GOD SAVE US...THINGS AND PEOPLE

Coal, natural gas, and petroleum…

Thank God for fossil fuels and the ability to harvest them.

God save us from nuclear fuel.

And God save us from people and national party represented by charlie schumer and harry reid.

I hope you have heard the recording of chuckie’s phone conversation.

God save us.

WISDOM, THE ALBATROSS..HOW SWEET IT IS

There are bits of good news emerging from the chaos of the recent tsunami. We quote from the msm:

Bird experts feared that Wisdom, the oldest known wild bird in the U.S. was one of thousands of albatrosses killed when the tsunami spawned by Japan's earthquake swept across the Pacific Ocean on March 11.

But the 60-year-old [emphasis mine] Laysan albatross survived and was seen last week, feeding her recently hatched chick on a remote atoll near Hawaii.

The tsunami washed over several atolls and killed at least 2000 adult albatrosses and 110,000 chicks, officials at the Hawaiian and Pacific Islands National Wildlife Refuge Complex said.

Refuge Project director Barry Stieglitz said researchers are in awe of Wisdom and her ability to endure. '

It's also very humbling to known that this 8-pound bird has been producing chicks longer than I've been alive,' he said.

How sweet it is!!

PIPER BILL MILLIN...SAVOR THE STORY

This is a story that movies have been made about...and it is true.
I love it.
I pass it on.....
Please check out the link below....
I hope the London Telegraph keeps it alive for awhile.

God bless Scotland!


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/military-obituaries/special-forces-obituaries/7952729/Piper-Bill-Millin.html

A RECENT CONVERSATION

An acquaintance assures me that one reason she is proud of her church is that it is a ‘thinking church’, a fellowship of believers who think for themselves and are able to avoid oversimplification and erroneous conclusions about matters of faith.

This same person then proceeds to make oversimplified and erroneous statements about various historical and current world affairs – totally at odds with her professed desire to be a thinking person and totally at odds with verifiable reality.

The point: we are human and we are inconsistent. I am terribly guilty of this human condition.

But it both amuses and worries me when so many folks suffer from this same limitation – especially when they are opinion makers and leaders of our nation.
And when they are voters.

It is a truism that never before has so much data been available to the ordinary citizen.

It is also a truism that never before has so much data been ignored by the ordinary citizen.

It follows that we are an extraordinarily ignorant ordinary citizenry.

PERHAPS SOME GOOD WILL COME OF IT

At The Study, we pray for justice and peace for the people of Libya.

And we pray for something in addition for the people of the United States:

hopefully, the manner in which b.o. has prepared and launched the US intervention in Libya will once and for all expose him for what he is to those Americans who up to now have refused to see
the kind of President he really is.

Check out the link below.

We know people who resemble the young lady.
We see such people in the msm on a daily basis.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/03/028681.php

IN CASE YOU BREAK ONE...

The US Government has decided that the American public must light the night with new fluorescent bulbs.
We are no longer to be able to buy the old bulbs we grew up with, the normal looking ones.

And, the Government warns that we should observe certain procedures if we should break one.
You no longer can just sweep them up.

Below are the safeguards, as reported by the msm:

The Environmental Protection Agency has posted a list of clean-up instructions, in case one of the compact fluorescent bulbs breaks:
--Have people and pets leave the room
--Air out the room for 5-10 minutes
--Shut off the heating/air-conditioning system
--Be thorough in collecting broken glass and visible powder
--Place cleanup materials in a sealable container
--Put all bulb debris and cleanup materials outdoors in a trash container or protected area
--Continue to air out the room where the bulb was broken
--Leave the heating/air conditioning system shut off for several hours.

You can still find the traditional incandescent bulbs on some store shelves. For now.
The last plant that made them in the U.S. moved its light bulb operation to China in September.

No.
They gotta be kidding.
This could not be.

Read the whole article in the link below.

We've come a long way, Baby!

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/03/22/republicans-try-block-new-light-bulb-restrictions/?test=latestnews

SOFT POWER..."ON THE FLY"...

Isn't it wonderful how b.o.'s soft power has made the world a safer place, so superior to the brutish hard power of the previous many generations of American diplomacy?

