Life in OUR America, Volume 2, The Livyjr Files Options

[Livyjr]

It's always interesting to hear people after hurricanes, for example, say, "I can't believe it..." 

Then, the next year, they rebuild in the same stupid spot right on the beach-- as if to tell nature that it won’t happen again!

And is it ever refreshing to hear somebody call a spade a spade, here in OUR America, with respect to these people who do build houses in the most stupid places imaginable, like the surf zone next to the ocean, or on an unstable cliff somewhere, and then cry, and weep and wail, and gnash their teeth and demand government assistance to help them rebuild in the same stupid places, when the inevitable happens, and their alleged "investment" has gone the way of all flesh, back to dust, again!

STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES, AMERICA, and there are no exceptions to the rule, no matter how many fancy credit cards you have in your Gucchi hand-tooled leather credit card holder, or how big or fancy your Mercedes-Benz or Jaguar might be!

Where I live in OUR America, the land is what might be called "tortured", which is to say that in the past, it was subjected to some great cataclysms which twisted and rolled the terrain, and so, have left a landscape that is really not suited to large-scale development, for what are to me, a life-long resident of the area, as well as a licensed professional engineer, some very sound reasons, many or most of which have to do with the inexorable nature of water to make its way "downhill", no matter what is in its way!

NOTHING ON EARTH HAS MORE PATIENCE THAN WATER, and that is a fact!

No matter what is in its way, it is going to go downhill, and if you are in its "road", well, that's just too damn bad as far as the water is concerned, for there is also nothing on this earth that cares less for us humans and our "dreams" than water!

To it, we are as nothing at all, and certainly we are not something that it is going to go out of its way to avoid, which after all these centuries of living on this earth, we still do not seem to understand, or comprehend!

When I was young, one of the first things that I was taught by my elders was the history of OUR town, itself, going back and back in time, and part of that history has to do with water and its destructive effects on the town, which was washed away back in the 1880's, I believe it was, by a flood which caused the creek coming off the mountains to jump its banks, and move its channel better than a mile, in some places, so that the day after, the map was completely changed, and the town was gone!

Today, all these "rocket scientists" that we have on the town planning and zoning boards haven't the slightest idea that this history even happened, because they all came to here from someplace else, those that are on these boards today, and what they are doing, IN THEIR GREED AND IGNORANCE, is planning for the destruction of the town, all over again, and when that happens, they'll be the first to scream and holler about how unfair nature is, and how it is now up to the government to step in and make things right again, by giving out a lot of FEMA money, of course, instead of having these planning and zoning people prosecuted to the fullest extent the law allows for misfeasance, malfeasance, negligence and EXTREME STUPIDITY AND GLUTTONY in office.

I myself live on a stream that flows into the one that flooded and washed the town away, and in the early fifties, we had the eye of a hurricane make it this far north and inland, and my stream took the bridge out, just down the road from where I am, while the other one took out the bridge in the town that it had washed away before.

Today, when you talk about that down in town, they look at you like you got two or three-and-a-half heads or something, all these "go-go"/"push-push" land developer types who inhabit our town hall now, and they make all kinds of japeries and mockeries and loud guffaws when we "rustics" with all the hay in our ears come down to town and make mention of the reality of living in the lowest point there is in town, when you are surrounded by mountains which have quite a bit of water up on them, with only one way for that water to get out of town, which is through the town itself, since there is no other "downhill" for the water to go in, and it sure don't go uphill very well when some fancy-boy land developer tells it it has to, because he wants to develop all the swamps and other low-lands in the town, for money!

And with the connivance of the "town", which wants that tax money, and doesn't care who gets hurt, so long as the taxes are paid on time, and if your land is flooded and worthless, the taxes are still due on it, and so ......!

[Livyjr]

STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES, AMERICA, and there are no exceptions to the rule, no matter how many fancy credit cards you have in your Gucchi hand-tooled leather credit card holder, or how big or fancy your Mercedes-Benz or Jaguar might be!

And speaking of no exceptions to the rule:

"Banks Notify Customers of Data Theft"

By PAUL NOWELL, AP Business Writer

44 minutes ago

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - More than 100,000 customers of Wachovia Corp. and Bank of America Corp. have been notified that their financial records may have been stolen by bank employees and sold to collection agencies.

So far, Bank of America has alerted about 60,000 customers whose names were included on computer disks discovered by police, bank spokeswoman Alex Liftman said Monday.

"We are trying to communicate with our customers as promptly as possible," she said.

"So far, we have no evidence that any of our customer information has been used for account fraud or identity theft."

Wachovia said it has identified 48,000 current and former account holders whose accounts may have been breached.

"The numbers have increased as we continue to receive additional names from police," Wachovia spokeswoman Christy Phillips said Monday.

Both banks are providing the affected customers with free credit reporting services.

In a separate case with the potential for identity theft, a laptop containing the names and Social Security numbers of 16,500 current and former MCI Inc. employees was stolen last month from the car of an MCI financial analyst in Colorado, said company spokeswoman Linda Laughlin.

The car was parked in the analyst's home garage and the computer was password-protected, she said.

MCI would not comment on whether the data was encrypted.

The bank record theft was exposed last month when police in Hackensack, N.J., charged nine people, including seven bank workers in an alleged plot to steal financial records of thousands of bank customers.

The bank employees accessed records for customers of Cherry Hill, N.J.-based Commerce Bank, PNC Bank of Pittsburgh, and Charlotte-based banks Wachovia and Bank of America, according to Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa.

Orazio Lembo Jr., 35, of Hackensack allegedly made millions of dollars through the scheme, Zisa has said.

Authorities said they discovered the plot after they executed a search warrant at Lembo's apartment in February as part of a separate investigation.

They seized 13 computers which contained details about the plan, Zisa said.

Lembo received lists of people sought for debt collection and turned that information over to the seven bank workers, who would compare those names to their client lists.

The bank workers were paid $10 for each account they turned over to Lembo, Zisa said.

[Livyjr]

STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES, AMERICA!

AND ....

There are no exceptions to the rule

And speaking of STUPID in OUR America with a capital S, this comes close to "taking the cake", as far as I am concerned:

"Sex offenders get U.S.-paid Viagra - Hevesi asks for halt to Medicaid footing drug cost for rapists and high-risk violators"

By MICHAEL VIRTANEN, Associated Press
First published: Monday, May 23, 2005

ALBANY -- Convicted rapists and other high-risk sex offenders in New York are getting Viagra paid by Medicaid, according to state Comptroller Alan Hevesi, who has asked the federal health secretary to stop the practice.

"I am asking that you take immediate action to ensure that sex offenders do not receive erectile-dysfunction medication paid for by taxpayers," Hevesi wrote in a letter Sunday to Michael Leavitt, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

He requested immediate administrative action or that Leavitt draft an amendment to the Medicaid law if necessary.

Audits by Hevesi's office showed that between Jan. 1, 2000, and March 31, 2005, in New York, 198 Level 3 sex offenders received Medicaid-reimbursed Viagra after their convictions.

Those included crimes against children as young as 2, he said.

