Thursday, October 4, 2012

Hawaii is a state of mind

If you have ever been to Hawaii on one or more of the islands you know what I'm talking about. Everyone walks around a little slower and often are a lot nicer than where you came from. Living in paradise will usually lift most people's spirits like that. Things mostly function on "Island time" or "Hawaii time" except for things like planes and more formal businesses. Everyone who lives or who lived (like myself in the past) in Hawaii knows living "Anywhere" on the islands is a privilege and doesn't take it for granted usually at all. After all, how many actual paradises are there left on earth where it is beautiful and relatively safe and clean water and air abound along with all the papayas and coconuts you can eat while snorkeling or surfing between meals and listening to the ocean as you fall asleep at night?

Taking a snorkel boat to Lanai from Lahaina or to Molokini islet is one of the ways to enjoy yourself if you are so inclined with your significant other and friends and relatives. In about 15 minutes because of the speed of the very large Zodiac type of boats used you will be at your destination swimming with dolphins and sea turtles often. They likely can carry about 50 snorklers to the crystal clear waters with coral heads, dolphins, sea turtles and what seems like an infinite array of tropical fish. When I did this I have had a little trouble on the ocean with sea sickness. So, when I covered my mouth that time to urp up whatever was going to come up into the ocean a whole school of fish were very happy. The first mate of the boat who looked like an Olympic swimmer and very tanned said, "Hey. Those fish are changing color. They do that whenever they eat. You made them very happy. So, even though I was sort of neutral at the time it does make a nice and true story about what really happened. But, my 23 year old daughter is a lot like me at that age and free dived down to about 30 feet just with a snorkel. I have been down to about 40 to 50 feet just with a snorkel but by that time it feels like your lungs are about to burst as you break through the surface of the ocean for a breath of air. But at 64 I prefer to be just on the surface in case I get motion sickness because getting that way 30 to 40 feet down could be fatal. So, I stay on the surface now at this age with a noodle float watching my "Snorkel" Buddy my 23 year old daughter go down deep into the coral reefs off  Lanai Island a few hundred feet or less off the beaches of Lanai. That particular day we first saw the renegade "Spinner" dolphin that the captain of the boat identified by their separation from the main group of several hundred dolphins. These renegades tend to be teenagers too rude to hang out always with the main group which contains mothers, babies and fully adult male "Spinner" dolphins. They are small in size (about 5 to 6 feet long) (Look up Google images for "Spinner dolphins").

We also saw several Sea Turtles which were about the size of a small circular breakfast table top or smaller in size. One was about a little larger than a large laptop unfolded. I had seen some of these types only larger north of Lahaina a little on the coast there a couple of years ago. Our travel agent when parasailing with my wife and she also had access to a really nice condo right on the ocean where you could look right out upon the sea turtles from her on the ocean veranda and sliding glass door.

Here is a sample of how clear the water was so you could see the coral heads from the boat even before you got into the water off Lanai Island:

The best time of year for Hawaii likely depends upon what you want to do there. Summer is usually too hot for most people (even locals) but fall and spring are nice. The most expensive time to go is during December and early January and around Easter but what is called "High Season" which is from around December until about April sometime is the most expensive time generally to go. I personally like Fall or spring and since fall works best for my high school daughter that is a better time for my family if we decide to come here for a week or so to the islands. The only thing is it is hard to go back home to northern California because two weeks later Halloween is coming and usually the coldest windy days in Northern California are around Thanksgiving. Once any major storms start coming there it is usually not as cold because clouds tend to hold in the heat during storms but when there are no clouds and a lot of wind in December Northern California can get cold (relatively speaking) which means where I live it might get down to 35 or 36 or even below freezing a couple of nights. But most of the year where I live it stays between 45 and about 80 to 90 at the very hottest but averages about 60 to 65 year around generally speaking for daytime highs. Whereas southern California on the Coast might average 70 to 75 year around with highs up to 110 to 115 or higher in places like Palm Springs (125 degrees Fahrenheit some days) and Death Valley(Even higher than Palm Springs) But these places are also the warmest in the coldest winter days with temperatures usually in the 70s or higher even in the dead of winter during the days.

Anyway, Aloha! everyone. And Remember Hawaii is a state of mind that you can take with you anywhere!

