US AIR RACE CRASH IN NEVADA

One never knows what will fall from the sky.  Aside from the classic plane that crashed into the crowd in Nevada, we were advised by NASA that a satellite is on its way down to crash into the earth.  The spokesman said the chances of being hit by the debris that will make it through the atmosphere is 1 in 3200. I have no idea where that math comes from with a world as big as ours but....   Does that comfort you?  I figure that since I never win anything because I don't buy lottery tickets, my odds are good as a target.for the satellite

Most of us who have ever watched the Blue Angels or car races have seen enough carnage to last more than a lifetime.  However, on the more positive side, every tragedy that has happened at a racetrack has resulted in safer passenger cars.  Space travel has resulted in many new products to make our lives safer and easier.

As of this writing, three people have been confirmed dead.  An eye witness description was that body parts were flying all over the place..

In 1973, when I was in the Athens Airport, 3 hand grenades were tossed into the crowd which my family and I had missed being a part of by only seconds as we had taken the escalator up to the first floor.  Similarly, we all tend to focus on those who lost their lives...in other words were dead.  It does not give one the picture of the wounded, many who lost sight, limbs, and internal organs.  In many ways, many of them lost their lives as well, though they continued to breathe.

The man who was flying the plane in Nevada was a 40 year veteran of flying that plane.  At first his age was given as 80-, later he was said to be in excellent health and 74.  The inference was that his age was the factor until it became clear that he had called a May Day and that it was most likely a mechanical failure that caused the accident and his death..  I wish news media would report what they know and stop speculating on camera..  It makes them look less bright that Michele Bachmann.

SURFING THE INTERNET

• Triple murder took place in my town just a few days ago. 
• Two men are awaiting news as to whether they will be put to death  One has already spoken his guilt and the only consideration would be a technicality that might have some impact on sentencing; the other has claimed his innocence for 22 incarcerated years and finally evidence has been brought forth that he was, in fact, innocent of the murder but the wheels of Justice may move to slowly to save his life.
• The Teaparty Christianity push is in violation of the Constitution.demanding separation of church and state.
• Switzerland's largest bank (UBS) says a staff member in its investment unit has caused about $2bn in losses.
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•  Vermont governor calls illegal immigration essential to Vermont.
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•  A Hacker ring has made good on its promise to expose celebrities.
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•   Culture thrives in the home town of Wal-Mart.
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•  Ashton Kutcher on Two and a Half Men debut 
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• As though people weren't grieving enough, a suicide bomber explodes a bomb at a funeral killing 26.
  

  
  

  
  

WHY ARE THE TEAPARTIERS CALLING THE MAJOR SHOTS?

This morning on MSNBC (Morning Joe), Zbigniew Brzezinski talked about the state of our country.  He, like so many others, pointed out the potential of the poor rising up against the 1% who hold 40% of the money, pay few taxes, while the poor pay great proportions of their income to tax.

There is little doubt in my mind that the militias which have been training for years will eventually draw in many less violent people who are 'fed up' with the current policy of not taxing the top 1% as they had been before G W Bush's administration lowered it to the present level.  The claim of 'no new taxes' is absurd.  The aim is to simply put it back as had been intended when it was lowered.

It is a shame that people have been voted into office with no knowledge of how to run a country and only their own biased views and pledges to a man not in government to guide them.  I have written before and repeat, anyone who has signed the pledge and is following it to Grover Norquist is guilty of treason according to the definition of the word.  At minimum, they have violated the oath the took when taking office.

WHY PEOPLE BELIEVE IN THEIR OWN CANDIDATE DESPITE ALL EVIDENCE TO THE CONTRARY

Richard Dawkins

Because people don't like the results, they must believe that the evidence is wrong.  Richard Dawkins writes a letter:  Good and Bad Reasons for Believing.

The subject right now should be of universal interest as you wonder how someone can vote for a person known to be corrupt, untruthful, and who promises things which cannot be delivered.  Yet these candidates have massive numbers of followers.  If voters see enough news to know someone is running, they probably also see others exposee of them.  Yet with indisputable charts, facts and sources before them, they continue to stick with their tainted choice.

There was research done that proved the plethora of Republicans are people who have a great deal of difficulty with change.  Democrats may have more flexibility about making changes but their overall philosophy does not change and they will be more 'liberal' (whatever that means).  I suspect it is that liberal also means they can be less tunnel visioned, see consequences on a broader systems scope, and empathize to a greater degree with humanity.  They would be less racist and grasp concepts faster such as that being gay is not a choice.

