BusterStronghart@Gmail.com
More Harbingers of the Decline and Fall of the US
Just over a year ago the Russians successfully launched and fired a multiple-warhead road mobile ICBM, a type of weapon that the US doesn’t have and which is presently impossible to track.
A month earlier the Chinese slipped a “cloaked” nuclear submarine undetected into firing range of a US aircraft carrier during war games. The carrier was accompanied by dozens of US warships. One NATO figure said that the shock was similar to that experienced when the Russians launched Sputnik.
In August the Chinese successfully hacked in the Pentagon computer demonstrating the ability to disable our entire US defense system.
The Chinese and Russians, erstwhile enemies, have conducted joint war games in the Pacific.
The Russians have established an agreement with the Syrians to use a Syrian port as a home port for what has now, in effect become its Mediterranean Fleet. For the first time, the Russians will have a permanent presence on the Mediterranean.
The Saudis have made a billion dollar purchase of Russian military equipment.
The Russians have been making port visits of many South American countries--in addition to Venezuela and Cuba.
Many countries are in the process of finding other ways than the dollar to settle accounts. this is especially important to us in regard to oil imports and our relationship with China.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
BusterStronghart@Gmail.com
People are saying that Joe Biden should resign as a statement of his position on Aphganistan.
If Vice-President Biden resigns he'll go out in a blaze of glory and be forgotten quick time. It's better that he make his voice heard at national security meetings, and in the White House where people are capable and willing listeners.
This isn't the Cheney administration where argument was kicked under the table and left unheard. In the Obama administration there are willing, open minded listeners who can change their positions and who aren't afraid to do so. Mr.Biden belongs in the meetings. .
And who would become next in line for the Presidency? Nancy Pelosi? And after her? Robert Byrd.
No, Joe, stay where you belong.
mek
People are saying that Joe Biden should resign as a statement of his position on Aphganistan.
If Vice-President Biden resigns he'll go out in a blaze of glory and be forgotten quick time. It's better that he make his voice heard at national security meetings, and in the White House where people are capable and willing listeners.
This isn't the Cheney administration where argument was kicked under the table and left unheard. In the Obama administration there are willing, open minded listeners who can change their positions and who aren't afraid to do so. Mr.Biden belongs in the meetings. .
And who would become next in line for the Presidency? Nancy Pelosi? And after her? Robert Byrd.
No, Joe, stay where you belong.
mek
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
BusterStronghart@Gmail.com
We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
T. S. Eliot, Little Gidding
The Inscription of John Fowles' "The Magus."
Also quoted by ROBERT S. McNAMARA during a post Viet-Nam interview.
We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
T. S. Eliot, Little Gidding
The Inscription of John Fowles' "The Magus."
Also quoted by ROBERT S. McNAMARA during a post Viet-Nam interview.
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
BusterStronghart@Gmail.com
Is Walmart good for the economy of the US?
Isn't it obvious? We've lost more than a million manufacturing jobs even before the recent debacle starting in 2000. Before that the manufacturing industries in the US, like apparel, tools, audio and visual equipment, pens, eye wear, foot wear, and so forth were already decimated.
Besides the loss of jobs there is also the loss of manufacturing capacity to consider. In addition, hundreds of thousands small shop and supermarket retail jobs have been lost.
Small towns lost their main streets and experienced an extreme loss of tax revenue when Walmarts would be located just out town boundaries.
Add in the fact that many of Walmart sites would tax abated for twenty and even forty years by the counties and states in which they were located. -- This while the stores that would be eventually driven out of business were paying their full real estate taxes on main street.
-
In many cases Walmart got the counties to construct highway exits leading to their sites.
-
Sewers were built. Talk about corporate welfare!
Is Walmart good for the economy of the US?
Isn't it obvious? We've lost more than a million manufacturing jobs even before the recent debacle starting in 2000. Before that the manufacturing industries in the US, like apparel, tools, audio and visual equipment, pens, eye wear, foot wear, and so forth were already decimated.
