Indian SSBN: Pakistan Watch Out!

The Indians' new submarine, the INS Arihant (Sanskrit for "Destroyer of Enemies") is officially in the water.

This Telegraph article includes a nice little plan view of the submarine.

Some details:

• Will carry a 750km ballistic missile, with a 1500km planned range on the next generation
• 40% indigenous content (i.e. mostly Russian)
• Looks like 12 missile capacity, although some press reports said only 5 (maybe that's all India has in stock)
• One year until her reactor lights off

Welcome to the club, India!

Obama backpedals on Stoopid Police

If you sleep under a rock, you missed the final question at President Obama's health care newser Wednesday night.

See if for yourself here:




Well, turns out, the question was a plant, and if you're as shocked as I was that the President of the United States would address a local police issue on something he had NO KNOWLEDGE about, you're not alone.

So, after a day of fallout, turns out that pretty much everyone who was there and who is associated with the arresting officer stands by him, and not the Harvard professor and Friend of Barack. This officer was just doing his job, trying to defuse the situation, and this hothead decided to lay into him. Little surprise that a professor of African American studies and a purveyor of the "Blacks are victims" meme, would immediately jump to calling this profiling (although the officer was called to the scene because the guy was breaking into his own house - the facts are not in dispute here, and Grant was arrested for Disorderly Conduct, not B&E).

That the President, with little knowledge of the facts, would take time in his televised press conference, to tout this same pack of lies, should put the lie to anyone who had real thoughts that Barack Obama was some sort of transcendent racial figure. He's a race baiter, just like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, and this had no place in national politics, from a sitting president.

Obama is acting too much like the junior senator from Illinois still, and with his approval ratings continuing their plummet, it won't be long until he's at Bushian levels of approval and Democrats are distancing themselves from him.

It's not too late for him to grab a lifeline that truly stupid Republicans are likely to throw him, probably giving him some sort of "bipartisan" victory on health care, and restoring some of the luster to his presidency. I hope not. I hope the GOP can sense the blood in the water. This presidency, built on the "Cult of Obama" is sinking into the gooey tar pit that is the Pelosi-Reid agenda.

It is said that in politics, when your opponent is committing suicide, the best thing for the opposition to do is to sit and watch.

As for me, I believe I will do that, with a cold beer in my hand.

A caution to Conservatives: Bill Clinton came back. Liberalism came back. We must remain ever vigilant, as there is much work to be done and we can never, ever give up.

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Navy on the Military Channel

The Military Channel will air a short mini-series, "At Sea" August 9-11 at 10pm to "allow viewers to experience first hand the revolutionary changes that are currently taking place in the mission, manpower and machinery of this unmatched maritime force."  Viewers will get to "dive deep beneath the ocean's surface to explore the latest in attack submarines" among other fun Navy stuff.

 

Watch it and see for yourself.

 

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12 Women Have Dolphins??? Real Dolphins?

I don't have a real problem with women in submarines (I wish they had been onboard in my days), but, I do have a problem with the way this Stars and Stripes article portrays this accomplishment by LCDR Marilisa Elrod ("the distinction of being a submarine-qualified sailor.").

 

LCDR Elrod is a medical officer and dolphin wearer, and the shocking news (to me) is that there are 11 other dolphin-wearing females.

 

Upon further review, I suspect (hope) that LCDR Elrod is wearing the special Medical Corps dolphins (the picture isn't of sufficient resolution to tell). Sort of like the Supply Corps' dolphins.  Nice achievement, but not really dolphins, of the steely-eyed killer variety.

 

If she's not wearing those "special" ones, I am going to be pissed.

 

Comments???

 

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Health Care - Insight from a Master Strategist

As Obama fights the free fall of his approval numbers (faster than an Apollo spacecraft at re-entry), here are some original thoughts from the master strategist, Dick Morris:

 

• "How can we cover 50 million more people without any new doctors or nurses? The answer is to ration health care, with the government deciding who'll get hip and knee replacements, heart-bypass surgery and other medical treatments. And what does rationing mean? It means that the elderly will be denied care that they can now get whenever they want."
• "The Obama plan effectively repeals Medicare, putting a Federal Health Board between the elderly and their doctors. This board will instruct public and private insurance carriers on what procedures are to be approved, at what cost and for what patients."
• "We'll have to revisit the idea that the elderly have, in the words of former Colorado Gov. Dick Lamm, 'a duty to die.'"
• "The elderly constantly stay in touch with their doctors and medical providers. The curtailment of that access will become immediately apparent -- and in more than enough time for the 2010 elections."

