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U.S.S. USS Gabrielle Giffords  (courtesy nbcnews.com)

I was more than a little pissed when Caitlyn Jenner received the ESPN Arthur Ashe award for courage. While I admire her courage, there were dozens of other athletes who were far more deserving than Ms. Jenner. Jenners’s award was little more than political posturing/grandstanding. And now we have a United States Navy ship named after former U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords . . .

For doing what, exactly? Surviving an assassination attempt? Crusading to infringe upon Americans’ natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms? (A document to which all U.S. soldiers must swear an oath to uphold and defend, btw.)

From the Navy Times:

“The selection of Gabrielle Giffords, designated LCS 10, honors the former Congresswoman from Tucson, Arizona, who is known for supporting the military and veterans, advocating for renewable energy and championing border security,” the Navy said in a statement accompanying the announcement.

What of all the soldiers, airmen and sailors who gave their lives in service to our country? Shame on the Navy.

[h/t Mister3d]

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151 COMMENTS

  1. Surviving an assassination attempt. She was a sitting congresswoman who was targeted when meeting with her constituents. I have no problem with the naming. As far as the crusading against the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution, I have to question her mental capacity. Just because she can be coaxed into reciting a couple of lines of agitprop doesn’t make her a bad person. From everything I’ve heard she was fairly pro-gun for a Democrat before the shooting. Now her husband, that’s a different story.

      • Let’s see. Mark Kelly is a retired astronaut, an engineer, and a Captain in the Navy. So what exactly have you accomplished in your life PFC Hashslinger?

        • He’s a political liar. Got caught trying to buy an AR-15 for himself, but when outed in the media for his gun hypocrisy, tried to say it was to show how “easy” it was for anyone to get an assault rifle. He could have gone to friggin Mars for all I care, his political shenanigans is fair game for criticism.

        • Ya, Blasphemer “god” like you couldn’t wipe your a_ _ with your medal of honor? Kerry ‘threw his medals over the fence’ in protest of something his head sh_t-out, but displays them now proudly in his office.

          Charlie Rengel, (D), NY is a communist puppet, but also (also) served honorably during the Korean War.

          Giffords is a hack who has used his wife’s condition for his own gain, and is an anti-gun shill, because orange is the new pink or something.

        • @god — Literally none of that matters when he openly supports an explicitly racist, sexist, and classist agenda that was never meant to be enforced against people who shared his skin complexion. Oh, and let’s not forget him getting caught blatantly violating the very same laws you all desperately wish could do something it cannot. You’ve accomplished nothing more than becoming a mouthpiece for ardent anti-rights Marxists.

    • N E V E R – – F O R G E T – – E D I T I O N

      Like Reagan, Ford, JFK,

      Giffords was shot by a “CRAZY” DEMOCRAT. [Hinkley has actually received supervised visits home and has come close to receiving permission for un-supervised visits. (D) and Left are silent on this matter and that will not be forgotten].

      She was an (at times) strong supporter of border control. So it was an inside job.

      + 1 Million, I’ve known NAVY cooks, Hell, I’ve known foreign nation’s Military Interpreters that were more deserving of the naming of a SHIP. But HELL, let’s have a ~50 + year memorial to gun control be part of the military. GOD SAVE all those who serve in her.

      • If you live in a blue state, you may be part of the problem. If you have a (D) after your name, are a liberal or a rino, you are permanently damaged, you care nothing for duty/honor/country/rite/or tradition, and you feel free to sh_t on all things right and good in a manner that mimics your tantric str_ngubation sessions of self-fulfillment. Your mom, One of your 5 fathers (the one that wears the dress more often than the others) owes us an abortion.

  2. The trend of naming ships after politicians is the real shame. There used to be a rule that no ship would be named after anyone still living, that rule was broken 30 some years ago I think with the Vinson.

    We really should have better naming conventions and politicians should have the decency to give ships non-controversial names.

      • no, not even that. I’m a big believer you should be both a) dead and b) served in the military or as president to get a shit named after you.

