Saturday, June 26, 2004
W-C-S FOR IRAQ
Many of us are considering the worst case outline on the situation existing in Iraq this week concerning the turnover of power set for June 30th.
It is not a pleasant thing to think about but the pace and degree of changes has been accelerated in recent weeks and such changes have created a potential for dissent in some areas which did exist to such a degree prior to such modifications.
The decision to go with June 30th may prove to have been unwise. It came about as a result of having mentioned that date as a possible time for such a change over of power to Iraqi rule. American Liberals and pacifist harped on the date until it became established as the time to be set and Bush supporter dare not change it in spite of modifications having taken place. It is held to be a political campaign tool now and for Bush to change it now would be to make it seem to be a sign of weakness and indecision on his part.
If the first days of Iraqi rule prove to be excessively violent the American people may well return to backing Bush; and a strong military. If such possible violence mild or widely scattered through ethnic groups Iraq, it will prove to be far easier and tempting for exploitation by Kerry followers and those favoring weaker military establishments.
At the moment we are in a "wait and see"phase. Few would care to make exact predictions of just how the first day will go when Iraq takes over control of the nation on its own - with, of course the untested and untried mix of US/UN control.
If the change is a moderate success we can expect interest from France, Germany, Russia and other fringe supporters/critics to become concerned about getting what they consider to be their share of return from Iraq. They can cite tremendous debts owed to them by the previous Iraqi government and insist that they have a right to receive payments on those debt from the new nation's oil and other sources of wealth. The role of the United nations is questionable, too. Fifty-nine nations of the U are said to be automatically opposed to any United States actions whatsoever, so it proves difficult for governing councils to come up with any things will keep those fifty-nine members placated. Only count on UN for anything other than platitudes and vague promises of potential paradise somewhere ahead.
Next week we will know, of course, if July 4th is to be a time of special meaning for the Iraqi people. By that time we should know what their immediate suture will hold.
.A..L.M. june 25, 2004 [000wds]
Friday, June 25, 2004
RATE OF GROWTH:FAST
I see new cities and towns being born all around me even while the number of towns and cities is said to be declining.
We are in a phase in our particular area in which there are towns in the form of strip - assortments of buildings - strewn along almost every highway near a large city. It doesn't take such a settlement long to evolve into being a part of that nearest town village.
In our particular area, in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, south of Harrisonburg in Rocking ham and Augusta Counties , we have witnessed such filling-in an stabilizing of strip communities. The city of Harrisonburg has been expanding in all directions for the past decade or so and, even new, seems monstrous to anyone who might have been away for a decade or so.
It is on the north-south Interstate 81 corridor, one of the most heavily traveled interstates in the nation, which is now facing urgent needs of modernization and widening plus any other steps required to make it serve existing traffic - much less anticipated needs. Historic destinations run more or less beside I-81 through an area rich with tourist lures.
The city is also athwart the main highways from West Virginia – US 60,US 33 - into the northern Virginia and the Washington-Baltimore markets which s another demanding pressure for commercial traffic. Just to the south it crosses it crosses Interstate 64 which digs into the heart of the mid-west from Tidewater Virginia.
The high range of mountains prevent to much growth toward the West but Harrisonburg is steadily pushing Eastward to ward Elk ton,Va. on Route 33 To the south west on US 42 Bridgewater, Dayton, and Mount Crawford have more or less grown together a one solid unit and all have become appended to Harrisonburg on both the Dayton and the Mt.,Crawford ends of the arc on varied types of construction -new housing and commercial developments. Two Universities, and second four-year college bring the business associated with twenty thousand of so student and relatives beyond exact accounting. These town have already planned for the future by joining in seeking better ways to offer unified government,utilities, transportation, streets,lighting, gas waste management - and other such trade able items which will enable each of them to grow stronger together as they grown larger.
Harrisonburg is stretching south on Route 11 and I-81 to, as well. I live in Weyers Cave, Va which has been oriented toward Harrisonburg for years. Day by day the area between us is filling in as Weyers Cave and Mt.Sidney grown closer to each other.
The area is suffering a slight setback at the moment due to a ban on area poultry in - of all places China - largely because of the world-wide Avian Flu scares of recent years. That will,in time, pass and Valley poultry will again be Asia's favorite.
It is encouraging to see Harrisonburg, Mt.Crawford, Elkton, Weyers Cave, Bridgewater, Dayton,and other area communities working together in associations designed to help provide services with less expense and greater efficiency under central control . The area has had other notable advantages too,as I see it They have long had a stable,consistent and well-managed daily newspaper and a strong radio and TV presence in the Valley area. These, along with an ability to see the need to build a bit ahead of actual times of need – roads, schools and churches, in particular.
Much of America could look at this area and see a example of a good way to to become a better place in which to live and prosper. We are not going to avoid become bigger, so let's do it right as we go along instead of tumbling head over heels in desperate, costly confusion. If, indeed it has to happen, the natural way is so well illustrated here in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
A.L.M. June 25, 2004 [c882 wds]
Thursday, June 24, 2004
SMILES
During the days of the Great Depression of the 1929 and into the “30's - we used to sing a song which had a theme designed which cataloged all kinds of smiles.