Yeah.......

We are really better off now than ever before.

The world really does now love the United States...and trusts and seeks to please the American President.

When we attack other countries now, we really plan ahead and know exactly how things are going to come out.

Our Secretary of Defense would never say....."We did this on the fly."

TRUTH AND GOODNESS

50+ years ago, our football coach told us boys that if we played to win and not to save ourselves from injury, that we would have the best chance to win every game.

At the funeral recently of a Dear Lady, I came across the following verse by Henry Van Dyke:

Who seeks for heaven alone to save his soul
May keep the path, but will not reach the goal;
While he who walks in love may wander far,
Yet God will bring him where the blessed are.

Neat how we can find truth and goodness in so many places.

GOD WILLING...

There is a lot to think about these days.

There is lots of good stuff.

But my goodness, the other kind of stuff is on the plate as well.

Thoughtful Americans have every right to be concerned about the obvious things:

1 the terrible problems facing Japan - new ones are surfacing
2 intervention in Libya
3 Iraq and Afghanistan
4 the economy
5 energy

I will stop with the above incomplete list and briefly, very briefly say the following:

b.o. as launched the US into a third war;

he has misstated the real reason for the intervention - the removal of a real enemy of the US and the region and even the world, alleging reasons that do not make sense in light of inhumane atrocities being committed by several other regional regimes;

he is alleging minimal US involvement or leadership and no use of US ground forces;

he is denying that regime change is a goal having already stated that the president of Libya [I don't have time to check spelling right now] has to go;

in short, b.o. is once again seriously truthfully challenged ;

b.o.'s fudging of the role of the US in this suggests that he is demeaning the intelligence of much of the world he is trying to avoid aggravating ;

his continuation of his trip to South America is a disgrace - if only in regard to image....and image is very, very important in these matters, whether or not he realizes it;

He does not realize a lot of things;

We at The Study believe that he is upsetting a lot of his advisors, those who are not equally ignorant.

We look forward to the next Presidential election...

We hope things will hold together and work out in the meantime.

We think they will.

God willing.

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 101

Being the last great hope of the civilized world, indeed, of the world, is not an easy job.
It takes guts.

It takes a willingness to sacrifice a lot of things….
On of those things is the luxury of observing personal standards of moral, ethical behavior as defined by the political correctness of the contemporary world.

This is not to say that a leader of the free world is expected to be a monster.

It is to say that he or she has, at times, to act in ways which would not be appropriate for your neighbor next door.

Many folks in the sheltered communities of the US simply do not understand this fact of international relations.

The reason for this is that there is no effective international police force; court; or mechanism for the enforcement of international law.

There is international law.

There is no international government.

Therefore, the world beyond the borders of the US and the civilized world is a flaming jungle – a place where the barbarians are waiting to kill, rape, and destroy you in an unbelievable variety of ways.

This is not debatable.
This is not maybe the case.
This is not believed by a lot of Americans and Europeans and other such civilized folk.
This is the truth.

Therefore, the leader(s) of the civilized, free world have to be prepared to do things which you might not want to do yourself.

To wit, the leaders of the free world have to inform their peoples that his or her and their duty is to maintain the reputation, the prestige of the leader nations so that those nations do not always have to actually kill their enemies.

If the leader nation(s) possess sufficient prestige, reputation, so that their declarations are believed….if there is no doubt that they mean what they say and that the consequences will be inevitable…it is most likely that mere words will carry the day.

It is at least more likely.

If the leaders are not believed, they will have to keep proving, over and over again, that they have what it takes.

This is not likely, it is a fact.

Such proof costs…in blood and treasure.

How much better to simply announce a policy and have it believed.

No prestige – no belief.

Prestige – belief.

Elementary, my dear Watson.

Our President is often truthfully challenged.

He is often not believed.

So much the worse for all of us.

PAX AMERICANA

The US has acted to impose peace in North Africa.
The reasons are several.

As was the case in the invasion of Iraq, the US Government is not stating all of those reasons.

