About Heroes, Terrors and Terrorism

A couple of notes on Heroes, terrors and terrorism.

March 29, 2012
US Soldier Killed Trying to Save Afghan Girl
Sgt. Dennis Weichel, 29, of the Rhode Island National Guard died saving the life of a little girl in northeast Afghanistan.

According to the report, Weichel was in a convoy in Laghman Province last week when he noticed some children were in the path of the moving vehicles. Weichel and other soldiers got out to move them out of the way. while most of the children scattered away, one girl went back to the road, as a Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicle continued moving toward her. Weichel saw the massive truck moving toward the girl and grabbed her out of the way. The girl survived, but Weichel died after the armored vehicle ran over him.

These types of stories go unreported every day. Our soldier's heroic actions are unnoticed by most, if not all, of our major news stations. Certainly lost to the journalists of MSNBC and CBS, who most likely just throw the stories in the trash, deemed not worthy of the liberal rhetoric.

I found this story below and also decided to add it to the mix.

After reading the headlines today about the US soldier who shot up Afghanistan civilians, I couldn’t help noticing an irony.  There is all this clamor to try this guy quickly and execute him, never mind his having suffered a traumatic brain injury.
His actions were that of a disturbed mind and should be delt with by the harshest of penalties.

Yet (another soldier) Major Hasan, who shot up Fort Hood while screaming Allah akbar, still hasn’t stood trial, and they are still debating whether he was insane, even with the clear evidence regarding his motive: slay as many infidels as possible.

So we have a guy in a war zone who cracks, and he must be executed immediately.

But this Muslim psychiatrist who was stateside in a nice safe office all day, murders 13, wounds 29 of our own guys,and they try to argue the poor lad suffered post-traumatic stress syndrome, from listening to real soldiers, and heroes, who had actual battle experience.

Two and a half years later, they still haven’t tried the murderous bastard.

Poor lad my ass, he murdered our own soldiers!
All fanatical terrorists, regardless of their religion are actually Satan's Little Helpers, and worship Satan.

The only thing necessary for evil to triumph 

is for good men to stand by and do nothing.

All religious leaders need to take a stand against Satan's followers.

Any terrorist who wages war for their God has fallen away from the teachings of their church, synagogue or mosque and is now in league with Satan, the god of evil, the god of hate.

DON'T BE BLUE

The Value of Deductive Reasoning and proof that GOD exists!

This was a Chemistry Question

The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid-term. The answer by one student was so "profound" that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet.

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant.

One student, however, wrote the following:

First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave.

Therefore, no souls are leaving Hell!

As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different Religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell.

With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we have to look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell, because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.

This gives two possibilities:
1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.

2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it?

If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, "it will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you", and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number 2 must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct...leaving only Heaven; thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting "Oh...my....God....Oh....MY....G O D !"

THIS STUDENT RECEIVED THE ONLY "A


DON'T BE BLUE

Who wants to live forever? Scientist sees aging cured!

The first person who will live to see their 150th birthday has already been born.

Space Age Retirement Homes?

A biomedical gerontologist and chief scientist of a foundation dedicated to longevity research,Aubrey de Grey, reckons that within his own lifetime doctors could have all the tools they need to "cure" aging -- banishing diseases that come with it and extending life indefinitely.
De Grey sees a time when people will go to their doctors for regular "maintenance," which by then will include gene therapies, stem cell therapies, immune stimulation and a range of other advanced medical techniques to keep them in good shape.

That being said,
Does the government really want you to live, forever? Do you really want to live forever?
Retirement ages are getting longer, now it's 66, but in the next 20 years, will senior citizens be living in internment camps or dependent on their children? Social Security will not be able to keep up, but more importantly, Social Security will not be enough. What will the quality of life be like for the Old People? We may be able to advance medically to a point where many of the ailments that plague the aging are eliminated, but many people who retire, lose the willingness to continue. They don't really have a good reason to get out of bed.
We are rapidly getting to the point where the government takes all of your money and issues vouchers to pay your bills, especially if the redistribution of wealth programs become a reality. More to the point is that, if amnesty is given to illegal immigrants, our obligation to those who don't, or won't, or can't work, will quadruple our national debt.

DON'T BE BLUE

What's your definition of "Millionaire"?