I was thinking today about Amitabha's pure land called "The Land of Pure Joy" and realized it reminded me of Hawaii. Because if there is a physical land of pure joy it must be Hawaii! Maybe physically the closest place to heaven most people will ever get while still alive is Hawaii.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Hawaii

In 1962 I started surfing which had it's ties to Hawaii with Hawaiian Kings and Kuhunas (scientist medicine men something like Merlin type of people in a different culture) started surfing and over the centuries it was taken up by many people in many different nations. In the 1930s huge long boards made of wood and very heavy (about 100 to 135 pounds) were surfed on in places like Santa Cruz, in California and in the Los Angeles area on some beaches there. My ex- father in law when he was alive surfed these boards before he joined the Navy as an ensign just before World War II started. He with  his young wife as a civilian wife were stationed at Pearl Harbor where his destroyer was located the day of Pearl Harbor on December 7th 1941. When the bombardment started he was the first main deck officer as a 21 year old ensign to arrive at the ship so he had to take command and to take it out to sea while under fire as a 21 year old ensign in command of a Destroyer for the first time. The other officers who survived the bombardment were brought aboard later out to sea in secret on a shuttle craft like a PT-boat or something like that that was small and moved very fast across the water out to sea.

So, back in 1962 when I was 14 my friend who was 15 and I talked my parents into driving us to Huntington Beach from Glendale where we lived then to rent Surfboards. This was my first surfing experience. We got pretty beat up that day by the waves driving our boards into our shins and hitting up under our chins and our knees got sore because we were new to longboards and had to get used to them. But, we had both body surfed and boogie boarded? (What we rode in on then were like smaller air mattresses because I don't think boogie boards had been invented yet and if they had they were not as well known as they are now. So, in time we learned to have fun and ride waves in without injuring ourselves. So, by age 15 I wore the surfer locks which then was your hair down over one side of your face and if possible your hair over your collar. Also, then we wore Pendleton wool shirts with a white t-Shirt underneath with white socks and tennis shoes and the pants were cut high from the ground were always Levi Jeans and often had metal button up fronts to show you were a serious surfer then in the Los Angeles area. Skateboarding had just started about 1960 and soon after boys started taking their wood into wood shop to create surfboard like looking skateboards somewhat similar to the ones now.

So, even though I stopped board surfing in 1969 because my friend got injured by a fin (skeg) across his back from another surfer, I still loved the surfer talk and actions and thoughts that took me always back to Hawaii and "Hang Lose" and all that and of the Hawaiian Kings and Kahunas of old.

So, after I got married and my son was born my wife who had lived in Hawaii near Hilo before we married wanted to go back to Hawaii and live there again. So, I sold my 1966 VW bug that I called "Blue Lightning" because it was a seablue bug that I bought in 1969 and put 130,000 miles on it from 1969 to 1974 when we moved to Hawaii. So, I was busy putting around 25,000 miles a year on my bug but gas was pretty cheap relative to hourly wages then and a bug got 30 miles per gallon and I did all my own work on my but using one of the "Idiot" VW books for maintanance, adjusting valves, and changing brake linings, points, plugs etc. So, I could travel pretty cheaply all over California south north east and west on weekends or whenever I wasn't in college or having to work somewhere.

I also sold my Grand Piano that I had already moved at least 10 times into various apartments since I was 18 and given it as a High School Graduation present by my parents.

So, with the money from selling my Bug (Which was in really great shape) and my piano (likewise) we moved to Hilo, Hawaii. Though I missed my bug and piano I was really amazed to move to Hawaii to Hilo on the big island. Nearby was Kalapana Beach where legend has it that Caimu (Jesus) walked across the water and on land on the big island which was witnessed by many locals at that time in history. I thought this was interesting because of the legends of Jesus coming to the Hopi Indians in Arizona and giving them blue corn seeds to grow in areas where there is not a lot of water.

When I first landed in Hilo it was so hot I thought I was going to pass out. It was August and since it is the furthest south of all the islands it is also the closest to the equator. So, the temperatures likely were about 95 degrees Fahrenheit with close to 100% humidity which is kind of hard to take if you aren't used to living in it with that much humidity. It is sort of like a human brain doesn't really function at that temperature and since you cannot evaporate to cool your clothes are always wet. So, the only way to stay cool is to wear shorts and a T- shirt and sandals or stay indoors with Air conditioning. So, you have to sort of run on instinct and intuition which sort of worked for me. Because super brain power at that temperature just means you might pass out unless you were inside somewhere with air conditioning. And at this point we did not have air conditioning but we did have a fan and ice which was helpful at times.

