BOOK REVIEW - ***** 5 STAR
Welcome to Let Kids Be Kids advocacy blog "We All Deserve Better." Our goal is to post relevant information that will spark action,discussion and interaction, creating a catalyst for solutions and ideas to impact the challenges we face in our society. We welcome comments, suggestions and submissions in support of those seeking a voice. "...Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear..."
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Review of Listen Listen to My Hearts Song
BOOK REVIEW - ***** 5 STAR
Friday, August 16, 2024
Trump Denigrates the Military - Constantly
Mr. Trump, please join me at the Wall so I can introduce you, up close and personal, to some losers and suckers.
Trump said the Medal of Honor was a lessor award than the Medal of Freedom.
Trump referred to the more than 1,800 U.S. Marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers.”
He openly criticized Gold Star families.
Standing at the grave, with his Chief of Staff Kelly, of the younger Kelly, who died in Afghanistan in 2010, Trump reportedly turned to the secretary and said: “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?”
Trump ridiculed John McCain.
Trump did not want any wounded Vets to be seen around him or to parade anywhere he’d be.
He sees no honor in awarding the Silver Star, Purple Heart or any other awards for bravery and sacrifice.
Why would any Veteran consider this “man” for a second?
Wednesday, August 14, 2024
Toto, I’ve got a feeling this isn’t Trump’s show anymore
The Wizard of Oz looked frightening and powerful until Dorothy’s little dog, Toto, pulled back a curtain to reveal the silly old con man who was engineering the sham. It could be that the same thing is finally happening to the Wizard of Mar-a-Lago.
Former President Donald Trump has always been a charlatan, but he was wily enough to transform himself into the avatar for millions of disgruntled Americans who projected their anger, fears and resentments onto him. He has kept the illusion going for a remarkably long time, given that his clownish nature was always pretty obvious to those who did not fall for his act.
Just last month, he seemed to be at the top of his con game, having survived an assassination attempt and appearing more energetic (if not more coherent) than a diminished President Joe Biden. Democrats were despondent and Republicans were giddy with the sense that their wizard would once again take them to the land of Oz, or, at least, to the White House and to majorities in the House and Senate.
Now, though, facing a new, much younger, much more articulate and much more appealing opponent, Trump does not seem so all-powerful. He looks like what he truly is: a cranky, whining old rich guy who talks nonsense and has a fetish for bogus crowd-size comparisons.
The Harris/Walz campaign seems to have discovered the key to dampening the appeal of Trump’s flimflam. Instead of overworking warnings about the danger another Trump presidency poses to democracy, they are simply treating Trump as a ridiculous, pathetic figure; a buffoon, not a wizard.
See more of David Horsey’s cartoons at: st.news/davidhorsey
View other syndicated cartoonists at: st.news/cartoons
Editor’s note: Seattle Times Opinion no longer appends comment threads on David Horsey’s cartoons. Too many comments violated our community policies and reviewing the dozens that were flagged as inappropriate required too much of our limited staff time. You can comment via a Letter to the Editor. Please email us at letters@seattletimes.com and include your full name, address and telephone number for verification only. Letters are limited to 200 words.
What a mystery!! Stonehenge’s Altar Stone, an Improbably Long Ancient Journey!!!!
A six-ton megalith at the heart of the archaeological site traveled more than 450 miles to get there, a new study concludes.
NY Times - Franz Lidz - Aug. 14, 2024
Near the center of the roughly 5,000-year-old circular monument known as Stonehenge is a six-ton, rectangular chunk of red sandstone. In Arthurian legend, the so-called Altar Stone was part of the ring of giant rocks that the wizard Merlin magically transported from Mount Killaurus, in Ireland, to Salisbury Plain, a chalk plateau in southern England — a journey chronicled around 1136 by a Welsh cleric, Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his “Historia Regum Britanniae.”
Since then, the accepted provenance of the Altar Stone has shifted, spanning a range of possible sites from east Wales and the Marches to northern England. On Wednesday, a study in the journal Nature reroutes the megalith’s odyssey more definitively, proposing a path much longer than scientists had thought possible.
The researchers analyzed the chemical composition and the ages of mineral grains in two microscopic fragments of the Altar Stone. This pinpointed the stone’s source to the Orcadian Basin in northeast Scotland, an area that spans Inverness, the Orkney Islands and Shetland. To reach the archaeological site in Wiltshire, the megalith would have traveled at least 465 miles by land or more than 620 miles along the present-day coastline if it came by sea.
“This is a genuinely shocking result,” said Rob Ixer, a retired mineralogist and research fellow at University College London who collaborated on the project. “The work prompts two important questions: How and why did the stone travel the length of Britain?”
Stonehenge features two kinds of rocks: larger sarsens and smaller bluestones. The sarsens are sandstone slabs found naturally in southern England. They weigh 20 tons on average and were erected in two concentric arrangements. The inner ring is a horseshoe of five trilithons (two uprights capped by a horizontal lintel), of which three complete ones still stand.
