Dennys: News Politics Comedy Science Arts & Food: Posts Roundup at Dennys Blogs - 17 April 2011

Dennys: News Politics Comedy Science Arts & Food: Posts Roundup at Dennys Blogs - 17 April 2011: "While the Japanese nuclear crisis continues unabated, the rest of the world has moved on, dreading the inevitable. At the moment the world community has pressured Japan to come up with a plan to contain or deal with the crisis over a nine month period.

Why the same people are in charge of this mess that created the mess is a mystery. It's as foolish as it was to trust BP to clean up the oil spill disaster in my own Gulf of Mexico. Serious hardships still exist as a result of President Obama and BP refusing to do what it takes to make things right, especially in Louisiana.

At the very least the President could do is refuse to allow BP access to any of America's oil fields on or off shore. The company has simply not earned the right to drill for oil on American soil or in our oceans."

The Social Poets: Japan: TEPCO Chief MIA. Why and Where Is He?

Tokyo, city of 39 million - Image by w00kie via Flickr

The Social Poets: Japan: TEPCO Chief MIA. Why and Where Is He?: "TEPCO Chief Masataka Shimizu, who has not been seen in public since 16 March, is the subject of speculation. Japanese media is swirling with suicide rumors as an explanation for his absence.

It was March 15 when the Prime Minister Naoto Kan angrily demanded to know from Shimizu and other TEPCO executives, shouting, 'What the hell is going on?' PM Kan was furious at how slow Shimizu was at informing him of the crisis at the plant and the seriousness of the situation.
The next day Shimizu claimed to be sick in his bed though he was still collecting information from the task force pulled together by the company and the government. Yet he was never visible to anyone, again claiming to be just in the next room resting or at home sick. He never attended crisis meetings or visited TEPCO HQ nor did he relinquish control of the crisis to deputies until just recently."

The Social Poets: Japan: We Are Far Beyond Level 5 Nuclear Threat

Three Mile Island - Image via Wikipedia

The Social Poets: Japan: We Are Far Beyond Level 5 Nuclear Threat: "Today it was finally acknowledged the radiation is now 10,000,000 times safety levels.

New reports stream in about how TEPCO did not do safety inspections over many years. Today another blow to their credibility:"

The Social Poets: Japan: Probable Breach, Time to Kill The Reactors, Cartoons

Plutonium Finishing Plant personnel have finished stabilizing one of the riskiest forms of plutonium-bearing materials at Hanford. Polycubes are small cubes of polystyrene impregnated with pure plutonium oxide. Hundreds of polycube items remained at PFP after being fabricated for use in criticality experiments at Hanford during the 1960s and early 1970s. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory assisted in the cleanup of these difficult materials. - Image by PNNL - Pacific Northwest National Laboratory via Flickr

The Social Poets: Japan: Probable Breach, Time to Kill The Reactors, Cartoons: "As engineers scramble to discover the details of what is happening inside the most dangerous reactor, number three, the one containing plutonium, the politicians scramble their message and the truth of information.

This week the Japanese decided to change the standard of what the plant workers are exposed to when they discovered it was 250 times the acknowledged international standard. Leave it to the dogma crowd to downplay the severity of this situation by declaring 'new standards' of radiation levels so that the plant workers are only exposed to 2.5 times their new standard."

::Videos:: Black Eyed Peas - Just Can't Get Enough

The Peas release the visual for their latest single "Just Can't Get Enough". The international stars shot this video in Japan just a week before the tsunami and quakes hit. Really dope video and our prayers still go out to all those affect be the recent disaster.

The Social Poets: Japan: Thousands Flee From Terror of Deteriorating Nuclear Situation

Image via Wikipedia

The Social Poets: Japan: Thousands Flee From Terror of Deteriorating Nuclear Situation: "As many countries increasingly do not trust what the Japanese government is telling them, a number began ordering their citizens out of the country. At the very least they are advising people to move far south of the nuclear plant site in trouble."

The Character of Nations

In an age that values cleverness over wisdom, it is not surprising that many superficial but clever books get more attention than a wise book like 'The Character of Nations' by Angelo Codevilla, even though the latter has far more serious implications for the changing character of our own nation.

The recently published second edition of Professor Codevilla’s book is remarkable just for its subject, quite aside from the impressive breadth of its scope and the depth of its insights. But clever people among today’s intelligentsia disdain the very idea that there is such a thing as “national character.”

Everything from punctuality to alcohol consumption may vary greatly from one country to another, but the “one world” ideology and the “multicultural” dogma make it obligatory for many among the intelligentsia to act as if none of this has anything to do with the poverty, corruption, and violence of much of the Third World or with the low standard of living in the Soviet Union, one of the most richly endowed nations on earth when it came to natural resources.

