IQBAL - User contributions [en]

Believe it or not 1968 was worse

2018-07-09T02:05:28Z

GertieLienhop:

By Maurice Isserman July 12 (Reuters) - According to the Chinese Zodiac, 1968 and 2016 are both the Year of the Monkey. But maybe we should call this the Year of the Ghost Monkey of 1968. From the presidential primaries to the convention platform battles to bloody mayhem in the streets, 1968 is the go-to, default metaphor for what we seem to be reliving. This year, like 1968, is certainly one of bitter conflict and wrenching change. And why is that a surprise? Some things don't change. A nation of several hundred million people, drawn from all over the world, can never exactly become a peaceable kingdom, a beloved community. Creeds differ, values clash; rival factions, communities and priorities compete. Harmony would be nice - and an end to bloodshed is a goal to which most Americans can subscribe. But bear in mind that it has always been through conflict that Americans have decided who they are as a nation, discarding old assumptions and redefining identity and mission. I've been thinking about one of my favorite 1960s writers, the remarkable Vietnam War correspondent Michael Herr, who died two weeks ago. He covered the Vietnam War for "Esquire" in 1967-68, and [http://www.vtr.org.vn/cam-nang-du-lich-bac-kinh-5-ngay-4-dem.html tour bắc kinh từ hà nội] his book, "Dispatches," remains one of the greatest works about that troubled conflict. (Herr also contributed to the screenplays of two iconic Hollywood movies about the war, "Apocalypse Now" and "Full Metal Jacket.") "Dispatches" is more than a war memoir, however. It offers genuine insight into American history and the American character. "There was such a dense concentration of American energy there," Herr wrote of Vietnam in the late 1960s. "American and essentially adolescent, if that energy could have been channeled into anything more than waste and pain it would have lighted up Indochina for a thousand years." I can't think of any other American writer who has managed to pack into one sentence so much love for his country - and so much disdain for the folly in which, in that instance, it was engaged. Another passage in "Dispatches" also came [http://www.vtr.org.vn/cam-nang-du-lich-bac-kinh-5-ngay-4-dem.html vtr.org.vn] to mind last week. Herr describes the first time he went on a mission with a company of Marines, and ended up caught in a fire-fight, hugging the ground for hours, "listening to it going on, the moaning and whining and the dull repetitions of whump whump whump and dit dit dit, listening to a boy who'd somehow broken his thumb sobbing and gagging, and thinking 'Oh my God, this f-ing thing is on a loop!...'" Here's last week's loop: Tuesday, "whump whump whump," black man in Louisiana pinned to the ground by police officers then shot to death. Wednesday, "dit dit dit," another black man, this time in Minnesota, shot and killed in the front seat of his car as, his girlfriend said, he tried to produce the driver's license demanded by a police officer -- she sat in the seat beside him, her young daughter in the back seat. Thursday night, "dit whump dit," five Dallas policemen targeted and murdered by a vengeful rooftop sniper, seven others wounded. Senseless death of innocent victims, brought home in disturbingly graphic detail via cable news and social media. Is it apocalypse now in the streets of America? And all this in the context of recent years of fervent protest over issues of racial injustice, in a nation beset by repeated acts of violence, both random and targeted, in the midst of a presidential campaign running off the tracks, with one candidate in particular displaying an ability to stir up as much rancor and discord as possible. If history is on a loop, are we back in the world of "Dispatches"? Is this 1968 redux? Do we really have to sit through this movie again? Not likely. Fifty years have indeed changed America. The country is more diverse, ethnically, racially and religiously. There is a far more substantial black middle class than in 1968. (While at