Besides the loss of jobs there is also the loss of manufacturing capacity to consider. In addition, hundreds of thousands small shop and supermarket retail jobs have been lost.
Small towns lost their main streets and experienced an extreme loss of tax revenue when Walmarts would be located just out town boundaries.
Add in the fact that many of Walmart sites would tax abated for twenty and even forty years by the counties and states in which they were located. -- This while the stores that would be eventually driven out of business were paying their full real estate taxes on main street.
-
In many cases Walmart got the counties to construct highway exits leading to their sites.
-
Sewers were built. Talk about corporate welfare!
Sunday, October 04, 2009
BusterStronghart@Gmail.com
Portrait
He finished up the portrait~~~~ yesterday at noon. Now
he studies it in detail. ~~~~ He did him in a gray
jacket, all unbuttoned, ~~~~ a deep gray. Without
any vest or tie. ~~~~ In a shirt of rose;
so a little of ~~~~ the beauty of the chest,
the beauty of the throat, ~~~~ might show through a bit.
The right side of his brow ~~~~ is almost totally
covered by his hair,~~~~ by his beautiful hair
(which is combed the way ~~~~ he fancies it this year).
The note is utterly ~~~~ the voluptuous one
that he wanted to strike ~~~~ when he did the eyes,
when he did the lips... ~~~~ That mouth of his, the lips
made for the fulfillment ~~~~~ of a choice eroticism.
C.P. Cavafy
note: Cavafy used space.
Blogspot wouldn't recognize the spaces so I inserted ~s.
The poem looks better with the spaces.
Portrait
He finished up the portrait~~~~ yesterday at noon. Now
he studies it in detail. ~~~~ He did him in a gray
jacket, all unbuttoned, ~~~~ a deep gray. Without
any vest or tie. ~~~~ In a shirt of rose;
so a little of ~~~~ the beauty of the chest,
the beauty of the throat, ~~~~ might show through a bit.
The right side of his brow ~~~~ is almost totally
covered by his hair,~~~~ by his beautiful hair
(which is combed the way ~~~~ he fancies it this year).
The note is utterly ~~~~ the voluptuous one
that he wanted to strike ~~~~ when he did the eyes,
when he did the lips... ~~~~ That mouth of his, the lips
made for the fulfillment ~~~~~ of a choice eroticism.
C.P. Cavafy
note: Cavafy used space.
Blogspot wouldn't recognize the spaces so I inserted ~s.
The poem looks better with the spaces.
Saturday, October 03, 2009
BusterStronghart@Gmail.com
................
Sometimes, on waking, she would close her eyes
For a last look at the white house she knew
In sleep alone, and held no title to,
And had not entered yet, for all her sighs.
What did she tell me of that house of hers?
White gatepost; terrace; fanlight of the door;
A widow's walk above the bouldered shore;
Salt winds that ruffle the surrounding firs.
Is she now there, wherever there may be?
Only a foolish man would hope to find
That haven fashioned by her dreaming mind.
Night after night, my love, I put to sea.
Richard Wilbur
................
Sometimes, on waking, she would close her eyes
For a last look at the white house she knew
In sleep alone, and held no title to,
And had not entered yet, for all her sighs.
What did she tell me of that house of hers?
White gatepost; terrace; fanlight of the door;
A widow's walk above the bouldered shore;
Salt winds that ruffle the surrounding firs.
Is she now there, wherever there may be?
Only a foolish man would hope to find
That haven fashioned by her dreaming mind.
Night after night, my love, I put to sea.
Richard Wilbur
Monday, September 28, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Saturday, September 19, 2009
BusterStronghart@Gmail.com
On Lovers:
I have thought about this problem for many years. I see that many people are committed to the "ideal" of lifetime commitment, but as a man who has known a few women, I feel differently about marriage, I just couldn't bring myself to join those who want to live with one person for forty or fifty years without involving themselves with any other member of the opposite sex.