Definition of Millionaire

Obama: Anyone who makes over $200,000.
Wikipedia: an individual whose net worth or wealth is equal to or exceeds one million units of currency.
Merriam-Webster: A person whose wealth is estimated at a million or more (as of dollars or pounds).
Dictionary.com: A person whose wealth amounts to a million or more in some unit of currancy, as dollars.
Investopedia.com: It is important to note that paper millionaires are not the same as true millionaires, which generally refers to people who have more than $1 million in cash in the bank.
Urbandictionary.com: A person or organisation that is in possession of over one million of a pre-set currency in liquid assets, except property.

I don't know about you, but I have a great deal of difficulty believing anything that comes out of the mouth of someone who makes-up definitions of the words they use. If you like that stuff, play the board game Balderdash.

In practically every speech on taxes, President Obama likes to pit the wealthier population against everyone else by using the term “millionaires” to pay their “fair share” of taxes.  Class warfare is unnecessary.
President Obama wants to raise taxes on individuals making $200,000 and families making $250,000.  First of all, how $200,000 + $200,000 = $250,000, instead of $400,000 as a couple, is beyond me.  Is one spouse supposed to suddenly make only $50,000 from $200,000?
Give me a break.
 http://www.financialsamurai.com/2011/08/17/how-long-does-it-take-to-become-a-millionaire/

One of the problems of taxation that needs to also be addressed, is Social Security.  The maximum taxable earnings amount for Social Security (OASDI) taxes, 2012, is $110,100. True Millionaires don't have to pay any more into Social Security after they earn $110,100. Fortunately there is no cap on income and payments into Healthcare. However, both Social Security and Healthcare, as well as all government relief programs, are destined to bankrupt the United States, if illegal immigrants are allowed amnesty.

First we need to change the US Constitution to eliminate birthright citizenship for people who are born here, but neither of the parents are legal citizens. Then we need to establish a guest worker visa program that insures that only citizens can get any government relief.

DON'T BE BLUE

YOWZA ! --- --- 12 foods that pack on pounds

Twelve Foods that PACK on POUNDS!!!

12. Butter (Food just tastes better with the reaL Thing)
Dairy foods like butter and cheese, exception: yogurt. People who ate a lot of it were less likely to put on weight,
People who ate a lot of butter gained about 0.30 pound every four years.

11. Fruit Juice (Tastes great, but it's 100% sugar)
Drinking juice daily added 0.31 pound of extra body weight every four years

10. Fried foods (Like French Fried Potatoes?)
Eating fried foods at home added  0.36 pound every four years. Eating lots of fried food out at restaurants added 0.28 pound every four years.

9. Refined grains (Like Rice?, Love Rice!!)
Daily servings of refined grains added 0.39 pound every four years.

8. Sweets and Desserts (Like, Duh!)
Eating sweets daily added 0.41 pound every four years.

7. Potatoes (French fries, with Catsup)
A daily fix of potatoes added 0.57 pound of weight every four years, with or without butter and sour cream?

6. Trans fats (Oh!)
Eating trans fats added on 0.65 pound of weight every four years

5. Processed meat (Bacon, Bacon, and more Bacon!)
Cold cuts and hot dogs, eating lots of processed meats tacked on 0.93 pound every four years.

4. Unprocessed RED meat (Processed vs Unprocessed? Can't throw out the meat)
Eating lots of red meat contributed to a weight gain of 0.95 pound every four years.

3. Sugar-sweetened soda (OK, I don't drink my calories anyway, unless it's got alcohol in it.)
Daily consumption of sugary drinks added exactly one pound every four years, according to the study.

2. Potato chips (Potatoes again)
Daily chip eating brought a 1.69 pound weight gain every four years.

1. French fries (More Potatoes, Cajun Fries!!!)
People who ate lots of fries gained more than three pounds of body weight every four years. Over the study's 20-year-period, that meant people who ate more fries put on more than 16 extra pounds from this food alone.

OK, lets do the math and look in a mirror.
That's 10.56 POUNDS every 4 years, or 2.64 POUNDS, each year. Times your age, and very little exercise, lately!
It all comes back to haunt you.

Have a great summer.


DON'T BE BLUE

HOOAH - or - HOOYAH - or - HOORAH - or - just the old American Civil War chant, HURRAH - HURRAH

It's all either Army or Navy.

Hooah is the war cry or battle cry used by the United States Army.

Hooyah is the war cry or battle cry used by the United States Navy.

Hoorah or Oorah is the war cry or battle cry used by the United States Marines.

