March 15, 2011
BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND
The news as I see it and the views as I want them.
March 15 is … Buzzard's Day and Everything You Think Is Wrong Day. Now this is my kind of day; there is plenty wrong
It is the Ides of March. So named because of; 0044 -BC- Julius Cæsar assassinated in Roman Senate in the Portico of the Theater of Pompey. “You to Bru-Bru?”
Billboard magazine began a new feature. It was the record chart of the top albums. What album was the first to top this new chart? For those who thought it was something by Lauryn Hill, move two steps back, please. For those who thought it was a wax cylinder from Thomas Edison and the Record Rappers, jump back another three spaces. If, however, you said that the first album to reach #1 on this day in 1945 was The King Cole Trio, you are absolutely correct!
Of course, the albums mentioned on the Billboard list were, for several years, 78 rpm disks, not the 33-1/3 albums we came to know. Billboard and other trade magazines continue to list the week’s top albums. Billboard lists the Top 200 in order, from #1 on down. Some even have ‘bullets’ to reflect the week’s top movement in sales and radio airplay.
Slaughter in America, this community has seen it before; a small southwestern Virginia community is again dealing with a deadly shooting rampage that this time killed two deputies and wounded two more before the suspect who may have been trying to rob a salvage yard was fatally shot by police. Buchanan County deputies investigating at Roger's Service Center in Vansant on Sunday afternoon were met by gunfire from long range, Virginia State Police said. Two were hit and died at the scene. Two others who arrived also were shot, said State Police Sgt. Steve Lowe. One deputy has life-threatening injuries and the other was in serious condition, state police said. No names were released late Sunday. Christina Stiltner lives across the street from the salvage yard in the southwestern Virginia area and had just walked into her home with her 10-year-old son when she heard "pow, pow, pow." She opened her front door and saw one deputy run into a neighbor's yard. She heard another "pow" and the deputy went down. He was one of the injured, she said. "It scares you so much," she said. "I sat there thinking 'what's the number to 911'? It shocked me so badly; I didn't know the number to 911." Residents said such violence is rare in the rural area of about 1,000 people, though in January 2002, a student opened fire on the Appalachian School of Law campus in Grundy just down the road from Vansant after learning he had flunked out of school. The school's dean, a professor and a student were killed in the attack. Three other students were wounded. The shooter, Peter Odighizuwa, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison. "This is a laid-back community. Everybody knows everybody," said Tivis O'Quinn, 68, who has lived in Vansant for 40 years and operates a business less than a mile from the salvage yard. "Nothing like this ever takes place, except for the law school shooting." Police did not release what sort of weapon was used, but Lowe said the suspect shot from long range. The owner of the salvage yard told police his business was being robbed and he had blocked the suspect's vehicle with his own. After the shooting, the search was on for the suspect. State police and other officers found him about two hours later and after "some sort of engagement" they shot and killed him, Lowe said. "I'm not sure what the confrontation was when they encountered him," Lowe said. "Apparently he was identified as the right person." Lowe said he didn't know if the man fired on police, or if he was armed at the time. Stiltner said she knew all the deputies involved in the attack because they would often stop by the gas station and restaurant where she works. Stiltner said she wasn't allowed to return to her home seven hours after the shootings ended. Several other residents were out of their homes late Sunday. Vansant is a former coal mining town in the mountainous region of southwestern Virginia. O'Quinn said the community experiences "little petty thefts now and then," but nothing like what occurred Sunday. On display in O'Quinn's office was a 2011 calendar of the Buchanan County Sheriff's Department. The photo features the department's 47 members, including Foster and 24 uniformed deputies. Buchanan County Sheriff Ray Foster called the shooting "one of a kind" for his department but declined to say anymore.
Is this guy lucky to be alive or the unluckiest man in the world? The Rev. Russell Becker considers himself lucky to have survived America's worst-ever nuclear accident, at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island in 1979. But 30 years later, he's living in Japan -- and wonders if he'll be a nuclear survivor for a second time. Friday's 8.9-magnitude earthquake north of Tokyo and the massive tsunami it triggered have killed at least 10,000 people. The quake also destabilized nuclear power plants, unleashing what's believed to be low-level radiation and sparking a second hydrogen explosion today, amid growing fears of nuclear fallout. U.S. military forces maneuvered farther offshore after detecting small amounts of radioactivity in the air. Workers are scrambling to cool reactors with seawater, and nearby residents are being told to stay indoors.
For Becker, who's originally from Buffalo, N.Y., such fears take him back 32 years. The Rev. Russell Becker was in Harrisburg, Pa., for the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 and now finds himself in Japan during the current nuclear crisis there."They say it's just like Three Mile island, and oddly enough, I was in Harrisburg [Pennsylvania] when Three Mile Island went off," Becker told AOL News by phone today from Tokyo. "Now I'm thinking, 'How did I miss Chernobyl?' I seem to be traveling around the world for these things," he joked. "I'm just a little disaster magnet."
Becker is now a Catholic priest who runs an English-language parish in Tokyo, the Franciscan Chapel Center, and has spent the past few days counseling his faithful on how to be survivors. He practices what he preaches.
The Japanese government is slowly releasing information about the nuclear reactor problems to its citizens. Many of the Japanese are now being warned to stay inside and make their homes airtight. Dangerous levels of radiation leaking from a crippled nuclear plant forced Japan to order 140,000 people to seal themselves indoors Tuesday after an explosion and a fire dramatically escalated the 4-day-old crisis spawned by a deadly tsunami.
In a nationally televised statement, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said radiation has spread from four reactors of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Fukushima state, one of the hardest-hit in Friday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake and the ensuing tsunami that has killed more than 10,000 people, plunged millions into misery and pummeled the world's third-largest economy. The International Atomic Energy Agency said Tuesday that Japanese officials told it that the reactor fire was in the storage pond, a pool where used nuclear fuel is kept cool and that "radioactivity is being released directly into the atmosphere."
In a nationally televised statement, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said radiation has spread from four reactors of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Fukushima state, one of the hardest-hit in Friday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake and the ensuing tsunami that has killed more than 10,000 people, plunged millions into misery and pummeled the world's third-largest economy. The International Atomic Energy Agency said Tuesday that Japanese officials told it that the reactor fire was in the storage pond, a pool where used nuclear fuel is kept cool and that "radioactivity is being released directly into the atmosphere."
The death toll continues to rise. The 2004 tsunami killed 230,000 people, of which only 184,000 bodies were found. Many dead are in the ocean and will never be found. Like Luca Brazi, they sleep with the fishes.
The terrible bus crash in New York City claimed a fifteenth victim Monday when one of the injured died. The investigation into the crash is centering in on the driver, a convicted felon with a 20 year old manslaughter conviction and no driver’s license. Somebody is going to be the fall guy in this situation. A similar case that involved a deadly traffic accident helped send former Governor Ryan to prison, where he still sits.
BRUCE A. BRENNAN
DEKALB, IL 60115
COPYRIGHT 2011
VISIT ANY OF THE SITES LISTED FOR REVIEW, RESEARCH, ORDERING MY WRITING PRODUCTS OR TO CONTACT ME.
Email: brucebrennanlaw@aol.com
Go to web sites below to buy books by Bruce A. Brennan. It is still a good time to purchase any of my books. The books are interesting and inexpensive reads. My third book should be available later this year, in late 2011. More information will be forthcoming.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ (do a quick search, Title, my name)
www.smashwords.com Do a Title or author search.
Expectations are premeditated resentments.
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