The reason for the editing of the causes is that the American public, much as was the case with the British public during the inception and development of the British Empire, is not, in the opinion of the US Government, prepared to support the progress of American imperial growth, a growth which we at The Study have watched and believed in over the course of the last half century.

Most of our acquaintances have never agreed with us.

But the fact grows ever clearer.

Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Libya.

The US military is in Saudi Arabia.
Israel is a valuable client state, a most valuable ally indeed.
There are US assets in a number of the Emirates.

Assets are propositioned in the Indian Ocean.

At least twelve, possibly thirteen carrier battle groups patrol the oceans.
I will not at this time even try to name other examples of US deployments of PERSIA influences: politics; economic; religious; scientific/social; intellectual; and artistic, to use an acronym.

Heaven knows how many US submarines are deployed.

The US Navy and Air Force are not stressed.

The Army and Marines are under intense pressure…and that condition has to be on the minds of the military planners.

And so it goes.

And once again, as stated above, at least as important are all the other non-military aspects of the US hegemony: the diplomatic, economic, social, cultural pressures which the American civilization is exerting on huge portions of the world.

The lingua franca is English…a fact of life initiated by the British Empire and continued by the American behemoth [not the right word, but it is late].

Finally, for this entry, the US will be of major importance in helping Japan deal with the current crises.

The world should thank God for the United States of America.

The above realities must be driving the libs crazy.

PLEASE NOTE

The United States has taken on another tyrant…

Whether it should take on that tyrant or not can be argued….

But note, this time, the President of the United States is not a Texas Cowboy!

Got that???

This time, the President of the United States is not a Texas Cowboy!!

Whatever will the msm do with this bit of a contradiction?

GOD BLESS IRELAND

I’ve begun to reread a favorite set of books…a three-volume history of the British Empire – by James Morris.
I have read it several times and refer to it frequently, but it has been years since a thorough read thru.

It is relaxing.

It tells the story of the rise and fall of a unique institution – very likely the most important institution of international consequence in history, certainly in modern history, whatever modern history is.

It is a familiar story to me in big picture. Many details I have forgotten, but there is a lifelong awareness of parts of the big picture, and reading over the good parts imparts a soothing influence.

These are days which need soothing influences.

It is St. Pat’s Day….

A dear friend sent the following gift to me this day…check it out:

http://www.andiesisle.com/ThisBlessingIsForYou.html

A true soothing influence.

The situation in Japan is so horrible in so many ways…and it came out of the blue, so unexpected…at least the magnitude of the quake and resultant wave…
And the nuclear horrors….
The human suffering and pain and all that is involved in that….
Beyond the scope of my writing tonight….
One of the great economies and cultures of the world so severely injured….

And now there is the Libyan war with imminent international action said to be about to happen.

And the war in Afghanistan goes on…crowded out of the news….and the problems in Iraq, tho hopefully improving…

And our own economic problems….

And the incredible energy policy of the national democrats…
The dithering of our government in the face of all these threats…..

Go to the website referenced above…

It will do you good…..

May the road rise to meet ye….
And the sun be always …you know where.

Take care.

These are hard times.

THE REAL DANGER TO THE WORLD

Japan has just suffered a catastrophic natural event.

Tectonic plates, after a long period of immobility, have shifted.

And the horror story is by no means over.

Aftershocks of great energy could occur in a day, a week, a month, even years later, aftershocks to this very event.

But there is the potential for another, even more serious consequence: nuclear power plants are in danger.

At last hearing, there were two such power plants endangered by lack of coolant and the means to operate the machines which cool nuclear fuel.

I have to say it…if the plants in question were coal fired or natural gas powered or even oil fired, there would be no such follow up problem.

I know, the greens will whine that there would then be air pollution…

Well, dear greens, the world, yes, the world, is now faced with a different kind of air pollution….

It is called nuclear fallout.

I suggest that a modern, emission scrubbed fossil fuel power plant is the way to go….

Because, no matter how clean and green a process is, as the nuclear fans are always claiming, some day, some way, it will fail and spill something which is most unpleasant.

I submit that coal, natural gas, and oil emissions might just be easier to deal with than nuclear fallout.