Each of the uniformed services is administratively headed by a federal executive department and its corresponding civilian Cabinet leader. The seven uniformed services are, in order of precedence by ceremonial formation: 

United States Army

United States Marine Corps

United States Navy

United States Air Force

United States Coast Guard

United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps

Hooah 

There are many rumors of it's origin, but the simplest and probably most accurate is it's derived from the acronym HUA, meaning Heard, Understood, Acknowledged, or just plain US Army slang for YES.

The United States Army (USA) is the largest branch of the Armed Forces of the United States that performs land-based military operations; and is one of the seven Uniformed services of the United States. As the largest and senior branch of the U.S. military, the modern U.S. Army has its roots in the Continental Army, which was formed (14 June 1775) to fight the American Revolutionary War (1775–83)—before the U.S. was established as a country. 

After the Revolutionary War, the Congress of the Confederation created the United States Army on 3 June 1784, to replace the disbanded Continental Army. The United States Army considers itself descended from the Continental Army, and dates its institutional inception from the origin of that armed force in 1775.

The United States Air Force (USAF) is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, as the Army Air Corps, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on 18 September 1947 under the National Security Act of 1947. It is the most recent branch of the U.S. military to be formed, and is the largest and one of the world's most technologically advanced air forces. The USAF articulates its core functions as Nuclear Deterrence Operations, Special Operations, Air Superiority, Global Integrated ISR, Space Superiority, Command and Control, Cyberspace Superiority, Personnel Recovery, Global Precision Attack, Building Partnerships, Rapid Global Mobility and Agile Combat Support.

In the fiscal year 2011, the Regular Army (USA) reported a strength of 546,057 soldiers; the Army National Guard (ARNG) reported 358,078 soldiers, and the United States Army Reserve (USAR) reported 201,166 soldiers; the combined-component strength of the U.S. Army was 1,105,301 soldiers. As a branch of the armed forces, the mission of the U.S. Army is "to fight and win our Nation's wars, by providing prompt, sustained, land dominance, across the full range of military operations and the spectrum of conflict, in support of combatant commanders.

The U.S. Air Force provides air support for surface forces and aids in the recovery of troops in the field. As of 2012, the service operates more than 5,638 military aircraft, 450 ICBMs and 63 military satellites. It has a $140 billion budget with 309,339 active duty personnel, 185,522 civilian personnel, 71,400 Air Force Reserve personnel, and 106,700 Air National Guard personnel.

Hooyah 

More likely an offshoot of the US Army version, with a Navy spin of "Who US - Who YA", just to be different. It is used to say Ok or understood or is sometimes used to show enthusiasm.

The U.S. Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy, which was established during the American Revolutionary War and was essentially disbanded as a separate entity shortly thereafter. It played a major role in the American Civil War by blockading the Confederacy and seizing control of its rivers. It played the central role in the World War II defeat of Japan. The 21st century U.S. Navy maintains a sizable global presence, deploying in such areas as East Asia, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East. It is a blue-water navy with the ability to project force onto the littoral regions of the world, engage in forward areas during peacetime, and rapidly respond to regional crises, making it an active player in U.S. foreign and defense policy.

The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest, most powerful navy in the world, with the highest combined battle fleet tonnage. The U.S. Navy has the world's largest aircraft carrier fleet, with ten in service, four in the reserve fleet, and three new class carriers under construction. The service has 325,143 personnel on active duty and 107,355 in the Navy Reserve. It has 272 deployable combat ships and more than 3,700 aircraft in active service as of March 2015.

Hoorah - United States Marines pronounce it "OohRah!"
The 1st Amphibious Reconnaissance Company, FMFPAC can be credited with the introduction of "Ooh-rah!" into the Marine Corps in 1953, shortly after the Korean War. Recon Marines served aboard the USS Perch (ASSP-313), a WWII-era diesel submarine retrofitted to carry Navy UDT and Recon Marines. Whenever the boat was to dive, the 1MC (PA system) would announce "DIVE! DIVE!", followed by the sound of the diving klaxon: "AARUGHA!"
In 1953 or 1954, while on a conditioning run, former Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps John R. Massaro, while serving as company Gunnery Sergeant of 1st Amphibious Reconnaissance Battalion, simulated the "Dive" horn sound "AA-RUG-HA!" as part of the cadence. Legend has it, he took it with him when he went to serve as an instructor at the Drill Instructor school at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego. He there passed it on to the Drill Instructor students and they, in turn, passed it on to their recruits where it eventually and naturally became a part of the Recon cadence, and thereafter infiltrated Recon Marine lexicon. 
Over time, "AARUGHA!" morphed into the shorter, simpler "Oorah!" 