So, my parents will have to die so my kids can afford the taxes to keep the health care system going.  Good thing people about my age are drafting this thing, otherwise, I'd be hosed.

 

Here's hoping it fails.

 

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India gives Hillary (and Obama) the finger on Global Warming

Well, Hillary Clinton was in India this week, again apologizing for the United States' horrible record putting CO2 in the atmosphere, and praising Obama for putting on a course to reduce this horrible pollutant.

Thankfully, the Indians told Hillary:

“There is simply no case for the pressure that we, who have been among the lowest emissions per capita, face to actually reduce emissions,” Jairam Ramesh, India’s environment minister told Mrs Clinton. “And as if this pressure was not enough, we also face the threat of carbon tariffs on our exports to countries such as yours.”

In other words "Hey Hillary, Obama, F-off!"

Good for the Indians and good for civilization.

If we really wanted to do something about awful greenhouse gasses - we'd concentrate on something that really contributes to global warming, like this dastardly molecule.

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Sotomayor - Pretty Much Standard Liberal Fare

Sonia Sotomayor has said repeatedly, "'I would hope that a wise Latina woman, with the richness of her experiences, would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."

Investors Business Daily editorializes (how they read MY mind, I don't know) that her statement at her confirmation hearings, "What I was talking about was the obligation of judges to examine what they're feeling as they're adjudicating a case and to ensure that that's not influencing the outcome," is the kind of liberal "I meant the opposite of what I actually said" speak that we have come to expect from liberal, activist judges.

For what it's worth, her statements at the hearings are all we need to know about how she will approach her job from the bench. Like all Liberal judges, she'll read the words in the Constitution, consider them, then decide it means whatever the hell she wants it to mean right now.

Fair enough? We get what we paid for.

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Obama Approval Numbers Enter Free Fall

Maybe Americans are starting to realize that the economy is not improving, that we own a mess of a car company, that banks are still not lending money, and that none of those shovel-ready projects are actually causing people to pick up shovels, but are instead causing state governments to take bailouts.

Maybe Americans are also trying to send a signal that government run health care is not something they are interested in, that they don't want to be taxed in a scheme to "save" the environment, and that they really don't believe anymore that 95% of them are getting a tax cut.

Maybe.

Anyway, Rasmussen has the Strongly Disapproves at 38% and the Strongly Approves at 30%, so, -8.

Take it for what it's worth, that your neighbors perhaps are willful dunces, but not complete idiots.


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Indians to launch own nuke sub; Sub Blogger glorifies us all

The Indians are set to launch their first, indigenously built, nuclear submarine soon. This in addition to taking delivery of their bad luck Akula from the Russians and the former Admiral Gorshkov (POS) carrier also from the Russkies.

Now, love him or hate him, let's hope the Obama administration follows through on one Bush policy that should be continued - the continued closer cooperation with our friends in India. This, along with Bush's Africa policy, are important foreign policy choices that we need to continue.

In other news - the dean of Submarine bloggers, Joel Kennedy, was recently in the news himself. Stop over at The Stupid Shall be Punished and read Joel's take on it, then go read the interview your own self!

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Biden Speaks, the Left cringes...

Even crazy old Joe Biden (did you know he's Vice President now? Neither did I! Wow!!) thinks the government is run by a bunch of amateurs (himself, excluded).

"The truth is, there was a misreading of just how bad an economy we inherited," said Biden to ABC's George Snuffalufagus.

In another sign of just how wise Biden is becoming, even he thinks Paul Krugman is a partisan hack, and a leftist, lunatic economist as he downplayed calls from (long ago) Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman this week that a second stimulus will be needed.

I always knew I liked Joe Biden for his candor...

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Great men knew the dangers of tyranny. They wrote these Words.

These are two pretty important paragraphs in our Nation's history. Read them and consider what they mean to you this weekend.


When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

The authors went on to list a series of abuses perpetrated on them, and signed off thusly:

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

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Obamafascism

As I hope people will some day soon figure out, Obama and the Dems are engaged in the largest government takeover of our economy ever attempted.

