Beware: CNN & FNC On Board

As I crawl up from the depths of worry over earthquakes, tsunamis, radiation poisoning, disease, murder, rape, pillage and plunder, I sit here trying to find something nice and wonderful about the world we live in. Actually it’s not easy; my whole being is filled with CNN and FNC live newscasts. I don't even watch The Today Show anymore - Meredith and the gang are delayed a whole three hours now. Their show is filled with old news and I am hooked on live. “I want it live and I want it now!”

Good Lord, what have I become? It seems I am a live news junky and the gorier the better. I find myself wanting to see six nuclear reactors start heading for China just to see what would happen. How about a 1000 foot tsunami? I bet that would get the news reporters on the ground in Japan wishing they could fly! While we are at it, a nice neutron nuclear bomb smack dab on the palace in Tripoli would make great, real time, visual news and get rid of Kaddafi and his henchmen in one fell swoop. What about the innocent civilians and reporters, you might ask? The reporters knew the danger when they entered the city and there are no innocent citizens in Tripoli. I heard Wolf say so on CNN!

I know none of this is in any way funny; but I find myself thinking these thoughts and laughing inside my mind as I try to visualize the events. I hate to even admit to these thoughts - they make me seem cruel and uncivilized. I suspect it is a human nature thing, and that I should not take my daydreaming too seriously. After all, I am a writer of very descriptive and gory murder mysteries. My wife says I just have a very active imagination. Yes, that’s it; I am really a very nice person. No one has anything to fear from me…right?

I’m just saying,

Mittster

Survive a Mega-Quake

The History Channel is airing a program tonight about the possibility of a 10 mega-quake in the Midwest of the U.S.A. I, for one, am going to watch this program, not because I believe in doomsday rhetoric, but because earthquakes are a part of everyday life living on this planet.

There is no doubt that California, Oregon, Washington, Illinois and some southern states are due for a big one. If it happens on the Cascadia subduction zone in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Oregon and Washington, the whole Pacific Ring of Fire area can expect tidal waves of historic power and devastation, to say nothing of the damage it and the earthquake will cause coastal cities in northern California, Oregon and Washington. It is also no secret that the San Andreas fault in California is also due for a monster earthquake.

One might think that living in northern Arizona means safety from these events. Think again - we have a dormant volcano in the San Francisco Peaks and a mega-quake could bring the beast back alive to wreck havoc. California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska have huge volcanoes that also could be awakened after a mega-quake. Remember Mount St. Helen's? I do, and the lesson learned was that it can happen in your back yard.

Some would say you might as well kiss your booty good-bye if a mega-quake and/or a tsunami were to happen close to your town. One might even think, What’s the use in even trying to survive something as horrible as what the Japanese are now experiencing? The truth of matter is simply this; humans are survivors, even if they think they are not. You will instinctively try to survive a catastrophe whether you want to or not. Knowing this should encourage you to be prepared for the worst and hope for the best.

Instant video and voice communication make knowledge of catastrophic events known instantly in today's world. It would seem the world is falling apart at the seams. The truth is that instant communications are a phenomenon relatively new to the world scene and it only seems that these horrible events are just now starting to happen, when in reality they have been going on for millions if not billions of years. A short fifty years ago, you would only see the results of world disasters on Movietone News at your local theater weeks after the event happened. If a disaster happened in a remote area of the world, you might not hear about it at all. Now we see and hear about them in real time. The pressure of modern society weighs heavy on all of us and and there is no doubt that we are greatly affected by the horrible events we are being bombarded with on a daily basis.

A survival kit in the home, along with a supply of drinking water and packaged food, is actually a good idea. A similar kit in the family car makes sense too. Don't forget the T.P.

I'm just saying,

Mittster

Chivalry

The recent firing of Gilbert “the Aflac Duck” Gottfried from his lucrative TV ad gig doesn’t surprise me much. He is not alone when it comes to not-so-funny remarks made about the Japanese people. These remarks are bad enough during normal times, but unforgivable during these tragic times for all of Japan and its people. To us commoners, Mr. Gottfried’s comments seem beyond stupid, but I think the answer to his stupidity might be tied to the past.

I was born during WWII, and grew up in postwar southern California. The small town of Escondido was, and still is, a conservative community. I went from the first grade through high school in a community that prided itself as a bastion of Republican politics. We lived a great outdoor lifestyle wearing shorts and flip-flops all summer, while enjoying the ocean and mountains nearby. It was the perfect place for kids to grow up and thinking about it makes me smile.

Even though my dad had been in the Navy and had seen some really horrible things in the Pacific campaign, he rarely talked about it. I never heard one derogatory statement concerning the Japanese ever come out of his mouth. This was not the case for the kids that lived across the street. Their father was a career marine who constantly berated his children right along with the Japanese and later on, the Koreans. At the time, I had no idea that there was a flipside to our lifestyle, and that the next-door neighbors had friends who also believed that the only good Japanese was a dead Japanese.

This point was illustrated one day while I was riding the bus home from school. Suddenly, the kid nextdoor started a fist fight with a Japanese girl named Shirley. I instinctively jumped up and intervened like a knight in shiny armor. I couldn’t believe that a boy would start a fight with a girl in the first place, and I certainly didn’t understand the Japanese connection. It wasn’t until much later in life that I was able to understand that the boy had been brainwashed into hating the Japanese by his father.

