Watch Out Jack Sparrow - Navy is in Your Waters

My ship, USS Merrill, off Bahrain in the 1990s. "I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast for I intend to go in harm's way." - John Paul Jones Yes, Merrill was a fast ship.

Wow, looks like our Navy is doing some pirate hunting. There has been two stories on CNN the past two days about three USS Arleigh Burke class destroyers chasing and doing battle in the seas off Somalia with pirates. Yesterday racing to the assistance of a civilian Japanese ship and today having a shoot out with pirates that had taken over a North, yes North, Korean ship.

The second story coming out today is here http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/10/30/somalia.pirates/index.html

For some fine points on the Arleigh Burke destroyers one can find some interesting facts and figures here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Arleigh_Burke_(DDG-51) .

A little personal information on these ships. My destroyer tour was on a Spruance class destroyer, a class of ships prior to the Arleigh Burk. But from a "power train" point of view very similar, the Burke class just much better and more modern. These ships can move fast and maneuver as not many other ships can, in fact they would put you in mind of smaller power boats. These pirates know by now what they are up against. Very big ships that can turn on a dime, from full speed stop within it's own length, and kick up to 30+ knots. All the while with enough precise fire power to take engines out and leave "boats" floating without power.

Why are we doing this? Have you noticed how many of your "things" come from sources over seas? Most come to us by way of ships. Something called "freedom of the seas." These pirates are like muggers. We are not the only Navy out there. The UK, the French and every other country in the area that has a navy has in some way attempted to protect their ships from these thugs. Our Navy is just good at it.

Expanding a little on what the US Navy does in this part of the world, if you look at a map and find Somalia then look east across the Indian Ocean you will find Malaysia and Indonesia. Find Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Now that little strip of water between Kuala Lumpur and Medan (Sumatra) running southeast to Singapore is the Malacca Strait or Straits of Malacca. Why is this important? Most oil that goes to Japan, our West Coast and many other Pacific nations transit through this strait. Our Navy, along with others, protect shipping in this area. Who pays for this? Well in the US's case it is the US taxpayers. Ed Wallace http://www.star-telegram.com/104/index.html of the Fort Worth Star wrote an article a couple of years ago including an analysis of what oil companies would owe our Navy (and American tax payers) if they had to pay for this protection. If I recall correctly that would push the price of gas up to a figure that would motivate all Americans to walk to work.

Enough Navy, have a good evening.

CPO Randy Thompson, USN Ret.

Education - Dropout Mills

This morning CBS has a story on Dropout Factories http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/29/national/main3425857.shtml where over 60% of high school students drop out before graduation. They are not diploma mills, rather they are Dropout Mills. Here are a few thoughts on the education and poverty issue.

We are a nation of three classes. The first two classes as defined by our president during a fund raising event are the haves and have mores. And then there are the rest of us. Within the rest of us are the pockets of extreme and persistent poverty and underclass. It is within those last two you find these dropout mills.

My wife is a teacher that entered the profession later in life. As a Navy family we moved a lot and only after my retirement and our settling down was she able to pursue her chosen profession. With in the last 12 years she has worked in middle schools in both low income and upper middle class schools. The differences between the two are obvious for anyone willing to look. In the lower income areas all most 90% of the children are on subsidized lunch program. Their parents are not home, because they work multiple minimum wage jobs just to survive. Often the only food some of these kids would get would be the lunches at school and over weekends many eat little or nothing. A child in these schools that gets sick can not go to a doctor so the parents wait until the child can not move and then runs them to the county emergency rooms.

This study in the CBS report and dozens if not hundreds of other such studies tell us the same thing. Poverty pockets breed poverty and maintain an underclass where crime of all sorts is concentrated. One only has to look at a map of any of our major cities that depict locations of murders and other crimes to realize children in these areas are exposed to horrors that no child should be exposed to and that children in even moderately better neighborhoods are not exposed to.

