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

[Livyjr]

And good morning to you, Livyjr.

And to all of the people reading this thread.

The salient issue here, IMHO, is that we have KNOWN this was coming.

Since 1956.

And other than a small adjustment in the 70's to smaller cars, more efficient refrigerators, better house insulation, since the 80s we have  been BACKSLIDING as though there was no tomorrow.

This is tomorrow, and we have been plowing up the seed corn.

And you can bet your bottom dollar that before long oil will cost many times what  does today, and that our life style will suffer for it because we have not been paying attention.

And while I can rant all I want at BushCorp on this forum, SUV FEVER is really a Clinton era phenomenon.

He just looked the other way.

And now the clock is striking midnight.

And I hate the cold and the dark.

AND YOU LIVE IN A COMPARATIVELY BRIGHT AND WARM PLACE, jeffmoskin!

AND, SUV fever belongs to the people of MURKA who drive SUV's.

In that regard, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton are just happenstance.

STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES!

People who drive SUV's are like people who swim laden with boat anchors around their necks, so as to keep them from floating too freely on the surface, where they are likely to catch cancer from too much sun!

A question that arises here is: WHO OWES A DUTY TO A GLUTTONOUS, ARROGANT FOOL WHO IS OVER THE AGE OF EIGHTEEN?

"The one who dies with the most toys, WINS!"

That is a bumper sticker, or rear window decal that I see quite a bit up here, usually on the same vehicles carrying the WARNING "FEAR THIS", and I always wonder FIRST at what kind of mentality produces these "DECALS", or "SIGNS", and then WHAT KIND OF MENTALITY actually puts them on their vehicles for other people to see!

Somebody dead with a lot of toys is dead!

What exactly did they win?

I've just never been able to "puzzle" that out, myself!

We have up here what I call the "ROAD TO STUPID-VILLE", which is I-90 leading into George Pataki's CAPITAL CITY of Albany, New York.

Somebody up here, or a lot of somebody's actually, ARE COMPLETELY BEREFT OF THE BRAINS GOD GAVE A GOOSE, and so, they are completely unable to FATHOM out that if you take a radius, any radius, connecting a circumference to a point in the center, which is George Pataki's CAPITAL CITY of Albany, New York, and then you try and "DRAIN" all of what the circumference can contain INTO the center, THAT WHAT CAN BE CONTAINED ON THE CIRCUMFERENCE, IF "NON-COMPRESSIBLE", LIKE A WHOLE LOT OF "QUEEN MARY" SIZED SUV's, WILL MAKE QUITE A TALL PILE WHEN CONCENTRATED AT THE CENTER!

WE HAVE WHAT HAVE TO BE THE "ABSOLUTE" CLASS OF MORONS up here, thanks to graft and corruption in the "HIRING PROCESSES" of GUMMINT up here, in charge of what is called "planning" up here, WHICH IS ACTUALLY TURNING YOUR BLIND EYE TO WHAT THE POLITICALLY-CONNECTED "DEVELOPERS" WANT, AND CREATING A HOST OF LIES AND OTHER "SMOKE-SCREENS" AS TO WHY "WE" JUST GOT TO "HAVE IT UP HERE", like "THEY DO IN AUSTIN, TEXAS", who have not quite got it figured out yet that it snows up here, UNLIKE AUSTIN, AND LOS ANGELES, AND POMONA, AND PALM SPRINGS, or PALM DESERT, and that it gets quite cold up here, UNLIKE TAMPA, which then produces "BLACK ICE" on the road surfaces, ESPECIALLY ALL THE BRIDGES ONE MUST CROSS TO GET TO Albany, so that a HIGHWAY which cannot even accomodate warm weather traffic WILL BE A DISASTER WHEN A HALF-INCH of snow falls!

Especially when you keep putting HUGER and HUGER vehicles on the same limited road space!

MORONS!

BUT POLITICALLY CONNECTED, which is what counts, after all!

SO!

We have RICH FOLKS coming into here from God only knows where, trying to drive ever bigger and bigger vehicles from an ever-expanding circumference into the point at the center, and GUESS WHAT?

And we now have HUGE MANSIONS being built up here, IN THE MEDITERANEAN SYTLE of southern California, EXCEPT .....

Even this morning, IT WAS TEN DEGREES ABOVE ZERO up here, and when you have a HUGE house with a flat roof up here, the surface area is quite large, and so must be the heat loss, to the point that there is now a ten or fifteen degree temperature difference between where I am, in the "country" outside of Albany, New York, and Albany, itself, or the airport, actually, which is outside of Albany, and maybe fifteen miles from where I am.

In the last couple of weeks alone, it has been about four above zero where I am, in the morning, and the reported temperature on the radio from the airport will be fifteen or twenty degrees above zero.

FOR THERE TO BE A "TEMPERATURE", WHAT MUST BE PRESENT TO CAUSE A "TEMPERATURE" TO EXIST?

"Energy", perhaps?

Or is that a "stupid" thought on my part, SINCE I LIVE SO CLOSE TO WHAT HAS TO BE ONE OF THE GREATEST COLLECTIONS OF IT ANYWHERE ON THE FACE OF GOD'S GREEN EARTH, and so must have caught a great dose of it myself for remaining here in the first place?

[jeffmoskin]

And here, I am always interested IN WHAT WE NEVER SEEM TO HEAR, which is WHERE DID THIS FEDERAL PAROLEE GET A MAC-10?

Why does that part of the story never seem to get told?

I can answer that.

Easy question.

From a dealer in some city who opened the trunk of his 1973 cadillac (biggest trunk ever made) and said, "which model(s) do you want?"

That dealer had, earlier in the week, driven from (say) Albany down to the wonderful, freedom loving state of Virginia, and purchased 50 or 100 guns for cash from one or more gun dealers. No law says you can't (but there should be).

Like I said. Easy question.

[jeffmoskin]

AND YOU LIVE IN A COMPARATIVELY BRIGHT AND WARM PLACE, jeffmoskin!

Yeah, but I've turned into a wimp.

Back in the 60s when I lived in what was then Nelson Rockefeller's corrupt state of New York, I remember one fine January day when the temperature hit 57.

Unbelievable!

Everybody was outside doing something.

Fixing the roof.

Fixing the car.

Fixing that leaky pipe under the house.

And wearing a tee shirt.

Now, when the temperature FALLS to 55 out here, I'm all bundled up.

Last winter, my wife and I went to a party in NYC thrown by life-long friends of mine (I've know her since Stalin was in power). Third week in January. No thaw. It was 6 above zero. Brrrrr.

