With thousands of people demonstrating in different parts of Syria currently, it is clear from BBC reports that Bashar El-Assad is using mild nerve agents to immobilize demonstrators.
There are some pretty ruthless dictators out there but the succession from Hafez to Bashar
Al-Assad (father to son), only shows how ruthless and cruel one family could be.
Besieged people all over the world clamor for freedom but, alas, there seems to be no chance in Syria, a country that is definitely a "player" in the Middle East..
Muslim, Jew, Christian.Buddhist -- religion doesn't matter, money and power blow the doors off. New things are invented every day and the first thing thought: "Is there a military application", not "Can we make poor people's lives better?"
It looks like a hundred year struggle for freedom in the Middle East has been ignited and one can only hope things get better and not worse.
~ The boys sing round the fire... ~
Now that scientists are finding radioactivity in the snow of Mass. & NH and they have found at least 5 places around the units at Fukushima where plutonium elements specific to isotopes found in nuclear power production, it's pretty hard not to see that this thing is spiraling out of control.
Every drop of water sprayed into Units 1-6 at Fukushima is radioactive. Everything that is escaping into the sea from underground tunnels from those plants is harmful if enough is concentrated in the food chain. Right now it is so hot that workers can't start containing the waste.
Although the company's owners are admitting the situation is grave they don't say for whom and how long.... Always the bits of information are said to be not harmful but the whole picture is never projected. And it still may be too early to have a meaningful answer to that question.
However, it is not to early to shut down San Onofre and Diablo Canyon, two plants that are susceptible to very likely scenarios - earthquakes of giant magnitude along with tsunami waves of cataclysmic proportion.
The worst news hasn't begun to be released. While the rest of the world rethinks it's nuclear power options, Obama, because of large energy company donations that got him elected, still thinks we can learn valuable lessons from this crisis.
Here is the lesson. Shut them down and bring alternative sourcesof power online asap.
With a humble prayer for those suffering in the snow in Japan.
http://www.urlesque.com/2011/03/17/nuclear-boy-cartoon-japan/
so, "Nuclear Boy" is the atomic energy plant in Fukushima...
not sure if this is the best way to explain this 'shit' to the little 'uns or not, but there it is.
peace.
Just finished watching Obama speak on Libya and he seemed to leave more questions unanswered than he provided clarity. The one thing that came through very clearly was that the US would no longer go it alone. We would act with a coalition that shared the expense.
The moral dilemma, as always, is where the US & allies will (or not) act. It shouldn't be overlooked that French warplanes were in the before America did anything. The French have a heavy connection with the Libyans. The US has followed up with 192 cruise missiles, the Brits, 7. The US continues to to follow-up the no-fly zone, leaving a trail of shattered Libyan military columns.
Why? Oil! Libya has the chronic
The rest of the Middle East is the question. Highly volatile. It is unlikely the US will keep a coalition together as struggles to protest it's naval post Bahrain and and it's primary allie in the area, Israel.
Oil, all about oil. It is worthy to note that the commercials following the speech all had to do with natural gas, undersea oil drilling and clean coal. Watching who advertizes is almost as important as listening to the spin.
The cost for the US in Libya so far? Half a billion, likely to go to a billion..
LBJ took the IRTDown to 4th Street USA
When he got there
What did he see?
The youth of America on LSD
LBJ IRT
USA LSD
LSD LBJ
FBI CIA
FBI CIA
LSD LBJ
(Gotta come up with something similar for what the Rumsfeld era represented)
shucks, I had to use the online dictionary thesaurus to come up with "invective" hey now MaryE!
alls in the category of 'ain't no time to hate' llama.
you didn't offend me personal, just like I said, the points you made in that other post were lessened by the 'name calling' apology accepted anyways.
in your word, llama,:
"It would be a wonderful world if we were never felt the need to use epithets when referring to people with less than extremely arrogant or malicious behavior."
***
"Ahh, the holy, virgin ears of the deadheads...
I for one am glad my 'ears' at least remain un-fucked by the IRS and other gov. agencies...
for the sake of decorum, I'll refrain from pointng out which orafice the IRS un-virginized.
( -;
love&peace.
and I would find it very tiresome and counterproductive to have to censor you guys once one of those abuse-fests gets going, so hey, please just cut it out, refrain from troll-feeding, etc. Thank you.
Yep, DL, just like Fox -- spew your venom then run away for 6 months before you come back to rant on the same (or similar subjects) some more. In fact, why don't you do a profile and put your application for employment in to FOX news? You could be the next Glen Beck!
Think of the millions to be made waggling your toungue! Or maybe being a Grand Dragon in the Klan is more to your taste. You could get the younguns' all hated up for the Hispanic-Hawaiian-Asian-Ragheads!