tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69526272024-03-06T23:32:52.291-08:00Middle Earth JournalOnline PamphleteersRon Beasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04442030471061531104noreply@blogger.comBlogger6116125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952627.post-20344113291858176002021-05-05T07:31:00.000-07:002021-05-05T07:31:11.921-07:00Ron Beasley Died, 2016<h3 style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://themoderatevoice.com/ron-beasley-the-moderate-voices-assistant-editor-dies-at-69/">Ron Beasley, Veteran, Engineer, Photographer and Moderate Voice Assistant Editor, dies at 69</a></h3><div><div>The sad, sad news came in the form of an email from Ron Beasley’s sister:</div><div><br /></div><div><blockquote>Dear Ron’s Friends – It is with a heavy heart that I let you know that my brother – Ron Beasley – passed away suddenly yesterday. Before he died, he asked me to let you…know. He died just a few weeks shy of his 70th birthday. His ashes will be interned in the Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Portland – where our parents are buried. Thank you for being Ron’s friend. Kindest regards..”</blockquote><p> Later, on Facebook, his sister expanded on the email:</p></div><div><blockquote>It is with a heavy heart that I inform all of Ron’s Facebook friends that my brother passed away suddenly yesterday – a few weeks short of his 70th birthday. He was a man of many talents, such as photography and he leaves a legacy of beautiful images for us to continue to enjoy and remember him. But, perhaps his greatest gift, was taking care of our dear mother during her final years. May you rest in peace dear brother – I will miss you – All my love, jo</blockquote></div><div>His name was familiar to those reading on the Internet. For years he ran his own excellent blog, Middle Earth Journal. Then he wrote for Newshoggers. But Ron was far more than writing posts on the internet. MUCH more, as he noted in a bio on the blog Newshoggers:</div><div></div><blockquote><div>I’m one of the old guys here having been born in 1946 I’m at the leading edge of the baby boomers. I graduated from college in 1968 and found myself in the Army shortly there after. My military career consisted of two and half years in Munich Germany as an editor/interrogator for the Defense Intelligence Agency. I spent most of my life working as a manufacturing engineer for several multinational corporations including two Japanese companies. About nine years ago my company and my job were shipped to Asia. Since then I having been working as a photographer and graphic artist. You can see some of my art at Just Pictures.</div><div>I also post at The Moderate Voice</div><div>I do book reviews for both Newshoggers and The Moderate Voice.I am a registered Independent but very liberal/progressive on my political leanings. I live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Before joining Newshoggers I had my own blog, Middle Earth Journal, for four years.</div></blockquote><div>Ron was a very special person. He’s one of those people that cared soooooooo much, was creative, loved nature — and had a big heart. What you saw and read is what you got. I had never met Ron personally or even talked with him on the phone. But we had a long email friendship that goes back more than 10 years. It started when he had his blog, Middle Earth Journal, and I’d quote from it in my long political roundups. Then we started emailing. In 2005 when he criticized me in a post on his blog for my viewpoint on anti-war demonstrators, I took it as a sincere criticism from someone who merely had a different perspective and who wasn’t playing the tiresome attack and discredit games so many bloggers and partisans fall back on. Ron was serious and his criticism came from the heart and from another rarity on some websites: from an analyzing, thinking, weighing the thoughts brain.</div><div><br /></div><div>Ron wrote on his blog and then on Newshoggers, and when he finally took me up on my longstanding invitation to coblog on TMV, I was thrilled, and he eventually became an assistant editor.</div><div><br /></div><div>We all have our flesh and blood friends and our internet friends we’ve made via social media or email. Ron was a close friend who I never met but had wanted to. Some friends, particularly Internet friends, can be fickle. People will write in a way they would not dare speak; they will blow up sitting at a keyboard and typing words in emails, in comments and on Facebook in a way they might not if they sat down with a person and looked them in the eye and discussed. There’s far more possibility for an Internet friendship to evaporate or be damaged than with face-to-face friendships. I learned over the years that many Internet friendships end in misunderstandings and more profound grief than others know (but they do help keep a therapist in business). The key, I keep telling myself, is don’t get too attached, but I do. With Ron, there was no worry.