US WWII vets are war criminals

At least the ones serving the pacific front. Just finished watching the anime movie Graveyard of the Fireflies which is a story about the US firebombing urban housing areas on mainland japan, aka civilian targets, in WW2. Hiroshima and Nagasaki had to happen because they ended wars, current and potential and saved lives. The target areas were business districts, a civilian target but not targeting civilians per say. Creating firestorms out of wood houses in Japanese urban population areas and indiscriminately killing in one of the most horrible ways possible (burns suck) 100,000s of women and children (since all the man were out at war) is barbaric. As far as I know Japan never attack a US civilian target, and it certainly had the opportunity. I'm thankful most WW2 vets arnt around any more..I dont generally enjoying kicking old people in the nutz.

Obama: Turkeys pardoned 10 vs non violent Humans 11

This story just sums up Americans for me. The justice system that everyone feels is broken in sucking the life out of 100,000 people plus their families. Turkeys need to be abused and stuffed with food to get to that weight. The thanksgiving story is bad history. The president that got elected to change things doing more of the same. The American public who isnt outraged at how hurtful this hypocrisy must be for the families of (mostly inappropriately and unproductively) incarcerated Americans.

It seems like such a nice, cute little ceremony. But things stop being cute in the face of blatant hypocrisy. These ceremonies of light become a reminder to those of us with any values whatsoever how far we've fallen. And how America will eat the cake whether its our birthday or not.

Columbus Day is BS

Ya..been neglecting the blog this last month or two. Sorry. Here is a great article about Columbus day and all the lies and dishonest history it enforces.

I would recommend anyone interested in the true exploration of North America by non natives google the author Gavin Menzie. His books are like a treasure hunt for clues/evidence that you can actually visit and confirm.

Do people forget that Jesus lost and died a horrible death?

I was set on another mental birdwalk today while listening to the radio.  When we tell our kids to live your life like Jesus did are we saying we want them to be social revolutionaries who give up their regular lives to challenge the most power empire in the world and lose? While small parts of his story would be cooped into a world religion, Jesus lost his fight against the Roman occupation of Israel (and the decadent culture they brought with them) and he died quite horribly for it. What parent thinks to themselves "I want to give my kids values that lead to them being force marched through the streets and crucified by the government?" This led me to wonder as long as we are tell our children to live meaningful lives, should we be teaching our kids to be more like Osama Bin Laden rather than Jesus. Osama also led a revolution to oust a foreign invader and their foreign culture from his country. Imagine if Saudi Arabia wanted to create enclaves of armed soldiers in the US that were governed by Saudi not US law, and the US government just gave away whole parts of cities to Saudi Arabia to make this happen. Very few if any Americans, especially the Americans who had their land taken, would just stand idly by and let that happen without armed revolt...so honestly if you were counseling your children on how to react - would you tell them to fight like Jesus and MLK? OR like Osama? All 3 died..but while Jesus and MLK peaceful demonstration just led more praceful demonstration and endless debate - I'm pretty sure no one will be building foreign bases in a Muslim county any time soon.

Movie Review : Iron Lady

Big Thumbs Down. I was hoping for a quasi epic history documentary and what we got was a seriously depressing (but well acted) commentary on the various symptoms of dementia. This movie does not show Margaret Thatcher in a good light. She's pitiful through most of the movie and thats when the director isnt rubbing in the point that she abandoned her family for politics. I really dont feel I came out with more info that I went in with about Margaret Thatcher, but I'm pretty sure I never want to have dementia and hope my family doesnt green light any movies about me suffering from it, especially while I'm still alive.

History of American Banking via cartoon

Lincoln Movie Review

I saw the new Lincoln movie tonight..it was - messianic. A good film..the ending was a bit truncated. You walk out wondering what this Christ guy had on Lincoln. Daniel Day Lewis, who I've heard of but never seen in another movie, played on Oscar winning Lincoln who you couldnt help but love. He was the Everyfather; a kindly curmudgeon who wandered around the Statehouse in a blanket telling stories while sipping tea. Lots of other great actors in this film - like James Spader (who didnt impress) David Strathaim (of Sneakers fame) and Tommy lee Jones. I started the movie out saying the Jones was too typecast to play the role he got..but he surprised me. I think we can expect a sequel called "Grant".

State treasure just rotting away

This to me is really sad. Obviously this is a time for government to tighten its belt but why do we have money for a $500,000 museum about the Viaduct but not any to treat this beautiful ship with some dignity.

