U.S. Navy: Welcome to the Pacific Northwest Electronic Warfare Range (formerly known as Olympic National Park)

The Navy wants to vastly expand its Electronic Warfare testing range to include Olympic National Park, among other unspoiled wilderness areas in western Washington.  The Navy has already been conducting similar tests in a remote region of Idaho, but for reasons that keep changing with every public statement they make, they now want to move — and exponentially expand — this operation to Olympic National Park.

The Navy has been trying to keep everything hush hush; this scheme has been in the works for awhile now.  Every time a bit more information leaks out, a Navy spokesperson will recite a few soothing doublespeak “there there now” talking points to calm the masses.  A groundswell of public alarm is slowly building, but it's been a slow process.

The deafening noise of low-flying jets — hundreds a day — would create deadly hazards to birds, bats and marine wildlife, not to mention the millions of tourists who would stop visiting Olympic National Park and other wilderness areas.  And there are countless horror stories of what the electronic testing in the park could do to people and wildlife.  A lot more research is needed.  The truth is probably somewhere between the worst of the horror stories and the Navy's dismissive “sheesh, you have a microwave in your kitchen, right?  Same thing.  Don't be such a pussy” talking points.

After attending a local meeting last night, my attitude has gone from “hmmm, that sucks” to “Holy Shit!  WTF are we gonna do?!?!?!”

I'll probably be doing a lot more posts on this subject as I learn more; i.e. as the Navy scrambles into Damage Control mode every time another bit of information leaks out.  I'll try not to bore the beejesus out of my readers (both of you) by obsessing over the same subject, but this is dire.

International Olympic Committee Gets Burned

A moment of schadenfreude. One of the victims of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme is the International Olympic Committee. They could lose up to $5 million. Greed meets greed.

Now, I like the Olympics as much as the next person. The anal retentive schmucks that run the International Olympic Committee — not so much.

For years the International Olympic Committee has been suing, or threatening to sue, anybody — anywhere — who uses the name Olympic. I live near Washington’s Olympic Mountains. Olympic National Park is here; the capital of Washington is Olympia; and the area north and west of Olympic National Park is called the Olympic Peninsula. So far nobody’s forcing Washington to rename the mountain range, the capital city, the park or the peninsula. But you never know.

It stands to reason that a lot of local businesses here have used the name Olympic. Most of them are too small for the International Olympic Committee to bother with, but again you never know. It’s a Sword of Damocles that could fall any second, or it might never fall.

A local winery — Olympic Cellars — has been threatened by the International Olympic Committee. This winery has had the nerve to be successful and start selling some of their wine outside of Western Washington, and the winery is a popular tourist attraction. Goliath the International Olympic Committee was not amused.

For the moment there’s a sort of uneasy truce between Olympic Cellars and the International Olympic Committee. As long as Olympic Cellars stays small and confines most of its sales to the immediate area, nobody gets hurt. OK, no problem. After all, the purpose of going into business for yourself is to stay small and be unsuccessful, right?

Here is a link to some of the other trademark infringement lawsuits that the International Olympic Committee has filed or threatened to file.

Maybe if these assholes hadn’t been so obsessed with squishing every business and organization that uses the name Olympic, they would’ve paid more attention to their investments and not gotten swindled. They’re sort of like that oblivious driver who’s going 45 in the left lane while blabbing on the phone, changing the CD, eating, texting — and then veers off the road and into a ditch.

This post was brought to you by Olympic Blogging™.

cross-posted at Bring It On!