Israel attacks the US

Got your attention, didn't I?  What's this about?  In June, 1967, during the Six Day War, Israeli war planes attacked and nearly sunk a US spy ship staffed with NSA intelligence gathering personnel. 
Israel calls the attack a horrible accident; a case of mistaken identity. Survivors and conspiracy theorists say that's a load of crap. 
You decide.  I'll deliberately leave out my viewpoint in all this, and instead suggest you read what's being
written about the incident.  Do your own Google searches and read the words on the web sites on the two
sides and make up your own mind.  Here are some links in no particular
order:

• Washington Post story: The Assault on the USS Liberty Still Covered Up After 26 Years
  
  


• USSLiberty.org
  
  


• Jewish Virtual Library's USS Liberty story
  
  


• Judge AJ
  Cristol's web site on the Book, The Liberty Incident


• HonestReporting.com's href="http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/critiques/Return_of_the_USS_Liberty.asp"
  target="_blank">Return of the Liberty


• NSA documents (audio and transcripts)


• Jon Borne's Dissertation, "Attack on the USS Liberty"


• target="_blank">A CNN story


• 
  

  href="http://www.fpp.co.uk/online/01/04/USSLiberty0401.html" target="_blank">A
  UK Book Review of James Bamford's "Body of Evidence"



• 
  

  target="_blank">The Israeli News Agencies comments

Here's one scenario of what might have happened:

A zealous LBJ wanted to do right by Israel, since just 19 years prior, the US had sponsored Israel's very statehood, and he knew in advance of their plans to spank surrounding enemies who'd sworn to push the Jews into the ocean. LBJ nods in blind approval and vows he will know nothing of it. LBJ figured it would be ugly, but he didn't have to know unpleasant details of the gore. But he would later be shocked, for his own people would pay with their lives and dignity for LBJ's wink of an eye.

During this spanking, Israeli leadership learn there's a US intelligence ship lying quietly just 19 miles off the coast, watching the whole bloody mess unfold (like the execution of
Egyptians in an Israeli firing squad). Israel is slightly dismayed (a sentiment LBJ will soon share) at the NSA intrusion, and so tries to sink the snoopy ship to silence it.

It was a knee-jerk response and not well planned, but it had to be done. They'd do damage control and spin a tail of mistaken identity later, but right now, stopping Liberty is priority or there could be a very large audience and a paper trail of evidence against them.

So, despite that Israeli Air Force war plane pilots could plainly see what they were doing, orders to destroy Liberty are delivered and carried out, as dutiful warriors must, without question.

And what could LBJ say? He's all but fighting the Egyptians alongside the Israelis. How could he defend Liberty and not take action against Israel's air force? He had no choice. He had to turn a blind eye to the slaying of his own countrymen or burn in hell for not protecting the chosen ones. It would take generations to repair the damage on Israel's world status if the world knew the truth -- at least the official truth.

So, while commanders of the sixth fleet were sending warplanes to defend Liberty, LBJ turns them back.

American Power Failure!

Can I just say, "Oh my God!" When I heard Rush Limbaugh playing the blame game and turning the eastern seaboard power outage of last week into a partisan issue, it made me sick to my stomach.

I think the power companies have going one of the best games in town. They do a much needed service, providing for us the so-called comforts of home. But he who provides for our needs can certainly take away what we need, and that's just too much power for one industry to have. And don't tell me that's a partisan problem.

I think more than power companies lost a lot of steam last week. I just hope the failure did some good, that is awakened us to several of the issues that face us.

Is anyone else tired of listening to politicians bicker? Republicans want to impose religious belief on me. Democrats want to socialize the world. I hate them both equally! Fact is, democrats and republicans alike want more than anything to be elected into power without regard for the good of the people. Corporate America wants to get more and more of consumers' paychecks and will buy politicians to get it. Borders will not be protected because democrats want immigrant votes and republicans need the low wages. Health care will never be affordable if insurance lobbies continue to exist.