And, they are doing it with the acquiescence of much of corporate America. As I posted previously, Wal-mart has decided to back Obamacare. For good selfish reasons, large corporations like much of what Obama is promising.

But, Jonah Goldberg, who wrote the book on Liberal Fascism, tries to make it clearer for those dense of mind. Read his post, but I'll highlight for you:

• "In the last two election cycles, big Wall Street firms gave more to Democrats than to Republicans. Democrats also led in most other big-business sectors."
• "On health care, insurance companies and others repeat the mantra that they want to be 'at the table rather than on the menu,' all the better to be positioned as a tax collector of the welfare state."
  
• "General Motors and Chrysler have gone from being pimped-out prostitutes of the state to outright chattel more akin to the leather-bound gimp in Pulp Fiction, eager to do the bidding of the president and the UAW."
• "Once-proud companies like GE have become seduced by global-warming schemes because they recognize that there’s more money to be made selling white elephants to Uncle Sam than there is selling competitive products consumers want. Indeed, cap-and-trade taxes promise to deliver precisely the protectionist industrial policies the Left has dreamed of for decades, only under a “progressive” label."
• "This week, Philip Morris, the biggest of the big tobacco companies, supported and won passage of an “anti-tobacco” bill that will make it easier for Philip Morris (a subsidiary of Altria) to sell cigarettes by making it harder for smaller, more innovative firms to compete."

This doesn't even begin to touch on the takeover of the financial industry that began under Bush and has expanded under Obama. Those companies, of course, will seek to become government's "partner" as time progresses.

Before long, no matter who you work for, you'll be a quasi-government employee (minus all the great benefits, which they of course will retain as the rest of us are hustled off into government-mandated programs).

That's the future. We'll be more messed up than France.

Tiger Woods blasted by Jim Brown

Jim Brown lambasted Tiger Woods because Woods is "terrible" on social change issues.

I appreciate that Brown was a fantastic (perhaps best ever) running back, and during the turbulent '60's. He felt a need to speak out then, and he does so to this day. Good for you, Jim.

However, my suspicion is that Tiger is likely slightly more conservative in his politics than he may want to let on, and he has chosen to funnel his significant charitable contributions in more traditional ways, vice becoming a polarizing figure for "social change," whatever that is.

Look, Jim, it's not 1968 anymore. Just because Tiger's mixed race includes black, doesn't mean he has to be a poster boy for anything the ossified black leaders decree. Tiger was clearly raised to be his own man, and he'll do what he wants. I hope Tiger doesn't see fit to give these babies the time of day.

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More on Wal-mart and Obamacare. Or, why you should be scared, very scared...

David Suderman explains better than I why Wal-mart would support Obamacare.

"Wal-Mart, the nation's largest employer, can afford the costs imposed by an employer mandate. Smaller competitors are likely to find it harder -- and they're not too happy about Wal-Mart's announcement"

David Brooks explains why Congressional leadership (as opposed to Executive) on policy and lawmaking, as we have witnessed with Porkulus, Cap 'n Tax, and Obamacare, is bad for the country, but good for some corporations.

All these are messes. Someone will have to clean them up.

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Obamacare: Watch Large Corporations Jump On

Wal-mart is signing on to Obamacare.

This should really come as no surprise, as there are lots and lots of good reasons for Wal-mart, and other large corporations to sign on to a government run health care system.

The shifting of health care costs from employers to government (read: taxpayers, i.e. YOU) is a natural boon for large employers. It makes even greater sense to large employers with massive unionized workforces, or for those threatened by unionization.

For largely union shops, this essentially levels the playing field for these companies against upstarts. For established companies, health care costs are one of their largest costs of employment, and the rate of increase in health care costs throw much uncertainty into these company's planning processes. So, they see a government run system as a way to make these costs the same for everyone, and to take them off their hands and shift them to ours. They also see them as a way to shelter them from competitors, especially non-union competitors, who have lower costs structures.

For Wal-mart, some certainty has to be in order, and, I expect this is an attempt to buy protection from unionization themselves. If Wal-mart can say, "Why do our employees need a union when there is a government run health care system for them to participate in?"