The thing that saddens me the most at this time in our history is that so great a part of our country has been bombarded with 'Christianity', not faithfully as Christ is written about, but as the snake oil salesmen of some 'churches' choose to present his tenets and the rest of the Bible (a work written by men of different eras and ideas.  I will fight making religion a part of our government and feel that our founding fathers had it right when they said religion had to be kept out of politics.  When Father Drinan, a Catholic priest had to leave his elected office it was the right thing to have happen.  All people representing the country must be able to keep their personal religious beliefs in their personal life, household and family.  They must not bring them to the Office.

PLEASE REMEMBER THE REAL RONALD REAGAN

All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to try to think them again. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe  

If the Republicans are trying to emulate past President Ronald Reagan, they need to read a few history books.

I find it amusing that the Republicans all think they are like  Ronald Reagan but his son and daughter claim their lack of understanding of their father and are nothing like him.  Typical of the Teapartiers, they ignore President Reagan's offspring (who probably kinew their father best).  After all, Teapartiers are not interested in truth.  They have their own specific goals, one of them being to follow Grover Norquist, another to assure that Obama is a one-term president regardless of the cost to the nation's poorest.

Reagan might not have been our best or brightest President, but he did try to work for the good of the country and not primarily to please voters to stay in office.


I am left wondering what percentage of the current legislators of  both Houses of Congress can claim the same motives.

 

WHO IS REALLY SETTING THE COURSE FOR OUR COUNTRY?

For whatever perverse reason, the irony in this picture drew me to it with great sadness.  The man who created such a mess of a our Nation standing  with respect  with the man who is vilified for not having cleaned up the mess created by his predecessor in eight years, doe not having cleaned it all up in three years in office.  While I had difficulty spending an entire day reliving the 9-11  sadness and loss, I was comforted in my heart that people were coming together with a slight resemblance to the patriotism not felt by our citizens  (in my eyes) since WWII.  Bush and Cheney did everything possible to divide us as a Nation; Obama has tried to pull us together...both administrations have failed to get successful results. 

While the current terror attacks to our Nation are not in the form of visible death and destruction,they are here nevertheless. They live in the TeaParty and its sponsors, they live in the promises extracted by Grover Norquist preventing our economy from healing itself and in continuance of the slow murder of our middle class.

Those of us who see beyond the lies and hypocrisy which prevent healing to take place weep for the loss of our beloved country as it was a couple of generations ago.

WHY AN EYE MUST ALWAYS BE KEPT ON EVERY PIECE OF THE GOAL

For many blogs, I wrote about what the US seemed to have forgotten; that bin Laden was successful in steering the country into near bankruptcy  What bin Laden couldn't have counted on was that while the country watched the war, greedy people bypassed the government, taking pledges to never raise taxes and getting rid of critical regulations.  Many were letting foxes into the American hen house.

Noam Chomsky recently wrote;  "A number of analysts have observed that although bin Laden was finally killed, he won some major successes in his war against the U.S. "He repeatedly asserted that the only way to drive the U.S. from the Muslim world and defeat its satraps was by drawing Americans into a series of small but expensive wars that would ultimately bankrupt them," Eric Margolis writes. "'Bleeding the U.S.,' in his words." The United States, first under George W. Bush and then Barack Obama, rushed right into bin Laden’s trap... Grotesquely overblown military outlays and debt addiction... may be the most pernicious legacy of the man who thought he could defeat the United States” -- particularly when the debt is being cynically exploited by the far right, with the collusion of the Democrat establishment, to undermine what remains of social programs, public education, unions, and, in general, remaining barriers to corporate tyranny."  For the entire article, click here.

Cheney will go down in history as one of the most powerful and one of the worst Vice Presidents we have had.  The blood of hundreds of thousands will be on his hands.  G W Bush will go down in history as one of the worst Presidents we ever had in that Cheney ran most of the show until the very end when somehow Bush seemed to have caught on to what a puppet he had been and how he couldn't clean up his act; like the student that catches on two weeks before finals that he can never make up enough work to pass the semester.

Right now, we have more to fear from the enemy within than without the US.  Our House of Representatives has managed to lower our credit rating which, fortunately, is only with Standard and Poor, not the rest of the world because we finally at the last second were able to raise the debt ceiling.  The government elected legislators who signed a pledge outside of government never to vote to raise taxes regardless of the circumstances are, in my opinion, traitors to the country who have violated their oath of office. There are many others far and beyond Limbaugh and the Koch brothers with their army of greed supporting one another, investing money to control elections.

Sadly, the rest of us are left to watch this horse race and wonder who will win. The outcome is critical to all of us.