</div><div><br /></div><div>Ron was Ron. And that was a lot and meant a lot.</div><div><br /></div><div>As my mother who passed away at 93 began to enter the final stages of her otherwise wonderful life, I had a strong appreciation of Ron’s role as his mother’s actual caregiver. My sister, brother and I adored our mother. She lived at a superb senior center in Hamden, CT. In Ron’s case, he took care of his mom and put his guts, soul, every fiber of his being and his big heart into making the end of her life as comfortable and loving as he possibly could. I personally feel it took a big chunk out of him. He cared and loved so much and paid her back for all of the love she had given his family when she was physically more sound.</div><div><br /></div><div>As time went on, Ron expressed disgust and increasing disinterest in our increasingly toxic political scene and found it hard to write on politics. I then encouraged him to post his wonderful photography — and give it a wider audience. I social media-ed his photography posts to try and get them maximum exposure. At one point I told him to write whatever he wanted whenever he wanted and not even be concerned about whether it’ll have a huge readership. Do it as a creative, fun process.</div><div><br /></div><div>In later emails, Ron would discuss some health issues and begin to talk about his mortality. Several people wondered where he had gone. Last week someone emailed me asking about Ron and expressing concern and seeking his phone number. I didn’t have it since I never talked to him by phone. But I was not concerned since Ron had often written on TMV, dropped out for a while, then come back. In retrospect, inquiries about him reflect good intuition. I now see that his last post was in January.</div><div><br /></div><div>Ron’s greatness is in an area that’ll get little publicity: his decision to dedicate his life, focus his love, and pour every ounce of his being into taking care of his mother in her final years. It was an act in concept and execution worth more than any jewel, more than a 12 foot diamond. It’s what he felt he had to do and did — and didn’t expect thanks for it.</div><div><br /></div><div>And so a gentle, caring, loving, creative soul has now left the upper earth.</div><div><br /></div><div>But I’m betting wherever he is, he’s getting thanks for it — for in so many ways being someone that many could and should emulate.</div><div><br /></div><div>We were all lucky to have known Ron. And now the upper earth is a bit poorer since he’s no longer among us.</div></div><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Posted May, 2021 by John Ballard.</b></span></i> </div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>I shared a blog with Ron some years ago and only now, checking the stats at my own blog, I discovered quite by accident that for reasons I cannot explain I also have access to this blog. He was, as the Moderate Voice link says, a gentle creature and I have thought about him a lot over the years. </b></span></i></div></blockquote>Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11858939352263715787noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952627.post-92072480609042560392015-09-08T12:56:00.001-07:002015-09-08T12:56:33.252-07:00FlowersFlowers themselves are works of art it is easy to to take fine photographs of them.<br />
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<br />Ron Beasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04442030471061531104noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952627.post-52199304310062202912015-09-04T06:28:00.001-07:002015-09-04T06:28:02.543-07:00<h1>Community</h1>
<div class="repubhubembed"></div><p class="rhexcerpt">We are by nature and genetically tribal creatures. A sense of community has always been important. In our urban and technological environment we have lost much of that. I live in a suburb of Portland, Oregon and rarely see any of my neighbors. Christopher Ingraham of the Washington Post wrote an article on the worst counties…<a name='more'></a></p><style>.rhexcerpt{display:none;}</style><iframe class="rhembed" src="//d2uzdrx7k4koxz.cloudfront.net/user/view.act?fuid=MjAzMzA0NzE=&showDate=true&showFirstImage=true" height="1500" width="100%" style="border:0;overflow-x:hidden;background:transparent;" allowtransparency="yes" scrolling="no" data-size="2342"></iframe><script async type="text/javascript" src="//d2uzdrx7k4koxz.cloudfront.net/user/js/rh.js"></script>
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Ron Beasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04442030471061531104noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952627.post-71512441240136358492015-08-02T20:43:00.001-07:002015-08-02T20:43:16.801-07:00<h1>Unable And Unfit To Govern</h1>
