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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: calgal who wrote (60157)	12/14/2012 2:35:38 PM
From: calgal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

News flash 18 children were kiiled in CT!!:(It was a class of children in kindergarden Pray!

To: calgal who wrote (60157)	12/14/2012 11:50:25 PM
From: calgal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

Decision Deficit Disorder Oliver North Dec 1 QUANTICO, VA -- Until I joined the Fourth Estate, it was my experience that most soldiers, sailors, airmen, guardsmen and Marines usually eschewed contact with members of the media. Regard for the potentates of the press used to be about equal to that of chiggers, ticks, scorpions and fire ants. When I was on active duty, I had an aerosol can of bug spray hand-labeled: "Reporter Repellant." And if a military person had to co-habit space with any of these assorted insects, the last thing anyone wanted to do was to discuss politics. Things have changed. Shortly before the presidential election, our Fox News team was embedded with U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Though nearly all acknowledged applying for absentee ballots, few of them were able to follow the presidential campaign or the debates, and fewer still had the time or inclination to speculate about what the outcome might be. Now that the issue is decided, they are no longer reticent about expressing their frustrations with the power brokers in Washington. Over the course of the past month, our "Heroes Proved" book tour bus has visited more than two-dozen U.S. military installations and bookstores in nearby communities. It's empirical data, but I estimate that over half of those lining up to buy this book are currently serving military personnel, veterans or their family members. They aren't happy with what's happening in our nation's capital -- or the way it's being covered by the so-called mainstream media. Those wearing our nation's uniforms are tired of hearing about the apocalypse predicted in a Mayan calendar. They know the fiscal cliff is a disaster for the Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and Marines. They wonder if anyone on the banks of the Potomac really cares about what happens to their hard-pressed families, dwindling military health care or how they will prepare for the next fight "if all the good leaders get out." To a far greater extent than their civilian peers, the young Americans in uniform are concerned about all the bad news in the Middle East. News about Syrian government troops preparing sarin gas chemical weapons and firing Scud missiles at rebel strongholds doesn't get much more than a shrug on an American college campus. But on the U.S. military bases we are visiting, it has the full attention of officers and senior enlisted personnel who care about their troops. Several have acknowledged that "stocks of protective masks, outerwear, decontamination and detection equipment used up in OIF (Operation Iraqi Freedom) in 2003 have never been replaced," and that "we haven't done any serious NBC (nuclear, biological and chemical) defense training in a decade."

To: calgal who wrote (60157)	12/15/2012 1:18:12 AM
From: calgal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

20 Children, 7 Adults Dead in Connecticut School Shooting Leading Rabbi: Too Easy to Rush to Judgment on Reason for Shooting Friday, 14 Dec 2012 07:17 PM By Todd Beamon and John Bachman Now is not the time for analysis and explanation of the seemingly senseless rampage that left nearly 30 people, most of them young children dead in Connecticut, Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, president of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, tells Newsmax.TV “Now is the moment for cultivating compassion and acting lovingly to get through what really is unexplainable,” Hirschfield tells Newsmax in an exclusive interview. “The job right now is to make the unexplainable bearable — and if we’re willing to do that, we will have at least part of the answer to how do we not simply get used to this horror. “One way we don’t get used to it is by not quickly reaching for the typical explanations, and I’ve already seen them come across my screen,” Hirschfield continued. “From one side of the political spectrum, you already see the claims of we have to rein in guns because this is about guns and it’s a gun-violence issue. And then the other side is quickly saying, this is about the moral decline of America. “What I want to say to all of them is you may be right, you may be wrong, but how do we not become callous? The way we do that is by having the courage to open our hearts, to actually practice compassion toward each other — and especially to those closest to us — and most especially to our children, to admit that this isn’t normal. This can never be normal. And yet, somehow, because this also isn’t all of life, we will find our way through this.” Hirschfield is the author of “You Don’t Have to Be Wrong: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism.” Twenty children died in the rampage, 18 of whom authorities say died in their elementary school classroom. Many other students got out of the school safely. Many will ask their parents why something like this happened, Hirschfield said. “What they have to do is tell their kids that this is horrible but that it’s also not typical. And that they, their parents or caretakers, are there to love them no matter what. What kids need more than an explanation for why this happened is the reassurance that they will be cared for and loved as much as possible by those closest to them. “And that’s true beyond just kids,” Hirschfield added. “That’s all of us. Because as much as we are wrestling with what happened in Connecticut, the deeper thing that probably troubles all of us is how close potentially each of us are to being in that position. So we want to be reassured — and if we want to be reassured, our kids definitely want to be reassured, and that’s what we have to do. “Hold them. Hug them. Don’t go for the easy answer but promise them and live into the promise that no matter what you will be there for them to the best of your ability — and love them more than they could possibly understand.” The Newtown shooting is among the deadliest school shootings, with more victims than when two teenagers went on a rampage at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., in April 1999, killing 12 fellow students and a teacher. And in the past year alone, mass shootings have occurred in Oakland, Calif.; Aurora, Colo.; Oak Creek, Wis.; and Minneapolis — among other cities. Hirschfield suspects that Americans are “probably not” getting enough time to grieve or to fully comprehend the causes of these mass tragedies before another one occurs. “There is a time for analysis, and there is a time for better policy, and there is a time for addressing these issues systemically — but while the bodies are still warm is not that moment,” he said. “We have an obligation to let people know that they must take this in hand for themselves and insist that we as a community, we as a culture, we as a nation make that time. “We must refuse to buy into easy answers while people have not yet even been buried,” Hirschfield said. “And insist that the real task at hand right now is to come together in compassion, admit what we can’t explain and promise to remind ourselves and each other that — as horrible as this is — this is not all of life. “There is more to life: that actually each and every one of us has a role to play and can play a role in making sure that these kinds of events never happen again. It may take a while to get there but we can get there.”