The Character of Nations is about far more than the fact that there are different behavior patterns in different countries — that, for example, “it is unimaginable to do business in China without paying bribes” but “to offer one in Japan is the greatest of faux pas.”

The real point is to show what kinds of behaviors produce what kinds of consequences — in the economy, in the family, in the government, and in other aspects of human life. Nor do the repercussions stop there. Government policies are not only affected by the culture of the country, but can in turn have a major impact on that culture, for good or ill.

Written in plain and sometimes blunt words, The Character of Nations is nevertheless the product of a man whose knowledge and experience span the globe, extending into economics, philosophy, and other fields, as well as encompassing the wisdom of the ancients and the follies of the moderns.

The book is an education in itself, more of an education than many students are likely to get at an Ivy League college. However, its purpose is not academic but to clarify the issues facing us all today when “the character of the American way of life is up for grabs perhaps more than ever before,” as the author puts it.

While nations differ, particular kinds of behavior produce particular kinds of results in country after country. Moreover, American society in recent years has been imitating behavior patterns that have produced negative — and sometimes catastrophic — consequences in many other countries around the world.

Among these patterns have been a concentration of decision-making power in government officials, an undermining of the role of the family, a “non-judgmental” attitude toward behavior, and a dissolution of the common bonds that hold a society together, leading to atomistic self-indulgences and group-identity politics that increasingly pits different segments of society against each other.

Those among the intelligentsia who say that we should “learn from other countries” almost invariably mean that we should imitate what other countries have done. Angelo Codevilla argues that we should learn from other countries’ mistakes, especially when those same mistakes have repeatedly produced bad results in many countries and among many very different peoples, living under very different political systems.

Putting ever more economic decisions in the hands of those with political power is just one of those mistakes with a track record of producing painful repercussions in many countries around the world. These repercussions have included not only serious economic losses but, even more important, a loss of personal freedom and self-respect, as ever-wider segments of the population become supplicants and sycophants of those with the power to dispense largess or to make one’s life miserable with legalistic or bureaucratic harassment.

We in America have taken large steps in that direction in recent years, and are accelerating our moves in that direction this year. Getting some clearer sense of what this risks is just one of many reasons to read The Character of Nations.

WRITTEN by Thomas Sowell at National Review on June 10th, 2009

Real American Hero: Donald Rudolph

They are leaving us now on a daily basis, the American armed service veterans who served and fought during the greatest military conflict in the history of the planet Earth. The youngest of the men and women who served their country, whose efforts secured freedom and democracy for generations to come, and who have survived to continue as living representatives of those long-ago days are now in their 80's. On May 30th, 2006, the advancement of age and the ravages of illness finally took from us a man who the Imperial Japanese could not. On that date, 85-year old Donald Rudolph of Minnesota died from complications of Alzheimer's disease. He left behind his wife, Helen Rudolph, who remains with us for now to tell the story to their three grandchildren of a man on whom "the fellas in his platoon relied on for leadership" and who he had said was doing "his duty to protect them because they were going to protect him." The story of Donald Rudolph, particularly his actions on February 5th, 1945, is one that deserves to be known and remembered by all Americans. On that day few realized that the world was entering the final months of what had been a conflict which had raged across the globe for more than five years. Just a few weeks earlier, American forces fighting in the Pacific theatre against Japan had stormed the main island of Luzon in the Philippines and began a 110-mile drive on the capital city of Manila. They were involved in the process of liberating island-by-island the territories that the Japanese had invaded, conquered, and subjugated over the past few years. On that early February day, Don Rudolph was a Sergeant and platoon leader with the Army's 20th infantry, Sixth infantry division which was engaged in a pitched battle for the heavily fortified town of Munoz. Rudolph was administering first aid to a wounded soldier when his platoon suddenly came under heavy fire from a group of Japanese who were concealed in a culvert. He grabbed his rifle and some grenades, and moved forward with his men supporting him with their own rifle cover. He reached the culvert safely and was able to take out three of the Japanese soldiers there, and then he began to make his way across open ground to attack some pillboxes which were housing Japanese machine guns. On reaching the first he tossed a grenade through an opening there. Not thinking the job done, Rudolph then tore the cover off the pillbox with his bare hands and dropped another grenade inside. He moved on to a 2nd pillbox and utilized a pickax to bust it open, then took out its combatants with rifle fire and another grenade. He continued to move along the pillboxes, taking out six more, when suddenly a Japanese tank arrived and began to attack their platoon. Sergeant Rudolph leaped atop the tank and dropped a grenade through the turret, killing the Japanese crew. In the aftermath, for his actions he was given a battlefield commission to the rank of Lieutenant. On August 23rd, just ten days before the Japanese would formally surrender, President Harry S. Truman presented Lt. Donald Rudolph with the Medal of Honor stating that in acting in "complete disregard for his own safety" Rudolph had "cleared a path for an advance which culminated in one of the most decisive victories of the Philippine campaign." Unlike many of his fellow service persons in his 'Greatest Generation', Don Rudolph went on to live a long, healthy life. He finally retired from military service in 1963, and was later marching in a Minneapolis Veteran's Day parade in 1969 when he was interviewed and said "When I see that flag, it does something to me inside. I want to jump up and salute." What a sentiment. It is important that we not only share his sentiment, but that we also remember to jump up and salute the real American heroes such as Donald Rudolph whose actions have made and continue to make freedom possible both in the United States and around the world. NOTE: This is the continuation of the 'Real American Heroes' series remembering U.S. military heroes, all the entries of which you can view by clicking on to that below label. Thanks as always to the www.mishalov.com website.

