Capital Ship Ruminations

This occurs to me while I'm watching Star Wars for the 800th time. When the Millenium Falcon escapes from Mos Eisley, there are no TIE fighters. Three star destroyers, yes, but no TIE fighters. Why is that? Why aren't the Imperial ships flying a regular combat air patrol? To the best of my recollection, CAP is being flown whenever star destroyers are present in the rest of the films.... although, now that I think about it, there wasn't much CAP (or ground support) being flown in the attack on Hoth. Maybe TIE fighters can't enter the atmosphere; if that's the case, then the Empire certainly needs to develop and deploy a ground attack craft that can enter the atmosphere and control a battle space. Would've been useful on Endor, too.

The Imperial Star Destroyer of the Star Wars universe is a hybrid battleship/aircraft carrier, capable (according to Wikipedia) of carrying 72 TIE fighters plus auxiliaries, but also capable of fighting it out ship-to-ship. I'm not sure that we ever get a really clear sense of which kind of fighting the Imperial Fleet prefers, since the Fleet does nothing during the Battle of Endor. A battlestar in both variants of Battlestar Galactica is also a hybrid. The original Galactica carried 150 fighters, while the ships from the newer series seem to carry about 40 or so (more on Pegasus, less on Galactica. Again, the BSG ships in both series engage in direct combat against Cylon Baseships, which in the second series in particular seem to resemble aircraft carriers much more than battleships.

All of this makes me wonder why the ships in Star Trek are so clearly cruisers and battleships, rather than aircraft carriers. As far as I can tell, no race in the series employs vessels that act as motherships to large numbers of fighters. Indeed, I suspect that the Enterprise (in all of its variants) would run into considerable difficulties if it were attacked by a swarm of small craft. Its phaser and torpedo banks seem designed to fight large ships, rather than to provide close defense against small craft. The same appears to be true of Klingon, Romulan, and other ships.

Anyway, back to Star Wars. There's no point in wondering what George Lucas intended by not having the star destroyers fly CAP off Tatooine or Hoth, because Lucas almost certainly wasn't thinking about it at all. But we can come up with an explanation on our own. The Russian Air Force and the Chinese Air Force don't fly nearly as much as the US Air Force, partially because jet fuel is expensive, but also because the Russians and Chinese are worried about the pilots flying away with the planes. Or at least the Chinese are and the Russians used to be; you get my point. Maybe the star destroyers don't fly CAP because the wing commanders are worried about pilots defecting to the Rebel Alliance, along with their TIE Fighters. I mean, the Alliance seems to have lots of good pilots, and it stands to reason that those pilots must have been trained somewhere. It's hardly unreasonable to believe that the Empire trained those pilots, who subsequently defected. We know, that, by the time of New Hope, the Imperial Army is no longer full of clones, but has been forced to recruit from the general population. Even if the pilots receive better treatment than your common stormtrooper, there are probably quite a few that defect because of the discipline, or because of ideological sympathy with the rebellion.

This would imply that there are a lot of TIE fighters sitting around in rebel bases, which we've never actually seen. That's not all that unreasonable, though, because as players of the games X-Wing and TIE Fighter will recall, TIE Fighters kind of suck. Very maneuverable, but not much hitting power and no shields. So the defection problem could be one reason that we don't tend to see much CAP by the Empire, except around the Death Star. Presumably, only the most loyal and elite pilots would be assigned to the Death Star. The other option (not mutually exclusive with this one) is that training and discipline in the Imperial Army are just, in general, kind of crappy. Officers who don't know what they're doing or don't care may just not order CAP, or may not want to deal with the maintenance problems associated with running consistent CAP. This accords with our general knowledge of storm troopers, including their inability to hit anything they're shooting at.

Further discussion here.

Where Has All the Evil Gone?

My Evil machine appears to be on the fritz; work, damnit! Work!

Can't Take the Hours...

Gettin' a Bit Old Now...

Treason In Defense of Slavery Heritage Month Profile: John C. Breckinridge

Say hello to John C. Breckinridge. More specifically, say hello to a statue of John C. Breckinridge erected in Lexington, Kentucky in 1887.

Breckinridge was no Henry Clay, but he's probably a respectable second in the pantheon of Lexington power politicians. Clay, of course, was one of the most capable statemen of the first half of the nineteenth century, and is justly famous for his ability to create compromise between seemingly irreconcilable positions. Breckinridge is less famous for serving as the Vice-President of United States under James Buchanan, for running for President under the Southern Democrat ticket in 1860, and finally for serving as the last Secretary of War of the Confederate States of America.

After fleeing to the South at the beginning of the war (a simple declaration of loyalty would have sufficed to secure his position in the North), Breckinridge joined the Confederate Army as a Brigadier General. He fought at Stone's River, Chickamauga, Chatanooga, Shiloh, Cold Harbor, and New Market. At the last, he led the cadre of Virginia Military Institute cadets. In 1865, President Jefferson Davis made Breckinridge Secretary of War, a position that last until the collapse of the Confederacy. Fearing a trial for treason, he fled to Cuba and various points north and east. After an amnesty, he returned to the United States in 1869, and, to his very mild credit, spoke out against the depredations of the Ku Klux Clan.