Now, I used to be able to take that in stride. No more. I used to be able to stand in the sun to warm myself up. No more. And I used to kinda like going back to NYC in the winter.

NO MORE.

This post has been edited by jeffmoskin: Mar 14 2005, 10:13 AM

[Livyjr]

Yeah, but I've turned into a wimp.

Back in the 60s when I lived in what was then Nelson Rockefeller's corrupt state of New York, I remember one fine January day when the temperature hit 57.

Unbelievable!

Last winter, my wife and I went to a party in NYC .....

Third week in January.

No thaw.

It was 6 above zero.

Brrrrr.

Interesting, jeffmoskin!

And I wonder how many people EVEN RECOGNIZE what you are actually saying there - "NO THAW"!

NO!

There has not been!

Straight through winter!

Everything gone strange!

Weather patterns lately that are just incredible to see, let alone experience!

FREIGHT TRAIN WINDS, already, and this is just the beginning of what is going to be a long cycle of destruction, as I see it anyway!

Tornados in places that never had them before in my living memory, and at times of the year which are very strange for that kind of destructive energy to be lurking around in the atmosphere in the amounts that it is found in, and all too often these days, which people in the multiple PATHS OF DESTRUCTION are finding out to their extreme dismay!

Insanity on the most incredible scale possible, what has been done, and what is being done to the earth right now, in the name of God only knows what!

And the Bush Co. will go to the most extreme lengths possible to try and hide everything under the rug, as if that could be done by mere mortal hands with a fancy computer network that can spread ten to twenty thousand lies a minute all across OUR America and the candid world as well!

Incredible!

I'll tell you what, jeffmoskin, in a few more years, anyone who can't live close to the land in the cold climates had better start moving south right now while they still have the means.

Thanks to Bush Co. and his HUGE HOOVER VACUUM CLEANER of ALL of OUR financial resources CALLED THE IRAQ HOLY WAR, our roads are deteriorating back to the condition of cow pastures, and with the ever rising cost of things, the condition is only going to get worse and worse, especially right now, when the day time temperature is warming up to freezing, and then it goes back down to ten above at night, which is enough to set the melt water back up tight, and so heave the bejeesus out of all the roads, which breaks the pavement right apart.

INSANITY ON A GRAND SCALE!

Right in my front yard!

Hooray!

[Livyjr]

Interesting, jeffmoskin!

And I wonder how many people EVEN RECOGNIZE what you are actually saying there - "NO THAW"!

NO!

There has not been!

Straight through winter!

Everything gone strange!

And everything gone strange, indeed!

And has it ever!

In a post above here, where I was posting about the "Great Awakening", there was talk of folks acting all strange, barking like dogs, etc., when the traveling "EVANGELISTS" called NEW LIGHTS came around, and you know what, I think we are back in to one of those times again up here where I am in OUR America, because I sure do hear a lot of that lately, people actually barking like dogs to each other, and the neighborhood as well!

And what a cacophony it is to hear!

And a sight to witness, as well!

Three or four or more grown men all getting together in a clump and howling like dogs!

And teaching children to do so as well!

Of course, it could simply be some new ritual that I am just not familar with, as I don't really get out, and so, just do not know the latest in fads and trends out there in what I call "CAESAR's WORLD", which begins right where the road touches my front lawn.

"CAESAR's WORLD"!

At least that is what I am told it is, by those who say they know, and they must, elsewise, why would they say they do?

CAESAR's WORLD!

And in the chunk of it that touches on my driveway, little JOHNNY BIGGG, the local politician who said to ACTRESS CHRISTINE KAPOSTACY-JANSING on TV CHANNEL 13 in October of 1988 that local developers had offered him EIGHTY THOUSAND BIG ONES to remove me from my office as a health officer trying to clean up a corrupt county health department; WHY, HE WAS CAESAR!

INCARNATE!

I know, because HE had me told so!

SO!

How about that?

When it comes so close from the HORSE's MOUTH, why, it might just be true!

[Livyjr]

How could a man who tells us he reads his Bible every day, not be telling us the truth?

"Democracy is taking hold in the Middle East?"

In a pig's ear, it is.

It wouldn't take much to push Lebanon into another civil war.

Who would gain?

In the case of Prime Minister Hairiri of Lebanon -- who gained by his death?

Was it Syria?

They surely knew it would cause an uprising in Lebanon.

The other entities are involved are :

The Lebanese Government.

Israel.

The U.S.

Frankly, I have no idea who was behind this.

I also wonder how thorough of an investigation we are going to get.

A.B.

Well, Mr. A.B., I think the "INVESTIGATION", if indeed we can call it that, IS GOING TO BE IN TECHNICOLOR, and ALL the CANDID world is going to be there to "SEE" it just as and when we do!

AND CUI BONO?

Let's ask this Doctor Goure above here, and that LEXINGTON INSTITUTE CROWD THAT HE SEEMS TO HANG WITH HERE, and OH YEAH, FOX NEWS .......

AND LOOK, I THINK IT IS STARTING NOW, RIGHT BEFORE OUR EYES!

World - AFP

"Almost a million Lebanese turn out to press for Syrian pullout"

2 hours, 5 minutes ago

BEIRUT (AFP) - More than 800,000 people surged into central Beirut to demand an end to Syria's near-three decade military domination of Lebanon, hurling a dramatic and potent challenge to the pro-Syrian Lebanese government.

Ahead of the largest demonstration in the country's history, thousands of Lebanese travelled from all over to Martyrs Square and the grave of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri, assassinated exactly one month ago in a bomb blast.

Beirut city official Mounib Nassereddine said Monday's gathering was "at least two and a half times" larger than last Tuesday's turnout called by pro-Syrian Lebanese parties, notably the Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah.

Correspondents estimated the crowd last week at 400,000.

Martyrs Square, seen from above, was a vast expanse of red, the dominant color in the Lebanese flag, which demonstrators waved in brilliant sunshine as they sang and chanted slogans against Syria and the Lebanese leadership and called for Lebanon's "independence" from Damascus.

Some Lebanese television stations reckoned Monday's crowd at 1.5 million.

"We say with one voice: 'no' to the Syrian military and intelligence presence, 'yes' to liberty and independence," thundered leftist political figure Elias Attallah.

Lebanese MP Marwan Hamade, the official opening speaker, charged that Lebanese and Syrian intelligence services were hiding the truth behind the assassination.

"You want the truth on the assassination?" he asked.

"It's lying in the dark chambers of the (Syrian-Lebanese) intelligence services that are ruling us and that you are in the process of sweeping out."

"They killed (Hariri) because he was thwarting their plan to make Lebanon submit."