        The thing is, the ship is in a weird way, a crews home. Literally. I lived out of my rack for 2 years before I made petty officer and they graced me with a barracks room. This seems weird considering I how sarcastic I was while in (and my general dislike of how the Navy ran) but a good name means a big difference. ‘

        Other guys got to be on the Teddy Roosevelt, the big stick. Or on a destroyer named after a Navy Cross winner who jumped on a hand grenade in WWII. Or hell, a ship named after one of the first ships in the navy AND a spaceship. Me? I got to be on an aircraft carrier named after a congressman whose only 2 notable achievements were (a) to dump any money into military funding legislation and (b) to be a pants shittingly, segregationist advocating, voted AGAINST every civil rights bill, racist piece of shit. And the sad fact is you STILL don’t know what ship I was on because we have 2 that fit the bill: the Vinson and the Stennis.

        • ^ right, but they call you ‘mommy’

          ^^^^ I agree, the VINSON though I consider a worthy pic (like the Rickover Vinson was nearly as instrumental in having as great a NAVY as we do (did)). I do think any naming should be posthumous. If not, I believe that the namesake should be killed during the christening. \ sarc

      • No ship should be named after a politician. Nothing honorable should be named after a politician. A sad fact is that a large percentage of politicians are criminal. There is no way of knowing if the politician that you chose is not criminal as it many times is found out years later. The high incidence of criminality among them is more than enough reason to not use their names for anything noble.

  3. Remember, this is a gun free war ship. No rifles, no cannons, no pistols. It will bring peace to the world.

  4. As a Navy vet, I find it inappropriate and insulting, when there are a number of uniformed heroes that could be honored by naming a ship after them.

    At least it was an LCS they named for her, and not a ship of the line. LCS is not suited to do any specific mission well. Unfortunately, it will require loss of sailors’ lives to realize these money pits aren’t suited for combat roles.

    • What exactly is a “ship of the line” in 2015? Last time I checked, we stopped building battleships in 1945.

      • Right now ships of the line are carriers, guided missile cruisers and guided missile destroyers. Pretty much everything else is in a secondary role. The frigates and Spruance class DDs are all but gone. LCS is a really, really expensive patrol boat.

        • Just looked them up on Google–apparently, they aren’t much good for much anything other than engaging small, lightly -armed boats. Maybe fishery patrolling??

        • Spruance class have been gone for 10 years. Perry class frigates will be gone before the end of this year. The useless LCS class ships are officially the replacements for the Perry class frigates, which have been equally useless since their Mk 13 launchers were removed in the early 2000’s. Pretty much the only thing they are good for is anti-piracy tasks and dealing with small patrol boats like the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Navy uses. There are plans to eventually give the LCS class ships either upgraded Harpoons or another type of long range missile in the next 5 years so they are less useless.

    • With early retirement, these warships will be sold off as surplus. Designed for shallow draft, low drag, silent tactical infiltration roles, they are perfect for drug and gun sting operations allowing SWAT operators to perform beach assaults, breach sandy perimeters, open carrier investigations or assist in riot control. In other words, forward thinking police chiefs best get their departments on the list for a couple right now.

    • We should see a USS Chris Kyle before we ever saw a Gabby Giffords. Michael P. Murphy, Marcus Luttrell,Matthew Axelson, Erik S. Kristensen, all proud members of our Navy and HEROS who died for their country. That is with 2 mins of googling. I am surprised with the current administration and the shake up all of the branches have seen we don’t have a USS Hugo Chavez yet.

        • +1
          It would be a lot better to name nothing, especially a navy vessel, in honor of a living person. I recall we once had a “Brendan Byrne Arena” in New Jersey to honor the living ex-governor. That “honor” was retracted when Continental Airlines bought the right to name the place after itself. Now it’s the “Izod Center”.

      • The USS Al Sharpton……..I can’t believe I wrote that. This is what happens when we have no military men in congress or the senate…..well there are a few but it use to be if you didn’t serve in the military you didn’t get elected to squat.

  5. I think there are thousands of dead soliders who died with heroism for their country who should have ships named after them before Gabby. She took a bullet while speaking to her constituents I agree; but has sense proven to be a crusader against 2nd amendment rights and a disgrace of an American. We have thousands of men and women who died with honor, saving their comrades and defending this nation, they should be honored first.