<div class="repubhubembed"></div><p class="rhexcerpt">Over at Slate William Saletan documents how the debate on the Iran nuclear deal prove that the today's Republican party is unable and unfit to govern. I'm not going to do any copy and paste so go to the link to read it. We have a few things going on here and if you were to…<a name='more'></a></p><style>.rhexcerpt{display:none;}</style><iframe class="rhembed" src="//d2uzdrx7k4koxz.cloudfront.net/user/view.act?fuid=MjAwOTk0Mzc=&showDate=true&showFirstImage=true" height="1500" width="100%" style="border:0;overflow-x:hidden;background:transparent;" allowtransparency="yes" scrolling="no" data-size="1122"></iframe><script async type="text/javascript" src="//d2uzdrx7k4koxz.cloudfront.net/user/js/rh.js"></script>
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Ron Beasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04442030471061531104noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952627.post-21016528696461869032015-07-25T07:40:00.001-07:002015-07-25T07:40:51.065-07:00<h1>Death Panels, End of Life Treatment and the Quality of Life</h1>
<div class="repubhubembed"></div><p class="rhexcerpt">From a really personal point of view this article jumped right out at me. A new study finds that, at least in cancer, there's a very real medical reason to consider giving less treatment at the end of life: chemotherapy doesn't improve dying patients' quality of life. In fact, for those terminal cancer patients who were…<a name='more'></a></p><style>.rhexcerpt{display:none;}</style><iframe class="rhembed" src="//d2uzdrx7k4koxz.cloudfront.net/user/view.act?fuid=MjAwNDY5NzU=&showDate=true&showFirstImage=true" height="1500" width="100%" style="border:0;overflow-x:hidden;background:transparent;" allowtransparency="yes" scrolling="no" data-size="2935"></iframe><script async type="text/javascript" src="//d2uzdrx7k4koxz.cloudfront.net/user/js/rh.js"></script>
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Ron Beasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04442030471061531104noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952627.post-72521012101040991042015-07-19T10:47:00.001-07:002015-07-19T10:47:37.579-07:00<h1>Hell on Earth</h1>
<div class="repubhubembed"></div><p class="rhexcerpt">At 69 I like most of the people alive I have lived with the threat of nuclear weapons all of my life. Less than 10 months before I was born the first nuclear weapon was detonated in New Mexico. It was code named Trinity. The light of a nuclear explosion is unlike anything else on Earth.…<a name='more'></a></p><style>.rhexcerpt{display:none;}</style><iframe class="rhembed" src="//d2uzdrx7k4koxz.cloudfront.net/user/view.act?fuid=MTk5OTcyNjk=&showDate=true&showFirstImage=true" height="1500" width="100%" style="border:0;overflow-x:hidden;background:transparent;" allowtransparency="yes" scrolling="no" data-size="2300"></iframe><script async type="text/javascript" src="//d2uzdrx7k4koxz.cloudfront.net/user/js/rh.js"></script>
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Ron Beasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04442030471061531104noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952627.post-83863108772707510742015-05-26T04:06:00.001-07:002015-05-26T04:06:32.388-07:00<h1>The Warrior Class</h1>
<div></div><div class="repubhubembed" data-fuid="MTk0NjUzMzk=" data-show-date="true" data-show-first-image="true" data-src="//license.icopyright.net/user/viewFreeUse.act?fuid=MTk0NjUzMzk=" data-size="4798"><p>On this Memorial Day the LA Times has an eyeopening article on the the relationship between members of the military and the civilian population. When my father served during WWII there were few who were not involved in the effort. Everyone knew someone who was serving. When I served in the military during the Vietnam war…<a name='more'></a></p></div>
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Ron Beasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04442030471061531104noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952627.post-84125504393846870912014-06-11T15:47:00.002-07:002014-06-11T15:47:39.251-07:00Seven Key Takeaways From Eric Cantor’s Shocking Defeat<div class="rpuEmbedCode">
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No incumbent majority leader had lost a seat in Congress since 1899, when the post was first created. Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) broke that streak last night. He’s announced that he’ll step down from leadership within weeks. Cantor’s stunning defeat…
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</div>Ron Beasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04442030471061531104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952627.post-78964028195681854242014-05-18T13:49:00.003-07:002014-05-18T13:49:54.758-07:00More Weekend Fun Facts<div class="rpuEmbedCode">
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‘Biggest dinosaur ever’ discovered Based on its huge thigh bones, it was 40m (130ft) long and 20m (65ft) tall. Weighing in at 77 tonnes, it was as heavy as 14 African elephants, and seven tonnes heavier than the previous record holder, Argentinosaurus…
