April 14, 2011
BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND
The news as I see it and the views as I want them.
April 14 is … National Pecan Day
Speaking of nuts, watch the video below. It is interesting, to say the least:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwhKuunp8D8&feature=player_embedded
If you have not already seen it, find the Alan Simpson interview from the Hardball with Chris Matthews Show and watch it. He takes on the Republican Party, of which he is a member. He is blunt, direct and mostly right on.
Did I mention the White Sox are looking for a closer. They will trade Matt Thornton for a red dog and then kill the red dog. They cannot kill Thornton although it has been discussed. This year’s Dog Day at the Park has a whole new meaning.
From the news of Tuesday and following up on a story last week. In Mexico, another grisly find.
Mexican authorities have uncovered four more mass graves in the northern border state of Tamaulipas, where the country's violent drug cartels have begun abducting passengers on buses in the area, including at least one U.S. citizen. The U.S. State Department issued a new warning against travel in Tamaulipas after 16 more bodies were found there over the weekend, raising the death toll in the string of abductions in the region to 88. U.S. citizens are discouraged from traveling in three Mexican states. "The United States Consulates General in Matamoros, Nuevo Laredo and Monterrey advise American citizens that the U.S. government has received uncorroborated information that Mexican criminal gangs may intend to attack U.S. law enforcement officers or U.S. citizens in the near future in Tamaulipas, Nuevo León and San Luis Potosi," the statement read.
Cesar Morales Uscanga, who has admitted to participating in two of the March abductions, led authorities to the shallow graves, the Mexican military said in a statement. Uscanga was arrested Friday carrying an assault rifle and $3,000 in cash. He and 13 other suspects arrested in the abductions and slayings are thought to be members of the Zetas cartel, one of the most powerful drug organizations in Mexico.
The Zetas and other cartels are in the middle of a bloody battle for control over Tamaulipas, a vast, rural region that has become a lucrative drug-running route in recent years. Some of the suspects in the bus kidnappings were arrested in military uniform, according to multiple news reports in Mexico.
Authorities are working to determine whether the bodies found in the mass graves are those of the missing bus passengers, who were kidnapped March 24 and 25 in San Fernando, a small town 90 miles south of the Texas border. In August, 72 bodies, most of them identified as migrants from Central American countries, were found in mass graves near the town. The gruesome discovery is only the latest in a five-year war on the nation's brutal cartels that has left an estimated 30,000 people dead.
The Japanese government has finally acknowledged what everyone else in the world already knew or at least strongly suspected. The nuclear disaster they are dealing with is as bad as the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 in the Ukraine. That disaster resulted in the Chernobyl Dead Zone. Usually, when they talk about the dead zone, they talk about area that is 30 kms around reactor.
What about this towns and villages? They are 60 kms from reactor.
The Wolves Land is bigger than many think and it keeps on growing. Now days, it spread on 300 kms from South to North and on 100 kms from East on West. There are more than 2,000 dead towns and villages within a radius of 250 kms (155 miles) around Chernobyl reactor. Each year I travel, I see more and more ruined places. This barbed wire marks the limit of the '30km' zone, but according to the site it's over 50km from the reactor. The Chernobyl accident happened in late April. The towns were evacuated on April 27th, four days before the Mayday celebrations. No one has ever returned.
What about this towns and villages? They are 60 kms from reactor.
The Wolves Land is bigger than many think and it keeps on growing. Now days, it spread on 300 kms from South to North and on 100 kms from East on West. There are more than 2,000 dead towns and villages within a radius of 250 kms (155 miles) around Chernobyl reactor. Each year I travel, I see more and more ruined places. This barbed wire marks the limit of the '30km' zone, but according to the site it's over 50km from the reactor. The Chernobyl accident happened in late April. The towns were evacuated on April 27th, four days before the Mayday celebrations. No one has ever returned.
If a similar Dead Zone is established in Japan, it could be extended to include Tokyo, although Tokyo is nearly 150 miles to the southwest. Tokyo has a population of between 13 million and 39 million people, depending on which definition of Tokyo you use. Still, it is the home for over twenty million people that may need to be evacuated. Where do you house twenty million people who two months ago were living a comfortable lifestyle in modern housing?
