Report from the hurricanes in Florida

Below is an email from a good friend of mine.

Hi!!!

Guess where we`re at? Sunny Orlando! After 6 days of no electricity, no real food and very noisy generators that some lucky neighbours abused day and night we decided enough is enough .
One thing is wash your hair from a bottle of water, another is when you can barely hear your own thoughts because of all the noise.

Anyway , here we are, in Marriot. The storm was surprisingly strong for a cat. 2. We could see the tiles fly off our own roof and crash next to the parked cars. We came out safe and sound,
but most of the trees in the complex are simply gone, For the first time in my life I saw what the "eye" of a hurricane looks like...It came right through us - extreme calm after 100m/hr winds. We survived on grilling - steaks, chicken, veggies and such. But when the charcoal and
food finally ran out, and no sign of elctricity or gas or ice in 20 mi radius, Jonathan (her husband) grew hungry and restless. I swear the only person who didn`t notice much difference was Evan (her infant son)!

They say it might take up to a month to get the power back!!
Fortunately we`re lucky to be in a good location and we are usually the first to get it.

Anyway, tomorrow after seing Mickey it is back to the war zone !!
Lets hope there is a miracle and the power is on. That is all our news.

Tagged! For My Friend in Baghdad

Seven Things I want to do before I die:
--Take a cruise--the one up the Amazon River in Brazil.
--Live a few years in China.
--Live a few years in Frankfurt, Germany.
--Fly an ultralight airplane again.
--Write the Great American Novel.
--Buy a newspaper.
--Live part of my time in New Mexico.
Seven Things I can do:
--Write my book, especially about the yellow fever epidemic at Gallipolis, Ohio in 1879.
--Fly an ultralight.
--Visit New Mexico often.
--Take a canoe trip on the Ohio River from Gallipolis to New Richmond, both in Ohio.
--Make interesting friends all over the world, thanks to the Internet.
--Drop about 20 pounds! (maybe)
--Take at least a short trip to China right away.
Seven things I cannot do
--Miss mass on Sundays. I find it sets my day, and I don't pay a lot of attention.
--Actually live in some of those far away places for now because of work and duties here.
--Do 50 push ups!
--Re-joing the Air Force Reserve again, too bad!
--Quit my job.
--Take that canoe trip on the Ohio River before spring.
--Buy that newspaper right this mnute.
Seven Things I find Attractive in a Female
--Good looks!
--Smarts!
--Confidence!
--Softness, but toughness, too.
--I think strength is another quality beyond toughness.
--Caring.
--Good humor, likes to laugh, enjoy life.
Seven Celebrity Crushes
--Julie Roberts
--Debra Pageant (from way back)
--That famous singer in India.
--blank
--blank
--blank
Maybe I can think of someone.
Now that said, I'll have to think of who to tag!

Is the Iranian president stupid or just a killer?

The Iranian president reportedly called for Israel to be wiped off the face of the earth for the sake of Islam, and that kind of statement makes me wonder if the guy is stupid, just a killer or both?
Firstly, all of the Muslim countries in the Middle East have several times tried to wipe Israel off the face of the earth, only to find they were almost wiped off the face of the earth themselves by the Israelis. Israelis are good fighters. All the whining the Palestinians do now is about trying to reclaim land they lost in one of those wars.
Secondly, when someone attacks Israel, the Israelis do not turn the other cheek! They strike back--with fury!
So, if the Iranian president's words are heeded, any Muslim who attacks Israel can count on being killed him or herself or see other Muslims for sure killed or put in prison by the Israelis! Guaranteed!
Then, of course, more Arabs/Muslims will kill more Israelis and....It goes on and on.
I do not take sides in the Muslim/Arab-Israeli wars, but I can see that none of the wars have accomplished anything but death, destruction, sorrow, heartache and tears!
And, there will be more of all that human suffering thanks to that Iranian president's words.
You know it's coming! More pain for hundreds, maybe thousands of Israelis and Arabs/Muslims.
Is the Iranian president stupid or a killer? He's both.