-
People are too interesting. Confining one's self to one person within a box barely justifies living the one life we are given to live.
-
This is not to say that marriage cannot be fulfilling. I would want to be married to a lifelong partner (as I am, although in a continuation of what I now call my second marriage) but, although I love her more deeply than ever, I would not want to have known only her.
Friendships and relationships deeper than friendship are necessary.
On Lovers:
I have thought about this problem for many years. I see that many people are committed to the "ideal" of lifetime commitment, but as a man who has known a few women, I feel differently about marriage, I just couldn't bring myself to join those who want to live with one person for forty or fifty years without involving themselves with any other member of the opposite sex.
-
People are too interesting. Confining one's self to one person within a box barely justifies living the one life we are given to live.
-
This is not to say that marriage cannot be fulfilling. I would want to be married to a lifelong partner (as I am, although in a continuation of what I now call my second marriage) but, although I love her more deeply than ever, I would not want to have known only her.
Friendships and relationships deeper than friendship are necessary.
Monday, September 14, 2009
BusterStronghart@Gmail.com
It is so obvious to anyone who knows the numbers that single payer would be cheaper and a more efficient health care delivery system. Corporate America has us chained to its misled minions. Because they can shout louder than us they control. It's like dealing with a madman. You have to patronize him to keep him quiet.
We saw a Glenn Beck inspired demonstration on the corner of Broward Blvd and Andrews Avenue yesterday. the people looked like homeless people. They waved hand made signs (suppossedly proving that it was not an organized demonstration.) A scruffier bunch could not have been found on the Bowery of the 1940's.
Maria wanted to get out of the car and ask them what Medical Plan they had. My guess was Medicare and Medicaid.
Over and over again I think of Ortega y Gasset: "the masses are asses."
It is so obvious to anyone who knows the numbers that single payer would be cheaper and a more efficient health care delivery system. Corporate America has us chained to its misled minions. Because they can shout louder than us they control. It's like dealing with a madman. You have to patronize him to keep him quiet.
We saw a Glenn Beck inspired demonstration on the corner of Broward Blvd and Andrews Avenue yesterday. the people looked like homeless people. They waved hand made signs (suppossedly proving that it was not an organized demonstration.) A scruffier bunch could not have been found on the Bowery of the 1940's.
Maria wanted to get out of the car and ask them what Medical Plan they had. My guess was Medicare and Medicaid.
Over and over again I think of Ortega y Gasset: "the masses are asses."
Friday, September 11, 2009
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
BusterStronghart@Gmail.com
LibraryThing recommendations
1. A Writer at War: A Soviet Journalist with the Red Army, 1941-1945 by Wassilij Grossman
2. The Case of Comrade Tulayev by Victor Serge
3. The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth
4. Stalingrad by Antony Beevor
5. Kaputt by Curzio Malaparte
6. Oblomov by Ivan A. Goncharov
7. The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia by Orlando Figes
8. The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell
9. To the Finland Station (New York Review Books Classics) by Edmund Wilson
10. The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell
see more recommendations for this work
Member recommendations
1. christiguc recommends The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth
2. chrisharpe recommends Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore
3. chrisharpe recommends Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler
4. chrisharpe recommends One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
5. chrisharpe recommends War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
LibraryThing recommendations
1. A Writer at War: A Soviet Journalist with the Red Army, 1941-1945 by Wassilij Grossman
2. The Case of Comrade Tulayev by Victor Serge
3. The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth
4. Stalingrad by Antony Beevor
5. Kaputt by Curzio Malaparte
6. Oblomov by Ivan A. Goncharov
7. The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia by Orlando Figes
8. The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell
9. To the Finland Station (New York Review Books Classics) by Edmund Wilson
10. The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell
see more recommendations for this work
Member recommendations
1. christiguc recommends The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth
2. chrisharpe recommends Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore
3. chrisharpe recommends Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler
4. chrisharpe recommends One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
5. chrisharpe recommends War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Saturday, September 05, 2009
BusterStronghart@Gmail.com
Do Americans Know what Socialism is?