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</div>Ron Beasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04442030471061531104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952627.post-45075110726633395392014-05-17T13:38:00.000-07:002014-05-17T13:38:10.929-07:00Weekend Fun Facts - The Kennewick Man<div class="rpuEmbedCode">
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I attended University from 1964 through 1968. I took classes in geology – plate tectonics was considered ti be a crazy fringe theory, it’s now accepted fact. I took physics classes, mostly Newtonian with lots a math a formulas – modern physics…
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</div>Ron Beasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04442030471061531104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952627.post-43300429375576601392014-05-16T16:24:00.002-07:002014-05-16T16:25:33.506-07:00Mt St Helens<div class="rpuEmbedCode">
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It has been 34 years since Mt St Helens erupted . I don’t have much to add to the post I did on the 25th anniversary but it did bring me in contact with Bob Kasewater’s sister who helped me through my caregiver responsibilities when my mother…
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</div>Ron Beasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04442030471061531104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952627.post-12483534503065616902014-05-16T16:23:00.002-07:002014-05-16T16:23:35.050-07:00Massive Fail<div class="rpuEmbedCode">
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Instead of millions it looks like hundreds showed up for Operation American Spring. Perhaps there aren’t as many wingnuts as we thought. It’s still early, but it appears safe to say that tens of millions of people will not be turning out to participate…
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</div>Ron Beasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04442030471061531104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952627.post-15778744430495142782014-05-15T16:15:00.002-07:002014-05-15T16:15:41.135-07:00The Real Problem With Manufacturing<div class="rpuEmbedCode">
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I spent my entire working career in manufacturing. ÃÂÃÂ Initially it was as a production operator but most of it as a manufacturing engineer. ÃÂÃÂ I found both rewarding. ÃÂÃÂ As the economy improves manufacturing is returning to the United…
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</div>Ron Beasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04442030471061531104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952627.post-44346750102663595722014-05-14T07:57:00.000-07:002014-05-14T07:57:06.489-07:00Climate Change And Conservatives<div class="rpuEmbedCode">
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The other day I had a post on Marco Rubio’s climate change denial. Yesterday we found out that the West Antarctic ice sheet is collapsing which will result in a significant rise in sea level. For at least the last decade every prediction of sea…
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Ron Beasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04442030471061531104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952627.post-41007988048345524672014-05-12T13:04:00.000-07:002014-05-12T13:04:26.821-07:00Nukes are not the answer<div class="rpuEmbedCode">
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While many push Nuclear power as a solution to global warming but is it? The answer is no. Don’t get me wrong. Global warming is real, it is caused by human emissions of greenhouse gases, it is bad (as described in detail by the new National…
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Ron Beasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04442030471061531104noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952627.post-37577525628826882332014-05-11T15:26:00.002-07:002014-05-11T15:26:53.607-07:00Climate Change Denier - Marco Rubio<div class="rpuEmbedCode">
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What has always amazed me is that the climate change deniers are mostly from states that are already being impacted. A case in point is Miami, Florida which is increasingly experiencing flooding at high tide. In spite of this Florida’s Senator…
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</div>Ron Beasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04442030471061531104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952627.post-79555543285498447562013-12-20T22:49:00.001-08:002013-12-20T22:49:04.504-08:00<div class="rpuEmbedCode">
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Murdoch’s world: The Last of the Old Media Empires’ by David Folkenflik gives us a look at Rupert Murdoch from the time his father died to the middle of 2013. Rupert Murdoch was 21 when his father died and he inherited a small regional Newspaper…