The Marine Corps has been a component of the U.S. Department of the Navy since 1834, working closely with naval forces for training, transportation, and logistics. The USMC operates posts on land and aboard sea-going amphibious warfare ships around the world, and several of the Marines' tactical aviation squadrons, primarily Marine Fighter Attack squadrons, are also embedded in Navy carrier air wings and operate from the Navy's nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.

The United States Marine Corps (USMC) is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the U.S. Navy to rapidly deliver combined-arms task forces. The U.S. Marine Corps is one of the four branches in the U.S. Department of Defense as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States.

By the mid-20th century, the U.S. Marine Corps had become a major theorist and the dominant practitioner of amphibious warfare. Its ability to rapidly respond on short notice to expeditionary crises gives it a strong role in the implementation and execution of American foreign policy. The USMC has around 194,000 active duty members and just under 40,000 reserve Marines as of 2010. It is the smallest of the U.S. Armed Forces within the U.S. Department of Defense.

Hurrah! Hurrah!

Could it all have really started during the American Civil War with the popular song by Patrick Gilmore, When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again Hurrah! Hurrah!

The lyrics to When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again Hurrah! Hurrah! were written by the Irish-American bandleader Patrick Gilmore during the American Civil War, around 1863-1864. 

A popular song of the war that expressed people's longing for the return of their friends and relatives who were fighting in the war.

When Johnny Comes Marching Home was immensely popular and was sung by both sides of the American Civil War.

When Johnny comes marching home again
Hurrah! Hurrah!
We'll give him a hearty welcome then
Hurrah! Hurrah!
The men will cheer and the boys will shout
The ladies they will all turn out
And we'll all feel gay,
When Johnny comes marching home!

DON'T BE BLUE

The Death of the BOOK

From a link in Arts and Letters Daily.

 

 

 

"Pity the book. It’s dead again. Suddenly they seem clunky, heavy, and almost fleshy in their gross materiality. Their pages grow brittle. Their ink fades. Their spines collapse. They are so pitiful; they might as well be human."

Funny, or not, books are kind of the mirror to the soul. It used to be that when you walked into someone's home or office you would find a bookshelf full of books, or at least a book lying on a table. You could tell a lot about the books represented there. A glimpse into the psyche of one who lives or works there. The books were lined up along a shelf and could show what interested the occupant. You could tell how diverse their interests were and if they were "high-brow" or "low-brow", had a since of humor, or leaned toward the weird and off-beat. You could learn a lot about a person by the books they read.

Not so, anymore. More and more books are being downloaded to computers, readers like Kindle, and to the iPad or smart phones. Now a part of the soul of a person is being hidden from view. People don't need the bookshelf anymore; they don't even print the cover of the book to display their recent interest.

I have books that can be handed down from generation to generation. Books that may spark the interest in some far fringe of the curious who peruse the titles. They can even pick up the book and leaf through it. You can't do that with the downloaded books. They are most likely going to be erased from the memory of what ever they are stored on and lost not only to the owner, but their followers.

I can see the use of downloading a book or two, but at the current cost of the downloaded book compared to holding one in your hand, the cost is way too high. I can usually buy a book for less then $20. The cost to down load most top selling books, or even newly published books is about $9, when it should be less then $2. After all, they didn't have to go through the same publishing process of printing thousands of copies. All they had to do was store the data - once - and send the data to - anyone. Maybe when the cost becomes more realistic, I'll download more books, but for now I like the comfort of holding it in my hands and kind of letting people look into my soul when they see it on the table or in the bookshelf.

 

 

DON'T BE BLUE

Osama Bin Laden is DEAD~DEAD~DEAD!!! HOOAH

 On September 11, 2001, 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda hijacked four airliners and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States. Two of the planes were flown into the towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, a third plane hit the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C., and the fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Often referred to as 9/11, the attacks resulted in extensive death and destruction, triggering major U.S. initiatives to combat terrorism and defining the presidency of George W. Bush. Over 3,000 people were killed during the attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., including more than 400 police officers and firefighters.

