[Arktwo] Happy 4th (1st here in Canada)

[Bruce Beach]

Just breaking as I am about to send this,
that Bush says lying is okay -
that they all do it.
So - Libby doesn't have to go to prison.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19570081/

How is that as a firecracker
for the 4th of July.
Gives a fifth new meaning to Freedom.
The freedom to lie.

And to think -
with a previous administration -
people used to worry about the meaning
of the word 'is'.

http://tinyurl.com/qxlgs

--------

Putin is now between the two Bushes,
dad and son.
Dad was CIA and Putin was KGB -
and son says
he understands and likes them both.
I probably wouldn't understand
any of their views on anything -
and I suspect
I wouldn't agree with them if I did.
Especially regarding the meaning of the word 'is'.

Anyhow, Putin is over for two days of talks -
at the Dad pad in Kennebunkport, Maine,
and we are no more likely to know
exactly what comes out of that
than we are to know
what came out of Bush's talks with Olmert.

Bush won't talk to Ahmadinejad
even though Ahmadinejad sends him letters.
But then maybe Ahmadinjinad has no nukes.
If you really have them -
like Israel, Pakistan or India,
then you can be talked to.

But if you only try to have them
like Iraq, Iran or North Korea -
you will be looked upon
as the Axis of Evil -
and may get bombed.

Maybe Ahmadinejad would rather
be talked to than bombed
and that is why he wants nukes.
Or maybe not.

The messages from all sides
are pretty confusing
if you listen to the words.
Major threats -
sandwiched in between statements
saying they are peaceful.

Sort of like Putin
sandwiched in-between the Bushes.
I don't really want a bite
of any of those sandwiches
but I think they may be about
to bite us.

---------
Last week when I was trying
to get the scoop on the Enterprise,
one of my readers wrote to me
that they had spoken to the Captain
and were told that it was sailing
for the Gulf after the 4th.
I guess that is sort of like
having it from the horses mouth.

A couple of weeks to get over there
and settled in.
That would be around the 19th.
There will then be FOUR
full scale US carrier task forces
in the region with two inside the
Persian Gulf and two others
parked just outside the Straits of Hormuz.
The Iranians just might see this as
deployment for ATTACK,
and think they have to store up some gas
and get ready.

On the other hand -
it is already almost time
for the routine six months rotation
with the Ike.

Seems like lots of activity
going on over there anyhow.

1. The Turkish army
is fighting Kurdish PKK rebels
in Iraqi Kurdistan.

2. The Lebanese are fighting
Syrian backed forces in Lebanon.

3. Israeli Forces keep making
periodic raids into Hamastan.

4. American Seals and infiltration troops
are reported as going into Iran.

5. Iranian supplies and some troops are
reported coming into Iraq.

6. UNIFIL is falling apart in Lebanon.

7. Casualty numbers are mounting in Iraq.

8. Casualty numbers are mounting in Afghanistan.

This all seems to have been going on for so long
that many people will say "ho-hum" -
and that they are more interested
in planning their summer vacation.

-----------------
Still other things are moving along -
or not.

a. The Arab Peace Initiative with Israel is DEAD!

b. Syria has gone stasis through diplomatic convulsion.

c. The World Trade Organisation's (WTO)
final make-or-break talks (in Germany)
 on the Doha Round of 2001 global trade talks
have failed.

d. The BIS Warned this week On Global Derivatives -
about which I would explain more -
but I don't understand more.
Sounds about as serious, however,
as concerns about global warming
and peak oil.

e. Bear Stearns wasn't able to auction off
its sub-prime mortgage holdings -
and that shook up a lot of people this week.

f. The UN mandate
for the presence of US troops in Iraq
expires in December -
and from that point on the US
will probably be in Iraq illegally -
(according to International law).
Not that the US being in compliance with
International Law
has carried any great weight
with the US.

----------
Meanwhile -
back at the ranch -
there is trouble in the hen house.
More and more Congress persons and Senators
are saying it is time
to pick up the marbles in Iraq -
and go home.

Already there is revolt in the Pentagon.
Commanders have had to be fired
right and left
(these are usually called resignations
although the last couple wouldn't go quietly).

Worse yet -
there is feeling in the field
that the troops are being
hung out to dry.
This is indicated by
diminishing re-enlistments,
missed recruiting quotas,
extended and accelerated duty cycles,
increasing numbers of psychological disabilities,
and other markers of falling morale.

The situation is so serious
that some think Lame Duck Bush
won't be able to act
after Labor Day -
(Monday September 3rd,
60 days from today)
and therefore action must be imminent.