"They killed him because they are the enemies of democracy and Arabism," Hamade declared.

"Hezbollah organized a giant demonstration last Tuesday to intimidate us," said Nada, 35, as she travelled to Beirut from Zahle in the east.

"Today we're taking up the challenge and invite (Hezbollah) to join us because we represent the true majority of the country."

Added Anwar:

"The Syrian people are our brothers."

"We have ties that go back centuries but the Syrian army and the mukhabarat (intelligence service) are no longer welcome in Lebanon."

Huguette Yamine, 57, said Monday's political demonstration was her first.

"I came with 10 family members."

"We walked here all the way from the other side of Beirut."

"We've had enough."

"I want my children to live in a free and democratic Lebanon."

Hariri's killing, widely blamed here on Syria, has energized an opposition movement aimed at forcing the withdrawal of all Syrian military and intelligence units from the country.

Syria has denied involvement and on Saturday Syrian President Bashar al-Assad gave a commitment to a UN envoy to carry out the pullback in accordance with a United Nations Security Council resolution.

Thousands of demonstrators turned out in Syria on Monday to show their support for Assad, the official Sana agency reported.

The demonstration in the city of Homs, north of Damascus, which was broadcast live on state television, was not organised by the government, Sana said.

Syrian forces in Lebanon numbered about 14,000 at the time of Hariri's murder but have since begun a redeployment, leaving north Lebanon and the mountains over Beirut for points further east on their way home across the border.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described the Syrian pledge as "positive" but said Washington would continue to press for full compliance with UN Resolution 1559, approved last September.

But in an indication of the diplomatic difficulties that lie ahead, Lebanese President Emile Lahoud insisted Sunday that the date of a final pullout would be determined by Lebanese and Syrian authorities.

Syrian Expatriates Minister Bussaina Shaaban nonetheless told CNN Sunday that Syrian forces would likely be out of Lebanon before legislative elections there that are expected to take place before the end of May.

In some quarters, notably the country's Shia Muslim community, Syria is seen as having preserved Lebanese stability in the aftermath of the country's devastating 1975-1990 civil war.

Many Shia Muslims, who make up about 30 percent of the population, are grateful to Syria for having supported their struggle for mainstream political power after decades of exclusion.

Syrian forces entered Lebanon in 1976 to serve as a buffer between warring Lebanese factions and at one point numbered 40,000.

[Abu Beacon]

"
[b][color=red]"I wanted to know where God was when this happened," Free told the Chicago Sun-Times.

"He was supposed to be everywhere."

"He could have at least been there."

end quotes

"I wanted to know where God was when this happened?"

Well, let's ask Scottie "BOY" McClellan, the SPOKESCREENPERSON: WAS HE IN WASHINGTON THAT DAY, OR DOWN AT THE RANCH IN TEXAS?

Livyjr -----

Boy, you really have that computer you're using smoking.

I'm doing my best trying to keep up with you, but you set a mean pace.

Really good and timely stuff you are writing about, so keep 'er coming.

BTW, about that statement made by Mr. Free up above.

What I'd like to know is why are people always reprimanding God for not interceding in every tragedy and preventing any ' bad things 'from happening?

Do they also go around publicly complimenting God when good things happen?

Are these folks trying their best to keep God from being thrown out of schools?

Are they living lives which help others as God would approve of?

Or do they only mention God when things go wrong?

Just wondering.

A.B.

[Livyjr]

And everything gone strange, indeed!

And has it ever!

"CAESAR's WORLD"!

At least that is what I am told it is, by those who say they know, and they must, elsewise, why would they say they do?

SO!

How about that?

When it comes so close from the HORSE's MOUTH, why, it might just be true!

AND LOOK, I THINK IT IS STARTING NOW, RIGHT BEFORE OUR EYES!

World - AFP

"Almost a million Lebanese turn out to press for Syrian pullout"

BEIRUT (AFP) - More than 800,000 people surged into central Beirut to demand an end to Syria's near-three decade military domination of Lebanon, hurling a dramatic and potent challenge to the pro-Syrian Lebanese government.

Ahead of the largest demonstration in the country's history, thousands of Lebanese travelled from all over to Martyrs Square and the grave of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri, assassinated exactly one month ago in a bomb blast.

"We say with one voice: 'no' to the Syrian military and intelligence presence, 'yes' to liberty and independence," thundered leftist political figure Elias Attallah.

Lebanese MP Marwan Hamade, the official opening speaker, charged that Lebanese and Syrian intelligence services were hiding the truth behind the assassination.

"You want the truth on the assassination?" he asked.

"It's lying in the dark chambers of the (Syrian-Lebanese) intelligence services that are ruling us and that you are in the process of sweeping out."

"They killed (Hariri) because he was thwarting their plan to make Lebanon submit."

"They killed him because they are the enemies of democracy and Arabism," Hamade declared.

Hariri's killing, widely blamed here on Syria, has energized an opposition movement aimed at forcing the withdrawal of all Syrian military and intelligence units from the country.

Syria has denied involvement and on Saturday Syrian President Bashar al-Assad gave a commitment to a UN envoy to carry out the pullback in accordance with a United Nations Security Council resolution.

Syrian forces in Lebanon numbered about 14,000 at the time of Hariri's murder but have since begun a redeployment, leaving north Lebanon and the mountains over Beirut for points further east on their way home across the border.

In some quarters, notably the country's Shia Muslim community, Syria is seen as having preserved Lebanese stability in the aftermath of the country's devastating 1975-1990 civil war.

Many Shia Muslims, who make up about 30 percent of the population, are grateful to Syria for having supported their struggle for mainstream political power after decades of exclusion.

Syrian forces entered Lebanon in 1976 to serve as a buffer between warring Lebanese factions and at one point numbered 40,000.

SO!

Lebanese MP Marwan Hamade, the official opening speaker, charged that Lebanese and Syrian intelligence services were hiding the truth behind the assassination!

OKAY!

CHECK!

Got that!

"You want the truth on the assassination?" he asked.

YOU BET WE DO!

That's what Mr. A.B. was saying right above here, AND I AGREE WITH HIM, YES, WE DO WANT THE TRUTH!

SO?

"They killed (Hariri) because he was thwarting their plan to make Lebanon submit."

WHAT?

What are you talking about, SUBMIT TO WHAT?

Syria is leaving!

"They killed him because they are the enemies of democracy and Arabism," Hamade declared?

Then why are they leaving?

[Livyjr]

BTW, about that statement made by Mr. Free up above.

What I'd like to know is why are people always reprimanding God for not interceding in every tragedy and preventing any 'bad things' from happening?

Do they also go around publicly complimenting God when good things happen?

