Week in Review

So much has been happening it is hard to know where to begin or end. Let’s see, well our esteemed Supreme Court ruled that it was OK for townships to open their meetings with a moment of prayer. Or were they solely addressing themselves to the question of that upstate New York town and their “chaplain of the month selections?

I don’t know, I just don’t know. But I bet the first town to spin the prayer wheel and come up with a Muslim cleric is going to find some opposition to: “Say: He is Allah, the One; Allah, the Eternal, Absolute; He begetteth not, nor is He begotten, and there is none like unto Him.”  [Al-Qur’an 112:1-4]

And now you may proceed with your meeting.

What else?

Oh yes, out west there was a seemingly major computer glitch when airports from Los Angeles to Las Vegas had to wave off arriving flights for a time. The first report was that the controllers were experiencing a computer problem. It later turned out the problem was due to a U-2 spy plane in the area that was causing the computers to “burn up” trying to keep this plane flying between 60,000 and 70,000 feet from colliding with commercial aircraft flying at a much lesser altitude.

It’s always a little embarrassing when the United States gets caught performing spy missions. Heh heh heh.

But not to worry the U.S. Air Force plans to retire their old leftover U-2 planes within the next few years.

The biggest news to hit my in-box this week is that the U.S. Climate Change has already changed. But how can that be, there is no such thing as “climate change” it is all just a story that was made up to scare people.

Hmmm, yeah, pretty sure I heard that on Fox News. I will double check though.

Latest reports have searchers still looking for the lost plane and for the Toronto Mayor.

Arches Half a World Apart

The Arch - St. Louis, MO 

This is the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri.  It was built as a monument to the westward expansion of the United States. It stands 630 feet tall and cost  $13 million dollars to build in 1965, in today’s dollars that would be about $97 million.

Today another arch is being built in Chernobyl, Ukraine. It won’t be a monument to westward expansion but rather and hopefully a containment structure for the radioactive dust left over from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in April 1986.

The cost for this project is estimated to be $1.5 billion, largely financed by the United States and thirty other nations. Oh, yes, the United States – I mean you have heard about this, right?

There is a great story in the New York Times about this Chernobyl Arch. It is an interesting read and has some great accompanying photos.

The article explains a little on how Chernobyl was different from the other nuclear disasters: Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979 and Fukushima in 2011. In the case of Chernobyl the reactors literally exploded, spewing radioactive material into the atmosphere.

Now almost thirty years later work is still being attempted to get a handle of this. The problem is no one knows exactly what to do, but they try. They experiment with this and with that. People put their lives at risk to help and time passes and then years go by, but still they try.

Take a look at the article it is interesting and you won’t find in on the nightly news. It just doesn’t have that “wow” factor that other news stories have these days.

Here is an excerpt:

"During the accident, the heat was so intense that the fuel liquefied, melting concrete and other materials it came in contact with in the rubble of the explosion. The highly radioactive mixture — often resembling volcanic lava — poured through ducts and other openings into a warren of spaces below the reactor, hardening as it cooled. In some places the material resembles waterfalls frozen in place."

The Arch - Chernobyl, Ukraine

Puppy or Child? So hard to choose.

While Congress battles and the economy lags the children in America continue to suffer. In December of 2013 the number of homeless children in the United States set a new record high. There were 1.2 million public school children homeless, a 72% increase since the last recession.

I guess most of us live were we don't have to encounter children living in cardboard boxes and eating food from trash cans. We are the fortunate ones. If you don't see it, it doesn't exist.

Every time I see a plea that shows those forlorn little dogs with the Adopt Me message my first reaction is to think of children like this little girl pictured here. It sometimes is such a toss up. Both are cute and helpless. They even share extreme abuse.

Puppies get kicked and doused with gasoline and little children get punched and some are used as a place to stub out a cigarette. Treatment like this whether on animals or children is unacceptable. 

I don't know how people can sit back and do nothing when we have hurting Americans on our streets. Not government's job to help out you say? Fine, then who's job is it, yours and mine? Maybe we should act the advocate to help this little girl pictured here and that little boy over there huddled on the curb.

But if we aren't willing to step up and provide a home, a temporary shelter for the homeless then who will do it?

Here is a link if you would like more information http://nationalhomeless.org on how you can begin to help.