    • I’m not even sure ‘took a bullet’ is the right way to describe it.
      We’re making it sound heroic to be talking in public and get shot, whereas we wouldn’t ever think of it being heroic to get shot by home invaders. She was in a place of presumed safety and got a near fatal surprise. Not a good or bad reflection on her, she just happened to be somewhere while somebody else did something dramatic in the same place. She’s no more heroic for being a shooting victim than is the other victim, Christina-Taylor Green. Now, if you want to memorialize somebody as a victim of that atrocity, why not honor Christina’s memory?

      When a SS agent jumps between a politician and an assassin, he/she takes a bullet willingly.

      I’d bet that if Congresswoman Giffords, or virtually any Congresscritter, thought there was a noticeable chance of getting shot at in a meet and greet, they’d simply not show up, as staying alive trumps stumping for votes by a huge margin.

  6. Don’t blame the Navy. Ships names are chosen by the civilian Secretary of the Navy who is appointed by the President.

    • Yes and no. They did an article on the ship as the world’s first Gun free naval ship, but it’s a real thing sadly

  7. As a PROUD Navy veteran, I am dismayed at the politically-correct direction of today’s Navy. This does NOT conform to the traditions of ship-naming.

    Hell, I’m hearing that many ships have eschewed the “Shellback Initiation” aka “Crossing the Line (equator).” I’m glad I served before the military went soft.

    • And another for Cesar Fing Chavez.

      The current Sec of the Navy is an unqualified moron. Just so is his boss.

    • Ironically, before this came to light, LCS were referred to by some as “special needs warships” They don’t do any one mission well, are marginally capable of defending themselves and require substantial logistics support.

  8. Re Jenner: Anyone who expects anything other than the most abysmally flagrant political correctness out of ESPN is doomed to disappointment. Re the USS Gabby Giffords: I’ll go with the Governor on that one, I’m not gonna get too overly worked up about a Navy ship being named after an almost-“martyred” politician. Not that it is a good thing, necessarily, but certainly an entirely to-be-expected thing.

  9. A true hero is someone who knowingly goes into harms way for a purpose. Being shot does not make you a hero, nor does a man putting a dress and make-up and calling yourself a woman make you brave.

    I have no problem with either, but neither should have their status elevated beyond the reality of the situation.

  10. When I heard of this, I was totally aghast. Dumbfounded, even. To me, this was a totally political move. As you yourself have said, Robert, as well as countless others in this forum, there could have been more others that are deserving of this honor. Yet, the Navy chose her. This is a travesty. I’ve been with the Navy for over 25 years, and still serving. It just pisses me off that they would do this.

  11. Ammosexual crybabies. When the Navy named ships after Raygun and Bush 1 y’all got woodies. When the navy names a ship after a good woman whose politics you dislike you all pee in your cornflakes. Shameful. And unAmerican.

    • Does anyone hear the trumpet from Charlie Brown? Wha wha wha…

      Its nice having a resident troll actually. If gun people were as violent, unhinged and obnoxious as the gun grabbing left, there wouldn’t be any left left.

    • LOL, “Good woman”, you progtards are hilarious. Good ideas? Being a traitor to the constitution is not a ‘good idea’, yet that’s what she is. She’s not exceptional at any rate, yet your ilk elevated her to a goddess status because who else to promote your lies other than someone who got shot. Way to wave the bloody shirt, ‘God’, hope the blood from all those mass shootings on gun free zones has already washed off from your hands, not like you mind.

      • “Bloody shirts”. Dude, you have been inbreeding with your ammosexual butt buddies way, way too much. Got any original comments? You look really stupid when you and your fellow parrots spout the same lines.

        • Only a retard can see the attempted assassination of a pro-gun democrat by a rabbit Marxist as an excuse to ban guns in her memory. And yes, she’s dead, the meat puppet you’ve been parading around has the mental faculties of a baked potato.

        • @god — And you’re just parroting the same lines from the sub-Human filth at the DemoKKKratik Underground and The Daily Kos. You are every bit as stupid that you can only wish we were. Come back if and when you’re not owned mind, body, and soul by Marxist billionaire plutocrats. I can practically hear them pulling on your chain to get you back onto your Plantation, slave.

