The Few - The Bold

Under the ocean, the earth gave a few groans;

In a blink Japan suffered, lost families and homes.

Stark slabs of cement marked where a village should be;

Now nothing was left; all claimed by the sea.

The world looked disbelieving at the damage been done;

Not knowing that the battle for some just begun.

In a facility backed by safeties one, two and three;

The game was now changed by the might of the sea.

Everything failed, even systems most reliant;

Awakening into the world, a fiery nuclear giant.

It couldn’t happen; no, they’d done everything right;

And yet there it was, the glow growing in the night.

While the rest of the world watched a tsunami unleashed;

Engineers worked frantically to contain the freed beast.

The radiation was climbing to levels untold;

But men stayed and fought, the Few – the Bold

They did what they must, their eyes open wide;

They confronted the beast, but not out of pride.

It was their duty, their job, to step up to this plate;

This was their beast; this battle, their fate.

One texted his wife, “Live your life well;

I’ll be here a while.” Then he turned to face hell.

Every moment of stay, chopped years from a life;

He fought in the dark.  He fought for his wife.

The price, it is high, but so are the stakes;

The very demon of hell is rattling their gates.

Only much later, the battle hours old;

Did the world learn about them; the Few – the Bold.

There were fifty in all, each life chose to give;

To fight and to die so that others may live.

To them they were only, doing that which must be done;

All had suffered loss in the land o’ rising sun.

They fought on for days; they fought through the nights;

They fought the hot beast; they fought the fight of all fights.

They fought in the dark, knowing they might never see home;

And as the world watched in awe, fifty fought on alone

Wearing protective suits, they fought with one goal;

But in spite of precautions, the radiation took its toll.

Their death might come slow, or it may be mercifully fast;

But when it does come, fifty flags then fly, each at half mast.

The outcome unclear as this story is told;

But now is the time to remember the Few – the Bold

A world stands united in thought and in prayer;

Letting the fifty know they’re not along – we know that they’re there.

Songs will be sung and our memories will be kind;

To the great ones that lead the way, for those left behind.

Yes, we're left behind by men, that will never grow old;

Left behind by our heroes, the Few – the Bold.

It's Technical...

I love technology.

I'm driving to Columbia, SC from Augusta and it strikes me that food would make a great traveling companion.

I pick up my phone and say "Popeyes."

Ten minutes later I'm feasting on the 10-piece special at 70 mph. 

Also, for $1.99, I downloaded an App that allows me to see how far I have to go to the green, no matter what hole or golf course I am on.  This makes my cell do the same thing as a device you can by for over $400.  Unfortunately, it only pretends to make me a better golfer.  (For that, I need a pencil with an eraser.)

Did you see how well the computer did on Jeopardy?  It beat the humans easily. This shows that a computer can search for information and come up with an answer in fractions of a second, regardless of the question.

This gave me an idea.  Every debate should have this computer do a quick fact-check on each answer given by someone debating.  It would then signal if the candidate made up the answer or if he answered truthfully. It will also have the option of saying, "I heard what you said and it does not seem to be related to the question asked."

I'd like to think that television news and radio talk show hosts would be subject to the same criteria.  After every comment, a mechanical voice would come on and say either, "correct" or "bullshit."

Bill O'Reilly, the guy sued for sexual harrassment (and he lost), or maybe you know him as the guy that wrote a book for your children.  Same guy.  Anyway, when confronted with putting out information he knew to be false, he said (I'm paraphrasing here) "Opinion guys don't have to be factual.  I'm an opinion guy."  He said this with a smile as if it made it okay for him to make stuff up.


This brings me to the NPR debate.  National Public Radio gets funding from the government, in part.  Recently, one of their top executives got caught on camera making fun of the Tea Party.  As a result, he quit.  But there is more to the story.

The tape that was made public was edited to make it appear that he said many other things that simply were not true.  It had him laughing at inappropriate comments etc.  The fact that the tape was edited in this way is not under dispute.  This means that everyone knows that what is in it is taken out of context.

Still, the Republican Party is taking edited sections of it and using it to try and defund NPR.

I have three problems with this.

First of all, NPR is just about the only talk radio show that is not controlled by Murdock (who owns Fox).  I can drive anywhere in the country and if I want to listen to talk radio, it's all about conservatives spouting off about Obama playing golf.  NPR is the only alternative.  If it's gone, the the GOP owns the radio airwaves coast to coast. (with the possible exception of the 5,000 gospel channels on AM)

Secondly, the GOP knows this tape has been altered and still they have decided to use it, all the while not mentioning that it has been altered. 

Thirdly, the GOP is holding this up as wasteful spending as if getting rid of it will balance the budget and show American how determined they are to set things right.  What they are not telling you is that all of the Mandatory budget items (Social Security, Medicare and Military) alone put us 1.5 trillion dollars in the hole.  The amount of money they and the democrats are arguing over is less than 5% of the total budget.  The NPR component is so small as to not be noticeable at all.'

The GOP chastises the President for picking a basketball team to win the NCAA tournament and then they put their nose to the grindstone and come up with...NPR.

This just in - Green light on bombing Libya. 

I like this for one main reason.  The U.N. Security Counsel finally voted to do something other than wag their finger.  Try this with Iran or North Korea.  "Anyone in favor of wagging a finger at North Korea and Iran....the ayes have it."  Next, ask if they want to bomb them back to the stone age and people start to fiddle with their earpiece, pretending not to have heard the question.

I'm not a fan of the violent solution.  But I am a fan of getting results.  Wagging fingers only results in tired fingers.

It would be great if the world voted that they should come to me for answers to all of the hard questions.

Then you'd see some world saving for sure.

Up, up and away...

jim