According to Hevesi, that obviously was an unintended consequence of a 1998 directive from federal officials telling states that Medicaid prescription programs must include Viagra.

The state helps fund the program for its residents, and a review of Medicaid pharmacy expenditures was checked against the New York's sex offender registry by Hevesi's auditors.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said it was "deeply disturbing and runs contrary to the purpose of Medicaid, which is to provide health care coverage for uninsured, low-income individuals."

The Democrat urged Leavitt to look into it, and said she would explore legislative options.

New York's other Democratic senator, Charles Schumer, joined Hevesi at a news conference Sunday in New York City.

He said he hoped the issue could be resolved without a bill, but he's prepared to offer one to correct it.

"While I believe that HHS did not do this intentionally, when the government pays for Viagra for sex offenders, it could well hurt many innocent people," he said.

New York auditors are reviewing whether other prescription drugs for sexual dysfunction are being reimbursed by Medicaid for convicted sex offenders, Hevesi spokesman David Neustadt said.

While they didn't review the situation on Viagra reimbursement by Medicaid in any other states, he said they have no indication it's different.

A call to Leavitt's office was not immediately returned Sunday.

end quotes

"While I believe that HHS did not do this intentionally, when the government pays for Viagra for sex offenders, it could well hurt many innocent people," SCHUMER said.

WHAT?

Could well hurt many innocent people?

Aren't you sure, Charlie "Chuck"?

Do you need to do some more research, perhaps?

Boy, that Charlie "Chuck" Schumer sounds like a real rocket-scientist, himself, and he is in charge of things, here in New York State as far as our senatorial representation in the United States Senate goes, and boy, that sure don't promise much for the future does it, when United States Senators like Charlie "Chuck" Schumer have to stop and think about whether it is good or bad governmental policy for George W. Bush's HHS Department to be giving out OUR tax dollars so that convicted sex offenders can get free Viagra!

Incredible, Charlie, just incredible!

Just when I thought I had heard it all, too!

Just goes to show you, a time and a place for ALL things under heaven, including everything that we never wanted or needed, like convicted sex offenders in OUR America getting free Viagra from OUR United States government!

[Livyjr]

And speaking of George W. Bush, and the "boot" coming down on these people over there in Uzbekistan who want their own "Orange" or "Rose" Revolution like the people George W. Bush is praising in Georgia had, we have as follows:

"Uzbek Protesters Killed As Soldiers Attack"

By BAGILA BUKHARBAYEVA, Associated Press Writer

ANDIJAN, Uzbekistan - Soldiers loyal to Uzbekistan's authoritarian leader, a U.S. ally, opened fire on thousands of demonstrators Friday to put down an uprising that began when armed men freed 2,000 inmates from prison, including suspects on trial for alleged Islamic extremism.

The death toll from a day of violence in the eastern Uzbek city was not known.

The government said nine died before the shootings in the square but gave no overall figure.

Witnesses said dozens may have been killed by the troops, who rode into the square in a truck behind an armored personnel carrier as helicopters hovered overhead.

The prison raid and the soldiers' fusillades were in sharp contrast to the largely peaceful uprisings that sparked regime changes in the former Soviet republics of Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan in the past 18 months.

President Islam Karimov is regarded as one of the harshest leaders in the former Soviet Union and apparently favors quick and decisive action against any threats to his regime.

Uzbekistan is a key Washington ally in the war on terrorism and hosts a U.S. air base to support military operations in neighboring Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

But it also is frequently denounced by human rights groups and Western governments for torture and repression of opposition.

The White House urged restraint by the government and the demonstrators.

"The people of Uzbekistan want to see a more representative and democratic government."

"But that should come through peaceful means not through violence, and that's what our message is," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

"We have had concerns about human rights in Uzbekistan, but we are concerned about the outbreak of violence, particularly by some members of a terrorist organization that were freed from prison."

"We want to be allowed to work and do our business without hindrance," the 42-year-old Parpiyev told AP.

One of the 23 defendants, Abduvosid Egomov, was holed up in the local government compound.

"We are not going to overthrow the government."

"We demand economic freedom," Egomov told AP.

"We are ready to die instead of living as we are living now."

"The Uzbek people have been reduced to living like dirt."

Parpiyev said Interior Minister Zakir Almatov called him Friday morning and heard the protesters' demands.

He initially agreed to negotiations but said later that the offer of talks was off, the protest organizer said.

"He said, 'We don't care if 200, 300 or 400 people die.'"

"'We have force and we will chuck you out of there anyway,'" Parpiyev quoted Almatov as saying.

In the afternoon, about 4,000 protesters massed in the central square and set up a podium under a monument to Babur, an Uzbek prince, where speakers complained of unemployment and living in poverty.

For some, it was the first time in their lives they were able to speak out in public.

Protest organizers, some with Kalashnikov automatic rifles slung across their chests, took turns addressing the crowd through a microphone.

"You have a chance now to say what you've wanted to speak openly about all these years," one thin, slight speaker wearing a white Muslim cap urged the crowd.

"Come on and talk."

But shortly before dusk, the soldiers moved in and opened fire, sending the terrified demonstrators fleeing.

One man wailed, "Oh, my son!"

"He's dead!"

A witness told The Associated Press he had seen a group of about 100 protesters mowed down by gunfire as they headed to the square.

The city's hospital was cordoned off and officials could not be reached for casualty figures.

The government blocked foreign news reports for its domestic audience.

A statement from Hizb-ut-Tahrir's office in London said "the blame for today's unrest lies squarely with the desperate Karimov regime whose repression of Uzbekistan's Muslims knows no bounds or limits."

end quotes

As White House "SPOKESBOY" Scottie McClellan says, this is just one more shining example of what he would have us believe is DEMOCRACY on the march across the world at the behest of President George W. Bush, who just happens to be Scottie "BOY" McClellan's favorite president of all time!

This soldier firing business is what REPUBLICANS call democracy!

What an interesting use of the term that is, is what I think!

How is it government by the people when the tyranical BUSH-ally over there in Uzbekistan has his soldiers mowing down people in the streets for wanting democracy, which is government by the people?

What is it that I am missing here?

"Questions Remain About Uzbek Death Toll"

By BURT HERMAN, Associated Press Writer

2 hours, 12 minutes ago

ANDIJAN, Uzbekistan - Khamid Urinbayev didn't recognize the bloated corpse of his youngest son after it lay for three days at the morgue.

Finally, the 23-year-old was identified from his documents, one of the victims of a spasm of bloodshed that has put President Islam Karimov on the defensive.

It is still not clear how many people died in the May 13 upheaval that began with protests in this eastern city over the prosecution of businessmen charged with being sympathizers of Islamic extremists.

The government says 169 people were killed, most of them Islamic rebels and soldiers.

Critics contend hundreds more died, and residents charge that many were unarmed civilians, including women and children.

Karimov, an authoritarian leader who has been a key U.S. ally in the war on terrorism, has stonewalled Western calls for an international investigation.

Aibek Urinbayev, a baker's assistant who sold flour at the bazaar, had no history of political involvement and was on his way to visit his parents when he was shot in the abdomen, his family says.