          Run along now, little boy.

    • @god – Racist, classist, sexist, anti-rights bigot. Navy ships weren’t named after those still living for almost two whole centuries until the Carl Vinson, and even then only after people who actually did something worthwhile — which categorically excludes most all politicians of any stripe just as a matter of course. Gabrielle Giffords is certainly not anything even remotely close to a “good” person, period. Nor can you, or anyone else alive for that matter, even begin to articulate how she would be (which she isn’t). You’re twice as shameful and un-American as you desperately want to pretend we are.

      Go lick boots somewhere else. Thanks in advance.

    • Far be it from me to take the name of the Lord in vain like that. I’d ALMOST make an exception for someone like you just to call you out, but seeing as you’ve taken care of that particular mortality, I’ll pass. Maybe you’re just a gun hating troll, but leave God out of this. I hope you understand He really is watching….and waiting. &gt :angry

      Tom

      • I shared a few shots of tequila with Jesus in Nuevo Laredo yesterday and he laughed. He said that you and your ilk were wrong and going to Hell.

        • @god — Delusions like yours come from the venomous centipedes they soak in those bottles. You don’t speak for anyone else but your DemoKKKratik Overlords, who literally bought your opinion lock, stock, and barrel. The only time you’re even allowed to speak is when they have their hand far enough up your ass to work your mouth parts for you, Dill weed.

    • Ordinarily I don’t reply to the trolls…

      As a Navy veteran, I find it inappropriate when there are many more deserving individuals, many of whom are wouldn’t be available to attend the commissioning of their namesake.

      • She is as perfectly deserving as any person. And as a Navy vet – and during my day I hung out with Admirals and not riff raff like low-level ammosexuals – you need to understand that the chain of command has said that you need to move to the back of the line and be quiet.

        It’s a good ship. It’s a good name. And whiners can be damned.

        • Ha ha ha.. ‘hang out with admirals’

          You’re delusional. And prove you served, cause I think your a friggin liar.

        • That’s adorable. Name one decoration that she received… I’ll wait. Her major “accomplishment” was being horrible at taking cover. The only award she earned is the order of the purple target.

          Oh. And the only time a liberal like was anywhere near admirals was when you were emptying their trash.

        • @god – She’s not deserving of anything but the 24/7 care that she needs after being shot by a registered DemoKKKrat. I rightly doubt you were ever in the military, or ever took a job even remotely associated with it — or any job at all, for that matter. You need to understand that you don’t just come here and insult your moral and intellectual superiors without being put in your rightful place — which is at the back of the line with the rest of the bottom-feeders.

          It’s a terrible ship. It’s a down-right awful name. And boot-lickers be damned.

        • The only thing you’ve hung on to is the toilet paper that scraped you off the Admiral’s arse.

    • The lefties want to claim we “ammosexuals” are compensating for something with our guns.

      What exact shortcomings are you compensating for if you find it necessary to sign in to a blog comment section as “God”?

    • The Navy usually names ships of a particular type of design with a similar type of name. Battleships were named after states (now ballistic missile subs are named after states). Reagan and Bush were names of CVN (carriers), other names in the class of ship were George Washington, Chester Nimitz, Carl Vinson. People can be the choice of names for aircraft carriers and destroyers. The problem is that the rest of the Independence Class LCS names are cities. The name does not fit any of the other 11 ships of this type, and therefore it is a poor choice.

      • The Navy did the same thing back in the late 80s. The Ticonderoga class Aegis cruisers were supposed to be named after battles, until 5 ships in they decided to name one USS Thomas S Gates. Roughly 25 ships named for battles and then one of these things is not like the others…

    • We tend to be more upset at the use of a good woman to push an agenda, especially when said good woman is now mentally disabled.

      • Or that gun control advocates don’t lie through their teeth while they stand on the still-warm corpses of the intended victims of their knowingly ineffective policies.

        Sorry, but that is what just doesn’t fly.

