Once Upon A Time in America – There was Patriotism and Objective News Reporting

Once upon a time in America – during the Cold War we took national security and America’s interest/survival seriously. In some ways, depending upon which political group one talks to, regard our intelligence and allied intelligence agencies a vital tool for knowledge of what the other side is doing. As a reader once commented, once we knew WHO the enemy actually was/is. The enemy military wore uniforms, swore allegiance to their national flag, et cetera. Today, the enemy could be a civilian mingled in the crowd with enough explosives wrapped around him (or her) to kill many people and do costly damage to a shopping mall, a public bus service, or whatever. The enemy speaks words of truce and negotiation, and then lobs mortars and hand-held missile-firing devices at a school bus full of children. And this same enemy’s leadership and propaganda cadre will cry out words like oppression and blame us and our allies for acts of self defense and counterattack operations are initiated and acted upon. The “soldiers” of this enemy actually believe that glory and honor await them after death for committing acts of atrocity and murder against fellow human beings in the name of their twisted idea of one of the major religions of the world – and in some parts of the world – fast growing in membership (overall statistic of the religion of Islam).

Thoughts From a Reader at Sandbox & LP Journal

Energy is a big topic today, as well as it should be. Not just the cost of it, but finding a form of energy that is less costly, friendly to our planet, and efficient. The Sandbox [Smiley Smile Message Board] blog/forum supports ways of having energy production meet these demands and encourages smarter ways of using that energy. I direct you to an interesting comment at this blog (Reply #5) that referred my article concerning China and offshore drilling discovery that appalled many Americans (including myself) and outraged many as well. Here is what the commentator wrote under the pseudo of NoName: