IS AMERICA SEEING A LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL?

It seems that more rugs and stones keep being turned over and what is under them spells totally destruction to the America as we once knew it.  Even some staunch Republicans do not relate the the conservatives running the party.  Many Republicans cannot in good conscience really trust Romney since he has changed his positions with every audience to whom he is speaking.

Lobbyists, Grover Norquist, the Koch brothers, ALEC, and so many more cancers in our society and politics have almost succeeded in taking over the country.  They are, in truth, worse enemies than bin Laden ever thought of being because they have reduced the 99% of our population to degradation and struggle to survive.l.  Our schools are not able to teach what is needed for an adequately prepared work force for the future, cuts are being made to the budget because of Republican refusal to allow the government to take in proper funds,  lack of medical for all who need it is killing too many people off, and there is just too much misery in a country that had used hard work, creativity, and hope for the future in the past.

While we should have been fighting for our future, we were too busy fighting wars and rebuilding other countries to take care of our own.  99% of us have become the shoemaker's children. However, since we are beginning to look and act like the French before their revolution, and because we live in a telecommunicating age, many people now have access to truths previously hidden. Average people are rising up against puppets like Scott Walker, still signing vile bills against women and the medical system.

Dare we hope that the light at the end of the tunnel; will be powered by the voting booths in November?

THE PAST IS STILL GIVING UP WHAT HAPPENED ONCE

In an old house in South Chicago, about to be demolished, some papers were found in the attic when all else was gone.  The papers were the water damaged diploma of the first African-American to have graduated from Harvard, Richard T. Greener.  Kim Janssen, staff reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times wrote:  "Historians thought the documents were lost in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake because Greener had passed through at the time. They were astonished to learn in the past week that Greener’s 1870 Harvard diploma — water-damaged but intact — his law license, photos and papers connected to his diplomatic role in Russia and his friendship with President Ulysses S. Grant have survived."  For the whole article, click here

Far from Chicago,  in 2008, "Three Nazi bunkers on a beach have been uncovered by violent storms off the Danish coast, providing a store of material for history buffs and military archaeologists. The bunkers were found in practically the same condition as they were on the day the last Nazi soldiers left them, down to the tobacco in one trooper's pipe and a half-finished bottle of Schnapps.This bunker was entombed under the sand dunes until a violent storm wept away the sands three months ago.

They were located by two 9-year-old boys on holiday with their parents, who then informed the authorities. Archaeologists were able to carefully force a way in, and were astounded at what they found. 'What's so fantastic is that we found them completely furnished with beds, chairs, tables, communication systems and the personal effects of the soldiers who lived inside,' says Jens Andersen, the curator of the Hanstholm museum."

To see more about what was found in amazingly good condition, click here.  To read the whole article by Allan Hall, click here. which includes more pictures.

 

FOXES IN THE HENHOUSE

This week we have seen a scandal of morality, duty to oaths taken on the job, and utter lack of the major purpose of being where they are, to protect the president.  Julie Oace, for the Washington Post wrote:  WASHINGTON (AP) -- A prostitution scandal involving the Secret Service has grown in scope, with the disclosure that U.S. agents and military personnel had been with at least 20 women in hotel rooms before President Barack Obama arrived in Colombia for a summit with Latin American leaders. 10 military personnel were also involved.  Fortunately the president seems not to have been directly in danger at any time.  For the full story, read here.

"Nurse shoots Texas mother dead and steals her baby.    The accused, 30-year-old Verna McClain, is a vocational nurse and mother.  A nurse has admitted to shooting dead a young mother in a town near Houston, Texas, and abducting her newborn baby, authorities said on Wednesday. Verna McClain, 30, who faces capital murder charges, repeatedly shot Kala Marie Golden, 28, and snatched the boy from the woman before driving away"  Read the whole article..  

Lisa Graves of The Nation has written about the group, ALEC  (American Exchange Legislative Council.) She discusses the Koch Connection.  You can read it free but you might have to give your email address and zip code. The ALEC website can be reached here. 

They advocate:  Limited Government · Free Markets · Federalism

If you are interested in learning more about ALEC.  click here.

Lastly, The GSA needs to learn that the money they have to use is not theirs but belongs to the taxpayers, many of whom go without enough to eat to get that money to the GSA.  Read Joe Davidson's article on this disclosure and investigation on something that has been going on for many years, unchecked adequately.

 

 

DISPOSAL OF UNWANTED MATERIALS IS A GRAVE PROBLEM

Disposing of frozen cow carcasses in a National Park presents a real problem.  If they are allowed to thaw and decompose naturally, they might pollute the water.  Military personnel found them at Hot Springs in Aspen Colorado.  Six were found frozen in a cabin and several more were outside. The options include blowing them up and burning their bodies with the cabin.  However, there is a great deal of resistance to disturbing the pristine natural beauty of the area.  Read the article here.