All was not gloom and despair with many people during those years of economic downturn, We had occasion to smile. Some may not remember it exactly that way, but one of the main avenues of recovery for many of us was an ability to smile ...to witness to the lighter side of living.
Looking back we tend to picture the Great Depression and other times of set-back in our national history as lifeless blobs of darkness. It is remarkable how such a simple thing as a popular song could encourage people to endure hardships they might, otherwise, find to be overwhelming.
An important factor about that song of ours was that it was now new to that specific time. It had been written in 1917 during the harsh days of World War I. It was a love song in its day, too. The two verse show that very plainly, but the chorus took on broader meanings. The writer were a J. Will Callahan , who did the words and Lee S. Roberts, who wrote the tune. It has been re-used in Broadway musicals on other occasions, too.
Smiles can be important in many aspects of our lives and especially when we
we realize the variety of smiles which are available. Today, of course, we have thousands of those little “smiley” cartoon stickers to affix to our mail, schoolbooks, notes, and refrigerators. Smiles, you see can be constructed to meet the needs of the moment.
That's good. The song lyrics met our needs in a special way years ago.
Yes, there are “smiles that make us happy. There are also “smiles that make us blue” - because there are times we don't get what we want - “that steal away the tear drops ...and the sunbeams steal away the dew”.
..
We found that some smiles has “a tender meaning” meaning, to establish close associations among us. We learn to gain courage and eagerness from an exchange of smiles with those we respect and often come to love.
A.L.M. June 23, 2004 [c 484wds]
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
9/10'S OF THE TROUBLE
To what extent are gasoline prices controlled? By whom?
The price of fuel for our cars and trucks is a common topic of conversation at the moment, but not as commanding as one might think think it could become. Some of us have been through all of this before and have been convinced that anything we say or do is not going to have much affect on the prices ranging up or down. There is, however, continued discussion about who or what causes such a sudden rise in gas prices.
We need to blame someone for the radical changes especially when signs posting the prices get top heavy. Too many people, I fear, tend to think of such shortages as politically oriented, fully orchestrated composition with bassoons and horns blasting away at full force. Cast most often as the leaders of such price-fixing bands we variety of individuals who,it is claimed, do so to their personal advantage: Presidents - past and present Â? both individuals and groups made up of OPEC people or non-OPEC nations - such as Mexico - who are always messing things up. Another favorite to take the blame is God who is piqued,it seems, by mankinds misuse of natural resources and of the entire environment to cover any possible loop-holer.
I find one thing in just about all of the prices quoted across the nation right now which could be changed in a matter of a moment of attention by the leader of any major oil company. Let's get rid of this silly Â?9/10thÂ? of a cent business!
The oil company which makes it a point to be completely honest with the customer will go with the exact price and none of this 9/10 of a cent foolishness. Who is being fooled by such a childish touch?
With that symbolic piece of economic idiocy out of the way, the desk will be cleared for serious discussions. There must be half dozen or more other rules which are just as silly and can be done away with, semi-technical things which are leftovers from an oil industry which has long since died. A second step should bring about a truce between the hard-headed environmentalist fanatics and the real world people charged with our national defense.
We are,it so often appears, our own worst enemy. In recent decades we have lost the awareness of events of the lessons the history of our nation hold for us.
How much longer can we refuse to recognize dangers we face and take prompt measures to protect ourselves and those with whom we share the blessings of the world about us?
We must start with little things and a honest appraisal of our needs for fuel for our vehicles is a good place to start. Let's start by eliminating that silly Â?9/10th of a centÂ? concept - a symbol of statistical stupidity.
a.l.m. June 22, 2004 [c640wds]
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
INVENTIONS
It has been said that man has learned what he knows largely through accident. I'd be tempted to disagree with that premise. I believe it was not by accident, or even by chance that new discoveries were made, but that they have come about mainly through deliberate, diligent, dedicated and devoted application of curiosity.
So often we are told that the invention came to be because a doctor, chemist, or wild-eyed professor added the wrong ingredient at the right time or the right ingredient at the wrong time and we are using the result of his carelessness today. That's the sort of thing you'd expect to see happen in a Â?Three Stooges ComedyÂ? but inventing, discovering and formulating is not a fun-thing or a joke. Discovery is serious work.
I remember, as a kid, being told how Thomas Edison spent years going though thousands of substances searching for the exact material which would serve efficiently and safely as a filament in his new incandescent lamp. No doubt he tired scores of materials many, of which would seem almost laughable today, but which he considered to have the potential to meet the need he had firmly in mind. Certainly was not by chance he ended up where he did, but rather he succeeded because he kept seeking after been disappointed time and time again. He was dedicated to the task he had set for himself, he was devoted to the principles on which the search must be conducted and determined to find the substance needed. Each step in his quest however fruitless it seemed - was taken deliberately.
For us to live and work with the idea that good things will happen if we simply endure whatever is not happening a while longer is a costly error from every angle. True enough, that may be what religious persons as total submission to the will of God. It is often called Â?blind faithÂ?, but it strikes me that those seeking blessings from the utmost Power do so in relation to their own ideas what they need. We seek gain; not wait for it. We invent things because we see, or sense, a need that such a thing become a reality.