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</div>Ron Beasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04442030471061531104noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952627.post-45998345931645613982013-11-13T09:03:00.000-08:002013-11-13T09:03:04.719-08:00<div class="rpuEmbedCode">
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I had been waiting for a former journalist and our bloglord, Joe to cover this but since he hasn’t I thought I would jump in. A disclaimer up front, Iv’e always considered Lara Logan to be more of a propagandist than a journalist. As it turns…
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Ron Beasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04442030471061531104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952627.post-55134089523857569242013-10-09T06:55:00.000-07:002013-10-09T06:55:02.119-07:00I am a Vietnam War era veteran. Although I never served in S.E. Asia I knew many who did and lost both relatives and friends in that misbegotten war. To those of us in the United States it was a battle between Communism and Democracy/Capitalism. That was not what it was about to the Vietnamese however. It was always about throwing off the yoke of colonialism - first the French and then the United States and it's allies. That's why we lost as Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap knew we would. The Vietnamese were fighting for their country while we were fighting for ... I don't think we ever really knew. In the end the politicians all thought it would be political suicide do admit defeat - that's why 10s of thousands of Americans died.
Well General Giap has died at 102 and former prisoner of war John McCain has written <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304626104579119221395534220.html" target="_blank">his eulogy in the Wall Street Journal</a>. It's not what you might suspect it would be. McCain met General Giap twice. Once when he was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam and again in 1990:
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<blockquote>
Giap greeted me warmly beneath an enormous bust of Ho Chi Minh, who had led Vietnam in the wars against the French and the United States. Both of us clasped each other's shoulders as if we were reunited comrades rather than former enemies.
I had hoped our discussion would concentrate on his historical role. After I came home from Vietnam in 1973, I read everything I could get my hands on about both the French and American wars there, starting with Bernard Fall's "Hell in a Very Small Place," his classic study of the 1954 siege of Dien Bien Phu, where French colonial rule effectively ended and Giap's genius first became apparent to an astonished world.
I wanted to hear Giap describe that nearly two-month long battle, to explain how his forces had shocked the French by managing the impossible feat of bringing artillery across mountains and through the densest jungles. I wanted to talk to him about that other marvel of logistics, the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
I knew he was proud of his reputation as the "Red Napoleon," and I presumed he would welcome an opportunity to indulge my curiosity about his triumphs. I wanted us to behave as two retired military officers and former enemies recounting the historical events in which he had played a critical part and I a small one. But he answered most of my questions briefly, adding little to what I already knew, and then waved his hand to indicate disinterest.</blockquote>
He told John McCain that it was time to think of the future and not the past - to figure out how our countries could become friends. John McCain was impressed. After reading this I was impressed with both General Giap and John McCain.Ron Beasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04442030471061531104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952627.post-45033252679016076082013-09-02T14:53:00.000-07:002013-09-02T14:53:17.342-07:00Book Review - A Great Aridness <a href="http://www.powells.com/partner/33946/biblio/9780199974672?p_cv" rel="powells-9780199974672" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="http://www.powells.com/bookcovers/9780199974672.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(76, 41, 13);" title="More info about this book at powells.com (new window)" /></a>A few months ago <a href="http://ronbeas2.blogspot.com/2013/03/if-cities-were-stocks-youd-want-to.html" target="_blank">I did a post </a>on an article by William deBuys <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175661/tomgram%3A_william_debuys%2C_exodus_from_phoenix/" target="_blank">Exodus From Phoenix</a>. This article was just an introduction to his book <a href="http://www.powells.com/partner/33946/biblio/9780199974672?p_ti" rel="powells-9780199974672" title="More info about this book at powells.com">A Great Aridness: Climate Change and the Future of the American Southwest</a>.<br />