Are these folks trying their best to keep God from being thrown out of schools?

Are they living lives which help others as God would approve of?

Or do they only mention God when things go wrong?

Just wondering.

A.B.

You know, Mr. A.B., I had considered saying something along those lines, but for the moment, refrained!

MY thought was, "What's God getting the bad rap here for; he didn't pull the trigger, after all, and I doubt that it was HIS or HER idea, so what's with blaming God?"

What was it Jesus said on behalf of God?

"Leave to CAESAR that which is CAESAR's?"

I think that THIS is CAESAR's, myself, and not God's!

SO!

WHERE WAS CAESAR WHEN THOSE PEOPLE NEEDED HIM?

And that answer is just like it was for those other folks on 9-11 - NOT THERE!

[Livyjr]

SO!

WHERE WAS CAESAR WHEN THOSE PEOPLE NEEDED HIM?

And that answer is just like it was for those other folks on 9-11 - NOT THERE!

And here I have got to say at this point that since 9-11, I have seen what to me is some of the most obscene EXPLOITATION of victims FOR POLITICAL PROPAGANDA PURPOSES that I have ever seen, and to me, this following NEWSWEEK article just about takes the cake on that score of EXPLOITING, FOR THE PURPOSES OF POLITICAL PROPAGANDA the misery of others to "MAKE A BUCK", here in this EXPLOITATIVE AMURKA of Mr. George W. Bush:

"Children of the Fallen - Over 1,000 American kids have lost a parent in the Iraq war. Who they are, and how they're coping"

Newsweek

This story was written by Jerry Adler with reporting from Debra Rosenberg, T. Trent Gegax, Pat Wingert, Daren Briscoe, Hilary Shenfeld, Kiyoshi Martinez, Dirk Johnson, Jamie Reno and Andrew Horesh

March 21 issue - They were prepared to die, even the truck drivers and supply clerks; any American who sets foot in Iraq must be.

They made out wills, as the military requires, and left behind letters and videos for their families.

The families in turn prepared for the day when they might open the door to find a chaplain on the other side.

In military families the notion of duty is not confined to the battlefield.

On the morning that 14-year-old Rohan Osbourne learned that his mother, Pamela, had been killed in a mortar attack on her Army base, his father dropped him off as usual at Robert M. Shoemaker High School, where three quarters of the students are the children of soldiers from nearby Fort Hood, Texas.

"I might not get a lot of work done today, ma'am," Rohan politely explained to his teacher.

"My mommy died yesterday in Iraq."

War notoriously robs parents of their sons, but it also steals husbands and fathers, and increasingly wives and mothers.

The Pentagon doesn't keep these statistics, but using figures compiled by the Scripps-Howard News Service and other sources, NEWSWEEK has calculated that as of last week 1,043 American children had lost a parent in Iraq.

To put it another way, nearly two years after the invasion on March 19, 2003, among the 1,508 American troops who have died as of March 11 were an estimated 450 fathers, and 7 mothers.

A wartime death presents unique hardships for children.

It occurs in a far-off country, often to a parent who left home months earlier; young children may find it hard to grasp the finality of the event.

Offsetting that is the impressive panoply and ritual of a military funeral, and the consoling knowledge that the sacrifice was in a worthy cause.

The death of a parent often leaves a family not just sadder, but poorer, and surviving spouses are agitating for improvements in their benefits.

But there are needs no government program can fill.

The fathers were big strong men, like Nino Livaudais, a 23-year-old Army Ranger with two tours in Afghanistan behind him before the invasion.

His son Destre, now 7, is still struggling to understand how such a hero could have been killed by a mere bomb.

"I can kind of picture it," he says hesitantly.

"But it's hard to picture it."

"I don't really think explosions hurt that much."

"My dad's usually a tough man."

"He went through about five wars."

Livaudais left, besides Destre (then 5) and his wife, Jackie, a 2-year-old son, Carson, and Grant, who was born after his death.

As relatives gathered on the family porch after Nino's funeral, Carson grew excited by all the unexpected company and started calling for his daddy to join the party.

He then turned around, puzzled, as the grown-ups all burst into tears.

And their mothers were loving and devoted, like Spc. Jessica Cawvey, 21.

Before she left for Iraq last February with her Illinois National Guard unit, her daughter, Sierra, made her pinkie-swear she wouldn't die.

So when Cawvey was killed by a roadside bomb in Fallujah last October, it was not merely a tragedy for Sierra, it was a kind of betrayal.

"We had to explain that even though she died, it wasn't her mommy's fault," said Kevin Cawvey, Sierra's grandfather.

Vanessa Arroyave, who was 6 when her father, Marine S/Sgt. Jimmy Javier Arroyave, was deployed, was certain he would die in Iraq.

"She was very adamant about that," says her mother, Rachelle.

The little girl was right.

Last April, when Arroyave was killed in a truck accident, Vanessa told her mother:

"I told you so."

So Rachelle faced the mirror image of the Cawvey family's problem.

She had to reassure her daughter that by predicting her father's death, she hadn't brought it about.

The sudden onslaughts of grief are sometimes almost more than Nelda Howton, the principal of Osbourne's school near Fort Hood, can bear.

She has picked up the phone to find a mother sobbing on the other end, begging Howton to drive her son home.

One girl's aunt walked straight to the classroom and appeared in the doorway, tears streaming down her face.

The students do characteristically thoughtless things, like asking Jessica Blankenbecler for her autograph because they had seen her on television.

Blankenbecler, a pretty sophomore, was the first student at Shoemaker to lose a parent in Iraq.

That wasn't the worst of it; one girl told her, "I wish something would happen to my dad because then we'd get rich"—a remark that carried a particular sting because Blankenbecler's mother, Linnie, thinks they're actually going to be poor.

Compensation for the families of soldiers killed in action is a politically and emotionally charged issue, particularly in light of the changing makeup of the military.

The saying used to be that "if the Army wanted you to have a wife, they would have issued you one," but the proportion of married soldiers is higher today than in any previous war, says Charlie Moskos, a Northwestern University sociologist.

The military today is a better-paid career than most high-school graduates could aspire to otherwise, which may explain why the average male soldier now gets married at 24—three years younger than the rest of the population.

The heavy reliance on Reserves and National Guard troops also puts family men and women on the front lines in unprecedented numbers.

Of the Americans killed in Iraq through the end of November 2004, more than two in five were married.

Characteristically, the military and Congress have responded to the urgent needs of the survivors by adding new layers of bureaucracy to a system that dates back to the Civil War (and, in fact, is still paying benefits to five offspring of Civil War veterans).