The groups I can't understand why they are behind Obamacare are unions. Of course, I fully expect the health care benefits that are collectively bargained for to be exempted from any government run plan. Unions will not sit by and stand for employers telling their rank and file to join the government run system, when they have pretty generous, bargained-for benefits.

Anyway, my point is - any health care plan is going to be shaped more by Democratic party politics than actual health care needs.

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Lasers and Submarines

So, no less an authority than MSNBC tells us "lasers to seek, but not destroy subs" in this article.

Sounds like this is a one-way technology, mainly being developed for communications purposes, since the lasers can be shot from the air and still travel underwater.

Ted Jones is leading this research effort, and he's a pretty smart guy, cause he wrote this abstract:

"An intense remote underwater laser acoustic source is under development at the Naval Research Laboratory. In a novel configuration, a tailored intense laser pulse can be designed to propagate many meters underwater and compress at a predetermined remote location. Controlled compression of these optical pulses is governed by a combination of optical group velocity dispersion and nonlinear Kerr self‐focusing. Optical compression can result in laser‐induced breakdown, localized heating, and acoustic shock generation (emphasis added). Recent experiments include near‐field acoustic source characterization using lens‐focused 400 and 800 nm pulses of a Ti:sapphire laser, as well as 532 and 1064 nm pulses of a YAG laser. Sound pressure levels over 210 dB were achieved using a compact laser. Acoustic source characterization includes measurements of photoacoustic energy conversion efficiency, acoustic power spectrum, and directivity. Nonlinear optical studies included the precise measurement of the Kerr index of water at 400 and 800 nm, as well as conditions for optical filament generation, and their effects on acoustic signals. Planned experiments include tests in a bubbly salt water tank. Experimental results will be presented, and laser sources and techniques for underwater acoustic generation will be compared."

Seems pretty cool, eh?

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Six Flags Over Georgia vs. Cedar Point

The last week in May, my daughter (now 14) and I made a long road trip to Cedar Point - the world's best amusement park, in Sandusky, Ohio, on the shores of Lake Erie. I previously posted about an overnight we spent in Cincinnati.

I really want to save the details of Cedar Point for another day, but, the short version is - best amusement park for number and variety of roller coasters, and best staff and operations I have experienced in my life. Period. Without equal.

Our local park is Six Flags Over Georgia, and it's one to which we own season passes, the prices being too good to pass up. We've done this for many years, although we probably average only 4 visits a year, Six Flags being about 30 miles from our home, and our opportunities mostly limited to weekends, but we always try to go at least once on a weekday during summer. Today was the first of those days, and was our second visit (I discussed a little of visit one in this post).

What I didn't mention here in that post was that Six Flags has adopted a policy on most of their roller coasters where riders are not permitted to bring anything they can't put in their pockets, into the station. This would include souvenir drink cups that season pass holders are enouraged to buy for $12.99 to get discount refills, any backpack type stuff, etc. In exchange, Six Flags conveniently offers lockers for short-term rental (2 hrs) at line entrances, for $1.

This was my major complaint back in April. This policy spans the most popular coasters - Batman, Superman, Goliath, and some not-so-popular ones (Cyclone, Scorcher). It amounts to a surcharge of $1 for each ride. When I complained to Six Flags, their management was kind enough to offer these answers:

1. The policy is a corporate policy
2. The policy is intended to increase throughput on these rides

Number 1 is a dodge, and since Six Flags is now in Chapter 11, I can't say that too many decisions coming out of their corporate office must be that great, but, maybe this one is a net money maker - I expect most of their visitors are one-time visitors and just accept this as a price of a vacation, along with the astronomical food prices, and the ridiculous parking prices. To their credit, they have held the line on actual admission and season passes - but they're picking it up here.

Number 2 is a falsehood. After the first visit, we had a heated discussion about throughput at SFOG.net, and the consensus is that this policy does nothing to speed throughput, and that parks like Cedar Point don't have this policy, and are models for throughput. My actual experience anecdotally bears this out. As a matter of fact, my experience today made me wonder if this policy doesn't actually slow throughput.