DeBuys says that this book did not start out to be a book on climate change but as a general environmental history of the Southwest. It was already becoming obvious that the growth in the Southwest could not continue, this was especially true of the Phoenix area but applied to the entire region. He could see that the environmental factors that were the subject of the book were being exacerbated by climate change and that end was going to come a lot sooner. <br />
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It becomes at once obvious that William deBuys loves the desert Southwest. His prose is almost poetic sometimes making it a wonderful read. It is full of history and science, politics and human stories. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lake Mead</td></tr>
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So what's the problem? The problem is the lack of water. The dams on the Colorado River no longer fill up. As the area continues to grow the available water continues to decline. This is not the first drought to hit the area and not even the first to bring an advanced society down. He gives us a history of the 12th century drought that brought down several advance societies in Arizona. Of course it's not just man made climate change man has had other impacts. Because of mismanagement the forests are more susceptible to forest fires. Of course climate change plays a part in this too - dryer and warmer winters make insect infestation more severe. <br />
I recommend this book to everyone. There are human stories as well as history and science. While the desert Southwest is on the frontlines climate change is already impacting us all. Ron Beasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04442030471061531104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952627.post-84193316404911879912013-05-30T11:36:00.000-07:002013-05-30T11:51:36.202-07:00Illegal Monsanto Wheat Found in Oregon(Updated)<div class="tr_bq">
Most of Oregon's wheat crop is exported and most of that to countries that don't allow genetically modified wheat. So <a href="http://www.kgw.com/news/USDA-Non-approved-modified-wheat-in-Ore-field-209393541.html" target="_blank">when a small patch of Monsanto's wheat found in an eastern Oregon wheat field</a> there was fear it could threaten the wheat industry.</div>
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<blockquote>
Field workers at an Eastern Oregon wheat farm were clearing acres for the bare offseason when they came across a patch of wheat that didn't belong.<br />
The workers sprayed it and sprayed it, but the wheat wouldn't die. Their confused boss grabbed a few stalks and sent it to a university lab in early May.<br />
A few weeks later, Oregon State wheat scientists made a startling discovery: The wheat was genetically modified, in clear violation of U.S. law, although there's no evidence that modified wheat entered the marketplace.<br />
They contacted federal authorities, who ran more tests and confirmed their discovery.<br />
"It looked like regular wheat ," said Bob Zemetra, Oregon State's wheat breeder.</blockquote>
Monsanto tested the herbicide resistant wheat in Oregon test fields between 1998 and 2005 but it was never approved for use. The problem with genetically modified plants is they can't be contained. <br />
<b>Update</b><br />
Japan has halted wheat imports from the United States.<br />
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<br />Ron Beasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04442030471061531104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952627.post-73430684872292638562013-05-28T15:29:00.002-07:002013-05-28T15:29:44.722-07:00Dow hits new record on strong economic data<div class="rpuEmbedCode">
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The Dow closed at a new all-time high Tuesday after strong gains in US home prices and consumer confidence boosted stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 106.29 (0.69 percent) at 15,409.39, a new all-time high. The S&P 500 put on 10.46 (0.63 percent) at 1,660.06, while the Nasdaq Composite…
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11634276400430298691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952627.post-4462598527671176132013-05-27T16:57:00.000-07:002013-05-27T20:30:51.167-07:00Remembering The Vietnam War<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I graduated from high school in June of 1964. The US had placed military advisors in Vietnam since the French left in 1954. In August of 1964, a few weeks after my high school graduation, the North Vietnamese allegedly fired on 2 US ships in the Gulf of Tonkin and congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution giving President Johnson unprecedented power to wage war. The first action was the aerial bombing of military and industrial targets in North Vietnam. It was anticipated that this action would bring the North to it's knees within 8 weeks. That should remind you of "shock and awe" in Iraq. Well it didn't work out that way. The North Vietnamese and the Vietcong started attacking the US air bases in Vietnam. In my freshman year in college the first US ground troops were sent to Vietnam to protect the air bases in March of 1965. <br />