Spouses receive a lump-sum "death gratuity" of $12,420, plus life insurance of as much as $250,000.

This payment would be effectively doubled by a bill that is expected to pass in the next month.

Families are eligible for Social Security payments and for two different kinds of government annuities, although the fine print requires an offsetting reduction in one if you also collect the other.

Survivors are eligible for generous college-tuition grants and lifetime subsidized health care.

As an illustration, the National Military Families Association calculated the benefits for the family (a wife and children ages 1 and 3) of an enlisted man with a salary of $38,064 a year, including a housing allowance and combat pay.

Apart from the lump-sum payments, his wife would receive the equivalent of an annual income of $57,624, falling to $45,804 after two years, then declining in steps as the children reach adulthood.

By the time the younger child turns 23, the wife's check would amount to only about a quarter of her husband's active-duty salary.

Last year the Department of Veterans Affairs added bereavement counseling to the package of benefits.

This supplements the work of a voluntary organization called TAPS—Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors—which organizes "emotional peer-to-peer" counseling among kids.

There are also freelance outreach efforts by the adult children of servicemen killed in Vietnam, who are now approaching middle age themselves.

Tony Cordero, who was 4 when his father, William, was killed in 1965, founded a survivors' group called Sons and Daughters in Touch, which has begun inviting the children of Iraqi casualties to its Father's Day memorials.

Ever since the publication of her family memoir ("Hero Mama"), the writer Karen Spears Zacharias, whose father was killed in Vietnam, has become a magnet for bereaved kids, who write and call her at all hours.

In quiet visits, she tells them she understands how they feel:

"It's difficult to lose a father in an unpopular war."

Psychologists have learned a lot about how to help children through the grief process.

Unfortunately one of the most important recommendations—to avoid unnecessary changes to the child's daily routine—is impossible for many military families, who generally have to move off base within six months.

Previous advice that a healthy adjustment required a clean break with the deceased parent is now inoperative; current thinking is that children "want and need a continuing bond to their dead parent," according to J. William Worden, co-director of Harvard's Child Bereavement Study.

"They talk to them, they keep things that belong to them, they dream about them and think about them," he says.

Tony Bertolino Jr., 15, appears to have memorized the entire career and duties of his father, an Army sergeant who was killed in an ambush in late 2003.

"He was a highly respected soldier and man," he says.

David Kirchhoff Jr., whose father, an Iowa guardsman, died of heat stroke in Iraq in 2003, has turned his bedroom into a virtual shrine to his father, including a wall of photographs.

Like many sons of soldiers, he imagines enlisting himself someday.

His plan, though, is to "go over there and tell everybody it's not worth it."

Compared with the 20,000 American children who lost a father in Vietnam, the families of Iraqi war casualties have the advantage that almost all of them are getting a body back.

Many men back then were lost in the jungle or the air and were—or still are—listed as "missing," leaving their families to wonder, "Is he going to be coming around the corner one day?" says Cordero.

It was with that in mind that Tina Cline, whose husband, Marine Lance Cpl. Donald Cline, was killed in an explosion on the fourth day of the invasion, decided to let 2-year-old Dakota look inside the flag-draped coffin at the uniformed body inside.

The body had no head.

"Daddy's not coming home," she whispered to her son, who was dressed in a tiny dark suit and tie.

"He's got a bigger job to do, helping God in heaven."

Parents have always said that, to little boys who stood at attention and promised their moms they would be brave.

They wore their father's dog tags to school, and, in the way of things, eventually went off to fight in their own wars.

On the same day that Cline's vehicle was hit by a shell, Marine Sgt. Phillip Jordan was killed in Nasiriya, leaving behind a 6-year-old son, Tyler, whom he called "Lavabug."

For a week after, Tyler sulked around the house in his 6-foot-3-inch father's camouflage shirt, refusing to eat or to talk to his mother, Amanda.

"God needed Daddy in heaven," she explained recently.

"Well," he replied, "I needed him, too."

[jeffmoskin]

Syrian forces entered Lebanon in 1976 to serve as a buffer between warring Lebanese factions and at one point numbered 40,000.

Question: And do you remember who stirred up those factions into war?


Answer: Yassir Arafat.

[Livyjr]

And speaking of having no confidence whatsoever in George W. Bush:
 
Top Stories - The Christian Science Monitor

"War mistake tests Italy's patience"

Thu Mar 10, 9:33 AM ET 

Italy and the US have agreed to a joint investigation of the death of an Italian agent who rescued a hostage.

By Sophie Arie, Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

ROME - They've had the tears, the tributes, and the angry accusations.

Now, Italians want answers.

In an effort to solder their strained relations, the United States and Italy have agreed that they will join forces to investigate how an Italian intelligence agent was shot dead by American troops as he accompanied a rescued hostage, journalist Giulia Sgrena, to the Baghdad Airport last week.

"In a lot of cases, victims are not satisfied," says Daniel Goure, vice president of the Lexington Institute, in Arlington Va.

"You do not want a military man hesitating to fire because he's worried about the legal ramifications," he adds.

Dr. Daniel Goure
Vice President
Lexington Institute

Dr. Goure is a Vice President with the Lexington Institute, a nonprofit public-policy research organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia.

Dr. Goure is a well-known and respective presence in the national and international media, having been interviewed by all the major networks, CNN, Fox, the BBC, the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, the Christian Science Monitor, the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times. 

He is also an NBC national security military analyst.

And who on earth is Doctor Daniel Goure, and what is the Lexington Institute, and how does he and it get to have a say in how OUR American military is run, especially with regard to stripping our American military of legal consequnces for its actions?

And here I have got to say at this point that since 9-11, I have seen what to me is some of the most obscene EXPLOITATION of victims FOR POLITICAL PROPAGANDA PURPOSES that I have ever seen, and to me, this following NEWSWEEK article just about takes the cake on that score of EXPLOITING, FOR THE PURPOSES OF POLITICAL PROPAGANDA the misery of others to "MAKE A BUCK", here in this EXPLOITATIVE AMURKA of Mr. George W. Bush:

"Children of the Fallen - Over 1,000 American kids have lost a parent in the Iraq war. Who they are, and how they're coping"
 
Newsweek

This story was written by Jerry Adler with reporting from Debra Rosenberg, T. Trent Gegax, Pat Wingert, Daren Briscoe, Hilary Shenfeld, Kiyoshi Martinez, Dirk Johnson, Jamie Reno and Andrew Horesh

March 21 issue - They were prepared to die, even the truck drivers and supply clerks; any American who sets foot in Iraq must be.

They made out wills, as the military requires, and left behind letters and videos for their families.