'Tis a no brainer.

IT HELPS TO VENT

It is so easy to be negative, but my goodness….there is really a lot to think about.

And Dear Gramma used to say…”A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.”

So what does one do when he or she has an opinion which is based on sources which are available to everyone…not special in any way? Just little bits of knowledge here and there.

If one enjoys writing and discoursing and debating …arguing…then one is faced with the dilemma: ignore Dear Grandma’s advice and hold forth or keep one’s thoughts to oneself.

At The Study, we believe that having opinions and expressing them in a respectful way whenever possible is one of the delights of life…so compatible with the good things: good food; good drink; good company; and even, sometimes, when possible in light of recent legislation, good cigars or a fragrant pipe.

A few brief observations on this cold, dark, rainy/snowy late winter Michigan night, knowing that at best we can have but a partial understanding of international realities:

The international community, a misleading word indeed, is presently undergoing severe readjustment.

Various nations are working to destabilize the order which does exist.

A number of nations cannot cope constructively with the forces which are in play even though they would like to if they could.

The community does not possess judicial, legislative, or executive authority equal to the task of protecting an international system for the good of all members.

The one nation economically and militarily powerful enough to ameliorate the most destructive scenarios is presently, as has often been the case in the past, undecided about what it must do in the many arenas which cry out for help.

That nation is, of course, the United States of America.

National leadership and the people do not agree on how to deal with the seemingly inevitable growth of the American Empire…

Yes, the accurate word is Empire.

It grows… and it will continue to do so.

It grows with a life of its own.

The Study became aware of a new wrinkle in the Libyan conundrum, an example of how US interests are mixed up in situations all over the world without most people being even slightly aware: the Government of the US is subsidizing the work of hundreds of scientists in Libya to enable them to apply their scientific skills to peaceful persuits instead of toward…you guessed it…the development of weapons of various mass destructions.

The fate of the welfare of those persons is currently of great concern to the US Government, as well it should be, for obvious reasons.

And there is the Peoples’ Republic of China; North Korea; Iran; Syria; Russia; piracy; and on and on and on.
The world used to know what to do with pirates.

We await the verdicts in this case.

And the energy crisis – the refusal of the b.o. Admin to allow development of North American oil reserves…INSANITY…

And the nascent riots of Americans against state and local governments…so reminiscent of the French and London riots of a year or two ago against their governments.
Those were large scale.
The American versions were relatively small.
But the hard working unionists have vowed: "You ain't seen nuttin' yet."

And the insane policy of ethanol subsidy so important to elements of the US Government.

And then I read in the Lenten Message of the Presiding Bishop of TEC that ethanol production is the fault of US gass guzzlers….AND NOT THE FAULT OF THE b.o. GOVERNMENT AND INTEREST GROUPS AND FARMERS…she would have us believe that we are contributing to rising food prices because we drive too much….AND NOT BECAUSE MISGUIDED LEADERS ARE COMPELLING US TO PUT CORN ALCOHOL INTO OUR GASOLINE!!!!!!!!!!!

We are told by elements of the msm that investigating homegrown Muslim terrorists via Congressional hearings will aggravate the hatred of Muslim terrorists everywhere --- say what???

Aggravate them?

How could they be any more aggravated than they already are?

Such ‘experts’ feel that hearings should be held at the same time on the KKK…to avoid any appearance of discrimination.

We tried in vain to come up with any KKK attacks against US national security since the Towers came down.

Help me out here if you can.

And then we have the spectacle of state senators running away to paralyze the democratic process.
Sorry...already touched on that one.

And there is the refusal or the inability of our national government to deal effectively with entitlements and taxation and the like.

And this is but a brief summary.

Stay safe out there.

INTERESTING PEOPLE…IN THE OBITS

You can meet the most interesting people by visiting the obituary section of the online London Telegraph….

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/

Believe me…no joke!

There are doctors and lawyers and ministers and priests and blackguards and heroes and artists and writers…and on and on and on.

Go to the website above…select obituaries…scroll down the list, select pictures and/or articles of interest…..and, practically guaranteed….read to your heart’s content.

Try it.