At first we stayed with friends who were married. He was an engineer there and she was his wife. Later we moved and got our own house because we were traveling with our baby who was only at that point about 7 months old. But, when friends came from Alaska to visit the man was standing on the roof of our rental house and rolling down to me avocadoes almost the size of basketballs to me on the ground off the roof. However, the problem was that surrounding the house was deep grass and I was barefoot and someone had broken a bottle and not cleaned it up before we moved in and I cut my big toe and had to have about 10 to 15 stitches. This basically ended our stay in Hawaii because this meant I couldn't work because if I put my foot on the ground all my blood leaked out of my body. So, since we had no cash reserves eventually we were forced by circumstances to return to the mainland and California where my father uncle and cousin were starting a mining business. So, they brought me into this business as a working but not investing partner. This actually worked out quite well for us for several years.


I stayed away from Hawaii even though I had many amazing memories like going to the Queen's Bath on Hawaii which is gone now because it got covered over by Lava now. But, I got to swim there with my wife and baby before it was covered by Lava.

I didn't get back to Hawaii from around December  1974 when I flew out of Hilo back to San Diego  until 1989. We lived for a while in both San Diego during the weekends and working in the California deserts where my father and I and a friend of mine set up a milling company and rented mining equipment that we used in the Virginia Dale Mining district and essaying in Gila Bend, Arizona. My young wife and I divorced in 1977 in the summer and I was given custody of my 3 year old son so I raised him to adulthood by myself with help from parents, relatives, friends and my second wife who I married in 1980. With my 2nd wife I returned to Maui where I hadn't lived before in 1989. But, I had always wanted to go there because my first wife's boyfriend before me had worked on a Protea farm and said that Maui was an amazing place to live in the Islands. And when I came to Maui to escape the Loma Prieta Earthquake which I knew which week it was going to come with my family. So, I brought my family to Maui to make sure they would be safe and we watched the Earthquake happen live On CNN TV in Hana destroy many parts of Northern California and it killed about 50 people mostly on the bridge that collapsed.

The Loma Prieta earthquake, also known as the Quake of '89 and the World Series Earthquake, was a major earthquake that struck the San Francisco Bay Area of ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Loma_Prieta_earthquake -

end quote from wikipedia.

So, if you think this is very strange so did I. Just because I am a precognitive psychic all my life doesn't mean that I could emotionally deal with all the consequences of knowing so many things before they happened. I remember when I used to walk by someone who would die soon and some times it would bring me to my knees and I might begin to tear up knowing what was coming for this person and all the people who loved them. But, I always sort of realized God designed me this way for the one's he wanted to stay alive and not die by accident. But usually the one's I knew would die were going to die from a heart attack or something like that. This is a lot to carry as one human being. So, unless I can actually help people in some way I usually ask God now not to show me stuff like this anymore. So now, I only usually pick up useful things that I can actually do something about. I am a very compassionate efficient being. So, when I ask God to fine tune my senses he does. I guess I have an amazing relationship with God and always have had this kind of relationship since about age 15 or so.

So, my normal way of looking at this is thinking about how I can help whatever beings are around me in any given situation. And so if God gives me permission and I have the capability by God's Grace I usually try to change people's lives for the better whenever possible. If God doesn't want something done he makes it known to me.

For those of you who are agnostic or atheistic what I would like you to take from this is that people do whatever is possible if they are compassionate and kind. And I'm sure most of you would save people from awful deaths and bad experiences if you were allowed to also.

Tibetan Lamas have explained this type of Bodhichitta "Dharma healing and manifestations"  as being like picking up a hanky from a table. It is like all of us are connected in various ways especially when we are in proximity with each other. So, as one of us lifts the energy because God allows and helps us do this everyone's lives around us are changed for the better. And the more someone allows these blessings to take place the more they happen all the time everywhere you go and these changes move out to blocks or miles or further around a person as time goes on and one becomes more trusted and developed in this by life. So, if you are gifted and use it to help others when you are allowed to by God then he gives stronger and stronger versions of the gifts as long as you keep being responsible about what you do and whether you listen to what he and his angels say all the time. So, doing what I am talking about is a lot like being a human being that also functions like one of God's Angels here on earth all the time.


 