the same time the problem of black poverty, and for that matter white poverty, seems more intractable than ever.) Although it's sometimes hard to remember with all the [http://photobucket.com/images/noise%20generated noise generated] by polarizing politicians, the United States is more tolerant than it was a half century ago - when the idea that there would someday be a black president seemed impossibly remote, and the notion of gay marriage unimaginable. In 1968, the nation was still adjusting to the U.S. Supreme Court's wonderfully named decision "Loving v. Virginia," issued the previous June, which overturned laws that banned interracial marriage. Until then, nearly one-third of American states had such laws on their books. Today at least 12 percent of all new marriages in the United States unite interracial couples, and the trend is expected to expand as millennials, least concerned of all Americans about race, reach marriage age. Reminded by the Iraq invasion of the consequences of national hubris in international affairs, a [http://Www.healthncure.net/?s=lesson%20learned lesson learned] and then forgotten after Vietnam, Americans are again skeptical of "boots on the ground" scenarios for remaking the world in their own image. The fact that this skepticism, even in the absence of a draft, is shared across the generational spectrum - and is, to some extent, bipartisan - is another important difference between 1968 and today. Americans are also asking important questions about economic policies and decisions taken in Washington and corporate board rooms, that have increased income inequality to levels not seen since the 1920s. Americans as a people, many of them anyway, are more self-aware and thoughtful in this second decade of the 21st century than has been the case for some decades. It's true that the presumptive presidential candidate of the party of Abraham Lincoln wants to make America "great again" by turning back the clock to the imagined splendor of an era of racial and ethnic homogeneity. But come November, after all the shouting and posturing, there will come a great moment of clarity, when the diverse population of America votes. Speaking of clarifying moments in American history, in his first speech as president in March 1861, the first Republican president of the United States beseeched his fellow countrymen to listen to the "better angels of their nature" and avoid the looming Civil War. That did not, Lincoln assured Southerners, mean the end of slavery, at least in the short run. His appeal fell on deaf ears. But just two and a half years later, in a November 1863 address at Gettysburg, Lincoln proclaimed a "new birth of freedom," carrying on and transforming the meaning of the American experiment, in which there no longer was a place for human servitude. And, in doing so, changed the nation. History was not on a loop in the 1860s. Nor in the 1960s. In a Memphis church on April 3, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. reflected on the possibility of his own death. He had been nearly killed by a deranged assailant in 1958, and he explained why he was glad to have survived - and not just because he loved life. "I wouldn't have been around here in 1960," King recalled, "when students all over the South started sitting in at lunch counters." What those students were doing, he said, was making America great again by setting out to challenge and change its injustices: "They were really standing up for the best in the American dream, and taking the whole nation back to those great wells of democracy the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution." Lincoln and King lived in difficult times, as we do. It is in just such eras that Americans have rediscovered and refashioned the best traditions bound up in our national experience. Can we resolve in the years that follow the tumultuous election year of 2016 to listen to the better angels of our nature, and turn the dense concentration of American energy away from waste and pain - and use it instead to light our world? (Maurice Isserman) Advertisement

