Deep in the bowels of Washington, hidden from public scrutiny and prying cameras, there is an illicit underworld where people are subtle, reasonable and interesting. I have occasionally been admitted to this place, the land of RIP (Reasonable in Private).
Put simply: Happy viewing. Although navigating the world of online war videos is at best a haphazard venture, there is enough material to provide as clear a view into the lives of combat, boredom and pointless amusement of the soldiers in Iraq as one will find anywhere.
On this particular video:
A characteristic and terrifying example of the invisible menace posed by insurgents is a YouTube video in which a camera lying on a barracks floor during an intense mortar attack captures troops praying and screaming as rounds land ever closer to their position.
In short, the U.S. has taken its share of blows over the past few years, but the isolationist dog is not barking. The hegemon will change. The hegemon will do more negotiating. But the hegemon will live.
On the afternoon of Oct. 7, 1974, a mob of 200 enraged whites, many of them students, closed in on a bus filled with black students that was trying to pull away from the local high school. The people in the mob were in a high-pitched frenzy. They screamed racial epithets and bombarded the bus with rocks and bottles. The students on the bus were terrified.
Does the United States, the real country, exist in the French mind, or has America become a kind of Gallic fantasy, a dark specter to be deployed for political ends, a sort of ultimate negative against which the qualities of France shine?
and Americans use France too often as a bête noir of course their are silly fantasies about America but this is the silliness that is all too often found on the British, American, French, Venezuelan etc Left and it isn't always silly I particularly admire the way the writer juxtaposes two sentences
The real U.S. unemployment rate, it is preposterously suggested, is not 5.1 percent, but 9 percent. America under Bush has no interest in international law because its sole international aim is "the promotion of the American empire."
the implication of this dovetailing is that because proposition 1 is deeply flawed then proposition 2 is thus equally ridiculous I would argue that there is a political element in America that is part of a tradition which endorsed "manifest destiny" and that implicitly or explicitly the idea of an "American Empire" is a thread within American political discourse. The idea of the "American Empire" is not seen as quite so risible in many other parts of the world. There is a thrust towards a uni-polar world and restistance towards a multilateral approach. Sometimes others reflect back at you a slightly distorted picture of who you are or how you see yourself but that does not mean that distorted though it may be the image is completely fanciful. There is an ongoing battle for global hegemony. The West has been winning that struggle since the great age of discovery and Magellan. Europe dominated the world generally through colonialism and the British Empire specifically. The Western ideas of democracy, communism and fascism dominated the planet in the 20th century. Currently the West is at war with the totalitarian model of Islam. This is a struggle it will win. But what sort of West and world will emerge. Will the Western hegemony mean America? Does it automatically mean empire? No. Could it mean empire? Yes. In many respects I want and believe in American hegemony. But will the real America please stand up. There are many visions of what America is! Was! Or what it could be! Does American hegemony mean the rule of law, democracy, free speech, Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Berkley, Minnesota, Texas, a Wall-Mart in every town on the planet, napalm, Bush's blindness, the men of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment at Bastogne? What does it mean? All of those? Only the nice bits and not the KKK redoubts in Montana?
NASA Commemorates Apollo 1, Challenger, and Columbia
Topic: Science
7:44 am EST, Jan 29, 2007
Exactly 40 years ago, NASA registered the first casualties in its battle for outer-space: Lt. Colonel Gus Grissom, Lt. Colonel Ed White and Lt. Commander Roger Chaffee died on the ground because of a fire that burst in their space-capsule.
NASA thought of remembering their names and their sacrifice with a special section dedicated to Apollo 1 on the agency’s site: “NASA honors the fallen heroes of Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia and all of those who have given their lives in the cause of exploration and discovery. We will carry their legacy into cosmos as we expand humanity’s presence to the moon, Mars and beyond.”
Tragedy struck on the launch pad during a preflight test for Apollo 204, scheduled to be the first Apollo manned mission. It would have been launched on February 21, 1967, but Astronauts Virgil Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee lost their lives when a fire swept through the Command Module (CM).
On January 28, 1986 America was again shocked by the destruction of the space shuttle Challenger, and the death of its seven crew members.
Challenger, the second orbiter to become operational at Kennedy Space Center, was named after an American Naval research vessel that sailed the Atlantic and Pacific oceans during the 1870's. Challenger joined NASA fleet of reusable winged spaceships in July 1982. It flew nine successful Space Shuttle missions. On January 28, 1986, the Challenger and its seven-member crew were lost 73 seconds after launch when a booster failure resulted in the breakup of the vehicle.
In February 2003, as Columbia was making final preparations for landing, the families of the 7 astronauts on board the space-vehicle were traveling to Kennedy Space Center to watch their loved ones’ homecoming.
Columbia and its crew were scheduled to land at Space Center at 9:16 a.m. Shortly before 9:00AM EST, Mission Control noticed a sensor problem. There seemed to be a loss of data from the left wing temperature sensors. This was followed by a data loss from tire pressure indicators on the left main landing gear. Although this was a problem, it could have also been a simple communication glitch. There were standard procedures in place to deal with it.
During the atmosphere re-entry, Columbia was traveling at 12,500 mph, 18 times the speed of sound, 39 miles above the Earth, when people in Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana heard unusual sounds coming from the sky. Many who were watching to see the shuttle pass overhead reported seeing debris separating from the vehicle. This was a clear indication that something was wrong. Minutes later, NASA announced that a Space Shuttle Contingency had been lost.
NASA is not planning though to stop here, as President Bush announced a bold program for the next two decades. NASA has completed the Ares I crew launch vehicle system requirements review- the first such milestone for a U.S. human-rated launch vehicle system in more than 30 years. This review brings the agency one step closer to developing a new mode of space transportation for astronauts on missions to explore the moon, Mars and other destinations.
In January 2007, the Ares project will begin the second in a series of design analyses cycles leading to final design and fabrication of the launch vehicle.
I have linked the NASA site where they are having a day of rememberance to honor those lost...the original article for this text is here
Vietnam Shades Warner's Iraq Stand - washingtonpost.com
Topic: Current Events
7:53 am EST, Jan 28, 2007
Virginia Sen. John W. Warner's words betray the guilt he still carries about the Vietnam War and help explain why this pillar of the Republican establishment is leading a bipartisan revolt against the war plans of a president in his own party.