2,000 US soldiers killed in Iraq

The news media don’t just seem to want to report that fact.It wants to gloat over it!
Figure that.
To my mind the report of every single death in Iraq for whatever reason should be made with great respect for the dead and prayers for their families. There also should be additional prayers for all those American GIs yet serving in Iraq for the security of their own county and for the eventual emergence of a free and strong Iraq, an Iraq free of all insurgents, terrorists and murders. Iraq and the world need to recognize, as do US citizens, that the lives of all those GIs should eventually lead to a more stable Iraq, but also to a more stable world.
The end of Karl Shapiro’s great poem from World War II seems appropriate here.
From :
"Elegy For A Dead Soldier"
(c) 1944 By Karl Shapiro
"The time to mourn is short that best becomes
The military dead.
We lift and fold the flag,
Lay bare the coffin with its written tag,
And march away.
Behind, four others wait
To lift the box, the heaviest of loads.
The anesthetic afternoon benumbs,
Sickens our senses, forces back our talk.
We know that others on tomorrows roads
Will fall, ourselves perhaps, the man beside,
Over the world the threatened, all who walk:
And could we mark the grave of him who died
We could write this beneath his name and date:
EPITAPH
Underneath this wooden cross there lies
A Christian killed in battle.
You who read,
Remember that this stranger died in pain;
And passing here, if you can lift your eyes
Upon a peace kept by human creed,
Know that one soldier has not died in vain."

Hollywood Going Downhill!

I read or heard the other day that some movie makers are concerned about a decline in audiences at American movie theaters--and they wonder why?
My view: most of the movies being produced today are for morons, and I hope that is a very small audience in the U.S.
Morons, you say? Yes, I say morons because there are so many great stories that could be told, but the movies don't tell them. They rely on terrible language to shock audiences, terrible people to shock them more--and then the movies they make do not tell a good story. A good story does not have to be "good," by the way. It just has to be a story worth telling.
I think here in the US too many movie makers try to identify a formula that will draw audiences--and valid or not--then they make movies to that formula with the expectation they will draw the people.
I am not one of the people they draw--and, by the way, I like movies. I will not, however, pay money to have my intelligence insulted (and I don't consider my intelligence way up there) by foolish junk! More than once I have gotten up and left in the middle of a movie that I rank in the "insult to my intelligence" category. I will do it again, though I so seldom go to movies anymore that.
What is a good movie?
It is a movie that has a great story to tell. It can be a great comedy as well as drama, fantasy as well as fact. But, it must be good.
Examples of good movies that I have seen and always enjoy:
--The Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart. Good for the script, the characters, good and bad, even though sometimes the script itself seems to miss something. Still, always fun to watch.
--The African Queen, also with Bogart. Great story, interesting characters!
--Harvey with James Stewart, a whimsical, funny movie with depth and meaning to it. I remember the Catholic church putting the movie on a "don't go to list" when I was growing up. I'm glad I gone since.
--Casa Blanca, also with Bogart. Everytime I hear those people sing the French national anthym to drown out the Germans, I stand and join in singing the French song with them!
--Stage Coach, Red River, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon,
They Were Expendable and the Searchers, all featuring John Wayne, an American actor who became an institution in the US. In each case, the movie is about an interesting challenging character, John Wayne, tied to a good story with other good characters besides or in addition to John Wayne.
--Shane, another western featuring Alan Ladd, Van Hefflin and Jean Arthur. What a great story, great photography, interesting characters in a wonderous setting--the Grand Tetons (mountains) of Wyoming!
--High Noon, with Gary Cooper, a long dead movie star. The movie is in black and white, but the colors fit the theme and give it a tone that color would not.
--Von Ryan's Express with Frank Sinatra, another movie I want to see anytime it comes on. Sinatra, a great singer, is as good an actor in this movie.
--Paint Your Wagon with Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood. The music is wonderous and the story universal: man (and woman) searching for the meaning of life in a Gold Rush. Great story and music!
--Empire of the Sun, great because I think it represents a sort of forgiveness to the Japanese for their part in World War II--when a young British boy is shown saluting two Japanese pilots. The first time I saw that scene it caused me to sit straight up in my seat and feel amazement! Wow! At last, maybe the war is finally behind us.
--The Grapes of Wrath, which for once is almost as good as the book. No, I take that back. It is as good as the book, which is one of the great pieces of American fiction.
Movies that I think missed the mark: "Saving Private Ryan" because while the special effects were good, a story based on a more believable event at Normandy would have made far better movie. There are so many good stories from that event! I can't think of the name of it, but the movie from Disney about the Alamo a few years ago missed the mark. Whoever wrote the script did not understand the time or the people who were in the Alamo. You can read some of my ideas on that in an earlier entry. But, the Disney version was not even mildly interesting to someone who has long had an interest in that story. It did not tell me anything I did not know, and what it did tell me was not told in an interesting fashion. John Wayne's version of the same story in a movie also missed the mark. Too bad.
A few years ago (actually many years ago) when the movie "Platoon" was released, it was billed as THE movie about the American military in Vietnam! I was in Vietnam. I saw the American military in Vietnam. "Platoon?" The only thing good to come out of that for me was the theme music, "Adagio for Strings" by Samuel Barber. I'd never heard it before. The rest of the movie? What a waste when there were so many good stories to tell about Americans in the Vietnam War. The stories I saw were not pro or anti war, they were just great stories about average GIs doing incredible things. Check some of the web sites about the Vietnam War, you will find some.
No movie has been made about the Vietnam War yet that is truly a great movie. One based on the book, "Chickenhawk" would be a good movie, but, alas, I think the window for that has passed.
The war in Iraq will some day produce great novels or movies or series of movies and books because of how it and the war in Afghanistan (sp) will change the atmosphere in the Middle East. And, this will not happen because of American involvement exclusively. I think the changes probably would have come anyway, only they would have taken longer--because I think the general unhappiness represented by all the suicide bombers and the huge emphasis on destroying Israel will one day pass. It has, too, and it must be replaced by the desire of people to get along with each other, to talk things over rather than fight and kill over things and to have good lives. You don't do that with sucide bombers and people killing each other or relgious zealouts preaching hate!
Oh, yes, other American movies that get top billing from me include "MASH," "Jeremiah Johnson," "The Sting," "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," and "Cool Hand Luke."
Others are welcome to add movies they've liked or not liked.
Smile!