Turkey Fires Artillery against Syria

Turkey hits targets inside Syria after border deaths

Turkey hits targets inside Syria after border deaths

Akcakale has been fired on several times over the past few weeks
Turkey says it has fired artillery against targets inside Syria after Syrian shells killed five people in a Turkish border town.
The Turkish military shelled Syrian targets identified by radar near the border, the office of PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a statement.
Nato said it would hold an urgent meeting over the incident.
In Syria, forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad are trying to put down an 18-month-old insurgency.
Turkish territory has been hit by fire from Syria on several occasions since the uprising against President Assad began, but Wednesday's incident was the most serious.
The shells, fired from Tall al-Abyad in Syria, hit the Turkish town of Akcakale.
The dead are said to include a woman and her three children.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc was quoted as saying that Syria must be made to account for the incident and there must be a response under international law.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu contacted UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, the UN's Syria peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen after the incident, his office said.
The minister cleared his schedule and chaired an emergency meeting at the foreign ministry, it added.
Mr Rasmussen told Turkey's foreign minister that he strongly condemned the incident, a Nato spokeswoman said, and continued to follow developments in the region "closely and with great concern".
Mr Rasmussen has repeatedly said that Nato has no intention of intervening in Syria but stands ready to defend Turkey if necessary.
'Anger' Akcakale has been fired on several times over the past few weeks. Residents have been advised to stay away from the border, and more than 100 schools have been closed in the region because of the violence in neighbouring Syria.
Turkey's state-owned Anatolia news agency reported that angry townspeople had marched to the mayor's office to protest about the deaths on Wednesday.
Town mayor Abdulhakim Ayhan said: "There is anger in our community against Syria," adding that stray bullets and shells had panicked residents over the past 10 days.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said: "We are outraged that the Syrians have been shooting across their border... and regretful of the loss of life on the Turkish side." She added it was a "very dangerous" situation.
UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who is in Turkey on a trade and diplomatic visit, said he was "deeply concerned" by the casualties in Akcakale.
"We condemn all violence by the Syrian regime and demand that it avoids any repetition of today's incident on the border with Turkey," he said. "We welcome the measured response that Turkey has shown to the events on their border thus far."
Wednesday's attack is believed to be only the second time that people have died as a result of violence spilling over the border from Syria into Turkey.
Two Syrian nationals were killed on Turkish soil in April by stray bullets fired from Syria.
In Syria itself, at least 34 people have been killed and dozens wounded in a series of bomb explosions in the centre of Syria's second city, Aleppo.
The attacks levelled buildings in the city's main square. A military officers' club and a hotel being used by the military bore the brunt of the blasts, some of which were carried out by suicide car bombers.

end quote from:

Turkey hits targets inside Syria after border deaths



 

Iranian Rial loses 40% of value against dollar


Clashes and Protest Over Iran Currency Plunge Hit Tehran

The clashes were the first instance of a violent intervention over the money-changing business in Tehran since the currency, the rial, which had been gradually losing value in recent years, dropped drastically over the past week, losing 40 percent of its worth against the dollar, to a record low.
Economists have called the rial’s plunge a stark reflection of the economic pain in Iran caused in part by government mismanagement and the Western sanctions on Iran’s disputed nuclear program

end quote from:

Clashes and Protest Over Iran Currency Plunge Hit Tehran

As you can see this is very serious for people who live in Iran in regard to buying foreign goods or foreign trading of anything including currency. This big of a drop will be horrific for anyone who owns Rials worldwide. So, hopefully people have already sold their Rials and won't lose 40% of their investments right off the top because historically when something like this happens it tends to get much worse before it gets better as all the Rial holders worldwide begin to panic and to sell off their currency in Rials in the millions and billions.

 

Bad times often spur the creation of the biggest companies

Being Experimental is Mostly useful during Good Ti...

Though my article on "Being experimental-----" at the above word button is true for individuals trying to survive bad times it also should be said that companies like "Apple Computer and Microsoft" also started during times with 10 percent unemployment like we had during the early 1980s.

The reason for this is that most people are kind of in shock and only the most intelligent and creative people seem to be able to push through all this to create astounding success like Stephen Jobs, Stephen Wozniak and Bill Gates. So, I guess you could say this is a paradox that could be stated like this: "While most people are freaking out from difficulties the most exceptional people often use this time to become amazingly successful" There are periods like the 1930s, the 1940s, and during our most amazing recovery into untold wealth of the 1950s and 1960s when we became the richest most debt free nation on earth because everyone wound up owing us money around the world because we were kind of the last big nation relatively untouched by war. We were in the war but were not attacked in any major way here except for Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Because of this everyone borrowed money from the U.S. and then had to pay us back which made us the richest nation on earth during the 1950s and 1960s. Then the Viet Nam War bankrupted our nation but still we were okay because other nations were on their feet by then and loaned us money. That was the 1980s. Then 9-11 happened but this time the only nation left with enough money to loan was China, Russia and Japan so that is where most of our money was borrowed from.

The economic state of the world is actually much more serious long term now than in the 1930s and 1940s because of the fact that we are losing 1.3% of our tillable farmland worldwide every year to erosion and salinization and the fact that it takes 500 years to create 1 inch of topsoil in reality. So, either the world becomes much more efficient at growing food (80% of the food eaten is grains worldwide) or millions (likely about 10 million a year or more) will starve every year now from now on. This is something to think about if life gives you the time to because when many people starve it causes panic that moves up through the masses until the middle class and rich begin to make bad decisions as the panic touches them. So, in some ways what happens to one of us happens to all of us worldwide. So, whatever we can do to make our world more efficient and compassionate will help our world civilizations be cohesive and not break apart into warlord states without governments.

