|
|
|
War Plan Orange |
|
|
|
Today, one half of America
is left speechless and so emotionally spent that it feels as if
the United States will be attending its own funeral on January
20th. |
| |
|
By
Debby Long |
|
|
 “War Plan Orange was a series of United
States Joint Army and Navy Board war plans for dealing with a
possible war with Imperial Japan during the years between the
First and Second World Wars. It failed to foresee the
significance of the technological changes to naval warfare,
including the submarine, air support and aircraft carriers, …" –
Wikipedia
Today, one half of America is left speechless and so emotionally
spent that it feels as if the United States will be attending
its own funeral on January 20th. Perhaps it will.
At today’s press conference, Donald Trump’s blathering stream of
consciousness included a dilettante’s interpretation of Hitler’s
“Lebensraum”, as he threatened to spend his newly acquired
“political capital” to annex both Canada and Mexico and to force
Denmark to sell Greenland to the US. Upon hearing this, I was
immediately swooshed into the Wayback Machine and transported to
the year 2004 - and to the post-campaign posturing of the
perpetually juvenile, G.W. Bush. At that press conference, Bush
boasted about spending his post campaign “political capital” to
justify his desire to invade the Middle East again – this time
to finish off Saddam Hussein in Iraq – his father’s Napoleon of
Crime in the Middle East. His father, H. W. Bush, thought better
of setting that vast region of the world on fire and withdrew
after the First Gulf War, but his inexperienced scion apparently
knew better. Lacking any geopolitical logic associated with
invading a country that hadn’t attacked the United States, W
declared that his high-minded mission was to "spread freedom" in
the Middle East… and, of course, decades of destabilization
ensued. To say that Bush Jr. didn’t know his ass from a hole in
the ground was somewhat belied when the Napoleon of Crime,
Saddam Hussein, was unearthed by American troops from a literal
hole in the ground.
Read More |
|
|
|
|
|
The Fable of
the Sick Anti-Vaxxer |
|
|
|
In the early 20th century,
a famous anti-vaxxer exposed himself to smallpox. What happened
next offers a COVID cautionary tale. |
|
|
|
By Rebecca Onion |
Slate |
|
|
A
parishioner of Los Angeles’ Hillsong Church dies of COVID-19
after making anti-vax jokes on Facebook and Instagram, some of
which were posted from his hospital bed; after his death, the
founder of the church tells CNN that vaccines are a “personal
decision.” A Nashville radio host who had voiced skepticism
about the COVID vaccine gets the disease and, after suffering
from COVID-related pneumonia, goes on a ventilator; his brother
tells the media, “If he had to do it over again, he would be
more adamantly pro-vaccination.” Another pastor, from Texas,
speaks publicly about his regret at not getting vaccinated
before getting COVID and going to the intensive care unit: “I
recognized that I had been a bit cavalier.”
Read More |
|
|
|
|
|
How Supercharged Blue Heroin Ravaged
This Small Town In Ohio |
|
|
|
By Mitch Stacy |
AP |
|
|
 MARION, Ohio (AP) The usual
hand wringing
over the heroin problem turned into panic in this small city in
May when a supercharged blue-tinted batch from Chicago sent more
than 30 overdose victims to the hospital and two to the morgue
in a 12-day stretch.
Like many places in America, Marion an hour's drive north of
the capital, Columbus has gotten used to heroin. Emergency
crews in the city of 37,000 have become accustomed to treating
an overdose patient about once a day for the past year or so.
But they were stunned when the unprecedented onslaught began on
May 20.
They say if it hadn't been for naloxone, an antidote carried by
paramedics, most of the survivors probably would have died, too.
They ranged in age from their late teens to early 60s.
Read
More |
|
|
|
Fraud |
|
Activists
began campaigning to change the understanding
of the 2nd Amendment in the late 20th century |
|
|
|
By Larry Laird |
lairdslair |
|
|
One
of the greatest pieces of fraud, I repeat the
word fraud on the American public by special
interest groups that I've ever seen in my life
time. The real purpose of the Second was to
ensure that state armies the militias would
be maintained for the defense of the state.
The very language of the Second Amendment refutes
any argument that it was intended to guarantee
every citizen an unfettered right to any kind
of weapon he or she desires.
---- Chief Supreme
Court Justice Warren Burger
Justice Burger said
in no uncertain terms, before gun lobbyists
and activists began campaigning to change the
understanding of the 2nd Amendment in the late
20th century, nobody considered it to be an
individual right.
In 2008, the right
wing contingent on the most recent Supreme Court
(the same people who said that corporations
are people) decided to throw away centuries
of juris prudence and extend the 2nd Amendment
as an individual protection for gun owners
right to bear arms. During the case, United
States v. Emerson, the Supreme Court decided
that the 2nd Amendment is not a collective protection
for gun ownership in militias, but rather a
protection for individuals to own and operate
weapons. This decision flies in the face of
centuries of settled law and, like Citizens
United v. FEC is just another case where right
wing extremist wearing robes have perverted
our country's longstanding understanding of
our laws. |
|
|
|
Requiem for a Golf Course |
|
by Fred Altvater |
B9R Lessons |
|
|
 The
Golf economy today is a mixed bag, while some areas of the golf
business are very strong, other parts are suffering.
Part of the reason is that young people do
not seem to be taking to the game as the
older generation did. With the variety of
activities available to the X and Y
Generations, other sports seem to be more
attractive.
A slow walk around a golf course can't compete with mountain
biking or zip-lines.
Read More |
|
|
|
What is Humility? |
|
|
|
An easily misunderstood human quality that seems to have gone missing in our modern times. How to make it part of your life once again. |
|
|
|
By Larry Laird | lairdslair.com |
|
|
 I attend a small evangelical Lutheran church in Marion, Ohio called St. Paul's and have for over 60 years. I took my catechism there and was confirmed in this little church. On occasion, our pastor takes a much needed vacation and since we have no assistant pastor he calls on members of the congregation to lead a service in his absence. I have done so a couple of times in the past two years. What follows is the message I delivered on a Sunday in late August, 2016.
Read More |
|
|
|
 There
is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The
strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way
through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that
democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge. |
|
- Isaac Asimov |
|
|
|
One
man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but
for real bona fide stupidity nothing beats teamwork. |
| - Mark
Twain |
The
faithful see both crisis and opportunity as churches close
across the country -