"For three days he lay on the ground."

"These are people, not animals," the 65-year-old father said angrily at his home in Andijan.

"If they wouldn't have found me, maybe they would just have buried him anywhere."

Urinbayev was one of about a half dozen people who said in interviews with The Associated Press that relatives killed May 13 were innocent civilians.

Many of those victims were young men, but no family admitted to any tie to the uprising.

Details of those interviews were lost when plainclothes officers confiscated the AP reporter's notebook after physically threatening him.

Urinbayev's son found his final resting place at the city's Buzton cemetery.

But it remains a mystery what happened to many of the other dead.

An Associated Press reporter over several days visited 16 cemeteries — lying in overgrown fields on hillsides, behind makeshift brick walls and past iron gates — but found just 61 graves that cemetery workers said belonged to victims of the violence.

There was no large concentration of May 13 dead at any cemetery in Andijan except for one, Bogi Shamol.

The caretaker there said government workers came to bury 37 bodies in a nearby field without revealing their identities beyond saying they were young men.

At other cemeteries there were at most a handful of dead from the unrest buried beneath fresh mounds of dirt adorned with pebbles and flowers — and teapots or cups to be used in the afterlife.

The city burial office said Friday that 26 funerals had been recorded for those killed May 13, adding that others might have been interred in the surrounding region or that their bodies could still be at the morgue.

Plainclothes security officers surround the morgue, refusing to allow reporters to speak with officials.

Death certificates obtained by AP were marked with numbers reaching as high as 328 issued May 14, 304 on May 15 and 279 on May 16.

It wasn't known if the numbers reflected a count that began each day, which would support opposition claims that hundreds died, or a count that began at the beginning of the year.

Some Uzbek regional offices that record births and deaths total from the beginning of each year.

Uzbekistan's top prosecutor has said 169 people were killed, including 32 government soldiers.

He said nearly all the remaining dead were Islamic militants who seized weapons and freed prisoners from a jail before security forces moved in to put down the uprising.

The few civilians who died were killed by militants, Uzbek officials say.

Groups opposed to Karimov's rule say the death toll was far higher.

Nigara Khidoyatova, head of the Free Peasants party, said workers from her group recorded 745 killed.

However, despite repeated requests from journalists, Khidoyatova provided a list of only 43 names without addresses or any contact details, making it impossible to confirm the alleged deaths.

Her list included women and children — a claim repeated by residents who told AP about troops firing at some 2,000 peaceful demonstrators gathered on the main square to support Islamic militants who had seized weapons from army and police posts before freeing the jail's inmates and occupying government buildings.

Abdukadyr Sattarov, a rights activist in Andijan, said a day after the unrest that 15 bodies of children aged between 6 and 10 were still lying on the street about a half-mile from the square where the shooting started.

In the same place, there were 30 to 50 dead women and about 100 bodies of men, five or six in uniforms, he said.

According to an AP reporter and other journalists at the scene, about 10 bodies could be seen on the main square on the day of the crackdown.

Given the lack of information, rumors about the dead are rampant.

Many residents repeated claims that at least three trucks were seen hauling bodies away, but only at one cemetery did workers confirm a truck had deposited corpses.

Urinbayev said his son was returning from the bazaar when the violence erupted.

Aibek stopped at home to check on his wife and then headed for his parents' home but never arrived, the father said.

The family brought Aibek's body home May 16 — receiving death certificate No. 279 — but the stench of decay was so bad after laying outside in the morgue's courtyard for three days that they held the funeral after just a few hours.

As they mourned Sunday, Aibek's mother, Minajad, clutched a photo from his obligatory military service, crying, "My dear son, my poor dear son."

His 21-year-old wife cradled their 9-month-old baby.

Urinbayev complained that troops didn't warn those on the square before they opened fire.

"Why didn't they tell people to leave?" he asked.

end quotes

Why didn't they tell people to leave?

What?

Are you kidding me?

If they told people to leave, and then people actually did, WHO WERE THEY GOING TO HAVE LEFT TO KILL?

Boy, this guy sure don't know much about "George W. Bush-style democracy" in action, now does he?

[jeffmoskin]

"land development"

Well.

I know what "land" is. I had better find out what "development" means.

Miriam-Webster says to develop is "b (1) : to make available or usable".

Sounds to me like building a mediterranean house in Upstate New York is to make...

UNUSABLE.

[Livyjr]

And speaking of STUPID in OUR America with a capital S, this comes close to "taking the cake", as far as I am concerned:

"Sex offenders get U.S.-paid Viagra - Hevesi asks for halt to Medicaid footing drug cost for rapists and high-risk violators" 
 
By MICHAEL VIRTANEN, Associated Press
First published: Monday, May 23, 2005

ALBANY -- Convicted rapists and other high-risk sex offenders in New York are getting Viagra paid by Medicaid, according to state Comptroller Alan Hevesi, who has asked the federal health secretary to stop the practice.

"I am asking that you take immediate action to ensure that sex offenders do not receive erectile-dysfunction medication paid for by taxpayers," Hevesi wrote in a letter Sunday to Michael Leavitt, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

He requested immediate administrative action or that Leavitt draft an amendment to the Medicaid law if necessary.

Audits by Hevesi's office showed that between Jan. 1, 2000, and March 31, 2005, in New York, 198 Level 3 sex offenders received Medicaid-reimbursed Viagra after their convictions.

Those included crimes against children as young as 2, he said.

And here is an update on that "government-sponsored Viagra for convicted sex-offenders" story above:

"Feds say states can deny Viagra to sex offenders on Medicaid"

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press
Last updated: 5:37 p.m., Monday, May 23, 2005

ALBANY -- The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is now advising state officials they can deny Medicaid coverage for erectile dysfunction drugs for convicted sex offenders.

"The Medicaid program should not be paying for erectile dysfunction drugs for sex offenders," said Gary Karr, spokesman for the center under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Notices were to go out to states as early as Monday, 24 hours after New York state Comptroller Alan Hevesi revealed 198 of New York's worst sex offenders received taxpayer-paid Viagra.

"States already have the power to determine if a drug is not medically appropriate for a certain patient or certain class of patients," Karr said.

He said there was confusion over a 1998 federal directive, which apparently resulted in Medicaid-paid Viagra for sex offenders on parole and after they served their sentences.

"That's wonderful," said Laura Ahearn, executive director of Parents for Megan's Law, an advocacy group named for a New Jersey girl raped and killed in 1994 by a convicted sex offender.

"I think that is probably the most proactive measure they can take to ensure that individual states can legislate what their values are."

Ahearn, with others seeking better protection for victims of sex offenses, had spent much of Monday lobbying her state to see what could be done since Hevesi's revelation on Sunday.

She spoke with Gov. George Pataki's staff who, like their counterparts in other states, thought they had little recourse from providing Medicaid-paid Viagra for sex offenders.

"There was a feeling this was not something the states could legislate so now that we know the states have the power ... we are going to lobby the states to make sure this is stopped," she said.

"It's great that the federal government has responded immediately and given states the power to stop providing Viagra to sex offenders," Hevesi said.