To wit, on Goliath, since the 4 gatekeepers at the entrance were not doing their job and stopping everyone with drink cups, and their was no one at the platform entrance, people were able to get to their seats with these, and attempted to put them in the storage bins - where, on this particular ride, you must place your flip-flops and loose fitting shoes (how adding a small backpack, or drink cup to this process slows things much, is beyond me). Anyway, because a couple of riders had drink cups and/or had not put their flops in the bin, we had to wait 2+ minutes (yes, I timed it) for the train to leave the station, while the operators held the train to find the offenders and have them 1)lose their cups and 2)get off and store their flops appropriately. If you're saying this sounds like a government operation, you're with me.

On the Georgia Scorcher, which is an older, lamer, stand-up coaster, the park has decided that nothing comes off in the platform (you wear your shoes on this puppy). Anyway, the problem with this ride is NOT people's stuff, it's the 6 person crew who can not get a train out of the station in less than 2 minutes. This is a tough ride because of design issues with boarding for the operators, but please....

I did have the opportunity to complete a complaint form, and talk to a supervisor, who was very friendly and conscientious. But, the story is the same - "Corporate makes us do this." Oh, and sprinkling in pablum about safety (how these rides operated safely the previous 40 years not explained) .

Let's be honest, Six Flags. This is about one thing - money. If you would JUST ADMIT THAT, I would stop complaining and bring a few dollars with me when I visit.

I have ideas for how you can meet the other stated goals (throughput, safety) and lessen the aggravation for your customers, but, you'll have to pay my consulting fee to get those.

Operators - much better than years past - BUT - absolutely NOT at Cedar Point level.
Operations - better also, BUT - not even in the same league as Cedar Point.
Park Cleanliness - again, improving, but, not close to Cedar Point.

We'll be going to the former Hard Rock park (now Freestyle Music Park) in Myrtle Beach in July, and will have a report from there. Honestly, knowing the financial condition of that park's owners, I expect it to stink.

Also, later, I will upload some pics and videos of today's Six Flags visit, and our Cedar Point visit.

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LIberal Womyn We'd Prefer Not to Enjoy (in bed, or anywhere else)

Recently, Playboy.com decided to run an article about the 10 Conservative women they’d most like to hate f***. Somehow, they thought this would curry favor with their mostly Liberal audience and they made a concerted effort to advertise this crap through the Internet via Liberal bloggers.

Somehow, they must’ve forgotten that there are some decent people on the Internet, and Conservatives, too, so, after a short time posted, Playboy took the article down, and semi-respectable Lib bloggers, like Anne Mullins at Politico had to issue mea culpas for their original links to the article (an article they clearly had not read).

If you want to see the original, Blogwonks has it.

Not that this is very hard, I decided to take a little revenge on the Left and choose my list of Liberal women we’d least like to, ummmm, well, you know. A few conditions – the women on this list have to have some clear leftist political leaning, must not be someone you’d want to introduce to your college pals as a conquest, and must be heterosexual, so that leaves out, well, the likes of Rosie O’Donnell, Rachel Maddow, and Ellen Degeneres (since they wouldn’t want to be with men anyway).

They are:

1. Arianna Huffington – founder of the Huffington Post, and turncoat to Conservatives (well, you’d feel jilted, too, if your ex-billionaire husband turned out gay).
2. Michelle Obama – if “angry black woman” were personified, it’d be her. She’d never been truly proud of her country until her husband locked up the Democratic nomination. Not even when Affirmative Action was securing her a slot at Princeton. Now she just spends the taxpayers’ money on date nights.
3. Andrea Mitchell – yech. A “reporter” so loose with the facts, and so hideous, she had to marry Alan Greenspan.
4. Katie Couric – if Drudge didn’t constantly remind CBS how bad it has gotten since she took over the anchor chair from another woman we’d hate to ummm, you know (Dan Rather), we wouldn’t remember her.
5. Barbara Streisand – the once great singer long ago decided to abandon Israel and her Jewish roots to shill for the Democrats. In her defense, she was smitten with Bill Clinton. So, I guess you could argue the Devil made her do it.
6. Hillary Clinton – I almost feel sorry for Hillary. Almost.
7. Nancy Pelosi – I know Nancy Pelosi isn’t a stupid woman. You don’t get to be Speaker by being stupid. You do, however, get to be speaker by being ruthless, shameless, and less than faithful to the truth.
8. Janeane Garafalo – I am glad that she contends she’s not a lesbian, thus making her eligible for my list. The much tattooed, unfunny comedienne, and former Air America talk show host has a penchant for saying the stupidest things while proclaiming her own Liberal superiority. Poster child for modern Liberalism. If we didn’t have Janeane, we’d have to invent her.
9. Helen Thomas – Worst reporter in American history. Enough said.
10. Ellen Goodman – The Boston Globe columnist compares global warming skeptics to Holocaust deniers and thinks empathy is an important qualification for Supreme Court justices (as long as it’s not empathy for the rule of law, the 2^nd Amendment or 10^th Amendments).