SOS Pakistan

Just imagine: if all the people trying to kill each other focused on helping all the victims of the earthquake in Pakistan, wow! All that evil energy would become positive engergy and the whole world would benefit. The hates would be forgotten. Love and kindness would prevail.
And, that's what the world needs: love and kindness.

How many killings will it take?

At some point, all the people trying to kill each other in Iraq will stop doing that. At some point all the Palestinians killing people will stop doing that. Hopefully, at some point all the Muslim religious leaders will stop telling their followers that people who kill infidels will go to heaven. (Of course the killers in Iraq kill everyone, Muslims, Catholics, women, kids, you name it. I guess that's religion getting out of hand?) Anyway, maybe if those clerics get their followers under control--and the clerics get themselves under control--their followers will stop flying into buildings and killing thousands of people they don't know, stop bombing resorts in Indonesia to kill more people they do not know and stop bombing subways in London and Madrid and killing even more people none of them know.
I wonder when that point will be reached, but I also wonder how many more people--men, women and children who had great contributions to make to world civilization--will have to die from bullets and bombs before that point is reached.

Fall in Ohio

Fall is the best time of the year in Ohio. Not too hot, not too cold. The trees in central Ohio are just now starting to show all their brilliant colors: every color of red, brown, yellow and orange you can imagine. Mornings brisk. Afternoons pleasantly sunny and warm. About as close to Eden as you can get.

Seems to Work

I hope all the people in Iraq who want to vote get to vote without getting killed!
What a mess in Iraq, if what the media in the US reports is true.
Questions: how many more people will have to die in Iraq before the country becomes stable? How many more people will have to die before normal services can resume in the country, services such as electricity and clean water? I can ask the same question about how many more people have to be killed by terrorists before it stops of countries like Lebanon, Israel and Palestine, Indonesia and in the Russian republics?
I see the king of Jordan has callled on Muslim countries to fight extremism. I know Saudi Arabia is making an attempt at fighting it, and I know Egyt is still reeling under the attacks on tourists.
What will it take for ALL Muslims to take the king of Jordan's stance? Will they ever?

Testing! Testing!

I've tried twice over the last two days to post something on this blog only to get a strange message and no response. So, this is trying for the third time.