I had a childhood cat who ADORED messing with dogs. There was a nighborhood lab he'd taunt into chasing him around a tree, and then turn the tables so the dog was running in circles trying to flee the murderous cat to the point of exhaustion. (Dog wasn't the brightest bulb.) The dog would finally give up and sit there whining while Sky sang his war cry and continued to scare the crap out of the poor canine.

We tried to break it up as much as possible out of pity for the dog, but between the dimness of that poor dog and the determination of that cat.... Well, they got the hose turned on them more than once.

I have no idea why the dog never once just went home and got away from the cat.

Huh - very interesting, CaBil. What do you think of the idea that US carrier battle groups are actually much more vulnerable to submarine attack than the Navy admits? (I think it was a year ago when a Chinese submarine snuck into the middle of a US carrier battle group and then surfaced. Big embarrassment for the US Navy.)

ION, Tired of paying through the nose, Americans try praying at the pump

"Lord, come down in a mighty way and strengthen us so that we can bring down these high gas prices," Twyman said to a chorus of "amens".

"Prayer is the answer to every problem in life... We call on God to intervene in the lives of the selfish, greedy people who are keeping these prices high," Twyman said on the gas station forecourt in a neighborhood of Washington that, like many of its residents, has seen better days.

"Lord, the prices at this pump have gone up since last week. We know that you are able, that you have all the power in the world," he prayed, before former beauty queen Rashida Jolley led the group in a modified version of the spiritual, "We Shall Overcome".

"We'll have lower gas prices, we'll have lower gas prices..." they sang.

Maybe God can stick some more oil in the ground when we're not looking....

I have never found labs to be anywhere near the brightest bulbs in dogdom. Labs' mental processes mainly consist of: "Can I chase that? Chase! Food! I love you, I love you." A big yellow cat drove the dog mad last week by sauntering down the driveway, taking about 10 minutes to go 15 feet.

NO THANKS TO YOU PEOPLE.

I can rarely get coke machines to accept my dollars in person, Dana, much less after it's been squashed through the internets.

"We'll have lower gas prices, we'll have lower gas prices..." they sang.

Pete Seeger just threw up in his mouth a little.

I totally hit the ground running this morning, but now I need a nap....

I'm not really sure this belongs in Press or whatever, but work is sponsoring a couple of teams in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life.

Anyway, I know we've had a bunch of "Cancer sucks!" around here-too much, in fact too much. Part of what we're doing is lighting a luminaria for people we have lost or who have been touched by cancer. I haven't lost anyone to that particular disease, but I know some of us have.

I'm donating $40-that's 8 luminaria. If anyone would like me to light it in honor of their loved ones, e me and I'll put their name down.

There was a nighborhood lab he'd taunt into chasing him around a tree, and then turn the tables so the dog was running in circles trying to flee the murderous cat to the point of exhaustion. (Dog wasn't the brightest bulb.) The dog would finally give up and sit there whining while Sky sang his war cry and continued to scare the crap out of the poor canine.

I think I've told this before, but a friend had a little Scottie puppy that loved to chase their cat. The cat would get annoyed and run upstairs, McGuffey would follow, and then the cat would casually saunter about halfway back down. Leaving McG trapped, because his wee little puppy legs were to short to go down the stairs.

It wouldn't surprise me. Each Carrier Group is supposed to have at least one, possibly two attack submarines giving it cover, but they can't get too close to the Carrier and the rest of the Battle Group because of fratricide concerns. If you are willing to throw away a couple of submarine to get at a carrier (which actually would be a reasonable trade military wise) it should be possible (though the difference between possible and likely relies on training, equipment, personnel and luck.)

The easiest way would be park some submarines ahead of the projected path of Carrier group, and let them turn everything off and become black holes in the water. Attack subs tend to be passive listeners to avoid giving away their positions, making it hard for them to find a diesel sub if it is turned off (unlike nukes, who always at least have to keep their reactor pumps on) and the Carrier escorts try to keep their own active sonar off, because your own sonar can 'paint' friendly subs at ranges far beyond the ship's ability to detect enemy subs. If you have a sufficient number of submarines that can keep quiet when told to, achieving a shot should be possible.

That is part of the reason everyone is so hot for hyper-cavitation. Fire one of these, no one has time to react to stop it from hitting a Carrier. Thus the US Navy wants them, because using one as a counter torpedo may be the only thing that stops one.

I am actually not sure if the Navy would wargame it out, since the submarine and carrier factions are fighting over the budget pie. For the carrier faction, there is no upside to wargaming it out. If they win, they gain nothing, if they lose, the submarine faction may get points in the next budget battle. And any radical redesign of the Carrier would delay the replacement of the next retirement, dropping the size of the Carrier fleet.

Worse yet, the Navy and Air Force has be getting worried. Due to Pentagon politics, it's budget is cut roughly in thirds. So right now the Army and Marines are getting hammered, since they are expending equipment like there is no tomorrow in the Middle East, whereas the Air Force's and Navy operational tempos are less. The Army is spending millions, if not billions, weekly just replacing worn out equipment, and they are falling behind. The Navy and Air Force are spending their thirds of the budget on the next gen aircraft and ships. While the budget supplemental are mostly for the Army/Marines sooner or later some bright guy in Congress is going to realize that we could maybe live without the F-22 for a couple years, or that the future cruiser isn't really needed to fight Al-Qaeda, since they do not seem to be challenging our naval or air superiority. The logical conclusion would be to reallocate some of those funds to stuff we need now.

Logic has very little to do with the Pentagon's budget wars...

Smoooth, Mr. Kitteh. Very smooth.

That's the kind of cat who deserves some Chip & Dale/Tweety Bird treatment.

I see that Tuesday has been replaced with CriticalMassofStupidityday.