A Christain has complained that Obama is a socialist:
I see, so "man has a strong tendency to want to prosper at the expense of others," and this is his "God given right." So that's what God wants.
-
"When property is taken from its owner without his consent, and transferred to another solely for the benefit the recipient, then property rights have been violated and an act of plunder has been committed." In this case I suppose you are referring to the money that taxes take from citizens. --Strange, I thought we had elections and that the people choose the representatives that establish these taxes.
-
When you refer to "recipients" above are you referring to old ladies in nursing homes who turn their social security checks over to the Fortune 500 corporations that are taking care of them? Are you referring to school lunch programs that are responsible for keeping millions of children from hunger? Or are you referring to the reverse taxes (also known as tax breaks) given to major corporations like Exxon?
-
As to: "The total inertness of mankind. Man needs the state to order his social life and is incapable of organizing his own life without the overreaching hand of government elitists."
This is not even near the case in Sweden or Norway, and there are no "overreaching hands of government elitists." Instead there are well housed, well educated, citizens with adequate health insurance.
But, speaking of "overreaching hands" what do you call the bureaucrat-administrators of private health plans in the US who decide which prescriptions to fill and which operations to perform on the 80% of the population who actually have any insurance? Last year United Health Care rejected (denied) 30% of medical claims submitted to them.
And then, "The infallibility of the state and its legislators. Under socialism, the state is by definition always right and can never be wrong. This means that when something goes wrong, a scapegoat must be created."
-
The kind of socialism referred to here is the kind that Hitler created under National Socialism. No one in the US is talking about any kind of socialism, no less Nazism.
Or, "A popular fallacy of our times is that it is not considered sufficient that the law should be just -- it must be philanthropic. Nor is it sufficient that the law should guarantee to every citizen the free and inoffensive use of his faculties for physical, intellectual and moral self-improvement. Instead it is demanded that the law should directly extend welfare, education and morality throughout the nation."
-
Let's take welfare to start. It's a pretty good idea not to allow people to starve or sleep in the streets. Is that welfare? Before, you brought God into the argument--does God prefer that people sleep in the streets?
-
Education: Do you actually believe that education of the entire population regardless of ability to pay, destroys the state? I'm shaking my head in disbelief. --We need more free education in order to further strengthen our country. Without it we're headed for the dump. China & India are already nipping at our heels. They're not afraid of education.
"...and morality throughout the nation."
-
This country has always legislated morality and there are people who wish to legislate more morality. They don't live in the left.
-
Who has kept marijuana away from freedom loving citizens--no less hospitals and hospices? Leftists?
Who is agitating for anti-abortion laws. What about selling liquor on Sundays? The left? Why are doctors afraid to prescribe heavy does of narcotics to cancer patients in pain? A socialist government already in Washington?
-
I am running out of steam--but I can say this at last: If Jesus were here he would be a true socialist and would be caring for every child and ever oldster in the nation. He would be working toward a single-payer universal health plan. He would demand that every person have the food he needs to live a healthy strong life. He would fight for a progressive tax system (render under Caesar)that would ensure that the poor would be able to live full lives.
-
With Jesus as our guide greed and rapaciousness would wither and disappear--and would not be considered virtues.
Do Americans Know what Socialism is?
A Christain has complained that Obama is a socialist:
I see, so "man has a strong tendency to want to prosper at the expense of others," and this is his "God given right." So that's what God wants.
-
"When property is taken from its owner without his consent, and transferred to another solely for the benefit the recipient, then property rights have been violated and an act of plunder has been committed." In this case I suppose you are referring to the money that taxes take from citizens. --Strange, I thought we had elections and that the people choose the representatives that establish these taxes.