Wednesday, July 24, 2024
Blue Jasper Reviews
“Blue Jasper” has recently joined the thousands of books available to readers all over the world.I am pleased that many are enjoying these stories.
If you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited all my books are free to download.
See Amazon to order your copy.
“Thanks for the copy.
I was hoping you would share more of the tales of the team as they dodged in and out of the shadows. Wonderful stories.
I’ve been to Kyiv. The story of visiting Babyn Yar was very moving. I visited the memorial some years after the team. I honored those who had died while at the newer monument.
Oh, Bela. What a story-”Jean M.
“Assassination, chicanery, espionage, deception, fantastic characters, beautiful stories, intriguing locations, and Holy Moly – nonstop action.” James Freeman“Thanks for the advanced copy.
I read all four of your “Life in the Shadows” books. I loved them, wishing for more.
This collection of short stories, vignettes, is a perfect companion and further look into the characters and their exploits. Well done.” Ralph Cooper
“Some may disagree, but I like how you’ve let the covers convey the mood—no clutter – just Picasso’s Shepard and Smith’s painting of the Red House.
Ok. I loved the stories. I felt like I was walking with Mick, Jack, Walking Bear, and Mahaney.
Oh. After reading “Taipan,” I have determined to never be in the bush in the Cape York Peninsula. My oh my!”J.B.R.
“I loved each story. I laughed at some antics and then cried when I read Emma’s letter.
Nitara was unforgettable. Terrific.” Magdela I.
Walk with the team, Jack, Mick, Walking Bear, and Mahaney, along with support from various agencies, as they confront multiple challenges in this collection of adventures.
Visit Babyn Yar in Kyiv.
Meet Maximón, a Mayan God, as the men take out a troublesome Russian agent.
Meet Glances Twice as she fires an arrow into Walking Bear’s heart.
Nitara, Emma, and Bela are special memories that readers will hold in their hearts.
Reviewed by JV
5.0 out of 5 stars on Amazon – 22 January
Unexpected setting in Guatemala
Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2024
“Good book for fans of espionage and intricate plot lines. I was pleasantly surprised by the unexpected setting in Guatemala, which added an intriguing layer to the narrative. The author’s attention to operational details and espionage tactics is impressively thorough, making the story both authentic and captivating. It’s a book that keeps you on the edge of your seat, with its well-crafted characters and masterful storytelling.”
Pow Wow
United Indians’ Seafair Indian Village Powwow is a proud tradition that brings Native Americans of all tribes and cultures together to celebrate. Held annually and generally on the third weekend in July in conjunction with Seattle Seafair, the Powwow takes place on our Powwow Grounds adjacent to the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center. Over 15,000 people attend over the 3-day event, including visitors, dancers, musicians, vendors and tourists.
The Powwow showcases traditional Indian cooking, jewelry-making, music, and especially dancing. Throughout the day, tribes from the United States and Canada dance in full tribal regalia. All are welcome, Native and non-Native alike! If this is your first time attending a Powwow, we invite you to look at our FAQ page for information and best practices.
Thursday, January 9, 2020
The Pioneers
Pulitzer Prize–winning historian David McCullough rediscovers an important and dramatic chapter in the American story—the settling of the Northwest Territory by dauntless pioneers who overcame incredible hardships to build a community based on ideals that would come to define our country.
As part of the Treaty of Paris, in which Great Britain recognized the new United States of America, Britain ceded the land that comprised the immense Northwest Territory, a wilderness empire northwest of the Ohio River containing the future states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. A Massachusetts minister named Manasseh Cutler was instrumental in opening this vast territory to veterans of the Revolutionary War and their families for settlement. Included in the Northwest Ordinance were three remarkable conditions: freedom of religion, free universal education, and most importantly, the prohibition of slavery. In 1788 the first band of pioneers set out from New England for the Northwest Territory under the leadership of Revolutionary War veteran General Rufus Putnam. They settled in what is now Marietta on the banks of the Ohio River.
McCullough tells the story through five major characters: Cutler and Putnam; Cutler’s son Ephraim; and two other men, one a carpenter turned architect, and the other a physician who became a prominent pioneer in American science. They and their families created a town in a primeval wilderness, while coping with such frontier realities as floods, fires, wolves and bears, no roads or bridges, no guarantees of any sort, all the while negotiating a contentious and sometimes hostile relationship with the native people. Like so many of McCullough’s subjects, they let no obstacle deter or defeat them.
Drawn in great part from a rare and all-but-unknown collection of diaries and letters by the key figures, The Pioneers is a uniquely American story of people whose ambition and courage led them to remarkable accomplishments. This is a revelatory and quintessentially American story, written with David McCullough’s signature narrative energy.
Saturday, January 4, 2020
Emergency Information on Australian fires
https://www.abc.net.au/news/emergency/?fbclid=IwAR199Bt0QzqeK3fPdcVacRqlMwSklU_8s3ePlhvj8VTkyqGoK9vR4oMoITY