I wonder how many kids, that are now my age, grew up hating the Japanese and Germans. War is a natural breeding ground for hatred and that hatred, unfortunately, is passed from generation to generation. Even though senseless acts of discrimination by people like Mr. Gottfried occur, I do wonder if he too had been brainwashed. There is no excuse given or inferred by me; had I been present when Mr. Gottfried made his asinine statement, rest assured he would have been facing, yet again, a knight in shining armor!

I’m just saying,

Mittster

Imagine

Imagine the world as one...perhaps now is the opportunity that the world has been waiting for….

I used to think that there were only two sides to the coin of life – good and evil, and good always triumphed over evil. I also believed that life was fair to those who worked hard and tried to live a good life. I was wrong on both accounts; life is not fair and good does not always triumph over evil. What is happening in Japan right now is an example of bad things happening to good people.

If we, as a world body, can stop pointing fingers, admonishing others, advocating Armageddon, blaming this disaster on the sins of man, preaching that it is God’s will, or the Devil’s will, or the terrorist’s will, shaking our fists that it was caused by global warming, and all the other rantings that are counterproductive and only serve to perpetuate fear and panic, then it is clear that this whole situation was triggered by a natural event. That event was a nine point earthquake – all the other disasters are the effect of that one, single event.

Should we reevaluate nuclear plants built on fault lines and near coastal areas prone to tsunamis? Absolutely, and post haste. Should we turn off all the nuclear plants in the world? No, the earth’s environment could not handle the increase of fossil fuel use; nor can the global economy handle the loss of energy. Should we put a moratorium on building more fission reactor power plants? Yes, we should until safe fusion reactors are a reality. Science is close to unlocking the safe power of fusion reaction. If we spent half as much money on perfecting fusion reaction as this one disaster in Japan will cost to clean up, we could be building those safe plants as we speak.

Is there hope for our planet? Of course, but there is only one catch. We must work together to solve our human problems, or the earth will go on without us. At this point, I am not too sure we deserve the chance….

I’m just saying,

Mittster

Detroit Wins Again!

TODAY'S HEADLINE:

"DETROIT’S FALL CAR LINEUP TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF JAPAN’S CURRENT DISASTER!"


















































































I'm just saying,

Mittster

Praying For Japan

Its official – Japanese Power Company + Japanese Government = Bevis and Butthead comedy routine!

I haven’t heard this much bull crap coming from a power company and government since the 1979 Three Mile Island incident in the U.S. I can’t wait for the mudslinging and finger pointing that is sure to happen after this mess settles down, if it ever settles down. The whole media fiasco from the government and the utility company probably only bothers outsiders; the people of Japan are too busy trying to stay alive.

In the meanwhile, I am jumping up and down screaming, “Tell the Japanese people the truth for God’s sake; it’s only governments that can’t handle the truth!” As I sit here pondering my last quote, I wonder if we really could handle the truths that governments hide routinely? That question is slated for a future blog…. In the meanwhile, I am praying that the utility company is able to avert a total nuclear meltdown for the sake of the Japanese people and all the foreign relief workers, to say nothing of countries down-wind from the reactors.

I’m just saying,

Mittster

Everything Else Seems Irrelevant Today

Everything in Camp Verde, Arizona, seems irrelevant today. I was lying awake at two a.m. this morning thanking God for our little house, food in a refrigerator that actually works, and cars in the carport that have gas and are able to be driven somewhere if need be. I was also thankful for an outside temperature of fifty one degrees and clear skies with stars shining bright.

The news from Japan, and other world events, always make me realize just how fortunate we are to be living in America, and how that fortune could change in an instant if a ten point earthquake on the San Andreas Fault in California or somewhere else in our country were to happen. God only knows how many nuclear plants and/or dangerous laboratories dot the landscape just in California, let alone the rest of the country. I really don’t want to know….

I am personally compressing happiness into what is happening each minute of every day, instead of worrying about what happiness I might have tomorrow, next week or next year. We need to grab each second of life and enjoy it while we can. Hold every loved one close and never let go, especially our children and the elderly. Grasp at love like it is being ripped from your heart, because you never know when your true love will be taken from you.

In these days of great sorrow for the people of Japan, I rejoice in the knowledge that the rest of the world has an opportunity to come together as human beings in love and understanding. Let’s not miss this chance to correct those things which threaten not just one country, but all countries on the planet. Let us work in earnest to put aside our religious, political and ethnic differences; after all, our survival as a species depends on it. This fact should be evident to all peoples of the world.

A global catastrophe could easily blast civilization back to the Stone Age in the blink of an eye. I do not believe the human race has come this far just to be eliminated from the scheme of things on planet earth. Our salvation will come from how we treat each other and the power of our science. We are on the cusp of great scientific breakthroughs which have the potential to bring mankind out of the dependency of using fossil and nuclear fuels. I am sure these discoveries will come none too soon.

In the near term, I am sure the world community will do its part in Japan’s recovery. In the meantime, let’s stop slinging mud at each other here at home and try to make our vulnerable areas safer for when the “Big One” hits our shores…which it will someday.

I’m just saying,

Mittster

Japan

Let’s all pray for the people of Japan in their time of need. They are one of the countries in the world that would help us if our positions were reversed. Someday that could very well be the case!

Write on,

Mittster