    • Not to be a troll, but would you mind explaining your position a little bit more? I think Ms. Gifford’s isn’t worthy of a janitors job, but Chris Kyle never did anything more exceptional than any other Special Forces gentleman, but he put his story out, whereas most others didn’t. Again, not a troll, just curious as to your logic.

      • I have to agree. Chris Kyle was an amazing soldier. But he is only really known cause he wrote about it. Im still super impressed and wouldnt mind something being named after him, but for a vessel there are better choices….like the 4 medal of honor recipients from Iraq or the 11 medal of honor recipients from Afghanistan (not including Lt. Michael Murphy since DDG-112 is named after him already)

      • I’m not up on the Who’s who? in the book of valor. It’s just he’s the first name that came to mind of someone more deserving than Gabrielle Giffords, who was named primarily because of the assassination attempt against her. If ships are going to be named for politicians that advocate for increasing the defense budget in support of perpetual war, I guess we’ll soon be reading about the USS Lindsay Graham.

  12. I thought they could only name ships after dead folks.

    Does brain dead vegetable count? Or was that a bit too cruel?

  13. Am I the only one who got grossed out by RF calling a Bruce Jenner a woman? He was already an insult to real men (men with beards; dudes need not apply), and now RF is picking on women too. Weird.

    • RF occasional shows a latent desire to be part of the establishment “journalism” coven. Leads to come kneejerk reactions bowing towards their libtard totems. With timen perhaps he will be able to overcome these urges and turn to the right side.

      • Or perhaps with time he will continue following the politically correct winds and join Mike the Gun Guy in some future profitable politically correct anti gun endeavors.

  14. In round about way you call Bruce Jenner getting a sex change courage..and that you admire that ?? That`s just..beyond dumbfounding, and repulsive. To me that represents a total failure to understand what courage is.At least the way that courage was taught and modeled as I grew up.
    As far as naming the ship, I will agree that was a very poor choice of people to honor.

    • I thought Bruce was a Eunich now?

      Gender doesn’t change like clothing.
      Plastic surgery doesn’t change gender. You can cut off whatever you want but you are what you are.
      Bruce is a bad role model for everyone.

      RF, TTAG if you continue to publish articles endorsing homosexuality I will not continue to come to this site.

      • ditto, navigating through the politically correct landscape here to find the nuggets of useful information is getting harder and less enjoyable.

      • RF, TTAG if you continue to publish articles endorsing homosexuality I will not continue to come to this site.

        No doubt he’s quaking in his boots.

  15. No “ms.” to be seen RF-it’s a drag queen…as far as the good ship gabby goes this just seems to be par for the downward spiral of ‘Murica…and am I right to assume the new rev McCain may not be our old grouch?

  16. I said a few bad words when I heard about this. This is a dishonor to every one who has ever fought for this country and its Constitution. The Admirals who made this decision should be sacked, lose their pension, and the ship should be renamed. The only reason any Admiral would have named it after this @$&%# is for political favor and money. They brought shame on themselves, the Navy, and everyone who served.

    • /\ THIS, a thousand times over! I read all 148 comments, and Bob108 put it best, IMHO. I have no hate for Mrs. Giffords, but she deserves this honor like Al Sharpton deserves respect…

  17. Last I heard, Jenner still had all his “man bits” – he hadn’t gone in for “surgical reasignment” yet.

    But, more to the point, if Jenner can say “I’ve decided to be a woman”, and have RF go along with it, what if Bloomberg said “I’m actually PRO GUN!”? Would RF have to say “Breaking news! Bloomberg is on our side now!”?. No. Of course not. That would be stupid. Because you can’t call a spade a silver dinner spoon. You can’t call a liberal tyrant wanna-be a champion of freedom.
    And you can’t call a man with all his man bits a woman. And even if he cut them off he STILL wouldn’t be a woman. He’d be… well… a eunuch.

  18. Considering our government’s tendency to barge in where it’s neither wanted nor needed and proceed to screw up other people’s business (for their own good, of course), the name kind of fits.

    They can send the USS Gabrielle Giffords abroad to do the same type of pointless meddling its namesake does at home.