Pearl Harbor Ignited Nation in Faith

I was trying to think of an appropriate way to blend my usual 'Sunday Sermon' article with a remembrance of Pearl Harbor Day. I could have just went with two separate articles, but there had to be many connections between faith and the events of December 7th, 1941 when the Japanese attacked the U.S. Naval forces at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. This sneak attack, which directly ushered America into World War II, resulted in President Franklin D. Roosevelt calling that Sunday morning "A date which will live in infamy!" Hawaii was a U.S. territory at the time, it would not become a full state until 1959, and it was a major American naval outpost in the South Pacific. The United States had never been attacked directly from an outside enemy, considering the Civil War as a purely internal struggle. So as the 353 Japanese bombers continually descended over Pearl without warning on that peaceful, sunny Sunday morning and began their devastating bombing and strafing runs, the significant American forces stationed there were taken completely by surprise. The Japanese inflicted tremendous damage that morning in an attempt to keep America from influencing their plans to dominate Southeast Asia. Numerous American ships and aircraft were destroyed and damaged, while 2,402 Americans lost their lives at Pearl and another 1,282 were wounded. The Japanese were allies of the Germans, and Hitler and his Nazi regime was already engaged in overrunning Europe. The Americans had tried to stay out of the war to this point, but in the aftermath of the attack at Pearl, Hitler declared war on the United States as an ally of Japan. At that time the U.S. was not the most powerful nation on earth, it was a budding military power that was still trying to fully emerge from the internal struggle of its lengthy economic Depression of the 1930's. America's passions were enflamed by this attack and the deaths of so many young servicepersons, and the nation was rallied to open their eyes to the full scope of the danger in sitting back and not engaging the Nazis and the Japanese Imperialists. When you look closely at the basic elements of the key nations in the titanic struggle that was WWII, one stands out above all to any person of faith. The Germans and the Japanese cultures were overrun by Nazis and Imperialists, and in Italy the Socialists were in charge. Combined they were known as the 'Axis' powers who wanted to spread their ideologies and power, and none had a place for God. The Americans and British and the rest of what became known as the 'Allies' were largely God-fearing nations who frequently called on their faith to sustain during difficult times. That faith should always be appreciated by anyone who analyzes the eventual victory of the Allies in this epic struggle. A victory by the Allies signified a victory for freedom, democracy, and religious faith over the purely secular Axis regimes. Americans flooded their churches during these periods, praying for the health and safety of their loved ones, and for victory for our side. At home, they drew strength from this faith and forged one of the greatest industrial responses that mankind has ever seen, turning America's manufacturing capabilities from civilian purposes to military, allowing us to eventually overtake what had been a military superiority for the Axis at the outset. On the battlefields, in the skies, and on the seas, American military personnel were overwhelmingly Christian, prayed regularly, and turned to their faith during the difficult battles and circumstances in which they found themselves. I have no doubt that the one true God hears the prayers of His faithful. He allows our free will and our human choices to lead events here on earth, but he will intervene at the worst times when the direction of humanity itself is at stake. I have no doubt that God Himself intervened at numerous key times to give an ultimate advantage to the Allied forces in World War II. He granted us this intervention because we did not turn our backs on Him, and in fact turned even more towards Him during this difficult time. The lesson that we can learn is that it is important to turn to the Lord during difficult times in both our national and personal experiences. But we should also not return to a spiritual malaise when things are going well. Man's nature has always been to drift away from God when things are going good, thinking that we are doing well without Him when the truth is that it is His very blessings that put us in such a good position. We all need to turn more to God, in good times and in bad. Pearl Harbor became a rallying cry for the 'greatest generation', but there is question as to whether today's America can possibly respond in the same way to an existential threat, such as that from Radical Islam. We have drifted steadily away from God as a society and a nation since the end of WWII. We need to remember on this Sunday, December 7th, that Sunday morning 67 years ago, and never forget the blessings that God has given our nation throughout its history. God bless the living Veteran survivors of that fateful day. Their work, their sacrifice, their faith lives on now in fame, not in infamy.