New York
H/T Palmetto Patriot
Honestly, I can’t help but laugh at this, and wonder why anyone would call Amurrica a “nation,” or desire to preserve the Union with people as loathsome as Harold Meyerson.
We have more in common with foreigners like the Australians or the English or even the Russians and Japanese than we do with the Black Undertow in this country that lives in a parallel universe.
“The Republican ticket may hail from Massachusetts and Wisconsin, but Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan head the most Southernized major U.S. political party since Jefferson Davis’ day. In its hostility toward minorities,exploitation of racism, antipathy toward government and suspicion of science, today’s Republican Party represents the worst traditions of the South’s dankest backwaters.
No other party in U.S. history has done such a 180. Founded as the party of the anti-slavery North and committed to deep governmental involvement in spurring the economy (land-grant colleges, the Homestead Act, the transcontinental railway), today’s GOP is the negation of Abraham Lincoln’s Republicans. It is almost entirely white — 92 percent, compared with just 58 percent of Democrats. It is disproportionately Southern — 49 percent of Republicans live in the South vs. 39 percent of Democrats.
The beliefs of the white South dominate Republican thinking. As the white share of the U.S. population shrinks and the Latino share rises, Republicans have passed draconian anti-immigrant laws and opposed legislation enabling immigrants brought here as children to gain legal status.”
And this one too which was not retired by the Navy until 2003. Here it is loaded for bear.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/A-4E_VA-164_1967.JPEG/1280px-A-4E_VA-164_1967.JPEG
The Beaufighter, of ww2 vintage was quite a good one too. I like the ground attack version of the Mosquito as well.
The FB VI Mosquito was quite a machine. Basic armament was 4 20mm cannon and three machine guns, rockets. And speed.
The “wooden wonder” Mosquito was a remarkable airplane. It’s fuselage was of true monocoque construction with no internal stringers or spars. All that resultant interior room allowed the bomber variants to carry the famous 4000 pound “Cookie” bomb. It was built in multiple configurations most of which were legitimate 400 mph planes and the photo reconnaissance versions were pushing 450. The Germans couldn’t catch ’em.
Goering was very jealous of them. There was a fantastic raid that used Mosquitos. They bombed the Gestapo HQ in Denmark in such a precise spot that it allowed a jail break for Danish political prisoners. I think they hit a yard wall or cell wall can’t remember which.
If I could ever afford it I’d love to reconstruct one, Sans armaments. Beaufighter was able to function in the tropics though and simply disintegrated Japanese aircraft when the cannons burst. Such devastating power.
Don’t forget the 45 Mosquito FB Mk XVIIIs fitted with Molins 25-round full or semi auto 57mm cannons and 900 pounds of armor plating that were designed for (successfully) sinking U-boats at sea.
The Mosquito was used in three famous Gestapo prison air raids: the one you referred to in Copenhagen (Operation Carthage), a disastrous one in Oslo in 1942, and the largest of all, the famous Operation Jericho (as in “Walls of”) raid on the prison at Amiens France in which 258 prisoners escaped. As I recall that raid was designed to breach the outer wall of the yard but in the actual attack they also inadvertently hit the main building.
I knew a guy pretty well that built a replica of the DeHavilland racer “Grosvenor House” that was the direct predecessor of the Mosquito. His replica was 4/5 scale, all wood and used two Ford V6 engines. He got killed flying a Bonanza about a month before it was finished and the kids who inherited it were convinced by the lawyers to have it cut up for liability reasons. I stole the reduction drives off it before they hauled it off as well as copies of all the blueprints. I’m still young enough I might be able to build one myself, although a Spitfire would be more my style personally.
Build it!