Pessimist? Realist?--you decide.

1. Senator Harry Flood Byrd Jr., (D, VA), the oldest living former U.S. Senator and nephew of the famous Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd said last year: "We are living under a system built on lies, and when the truth is known, the house of cards will fall."
2. In the conning tower of a nuclear powered and armed submarine, a microphone inside and a camcorder outside picked this up--a quiet conversation between James Carter and Admiral Hyman Rickover, 'father' of the submarine Navy who felt the whole surface Navy was a flock of sitting ducks. It is.
Submarines go incredibly fast. Much faster than any other warship. An aircraft Carrier can go 50-60 mph. Enterprise went from mid-Mediterranian to Cuba in 3 days in 1961. That's 50 mph. Newer Carriers can probably do 60 with ease. Maybe more at flank speed. Trident Subs can do 80 mph. No surface tension to break. Anyway, this:

Rickover: General comments re the submarine...
Carter: "Gee, I wish all this was never invented."
Rickover: "Oh, we'll blow ourselves up--it's not if, it's when."

(Rickover stubbornly refused to leave the Navy on schedule and won his fight to stay. They wanted him out for reasons of intelligence and sanity.)