Re: Disaster in Indianapolis [Our American Cousin]
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Hello, Shoji,.
Yes, it appears that the storm approaching Indianapolis produced a "micro-burst," toppling the big steel structure built over the stage. I think the death toll has increased to 5 today. Janet and I attended a show like this at the State Fair about 10 years ago, but our seats were far from the stage..
I have been keeping up with events in Japan, thanks to the US-Japan online discussion forum. We were surprised when the government decided to abandon nuclear energy in such a drastic way. It must be very difficult to live with reduced electricity. I can't imagine living in a house with a temperature of 36 degrees. Can you walk to Tokyo Bay for some cooling breezes?.
It's a shame that all the people have to suffer because of the misdeeds of the nuclear power industry. From the reports that I read, it's clear that the government and the nuclear industry were cooperating for many years to ignore safety standards and to prevent public knowledge of the truth..
I understand your concern for national defense. Japan has many sources of vulnerability. But, like in the USA, I think the biggest element of national defense is having internal strength--mentally and physically strong people who are committed to helping each other succeed...like you see, for example, in many successful organizations. Unfortunately, many political leaders succeed by encouraging people to hate those who are different from themselves. It's the fast way to success in communities with easy targets. In the USA, the targets are often homosexuals, non-Christians, African-Americans, and Hispanic people...especially in communities where those people are competing with white Christian people for jobs..
Unfortunately, in the USA we are undergoing constant attacks on our unity by the "tea party" element in the Republican party. They began as an amorphous protest against bad economic conditions. But a small group of billionaire businessmen have used skillful propaganda and organizational tools to sell these people an agenda that is deadly to the future of the nation. These poor fools are electing foolish representatives who have been given an ultra-conservative economic agenda. Guess what is the primary plank in their economic platform? Lower taxes for rich people! Yes, it's hard to believe, but these people, many of whom are struggling financially, have been taught to believe that it's good for the rich to become richer. In the Reagan years, it was called "trickle-down" economics. That is, wealthy people would buy more luxury yachts and hire more servants, creating jobs for poorer people..
As you may have seen in the news, the new "tea party" representatives in the Republican party created a near economic catastrophe by refusing to allow the government to raise the debt ceiling. There was not a sane economist in the world who thought this was a good idea, but the extremists convinced the whole Republican party to resist all compromises offered by Democrats. These extremists also believe that the national debt was created by President Obama. Any child could look at the graphs and see that the national debt took a sharp spike upward during the Reagan and Bush administrations. We are now trying to pay interest on the money borrowed by those administrations. But the "tea party" extremists have convinced a majority of Republicans voters to believe that Obama created the national debt. Sadly to me, Obama has not presented a strong argument against this falsehood..
It seems to me that we (USA, Japan, and Europe also) are close to a collapse of the social and economic conditions that were constructed a great cost by our parents. Some of the blame belongs to leftists who were careless about establishing unsustainable social programs; some of the blame belongs to rightists (certainly in the USA) who created a monstrous "defense" industry that captures and destroys large amounts of the national capital. Right now, some of the blame belongs to ultra-rightists (certainly in the US) who hold economic theories that are transparently false. Much of the blame belongs to voters who don't understand the issues and vote based on emotional appeals ("Obama is a Muslim who hates America.")..
Sorry to be so negative, but these are dangerous times and it's hard not to be worried..
Best regards,
Michael.
Michael Molenda
Michael Molenda氏の文中、冒頭の三行目に書かれる "Micro-Burst" （マイクロバースト）とは急な下降気流のことです。
鋼鉄製構造物を引き倒すと書かれていますが、マイクロバーストが飛行場で起きると、着陸中の飛行機を地上へ叩き付けてしまうほどに強力なエネルギーを持ちます。ところが、マイクロバーストは目で見ることができず、通常の気象観測機器で測定することもできないので、極めて厄介な自然現象です。
飛行場ではマイクロバーストによって舞い上がる細かい塵を波長の短いレーダー波で探知します。
by 村尾鐵男 (2011-08-15 07:48)