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| Can We Ever Really Be Prepared? | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Oct 13 2005, 07:44 AM (98 Views) | |
| Banandangees | Oct 13 2005, 07:44 AM Post #1 |
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Good Morning Campfire Consider the earthquake in San Francisco, which was of the same magnitude of the earthquake in Pakistan. Consider the destruction and death tolls of each. Consider the tsunami of the Indian Ocean and the hurricanes in Florida last year and the more recent ones at the south shores of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisianna and Texas. Then, consider the destruction and death tolls of each. It appears that as bad as our planning has been, there are significant differences in the carnage between here and there. Are we better prepared than they? Can we ever be significantly better prepared? I am sure we could be (and will be) better prepared in the future. The only thing that will keep our most best preparedness will be the barriers thrown up by political power struggles. They, the politicos and their main goal of being in control, are always in the way along with big centralized government. But consider our lot to that of most of the rest of the world. We are and have been truly blessed. But for how long? We have always been able to withstand the forces of invaders or would-be invaders; but, can we ever be really prepared for what nature can offer up? Consider the view of Russell Seitz, a renown physicist from Cambridge, Mass. and secularist by nature. He draws a vivid picture of the forces and would-be forces of nature and their possible ramifications. Each has to draw their own conclusions as to whether nature is a totally natural phenomenon perpetuated by itself or brought on by some other phenomenon that we don't even begin to have any significant knowledge of. Russell Seitz's article appears in today's WSJ titled: "A World Turned Upside Down" |
| Banan | |
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| corky52 | Oct 13 2005, 08:17 AM Post #2 |
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The very size of our nation is one of the things that makes us more immune to the nation-breaking disasters like we are seeing other places. As long as Americans are Americans, not Texans, Californians and Nebraskans, we will be able to weather the trials better than most. The other critical factor is the difference in perspective of the ordinary person in this country, we look out for each other in a way that is very uncommon in the world. When trouble happens the first words you hear are "how can I help", with no regard for anything else, not as common in the rest of the world as one would think. |
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| roscoe | Oct 13 2005, 09:19 AM Post #3 |
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I agree. |
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| cmoehle | Oct 13 2005, 10:35 AM Post #4 |
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Chris - San Antonio TX
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I disagree. The more we go from being Texans, Californians and Nebraskans to being Americans dependent on big centralized government, the more susceptible we will become to natural and unnatural disasters. First things Indians did was ask Pakistanis "how can I help". And Afghans and Chinese and even us etc. |
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Politics is the art of achieving the maximum amount of freedom for individuals that is consistent with the maintenance of social order. --Barry Goldwater | |
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| cmoehle | Oct 13 2005, 10:45 AM Post #5 |
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Chris - San Antonio TX
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What a view! The region's conflicts may seem intractable, but the Earth is ever patient in its diplomacy. The civilizations of South Asia have a half-billion years' grace in which to resolve their age-old differences before the slow tectonic violence that has put fossil seashells atop Everest crumples Ceylon--unserendipitously--into the mountainous seashore of Tibet. (It reads "Mr. Seitz is a physicist in Cambridge, Mass." Didn't see secularist.) |
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Politics is the art of achieving the maximum amount of freedom for individuals that is consistent with the maintenance of social order. --Barry Goldwater | |
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| corky52 | Oct 13 2005, 10:51 AM Post #6 |
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Chris, Again you mix up government with the people of the nation. During our big fire here two years ago I was down being a go'fer at the staging area, I helped checking in fire crews from all over America, most had driven straight through to get there. Towns all over America had cut their own protection in order to help another American town. The strength is in the people not the government. |
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| corky52 | Oct 13 2005, 10:55 AM Post #7 |
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"First things Indians did was ask Pakistanis "how can I help". And Afghans and Chinese and even us etc." You might want to look a little closer at this, there are some interesting incidents involved in this. You might also look at how several of the Pak provinces are acting, those down near the coast. |
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| TexasShadow | Oct 13 2005, 12:39 PM Post #8 |
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Jane
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re can we ever be really prepared for big disasters? no...because we don't know what is coming until it happens, and there are many different kinds of disasters. a nuke disaster would have different problems and responses to a hurricane or earthquake or super snow storm or avian flu, etc. the only thing we can do as individuals is have enough supplies on hand to survive the first, awful days/weeks. |
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| cmoehle | Oct 13 2005, 05:02 PM Post #9 |
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Chris - San Antonio TX
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So, Corky, what are you saying, there are the people, and there are the what, forming the government? Just who are they now? This I got to hear.... |
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Politics is the art of achieving the maximum amount of freedom for individuals that is consistent with the maintenance of social order. --Barry Goldwater | |
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| corky52 | Oct 13 2005, 05:11 PM Post #10 |
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Chris, I guess it's a concept that is just beyond a cutthroat, bloodthirsty, economics driven libertarian. There are things beyond economics and money. Read your own bottom line. My kind of loyalty was loyalty to one's country, not to its institutions or its office-holders.--Mark Twain | Rig |
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| cmoehle | Oct 13 2005, 05:30 PM Post #11 |
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Chris - San Antonio TX
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So now there's the people, and there's the government, and there's the country. It's getting so complicated, so abstract, idealistic. |
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Politics is the art of achieving the maximum amount of freedom for individuals that is consistent with the maintenance of social order. --Barry Goldwater | |
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| bikemanb | Oct 15 2005, 06:02 PM Post #12 |
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Liberal Conservative
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Actually it is not a hard concept. We are Americans first last and always, we are all else second. Being American has nothing to do with being dependent on the handouts of big government. I could give a big whoopie what state I was born in or live in, my alligence is always to the nation. |
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Bill, Rita and Chloe the Terror Cat For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions, even on important subjects, which I once thought right but found to be otherwise. Benjamin Franklin | |
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| cmoehle | Oct 15 2005, 06:07 PM Post #13 |
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Chris - San Antonio TX
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" Actually it is not a hard concept." Corky convinced me it was. Ask him. |
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Politics is the art of achieving the maximum amount of freedom for individuals that is consistent with the maintenance of social order. --Barry Goldwater | |
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