Honorable Mention:

1. Madonna – Just plain scary and definitely liberal, but, I used to have a massive crush, so I’d probably still take her.
2. Susan Estrich – I wanted to include her in the top 10, since she is definitely a left-wing apologist, but, I actually like her, and find her attractive in a weird way. Also, since she masterminded the Dukakis campaign, I think she might be a closet conservative.
3. Hanoi Jane Fonda – she deserves to be on the list, but, she was once hot, and she was married to Ted Turner, so she has an excuse now.
4. Eleanor Clift – if The McLaughlin Group had any viewers anymore, she might crack the top 10, cause, she ain’t much to look at, and she’s for sure a left-wing nut case. But, nobody’s listening anymore.
5. Maureen Dowd – The NYT columnist has the leftist bona fides, but, she’s just a tad too attractive, and you know she’s of low moral character, so, she can’t make the list, either.
6. Angelina Jolie – sorry, but, Jon Voight’s daughter may be more conservative than you think. One of the few Hollywood elite to suggest that the War in Iraq may have been a good thing.

P-8 First Flight

Friday, the P-8A Poseidon made its first flight (h/t NOS) from Renton Field in Washington. The nearly 3 hour flight also included a fly-by of NAS Whidbey Island.

The Navy plans to eventually order 117 of these, with IOC in 2013.

Here's hoping the aging P-3's make it that long.

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Trip to Cedar Point: Cincinnati

Yesterday, my 13 (soon to be 14) year old daughter and I completed a 1500 mile, 4-day venture to Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio, with a stopover in Cincinnati.

For those who are roller coaster fans, Cedar Point is probably the US destination with the highest concentration of roller coasters, and some of the largest in the country. Since we're pretty much bored with the local Six Flags over Georgia offerings, we decided the trek would be a fun way to cap off the school year, and semi-celebrate a birthday (hers) as well.

With an eye on the weather, we left Wednesday, headed for Cincinnati, the goal being to make it their in time to check into our hotel (The Hyatt Regency) and walk to Great American Ballpark for the Reds vs. Astros game. Despite rainy travel on Wednesday, we made the 7+ hour trip in plenty of time to check-in, swim for a bit, watch the rain taper off, and head to the game, where the skies parted, and we enjoyed a victory for the home team. GABP lived up to its reputation as a hitter friendly park, with 3 homers hit by the Reds, 2 by star player (and Braves-killer) Jay Bruce. For baseball fans, his two homers would not have cleared the fences in most other parks.

It's a great place to see a game, and students get in for half price, and, military receive free admission to outfield reserved seats (not sure if that was a Memorial Day week promotion or always available), so we got in for $7. They also offer a meal deal of a hot dog, coke, chips, and a snack for $7, so, for $21, we got admission to a major league baseball game, and dinner! If you know of other great ballpark deals let me know - this one would be hard to top.

The Hyatt was reasonably priced for an upper-end, downtown hotel, but I have a couple of complaints:

1. Why these higher end hotels can not seem to offer free wi-fi in their rooms, or in the Hyatt's case, wired access, is beyond me. You're already charging a premium, get with the program. When Microtel offers free wi-fi, you can, too.
2. After the game, we wanted to grab a quick snack in the hotel sports bar. Apparently, we weren't good enough customers to be waited on, so we had to forgo that experience.

The next day, Thursday, we would be leaving early enough to arrive at Cedar Point in time to enjoy their Starlight park hours (4-8pm on this day). More on that experience in a subsequent post.

If you're in Cincinnati for only a short time, and have the desire to see a Reds game, by all means, do. It's a new park, so all the seats are good, and it's a small park, so you'll see some offense. The location is right on the Ohio River, so you can watch the barges and pleasure boats pass by, and the fans are knowledgeable and friendly. The homeless are also well behaved, unlike some cities where they are very aggressive.

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