The study points out that Utah is void of these dropout mills. Why is Utah an example of non-drop out mills? Is it because there are no poor people living there? I doubt that. But with a small population it is most likely there are less concentrated areas of poverty, poor kids still are on the subsidized lunch programs, and still go to emergency rooms, but they go to school with middle class and even the have more kids. They are surrounded by examples of how to better themselves. Their graduation rates, I bet, are within the norm of the other children.

I read an essay a year or so ago from one of the “scholars” at the Hoover Institute in California. He was building a case against couples living together without getting married or some other moral issue by using Sweden as an example of how when a society allows such things the bad morals of the underclass creep up to the "have and have mores".

How is that possible for bad morals of the underclass to creep up to the upper classes? The article said it was because of the disappearance of the underclass in Sweden, thus all the evil morals of the underclass were transferred to the upper class. How did Sweden (and all the Nordic countries) all but eliminate them? Two reasons were given, basic health care for all their citizens and public education up to and including college. There are poor people in these countries, but their children have the very same opportunities as other citizens. They call it “family values.”

Now before conservatives scream about the socialist in Sweden and other Nordic countries take a quick look at some interesting “capitalist” statistics from The Economist issue of October 20, 2007:

GDP change for 2007 shows the US at a 2.0% growth and Sweden at 3.4% growth, Netherlands at 2.2% growth and Norway at 3.5% growth.

Balance of trade (in billions of $) over the last 12 months shows the US at – 810.7, Denmark at + 4.2, Sweden at + 18.1, Norway at + 54.5 and Netherlands at + 49.9.

Oh but they are in massive public debt you say – well here are the current account balance for government spending over the same 12 months (in billion $):

US is in the hole by another – 793.2, Denmark up a + 4.3, Sweden up a + 29.7, Netherlands up a + 53.5, and Norway up a + 54.6. Now why you might ask would we want our government to have that much cash on hand? Well those countries also have a lot of baby boomers about to retire, looks like they are prepared.

A little more on the "haves and have mores." Based on figures from the IRS on incomes in 2005 the top one percent of income earners now have a lager piece of the economic pie than any other time since the Roaring Twenties and the median income is down below what it was in 2000. Just this morning McClatchy News service is running an article about the increase of poor children in public schools. According to the article in 2000 there were only four states with a majority of it's students being poor. There are now, as of 2006, FOURTEEN states with a majority of students being poor. The article can be found here http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/20922.html .

Have a great day and keep fighting for ALL our children and all our schools.

Randy T

Iraqi Immigration

After reading a number of blogs, making comments and diaries I decided to start a blog of my own.

The name, Daily Scuttlebutt, is from my Navy days. Scuttlebutt was the daily news, gossip, and unofficial plan of the day. The sailors themselves had to kind of wade through that scuttlebutt to determine what was true and useful and what was just gossip.

Let's get started.

Has anyone notice in all the immigration ranting not much is said about the millions of Iraqi citizens that have left their country? According to UN figures I read today on a McClatchy blog,
http://washingtonbureau.typepad.com/cairo/ there 1,000 Iraqis leaving their homes every day. Either going to another country or to a ethnically cleaned part of Iraq. Over 4.5 million have left their country. Where have they went? Many to Syria and Jordan, around 2.2 million.

Prior to the start of the Iraq war the US took in around 2,000 a year, give or take a couple hundred each year. Since then it is only a few hundred a year. Even Iraqis that work for us there have a hard time getting in.

Other western countries tend to do a little better. Sweden took in over 9,600 in 2006. Who are some these Iraqis that get to the west? Well according to http://www.thelocal.se/6977/20070412/ many are wealthy and capable of living off interest of their bank accounts. The Local reports one Iraqi, Nazar Fiaely, has five different companies employing 50 people.

Just a little scuttlebutt from around the world most likely missed by our entertainment media.

Have a good day and work well,
RandyT