  19. @god – She’s not deserving of anything but the 24/7 care that she needs after being shot by a registered DemoKKKrat. I rightly doubt you were ever in the military or ever took a job even remotely associated with it — or any job at all, for that matter. You need to understand that you don’t just come here and insult your moral and intellectual superiors without being put in your rightful place — which is at the back of the line with the rest of the bottom-feeders.

    It’s a terrible ship. It’s a down-right awful name. And boot-lickers be damned.

  20. “I was more than a little pissed when Caitlyn Jenner received the ESPN Arthur Ashe award for courage. While I admire her courage,”

    Hey RF, stfu about social BS and write about guns.
    Sheesh, no wonder you’re such a self-loathing jino.

  21. “While I admire her courage,”

    Jesus Christ Robert, the pandering is getting old. Whatever attaboys you think you’re going to get from the left for repeatedly fawning over it’s various victim groups are not worth the loss of your integrity.

    There is nothing courageous about what Jenner is doing. Absolutely nothing.

  22. ” While I admire her courage……”

    Newsflash RF, Jenner was Born a male, will always be a male genetically; drugs, hormones and surgery will never change this. Stop referring to him as a she, it is biologically and scientifically incorrect. The politically correct overtones on this board are becoming egregious.

  23. Sad name for a US fighting ship and a total waste of tax payers money. Wish the Gifford’s would just dry up and go away!

  24. You’re missing the reason she’s qualified to have a ship named after her.

    ” advocating for renewable energy “

  25. “Class and type: Independence-class littoral combat ship”

    In this case did they forget the first letter of the type of ship?

  26. Aren’t all the other ships of that class (apart from the USS Independence itself) named for cities? Is she about to get a city named for her?

  27. Everything about these ships is pure politics. They are very expensive go-fast boats for shallow-water operations looking for a real mission. Think of them as bloated “stealthy” PT boats without the torpedoes. During down select the Navy couldn’t pick a winning design so they bought two completely different designs from two prime contractors for the same nebulous mission as a way of spreading the wealth and keeping the program funded. So it’s very appropriate to name one after a lackluster politician who knows nothing about war fighting. A useless boat with low survivability named after a useless politician who barely survived. Meh. The navy now admits its mistake and is going to try to morph the later builds into so-called frigates. They’ll be unpopular ships with short lives and then the Navy will try to peddle them to the Coast Guard or foreign navies for a bargain price. As usual the American taxpayer gets it in the shorts. The LCS program should be canceled ASAP and the existing ships turned into aluminum cans! Think this is bad? Just wait for the U.S.S. Barack Hussein Obama, AKA the U.S.S. Barry Soetoro whose motto is: “I’ve been to fifty-seven states I think, one left to go,” or the U.S.S. Hillary Rodham Clinton, AKA the U.S.S. Hildebeast whose motto is: “What difference does it make?”

    • I forgot the U.S.S. William Jefferson Clinton, AKA the U.S.S. “Slick Willie,” whose motto is: “I did not have sex with that woman.”

  28. Wow, the U.S. Navy has thoroughly disappointed me. Naming a ship after a woman that wants to take away guns from Americans is simply the poorest choice possible. By why stop there? Let’s get totally retarded and have the U.S.S. Rodney King, who was an alcoholic drug addict. Brave men and women have fought and died for this country. They should be honored first.

    • That’s what I thought at first, but Robert had referenced Navy Times for the news, which is not known for their political and military satire. Usually.

    • Be careful citing snopes, metabunk, ect, the sites themselves are set up to further pro state agendas and are little more than misinformation, propaganda machines.

  29. Yeah – a single 57 mm main gun on 3,500 tons displacement for $362 million a copy. The M1A1 main battle tank has a 120 mm cannon, twice it’s size. The 57 mm cannon is a pop gun by comparison.

  30. This is PC politics at its very worst. She was a nobody congress-critter with no appreciable accomplishment to her name, like most every other political hack in Washington D.C. Our Navy’s vessels are named after people who did great things, fought in wars, and distinguished themselves in military action. They are testaments to the bravery and commitment of those who served, and inspirations for those who now serve. Who’s next? Gloria Steinem? Popeye the sailor is more deserving.

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