The Stig
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Post by The Stig on Sept 20, 2009 15:01:23 GMT -5
We would have better protection if we had both the land-based systems in Poland/Czech Republic and the upgraded Aegis system. Erm, that's the entire point of the system Obama is pushing. They will have mobile, land based sites in addition to the shipborne system. As a matter of fact, Gates has said that the land based sites could be deployed to the Czech Republic and/or Poland. This is a technological shift, not a strategic shift. It just happens to have some nice diplomatic side effects.
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The Stig
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Post by The Stig on Sept 20, 2009 9:48:16 GMT -5
I am not an expert on this particular subject, but something seems really wrong with that first map. Yeah, it does look strange. I think it has to do with the fact that the Bush era system was a fixed system, with fixed radar sites. Those radars might have had some trouble seeing over the mountains in the Balkans, which is why there's less coverage there. The Aegis system has more consistent coverage because it'll be seaborne, and the land-based Aegis missiles will have mobile launching sites.
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The Stig
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Post by The Stig on Sept 20, 2009 9:01:59 GMT -5
An interesting graphic at the bottom of the page showing the differences in territory defended between Bush's Eastern European system and Obama's Aegis system. Note that neither system defends Israel. news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8265190.stmIt's also important to point out that the Aegis system will be in service two years before the projected entry into service of the Bush era system (2015 vs. 2017).
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The Stig
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Post by The Stig on Sept 19, 2009 22:40:04 GMT -5
And the Boston Bruins continue their long tradition of frustrating and Editeding off their fans. I still think the Bruins have a great team without Kessel, but good lord, it's like their TRYING to test our patience. Yeah I see the frustration, it would Edited me off a lot too if the Caps let a guy like Semin slip through especially to a divisional opponent. But you have to feel good about the future. The Bs now have four first round picks the next two years and Three second rounders. There have got to be at least 2 top talent NHLers from those 7 picks. And those First rounders are from the leafs so there is a pretty good chance they will be in the lottery. Looking forward to seeing a Caps team with only 4 NHL forwards (no first liners and only one second line guy) take on a Chicago team with almost a complete roster out there tonight. If the Caps dont get slaughtered id begin to rethink all those "Blackhawks for the cup" cheers out there. scores.espn.go.com/nhl/recap?gameId=290919004
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The Stig
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Post by The Stig on Sept 18, 2009 21:01:25 GMT -5
With the preseason underway and some big news today, I figured it was time to get this thread going. The big news today is that the Bruins look to have traded Phil Kessel to the Leafs in return for two first round picks and a second round pick: sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=4485942
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The Stig
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Post by The Stig on Sept 18, 2009 18:33:14 GMT -5
One of the major uses of any American anti-missile system should be the protection of Israel from Iran and others. This is a more realistic near-term threat than Russia firing on Poland or of North Korea or Iran firing on the U.S. Iran continues to say Israel should be driven from the earth and it is developing nuclear weapons and missiles with the range to hit Israel. A sea-based system may be better because it's movable. That's the plus side. The minus side is we must maintain ships in position to defend Israel all the time. A land based system is confined to its location and the range of its interceptors and detection systems; but the location is there to stay. The killer in any system is that it relies on communication, command and control which are subject to jamming or destruction (like from electromagnetic pulse). If a sea-based, Aegis system is to be the selected option, President Obama must be prepared to go to the mat to ensure we have enough ships to maintain position in the areas most likely to be required; and, the accompanying command, control and communication systems involved. So far he has shown no visible thrust in upping the funding for any weapon system. The system that was supposed to go in Poland/Czech Republic would not have helped us defend Israel from Iran. The system was designed to hit the missile in mid-flight, so it had to be placed somewhere between the source and the target. So in order to defend Israel from Iran, we'd have had to put the missiles in Jordan, Syria, or Iraq, and that simply isn't happening for very obvious political reasons. Any missiles that defend Israel have to be placed in Israel, meaning that it has to be the type that intercepts the incoming ballistic missile in the ballistic missile's terminal stage, not in mid-flight (something like the Patriot system).
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The Stig
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Post by The Stig on Sept 18, 2009 18:17:41 GMT -5
I don't care what color anyone is. I do care about what someone does and says. Serena was out of line. If Clijsters or Sharapova or Evert or Navritalova had said the same thing, they would have been just as wrong, regardless of what the title to this thread was. Very true. Serena was wrong in this instance, and has admitted as much. But the behavior she showed was not the norm for her, which is why I refuted Elvado's statement that Serena is a classless bully. One incident doesn't define a person's character.
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The Stig
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Post by The Stig on Sept 18, 2009 6:14:03 GMT -5
The only instance I could see where a missile defense shield might be a strategic issue is with North Korea. Theoretically the North Koreans could start saber-rattling with South Korea, then say that if the US tries to defend South Korea that they'll launch a nuke at us. An effective missile defense system would allow us to defend South Korea despite that threat. Notably, this announcement says nothing about our missile defense plans in the Pacific.
The reality is, our best defense against a North Korean ICBM attack is the current state of North Korean ICBM technology. They simply can't get it to work. A more likely scenario is that they fire short-range missiles at Japan and other regional allies. I believe (but I'm not positive) that our current SAM systems such as the Patriot and the Aegis system would be able to deal with that threat.
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The Stig
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Post by The Stig on Sept 17, 2009 20:34:10 GMT -5
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The Stig
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Post by The Stig on Sept 17, 2009 20:17:45 GMT -5
You're asking what the thread title would be if Serena Williams was white. Is the Myles Brand thread title racist because he's white?
