A Maginot Line for the 21st century

Currently there are talks to build a Missile defense shield to protect the USA from attacks from evil wrongdoers around the globe. Even Europe might get one! How funny… evil Wrongdoers are usually small or middle sized countries that have oil, not comparable to the economic or military scale of the United states or the EU… Part of the Missile defense shield goes back to plans once dreamed up by the Reagan administration, a project called “Star Wars”, which included laser guns up in space, destroying any missile heading towards American soil. The project was arguable the product of public fear of an equal powerful Soviet Union attacking America with nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. As we all know, there is a different ending to the story, and today Russia and the USA are “allies” in the so called “war on terrorism”.

With Russia and China being becoming more important trading partners these days, some might wonder why there is a need to spend Billions of Dollars on a system that is built on a assumption of threat that dose not even exist anymore. My guess would be that the Military needs to justify to spend money on developing new and more powerful weapons and therefore “creates” public fear and a sense of danger.

History has shown that spending a fortune on building a bigger and better defense system doesn’t necessarily mean to be prepared to deal with your enemies.

A good example can be found in France. The Maginot Line was a line of concrete fortifications, tank obstacles, machine gun posts and other defenses which France constructed along its borders with Germany and with Italy between World War I and II. It was built at an astonishing budget of around 3 billion french francs, probably comparable to what the US military is willing to spend on their latest gadget.

While the Maginot line would have been able to fence of the Germans, it was simply bypassed by the German Army and became useless once the government surrendered. So what if the Missile defense system is somehow “bypassed”? Billions spend one one project means that Billions are not spend somewhere else – for example alternative engergy suplies…

Even if someone shots missiles at the USA, the retaliation would be devastating for that country. While there are countries that still try to develop a nuclear weapon, the USA itself has uncountable of them hidden in bunkers, loaded on plans, submarines and who knows where. Still, they have to spend more money on protecting themselves from a mysteries “superpower”.

I suppose that we will look back in 30 to 40 years and say – remember that Missile Defense System the came up with in the early 21st century? Stupid idiots, made the same mistake the French did in the early 20th century… Wishful thinking, but maybe we have learned the lesson by then…

View on Aging

I liked this mass-email so much; I decided to share it with you guys!

George Carlin’s View on Aging

Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we’re kids? If you’re less than 10 years old, you’re so excited about aging that you think in fractions.

“How old are you?” “I’m four and a half!” You’re never thirty-six and a half. You’re four and a half, going on five! That’s the key.

You get into your teens, now they can’t hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead.

“How old are you?” “I’m gonna be 16!” You could be 13, but hey, you’re gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life . . . You become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony . . YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There’s no fun now, you’re Just a sour-dumpling. What’s wrong? What’s changed?

You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you’re PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it’s all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50

And your dreams are gone.

But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn’t think you would!

So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.

You’ve built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it’s a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday!

You get into your 80’s and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn’t end there. Into the 90’s, you start going backwards; “I Was JUST 92.”

Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. “I’m 100 and a half!”

May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!

HOW TO STAY YOUNG

1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay “them!”

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.” And the devil’s name is Alzheimer’s.

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it’s family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9 Don’t take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

We all need to live life to its fullest each day!

The one to blame

I suppose God is as at least as old as human mankind is able to speak. Some might call that blasphemy, since God is believed to be there since the beginning of time. Well, I will try a different approach and say: God was there since the beginning of time, I just don’t like the way God is used by some humans.

But how can God be used? Isn’t God the one who looks after us, guides us, inspires us, and if we go down the wrong path, might even punish us?

Well, that is where the whole thing gets tricky. Take George Bush and Osama Bin Laden, both think that God is on their side, that they are doing the right thing, one of them calling it a Crusade, the other one a Dschihad, in the name of the Lord. Using God for “political” reasons is nothing new, it has been done, well, I suppose, since human mankind is able to speak.

Take a soldier, fighting in a recent war. He follows orders of his superiors. If he is asked to explain his actions, he most likely replies: I had to, that was an order. So how does his superiors justify their actions? Well, they might refer to their “leader” from whom they got their instructions. This goes up all the way to generals, who might refer to the president of their country.

But once you get to the very top, the air gets thin and it gets difficult. How does a president, king or dictator justify his “decisions”? There is no one really above him, no judge, no president of the world – to guide him. Humans, even kings and presidents, can make mistakes, they can have flaws.

That’s where God comes in. He is the flawless strong guy, that makes no mistakes, that is always right, that knows what is going to happened and what is ultimately right and wrong. Explanation to all glory victories and gruesome failures. (To the woman who are reading this– don’t worry, I don’t think God is a guy, I think there is no he or she above us, something both of it maybe.) But if that is really the case, if it is that old guy, sitting above the clouds, inspiring great leaders of this world, he has done a lousy job so far.

I think that the opposite is the case, look at the miracle of life, the sun rising, flowers growing and kids playing, God has done a terrific job in creating the world and letting it develop, but to use him to justify decisions made by humans is flat out wrong and highly unfair to a true mastermind.

Just my thoughts

On the Information Highway to Hell

Modern times! We are living them, day in and day out. A ship sinks somewhere in the pacific? We know about it instantly. A huge chemical accident on the other side of the world — live footage within the hour!

The world is connected, and there is news to be heard, seen or read every second of the day. The newsmakers of today tell us about injustice, about people suffering around the world and about the need to do something about it. They let us know when something is wrong. I think that this is a good thing, and that it could make the world a better place.

But media these days also tend to generalize. For example – a lot of people in Arab countries think they know how “all” the Western people think and feel about them, that “we” look down on them and that “we” make fun of their religion. At the same time, we are shown pictures of Arabs going on the street and protesting against the western way of life, making us think that “all” the Arabs are the same and they all are against us. Black and white. The media hardly ever shows us the shades of grey in between or tries to make both sides understand each other a little bit better.

Actually, that is nothing new, wars have been fought and people have been killed because of information’s they where given since the dawn of human mankind. The next big war is out of questions; unfortunately we still have not learned to ask the right questions and look behind the information we are given.