Detail of the Day (ie, "Just the facts ma'am")

[DeanG]

The Enterprise is coming in for decommissioning soon. I'm sure someone could strike a deal to pick up this fine ship.

[nitroman]

Not since Napoleon has it been suggested that we move our Capital and allow the French army to take up residency!

And here I thought I was visionary!

Although I was intimately familiar with the Falklands situation at the time it happened, meeting with many British sailors & marines as they called at NAS Mayport, I hadn't monitored the situation to the present. Doing some reading it appears the French have been the most vociferous supporters of your claim/position, perhaps because they conceivably could have similar issues to deal with.

According to international law any county exercising de facto control over a region for at least 150 years have a claim to it. Thus by international law the UK is the only country with a rightful claim to the Falklands today, having administered the islands actively since 1834. No other country has ever controlled the islands for even a shadow of that time.

It is of note that Falkland Islanders were made full British citizens in 1983. In 2002 all persons residing in British overseas territories were made full British citizens.

[nitroman]

The Enterprise is coming in for decommissioning soon. I'm sure someone could strike a deal to pick up this fine ship.

Great idea! If any country wants one of our super carriers they should wait 2 or 3 years when we BEGIN decommissioning the ten Nimitz Class carriers as the first of our Gerald R. Ford Class are commissioned, as the LAST Nimitz will be active for another 20 years. The USS Enterprise was our first nuclear ship and is unique. If anything fails on the other nation's adopted carrier they'll have a ready parts source as each Nimitz Class is decommissioned.

That makes much more fiscal sense than, and I'm only speaking hypothetically , a country designing & building two bespoke carriers of which one is immediately placed in reserve... never having a single aircraft grace her deck! "We can use her in an emergency." How long do you think it takes to train a crew, shipmate?*

*I say this hoping the majority of your primary carrier's crew survives their "emergency." If ex-service personel headed a government they would not be so quick to deploy the young men of a nation into harm's way. Young men who have never been in combat are the most willing to die, as they view it through rose colored glasses. Retired combat veterans too, are willing to die (if given the chance again), but only to save the life of the man next to him, or young men following his orders.

Do you know what it's like in the days after seeing a man on lifetime disability limp about, knowing he followed your orders because you followed your orders? It weighs on you over time. And yet he is so appreciative towards you and admires you, which only magnifies your guilt for the rest of your life.

[epipete]

British Overseas Territories, that sounds rather grand until you realise that it encompasses only 7000 Sqr miles and a quarter of a million people, the legacy of an empire that straddled a third of the globe, but at least our former colonies are less likely to be at war than those of other European colonialist empires!

[nitroman]

British Overseas Territories, that sounds rather grand until you realise that it encompasses only 7000 Sqr miles and a quarter of a million people, the legacy of an empire that straddled a third of the globe, but at least our former colonies are less likely to be at war than those of other European colonialist empires!

The Cayman Islands & Dominica were great places to vacation! In Cayman the rental car's fascia said "DRIVE ON THE LEFT" three times. In Dominica they cared a little less whether you survived.

[nitroman]

British Overseas Territories, that sounds rather grand until you realise that it encompasses only 7000 Sqr miles and a quarter of a million people, the legacy of an empire that straddled a third of the globe, but at least our former colonies are less likely to be at war than those of other European colonialist empires!

The Cayman Islands & Dominica were great places to vacation! In Cayman the rental car's fascia said "DRIVE ON THE LEFT" three times. In Dominica they cared a little less whether you survived.

I will add that in Cayman I had drivers nearly skid to a stop to allow me to go first through an intersection, even though they had the right of way. This happened on multiple occasions and could be construed as nothing more than extreme courtesy.

In the Dominican capital of Roseau (RO-SO) when a panhandler asked me for money a resident excoriated him for doing so; the ONLY time I've ever seen that behavior in my life (a long & varied one).

Are these behaviors an English inheritance?

MY worldly & lifetime knowledge tells me it was standard Cayman courtesy, although where derived I can't say. As for Dominica I ascertain they know well the value of their tourist industry. I entertain as always, sources of knowledge different than mine, as this is the only way we understand what we do not.

