Please don't spread falsehoods. Not all federal and state oaths are sworn on a bible. Some people use a book of law. Some swear on the constitution. One guy in California swore on a Captain America shield.

Nowhere is it specified the oath should be sworn on a bible. People are free to choose a volume or object which they feel is meaningful and appropriate to use.

Puerto Rico was a strong candidate but was less favourable for logistics.

Most armor is concentrated on the front aspect of the tank with lesser amounts on the flanks and rear. Top armor is generally the most weak and also the most available target from the air.

Whoosh!

The rear aspect RCS of the F-35 is going to be abysmal, though.

I guess the Navy is SOL when they have to fly a carrier air patrol.

Not sure if this is someone illustrating Poe's law, but there are enough people who genuinely hold this mistaken opinion that it's worth addressing.

Iraq wasn't invaded because there were gaps in the inspection regime (there were) or because Iraq was resistant to a more aggressive inspection regime (it was). Iraq wasn't invaded because of a criminal indictment of Saddam Hussein for the instigation of the Iran-Iraq war. Iraq wasn't invaded because of some 20 year old, probably inert gas shells buried, rusting, and forgotten in a ditch somewhere. Iraq was invaded to remove chemical, biological, and potentially nuclear weapons which constituted a grave and immediate threat to the security of the United States.

This justification was, of course, a complete fabrication. It was an utterly fantastic construction based on the stacking of all the worst case, low probability assessments generated by the US intelligence apparatus in order to stampede the public to war (and a highly successful general election).

The US wasn't trying to enforce sanctions on Iraq in 1983. At that time, they were selling them weapons.

Nukes, especially two stage nukes, are heavy emitters of X-ray light. Detonating the nuke at an appropriate distance allows the nuke to heat the surface matter of the object which blows off and acts as reaction mass. The efficiency of this coupling can also be improved via some design tricks for the device itself or by cratering the object with a kinetic impactor first then timing the detonation so it's directly over the resultant "rocket nozzle" on the object's surface.

Network switches with stackable backplanes have been around forever.

Old SCO sold Unixware and Openserver to Caldera Systems, then became Tarantella. Caldera Systems became SCO and started sueing their customers. M'kay?

Someone who plays chicken with the national credit score is not fiscally conservative.

Not since the 70s.

Lots of people use their leisure to challenge their limits. Kayaking, mountain climbing, sky diving, etc. I don't think they'll have trouble finding those who want the life of a pioneer and explorer.

Pretty sure they do command and control for those satellites. They also might have design documents and operations manuals kicking around.

Fair enough, but why didn't they chant "Falcon! Falcon!"? After all, Lockheed and Boeing have sat on their ass for 40 years getting fat off the teat. Their heritage comes from TRW, their own hard work to fulfill a DARPA contract, and some vision on the part of NASA to get COTS off the ground. These companies and initiatives were all fairly maverick in their way, moving against the prevailing currents of hot air blowing from the Washington Beltway.