His office was tipped to the concern by a whistleblower who noticed sex offenders were getting Viagra prescriptions, he told WROW Radio in Albany.

In a letter Sunday to HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt, Hevesi, a Democrat, requested immediate administrative action or that Leavitt draft an amendment to the Medicaid law if necessary.

Audits by Hevesi's office showed that between Jan. 1, 2000, and March 31 of this year, 198 Level 3 sex offenders in New York received Medicaid-reimbursed Viagra after their convictions.

Those included crimes against children as young as 2 years old, he said.

"The bottom line is, giving convicted sex offenders government-funded Viagra is like giving convicted murderers an assault rifle when they get out of jail," said U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat.

Hevesi's study didn't include other erectile-dysfunction drugs or sex offenders in the lesser two levels of offense, Hevesi spokesman David Neustadt said.

New York auditors are reviewing whether other prescription drugs for sexual dysfunction are being reimbursed by Medicaid for convicted sex offenders, Neustadt said.

While they didn't review the situation on Viagra reimbursement by Medicaid in any other states, he said they have no indication it's different.

Earlier Monday, Pataki called on Washington to reverse what he called the Clinton-era's "irrational and misguided policy."

The Republican also directed the New York Parole Division to prohibit convicted sex offenders on parole from using erectile-dysfunction drugs.

He recommended county probation departments do the same.

end quotes

Earlier Monday, Pataki called on Washington to reverse what he called the Clinton-era's "irrational and misguided policy?"

Ah, George, I hate to burst your bubble here, but guess what?

Clinton has been gone from the Oval Office FOR FIVE YEARS NOW, and your hero, George W. Bush has been in there for those five years, and so ......

Why did this take FIVE YEARS for him to do anything about this, and speaking about that, why didn't you do something yourself, after 2000, when Clinton was gone, since it is pretty obvious from this above article that your own crowd knew what was going on, here in New York, with this government-sponsored Viagra for convicted sex offenders in New York State, WHERE GEORGE, YOU JUST HAPPEN TO BE THE MAN IN CHARGE OF THAT PROGRAM?

Didn't want to take any profits from selling these sex drugs out of some REPUBLICAN'S pockets?

Or was it just some more of the plain old garden variety ineptness and incompetence that we have been living with for these last five years of this present incumbent's interminably long reign?

[Livyjr]

Well.

I know what "land" is.

I had better find out what "development" means.

Miriam-Webster says to develop is "b (1) : to make available or usable".

Sounds to me like building a mediterranean house in Upstate New York is to make...

UNUSABLE.

My definition of "development" is "BRING to a higher state of being", and that sure is not what is being done up here, and that is a fact!

A good friend of mine ended up buying a brand-new house in a "town-approved" subdivision up here for a hundred-plus thousand dollars or so that was right smack-dab in the bed of an intermittent stream coming off the side of the ridge above it, and when the water-table would rise, which is every time it would rain, or the snow melt, the place would be inundated.

He bought it in the spring, and by August of that same year, he had sewage all over the place, because it obviously couldn't go down into the saturated ground, and what a stink when it was hot and humid, and there was no breeze!

He had all the neighbors quite upset, at him, and there was nothing he could do to solve the problem!

And his lawyer, the one who helped him close on the house turned out to be the developer's lawyer, too, as well as being the Town judge!

What a racket!

He was finally able to unload the place and get out, and now, it turns out that a friend of another friend of mine has bought the place, and the cycle repeats!

And this is what is touted in the town as "high-end" development!

What a rip-off, and you still owe the property taxes on the assessed value, when the place ain't worth a dime, in reality!

Which is why every swamp up here is now targeted for development!

The "stupids" with all the money have no idea of what they are spending it on, so long as it costs more than what all their friends have paid for the same crap, and so ...

In the meantime, as a result of all of this desecration of the uplands above me, and the town as well, which is lower down the ridge than I am, there is now so much water coming down the gorge through my land that back in March, a couple of tons of silt came down with the high water and blocked the channel on one side of what was my private little island, which then caused the creek to jump sideways about six feet or so, washing away half the island in the process, and undercutting a bank about thirty feet high, so that will now cave down and wash further down the creek, plugging the channels further down, and one of these times when that happens, the creek is going to jump its banks, and the town is going to get flooded again, and you know what?

We old timers think that that is the only thing now that will drive any sense at all into these fool's heads, which is to destroy the town, like the "Great Johnstown Flood" did all those years ago in Pennsylvania, but who knows about that, of course, since it is more than fifteen or twenty seconds ago, and so, is out of memeory, and just plain gone!

"Nature is benign, kiddies, so put your thumbs back in your mouths, and go back to sleep, it is alright", this to people in their twenties and thirties and forties, and more, who have to have everything "just so, don't you know!"

Before I built where I am, which is on land that I have lived on all my life, I still went out there two winters in a row, and walked around, and watched where the snow melted early, versus where it lingered, and when I had made sure that I was not moving onto wet ground, then and only then did I actually try to start living there.

Today, when I make mention of that, all I hear in return is "OH, I don't have that kind of time to wait; I WANT IT NOW!"

Well, okay, it's on its way!

And by the way, how long can you tread water?

[Livyjr]

Before I built where I am, which is on land that I have lived on all my life, I still went out there two winters in a row, and walked around, and watched where the snow melted early, versus where it lingered, and when I had made sure that I was not moving onto wet ground, then and only then did I actually try to start living there.

Today, when I make mention of that, all I hear in return is "OH, I don't have that kind of time to wait; I WANT IT NOW!"

Well, okay, it's on its way!

And by the way, how long can you tread water?

Cold and wet up here today, and that is the way it is supposed to be until the end of the week, they say, and probably so, say I, in unison!

Seed-rotting weather is what I call this type of weather, and perhaps that doesn't mean much to someone in a place with a long growing season, and an ideal climate, but up here, there is a more narrow window, and if nature is not cooperative, then life can be tough, for all of us, and not only those who lost their garden plants to this recent hard freeze after Mother's Day, and those who will lose quite a bit of seed that is now in cold, waterlogged ground, but the rest of us as well, because we are all interconnected in this world of OURS, and that is just how it goes.

I got a brief chance to watch the weather channel today, to see if we are still getting our air flow from the east of us, coming in off the Atlantic Ocean, and yes, that is still the case today!

I listened the other morning to a scientist talking about the likelihood of this being another bad hurricane year this year, because the Atlantic Ocean is already warming up, and I have to wonder what that all bodes for us up here, because with this present air pattern, a northward moving hurricane would be steered right on inland, and one of these times, we are going to have a repeat of what occurred up here in 1953, as I remember it, and if it was 1954, it still don't matter, because that storm was fifty years ago, and so, fifty years later, give or take a year, we are now due for another fifty year storm, which itself would in actuality be a HUNDRED-YEAR STORM, like the one that washed the Town of Poestenkill in the County of Rensselaer in the State of New York away in or about 1888!

Fifty-year and hundred-year storms!