What a night this was back in 1969! All the egos and glamour of Hollywood were gathered together in one place for the annual Academy Awards presentation. All in the theatre and those watching the extravaganza on television could feel the electricity in the air as the envelope, announcing the Best Actress Award, was opened. It was the 11th nomination for Katharine Hepburn, an academy record! And, the Oscar goes to ... For the first time in the history of the Academy Awards, a tie resulted in two stars sharing the Best Actress Oscar. Barbra Streisand for her performance in Funny Girl had reached the top, only to share the honor with the ‘First Lady of the American Screen’, Katharine Hepburn for her starring role in The Lion in Winter.
Hepburn also broke the record that night as the only actress to win three Best Actress Oscars. Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner awarded the previous year and Morning Glory [1932-33] were the other films. She was also only the third person to win two years in a row. Hepburn added a twelfth nomination and a fourth Oscar in 1981 for her performance in On Golden Pond with co-star Henry Fonda. She earned three of these awards after her sixtieth birthday.
There’s an old saying that goes something like this, “He who laughs last, laughs best.” Not all of Katharine Hepburn’s peers were admirers. After completing her first film (A Bill of Divorcement) in 1932, she told her lecherous, co-star John Barrymore that she would never act with him again. His reply, “Really, my dear? I didn’t know you ever had.” Hepburn, who had made her stage debut on Broadway in 1928, was reviewed by columnist Dorothy Parker for a 1933 performance as “running the gamut of emotions from A to B.” And, in 1938 she was labeled “box-office poison.” Obviously Hepburn has had the last laugh. Her most memorable performances include Bringing Up Baby and The Philadelphia Story opposite Cary Grant; Woman of the Year, Adam’s Rib, Pat and Mike with co-star and significant other, Spencer Tracy; The African Queen with Humphrey Bogart and Suddenly Last Summer opposite Montgomery Clift. Long Day’s Journey into Night earned her a 1962 Cannes Film Festival Best Actress award.
From Broadway to Hollywood to television ... 1975 Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in her ABC Theatre performance, opposite Laurence Olivier, in Love Among the Ruins ... to literature ... two best-sellers, The Making of "The African Queen" or How I Went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind and her autobiography, Me, Katharine Hepburn remains a star, the idol of independent, talented young women in their search for fame and fortune.
From the book and web site, You Ruined It For Everyone (RIFE);
THE US MINT: THE FACTS
If a penny saved is a penny earned, then a penny made is a taxpayer played! Allow me to elaborate . . . actually, let’s let the United States Mint director’s cost analysis explain:
• Cost to mint a penny: 1.26 cents
• Cost to mint a nickel: 7.7 cents
• Cost to mint a dollar coin: 16 cents
• Cost to make a dollar bill: 4.2 cents
[you] RIFE!
In case you need it spelled out for you: It costs MORE to mint the penny and the nickel than the coins’ actual worth. And, if you forgot fourth-grade American history, your taxes pay for minting. Does this upset you? Well, now you finally have a good reason to smash that piggy bank!
That stupid annoying little penny . . . it and everything below the quarter need to go away. Let’s start dissolving as many as we can in bottles of Coke. And besides, except for buying a hotdog at the ball game, who the hell uses cash anymore? The U.S. Mint says 33 percent of all transactions use cash. That seems a bit high. The mint must be including all of Washington’s untraceable private escort transactions in its statistics.
Anyway, if you haven’t already, start lobbying your congressman and the March of Dimes. And be sure to max out your credit as often as possible to deter coin usage. I am sure we will experience some resistance with the bleeding hearts and conservatives. But don’t worry—just tell them we can still use coins for circuit breakers and weddings, instead of throwing rice. Rice does kill birds, you know. And the next time you see Obama, tell him to fight for NO CHANGE!
A side note: Someone please tell the $1 bill to wipe that smirk of its face, because it only has a life expectancy of twenty-one months. So it can go away too. In fact, if it were replaced with the $1 coin, taxpayers would save over $500 million per year since coins last at least thirty years!
I wonder how long it takes a dollar to dissolve in Coca-Cola?
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.ebookmall.com/ (Do search by my name or book Title)
www.barnesandnoble.com (do a quick search, Title, my name)
www.smashwords.com Do a Title or author search.
Book Titles:
Holmes the Ripper
A Revengeful Mix of Short Fiction
"Don't bend; don't water it down; don't try to make it logical; don't edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly." - Franz Kafka