 Operation Enduring Freedom, the American-led international effort to oust the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and destroy Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network based there, began on October 7. Within two months, U.S. forces had effectively removed the Taliban from operational power, but the war continued, as U.S. and coalition forces attempted to defeat a Taliban insurgency campaign based in neighboring Pakistan.

Shortly after eleven o'clock on the night of May 1st 2011, two MH-60 Black Hawk helicopters lifted off from Jalalabad Airfield, in eastern Afghanistan, and embarked on a covert mission into Pakistan to kill Osama bin Laden. Inside the aircraft were twenty-three Navy SEALs from Team Six, which is officially known as the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, or DEVGRU. A Pakistani-American translator, whom I will call Ahmed, and a dog named Cairo—a Belgian Malinois—were also aboard. It was a moonless evening, and the helicopters’ pilots, wearing night-vision goggles, flew without lights over mountains that straddle the border with Pakistan. Radio communications were kept to a minimum, and an eerie calm settled inside the aircraft.

DON'T BE BLUE

All religious leaders need to take a stand against Satan's followers. Any terrorist who wages war for their God has fallen away from the teachings of their church, synagogue or mosque and is now in league with Satan, the god of evil, the god of hate.

Osama bin Laden worshiped Satan, as does al-Qaeda.

The Story of Halloween

Halloween's origins date back to "the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain",which means summer's end.  Roughly 2,000 years ago, a people known as the Celts lived in the area now divided among three modern-day countries: the United Kingdom, Northern France, and Ireland. The Celts began their new year on November 1, meaning October 31 was their New Year's Eve, and the time, they believed, when the dead came back to roam the earth. Evil spirits were warded off by lighting bonfires and wearing costumes to hide from them. According the History Channel, "the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred" that night. Turnips carved with faces got placed in windows to scare off the unwelcome undead. People would go "a-souling," and in exchange for food and drink, pray for a household's dead relatives. In Scotland, spirits were impersonated by men wearing all white with veiled faces. Bonfires and animal sacrifices were common, as were costumes "typically consisting of animal heads and skins." Eventually, the Romans conquered the Celts, and Samhain was combined with other holidays. Later, as Christianity became more powerful, Pope Boniface IV put a new tilt on the event. He designated November 1 "All Saints' Day" -- a day when followers could honor saints and martyrs.

The Celtic holiday of Samhain, the Catholic Hallowmas, also called "All-Hallows". period of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day and the Roman festival of Feralia all influenced the modern holiday of Halloween. In the 19th century, Halloween began to lose its religious connotation, becoming a more secular community-based children's holiday. Although the superstitions and beliefs surrounding Halloween may have evolved over the years, as the days grow shorter and the nights get colder, people can still look forward to parades, costumes and sweet treats to usher in the winter season.

These days, Halloween is mostly known as a day when kids throw dental hygiene out the window and go hog-wild with candy. The origin of trick-or-treating is somewhat disputed. In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland's potato famine of 1846, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally. Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today's "trick-or-treat" tradition. Young women believed that, on Halloween, they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings, or mirrors. Today, Americans spend an estimated $6.9 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country's second largest commercial holiday.
(History Channel) http://www.history.com/topics/halloween

The First Jack O'Lantern
The Irish carved Turnips and put coals or small candles inside. They were placed outside their homes on All Hallow's Eve to ward off evil spirits. They were also known to use potatoes and Rutabagas. When Irish Immigrants came to America, they quickly discovered that Jack O'Lanterns were much easier to carve out and began using them. This truly neat tradition quickly spread to the general population in America and elsewhere. Others believe that the first Jack O'Lanterns came from the Story of Stingy Jack. http://www.history.com/topics/jack-olantern-history

Dia De Los Muertos
In English, this holiday translates to "The Day of the Dead". It is an important Mexican holiday. Where Americans shy away from the topic of death, Mexicans embrace it. On this day, they celebrate it in a big way. Asian cultures are also known to honor the dead in October.

DON'T BE BLUE

The Legend of Stingy Jack

People have been making "Jack O'Lanterns" at Halloween for centuries. The practice originated from an Irish myth about a man nicknamed "Stingy Jack." According to the story, Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him. True to his name, Stingy Jack didn't want to pay for his drink, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack could use to buy their drinks. Once the Devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money and put it into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back into his original form. Jack eventually freed the Devil, under the condition that he would not bother Jack for one year and that, should Jack die, he would not claim his soul. The next year, Jack again tricked the Devil into climbing into a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While he was up in the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree's bark so that the Devil could not come down until the Devil promised Jack not to bother him for ten more years.

