What We've Earned

Sadi Doyle at The Atlantic thinks Baby Doll, the main character in Zach Snyder's new movie Sucker Punch, is the sucessor to Pam Grier, Ellen Ripley and Buffy. Because when it comes to Strong Female Characters "misogyny—as always—crept back in."

Jet Fighters Never Die

Any Chinese bids for this or another contract under discussion would be certain to meet intense political resistance and would appear to have very little chance of success given mounting U.S. concern about China's military power and long-term strategic goals, and the often-prohibitive opposition in the past to Chinese attempts to enter other strategic U.S. sectors, such as energy and telecommunications.

That's the painfully obvious conclusion of the Wall Street Journal's Jeremy Page after reporting that a Chinese aerospace company wants to bid for U.S. defense contracts, including the new fleet of helicopters for the Marine One squadron.  But: Let's compare the state of U.S. military aviation with the Chinese for a minute here.

Max Headroom at 100

It's Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday.  Three cheers?  I don't have a lot to say about him.  Do you want to read a fascinating account of his Presidency?  Something that will surprise you?  Check out Robert Gates' memoir.  But if you're stuck with blogs, Attackerman has the most comprehensive analysis of President Reagan's impact.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Here's the Chief of Naval Operations on the DADT repeal.  He's mostly stating the obvious, but it took us close to twenty years to get to the obvious place, so hey.

The Littoral Combat Ship

Over at the USNI Blog, Raymond Pritchett has a defense of the Littoral Combat Ship.  He argues the numbers about the way the ship was purchased, but by the end of the post he gets to an important point: after hundred of millions of dollars over more than a decade, this is the core capability of the Littoral Combat Ship:

My contention for years has been the Littoral Combat Ship represents, by design, an unmanned system mothership.

A mothership for unmanned vehicles.  Gee, that's nice.  I'm in.  Definitely something the military needs.  As long as we don't do anything silly like make this the keystone of all Navy shipbuilding aside from aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines.  I admired Chevy for making the Volt a major part of their program, but they still manufacture the Chevy Mailbu!

Sigh.  There's more on the LCS here and every third post here.

Commies!

A friend of mine is part of a group that has convinced Sarah Lawrence University to give them credit for a student-led class; they’re calling it a democratic education collective: "we vote on everything."  Now I could be a curmudgeon, but considering the people in Tunis and Egypt putting themselves in physical danger to secure the most basic democracy, I'm not in the mood to joke.

Kitsap

Being smart doesn’t make you good.

I just met a remarkable woman on Bus #34 from Bangor Washington to the Kitsap Mall.  She’s the driver and she gave me, in addition to timely and accurate directions to the Seattle ferry, a brilliant insight into the religious mind.