Boy, am I glad my battleship-nut brother Jeff doesn't live in San Francisco. 'Cause if he did, he'd probably be pretty pissed off right now:

Veterans groups and history buffs had hoped tourists in San Francisco could walk the same teak decks [of the battleship USS Iowa] where sailors dodged Japanese machine-gun fire and fired 16-inch guns that helped win battles across the South Pacific.

Instead, it appears the retired battleship is headed about 80 miles inland, to Stockton, a gritty agricultural port town on the San Joaquin River and home of California’s annual asparagus festival.
...
[San Francisco] city supervisors voted 8-3 last month to oppose taking in the ship, citing local opposition to the Iraq war and the military’s stance on gays, among other things.

"If I was going to commit any kind of money in recognition of war, then it should be toward peace, given what our war is in Iraq right now," Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi said.

Just when you thought soft-headed PC lefties couldn't get any dumber.

Of course, one city's politically incorrect monument is another city's impressive tourist attraction, so let's hear it for the city planners of Stockton! May the sales taxes and admission charges they reap from this impressive bit of history enable the funding of many a small-town improvement project.

Via Jason, who quite rightly notes:

Yes, a museum ship that fought in World War II, Korea, and the Gulf War, and a piece of our nation's history isn't good enough for San Francisco.

Just don't question their patriotism.

Indeed...