Obama Sees Need for More US Icebreakers: Former Coast Guard Commandant
Maybe they need the icebreakers to open paths through the drowned bodies of all those polar bears that died because there’s no ice?
Will Blog for ISP Time, Glaucoma Meds, or Cheap Booze.
Free! (and worth every penny)
Scary Manifesto that keeps getting pushed down on the sidebar by filthy capitalism!
They say that Louis XIV had the inscription Ultima Ratio Regum cast into all the cannon of the French Army. It means “The Ultimate Argument of Kings,” and that always struck me as one of the most honest and up-front things any ruler or would-be ruler ever said. “We can dress it up prettier than this, but when it comes down to the unvarnished truth this is what it’s about: You’ll do as I say or I’ll send my goons to kill you.”
I thought about that for a long time. If there’s an ultimate argument, it seems only logical that there must be an ultimate answer. For years I thought the ultimate answer must be the bullets in my rifle, but it never seemed quite right. I’ve got bullets – he’s got frigging Cannon Balls. I mean, if there were three hundred million rifles throwing bullets at him, then maybe. But we all know that’s not going to happen. So if there’s an ultimate answer to his ultimate argument, it sure as hell ain’t bullets.
It finally came to me – and that’s when I abandoned the city and most of my stuff, and gave all that was behind me a good stiff Randian Shrug.
The ultimate answer to kings is not a bullet, but a belly laugh.
Our Founder
Our Late Editor
Little Bear 2009-2018
Our Late Cattle Wrangler
Laddie the Amazing Torso Boy 2011-2020
Blogroll
- 357 Magnum
- 5 Acres and a Dream
- 90 Miles From Tyranny
- A Day in the Life of a Talk Radio Blogger
- Adaptive Curmudgeon
- Armed & Non-Violent
- Bayou Renaissance Man
- Bill St. Clair
- Borepatch
- Carl Bussjaeger
- Claire Wolfe
- Commander Zero
- Dio's Workshop
- Eaton Rapids Joe
- Forgotten Weapons
- Freeholder
- Home on the Range
- Instapundit
- Irons in the Fire
- James Zachary
- Kent McManigal
- Nails and Sawdust
- Never Yet Melted
- Resistance Library
- Say Uncle
- The Price of Liberty
- The Smallest Minority
- The View from North Central Idaho
- The Vulgar Curmudgeon
- The War on Guns
- The Zelman Partisans
- True Blue Sam
- View from the Porch
- Weer'd World
- Wendy McElroy
- You will shoot your eye out
- Zendo Deb
Previous OPSEC Violations
In other news, Big Brother has increased the chocolate ration from thirty grams per week to twenty grams per week. All hail Big Brother!
It’s not mentioned in the article, but I think it likely that precisely the reduction in northern ice cover is causing this sudden new interest in icebreakers. The USA (and virtually every other seagoing country) is very interested in the northwest passage, which lately has been opening up during summer months. This puts everybody at odds with the Canadian government, so it becomes a matter of national interests and (so far) gentlemanly posturing over right of free passage.
(From that great unassailable source, Wikipedia) “The Canadian government claims that some of the waters of the Northwest Passage, particularly those in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, are internal to Canada, giving the nation the right to bar transit through these waters.[14] Most maritime nations, including the United States and those of the European Union, classify these waters as an international strait, where foreign vessels have the right of “transit passage”. In such a regime, Canada would have the right to enact fishing and environmental regulation, and fiscal and smuggling laws, as well as laws intended for the safety of shipping, but not the right to close the passage.[13][74] If the passage’s deep waters become completely ice-free in summer months, they would be particularly enticing for massive supertankers that are too big to pass through the Panama Canal and must otherwise navigate around the tip of South America.[75]”
Seems to me that Canada should buy their own damned ice breakers.
obviously this is just another rice bowl issue for the coast guard.