We all know "drunk driving" is a real problem in America. Everyone, it seems, looks to the 'drunk' part of the equation and fails to understand the huge impact mere 'driving' has on public health & safety and energy issues. While we know driving is a privilege, our society treats the function like a Constitutional right, akin to liberty and freedom. That's a load of crap. Infrastructure is one of the few elements of our society that should be standardized by the federal government, and it should be done through technology, driven by safety and efficiency.

People are human, and humans are not well suited to manage very complicated traffic considerations, such as road conditions, flow and weather. Our brains are not equipped to take in all the information needed to be safe and efficient with multi-ton equipment on busy roads. It's a scientific fact.

And bigger is not better. Jets, trains and busses keep getting bigger; bull’s eye more prominently affixed thereto. They have, are and will always be targets for terrorist attacks. Small vehicles, evenly spread, are not.

The whole transportation infrastructure needs a major overhaul, and quickly. Isn't it time to start turning the corner here? Isn't it time for America to demonstrate leadership in the world and introduce a state-of-the-art transportation model that can work everywhere?

Education is a hot button issue too. Why? Because tax payers don't get their money's worth. All it takes is a few good leaders to do the right thing here. Stop taking bribes and start paying attention to the needs of the kids. Schools should be guarded and monitored by more parents and fewer police and administrators. Bigger is not better. More schools in more and smaller multi-use structures. Air conditioning is not a must. Bussing is not a given. Extra-curricular activities should not be subsidized by taxes. Teaching kids comes first, and should be conducted by those best suited and not chosen through arbitrary, political standards.

Don't get me started on free trade and the border issues. When American companies recruit illegal aliens onto American soil though such porous, we're going to have problems with living wages and national security.

Is insurance really a good thing?

Nearly everyone has insurance of some type, and most have several: car insurance, life insurance and medical insurance. But is the basic concept of insurance, paying insurance premiums and subsequently filing claims, really the best way to pay for unplanned expenses?

Let's look at the benefits and the effects:

Insurance is good because it allows us to better buget our money, and provides a safety net in case a crisis arrises. But let's look beyond the known benefits and get to the actual societal effect.

Most people agree that prices consumers pay for goods and services should be set by free market forces, such as supply and demand, cost of living and simple competition. But when you put the insurance company between you and the doctor, as in health insurance, then basic market forces are all but lost because the insurance company -- and not you -- writes the checks to pay the bills, which frees the health care industry to increase prices to levels far above what consumers can normally afford.

For this reason, I am beginning to wonder if todays insurance models don't add up to social corruption.

Before the insurance model existed...

It used to be simple. Industries mostly didn't gouge their customers because they'd have priced themselves right out of business. People generally paid cash as they went. The breaking point on prices was relatively far lower because the deep pockets people went after when they were injured by medical malpractice or in a car crash were simply not present.

The insurance model is socially corrupt because facilitates gouging.

Employer-provided health insurance...

My electronics instructor had a saying which applied closely in electronic circuits: You can't get something from nothing. You can increase the voltage, but at the expense of amperage. This applies in life as well. When an entire society demands that employers provide health care to employees, there is a feeling that we're getting something for nothing.

I guarantee someone is paying, and it's probably you.

Perhaps the company you work for is passing some of the health care cost on to consumers of its goods and services, but my sense is that the lion's share of the health cost comes in the form of limits on wages and other benefits. And that has a dramatic effect on standards of living.

The pie is only so big, right? The smart people will figure out how to get larger and larger pieces of that pie. The really smart people will get laws passed that will guarantee them a piece of the pie.

The Peer-pressure Model

Employer-provided health care causes a social phenomenon not seen before. Because we don't pay our own bills in a 'pay-as-you-go' system, fat people, smokers and people who have a lot of kids are scoffed by their co-workers. Why? Cost sharing. It's an easy relationship to draw; the more babies YOU make, the more MY health care costs.

I don't think it's fair, but I don't blame co-workers who choose an unhealthy lifestyle for themselves. (Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.) No, I attribute the problem to socially inept leadership; politicians and industry lobbies, for instance, who permit this kind of model to exist in the first place.

Yes, you might think you live in a country that has a free market system, but someone doesn't want you, the consumer, to have any impact on health care costs.