To an engineer, they are factors to be heeded and reckoned with, and so records of weather are kept on a daily basis, and are consulted going back and back and back, as far as records and recollections permit and allow, because a creek in full flood coming off a denuded mountain-side can be quite a cataclysmic event, and that is where we are heading up here, because to OUR town planning board and zoning board, this is all quite a joke, a storm with a likelihood of occurring every so many years, in a cyclic fashion, with attendent great damage to the works of mankind, as Noah could probably tell us, if only we knew how to listen!

"A fifty-year storm, you say, Livyjr?"

"We can't hold up development for something that might happen once in a blue moon!"

"For this man to make a profit, why, he has to act right now, and well, we can't deny a man a profit, can we, for something he has no control over, like a hundred year storm?"

Guess not!

By the way, can any of you guys swim?

Just curious!

[jeffmoskin]

To an engineer, they are factors to be heeded and reckoned with, and so records of weather are kept on a daily basis, and are consulted going back and back and back, as far as records and recollections permit and allow, because a creek in full flood coming off a denuded mountain-side can be quite a cataclysmic event, and that is where we are heading up here, because to OUR town planning board and zoning board, this is all quite a joke, a storm with a likelihood of occurring every so many years, in a cyclic fashion, with attendent great damage to the works of mankind, as Noah could probably tell us, if only we knew how to listen!

Ahh, Noah and the flood.

Or... the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Scientists (you remember them, don't you?) have determined that there is some MERIT to the flood sagas...


http://www.trinicenter.com/WorldNews/noah.htm

[jeffmoskin]

I listened the other morning to a scientist talking about the likelihood of this being another bad hurricane year this year, because the Atlantic Ocean is already warming up, and I have to wonder what that all bodes for us up here, because with this present air pattern, a northward moving hurricane would be steered right on inland, and one of these times, we are going to have a repeat of what occurred up here in 1953, as I remember it, and if it was 1954, it still don't matter, because that storm was fifty years ago, and so, fifty years later, give or take a year, we are now due for another fifty year storm, which itself would in actuality be a HUNDRED-YEAR STORM, like the one that washed the Town of Poestenkill in the County of Rensselaer in the State of New York away in or about 1888!

Fifty-year and hundred-year storms!

Ah yes. Hurricane Carol. I remember it well.


1954: Hurricane Carol Batters Long Island

On August 31, 1954, Hurricane Carol, the season’s third hurricane, battered Long Island. Winds reaching 100 miles per hour tore through both Nassau and Suffolk Counties, causing $3 million worth of damage. Basements flooded, thousands of trees were uprooted, boats capsized and sunk, and chimneys blew down. Some 275,000 homes lost electricity, and eastern Suffolk lost telephone service. Service was disrupted on the Long Island Rail Road and ferry service between Bay Shore and Fire Island was suspended. Communities on both the north and south shores were evacuated, including the beachfront areas from Westhampton Beach to Montauk Point. At Jones Beach, the boardwalks flooded and the Marine Stadium suffered substantial damage. At Mitchel Field in Garden City, the Air Force tied down planes or rolled them into hangars. Yet no deaths or injuries were reported. Sunrise Highway near Babylon is shown here in a photo taken on August 31, 1954.

–Cynthia Blair



Subscribe to Newsday home delivery | Article licensing and reprint options





http://www.newsday.com/features/custom/ith...17737.htmlstory

This post has been edited by jeffmoskin: May 25 2005, 05:47 PM

[Livyjr]

Ah yes.

Hurricane Carol.

I remember it well.

1954: Hurricane Carol Batters Long Island

On August 31, 1954, Hurricane Carol, the season’s third hurricane, battered Long Island.

Winds reaching 100 miles per hour tore through both Nassau and Suffolk Counties, causing $3 million worth of damage.
 
http://www.newsday.com/features/custom/ith...17737.htmlstory

Wow, thanks a lot, jeffmoskin for posting that in here!

What I find most incredible up here is that when I talk about this event, which you also obviously think happened too, I am met with blank stares, as if I am talking about Martians coming to the moon to mine water, or something!

"Oh, that kind of stuff doesn't happen here!"

"Are you sure you are not just confused!"

"That only happens in Florida, you know!"

Well, okay!

SO!

Shame on you, jeffmoskin, for making up wild stories about hurricanes hitting Long Island, up here in the State of New York!

What are you trying to do, anyway, scare people?

Bad, bad jeffmoskin!

I guess you'll just have to go to your room, jeffmoskin, as punishment!

Shame, shame!

[Livyjr]

This afternoon, I managed to catch the weather channel again, and today, when I was watching it, they were talking about the Nor'easter hitting Boston, which was causing planes at the airport there to be delayed about ninety minutes, while La Guardia on Long Island was backed up over two hours!

The end of May, and Boston is being hit by a Nor'easter, as if this were winter time!

And it was like a March day, up here where I am, under this trough that the Nor'easter is flowing into from east of here, to here, which is against the prevailing wind currents, for you folks out there who might be wondering what the hub-bub is all about with this westerly flow inland from the Atlantic Ocean that is coming across Massachusetts, causing it to be cold and wet up here, in the GREAT NORTH-EAST!

May we always live in interesting times, I guess, because we sure seem to, so might as well get some enjoyment from them, since it is all we have anyway, or at least that is how I see things, but that is just me!

[Livyjr]

And it was like a March day, up here where I am, under this trough that the Nor'easter is flowing into from east of here, to here, which is against the prevailing wind currents, for you folks out there who might be wondering what the hub-bub is all about with this westerly flow inland from the Atlantic Ocean that is coming across Massachusetts, causing it to be cold and wet up here, in the GREAT NORTH-EAST!

May we always live in interesting times, I guess, because we sure seem to, so might as well get some enjoyment from them, since it is all we have anyway, or at least that is how I see things, but that is just me!

Or maybe it is just the CIA playing games with the computer weather maps, as a part of whatever it is that they do, and so, the Nor'easter really is not happening, but we just think it is because all that we know about life and the world really comes to us from a computer screen, and so, that's why the CIA is attacking OUR computers, so we will think it is wet and cold outside, when by God, if we were only to go out and look, well, who knows ......

"CIA Overseeing 3-Day War Game on Internet"

By TED BRIDIS, AP Technology Writer

5 minutes ago

WASHINGTON — The CIA is conducting a war game this week to simulate an unprecedented, Sept. 11-like electronic assault against the United States.

The three-day exercise, known as "Silent Horizon," is meant to test the ability of government and industry to respond to escalating Internet disruptions over many months, according to participants.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because the CIA asked them not to disclose details of the sensitive exercise taking place in Charlottesville, Va., about two hours southwest of Washington.

The simulated attacks were carried out five years in the future by a fictional new alliance of anti-American organizations that included anti-globalization hackers.

The most serious damage was expected to be inflicted in the closing hours of the war game Thursday.

The national security simulation was significant because its premise — a devastating cyberattack that affects government and parts of the economy on the scale of the 2001 suicide hijackings — contradicts assurances by U.S. counterterrorism experts that such effects from a cyberattack are highly unlikely.

"You hear less and less about the digital Pearl Harbor," said Dennis McGrath, who has helped run three similar exercises for the Institute for Security Technology Studies at Dartmouth College.