The families in turn prepared for the day when they might open the door to find a chaplain on the other side.

In military families the notion of duty is not confined to the battlefield.

On the morning that 14-year-old Rohan Osbourne learned that his mother, Pamela, had been killed in a mortar attack on her Army base, his father dropped him off as usual at Robert M. Shoemaker High School, where three quarters of the students are the children of soldiers from nearby Fort Hood, Texas.

"I might not get a lot of work done today, ma'am," Rohan politely explained to his teacher.

"My mommy died yesterday in Iraq."

A wartime death presents unique hardships for children.

It occurs in a far-off country, often to a parent who left home months earlier; young children may find it hard to grasp the finality of the event.

Offsetting that is the impressive panoply and ritual of a military funeral, and the consoling knowledge that the sacrifice was in a worthy cause.

And PARDON ME, AMERICA, but what exactly is this crap, "THE SACRIFICE WAS IN A WORTHY CAUSE"?

WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN?

How has a war in Iraq that started based upon nothing but an apparently endless STRING OF LIES, HALF-TRUTHS, DECEPTIONS, AND EVASIONS now been SPUN UP INTO A "WORTHY CAUSE"?

How do lies ever make a cause "WORTHY"?

And why are we hearing this crap from such an alleged "NEWS" magazine as "NEWSWEEK"?

HOW ABOUT "PROPAGANDAWEEK", instead?

And they got the nerve to throw stones at Dan Rather!

Incredible!

Poor Dan!

He was just on the wrong side!

IF HE HAD BEEN WILLING TO LIE FOR THE BUSH CO.'s, HE'D STILL BE WORKING ON TV IS WHAT I BET, or maybe he would be writing articles for "PROPAGANDAWEEK" like this one above, TELLING US ALL how lucky we are to have this Bush Co. as president of the SUN, MOON and STARS, and how GLORIOUS A CAUSE THIS BUSH CO. "HOLY WAR" REALLY IS, and how proud all these children really should be that they had a chance, a rare chance, indeed, OFFERED to them by the Bush Co. to have their parents MARTYERED for the Bush Co.

HOW OBSCENE!

HOW BUSH CO.!

[Livyjr]

Question: And do you remember who stirred up those factions into war?

Answer: Yassir Arafat.

Hhhhmmmm.

Here I must say no, I don't recall this, although right now I won't dispute what you say, because I honestly cannot say one way or the other.

I truly do not know!

However, some time back in "VOLUME I" of "Life in OUR America", I did a long post on the history of Lebanon in anticipation of what was to come, which is this what is unfolding before OUR eyes in here, and so, I am going to go back and get that article, for Lebanon has a very long history, and this thing of "factions" in Lebanon goes back way before Yassir Arafat ever drew a breath on this green earth of OURS.

If you had told me the BRITISH were responsible for the mess in Lebanon, I would have no trouble believing that, for history shows them being behind much of the strife in this area since at least the end of WWI, but Yassir Arafat?

I just don't know, and so, I don't want to give him credit where it is just not due!

SO!

Let us leave that as an open subject that needs more definition!

[Abu Beacon]

Question: And do you remember who stirred up those factions into war?
Answer: Yassir Arafat.

About three years ago, I was corresponding with a relative in Canada, who until fairly recently lived in Lebanon.

I made a comment which was construed by him to be complimentary to Yassir Arafat.

I found out then how deep the antipathy toward Arafat really was.

Greatly disliked, at least by the Christians, who held him to a large degree responsible for much of Lebanon's problems.

To those people who somehow believe that all Arabs are united in all their thinking -- forget it.

It ain't so.

A.B.

[jeffmoskin]

About three years ago, I was corresponding with a relative in Canada, who until fairly recently lived in Lebanon.

I made a comment which was construed by him to be complimentary to Yassir Arafat.

I found out then how deep the antipathy toward Arafat really was.

Greatly disliked, at least by the Christians, who held him to a large degree responsible for much of Lebanon's problems.

To those people who somehow believe that all Arabs are united in all their thinking -- forget it.

It ain't so.

A.B.

Arafat was a one-man disaster. After the 67 war, Arafat made political hay out of Nasser's disgrace from losing the war. He united a lot of dissident groups of ne'er do wells into his PLO whose central core was the destruction of Israel. Look closely at photos of Arafat in his silly soldier costume (he never served in ANY army - not ever): there is a patch on his shoulder in red showing the outline of "Palestine." Oh, yes, it includes the State of Israel!

Anyway, he fomented an attempt to overthrow Jordan's King Hussein. The King, less than pleased with this attempted coup, ran Arafat clear out of the West Bank and north up into Lebanon.

In Beirut, once called the "Switzerland of the Middle East," he once again fomented trouble between the various factions who had somehow previously managed to get along into a full-blown civil war which lasted 15 years, ruined a beautiful city, and bankrupted the country.

Finally, cornered by the Israelis in 1982 (Sharon was asked by a sharpshooter who had him in the crosshairs for authorization to fire. He didn't give it. He regretted it ever since), he "escaped" under cover from US warships in the Eastern Med to Tunis.
Syria moved in to counter the Israelis.

Arafat had more lives than a cat. Finally, he has exhausted them.

I heard that he was buried in a glass coffin so they could keep an eye on him.

[Livyjr]

Arafat was a one-man disaster.

And thank you for this, jeffmoskin!

After I left here last night, I was thinking on this, to be truthful, trying to figure how I missed all of this, AS I THINK OF ARAFAT as nothing more than just a "small timer" in HISTORY!

Now, trying to interpolate from the "dates", it is possible that during some of this time, I was in Viet Nam, where I did not actually have time to know very much concerning what was going on in the world, and for some time after, that was also the case.

SO!

It seems Mr. Arafat was less than such a "small timer", OR ......

"Small-timers" really can make big messes!

It is interesting that Arafat is a name that I instantly recognize, and his face comes to mind, BUT NOTHING that he ever did or said comes with it!

He is like a complete "non-entity" to me, and so, it is interesting to get your perspective here, on the matter.

A whole 'nother chunk of history of which I am totally unaware!

And I have a friend who came from Beirut, who was there as a child during the troubles!

He is a Lebanese who is not an arab!

His claim is to the Phoenician roots of Lebanon, although over here, where he is a mechanic of cars, when the Bush Co. was raising up dust about Arabs after 9-11, this person was being maligned and boycotted, AS AN ARAB, because he looks like someone who came from the Middle East!

Go figure!

I'll have to ask him about Arafat, now!