I have never been able
to figure it out.
Forever I have seen windows like
the end of Ramadan,
or the build up of naval forces,
or the concurrence with Spring and a New Moon,
or deadlines given by the UN
or, or, or -
but nothing has ever happened.

When I did think that I had gotten
the main parameters figured out
something then intervened like Sharon's stroke.
Nevertheless, it all does keep me
on the edge of preparation -
and I do keep hoping
for some help from some others.

----------
Lots of views about the world -
and what people call
Beach's single stringed instrument
of concern about nuclear WW3.

My daughter gave me
Oprah's recommended
Father's Day gift -
"The Road".

http://tinyurl.com/2xnpww

I appreciate my daughter buying for me
this Post Holocaust story
by Pulitzer Prize winning author
Cormac McCarthy, however,

Beach DOES NOT recommend it.

I don't know how many post-holocaust
scenarios and novels
I have read -
and this one certainly has a popular theme -
that almost NO ONE SURVIVES.
Not my view of course.
I think twenty percent of the world's population
will survive -
and that is a lot of people.

Besides that -
to me -
there are lots of other unrealistic things
in the story.
Several years after the holocaust
we have the hero
and what I take to be his 8-10 year old son
marching along the road
and meeting the usual cast of cannibals
and so forth.

They happen onto
a stocked and unused fallout shelter.
Appears the preppers didn't get to use it.
So - the next morning
they are able to sit down to a breakfast of:
real coffee (vacuum packed I presume),
hot biscuits (freshly baked from the flour),
and butter!

No cow.
No milk.
No churning.
Where the heck did butter come from -
several years after the holocaust -
and the 7-11 is supposedly closed.

In most post holocaust stories
I find things that I think
equally unrealistic.
But then -
I have written my speculated scenarios -
and people know my views -
and obviously Oprah
and others holding her view -
think mine to be equally unrealistic.
(Honestly, I am sure Oprah
doesn't know about me -
and doesn't WANT to know about me -
although I am certainly an admirer,
along with multi millions of others.)

------------
Took Evan, my grandson -
(and others of our family)
to see
Evan Almighty -
the most expensive comedy every made.
It is about this crazy guy
with a long white beard
who has built Ark two.
Seems reminiscent
of something I have heard before.

Evan on the way here now -
with his dog Milo.
Mother off on Girl Guides' trip to Ottawa
and father off fishing.
We are going to have a dog fest.

Chyna and Jemma
(I don't know that is the latter's name
for sure -
and can't check until tomorrow) -
are sleeping at my feet
waiting for Milo's arrival.

Jemma's pups were distributed
to puppy trainers
three weeks ago -
and now she is supposed to be with us
for a year -
until she has another litter.

Chyna goes in for speying tomorrow -
and then will supposedly be with us
for another month
before she goes for advanced training
to be with an autistic child.

As soon as Milo arrives
we will take them down to the shelter compound
for a big romp.

Fred came last night
and brought another 12 gig of books
on Recovery,
for storage in our shelter archive.

Hoping that we are going to have
a get-together of a half dozen doctors
on our J group -
sometime in the next sixty days.

Several groups promising to come
in this time frame -
but it is hard to get everyone
to coordinate together.

Still needing lots of help -
but for the most part
people are more focused on summer
than on my view of the world.
I often think that is the way
that it is meant to be.
That for some reason
a Divine veil has been pulled
over their eyes -
so that the catastrophe will
come upon them suddenly -
as the Book says.

These are delightful days and times.
I have spent eight and ten hour days
in the last couple of weeks
working on the Aphorisms of Pantanjali.
Now I need to get refocused on Ark Two.

Tomorrow is dog day -
but the day following
my son is to come and help with some things -
and then take back my grandson and his dog -
to my daughter and my son-in-law.

We will then be only
a two dog family again,
so any cat person willing to come help -
should keep that in mind.

Nope, I haven't commented about
this week's London bomb scares
nor all the hype about terrorists.
These are all just so much froth -
as far as I am concerned -
regarding the big picture.

In my opinion things likely
to have greater significance
are things like:

"general counsel has asserted that 'the vice presidency is a unique office
that is neither a part of the executive branch nor a part of the legislative
branch,' and is therefore exempt from rules governing either."

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/

Probably also exempt
from the rules of English
about things like the meaning of 'is'.
Good new powers
the previous administration never had -
where they can now say anything
whether true or not.

I still think there is a current momentum
towards events transpiring this month or next.
Others, whom I have found more accurate
than myself -
think September or October.

Peace and love,
Bruce
DawnSayer@webpal.org