Dallas, this is Ruben James....

[somedaybitch]

the roomie shocked the holy hell out of me when, in the middle of my re-watch of Prisoner of Azkahban, she informs me that 2 Akula-class Russian submarines are patrolling the East Coast.

yes, our east coast.

huh. maybe they miss John Hughes, too? either that or we've somehow slipped back into 1985. it would certainly make Putin happy.

there's a link at the bottom of the story to their source story at the NYT.

absolute best comment to Gizmodo post: "Now Commander... that torpedo did NOT self-destruct. You heard it hit the hull, and I... was never here."

and kudos to Gizmodo itself for: One ping only, Vasily.

eta:

Google news is reporting it as well, listing the NYT as breaking the story.

amusingly, they link to NORAD's website, which has a blurb on the front page that loosely translates to either, yeah, we know about the subs. stop calling, or, as the roomie suggested, yes, we see you.

Comments

[thevaliumsofalj.livejournal.com]

it's almost like cold war redux... freaky!!

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

right?

the obvious thought, me being a Cold War baby and the Akula class being a sub hunter, is that they've "lost" another submarine. but as it's no longer the Cold War, that would be really odd.

the NYT makes a good point about it being internal Russian military people trying to prove that they're still all bad ass and dren.

either option doesn't exactly fill me with love and joy.

for the love of God, though, whatever you do, DO NOT click the link to the LAT editorial about Russia flexing its military muscles. just...don't. bad, BAD, photo. bad.

[thevaliumsofalj.livejournal.com]

i'll avoid the LAT... I keep wanting to say soviets, cuz that's how I think of this stuff, being a cold war baby too. it's funny that the russians are now coming out and saying, "uhhh, guys, we never stopped patrolling the open oceans.. just sayin'".

[thevaliumsofalj.livejournal.com]

and now, i want to go watch hunt for red october... damnit...

[arthurfrdent.livejournal.com]

yeah... I went "huh" when did they STOP patrolling? Does anyone not call it patrolling when they see our subs somwhere? How do you keep a crew sharp if you don't keep 'em in the water? I would think subs especially, you have to have crews out all the time, or they lose their abilities... :shrug:

[lem0nb0mbs.livejournal.com]

I honestly never believed the Cold War ended, or they stopped patrolling.

*waves at subs*

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

the overt war did, absolutely. as to patrolling, well, no, it's a navy's job, so yeah, i agree, but only to a point. there's a difference between patrolling the middle of the Atlantic, and sitting just outside borders. one is merely doing one's job, the other is making a point, however benign.

[itsazoo.livejournal.com]

The Russians have invaded West Village and cut Muriel's phone lines!

The Captain just wanted to have a look at Ameerica.

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

okay, now you're just trying to see how much beverage you can make me snort through my nose.

[itsazoo.livejournal.com]

That was the first thing I thought when I heard the subs were lurking. They just wanted to have a look at America. And Putin taking his shirt off at every chance before the photogs makes a point, as well. What a dork.

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

i know, right? i saw that photo of him riding a horse and my first thought was "dear reporter, allow me to correct you on your misunderstanding of the word 'sculpted'"...

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

They had good coverage of it on the Rachel Maddow show yesterday. I know she's probably not your favorite newscaster, but she does a good "are you fucking kidding me?" sprinkled with relevant recent russian navy shenanigans context http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbK95fGLOng