The Invasion of San Francisco

Friday, October 5, 2007 by The Chief.

I love Cinnamon Stillwell, and once again, she’s nailed the anti-anything-military crowd in Baghdad-by-the-Bay with her latest on Fleet Week:

---

San Francisco Peaceniks in a Panic Over Fleet Week

It’s that time of year again and Fleet Week has descended upon the city of San Francisco. For those who, like myself, appreciate the unabashed demonstration of military prowess, not to mention the spectacular air shows of the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels, it is a time to relish. And, of course, an occasion for gloating about the matter at one’s blog.

It helps that self-proclaimed socialist supervisor Chris Daly’s third attempt to ban the Blue Angels, due, he claims, to safety concerns (never mind that there’s a higher chance of being hit by a car in San Francisco than an Angels pilot crashing), was soundly defeated by his more commerce-minded colleagues on the Board of Supervisors. Ah, the smell of victory in the morning.

Getting to watch the Blue Angels practice throughout the week is another perk for patriots living in the vicinity. There’s nothing quite like the beauty of jets flying silently in formation, that sonic boom as they pass overhead, or the thrill of a jet zooming past one’s very window.

But for local liberals unaccustomed to such icky displays of militarism and residents annoyed that their daily lives of leisure are interrupted by those who, in reality, make those daily lives of leisure possible, Fleet Week is a time of terror.

I know of one such fellow who was in a virtual panic last weekend to, as he put it, “get out of town before the Blue Angels arrived!” Others remained in the war zone, but their grumbling can be overheard at the corner store, the gym, and anywhere else that San Franciscans choose to emote about their political inclinations.

The truth is San Francisco is a city that likes to pretend its favored existence has nothing to do with the generations of fighting forces that have shed blood, sweat, and tears on America’s behalf. . . .

---

There are many patriots still in San Francisco. But they tend to not be elected to public office. If you are in the Bay Area, treat yourself to a visit at USS Pampanito, at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf, or to the USS Hornet, across the Bay at Alameda.

Posted in Political Blogs, Submarines | Print | No Comments »

San Francisco Values

Thursday, March 15, 2007 by The Chief.

Cinnamon Stillwell is my favorite writer at the San Francisco Chronicle. She’s also one of my favorite Bloggers. Her latest column, Anti-War Miseducation in San Francisco, does an outstanding job of documenting San Francisco’s attacks on all things military, and on the Navy in particular. San Francisco has introduced an anti-American textbook, passed numerous anti-military resolutions, banned NJROTC, and refused to allow the USS Iowa to berth there.
This isn’t new, of course. Communist labor leader Harry Bridges managed to keep the Pampanito out of San Francisco for a very long time. However, San Francisco used to have a huge Navy presence, and a reputation as a great liberty port. As I mentioned in my earlier post, I spent yesterday on the Pampanito. At the end of WWII, Pampanito underwent refit and overhaul at San Francisco’s Hunters Point Naval Shipyard.
Hunters Point has long since been out of the shipyard business, and will eventually be cleaned up and turned over to the City. San Francisco, ever blind to its own hypocrisy, has decided that now is a great time to ask the Navy for a favor: S.F. seeks Navy’s help in effort to keep the 49ers.
In their effort to keep the San Francisco Forty-Niners from moving to Santa Clara, the City wants to offer them Hunters Point. But first, they need to convince the Navy to speed up the clean-up, and turn the site over to San Francisco within the next couple of years.
I’d like to see the Navy tell San Francisco that they’ll get around to working on Hunters Point after the city finds a new home for USS Iowa (I wonder if Hunters Point has room for a Battleship?), reinstates NJROTC in the schools, and repeals each and every anti-military resolution passed by the School Board and the Board of Supervisors. I wonder what Nany Pelosi thinks about this?

Posted in Political Blogs, Submarines | Print | No Comments »