[Livyjr]

And speaking of "small-timers" who have a proclivity to make real big messes:

Top Stories - washingtonpost.com

"Skepticism of Bush's Social Security Plan Is Growing"

Tue Mar 15, 6:36 AM ET

By Jonathan Weisman, Washington Post Staff Writer

Three months after President Bush launched his drive to restructure Social Security by creating private investment accounts, public support for his program remains weak, with only 35 percent of Americans now saying they approve of his handling of the issue, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

While the White House has helped convince more than two-thirds of those polled that Social Security is heading for a crisis or possible bankruptcy without change, 56 percent disapprove of his approach, a survey of 1,001 adults conducted March 10-13 shows.

By comparison, 38 percent approved of his handling of the issue and 52 percent disapproved of it in mid-December.

Moreover, 58 percent of those polled this time said the more they hear about Bush's plan, the less they like it.

The latest polling, combined with detailed interviews last week, shows that Bush's drive to significantly alter the 70-year-old national insurance program has run into significant hurdles with every age cohort.

A majority of elderly voters have turned against the plan for private accounts, even though the White House has assured them it would have no impact on their Social Security benefits.

Younger workers, who have the most to gain, also tend to be the most difficult to mobilize, according to interviews.

And many middle-aged workers are faced with the reality that there would not be enough time before their retirement to gain much financial benefit from the new approach.

"The president knows it's a challenge and is taking it head-on," White House spokesman Trent Duffy said.

"He is just getting started, and he's going to keep traveling, pushing and explaining to people of all ages why Social Security needs to be fixed permanently and why it's best that personal accounts be part of the solution."

For middle-aged workers such as Kathy Remenar of Midland, Mich., the issue is simple mathematics.

"I personally wouldn't get a whole lot out of it, really," said the 46-year-old director of science and technology for Dow Corning Corp.'s specialty chemicals business.

"It's not relevant to me."

Bush has promised that, under his proposal, workers would eventually be able to divert 4 percent of their income subject to payroll taxes to private accounts, which could then be invested in stocks and bonds.

A 46-year-old earning the maximum income subject to Social Security taxation -- currently $90,000 -- could theoretically salt away $3,600 a year.

But the plan would be phased in slowly, starting in 2009 with an initial annual cap of $1,000 and rising by $100 a year.

It would take an additional 26 years for someone at the taxable maximum to save the promised 4 percent.

By then, Remenar would be 76 and long since retired.

And in the short time period available to middle-aged workers, investment gains would have to exceed inflation by 3 percent for the accounts to make more money than the traditional Social Security system would provide.

"If there are no other incentives than this, we probably wouldn't take part in it, because the numbers don't make a whole lot of sense for us personally," said Sue Smorodin, 45, a homemaker in St. Louis.

Republican Michael Cardwell, a land-use planner in Washington state, did the math.

He would retire with $11,000 in his account, plus maybe $900 more in investment gains if all went well on the stock market.

"Wow," Cardwell, 50, said with a laugh.

"I may get one additional paycheck, thank you very much."

Nonetheless, he said he will support the president.

Not all middle-aged workers are skeptical.

Marilyn Donnelly, a 46-year-old nurse on Florida's central Atlantic coast, said that with luck a personal account could grow substantially, and she relishes the opportunity to give it a try.

She is already saving 16 percent of her income for retirement, Donnelly said, but too much of her paycheck is going to a Social Security system that is not likely to do as well with the money as she could.

"I want the opportunity to invest some of that money myself so it will grow more than what Social Security is going to give me," said Donnelly, of Rockledge.

"And I feel [Bush is] offering me that opportunity."

But after nearly a dozen interviews with middle-aged voters, it appears Donnelly's optimism is not widely shared.

"If you're my age, it isn't going to make much difference really," said Mark Kaufman, 52, a rancher and farmer in Nebraska's panhandle.

"I can't get all that excited."

"It won't add up to much," agreed John Hall, 50, a small-business man in Lubbock, Tex., and a strong supporter of the president.

"But for my daughter, it could be a tremendous amount."

"She's 19 years old, and for her, the future of the Social Security system is not too bright."

Indeed, the White House is pinning its political hopes on younger voters such as Hall's daughter.

They tend to be deeply ambivalent about the future of Social Security and blessed with enough time until retirement to build up sizable accounts.

In this month's poll, 68 percent of adults 18 to 29 years old said they support investing some Social Security contributions in the stock market.

That support falls with the respondents' age, to 60 percent among those 40 to 49, 53 percent among those 50 to 64, and 37 percent among those 65 and older.

But young workers present their own political problems.

For one thing, they tend to be less politically involved.

Only 38 percent of young respondents say they know much about Bush's Social Security proposal, well below the levels seen among middle-aged and elderly respondents.

At 32, Kathy Lavigne of Wayzata, Minn., said she thinks she supports the president's Social Security plans.

But, she conceded, she cannot be sure.

"Honestly, I've discussed it with my business partner here or there, but I'm not watching it too closely," the insurance saleswoman said.

If she were moved to call her representative in Congress, she would have a little problem.

She does not know her congressman's name.

If it were up to Ray Waters, a 32-year-old construction sales representative in Kansas, he would keep all of his Social Security taxes in a private account, but absent that, he strongly backs Bush's proposal.

"I guess it comes down to it's my money," he said.

But though his congressman, Rep. Dennis Moore, is a perennial Republican target, Waters is not clamoring for a bullhorn to pressure the state's only Democrat in Congress.

"I don't get to camp out in front of Fox News as much as I would like to," he said.

"Between work and a little boy and a baby, there's not a whole lot of time for politics."

Finally, younger workers may support the idea of private accounts, but they also tend to oppose Bush.

Democratic candidate John F. Kerry claimed 54 percent of the 18-to-29-year-old vote in November, the only age bracket he carried.

And distrust of the president is lingering among even some young workers inclined to support investing part of their Social Security contribution.

Only 40 percent of these younger workers say they support Bush's Social Security proposal.

"I'm not a big fan of Bush, not at all," said Michelle Hinson, 31, of Morgan Hill, Calif., just south of San Jose.

But she grudgingly says she likes the idea of personal accounts.

"If I think it's a good idea, then I'm willing to listen and hear what's going on."

"But for the most part, I don't agree with anything he's doing."

If young voters tend to be apathetic or ambivalent, the elderly are anything but.

GOP strategists are convinced Republican politicians must emphasize over and over that anyone older than 55 will not be affected by the plan.

By exempting those in or near retirement from participation in the accounts or any benefit reductions, Bush hopes to neutralize opposition from the most vocal and reliable voting bloc.

But the strategy may backfire, homemaker Smorodin said, noting that her mother has grown incensed about the issue.

By and large, the elderly do understand the president has promised not to touch their Social Security checks, according to polling.