Soon after, Jack died. As the legend goes, God would not allow such an unsavory figure into heaven. The Devil, upset by the trick Jack had played on him and keeping his word not to claim his soul, would not allow Jack into hell. He sent Jack off into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has been roaming the Earth with ever since. The Irish began to refer to this ghostly figure as "Jack of the Lantern," and then, simply "Jack O'Lantern."

In Ireland and Scotland, people began to make their own versions of Jack's lanterns by carving scary faces into turnips or potatoes and placing them into windows or near doors to frighten away Stingy Jack and other wandering evil spirits. In England, large beets are used. Immigrants from these countries brought the jack o'lantern tradition with them when they came to the United States. They soon found that pumpkins, a fruit native to America, make perfect Jack O'Lanterns.

DON'T BE BLUE

The Story of the Statue of Liberty

The French, Egyptian and American connection.

The Story of the Statue of Liberty.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Liberty


While on a visit to Egypt that was to shift his artistic perspective from simply grand to colossal, French sculptor Frédéric Bartholdi was inspired by the project of the Suez Canal that was being undertaken by Count Ferdinand de Lesseps, who later became a lifelong friend of his. He envisioned a giant lighthouse standing at the entrance to the canal and drew plans for it. It would be patterned after the Roman goddess Libertas, modified to resemble a robed Egyptian peasant, with light beaming out from both a headband and a torch thrust dramatically upward into the skies. Bartholdi presented his plans to the Egyptian Khedive, Isma'il Pasha, in 1867 and, with revisions, again in 1869, but the project was never commissioned because of financial issues then troubling the Ottoman Empire.

Soon after John Wilkes Booth was killed by one of his captors, Frédéric Bartholdi (according to legend) was enjoying dinner with friends in Paris. Commenting how good it was that the U.S. Civil War was over and how terrible it was that Lincoln had died, one of Bartholdi’s friends (Edouard de Laboulaye) had an idea. What if the people of France, gave the people of America, a monument to commemorate liberty? And ... what if they gave such a gift during 1876, the first centennial of American independence? France, after all, had played a key role in helping America to win her revolutionary war. Enthused with the idea, Bartholdi visited America and ultimately sketched his conception of such a monument.

The first small terracotta model was created in 1870. It is now exhibited at the Musée des beaux-arts de Lyon. The first reduced scale bronze replica was given to the city of Paris by Americans residing in the French capital on May 13, 1885; the statue was originally located in the Place des États-Unis and was moved to the Île des Cygnes in 1889. It was agreed that in a joint effort, the people of the United States were to build the base, and the French people were responsible for the statue and its assembly in the States. In France, public donations, various forms of entertainment including notably performances of La liberté éclairant le monde (Liberty enlightening the world) by soon-to-be famous composer Charles Gounod at Paris Opera, and a charitable lottery were among the methods used to raise the 2,250,000 francs ($250,000). In the United States, benefit theatrical events, art exhibitions, auctions and prizefights assisted in providing needed funds.

Meanwhile in France, Bartholdi required the assistance of an engineer to address structural issues associated with designing such a colossal copper sculpture. Gustave Eiffel (designer of the Eiffel Tower) was commissioned to design the massive iron pylon and secondary skeletal framework which allows the statue's copper skin to move independently yet stand upright. The good-looking French widow of an important American, Isabella Eugenie Boyer, the wife of Isaac Singer, the sewing-machine industrialist, was called upon to be Bartholdi's model for the Statue of Liberty. The Statue of Liberty was dedicated on October 28, 1886 and was designated a National Monument on October 15, 1924.

The Statue of Liberty functioned as a lighthouse from 1886 to 1902. As a lighthouse, it is the first in the United States to use electricity. Birds, attracted by the original torch, sometimes became disoriented from the light of the flame. It was once discovered that more than a thousand had been fatally injured in a single day.
The bronze plaque in an exhibit on the second floor of the pedestal is inscribed with the sonnet:

"The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus.

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
' With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

It has never been engraved on the exterior of the pedestal, despite such depictions in editorial cartoons. The first two lines refer to the ancient Colossus of Rhodes. The bronze plaque in the pedestal contains a typographical error: the comma in "Keep, ancient lands" is missing, causing that line to read "'Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!' cries she", and noticeably altering its meaning. The name "Mother of Exiles" was never taken up as the statue's name.