"What people call cyberterrorism, it's just not at the top of the list."

The CIA's little-known Information Operations Center, which evaluates threats to U.S. computer systems from foreign governments, criminal organizations and hackers, was running the war game.

About 75 people, mostly from the CIA, along with other current and former U.S. officials, gathered in conference rooms and pretended to react to signs of mock computer attacks.

The government remains most concerned about terrorists using explosions, radiation and biological threats.

FBI Director Robert Mueller warned earlier this year that terrorists increasingly are recruiting computer scientists but said most hackers "do not have the resources or motivation to attack the U.S. critical information infrastructures."

The government's most recent intelligence assessment of future threats through the year 2020 said cyberattacks are expected but terrorists "will continue to primarily employ conventional weapons."

Authorities have expressed concerns about terrorists combining physical attacks such as bombings with hacker attacks to disrupt rescue efforts, known as hybrid or "swarming" attacks.

"One of the things the intelligence community was accused of was a lack of imagination," said Dorothy Denning of the Naval Postgraduate School, an expert on Internet threats who was invited by the CIA to participate but declined.

"You want to think about not just what you think may affect you but about scenarios that might seem unlikely."

An earlier cyberterrorism exercise called "Livewire" for the Homeland Security Department and other federal agencies concluded there were serious questions over government's role during a cyberattack depending on who was identified as the culprit — terrorists, a foreign government or bored teenagers.

It also questioned whether the U.S. government would be able to detect the early stages of such an attack without significant help from private technology companies.

end quotes

My God, could it be?

This Nor'easter is a TAY-RIST plot to take over OUR America?

Should we run and hide?

Maybe put Saran Wrap completely around OUR houses, to keep something out, or is the Sran Wrap supposed to keep things in?

Oh, this is so confusing!

Have they color-coded this Nor'easter, I wonder, so we can tell up here what threat level we are under, with respect to our seeds rotting in the ground because of the cold and wet weather?

Oh, what should we do?

The sky is falling!

The sky is falling!

RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!

Well, okay!

But to where?

[jeffmoskin]

Wow, thanks a lot, jeffmoskin for posting that in here!

What I find most incredible up here is that when I talk about this event, which you also obviously think happened too, I am met with blank stares, as if I am talking about Martians coming to the moon to mine water, or something!

"Oh, that kind of stuff doesn't happen here!"

"Are you sure you are not just confused!"

"That only happens in Florida, you know!"

Well, okay!

SO!

Shame on you, jeffmoskin, for making up wild stories about hurricanes hitting Long Island, up here in the State of New York!

What are you trying to do, anyway, scare people?

Bad, bad jeffmoskin!

I guess you'll just have to go to your room, jeffmoskin, as punishment!

Shame, shame!

Memories are much too short.

As my High School history teacher said, "Those who fail history are doomed to repeat it."



http://www.southstation.org/hurr1.htm



Roaring its way from the West Indies in mid-September of 1938, a hurricane at first threatened Florida, then turned north past Cape Hatteras and suddenly swooped into Long Island and New England, the most populous region in the Western Hemisphere. The result was death and destruction, with more than 500 lives lost, 57,034 homes destroyed or damaged, and a property loss that extended into hundreds of millions of dollars.

A region prepared for hurricane might have been prepared as the result of past experience. But the last hurricane that struck New England was September 23, 1815, and no living person recalled that. The U.S. Weather Bureau was able to give only meager advance warning because there were few points to report the progress of the storm north off the Atlantic Coast. Barometers foretold a disturbance but this information was not widely available.

Miami and the Florida coast was prepared for the hurricane which had first been reported September 18 due north of Puerto Rico and east of the Bahama Islands. During the next 24 hours the storm traveled 300 miles west by north and seemed due to strike the Bahamas and Southern Florida. The rate of speed was about 12 1/2 miles per hour...

[Livyjr]

Memories are much too short.

As my High School history teacher said, "Those who fail history are doomed to repeat it."

http://www.southstation.org/hurr1.htm

Roaring its way from the West Indies in mid-September of 1938, a hurricane at first threatened Florida, then turned north past Cape Hatteras and suddenly swooped into Long Island and New England, the most populous region in the Western Hemisphere. 

The result was death and destruction, with more than 500 lives lost, 57,034 homes destroyed or damaged, and a property loss that extended into hundreds of millions of dollars.

A region prepared for hurricane might have been prepared as the result of past experience. 

But the last hurricane that struck New England was September 23, 1815, and no living person recalled that. 

And I would come back and say, jeffmoskin, that one of the reasons that there are supposed to be licensed professional engineers like myself "on station" at all times to monitor development, is because when it comes to land speculation, people have no memories at all!

All they have is lust and greed, as a rule, and those are blinding influences, not illuminating influences, and so, when they are simply handed whatever they want, when they want it, by a negligent planning board, then a formula for disaster is being used as a "planning tool" by the town, and that is not only contra-survival in the long run, it is ultimately insane, when a town lets unchecked greed by individuals not even from the town destroy the town so that all the inhabitants are ultimately the losers, when they have no water left, as is one scenario, or when they have far too much water in a short amount of time, which is the other scenario, at least up here in the cold country, where we are damn fools if we apply to ourselves up here systems and designs that work in arid climates, because up here, it sure is not arid, and unless a lot happens and soon, like the earth turning over, it is not likely to become arid in my lifetime, and so .....

I am supposed to know that difference and abide by it!

Of, course, that attitude gets in the road of the land speculators, and so ....

Keep your heads in the sand, folks, there's nothing to worry about!

The mantra for OUR times!

What will it bring, as its rewards?

Who knows?

That's part of the reason we have this thread running, after all!

To be able to find out!

SO!

Stay tuned!

Live!

Late-breaking!

Life, in OUR America!

[jeffmoskin]

And I would come back and say, jeffmoskin, that one of the reasons that there are supposed to be licensed professional engineers like myself "on station" at all times to monitor development, is because when it comes to land speculation, people have no memories at all!

All they have is lust and greed, as a rule, and those are blinding influences, not illuminating influences, and so, when they are simply handed whatever they want, when they want it, by a negligent planning board, then a formula for disaster is being used as a "planning tool" by the town, and that is not only contra-survival in the long run, it is ultimately insane, when a town lets unchecked greed by individuals not even from the town destroy the town so that all the inhabitants are ultimately the losers, when they have no water left, as is one scenario, or when they have far too much water in a short amount of time, which is the other scenario, at least up here in the cold country, where we are damn fools if we apply to ourselves up here systems and designs that work in arid climates, because up here, it sure is not arid, and unless a lot happens and soon, like the earth turning over, it is not likely to become arid in my lifetime, and so .....

I am supposed to know that difference and abide by it!

Of, course, that attitude gets in the road of the land speculators, and so ....

Keep your heads in the sand, folks, there's nothing to worry about!

The mantra for OUR times!

What will it bring, as its rewards?

Who knows?

That's part of the reason we have this thread running, after all!

To be able to find out!

SO!

Stay tuned!

Live!

Late-breaking!

Life, in OUR America!