Syria conflict: Shell kills five in Turkey

Syria conflict: Shell kills five in Turkey

Syria conflict: Shell kills five in Turkey

Smoke rises over the streets after a shell landed from Syria in the Turkish border village of Akcakale, south-eastern Sanliurfa province, 3 October 2012 Akcakale has been fired on several times over the past few weeks
Turkey has contacted the UN and Nato after Syrian shells killed five people in a Turkish town near the border between the two countries.
The shells exploded after being fired into Akcakale from Tall al-Abyad in Syria, where forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad are trying to put down an 18-month-old insurgency.
The dead are said to include a woman and her three children.
Later, reports said Turkey had struck back at Syrian targets.
A statement from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkish forces had shelled targets along the border identified by radar, AFP news agency reported.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc was quoted as saying that Syria must be made to account for the incident and there must be a response under international law.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu contacted UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, the UN's Syria peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen after the incident, his office said.
The minister cleared his schedule and chaired an emergency meeting at the foreign ministry, it added.
Mr Rasmussen told Turkey's foreign minister that he strongly condemned the incident, a Nato spokeswoman said, and continued to follow developments in the region "closely and with great concern".
Mr Rasmussen has repeatedly said that Nato has no intention of intervening in Syria but stands ready to defend Turkey if necessary.
'Anger' Akcakale has been fired on several times over the past few weeks. Residents have been advised to stay away from the border, and more than 100 schools have been closed in the region because of the violence in neighbouring Syria.
Turkey's state-owned Anatolia news agency reported that angry townspeople had marched to the mayor's office to protest about the deaths on Wednesday.
Town mayor Abdulhakim Ayhan said: "There is anger in our community against Syria," adding that stray bullets and shells had panicked residents over the past 10 days.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said: "We are outraged that the Syrians have been shooting across their border... and regretful of the loss of life on the Turkish side." She added it was a "very dangerous" situation.
UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who is in Turkey on a trade and diplomatic visit, said he was "deeply concerned" by the casualties in Akcakale.
"We condemn all violence by the Syrian regime and demand that it avoids any repetition of today's incident on the border with Turkey," he said. "We welcome the measured response that Turkey has shown to the events on their border thus far."
Although Turkish territory has been hit by fire from Syria on several occasions since the uprising against President Assad began, Wednesday's attack is believed to be only the second time that people have died as a result.
Two Syrian nationals were killed on Turkish soil in April by stray bullets fired from Syria.
In Syria itself, at least 34 people have been killed and dozens wounded in a series of bomb explosions in the centre of Syria's second city, Aleppo.
The attacks levelled buildings in the city's main square. A military officers' club and a hotel being used by the military bore the brunt of the blasts, some of which were carried out by suicide car bombers.

More on This Story

Syria conflict

end quote from:

Syria conflict: Shell kills five in Turkey

When People in Turkey are being killed by Syrian Government shells aimed at Syrian Rebels it is a problem that could bring Turkey in against the Syrian Government with it's own army if this kind of thing continues for any reason.

 

Syrian explosions tear through heart of Aleppo

Syrian explosions tear through heart of Aleppo

Syrian explosions tear through heart of Aleppo

A series of huge explosions tore through the regime-held heart of Syria's biggest city levelling major Aleppo buildings and killing scores of people, many of them soldiers.