Depleted uranium is a by-product of the nuclear chain.   The enrichment process not only produces the enriched product, but also a waste stream of uranium hexafluoride depleted in uranium-235 ("depleted uranium"), typically to 0.3%.  Everyone agrees that it should be most carefully put somewhere so as not to become a health liability in the future.  However, as much as people wish this, the word is always the same:  "Not in MY backyard!"  For the person with lots of time on their hands, read more here.

Medical disposal of hazardous materials generated by hospitals, nursing homes, dental clinics, and pharmacies as well as many other types of industrial and commercial companies requires companies who specialize in the safety of the well..  Man is getting to an age where he must take care of his own diapers and stop assuming that the world can handle all the debris produced by business owners who think our landfills and ocean can be polluted forever.

Wikipedia tells us : 
A Hazardous waste is waste that poses substantial or potential threats to public health or the environment. In the United States, the treatment, storage and disposal of hazardous waste is regulated under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Hazardous wastes are defined under RCRA in 40 CFR 261 where they are divided into two major categories: characteristic wastes and listed wastes.^[1]

• Characteristic hazardous wastes are materials that are known or tested to exhibit one or more of the following four hazardous traits:
  • ignitability (i.e., flammable)
  • reactivity
  • corrosivity
  • toxicity

LEWIS HINE: FATHER OF THE DOCUMENTARY BEFORE IT WAS KNOWN AS SUCH.

There are many people worth knowing about.  The BBC showed a lovely piece of his part in history.  For the video, click here.

For more biography on Lewis Hine, the man who photographed Ellis Island, child labor, and so many critical pieces of our American history.  click here.

In 2007, Lewis Hine was featu7red on an NPR special.  Click here.

Spartacus Educational has done an excellent biography of him.  If this man piques your interest, click here for it.

CHANCE AND THE LAW OF RANDOM ODDS

While our weather forecasters are greatly improved with new technology in the past few years, better able to predict, people have not yet found a way to protect houses and property, let alone lives. Weather conditions like tornadoes, tsunamis, earthquakes, floods, or so many conditions in parts of the world take many lives, as well as lives of many who do not die.  It seems that no country or continent is immune to some sort of occasional devastation.  The other day I wrote about headlines that talk about how many people were killed but leave one with a single pixel of the whole picture.
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Once in a while they will report someone taken to the hospital in critical condition.  The camera scans the material devastation but nothing the media can do covers the human losses for what people have worked their whole lives to help them look forward to the rest of their life in a bit more comfort.  One's past is one's memories.  If our brain can't always provide them clearly, we have taken to photos and videos, and sometimes recorded sound.  When all those images, visual or audio are lost a part of us goes with them.. All the souvenirs and mementos, special gifts from special people,  and the lists of things that makes a whole person goes on and on.  The things that connect people and families are also tied up in what people are left to mourn.

To get a picture of the destruction that happened this weekend in the middle of our country, click here.   Watch the video.  Missing one of these is better than winning megabucks, is it not?

KALO PASCHA: HAPPY GREEK EASTER

There are far more Gods today than there were in Ancient Greece. Each God supposedly talks to the men who run the religious organizations.  People seem to like the pomp and ceremony., gilt and guilt of it all.  I've always refused to believe that I was born a sinner and viewed it as some sadists having sneaked it into religion like politicians sneak things into new bills. There are several calendars around, as well.  The American Easter and Greek Easter are celebrated on the same day only every four years.

 For the lesser religious Greeks, food was the order of the day...food and family.
The family part speaks for itself.  There are 100 years between those hands: Great Grandfather  and Great Grandson.  

We can pick our food but we can't pick our relatives.  If you happen to like your own, consider yourself  very lucky.

The red eggs in the bread I guess symbolize something important like Christ's blood in eggs (a symbol of life).  There is an interesting custom in which each person takes a dyed boiled egg (traditionally they were all dyed egg because no Greek had heard of the Easter Bunny).  People then  made a contest out of hitting the sharp end of someone else's egg.  If there was anyone with a nose intact at the end, a winner would be declared.  Ham was not a tradition of the Greeks, but rather, lamb or goat (even better tasting and tender) were roasted in ovens or over coals, sprinkled with garlic, lemon and olive oil.  In Greece, oregano added is fresh, soft and green with a more delicate aroma, generally picked right off the mountainside in the Peloponnese villages.  As with all ethnic religious holidays, no one ever left with an empty tummy.