We have four seasons out here in Kah-lee-FAWN-yah:

1. Earthquake Season

2. Fire Season

3. Mudslide Season

4. Riot Season (although that one could have been prevented had Darryl Gates decided to DO SOMETHING instead of going to a party. But that's another story).

I am happy that I live in the somewhat boring "flatlands":

not the glamour of the Hollywood hills or Malibu, but I can sleep at night.

[Livyjr]

We have four seasons out here in Kah-lee-FAWN-yah:

1. Earthquake Season

2. Fire Season

3. Mudslide Season

4. Riot Season (although that one could have been prevented had Darryl Gates decided to DO SOMETHING instead of going to a party. But that's another story).

Well, jeffmoskin, the GREAT Nor'easter of the fourth week of May 2005 has lifted today, where I am, and the day has finished out quite nice, actually, which I am always glad to experience at this time of year, because it is such a contrast to the cold weather, and it lasts for such a short period of time, that if you blink, or if it is a long-term Nor-easter blocking the normal weather patterns, well, you just miss out, and so, you have to wait for a whole 'nother year, if you can hang on that long, one more time again!

Regional awareness, I guess we could call it, jeffmoskin, and it certainly is something that will "divide" us, or separate us until the days we all die, because where we live here in OUR America can be such diverse places climatically, and that certainly does have an impact on OUR life styles, and hence, OUR value systems from this perspective, that the more "hostile" the living conditions that we must live in, and here I mean external, and not internal living conditions, the more "conservative" perhaps we end up being, because we don't have the luxury of a large window of opportunity vis-a-vis what we can accomplish in the outside world in the limited time that we have, and so, we must keep our noses to the grindstone in a manner different from people in say, southern California, who have what I would consider to be a mild climate, year in and year out, that certainly beckons a lot of people, for the comfort that climate offers, especially as one gets older, and so feels the cold more and more, as certainly can be the case, in my experience, anyway!

And that is one of those "insanities" that I am noticing up here, where people coming into this area from warmer climates are bound and determined to do things here as they are done in the southern states, such as having a building season that goes completely through the year, instead of ending in December, as it did when I was younger.

So now, for example, to protect "PROFITS", concrete is poured in January, and February, when it is below freezing, because down in Texas, of course, where it is not freezing, they can pour concrete in January and February, and so what if it holds up or not afterwards?

Who is going to do anything about it if the concrete froze in the forms and so did not obtain its full strength?

By the time the degradation shows up, the contractor is long gone from the scene, and generally, the homeowners who buy these things have no idea themselves of what is proper or not, especially if they have moved here from a warm climate, and so are unfamiliar with the damage that temperature extremes of over a hundred degrees Fahrenheit can do to human habitations, especially when those habitations are built on shoddy ground, which is generally what is left for "development" these days, up here, the better land having been taken hundreds of years ago, when the picking was good!

And it is good that we chat about these things from time to time, is what I think, because where we all live does affect how we see the world, since where we live generally is most of, or all of the world that many of us ever experience in OUR lifetimes, and so, we should learn to appreciate how different life just might be for other people, not only in OUR America, but in the world, as well.

If nothing else, it expands our consciousness a little, and that is never a bad thing, or is it now in this post 9-11 environment?

Stay tuned for further discussion, on this exact subject!

LIVE!

Life in OUR America!

[Livyjr]

And as Memorial Day weekend descends down upon us, here in OUR America, what about OUR troops in the field in Iraq, those who are fighting George W. Bush's HOLY WAR for the oil depositis that Iraq contains; what does Memorial Day weekend portend for them, besides more fighting, of course, in the same places that they have been fighting in since they got there back in what is it now, 2003?

"Marines Return to Fight in Lawless Haditha"

By ANTONIO CASTANEDA, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 22 minutes ago

HADITHA, Iraq - More than 1,000 Marines, sailors and soldiers are taking part in a counterinsurgency operation in Haditha, a Sunni-dominated trouble spot 140 miles north of Baghdad, the military said Friday.

Two Marines have been killed in the operation, which began Wednesday.

U.S. forces returned to Haditha less than two months after they thought they cleaned up the Euphrates River town.

But insurgents assassinated the police chief and devastated his force more than a month ago, leaving Haditha without a security force.

Iraqi troops also stayed clear of Haditha.

Until Iraqi forces can handle security in places like Haditha, U.S. troops will have to stay in Iraq to do the job.

A rocket-propelled grenade killed a Marine in Haditha on Thursday, the military announced Friday.

Another Marine was killed on the opening day of the operation Wednesday.

For U.S. troops, incessant anti-insurgent operations in the tough towns west of Baghdad have grown disheartening.

It's an even bigger problem for Washington, which has long been talking up the capabilities of the Iraqi troops.

Many Marines currently in Haditha went door-to-door through the city back in March, searching nearly every building, seizing weapons caches.

They met light resistance then.

But in April, the bodies of 19 Iraqis were found slumped against a bloodstained wall in a soccer stadium.

And earlier this month, militants launched a well-coordinated attack from the local hospital, killing four U.S. troops in a suicide bombing and ambush.

The blast caused a fire that gutted much of the hospital, and residents in this riverside town of 90,000 now travel for hours to other cities for treatment.

Since March, U.S. military officials acknowledge, their presence here has been light — similar to a highway patrol operation, said battalion commander Lt. Col. Lionel Urquhart.

That allowed insurgents to creep back in.

"It's frustrating that we can't keep more of a presence here," said Marine Maj. Steve Lawson, a company commander in the 25th Marine Regiment's 3rd Battalion.

"You wish you could spend more time in these areas."

Urquhart said Iraqi troops will soon take over for the Marines.

"It's going to be very apparent to the enemy that there will be an Iraqi Army presence here in the near future," he said, declining to give figures or an arrival date due to security concerns.

Until then, the Marines of Lima Company of 3rd Battalion are again hustling in search of resilient insurgents.

After raids and patrols, they pile into stuffy rooms in a commandeered Iraqi home that they've tried to transform into comfortable living quarters.

House rules are already in effect, with each soldier staking out his turf.

Everyone knows not to drink out of claimed water bottles.

Spots on the floor are marked out with space for machine guns.

Off-duty Marines' trivia games are left undisturbed by the explosions punctuating the night.

Insurgents have warned city residents against cooperating with the Americans.

Earlier this month insurgents paid a bold visit to the local radio station and threatened the manager against broadcasting U.S. military messages.

City leaders have also kept their distance.

The local government denies insurgents are in the city and, as of Thursday, had not asked for a meeting with the military since operations began, Urquhart said.

Right now, the only Iraqis traveling with the Marines are four Shiite soldiers — three of whom are related — from the faraway southern city of Basra.

These Iraqis know little of Sunni Haditha.

"What I need most now is someone who can say this is a good guy and this is a bad guy," said Marine Col. Stephen W. Davis, who commands all the troops in Regimental Combat Team 2 in the city.

[Livyjr]

Well, here we are, another Memorial Day weekend in OUR America, and what do we have up here in the corrupt Empire State of New York?