Explosions tore through Aleppo  killing scores of people, many of them soldiers
Explosions tore through Aleppo killing scores of people, many of them soldiers Photo: AP
At least two and possibly three explosions struck the main Saadallah Jabri square, the seat of a number of important government buildings, along with two government-owned hotels, a military Officers' Club, and a telecoms office.
Television footage and photographs from the scene, which is near the front line between rebels and regime forces in the city, showed the Officers' Club and telecoms building reduced to a pile of rubble.
The once impressive facade of the Riga Palace Hotel was left a ragged patchwork of concrete. A further bomb just off the square, near Bab Jenine, wreaked similar damage on the chamber of commerce.
Syria's state news agency put the death toll at 31 people, whilst the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 48 people were killed.
Residents told The Daily Telegraph that most of the victims were members of the security forces lodging in the buildings during the fighting which has consumed the city since mid-July.
"This area was where the regime housed many of its officers, and the hotels were full of its soldiers," said a resident and opposition activist who called himself Abo Hamdo and who had just returned from the scene. "Very few people that were not from the security forces had been allowed close to the Officers' Club in the past few days.
"The bombs struck at 8am, so very few shop owners or other civilians were in the area."
State media said the explosions were caused by suicide car bombers, and the footage showed a huge crater in the road nearby though no vehicle wreckage. The rest of the square, which connects the historic, UNESCO-listed Old City to the south-east with the municipal park and prosperous, regime-held new city to the north and west, was reduced to dust.
"The soldiers have cleared away the dead and wounded. There are just shoes from the victims and some blood left," said Abo Hamdo, who said his office was also destroyed in the blast.
The scale of the damage suggested far bigger explosive charges than those seen in previous car bombings, and there were immediate, competing conspiracy theories circulated as to whether the government version of events was true.
According to one account, the target may have been President Assad himself, who was rumoured to be on a visit to Aleppo, though there was no corroboration of this and it would be highly dangerous for him at present.
Some residents reported seeing jets in the area, though there was no explanation for what the government could hope to gain by staging an attack behind its own lines. More credibly, there were suggestions that the attacks could have been an "inside job" owing to the difficulty the Free Syrian Army would have had in getting cars laden with explosives through the many government checkpoints on roads leading to the square.
State television showed the supposed bodies of the suicide bombers, one still clutching a detonator, wearing army uniforms "as a disguise", leading some to suggest they were defectors.
Leaders of the Free Syrian Army outside the country seemed to be caught by surprise by the attack.
"From the FSA no one is responsible," said Louay Mokdad, a spokesman for the Military Council, the formal element of the FSA leadership.
"We are fighting in Aleppo and there is a battle in Aleppo. We don't need some car bombs."
On the other hand, an online video purporting to be from Jabhat al-Nusra, a jihadist group accused of ties to Al-Qaeda, later claimed responsibility.
The blasts risk further alienating Aleppo residents, many of whom conspicuously refused to join protests against the Assad regime. The nearby bazaar, mostly now in rebel hands, was largely destroyed by fire over the weekend.
The war in the north of Syria is gradually slipping away from Mr Assad, but with growing "collateral damage".
Rebels who seized the northern border post with Turkey at Tal al-Abyad last month are now reported to be moving on the government held town of al-Raqqah that has become home to up to hundreds of thousands displaced.
Regime mortar fire aimed at rebel positions at Tal al-Abyad fell on the wrong side of the border, killing five people including a woman and her three children in the Turkish town of Akcakale, prompting the Turkish government to lodge a protest with the United Nations.

end quote from:

Syrian explosions tear through heart of Aleppo


 