Breckinridge is notable among the Confederate elite not because of his record nor even his relationship with VMI, but rather because he represents a effective counterpoint to the "but he was loyal to his state" treason-in-defense-of-slavery excuse. It's commonplace around here to joke that "Kentucky joined the Confederacy in 1866," which is funny because it's funny and funny because it's true. Kentucky did not secede from the Union, and in spite of the best efforts of the Confederacy remained firmly within Union hands for the entirety of the war. John C. Breckinridge, had he remained loyal to his state, would have fought in Union armies and perhaps served in the United States government. Indeed, he probably would have done quite well; Lincoln was happy to integrate loyal Southerners into his government. Instead, John C. Breckinridge decided that he would engage in armed rebellion against his government in defense of the cause of slavery. He, like so many others, fought, died, and killed because they believed in the right of white people to own black people. In most cases, the advocates of slavery had enough power to force their states into secession and general armed rebellion. Breckinridge wasn't so fortunate, but his regard for Kentucky paled in comparison to his enthusiasm for slavery. The "loyalty to my state" dodge is, in most cases, a transparent fabrication. Robert E. Lee was the most prominent member of the small minority of the Confederate elite who openly opposed secession but decided to serve the Confederacy anyway. Most supported secession, fully understanding that it would mean armed conflict, because they believed that Abraham Lincoln would take away their slaves, or at least put in motion the machinery to do so.

The Breckinridge statue was erected next to the Fayette County Courthouse in 1887, a few years after Reconstruction breathed its last, and just as Jim Crow was coming to dominate the South. It didn't need to happen; instead of the statues to Breckinridge and Confederate General John Hunt Morgan in Lexington, and an enormous memorial to Confederate war dead in Louisville, the political elite in Kentucky might have created monuments to Americans who remained loyal.

What I would like to see more than anything else would be the destruction, Saddam style, of the statue of Breckinridge. It might be replaced with some other worthy Kentuckan, or even with Abraham Lincoln, who was, after all, born in the state. Cassius Marcellus Clay, an abolitionist born in Kentucky and educated at Transylvania University, would be one option. Barring that, I'd like this added to his statue:

JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE

BELIEVED THAT THE RIGHT OF WHITE PEOPLE TO OWN BLACK PEOPLE WAS WORTH KILLING FOR

Oh, Yeah!

Your results:
You are Magneto

Magneto 82% Dr. Doom 78% Apocalypse 75% Lex Luthor 63% Mr. Freeze 62% Juggernaut 61% The Joker 54% Venom 49% Two-Face 45% Kingpin 43% Dark Phoenix 34% Green Goblin 33% Riddler 33% Poison Ivy 29% Catwoman 29% Mystique 21%

You fear the persecution of those that are different or underprivileged so much that you are willing to fight and hurt others for your cause.

Click here to take the "Which Super Villain am I?" quiz...

Spidey

Your results:
You are Spider-Man

Spider-Man 70% Catwoman 70% Green Lantern 65% Superman 60% Hulk 60% Iron Man 55% Batman 50% The Flash 45% Supergirl 40% Robin 32% Wonder Woman 30%

You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

Rodrigo Y Gabriela

Death List: 2007

Last year's death list went... poorly.


1. Vo Nguyen Giap
2. Ariel Sharon
3. Tommy Henrich
4. Betty Ford
5. Sam Huntington
6. Osama Bin Laden
7. Charlton Heston
8. Kirk Douglas
9. George Shultz
10. Jesse Helms

Hold On

GnR 1988

Repeat

For virtually my entire life, I've been envisioning how my life might have turned out differently had I made the "right" decisions. Now, when I think along these lines, I most commonly come to the conclusion "Yeah, but I wouldn't want to have to live through that again". It reminds me of something my grandmother once said. We were at the supermarket, and the total came to $19.44. My grandmother said to the cashier, an older woman, "I wish it was." The cashier smiled and said "Yes." Then my grandmother said "Ah, but I wouldn't want to have to go through all that again." Something about that conversation struck me as profound.

It leaves me to wonder. Am I satisfied and happy (and their is evidence to support this conclusion), or have I just grown too old to envision a different future?

Or So I Would Have You Believe...

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 0 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Your Ass

I concur wholeheartedly.

Moore

On Star Trek:

Kirk, for me, embodied an American idea: His mission was to explore the final frontier, not to conquer it. He was moral without moralizing. Week after week, he confronted the specters of intolerance and injustice, and week after week found a way to defeat them without ever becoming them. Jim Kirk may have beat up his share of bad guys, but you could never imagine him torturing them.

A favorite quote: “We’re human beings, with the blood of a million savage years on our hands. But we can stop it. We can admit that we’re killers, but we won’t kill today.” Kirk clearly understood humanity’s many flaws, yet never lost faith in our ability to rise above the muck and reach for the stars.

The Third Man

I will always admire Harry Lime...

The King is Dead

The world's largest monarch, King Tupou IV, has died at the age of 88. Although his final weight is unknown, he once tipped the scales at 462 pounds.

Rest in peace, giant king.

Sumo wrestling scene from Sonatine

Why Debate?

Ahmadinejad is requesting a debate with George W. Bush. Given the likelihood that'll happen, and given how boring it would be even if it did, I wonder if it wouldn't be better if Ahmadinejad offered to box Bush.

Ahmadinejad is ten years younger, but I can't seem to find any height or weight data. In pictures, he looks kind of willowy. Bush is supposed to be in pretty good shape for his age. I think that it would be a pretty good matchup, and damnit, I'd pay good money to watch. Proceeds could go to bombing victims in Lebanon, or whatever.

Time to Get Cracking

Sadly, all ten members of my death list remain alive. This could get embarrassing.