Ha Long Bay...Junk boat

2018-07-08T16:49:19Z

GertieLienhop:

We signed up for the Halong Bay boat trip with our guest house, A Dong Hotel in the old quarter of Hanoi, the guys here are very helpful and with a little bit of persuassion they did us a good deal, we got a 2 day and 1 night trip on the boat for $28. The guys picked us up no problem and took us off, we got tp the port and there were hundreds of junk boats taking people out on trips, eventually we got onto ours. Remember to take your passport with you or they wont let you stay on the boat over night. Apparently the harbour police caught some terrorists 6 months ago smuggling weapons and drugs aboard one of the boats, so the police made it mandatory to know who is on which boat at what time. The crew were nice enough, we stopped shortly after de-berthing and had some lunch, then set off into the bay itself. We were told by the guide that there are over three thousand islands [http://www.vtr.org.vn/cam-nang-du-lich-bac-kinh-5-ngay-4-dem.html tour bắc kinh từ hà nội] in the area, however only one thousand nine hundred odd are in the actual conservation area. The whole area is a vastness of natural beauty, we have barely seen anything as nice, apart from the water it is slightly murky, not very good for snorkling! Our cabin was on the small size but you dont get a lot when you go for the [http://www.vtr.org.vn/cam-nang-du-lich-bac-kinh-5-ngay-4-dem.html vtr.org.vn] extra budget option do you! the water in the shower worked when it felt like it and when it did it was only a dribble, Katie though didnt care she was just made up to be sleeping on a junk boat in the middle of Halong Bay, thats why i love her you see. That day we stopped off at Sung Sot caves and spent over an hour walking through the caves and taking in the sights, there are a lot of stalagmites and stalagtites. The guides try to show you all these pictures in the rocks and shadows but they are hardly true and you could probably make better ones up yourselves, the "romeo and juliet" one is a real corker! After the caves we once again boarded the boat and set off for the fishing village, on the way we stopped at another cave you could visit by hiring a small boat, we decided it wasnt worth it and just stayed on the boat chatting to some couples. The weather was gorgeous 40 plus easy and we were making the most of it all of us on the sun deck! We arrived at the fishing village and got to stop at one of the shops there that house the live fish in specially constructed rafts, the boats crew brought our dinner from here for dinner later! After this we dropped some people off at Cat Ba island that were staying the night at the hotel on the island instead of the boat (apparently its cheaper). We carried on cruising around the bay all afternoon and in the evening we [http://Www.Purevolume.com/search?keyword=settled settled] in a small bay where we had dinner and everyone just chatted and socialised. The next day we were awoken at 06:30 to be informed it was time for us to go KAYAKING! what the hell!!! so we dragged our sorry asses out of bed and paddled around the cove and checking out caves and stuff. We ended up really enjoying it even tho we could barely open our eyes! After that we did nothing, we dropped off more people on the island and picked up some more then took a leisurely cruise back to the main dock at Halong city. So Katie and I just took advantage of the once again gorgeous weather and bronzed up to the max! Katie & Scott Source: Travelblog

Learn Fundamental Plan Facts About Men s Skin Care

2018-07-06T14:47:01Z

GertieLienhop:

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Chasing leaks is a road to hell in Washington. See: Nixon.

2018-07-04T23:41:18Z

GertieLienhop:

By Tim Weiner Feb 28 (Reuters) - (Editor�s note: Language in paragraph 17 may be offensive to some readers.) The Trump White House has moved at warp speed toward historic achievements. Sadly, these may include violations of the spirit and letter of the Constitution and the laws of the United States. Trump tweeted this [http://www.vtr.org.vn/cam-nang-du-lich-bac-kinh-5-ngay-4-dem.html vtr.org.vn] on Friday: "The FBI is totally unable to stop the national security `leakers� that have permeated our government for a long time. They can't even find the leakers within the FBI itself.... FIND NOW." When Trump hits Caps Lock, take heed. Informed citizens know well that the FBI is conducting a counterintelligence investigation into links between Russian cyber-saboteurs and the 2016 Trump campaign. [http://www.vtr.org.vn/cam-nang-du-lich-bac-kinh-5-ngay-4-dem.html tour bắc kinh từ hà nội] They�ve read first-rate reporting by the nation�s leading news organizations on the case. The president evidently suspects that somewhere in a dark parking garage in the District of Columbia, the feds are ratting him out as reporters in fedoras furtively scribble shorthand notes. Maybe they�re using a state-of-the-art encrypted app instead, but more on that in a minute. Trump wants this case to vanish - and who can blame him? The tweeter-in-chief calls it "A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT." But if there�s a trail of evidence connecting the gilded chambers of Trump Tower and the chandeliered suites of the Kremlin, the FBI will follow it. The president appears to be seeking to strong-arm the Bureau, scare White House staffers, silence Congress, stanch the leaks, and stop the press. Trump keeps attacking reporters as the "enemy of the people" - a pithy phrase last in vogue when Vladimir Lenin ran the Russian revolution a hundred years ago. Trump�s chief of staff, Reince Priebus, talked to FBI director James Comey the other day. They weren�t reviewing security for the next Easter Egg Roll on the White House lawn. The subject at hand was the reporting on Vladimir Putin�s spies and Trump�s campaign - and the president�s rage against it. Comey responded correctly, with stony silence. He certainly didn�t say Priebus had been "extremely careless," though come to think of it, he could have. The last time a White House chief of staff set out to impede an FBI investigation that threatened a president was a few days after the Watergate break-in in June 1972. H.R. Haldeman was acting on orders of Richard Nixon, caught on a reel-to-reel recording. They called it the smoking gun tape. Haldeman went to prison. Nixon went into exile. I�m not a special prosecutor, and I can�t say it�s an obstruction of justice to pressure Comey and Congress on the gravest counterintelligence case of the 21st century (the federal statute on obstruction of justice covers "endeavors to influence, obstruct, or impede" a federal investigation). When a president picks a fight against the FBI and compares the CIA to Nazis, it�s in a way worse than a crime. It�s a blunder. This White House can�t keep making such mistakes. And as for escalating his battle against the press? Bad idea. "I consider the media to be indispensable to democracy," former President George W. Bush said Monday on NBC�s "Today" show. "Power can be very addictive and it can be corrosive, and it's important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power." I know - I had to read it twice too. The White House is attacking the media - and its sources inside the government - on many fronts. Last week, the White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, put his staff on notice that their calls will be monitored. He specifically warned them against using encrypted communications apps like Signal and Confide. Now Trump is eyeball-to-eyeball with his chief lawmen. The last thing this White House wants to do is drive itself crazy chasing down leaks - especially when they involve a scintilla of evidence suggesting the abuse of power by a president. That is the road to hell in Washington. And we have travelled that road before. Fifty-five days into his presidency, Nixon started sending great waves of B-52 bombers over Cambodia. The United States was not at war with Cambodia and the attacks were supposed to be a secret. They did not stay secret. Nixon summoned his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, into the Oval Office on April 25, 1969, and he ordered Kissinger to take responsibility for the leaks. Kissinger followed orders. With help from J. Edgar Hoover, he starting wiretapping members of his own National Security Council staff. The targets of the taps grew to include 13 United States government officials at the NSC, the Pentagon, and the State Department, along with four newspaper reporters. They were not foreign spies. They were American citizens. The White House received the wiretap transcripts - and they were useless, Nixon later said: nothing but "gossip and bullshitting." The National Security Agency had its own watch list in those days, which grew to include two United States senators. One was Frank Church, an Idaho Democrat who sponsored the first bipartisan legislation against the war in Indochina. The other was Howard Baker, a Tennessee Republican, who famously asked at the 1973 Watergate hearings: "What did the president know, and when did he know it?" All this - and the Watergate burglary team, known as the Plumbers, because they were created to stop leaks - was in part a presidential war against the First Amendment, which protects freedom of speech, and of the press. Back then, the pen proved mightier than the presidential sword. Today? Well, we�ll see, won�t we? Trump doesn�t take a lot of free advice. But the president should be counseled on this point. He should not interpose the power of his office between reporters and their sources in the executive and legislative branches of the government. He cannot go on the warpath against the FBI, Congress, and the press corps over leaks. Those three forces are in constant opposition. But a free press can work in concert with federal investigators. If they align against the White House, a critical mass of shared information will gather. That information could someday take the shape of a subpoena seeking the traces of a smoking gun. And an FBI agent can serve that [http://www.telegraph.Co.uk/search/?queryText=subpoena subpoena] at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It happened in 1973. It could happen again. (By Tim Weiner) Advertisement

How To Lose Weight Quickly Before Conceiving

2018-07-04T17:05:32Z

GertieLienhop:

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User:GertieLienhop

2018-07-01T04:24:16Z

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