[nitroman]

Detail of the Day: From 1661-1684 Britain controlled Tangier, Morocco. It was deemed too expensive to garrison and was virtually destroyed whilst abandoning. The last English mayor of Tangier was given 50 miles of Atlantic Ocean waterfront property on Long Island, New York, in exchange for what he was leaving behind.

Imagine Tangier today as the bookend to Gibraltar.

[nitroman]

Detail of the Day: American/British interaction in WW2

Prior to the USA entering WWII Britain stopped every American ship coming from or going to Germany, Italy & occupied Poland, and would remove anything the Brits considered contraband. The big row came over the mail, which was not allowed to go to or from those countries. Note that in WWII the U.S. put the top six ethnic backgrounds as 36 million British, 32 million German, 29 million Irish, 16 million French, 12 million Italian and 10 million Polish. Thus we are talking about LOTS of mail and this when it was the PRIMARY MEANS OF OVERSEAS COMMUNICATION!

In the U.S., with its tradition that "the mail must always go through," and where armed robbery of the mail carried a mandatory 25 year jail term, there were calls for mail to be carried on warships. That never took place even though the British policy remained in force.

When on 11 March 1941 Lend-Lease began, Hitler immediately ordered U-boats to attack US vessels.

Germany’s petrol production in September 1944 was only 8% that of April. In November the RAF reduced its attacks on synthetic oil production sites because none of the plants were now operating. In December limited production restarted at Leuna* and Polotz, but further raids quickly put them out of action. Just at the time turbine planes became available, jet fuel was nearly nonexistent.

* Leuna was the most heavily defended industrial center in all of Europe. In three raids from May 12, 1944 to April 5, 1945 the U.S. Eighth Air Force lost 1,280 airmen & 119 planes and not one bomb fell on the Leuna works. Note the U.S. bombed in the day whilst the RAF flew the night shift.

Britain’s final repayment of American WWII loans was made on 31 December 2006. The interest rate on these was a super-low 2%.

[nitroman]

Detail of the day: Annually, 5 out of every 1,000 Alaskans disappear without a trace. So out of each group of 200 people, 1 goes missing every year! Does that mean over a lifetime 75 of 200 Alaskans just disappear?
http://articles.latimes.com/2005/feb/15 ... vanished15

Why don't some of you Brits take a trip to prove, err, I mean test, um, I mean look into it?

[nitroman]

Welcome to Learnin' Brits the US Constitution

This 90-second video demonstrates amendments
#2) Right to bear arms
#5) what I've seen you guys call "right to remain silent" (actual text: No person shall be compelled to be a witness against himself)

Again, welcome to our strange & alien land.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n1BHJs5V5c

[epipete]

Detail of the day: Annually, 5 out of every 1,000 Alaskans disappear without a trace. So out of each group of 200 people, 1 goes missing every year! Does that mean over a lifetime 75 of 200 Alaskans just disappear?
http://articles.latimes.com/2005/feb/15 ... vanished15

Why don't some of you Brits take a trip to prove, err, I mean test, um, I mean look into it?

If you know the birth rate then it should be a simple equation to calculate when they will go extinct!

[nitroman]

Detail of the day: In WW2 there were only three ways US ground troops were allowed to permanently go home BEFORE the end of the war.
1) Die
2) Be wounded quite severely
3) Go insane

Of the three, 25% fell into the last category. After the war the army looked at what they considered this really high statistic and took actions which today have brought the stat down to just 2%. First implemented in Vietnam, it's complicated because different branches have different deployment lengths, but it puts a cap on the total time you can be forced to serve in a war zone. However, they'll let you volunteer to go back as many times as you put your hand up.

It was discovered from the WW2 analysis that a "fight till you die" policy forced many sane men to mentally decide they had to go crazy to survive. In short people need hope. We need to see light at the end of the tunnel.

[lotos]

If you know the birth rate then it should be a simple equation to calculate when they will go extinct!

Unfortunately not before her next appearance as a pundit on Fox News