Well, it looks like some controversy from here, and I wonder if "Teflon Tony" Blair is going to end up weighing in on this controversy, as it does involve "Jolly Olde", and that issue of "loyalty":

"Vets Criticize Timing of Statue's Unveiling"

By CHRIS CAROLA, Associated Press Writer

7 minutes ago

FORT EDWARD, N.Y. - Maj. Robert Rogers, the frontiersman whose 18th century manual on guerrilla warfare has become a blueprint for Army Ranger fighting tactics, is getting what some consider a long-overdue honor: a statue in his memory.

But some veterans believe unveiling the monument on Memorial Day is insensitive because Rogers was loyal to England during the Revolutionary War.

"I think it's a travesty that we would think about honoring a person, especially someone who fought against us, on that day," said Bob Bearor, who served in the Army's 101st Airborne Division in the 1960s.

"It's a sacred day. ... Let's honor our dead who died for our country."

The life-size bronze statue is scheduled to be unveiled during a ceremony on Rogers Island in the Hudson River, 40 miles north of Albany.

The island served as the base camp for Rogers' Rangers during the late 1750s, when the British and French fought for control of North America.

The statue will stand near the site where Rogers penned "Rules of Discipline," a common sense guideline for battling the French and their Indian allies in the North American wilderness in 1757.

Also known as Rogers' "Standing Orders," the rules have been boiled down over the years from 28 to 19 and are still used to train soldiers at the Army Ranger School at Fort Benning, Ga.

Rule No. 1 of Rogers' manual, popularized and paraphrased in the novel, "The Northwest Passage," is, "Don't forget nothing."

Another rule, No. 15, is "Don't sleep beyond dawn."

"Dawn's when the French and Indians attack."

Although some veterans say they have no qualms with the Rogers statue, Bearor and others say they are upset over a local developer's plans to unveil the statue Monday, when the nation honors its war dead.

Bearor says Rogers, a New Hampshire-born frontiersman who led his Rogers' Rangers on guerrilla raids for the British during the French and Indian War, turned against his fellow Americans in the Revolutionary War.

But organizers of the May 30 event defend the timing, saying that holding it on the holiday allows the greatest number of local dignitaries and the public to attend.

The local newspaper, the Post-Star of Glens Falls, has editorialized against the Memorial Day ceremony, but some veterans aren't so vexed.

"I don't see any problem," said Harold Murray, commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Glens Falls.

"That's going quite a ways back in history."

Richard Fuller is caretaker of the private portion of Rogers Island where the statue will stand.

The property is owned by retired construction executive Frank Nastasi of Syosset.

Both men are veterans and neither believes that holding the event on Memorial Day shows disrespect for America's war dead, Fuller said.

But the head of a group of former and active-duty Rangers argues the although tribute may be well-intended, it is problematic.

"Memorial Day?"

"They're not thinking that through," said retired Army Capt. Steve Maguire, president of the U.S. Army Ranger Association.

"It just seems like I would try a different day."

Although he doesn't deny Rogers' military legacy, Bearor, a French and Indian War re-enactor and author of several books on the conflict, questions holding a Memorial Day tribute to a man who George Washington didn't trust.

Fearing Rogers was a British spy, Washington turned down his request to join the Continental Army at the outset of the American Revolution.

Rogers went on to raise a company of loyalist rangers, but failed to have the impact he had in the previous war.

A heavy drinker, he died a pauper in England in 1795 and lies buried somewhere beneath the streets of London.

"Even the English don't look at him as a hero," Bearor said.

"They buried him in an unmarked grave."

Controversy aside, a tribute to Rogers is long overdue, said Stephen Brumwell, a British author whose latest book, "White Devil," details the most famous exploit of Rogers' Rangers: the 1759 revenge raid on an Abenaki Indian village in Quebec.

The raid that inspired the 1826 novel "The Last of the Mohicans," by James Fenimore Cooper.

"He earned his statue the hard way," Brumwell said in a telephone interview from his home in the Netherlands.

"While others were sitting out the French and Indian War in Boston and New York, he was leading patrols into enemy territory, often in the very depths of winter."

___

On the Net:

U.S. Army Ranger Association: http://www.ranger.org

[Livyjr]

"Vets Criticize Timing of Statue's Unveiling"

By CHRIS CAROLA, Associated Press Writer

FORT EDWARD, N.Y. - Maj. Robert Rogers, the frontiersman whose 18th century manual on guerrilla warfare has become a blueprint for Army Ranger fighting tactics, is getting what some consider a long-overdue honor: a statue in his memory.

But some veterans believe unveiling the monument on Memorial Day is insensitive because Rogers was loyal to England during the Revolutionary War.

"I think it's a travesty that we would think about honoring a person, especially someone who fought against us, on that day," said Bob Bearor, who served in the Army's 101st Airborne Division in the 1960s.

"It's a sacred day. ... Let's honor our dead who died for our country."

The life-size bronze statue is scheduled to be unveiled during a ceremony on Rogers Island in the Hudson River, 40 miles north of Albany.

The island served as the base camp for Rogers' Rangers during the late 1750s, when the British and French fought for control of North America.

"I don't see any problem," said Harold Murray, commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Glens Falls.

"That's going quite a ways back in history."

Richard Fuller is caretaker of the private portion of Rogers Island where the statue will stand.

The property is owned by retired construction executive Frank Nastasi of Syosset.

Both men are veterans and neither believes that holding the event on Memorial Day shows disrespect for America's war dead, Fuller said.

But the head of a group of former and active-duty Rangers argues the although tribute may be well-intended, it is problematic.

"Memorial Day?"

"They're not thinking that through," said retired Army Capt. Steve Maguire, president of the U.S. Army Ranger Association.

"It just seems like I would try a different day."

This, of course, is all taking place near to where I live, here in OUR America, and when I was young, Robert Rogers and his Rangers were heros to us, and we knew all about his exploits in the French and Indian War, which was fought over an extended period of time here in OUR America, before it was an America, and it was something for us to go to Lake George as children to see Fort William Henry at the southern, or British end of Lake George, just to the north of historic Fort Edward, as well as some earthworks thrown up by Billy Johnson and his crowd, to the east of Fort William Henry, in the 1750's, with Billy Johnson, of course, being Sir William Johnson, who is somewhat famous up this way, for his own exploits west of what is now George Pataki's REPUBLICAN capital of the State of New York.

I knew that Roger's Manual serves as the basis for the United States Army Ranger's Manual, of which I have my own copy, but I never knew Rogers was looked down on as a traiter to this nation, or perhaps I just never took the time to listen to that part of the conversation!

Whatever, that was a long time ago, and so, to me, Rogers is long since gone from the scene, and he is out of my thought-processes, BUT .....

Obviously, people have long memories, and sensitivities, and when other people, and here I am thinking primarily of old "bean-headed George", which is how George W. Bush is becoming to be lovingly known up here, when people like George W. Bush start setting in motion the equivalent of the "French and Indian War" in other nations, well, people like him ought to take into consideration just how long bad feelings engendered by wars can really last!

And if anyone doubts me, here is an example, right here, from OUR own nation, and if my calculations are correct, we are talking about a more-then-200-year-old grudge here, against Rogers, and so .....