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During my college career the war continued to escalate and a few months before my graduation in January of 1968 there was a coordinated attack by the North Vietnamese and the Vietcong - the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tet_Offensive" target="_blank">Tet offensive</a>. As a result even more troops were sent and the draft boards were very busy. Unlike the recent operations in the Middle East most Americans knew someone who served in Vietnam and many knew someone who died there. When the war ended in 1973 over two and a half million had served there and 58,272 had died there. <br />
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The Vietnam war shaped my political thinking. While over 58,000 of America's finest died for nothing I had hoped that we had learned a lesson. But that was not to be the case. The Bush/Cheney cabal and the military industrial complex made all the same wrong assumptions and there are still some who want to involve us in unwinnable military adventures. <br />
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I fear for the future. The Middle East is a powder keg about to explode. There are those who insist the US needs to show "leadership." Leadership equals more of America's finest dying for nothing and resources needed to fix the homeland will be squandered elsewhere. <br />
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This is what I'm thinking on this Memorial Day. Ron Beasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04442030471061531104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952627.post-77265158349083201882013-05-26T15:38:00.000-07:002013-05-26T15:47:51.920-07:00Memorial Day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It's Memorial day. I have reached the point in my life where I have far more people to remember than still live. It's been almost 11 years since my father died and a little over 4 months since my mother passed away. I will spend the day remembering the good times.<br />
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My father lived to be 87 but last 10 years lacked quality because of assorted medical problems but 77 good years is not bad. He was in India during WWII and was lucky enough to make it back home after three years. The communication back then was nothing like today - it was letters only and they would take weeks or months. When my father was awarded the Bronze Star my mother found out about it in the newspaper. The bottom picture of mom and dad was taken when I took dad to see the Battleship Missouri when it was docked in Astoria. Dad wanted to see it because the Missouri was where the Japanese surrendered.<br />
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Mom lived to be over 90 and all but the last year and a half were pretty good. Up until then she still walked every day, worked in her garden and baked goodies for the neighbors. After my father passed away she could not have stayed in her house alone however and I feel fortunate that I could make it possible for her to stay in her house and in fact die there.<br />
As I hinted above there are many others I remember this day. I had several friends and relatives that died in SE Asia during the Vietnam War while I spent my military time on the frontiers of freedom in Downtown Munich Germany.<br />
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I must honestly say that I don't know of any friends or family that died or had their lives changed forever in Iraq and Afghanistan. I realize I'm not alone and that is certainly one of the things that is very wrong with the Bush/Cheney misadventure in the Middle East. I will be thinking of their families never the less. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dad in Burma - 1943 (Right)</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mom on her 85th Birthday</td></tr>
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Ron Beasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04442030471061531104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952627.post-57937843649658188692013-05-12T16:21:00.002-07:002013-05-12T16:21:57.404-07:00Mother's Day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I have not contributed much much original content recently because I have been busy getting ready to move and recovering from a broken collar bone. <br />
I suddenly realized today that this was the first Mother's Day since mom passed away in January. The first picture was take 65 years ago on my second birthday. Every few years my birthday happen on Mother's Day. <br />
I will be moving on Tuesday and hope to have the time to contribute some original content once again.<br />
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<br />Ron Beasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04442030471061531104noreply@blogger.com0