Update from the
Heartland
No.732
21.12.15 – 27.12.15
Blog version: http://heartlandupdate.blogspot.com/
To all,
I wish everyone a most enjoyable, prosperous and Happy New
Year.
The follow-up news items:
-- I offer a rather lengthy, YouTube, webcast video from Elon
Musk’s Space Exploration Technology Company (SpaceX) [545, 546, 696] of the entire launch and recovery
process for their latest Falcon 9 spacecraft resupply mission to the
International Space Station (ISS) on Monday, 21.December.2015.
To avoid all the anticipatory hype, the launch begins at
23:00 vid time. The really
significant and historic portion of the sequence begins at 09:23 mission time
(32:25 vid time) when the 1st stage booster of the launch vehicle is
observed during its recovery burn and successful landing back at Cape Canaveral
to be quickly refurbished and reloaded after deploying a supply craft to ISS. To close this item, here is a link to
another vid clip of the first stage booster landing:
Congratulations, SpaceX. Nailed it!
-- Aslan Soobzokov filed a civil suit for defamation, citing
as defendants Eric Lichtblau, the author of “The Nazis Next Door”
[682] and the publisher of the book
– Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt [Soobzokov v. Lichtblau (Civil Action
no. 2:15-cv-06831-SDW-LDW, filed: 09/14/2015)]. Aslan sent along both his claim petition and the defendants’
motion to dismiss. The author and
publisher claim the book is a non-fiction, history work. Yet, the author is far too liberal in
his use of the term ‘Nazi’ – throwing it around to condemn anyone who served
with Germany in World War II.
Lichtblau’s representation of history is simply wrong and not
supportable by facts. It is far
too easy to accuse without facts, and much too difficult to refute. Justice is not served by rumor,
innuendo, feud vengeance or wishful thinking. I laud Aslan’s effort to correct the erroneous history and
the smearing of his father’s reputation.
Good luck, Aslan.
The
Republican front-runner seems to have studied Josef Goebbels extensively and
quite effectively. If you tell an
un-truth enough times, especially if you can mix in just a sliver of truth,
most folks will believe the whole as truth. He is proving Goebbels principles of propaganda with
exceptional zeal and gusto. No
matter what any of us may think of him as a person and ‘presidential candidate’
(I shudder when saying those words with respect to him), we must give him
credit. He has apparently
convinced a lot of people in this Grand Republic he deserves to be president
and is the best person for the difficult job. The pot calling the kettle black . . . doncha think? Ya gotta love it!
I
freely and sincerely acknowledge he has certain attractive attributes, not
least of which is his financial independence from the corrupting influence of
unbounded campaign finance money.
As much as I have railed against the inherent corruption of money and
the dependence of politicians on that money, as well as advocated for casting
out the whole lot of those career politicians, the current Republican
front-runner is NOT the answer . . . for a long list of reasons. The arrogance of power is not a
successful path to win friends and influence others. I would rather have diplomacy and cooperation than bombast
and bluster. I’m just saying’.
Comments and contributions from Update no.731:
“I shall indeed
look out for your book at Amazon and let you know if I can find it over here.
“Agree your
comments re dealing with the despots and dictators. It is indeed a dilemma of
the utmost complication. Do you as a nation have some sort of input, no matter
how small through this self-styled head of state and have some influence. Or do
we close our eyes and consciences to the unpleasantness of any disagreeable
foreign government? Indeed a quandary, if by choice, one to keep clear of.
“However, the world
doesn’t work like that, throughout life we have taken sides, whether at a
football match or opposing or supporting a repressive regime. The choice, as in
all aspects of human endeavour has to be made.
“What sort of world
would we have now if we had accepted Mr Chamberlin’s waved note of ‘Peace in
our Time’? as he returned from Berlin? The thought is a brutal one.”
My response:
The
book (actually all my books) should be readily available in any format from
Amazon UK. Please let me
know. I must confess, it is
written in American English rather than the mother tongue.
The
international relations conundrum is made all the more complex by the reality
that the local population often blame the West for their plight in that they
view their oppression as supported by the West. Commerce is an essential element of progress, yet it often
is the facilitator of their oppression.
Our
only influence is our voice and our vote.
We entrust our representatives and the government to do the correct
thing. Yet, the infinite question:
correct for whom? Correct for
business does not necessarily mean correct for national security, or correct
for the local population. The government
tries to find the correct balance between all the conflicting stimulants, and
they don’t always get it right.
Re:
“Peace in our time.” Quite so . .
. a brutal one, indeed. It is
impossible to imagine what might have been, either way . . . if the French
& British had stood up to Hitler in 1938, and not abandoned Czechoslovakia,
or if the War Cabinet had sided with Lord Halifax in June 1940. Hard choices indeed! Fortunately, Sir Winston proved an
English Worthy.
My
very best wishes to all. Take care
of yourselves and each other.
Cheers,
Cap :-)
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