But that is not relevant to their political opposition, Smorodin said, noting that older people also worry that pension benefit cuts will hurt their children and grandchildren.

At 69, Gene Wallace knows the White House's proposal would have no impact on his Social Security check, but if Bush believes that will silence the Republican mayor of Coldwater, Mich., Wallace grumbled, "he's all wet."

"I'm a parent as well as a grandparent."

"Somewhere along the line, they are going to be eligible for retirement assistance," he said, with all the energy he could muster three weeks after open-heart surgery.

"It's everybody's concern what happens to this country."

Assistant polling director Claudia Deane contributed to this report.

[Livyjr]

And speaking of "small-timers" who have a proclivity to make real big messes:

Top Stories - washingtonpost.com

"Skepticism of Bush's Social Security Plan Is Growing"

Tue Mar 15, 6:36 AM ET 

By Jonathan Weisman, Washington Post Staff Writer

Three months after President Bush launched his drive to restructure Social Security by creating private investment accounts, public support for his program remains weak, with only 35 percent of Americans now saying they approve of his handling of the issue, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Finally, younger workers may support the idea of private accounts, but they also tend to oppose Bush.

Democratic candidate John F. Kerry claimed 54 percent of the 18-to-29-year-old vote in November, the only age bracket he carried.

And distrust of the president is lingering among even some young workers inclined to support investing part of their Social Security contribution.

If young voters tend to be apathetic or ambivalent, the elderly are anything but.

GOP strategists are convinced Republican politicians must emphasize over and over that anyone older than 55 will not be affected by the plan.

By exempting those in or near retirement from participation in the accounts or any benefit reductions, Bush hopes to neutralize opposition from the most vocal and reliable voting bloc.

But the strategy may backfire, homemaker Smorodin said, noting that her mother has grown incensed about the issue.

By and large, the elderly do understand the president has promised not to touch their Social Security checks, according to polling.

But that is not relevant to their political opposition, Smorodin said, noting that older people also worry that pension benefit cuts will hurt their children and grandchildren.

At 69, Gene Wallace knows the White House's proposal would have no impact on his Social Security check, but if Bush believes that will silence the Republican mayor of Coldwater, Mich., Wallace grumbled, "he's all wet."

"I'm a parent as well as a grandparent."

"Somewhere along the line, they are going to be eligible for retirement assistance," he said, with all the energy he could muster three weeks after open-heart surgery.

"It's everybody's concern what happens to this country."

WHAT'S WITH THIS BUSH CO.?

I am an older American, AND I AM INCENSED THAT BUSH CO. WOULD TRY TO "BUY" US OFF, to have us turn OUR backs on the younger Americans who are just coming along, and so do not have "political awareness" to any great degree, yet, AND THIS IS TYPICAL BUSH CO. B*** S***!

TURN US AGAINST EACH OTHER!

Break us up into "FACTIONS", and then buy us off, a faction at a time!

"OKAY, OKAY, LOOK, all you OLDER AMERICANS OUT THERE, look, I'll do a deal with you, and I'll exempt you from the screwing that I'm going to make sure your children and grandchildren get, AND SINCE YOU CAN'T SAVE THEM ANYWAY, DO THE SMART THING, TAKE THE DEAL WHILE IT'S ON THE TABLE!"

Well, guess what, George, NO DEAL!

Go pound salt!

Or is it sand?

Drat this getting old!

Never can keep anything straight anymore!

HHHHmmmmm.

Is it "go pound sand"?

No, must be salt, or is it sand ........

[Abu Beacon]

And I have a friend who came from Beirut, who was there as a child during the troubles!

He is a Lebanese who is not an arab!

His claim is to the Phoenician roots of Lebanon, although over here, where he is a mechanic of cars, when the Bush Co. was raising up dust about Arabs after 9-11, this person was being maligned and boycotted, AS AN ARAB, because he looks like someone who came from the Middle East!

Go figure!

I'll have to ask him about Arafat, now!

Livyjr

Many, many Lebanese people claim roots to the ancient Phoenicians.

Due to the invasions over the years by several Arab countries, Phoenicia as a nation became integrated with other Arabs, so today there is no Phoenicia.

I'm attaching a short write up about ancient Phoenicia, which I copied from Google. There are many other articles on Phoenicia which can be obtained from Google, if you have some spare time.

Live and learn, eh?

A.B.

[Abu Beacon]

Livyjr

Many, many Lebanese people claim roots to the ancient Phoenicians.

Due to the invasions over the years by several Arab countries, Phoenicia as a nation became integrated with other Arabs, so today there is no Phoenicia.

I'm attaching a short write up about ancient Phoenicia, which I copied from Google. There are many other articles on Phoenicia which can be obtained from Google, if you have some spare time.

Live and learn, eh?

A.B.

PHOENICIANS

From 1200 to 800 B.C. the Semitic-speaking Phoenicians lived and prospered on the Mediterranean coast north of Palestine. Their chief cities were Tyre and Sidon. They gained fame as sailors and traders. They occupied a string of cities along the Mediterranean coast, in what is today Lebanon and Syria.

Contributions to Civilization Manufacturing and trade. The coastal land, though narrow, was fertile and supported farming. Still, the resourceful Phoenicians became best known for manufacturing and trade. They made glass from coastal sand. From a tiny sea snail, they produced a widely admired purple dye, called "Tyrian purple" after the city of Tyre, which became their trademark. It became the favorite color of royalty.

Phoenicians also used papyrus from Egypt to make scrolls, or rolls of paper, for books. The words Bible and bibliography come from the Phoenician city of Byblos. Phoenicians traded with people all around the Mediterranean Sea. To promote trade, they set up colonies from North Africa to Sicily and Spain. A colony is a territory settled and ruled by people from a distant land.


Missionaries of Civilization.Due to their sailing skills, the Phoenicians served as missionaries of civiliization, bringing eastern Mediterranean products and culture to less advanced peoples. A few Phoenician traders braved the stormy Atlantic and sailed as far as England. There, they exchanged goods from the Mediterranean for tin. About 600 B.C., one Phoenician expedition may have sailed down the Red Sea and then followed the African coast around the southern tip. That historic voyage was forgotten for centuries. (In the late 1400's, Europeans claimed to be the first to round the southern tip of Africa.)

The Alphabet. As merchants, the Phoenicians needed a simple alphabet to ease the burden of keeping records. They therefore replaced the cumbersome cuneiform alphabet of 550 characters with a phonetic alphabet, based on distinct sounds, consisting of 22 letters. After further alterations by the Greeks and Romans, this alphabet became the one we use today!