Clashes and Protest Over Iran Currency Plunge Hit Tehran

Clashes and Protest Over Iran Currency Plunge Hit Tehran

Clashes and Protest Over Iran Currency Plunge Hit Tehran

European Pressphoto Agency
Riot police officers clashed with money changers in Tehran on Wednesday.
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TEHRAN — Clashes and at least one spontaneous protest erupted in Tehran on Wednesday over the plunging value of Iran’s currency, as black-market money-changers fought with riot police who were dispatched to shut them down, and hundreds of angry citizens demonstrated near the capital’s sprawling merchant bazaar, where many shops had closed for the day. The official media reported an unspecified number of arrests including two Europeans.
The clashes were the first instance of a violent intervention over the money-changing business in Tehran since the currency, the rial, which had been gradually losing value in recent years, dropped drastically over the past week, losing 40 percent of its worth against the dollar, to a record low.
Economists have called the rial’s plunge a stark reflection of the economic pain in Iran caused in part by government mismanagement and the Western sanctions on Iran’s disputed nuclear program.
Witnesses in and around Manoucheri Street, where the black-market money changers do business, described cat-and-mouse chases between motorized riot police armed with tear gas and batons, and money changers and their customers, who were forced to scatter.
The anger over the rial’s plunge spread to Tehran’s grand bazaar, where many merchants closed their stores and hundreds of shoppers joined in what appeared to be a spontaneous protest, accusing the government of failing to protect their currency from collapse.
“They spend billions of dollars to keep Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in power, but now they say they have no money!,” one garment seller screamed as he was cheered on by others, witnesses reported. A team from Iran’s state television was nearly attacked when its reporter turned to the camera saying that the people behind him had been upset over a robbery.
Abdullah, a young man selling textiles, loudly complained that it has become extremely difficult to do business when the value of the rial is so unpredictable. “The checks our customers give us, bounce, we don’t know what prices will be tomorrow, how can we earn a living?,” he said.
A video uploaded on YouTube that witnesses verified as genuine showed hundreds of demonstrators near the bazaar. But other videos, apparently uploaded by Iran’s underground and exiled opposition movement to exploit the moment, appeared to be fake, blending clips from Wednesday with old footage from the anti-government protests following the disputed 2009 presidential election.
The Mehr News Agency reported that several people were arrested at the bazaar, including two Europeans disguised as tourists were “collecting intelligence.” They were not further identified.
The violence and protests came a day after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in a nationally televised news conference, asked Iranian citizens not to sell their rials for other currencies, suggesting the problem had been caused in part by speculators.
Mr. Ahmadinejad also warned that a “band of 22 people” with the power to manipulate exchange rates could face arrest, and he accused the United States and unspecified “domestic allies” of waging a psychological war on the country.
The secretary-general of the Tehran Bazaar and Trade Union, a powerful official close to the government, accused unspecified outside instigators of pressuring  bazaar merchants to close their shops. The official, Ahmad Karimi Esfahani, was quoted by the Iranian Labor News Agency as saying that most merchants had wanted to remain open for business. “Those now present are trying to show the bazaar as closed,” he was quoted as saying. “They are guided by foreigners.”
Other bazaar traders hinted that the closure of the bazaar was organized by powerful opponents of Mr. Ahmadinejad, who were trying to make him look weak by closing down Tehran’s most popular shopping center.
Members of Parliament and Shiite Muslim clerics have been calling for an end to the black-market currency trade, accusing the money changers of driving down the rial’s value. Others have called upon the government to buy up rials and sell dollars and other foreign currencies warehoused in the central bank’s reserves to restore stability to the national currency.
In the last weeks, traders and regular citizens had gathered by the hundreds on Manoucheri Street in Tehran to buy foreign currencies in anticipation of further weakening in the rial.
During the past months some Iranian leaders and clerics have warned against social unrest over the worsening economic malaise in the country. The fall in the currency’s value has presented Iran with enormous economic risks, including the possibility of starting a severe bout of inflation, which is already high. A rising sense of economic crisis in Iran could also pose new political challenges for the country’s leaders.
Ramtin Rastin contributed reporting from Tehran, and Rick Gladstone from New York.
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Clashes and Protest Over Iran Currency Plunge Hit Tehran

I guess Israel was right when they reported that Iran was economically collapsing because of sanctions because of building nuclear weapons. I wonder if Iran will economically collapse along with Syria at this point?

 

Being Experimental is Mostly useful during Good Times

I was talking to a guy who was telling me he lived in Portland, Oregon for about 4 1/2 years but he said he had to leave to get work. I was telling him an alternative lifestyle like many people had in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and for some even into the 1990s works better in good times. In bad times if you are not careful being too experimental just ends your life.

People in bad times tend to become more modest and simplistic out of the necessity of sheer survival. Complexity also, tends to be more for really good times and not necessarily for bad times as well.

When you are paired down to survival you have to always be thinking and taking an interest in your survival more than you otherwise might have to.  By taking an interest in your survival rather than just panicking because it isn't what you expected you will tend to survive. If you spend all your time bemoaning what your life isn't often your life might end or become so unbearable (at least in your mind) where you might make bad choices.

Survival almost always comes from taking an interest in your survival much like you would in a video game. After all, if life isn't interesting what is?

But then, there is always the Chinese Curse, "May you be born in interesting times!" When this statement was coined if you weren't bored you and your family might be close to death or dying from one or more causes. So, if your life is made interesting by unexpected events ifyou can be interested in creating a solution you just might survive your life and go "Wow! I didn't know I had it in me to survive that! I'm really impressed just how strong I actually am."

I had this kind of experience from about 1994 until around 2000 when my life got a lot easier. But from 1994 until about spring 1999 I was not expecting to live another year. But, when you have kids sometimes you are Superman because you have no other choice!

So, SuperDads and SuperMoms just remember what I'm saying. I survived and so did my kids and we are all fine almost 20 years later.

US withdraws all its official government personnel out of Benghazi

News for us withdraws all its official government ...

Antiwar.com
  1. Libya yet to work out US cooperation in Benghazi probe
    Yahoo! News (blog)‎ - 6 hours ago
    News: TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya and the United States have yet to agree how a ... on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, a senior Libyan official said on Tuesday. ... Its work is separate from the FBI probe. ... The Obama administration formally withdrew all US government personnel from Benghazi this ...
US withdraws more staff from Tripoli embassy

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US withdraws all its official government personnel out of Benghazi

U.S. withdraws all its official government personnel out of Benghazi, Libya

The Obama administration has withdrawn all official government personnel from Benghazi, the Libyan city where the country’s revolution was born and where the U.S. ambassador was killed last month, U.S. officials and local residents said Monday.
The State Department said that it has pulled its personnel from Benghazi and that any
diplomatic outreach to Libya’s second-largest city is being done remotely. The U.S. post where Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans died in an attack by militants has been closed.
Graphic
TIMELINE: Tracking the anti-American protests across the Muslim world.
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TIMELINE: Tracking the anti-American protests across the Muslim world.

