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To: Tom Clarke who wrote (416395)3/13/2011 8:03:47 AM
From: Tom Clarke1 Recommendation   of 536101
 
A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906
by Simon Winchester

Amazon.com Review

Geologically speaking, 1906 was a violent year: powerful, destructive earthquakes shook the ground from Taiwan to South America, while in Italy, Mount Vesuvius erupted. And in San Francisco, a large earthquake occurred just after five in the morning on April 18--and that was just the beginning. The quake caused a conflagration that raged for the next three days, destroying much of the American West's greatest city. The fire, along with water damage and other indirect acts, proved more destructive than the earthquake itself, but insurance companies tried hard to dispute this fact since few people carried earthquake insurance. It was also the world's first major natural disaster to have been extensively photographed and covered by the media, and as a result, it left "an indelible imprint on the mind of the entire nation."

Though the epicenter of this marvelously constructed book is San Francisco, Winchester covers much more than just the disaster. He discusses how this particular quake led to greater scientific study of quakes in an attempt to understand the movements of the earth. Trained at Oxford University as a geologist, Winchester is well qualified to discuss the subject, and he clearly explains plate tectonics theory (first introduced in 1968) and the creation of the San Andreas Fault, along with the geologic exploration of the American West in the late 19th century and the evolution of technology used to measure and predict earthquakes. He also covers the social and political shifts caused by the disaster, such as the way that Pentecostalists viewed the quake as "a message of divine approval" and used it to recruit new members into the church, and the rise in the local Chinese population. With many records destroyed in the fire, there was no way to distinguish between legal and illegal immigrants, and thus many more Chinese were granted citizenship than would have otherwise been. Filled with eyewitness accounts, vivid descriptions, crisp prose, and many delightful meanderings, A Crack in the Edge of the World is a thoroughly absorbing tale.

amazon.com 

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From: Bearcatbob3/13/2011 8:06:02 AM
   of 536101
 
Lindy et al, I find it impossible to get a non hysterical appraisal of the nuclear situation in Japan. Can anyone recommend a site for objective news. The stuff I am seeing is much like a weatherman with a storm coming enjoying his moment in the spotlight.

Bob

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To: Bearcatbob who wrote (416397)3/13/2011 8:10:34 AM
From: Tom Clarke   of 536101
 
Mike Rogers reports from Tokyo - "We are all fine. The disaster is much worse on TV…. And, as you would expect, only serves to make more and more people convinced that we need the state to tell us what to do…"

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To: Tom Clarke who wrote (416398)3/13/2011 8:11:45 AM
From: Bearcatbob   of 536101
 
Thanks Tom - but sorry - who is Mike Rogers?

Bob

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To: Tom Clarke who wrote (416398)3/13/2011 8:12:30 AM
From: Tom Clarke1 Recommendation   of 536101
 
Karzai Tells NATO Fight is Not in Afghanistan
Saturday, March 12th, 2011 at 4:20 pm UTC

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is urging international troops to leave Afghanistan and take their fight across the border to Pakistan.

Mr. Karzai delivered his latest criticism of NATO efforts Saturday in Asadabad, the capital of eastern Kunar province, where he was visiting the relatives of civilians killed in a raid by international forces.

The Afghan leader said his government has shown NATO that the terrorists and militants are not in Afghanistan, but instead are hiding in neighboring Pakistan.

The French news agency quoted Mr. Karzai as saying that Afghans are a tolerant people but now “our tolerance has run out.”

The topic of civilian casualties has been a sensitive one for Afghanistan and its Western allies.

Earlier this month, NATO's top commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, apologized for an air strike that killed nine children in Kunar province.

The coalition blamed miscommunication for the deaths, but Afghan President Karzai warned NATO could face “huge problems” if the accidental killing of civilians does not stop.

Earlier this week, a report by the U.N. mission in Afghanistan and the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission said there had been nearly 3,000 war-related civilian deaths in 2010, an increase of 15 percent compared to 2009.

The reports said insurgents and militants were responsible for about 75 percent of the deaths.

blogs.voanews.com 

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To: Bearcatbob who wrote (416399)3/13/2011 8:14:41 AM
From: Tom Clarke   of 536101
 
articles by Mike (in Tokyo) Rogers

lewrockwell.com 

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To: Tom Clarke who wrote (416394)3/13/2011 8:17:14 AM
From: Bearcatbob   of 536101
 
Ultimately we will have a side by side comparison of how D governors deal with the current crisis and R governors. The comparison will be particularly interesting as the D governors have by far the biggest deficits to deal with.

Also of interest will be local elections for school levies. I suspect the people will be far more interested in the details of what local school boards are asking money for.

There is a whole of "change we need" coming whether we "believe in" it or not.

Bob

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To: LindyBill who wrote (416375)3/13/2011 8:42:54 AM
From: steve harris3 Recommendations   of 536101
 
True. They see these college kids with their tricycles running around with roofs of solar cells, we should all have one...

Wish someone would take the fight to the greens and press the fact that these problems at Japan's oldest nuke plants are because the greens blocked all new nuclear power plants for the last 40 years.

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To: Bearcatbob who wrote (416397)3/13/2011 9:05:47 AM
From: LindyBill2 Recommendations   of 536101
 
Can anyone recommend a site for objective news.