The door is being held wide open at all times. What is your idea of something that is needed into today's seemingly Â?over-thing-edÂ? world?
If you simply sit around and wait for that idea to become a reality, you will have a long wait, but if you get busy and form some ideas of how it may be made a reality, you are inventing. Inventors are not a special breed.
Curiosity makes inventors of all of us.
A.L.M. June 21, 2004 c550wds]
Monday, June 21, 2004
AH, TO BE!
It must be that those men and women who aspire to run for public office are born, basically, of the same stuff of which explorers and adventurous souls are made. They don't need a reason for doing what the what they intend to do. They are a lot like Hillary, who,when asked why he climbed Mt. Everest said because it was there.?
When you see two grown up men seeking to become President of the United States with all of its many built-in headaches and body pains beyond telling, you wonder what reason each of them might give for wanting to do so. I mean the deep down, real-stuff, sequestered reason for doing so, not the formal press conference recitation.
Bush should have good reason. After all his Daddy was President and the kid must have seen or heard something that impressed him about the job. Kerry in his youth concentrated on what was wrong with however it was being done at the time. Ill bet you even money neither one of them ever thought seriously trying to do what they are both doing today. Bill Clinton blamed it all flat out on JFK whom he met once when he was a kid - Clinton, the kid, not Kennedy ...then he had a sharp set of reasons why he wanted to be President.
The stated reasons are not, I dare say, the real ones.
All say in one form or another that they even as youngsters they felt driven to perform public service projects and not to expect compensation, or that the country had been good to them, and to their parents, and they felt a deep obligation to return the favors, or that their ?pioneering predecessors worshiped here in absolute freedom on these beautiful shores and that they had a duty to see to it that the opportunities might exist for our descendants as well. It was the endless sort of sweet sentiments which made post cards enduring favorites for half a century or better.
What drives a man or woman to desire to be president of this nation? Pride... genuine or false? Greed, of some sort? A longing for power and dominion over others?
Or , could it be a subtle combination of those things and others, perhaps? I have long had the feeling that such persons are adventurers at heart and truly want to find if they can do whatever it is they strive to do ? to get to whatever heights they must climb against often unknowable odds under critical handicaps.
Look at them one-by-one, if you like.
What common traits can we possibly find in such diverse personalities as, let's say? George Washington and Calvin Coolidge? Or, compare Theodore Roosevelt with Jimmy Carter, perhaps Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses Grant - picking more or less at random. The simple truth of the matter seems to be that, in spite of all the intimate details of political campaigns and the goldfish bowl awareness of the president's life we commonly have, we never truly get to know what a man is, or will be, until history tells us what he turned out to be... that which he really was.
A.L.M. June 20, 2004 [c662wds]
Sunday, June 20, 2004
MATERIAL CHANGE
Brace yourself! Ready? The entertainment star you knew last week as “Madonna” is now to be addressed as “Esther”.She is changing her name.
That should be easy enough for us to do. Just remember, every time you come across the name “Madonna”, cross it out and scribble in the name “Esther.” Same girl. No real change – improvements or otherwise – same person but just a bit more sure of herself because this because this Esther, who used to be Madonna, has just announced she has hit the pseudo-sawdust trail in the biggest way for her religious faith?
For some years she has “practiced” the cult beliefs of Kaballah . It appears she has now practiced enough, having been credited with - or blamed for - leading a number of Hollywood stars to the mystic faith which is a cult long detested by Orthodox Jews. It used the be spelled Cabala when I was young and reading about such magical versions of Judaism.
Among the “stars” said to be her converts are Elizabeth Taylor, Brittney Spears, Jerry Hall, Courtney Love and Rossanne Barr. I find that list to be flexible, however, because other lists of Madonna/Esther's alleged changeovers include: another Brittany - Brittany Murphy, Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Rosie O'Donnell, Diane Ladd, Sandra Bernhard, and Monica Lewinsky is also list as a “star”, but it does not say of which entertainment field she might be of stellar stature.. Such lists, I feel, are highly suspect and should be treated with special care, if at all.
The sudden turn by Madonna becoming Esther – not unlike Cassius Clay becoming Mohamed Ali- explains why Madonna/Esther's planned and well ballyhooed concert tour of Israel has been canceled at the last minute. It's out. Erased completely. No make-up dates later. The Jewish populace is not a group given to being quiet about their religious views. Their outspoken criticisms of the religious views tenets of the Cabala crowd is well established. Any attempt to present an on-stage versions of any such erratic ideas would kill such a tour at the very start, so M/E has widely canceled it all
Just this past week week Madonna/E won a lawsuit in the courts of the English judicial system which clearly shows she has successfully barred trespassers from using any portion off her 1300-acres-plus estate near London. She seems to be doing everything possible to alienate potential record buyers and show goers. Any day now we may expect to see an album titled “The Tree of Life” or ”Four Worlds”- terms which symbolize basis teachings of her newly found, but ancient Jewish mysticism cult of Kaballah.
Goodbye, Madonna. Hello, Esther.
A.L.M. June 19, 2004 . [c613wds]
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