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The Stig
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Post by The Stig on Sept 17, 2009 20:15:58 GMT -5
Have any of you who state the anti-missile system does not work ever been associated with the development of high technology anything? I suspect not. I have. When you are advancing technology and integrating it into an overall system, it is the rule not the exception that there will be problems. Those that turn out to be successful identify the problems and solve them. That's where we are in the missile defense system: trying to work out the bugs. I also find it interesting that those who are down on the missile defense system seem to be the ones who have no problem with staking our future on renewable fuels where we are just at the starting point. To ignore the use of fossil fuels and nuclear power while depending on large numbers of technological breakthroughs is several order of magnitudes greater than getting our missile defense system working reliably. That's why using the SM-3 instead of the current interceptors is a good idea. The SM-3 is an evolution of a current technology, and a highly-successful technology at that. The Standard Missile/Aegis combo is probably the best individual weapon system in the US Navy.
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The Stig
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Post by The Stig on Sept 17, 2009 18:22:45 GMT -5
Stop playing the innocent fool. You know perfectly well what "depending upon the victim/perpetrator" means. If Serena Williams was white, "Eric Holder" would not be the title of this thread. Then what would the title be? "Serena Williams?"
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The Stig
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Post by The Stig on Sept 17, 2009 18:21:15 GMT -5
The missiles mattered less than the US troops on Polish and Czech soil part, which the Poles are now frantically trying to guarantee via other means (their FM just leaked that the US may host a base in northern Poland). There are lots of Eastern Europeans who are now very mad at the US and who think that we sold them out to the Russians. Obama is doing this to get Russian help on Iran. He really better have got something big. I seem to recall the Czechs and Poles weren't too excited about having the missiles there in the first place. We basically had to bribe them with weapons sales (especially the Poles). But I share your view that this has to do with Russia and Iran. This was not a unilateral decision - we're definitely getting something from the Russians here. On a different note, I think the switch to the SM-3 missile is a positive move. The Standard family of missiles is absolutely excellent, and if the SM-3 is cut from the same cloth, then switching to it will be a positive move.
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The Stig
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Post by The Stig on Sept 16, 2009 19:36:55 GMT -5
Stop playing the innocent fool. You know perfectly well what "depending upon the victim/perpetrator" means.
If Serena Williams was white, "Eric Holder" would not be the title of this thread.
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The Stig
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Post by The Stig on Sept 16, 2009 18:14:24 GMT -5
Unbelievable.... Renault have said they will not contest the charges, and have fired Briatore and highly-respected technical boss Pat Symonds. news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8258987.stmI wrote an entire post earlier in this thread about Briatore, saying how everything he touches turns to gold. If you'd told me then that Briatore would be fired before the end of the year, I'd have told you to shut up and stop talking about a sport you know nothing about. Formula 1 is the reason I can't watch reality TV, and why I don't read fiction. It's all so dull by comparison.
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The Stig
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Post by The Stig on Sept 16, 2009 6:10:19 GMT -5
First of all, what does any of this have to do with Attorney General Eric Holder? Are you TRYING to make this about race? It was a joke. Lighten up Francis. Jokes are supposed to be funny.
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The Stig
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Post by The Stig on Sept 16, 2009 6:08:32 GMT -5
Serena acted the part of a bully and a clown. Accept it. What part of my posts aren't you reading? I agreed all along that Serena acted the part of a bully and a clown! My point all along is that you shouldn't judge her character by one moment. If she's a classless bully by nature because of one bullying moment, then we're all bullies, because we've all lost our cool at some point and done things we're not proud of. This sort of behavior was NOT normal for Serena. She does not have a reputation for throwing tantrums, and off the top of my head I can't recall any other unsportsmanlike moments from her.
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The Stig
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Post by The Stig on Sept 14, 2009 21:27:44 GMT -5
And Federer went after the chair umpire in tonight's match. By your standards, that makes him a classless bully too.
The real story here shouldn't be two well-respected players having moments that they won't be proud of. The real story should be a 20 year old kid beating the runaway top 2 players in the world in successive matches to win the US Open, and a mother who retired from tennis over 2 years ago winning the US Open.
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The Stig
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Post by The Stig on Sept 14, 2009 6:12:56 GMT -5
It takes two to tango. Yes the play-calling is awful, but anytime we tried to run something more adventurous last year it ended in a turnover. The coaching staff can only run plays that the players can execute.
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The Stig
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Post by The Stig on Sept 13, 2009 15:24:56 GMT -5
[No, Johnny Mac did a lot worse. He once called the umpire "an abortion." What could be wrong with calling an umpire someone's constitutionally protected choice? You can dress this up all you like. Serena Williams acted like a bully yesterday and threatened physical violence on a woman about half her size. An intersting footnote is how her mother was preemptively carping to the press about how no one would support Serena in this match. Maybe now she knows why. The Williams sisters always, repeat always, have an excuse, a gripe or an axe to grind. Sure, Serena acted like a bully. Show me a person who hasn't acted like a bully at some point in their life. My point wasn't that this was acceptable, my point was that Serena isn't a bully by nature. This was not normal behavior for her. I think Serena's mother was simply observing that the crowd would likely support Clijsters, not whining about it. The crowd has been on Clijsters' side the entire tournament, as it should be. What she's done in this tournament has been absolutely amazing. Serena and her mother knew what was coming, and I don't think they were bitter about it (Serena and Clijsters have always gotten along very well). Everybody wants Clijsters to win this tournament, including Serena now. I think this whole fiasco has also been disrespectful to Clijsters. She had Serena beat before the foot fault.
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