As my friend Mara said, w00t for Canada for legalizing gay marriage. Due to the USA's superiority complex and We-are-the-only-country-who-can-ever-do-anything-good attitude, I doubt this will help us follow suit, but let's hope they will. There is too much prejudice against gay couples in both the government and society today, but let's hope the law will be passed soon.

Um...

I'm hoping to start my 3rd story in a series I've been working on...
I can't really find where to start though...
Don't you hate it when conservatives think that AVATAR is a liberal propaganda film trying to make the US Army look bad? According to a blog I read a few days ago, it makes "flaky pagan worship" a good thing, says "US military very bad", "mining bad", "the only good soldier is a traitor"....I could go on...
But for those of you who've seen it (It went on for twelve weeks so I hope you have, out of the tiny number of people who will actually read this thing) doesn't what the blogger says seem to indicate the following?

• The US Army is justified in rapaciously destroying a country and taking away its resources, because the soldiers are heroic no matter what the war.
• Killing civilians and children doesn't matter, because they're foreigners or subhuman.
• Killing non-Christians doesn't matter, because they're subhuman.
• Exploiting natural resources to any less than full capacity is leftist tree-hugging crap that wastes the time and money of the great USA.
• Soldiers in the US (or really any nation for that matter) who try to oppose or resist whatever immoral decision the gov't is making are traitors.
• Need I say more?
• Said blog can be found by going to the Wikipedia article on "AVATAR-2009 FILM" and using the "Find" function in the References area to find the blog post 'Hit over the head by the leftie sledgehammer'.

Okay, now I've shouted about my ideology I don't have much left to say...
Merry christmas to all and to all a good night.

Teaser!

As my story's release date will be sometime this June, probably early this June, I am posting here a quick teaser.
It takes place in a Vietnamese HGB-18 strike bomber during the battle of Manhattan.

“We’ve got an incoming message from Siam One,” [John Luu] continued, talking to Flight Leader Ngo, the pilot. “It’s the Captain.”
    Ngo’s voice came through his intercom. “What’s he saying?”
    “He wants to be picked up from that air defence battery on the tip of the island. Uh, let me see...coordinates 23, -81, -12, 4. He sent them to me just now,” reported Luu.
    “How does he expect him to pick us up? We can’t survive!” said Private Tran, the navigator. (Luu liked to call her a navigatrix.)
    “It seems he does,” said the Flight Leader. “And we must pick him up. He can’t die.”
    Inwardly, Luu groaned. It was just like Flt. Ldr. Ngo’s foolhardy, heroic nature to attack a heavily defended enemy position like that.
    “We’d better prep it,” said the tail gunner.
    Oh my god. Really?  thought Luu. He had a heroic pilot, now he had a tail-gunner who was gung-ho and as smart as a heap of lard.
    “I like your thinking,” he heard Ngo say. Then, “Full ECM, Flight Engineer. Smartbombs ready, bombardier. Watch our tail, Gunners. Keep us level, Tran.”
    Like a man in a dream, Luu tapped the switches for flares, radiation homing, jamming, channel hop, and AESA, and watched as his plane swooped towards the ground.

CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET: UUC LAND ARMY

**TOP SECRET**

DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU POSSESS A CQ-N12 SECURITY CLEARANCE PASS!

FAILURE TO COMPLY COULD RESULT IN UP TO FIVE YEARS IN PRISON AND/OR A K° 50,000 FINE!

DATED VERNIX 32, 1224 EOE

UUC MILITARY BASE AT KOMMAPU

KOMMAPU, JESTRIA, FLAJANIA

     From Eltomi 1222, up until a few weeks ago, secret trials have been carried out by the UUC Army in Fonti Bay. These trials have been designed to test the performance, munitions, speed, observability, etc. of the XN-24 Stealth Sub Concept, a very advanced low observable (eye as well as radar/sonar) attack submarine, and have, on the whole, been extremely successful.

     The SSC (Stealth Sub Concept) is based on the Leo II-Andromeda Scorpion attack boat, of which versions I, II, and III are known. The Scorpion is equipped with some very complicated machinery in order to resemble a mundane Sunfish fishing boat in normal use, but can remove the camouflage with ease in order to become an advanced WIGEV (wing-in-ground-effect) hovering vehicle, equipped with plasma guns and light rocket launchers. However, the expense and weight of mechanically removable camouflage has been replaced by a submarine, lying low in the water, but with a dummy fishing boat situated just aft of the cockpit.

     The fishing boat used for the SSC’s disguise is fully detachable, and can be detached from the cockpit, as it is actually made out of wood, and equipped with a cloth sail. This is so that if an enemy vehicle grows suspicious and fires on the fishing boat, it will show the normal effects of being hit by enemy fire, splintering and sinking into the water. When the submarine is underwater, it can be discarded (it is easily replaceable), towed (3600 ft of cable on board) or kept attached (at the price of low maximum depth and compromised stealth). Beneath it is a low-observable submarine equipped with heavy torpedo launchers and underwater plasma cannons.

     The SSC is not only designed for low radar observability. There is the very obvious fishing-boat decoy, and then the walls and wings of the sub are sea-blue, to blend in with the water. The wing skins are dielectric with the body carefully shaped. However, other parts of it are completely unrelated to stealth, such as a powerful rear turbine and two engines lying on either wing. The wings are a rather ingenious design that consist of toughened elastic polymer stretched over a nitinol skeleton. This skeleton can be re-shaped to a lifting wing or inverted wing, whether diving or rising is required. This eliminates the need for ballast. Also, carried internally, there are torpedoes in six bays, on rotary launchers. Up to 18 torpedoes can be carried by the submarine. There are also repeating plasma cannons hidden inside of the engine nacelles, popping up on hydraulic rams when stealth can be abandoned, and the pointed nose is reinforced for ramming if necessary.

     The maximum speed of the SSC is 83 knots or 95 miles per hour, however, this is ramming speed and can only be sustained for a few seconds. Normal cruising speed is 70 mph, or 61 knots. Torpedoes, using the patented “water ramjet” design, can travel at up to Mach O.8, or 529 knots. This is too fast for any manned boat to avoid. The SSC has a turn radius of 20.5 feet for 180deg.

     The SSC was designed, primarily, by Kiclon Battleships aircraft design expert Kaman Laorpp. He designed this submarine like a plane instead of a boat, a new and unusual, but effective, tactic.

XN-24 Stealth Sub Concept

Specifications

Length–40.2 feet

Wingspan–32.66 feet

Empty weight: 10.3 tons

Max weight: 11.8 tons

Top speed: 95 mph, 83 knots

Crew: 5 (pilot, navigator, engineer, two passengers) Toilet, galley, and bunks located in midsection

Armament: 18 RennVa MRQ-12 Advanced Ram Propulsion shaped-charge warhead torpedoes, 2 RennVa C4/b repeating plasma cannons, mount for heavy plasma rifles on fishing boat nose

Range: 1020 miles underwater (rebreather, hydrogen power) Theoretical range: As long as food supplies can hold out or be produced

Underwater max depth: 3500 ft for up to 4 hrs, normal depth 2300 ft

Projected missions: Interception of small, lightly armed watercraft, attack on small heavy watercraft, and can also be used to sink large battleships and hovercraft at their moorings.