Afghan troops fire on U.S. patrol 

Afghan troops fire on U.S. patrol 
Unlike most insider attacks, the weekend incident involved more than one Afghan soldier. Two Americans were killed.

Facebook takes its talent search global

Facebook takes its talent search global
Zuckerberg ditches hoodie, meets Medvedev.

Boat sinks off Hong Kong after collision with ferry

Boat sinks off Hong Kong after collision with ferry
A boat packed with revelers collided with a ferry and sank off Hong Kong, killing at least 36.
“Everybody who was in Benghazi and posted there has been withdrawn,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. She said she knew of no other U.S. government employees in the city to help investigate the attack or perform other work.
The pullout was described as a temporary precaution following what the administration is now calling a terrorist attack on two U.S. government compounds. Non­essential U.S. personnel also have been evacuated from the embassy in Tripoli, though it remains open.
Benghazi was the seat of rebel power during the uprising that eventually toppled strongman Moammar Gaddafi with the help of U.S., NATO and other militaries.
The main compound used by the American diplomats was unguarded Monday, although the gate was locked. In the first days after the attack, looters, curiosity-seekers and journalists roamed the burned-out buildings.
The FBI has been unable to set up operations in Benghazi as part of the investigation into the deaths of Stevens, information manager Sean Smith and government contractors Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods. The absence complicates efforts to gather evidence and interview witnesses.
Several Libyans who provided security for the U.S. post said they have not been questioned by U.S. or Libyan authorities about the Sept. 11 assault. Others said that some witnesses had been flown to Tripoli, the capital, where U.S. officials say the FBI team is conducting its investigation.
“I don’t know why the Americans don’t come here,” said Wissam Bin Hamid, commander of the Libyan Shield Brigade, a militia that came under sustained attack while helping defend the second compound on Sept. 11. “Maybe they are afraid.”
Bin Hamid said that he has not been contacted but that an associate who was at the scene of the second attack flew to Tripoli to meet with the Americans.
Elaborating on earlier reports, Bin Hamid said he and two officials from another government-sanctioned militia met with three U.S. officials posted in Benghazi three days before the attack. The Americans called the two-hour meeting, Bin Hamid said, because they were concerned about security.
“They wanted to know who was in control in Benghazi,” Bin Hamid said. “It was like an introductory meeting. They asked us what we needed to bring security to Benghazi, what the Americans could possibly bring to help.”
Bin Hamid said the Libyans told the Americans that Benghazi was relatively safe, considering the widespread proliferation of weapons. But he said he was forced to reevaluate that judgment after the attack. A member of the other militia who attended the meeting confirmed the basic details.
The CIA pulled most or all its employees from Benghazi immediately after the attack, according to U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss intelligence movements.


Birnbaum reported from Benghazi.
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US withdraws all its official government personnel out of Benghazi

It seems to me that Libya, Egypt, and Syria as well as several other countries in the Middle East are all in completely uncharted territory in many different ways. So, from this point of view governments trying to become and stay democratic as well as their people will need a great deal of patience from other democratic governments because democratic institutions that protect the rights of all the people of any nation are very difficult to create and even then to create a balance that will work for enough people to be able to maintain that balance is usually a long time coming for any nation.

If you look at the U.S. for example from 1776 to the present we have been through many peaks and valleys and difficult choices at every turn. Our Capitol was burned by the war of 1812, we had a great Civil War from about 1860 to 1865 over slavery and other issues. We had many depressions and recessions where many people starved. We had World War I and then II and then the Korean War, Viet Nam War, Desert Storm, Iraq War, Afghanistan war (the longest war we have ever been in likely 12 to 14 years when all the troops are out...

No. In 200 or more years of trying to get democracy right it is still a work in progress even now even for a country like the U.S.

 


 

 

Panetta: Intel. shows Syria moving some chemical weapons

Panetta: Intel. shows Syria moving some chemical weapons

Panetta: Intel. shows Syria moving some chemical weapons - Yahoo

Click above word button to see video. Panetta speaks about Syria moving chemical weapons in Syria. Whether that means Assad is going to use these weapons or whether this means he is making them safer is presently unknown at least publicly by the U.S. Government.