Just read what I post. The MSM wants to sell ads. They advertise the "news" to get you to read them. People want to read about disasters, so that's what they give you, in spades.

Almost all of the swing group I dance with are in the 20/30 age group. Flaming Liberals. I mentioned that the hysteria about the Tsumani here was overblown, and they all came unglued.

I had a fellow over on a Medical site I post to getting worried about the fallout from the Japanese site.

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From: LindyBill3/13/2011 9:12:05 AM
4 Recommendations   of 536101
 
"From Here to Lt. Col. Allen West
by Michael Moriarty

Nothing so reinforces the essential integrity of the American character than another viewing of the American Classic, "From Here To Eternity." Seen through contemporary eyes, it looks like an extended examination of Lt. Col Allen West's entire experience with the Third Millennium American military.
Video link
The American rebels with a cause in "From Here To Eternity," the heroes of that 1941, Pearl Harbor drama, are all, in some sense, a replica of Lt. Col. West. The Colonel's individual freedom and individual integrity, his truth to himself and responsibility to his enlisted men were fulfilled in the clearest and most unswerving manner.


—–

In my opinion, he saved the lives of American servicemen and drew a line in the sand before the likes of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, homicidal bully of Iran.

In the eyes of Col. West's military superiors, he was considered the villain in "From Here To Eternity."

To the contrary, he belongs with the characters played by Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, and Frank Sinatra. Three distinctively American integrities.

Why was the Colonel singled out for an enforced "resignation"?

The collective bargaining and cronyism of the Third Millennium, American Army-at-War was seen spitting on its own best soldiers because of the New World Order's increasingly Marxist agenda.

In the film translation of that always surprising novel by James Jones, From Here To Eternity, individual freedom and individual responsibility are the heroes battling the community organizing pressure and collective bargaining going on under the guidance of Captain Dana "Dynamite" Holmes. That officer is, in short, the villain, played by Phillip Ober with perfect contempt for anyone or anything but himself.

Does such elitism sound familiar?

There are prophetically Marxist-style cabals and pressures existing to both force Prewittt, the Montgomery Clift character, to box, and to "transform" Frank Sinatra's Maggio into a coward and someone ashamed of his Italian roots. Maggio would rather die, be beaten to death, than succumb to any bully.

Neither effort succeeds, of course, and both Maggio and Prewitt, true to themselves, die as heroes, fighting not only their enemies abroad but the very "community organizers" and "collective bargainers" that can so obscenely crop up in any military setting.

With prophetic irony, the villainous officer of "From Here To Eternity" is given the same sentence which a whole new, politically correct military – during President George W. Bush's militarily ambitious administration – felt obliged to give our contemporary hero, Lt. Col. West a forced resignation.

Obama's "fundamental transformation of America" had already begun during the previous Presidency. Decades before that, the soul of the American identity died with the legalized murder of Roe v Wade: Again, as in slavery days, all men and women are no longer created equal.

No wonder the likes of the Soros/Obama New World Order arrived. The enemy to the essence of American identity already had 30-some years of a homicidally corrupted law and order.

Therein lies our President's stated view of his mission: to save the collective. The undeniably Marxist collective.

Before the American military had to even face confronting the Soviet Union, James Jones's "From Here To Eternity" captured the basic heart of our dilemma now: Community Organizing and Collective Bargaining versus Individual Freedom and Individual Responsibility.

The Soviet Union and Red China are clearly a child of the former disciplines and America the proud and resilient offspring of the latter.

How odd that the Marxists abort millions of the very collective they claim to be protecting while traditional America feels obliged to ensure the life of every child conceived within the United States.

The title, "From Here To Eternity," is ultimately the most hopeful thing about James Jones' novel. That, of course, and the fact that we eventually, after huge sacrifice of the Free World's lives, won World War II.

My last article for Big Peace set America in the classically tragic mould of Oedipus and a potential family bloodbath. That, of course, then inspired this week's ESR article on America's Second Civil War.

Do the murderous feelings within "From Here To Eternity" still remain in today's America.?

I feel those American identity nightmares are worse now than ever.

Perhaps the character closest to Lt. Col. Allen West in "From Here To Eternity" is Burt Lancaster's First Sergeant Milton Warden. This sergeant knows the entire universe of enlisted life and, yes, miraculously he treads a clear but complicated path of moral rectitude. He's the strongest of the heroes in that film and I suspect that Lt. Col. Allen West is neck and neck with the Lancaster character and, with his officer's credentials, will indeed stand with Sergeant Warden in the best tradition of American manhood and heroism.

No, the Sergeant of "From Here To Eternity" is hardly a saint, nor should we expect Col. Allen West to be one during his long and inevitable pilgrimage to the White House.

Am I that sure of his destiny?

Yes.

Col. West may not become our President – though circumstances may very well make him that – but he will serve in some very important role in our next President's cabinet, that team of advisers which President Obama has so cavalierly ignored.

Aside from the obviously worn-out and beleaguered Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, who or what traipses through or calls the Oval Office more often than the labor union bullies running things in Wisconsin?

This bully, played with divinely crafted sadism by Ernest Borgnine, won't mess with the likes of Burt Lancaster's Sgt. Warden. Fatso ultimately drops his knife.

The increasingly Fatted Marxists of the Obama Nation, in turn, won't mess with Lt. Col. West.

What do you think?"

bighollywood.breitbart.com 

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