Guerrière. The heaving and plunging of the heavy seas finally tore the ship’s loose from each other.

The HMS Guerrière was dismasted and most of her officer’s out of action, dead or wounded. Captain Dacres struck his colors at 6:30PM.

In 25 minutes, the US Navy won a victory, aided and abetted by the foresight of Joshua Humphreys. How? That will be the subject of tomorrow’s Monday Maritime Matters post.

This account was derived from the book “Six Frigates” by Ian Toll. The details of the battle covered there are presented in far greater detail.

In the mean time, the Historical Naval Ships Association site for the USS CONSTITUTION is here. Points of interest there include that the below poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes kept her from the scrap yards in 1830, and the money of school children collected in 1927 restored her to her 1812 condition.

Old Ironsides

Ay, tear her tattered ensign down!
Long has it waved on high,
And many an eye has danced to see
That banner in the sky;
Beneath it rung the battle shout,
And burst the cannon’s roar; —
The meteor of the ocean air
Shall sweep the clouds no more.
Her deck, once red with heroes’ blood,
Where knelt the vanquished foe,
When winds were hurrying o’er the flood,
And waves were white below,
No more shall feel the victor’s tread,
Or know the conquered knee; —
The harpies of the shore shall pluck
The eagle of the sea!

Oh, better that her shattered hulk
Should sink beneath the wave;
Her thunders shook the mighty deep,
And there should be her grave;
Nail to the mast her holy flag,
Set every threadbare sail,
And give her to the god of storms,
The lightning and the gale!

Another website found while researching this material was The Captain’s Clerk, a site set up as “an archive specifically created to contain historically accurate stories and other information on that fabled frigate, the USS Constitution (“Old Ironsides”).”

Come back tomorrow to read how another field of my academic background is put to use to tell more of this story!

I found the Global Defense Group blog via a comment on Acute Politics (written by an Active Duty Soldier currently completing his tour in Iraq). Scanning the GDG site quickly, it looks like there’s some interesting posts on three, and also I noted they are looking for help, in the form of authors and other technical support.

Contributors are the key to the success of Global Defense Group.
It is the members of the community who bring this site to life, and without the contributors GDG would be little more than a bunch of buttons on a web page.
GDG is always on the prowl for qualified “authors”, and if you have experience in any of the following areas, we encourage you to contact us about becoming a contributor to the blogs, databases or media archives:

* Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism
* Cyber-Terrorism, Hacking and Internet Security
* Domestic Politics and, in particular, Political Activism
* Military/Insurgency Tactics and Military History
* Homeland Security and Law Enforcement
* Digital Video/Audio/Podcast Production
* Border Security and Illegal Immigration
* Diplomacy and International Law
* WMD and Nuclear Proliferation
* Islam and The Q’uran (Arabic and Farsi translators wanted!)
* The Constitution and United States Law
* Political Satire and Political Cartooning
* Global Economics and The Oil Industry
* Middle East History and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

In addition to the specialized fields listed above, GDG is also looking for dedicated individuals to help with the daily operations of the site. While these people will not be in “the lime light”, their contributions will be essential for the efficient and continued operation of the site.
Some of these areas are:

* Maintaining the Events Calendar
* Research and Documentation
* Forum and Chat Room Moderation
* Maintaining Image and Video Archives
* Site Promotion and Recruitment
* Coordination and Correspondence
* Video and Podcast Production
* Editing and Publishing
* Legal Protection
* More Research and Documentation

The individuals who perform these tasks will be given “Author” access or higher, depending upon the access required for each job. Members will be selected to fill these important roles based on a variety of factors, including availability, expertise, and an ability to work and communicate with others.

Sounds like some of the readers here might be able to lend a hand over there….

Also: Don’t miss Teflon Don’s (Acute Politics Blogger) short but wonderfully written post: Beauty in the Dirt. He has a way with words to rival some of the best novelists, yet he speaks about the real world around him…

SJS sends another photo, taken on his wanderings, for our analysis. I guess it’s supposed to be as plain as the nose (wheel) (on) in our face, right?

Where art thou now? All the (Milblogging) world wonders… Looks like it was taken on the 14th of the month. It wasn’t in Texas, ‘coz it’s not raining and there are no puddles in the frame. I’m guessing it’s the nose wheel of a P-3 variant, based on the shadow showing the port wing Allison turboprop engine nacelle. I’d also say the corrosion control crew hasn’t happened by in a while, either.Near a base gate in Brunswick, ME?AW1, chime in, if you’re not busy at a secret Milblogging Mini-Conference with Pops, I think you’re the answer man here… Update 08/18/2007: I’m close, but on reflection, I realized a P-3 wouldn’t have a single tire on the nose wheel or the main mounts…So I got thinking F7F Tigercat…big engine on straight wing, but the main mount setup isn’t right either. I’m drawing a blank. Sights around Norfolk are more my forte….All I can think of up that way is NAS Brunswick, and a Marine only aircraft would be out of place at a former USAF and now Navy air base….