In 1889, Americans who were living in Paris gave that city a smaller version of Liberty. The thirty-five foot monument is located near the River Seine and faces west, toward its sister.
http://www.awesomestories.com/movies/national_treasure/national_treasure_ch6.htm

Hundreds of other Statues of Liberty have been erected worldwide. A smaller replica is in the Norwegian village of Visnes, on the island of Karmøy, in Rogaland County where the copper used in the original statue was mined.

A Statue of Liberty replica at Odaiba, overlooks the Rainbow Bridge in Tokyo Bay. There is a sister statue in Paris and several others elsewhere in France, including one in Bartholdi's home town of Colmar, erected in 2004 to mark the centenary of Bartholdi's death; they also exist in Austria, Germany, Italy, Japan, China, Brazil and Vietnam; one existed in Hanoi during French colonial days. During the Tiananmen Square protest of 1989, Chinese student demonstrators in Beijing built a ten meter image called the Goddess of Democracy, which sculptor Tsao Tsing-yuan said was intentionally dissimilar to the Statue of Liberty to avoid being "too openly pro-American." At around the same time, a copy of this statue was made and displayed on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, D.C., in a small park across the street from the Chinese Embassy.

The sculptor James Alexander Ewing's most prestigious commission was for the carving of the Glasgow City Chambers' Jubilee Pediment, its apex group of Truth, Riches, and Honor, and the statues of The Four Seasons on the building's tower. The figure of Truth also is known as Glasgow's Statue of Liberty, because of its close resemblance to the similarly posed, but very much larger, statue in New York harbor.

The Statue of Liberty is located in the harbor of New York City, on the Jersey side (but that's another story), on what was originally called the Oyster Islands, which includes Ellis Island, Liberty Island, and Black Tom Island. Both Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty have become powerful symbols of the freedom and opportunity that awaited millions of men, women, and children when they legally immigrated to America from around the world.


Don't Be Blue

Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil and the one-eyed monkey.

Updated 3/31/2017

 

Golda Meir got it wrong.
 Only because of the basic prejudice of the Jews vs Arabs mentality, when she said in 1957, "We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us."

It should have been,
"We will only have peace with the Muslims when they love their children more than they hate non-Muslims."


Not all Arabs are Muslim and not all Muslims are Arabs. Most of all, not all Muslims are the same.
The tolerant majority are just that, tolerant, but the fundamentalists hate not only other Muslims, the extremists hate everyone.



Terrorism, like any other hateful prejudice, from the KKK to Louis Farrakhan´s Black Muslim's to Hamas and Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda and now ISIS and Boko Haram, and the newly formed Black KKK, and their ilk, should be dealt with by force, since force is the only language they speak. These terrorists are the cannibalistic kind, it's as if they eat their young, when they use them as human bombs and practice polygamy, so they can make more human bombs. It's no wonder they treat women worse than cattle.



The 2011 bombings in Moscow were a precursor of things to come in Europe and therefore destined to happen in America, if we continue on the road to socialism and "political correctness" infesting our politicians. There is no place for "political correctness" in a war on terrorism. Whereas it may be thought of as politically incorrect to put all members of any group in the same category as those in the group that are true terrorists, you MUST start somewhere since they will not police themselves. Let them sort it out when they complain that they are not terrorists, and prove it to the world by exposing their own terrorists within their ranks.



The place to start would logically be with the leaders of the group, except when the leaders can not truly lead because the followers will not except their leadership. Whether it's the religious leaders or the political leaders, the truth is that Islam is more about politics than it is about religion. It's also more about being afraid to allow their own people to come out of the Middle Ages and into the modern moralistic world.


Politics and religion are so intertwined that they can not be separated and the leaders are so powerless, they can not change it. Sadly and more important is that they don't want to change it because then they will lose their power and grip on their own people.


Islamic fundamentalists still rule by fear and the fear mongers are the fanatical religious leaders that hide in the shadows of evil and worship Satan, but call him Allah.


All religious leaders need to take a stand against Satan's followers.
Any terrorist who wages war for their God has fallen away from the teachings of their church, synagogue or mosque and is now in league with Satan, the god of evil, the god of hate.







DON'T BE BLUE
(Holding my breath)