Reading about those stalwart boys of the Seal Team that inserted into Pakistan in a kind of Black Ops to kill the bad guy reminded how much we owe to Dick Marcinko, who formed Seal Team 6 back in 1980. This guy (Read some of his “Rogue Warrior” books) was an incredible fearless & motivated sailor who spent his early days in Cambodia as a Navy Seal, wearing black pajamas & barefoot to run around behind enemy lines to kill the bad guys. He latter realized we needed a Counter Terrorism group who would be ready in a few hours to go from Langley, Virginia to any spot on earth to clean up shit without a lot of bureaucratic bullshit in the way (A good example: our foiled rescue of our people in the Iranian Embassy fiasco). He led his hardened men for several years, not from a desk, but from the front. Unfortunately, he had stepped on too many toes to get things done and was blacklisted and accused of conspiracy and you name. Bottom line, he was thrown in a Federal slammer for 22 months & charged $10,000. It cost the Feds (You & me) $60 million to investigate and sue him, They just wanted to ruin his reputation.. After that, the Navy tried to eradicate much of what Marcinko had done. Obviously, enough was left to get Osama. Thank you, Marcinko!
THE ROYAL FIASCO
I see one of the princes of England (Is it still called the United Kingdom? If so why? Seems Canada & Australia are not really part of it?) Got himself a juicy morsel. This led me to ask how much all this folderal costs the poor Brits, but it was not so easy as I thought. I found that there is a L40 million per year budget for some of the things but don’t know what it covers.
It was easier to see what a comparable Royal House costs in Holland. The queen, Beatrix, gets an allowance of e813,000, The Prince another e241,000 plus e241,000 for his wife. They pay no taxes on this and do have use of several Mercedes and airplanes, if needed.
Back th England, the property of the Royal Household is worth about 6.6 Billion pounds. Seems like kind of a long term lease sort of thing, eh, what? However, they did sell Britannia, the huge Royal Yacht. I don’t know how much they got for it (It’s a museum now in Scotland) but the crew of 200+ doesn’t suck on the Royal Tit anymore. We toured the ship a couple of years ago and I was struck how small the office for The Duke of Wales was, even though his job description is probably pretty esoteric, while the Queen had a large office to carry the flag around the world to all the remaining dominions. Long Live the Queen!
ASTROLOGY
Why is it that identical twins, born under the same star do not have the same future? Pythagoras
ETHICAL DILEMMA
My first book, “Hillside Homes” I self published in 1980 and took about 10 years to sell my thousand copies at $10 each. By the time it got to Amazon I got $6 per book from them, even though I paid $8 per book to print.(That’s called “Langworthy Economics”). During the 90's, they started appearing on ebay for $240 per copy, which I thought was crazy, as I have a rare book of Louis Sullivan’s drawings that is worth just a little less. Anyway my book was out of print and is currently worth about $150. However, I do have a few books left, and once in a while someone asks to buy it but I can’t sell it for $200 to a friend, can I?
FILM FLAM
Instead of going around grousing about how much you lost on the current economic meltdown, why not view the Video “Inside Job”? This Oscar nominated documentary presents a detailed scenario of the Global economic meltdown. Featuring politicos, Journalists and academics. It paints a galling portrait of an unfettered financial system run amok, without accountability. Narrated by Matt Damon, 2010.
NO END IN SIGHT
This is a video you should buy as it’s worth viewing more than once. “No End in Sight” by the same folks who did “Inside Job”, Charles Ferguson (A former Brookings Institute Fellow) is another Oscar nominated film that examines the decisions that led to the 2003 US invasion of Iraq and the handling of the occupation by King Bush and his administration. Detailed analysis and interviews with central players, the film chronicles the twists & turns America took on the path to war. Didn’t we really know that the Shiites, Sunnis & Kurds all hate each other? We had no real plans for how to occupy Iraq, see our major faux-pais, like firing all the Republican Guard, who became the armed insurgents (Out of a job, they had the weapons), letting the Museums & Libraries to be looted (But not the Ministry of Oil), leaving most weapon stockpiles unguarded. I can’t go on.
BOOK REVIEWS
While I’m ranting about the economy, try reading “Hoodwinked” by John Perkins, a former economic Hit Man. About high finances & law ethics, someone who was deeply entrenched in our government/corporate imperialistic (Militaristic) structure has come forward to reveal our involvement with third world countries. This involves the World Bank, CIA, NAFTA, WTO and how they do business. What appears that we are helping these countries, it ends up devastating them with large corporations rake in any profits, & these poor countries owing huge sums they will never be able to repay. The results are not exactly near what the wonderful concept was.
WASHINGTON RULES
This book by Andrew Bacevich, “Washington Rules“ is about America’s path to permanent war and our so called Foreign Policy. Our politicians insist that we must invest blood and treasure in mud brick Afgan villages, while China invests in advanced technologies. We seem to be locked in a global military presence sustained by power interventionism by military Force. The Washington Rules are basically these three: 1. Global Military Presence
2. Global Power Production
3. Global Interventionalism
This is all getting pretty depressing.
THIS MIGHT HELP
“Make me one with everything” said the buddhist to the hot-dog vender. But when the Buddhist hands over a twenty dollar bill in return for the slathered bun, he waits a long time for his change. Finally asking for it, he is informed that “change comes only from within”.