25 demands of the Nazi Party

Gotta say, if you strip this list of its historical/cultural conflicts I agree agree with alot of these. Such as ::
11. That all unearned income, and all income that does not arise from work, be abolished.
14. We demand profit-sharing in large industries.
21. The State has the duty to help raise the standard of national health by providing maternity welfare centers, by prohibiting juvenile labor, by increasing physical fitness through the introduction of compulsory games and gymnastics, and by the greatest possible encouragement of associations concerned with the physical education of the young.
24. We demand freedom for all religious faiths in the state, insofar as they do not endanger its existence or offend the moral and ethical sense of the Germanic race.
The party as such represents the point of view of a positive Christianity without binding itself to any one particular confession. It fights against the Jewish materialist spirit within and without, and is convinced that a lasting recovery of our folk can only come about from within on the pinciple:

COMMON GOOD BEFORE INDIVIDUAL GOOD

Wacky dates

Via the Dave Ross show- We've got a palindrome date (11022011) coming up as well as the infamous 11/11/(20)11...of course since our calendar is set to some arbitrary date the Byzantine church set 1500~ years ago I'm not sure how much it means. Its important to remember the world we live in is VERY western history-centric regardless of the thousands of years human civilization has been around. And this is only the stuff we know from what didnt rot away or was otherwise lost over time.

Steve Jobs & Thomas Edison

I was reading this article tribute to Steve Jobs and I noticed the author made the following connection about the quality of genius :

Both had less formal schooling than most of their respective peers. Both possessed the ability to visualize projects on a grand scale. Both followed an inner voice when making decisions. And both had terrific tempers that could make their employees quake. 

I dont mean to toot my own horn but does that sound like anyone you might know? I would add this quote from Babylon 5 :

Greatness is never appreciated in youth, called pride in midlife, dismissed in old age and reconsidered in death. Because we cannot tolerate greatness in our midst we do all that we can to destroy it.

Btw like Bill Gates, and Christopher Columbus, etc etc Edison didnt come up with his ideas he just borrowed them from other people and marketed them better. In Edison case he was just a businessman who stole from an employee named Nikola Tesla. I understand the Tampa Bay Lighting are unveiling there new Tesla coil at an upcoming game

Boycott Columbus day

Stop celebrating false history created by the King of Liars, Richard Nixon! Teach kids the truth (which is more interesting) not the skin color biased psuedo-story. Columbus bought his maps and knowledge of the "new world" from Chinese sailors who had circumnavigated the globe in 3 fleets during the 1420's. He didnt actually discover anything and never made it to "America"..though he did visit Cuba and Haiti.

The former face of Evil

Slate.com ask who was the go-to figurehead for evil before Hitler. Kool story. BTW, now that Usama is toast the seat is vacant. Any takers? 

Mel Gibson filming the story of hanukkah

Cant help but respect Mel for this! First - the Maccabees story is one of the great stories never told by like anyone so Mel's really got a chance to do another Braveheart. And Mel - hes like - wanna call me a anti-semite? Fine I'll make a movie about Jewish people. Tyrion Lannister said "If they want to give you a name take it make it your own. Then they can’t hurt you with it anymore." Look like Mel took him to heart. 

Cell Phone double feature

Via Fark two interesting stories about Cell phones :

First cell phone call made 38 years ago today

More people in India have used a cellphone than a toilet

US Navy base in lost city of Atlantis

Natural disasters stir up all sorts of stories and folklore. After seeing the devastation in Japan, it is not so hard to beleive that an entire city could be wiped out by a Tsunami.  Here is a story about a potential location for the lost city of Atlantis, which some beleive was wiped out by a tsunami. When I was traveling in Spain I was reading a book that hypothesized Atlantis was a city on a landmass near the north pole, which, 12000 years ago was in a different location. Anyhoo I also read about the story that Atlantis was buried in a swamp in Spain, and being in Spain, I went to check this out. I was quite surprised to find a huge US Navy base at that very location. One wonders if this "navy base" is a front for an Area-51 type research station.

US dropped 4 nuclear bombs on Spain

Via the BBC and Time magazine, a story  that I hadnt heard before. Apparently we've had a few "oops" moments with our nuclear arsenal. Makes you wonder how many other oops's happened with the nuclear armed countries in the world.

It takes 10 thousand years for the radiation to "leave" exposed objects. Thats like the entire known history of human civilization.

30 year old tech still in use

Here are 3 stories of technology that we developed over 30 years ago and havnt updated or surpassed.

Alvin

Voyager

Discovery

...are greatest days of this country are behind us?

Lake Agassiz

I've been reading a book called "Ancient Shores" which is a story about a strange boat found in North Dakota. Apparently 14 thousand years ago a chunk of north america was under water, covered by Lake Agassiz. The book got me thinking. 14 thousand years ago ISNT that long ago. How much of human history are we missing due to it being covered up by planetary changes ? The planet has changed soooo much ~recently~ and no one really talks about it. How different was the world map 10000 years ago? I'm sure there was more changes than this lake...

Fanta soda - brewed from toxic Nazi runoff

Heard a great story about the history of Fanta soda on NRP today...apparently Fanta is the company that ran Coke's soda bottling in Germany. When the US declared war after pearl harbor, Coke withdrew their recipe..and the German owners had to come up with something. Apparently they literally used industrial waste.. 

"blended together an ever-changing combination of dregs, like leftovers from cheese production, the fibrous remains of apples that had been pressed for cider, and whatever surplus fruit he could acquire from Italy. He sweetened the soft drink with saccharin and named it Fanta, after the German word for fantasy or imagination"

The 2nd highest selling soda in Africa