Update 8/19/2007: SJS couldn’t take it anymore….he gave the answer in the comments section…It’s a P-2V Neptune….and it was at NAS Brunswick. ME.

Steeljaw Scribe is on “vacation.” He not only graciously took his family along, but MEGEN of ValOUR-IT fame is being taken on a leisurely ride around the north east of this great Nation.

Now, besides getting pics of MEGEN along the way, he left his blog in the hands of some rather “youthful” writers, who are acting like teenagers left behind at home when Mom and Dad go out of town. You know, they ask all their surly friends over and begin defacing the place with abandon, while making derisive remarks about the advanced age of a retired Naval Captain. Take a look at the quality of SJS’ “apprentices” to get my drift. They aren’t hard to find. Maybe they’ll get a trip to the woodshed upon the “Old Man’s” return…

In the meantime, SJS forwarded these picture via email, from a located business center where he was on the 14th of August, with the question: “NOW Where’s MEGEN?” The single text based hint is “it ain’t in NoVA… ;).”
I don’t recognize much more than the machinery room, most likely in a basement, near a diesel generator. How about the rest of you? I can assume (and we all know what that means) it’s related to something Naval in origin…

Any guesses where MEGEN is?
The one visual hint sent along is this:
MEGEN’s surroundings for a hint (click for larger image)
Leave any guesses in the comments. Maybe SJS will pop in after a bit and let us know who’s been where MEGEN has been…and I sure hope he locked up the virtual beer tap before waving goodbye in the driveway.Update 08/18/2007:

It seems SJS continues to tell his best friend he’s going out for ice, but then comes back with the mostly liquid version after visitng the business center of the temporary lodgings…but he has informed us the SJBill is the one who figured out the location of the picture:

SJBill | [email protected] | IP: 75.35.74.155

Howabout up in Maine? Mebbe the FV Sherman Zwicker? The schooner was built in Nova Scotia back in the 40s.

-SJBill

Aug 17, 10:27 PM

BZ, SJBill, for the refined eye needed to figure it out….

Here’s the “award” statement, with added context of the place where MEGEN was:

Steeljaw Scribe | [email protected] | steeljawscribe.com | IP: 71.114.62.189

…and SJBill wins the ceegar! 🙂 The one and the same, built in Lunenburg at the same shipyard that built the famed (and my personal favorite) Bluenose and Bluenose II fishing schooner. The Zwicker is part of the exhibit at the Maine Maritime Museum and from which, you can see the latest Arleigh Burke DDG being built in drydock over at Bath Iron Works.
-SJS

Aug 18, 7:23 AM

Note the time stamp…I hate to think what he’ll be using the ice for this early in the morning…maybe to awake the younger generation from their “they need their sleep” sleep.

I can hear it now, a new parody song for NASA’s shuttle crews:

“Ground Control to Major Tom:
“Go out there and put some Duct Tape on”
You can work on the rest of the replacement lyrics yourself. You also can get credit for preforming it on YouTube.

NASA Photo: Expedition 15 Flight Engineer Clay Anderson holds a Crew Equipment Translation Aid cart as he rides on the end of the International Space Station’s robotic arm during STS-118’s third spacewalk. Image: NASA TVAnyhow, if you check out the link above, you’ll see it’s not so much a joke.Now, on the more serious side, think about being a bona fide astronaut and, having scoffed at skydivers all these years (for no real aviator would jump out of a ‘perfectly good’ airplane) and now you are in orbit, above the atmosphere and the safety of being able to depart a potential soon to be disaster and put some space age fabric in the shape of a wing above your head, mumbling to yourself while on the EVA, what Bill Cosby said (“Hope the plane don’t crash!”) and praying that it’s Duct Tape to the rescue on reentry…

I’m thinking it might not be such a silly idea to see if you can make a spacesuit and integrated lifesaving parachute for future Shuttle flights, but then again, I know how much fun freefall really is. Now that I think about it, in WWI, only the Germans supplied their air crews with parachutes, with the Allies believing that, once so equipped, pilots would rather jump than work to get the plane back to home plate. Oh, how wrong they were in that assessment.

If you’d like some real data on the STS-118 “issue,” check this page out to see several videos of the damage.