-
When you refer to "recipients" above are you referring to old ladies in nursing homes who turn their social security checks over to the Fortune 500 corporations that are taking care of them? Are you referring to school lunch programs that are responsible for keeping millions of children from hunger? Or are you referring to the reverse taxes (also known as tax breaks) given to major corporations like Exxon?
-
As to: "The total inertness of mankind. Man needs the state to order his social life and is incapable of organizing his own life without the overreaching hand of government elitists."
This is not even near the case in Sweden or Norway, and there are no "overreaching hands of government elitists." Instead there are well housed, well educated, citizens with adequate health insurance.
But, speaking of "overreaching hands" what do you call the bureaucrat-administrators of private health plans in the US who decide which prescriptions to fill and which operations to perform on the 80% of the population who actually have any insurance? Last year United Health Care rejected (denied) 30% of medical claims submitted to them.
And then, "The infallibility of the state and its legislators. Under socialism, the state is by definition always right and can never be wrong. This means that when something goes wrong, a scapegoat must be created."
-
The kind of socialism referred to here is the kind that Hitler created under National Socialism. No one in the US is talking about any kind of socialism, no less Nazism.
Or, "A popular fallacy of our times is that it is not considered sufficient that the law should be just -- it must be philanthropic. Nor is it sufficient that the law should guarantee to every citizen the free and inoffensive use of his faculties for physical, intellectual and moral self-improvement. Instead it is demanded that the law should directly extend welfare, education and morality throughout the nation."
-
Let's take welfare to start. It's a pretty good idea not to allow people to starve or sleep in the streets. Is that welfare? Before, you brought God into the argument--does God prefer that people sleep in the streets?
-
Education: Do you actually believe that education of the entire population regardless of ability to pay, destroys the state? I'm shaking my head in disbelief. --We need more free education in order to further strengthen our country. Without it we're headed for the dump. China & India are already nipping at our heels. They're not afraid of education.
"...and morality throughout the nation."
-
This country has always legislated morality and there are people who wish to legislate more morality. They don't live in the left.
-
Who has kept marijuana away from freedom loving citizens--no less hospitals and hospices? Leftists?
Who is agitating for anti-abortion laws. What about selling liquor on Sundays? The left? Why are doctors afraid to prescribe heavy does of narcotics to cancer patients in pain? A socialist government already in Washington?
-
I am running out of steam--but I can say this at last: If Jesus were here he would be a true socialist and would be caring for every child and ever oldster in the nation. He would be working toward a single-payer universal health plan. He would demand that every person have the food he needs to live a healthy strong life. He would fight for a progressive tax system (render under Caesar)that would ensure that the poor would be able to live full lives.
-
With Jesus as our guide greed and rapaciousness would wither and disappear--and would not be considered virtues.
Thursday, September 03, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
BusterStronghart@Gmail.com
wisdom from Arnold Rothsteinand my father:
During the late fifties and sixties, one of the best tout sheets at Belmont Park in NY was Dr. Marlin's Picks. Dr. Marlin was a pretty good handicapper and earned the appellation "Dr." when he picked the winners of seventeen straight races in 1963. To my knowledge his longest streak after that time was six straight winners, a feat that is not unheard of, though rare, among racing cognoscenti. However, like all gamblers who live long enough, he died broke, as eventually, as Arnold Rothstein (and my father) said, "the odds will always get you."
wisdom from Arnold Rothsteinand my father:
During the late fifties and sixties, one of the best tout sheets at Belmont Park in NY was Dr. Marlin's Picks. Dr. Marlin was a pretty good handicapper and earned the appellation "Dr." when he picked the winners of seventeen straight races in 1963. To my knowledge his longest streak after that time was six straight winners, a feat that is not unheard of, though rare, among racing cognoscenti. However, like all gamblers who live long enough, he died broke, as eventually, as Arnold Rothstein (and my father) said, "the odds will always get you."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)