NORTH KOREA THREATENS USA

NORTH KOREA THREATENS USA, a photo by roberthuffstutter on Flickr.

General MacArthur wanted to neutralize the evil that lurked north of the 38th parallel. Unfortunately, President Truman called the 5-Star General home and relieved him of duty. Look at the difference between COMMUNISM and DEMOCRACY today--look at South Korea and look at North Korea. This is a lesson in freedom and democracy I hope is taught in our schools today. RLH

Imagine what would have happened in Korea if the United States had not stopped the spread of Communism. It should be apparent to all rational and intelligent people of all political persuasions and nationalities what Korea would be today if the United States had not entered the combat and stopped the crimes from spreading south of the 38th parallel. It should be evident what Korea would be today if the United States had left the future of Korea to fate. Take a look at North Korea and the evidence is clearly visible of what happens when selfish, power-hungry men and their compatriots want to rule with an iron hand of socialism. RLH

HISTORY OF KOREA WIKIPEDIA: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War





Pacific Kilroy (6 hours ago)


Good point! I tried teaching the difference when I was in public education. I hope I succeeded with some; unfortunately, most are too stupid to find their butt with both hands, and their parents back them up. I also contrasted East and West Germany, Western and Eastern Europe, and Taiwan and China.

Do you want to know something scary/funny but true?

Most kids these days hear about our two political parties, Republican and Democrat, and they are so poorly informed that all they can do is associate the name "Democrat" with democracy. They have been taught that democracy is good and is our form of political system. They then want to support the Democrat party because they truly believe Democrats support democracy. The obvious (to them) reverse is true that Republicans, being against Democrats, must not support democracy which means they are the bad guys. I kid you not - as a public educator in social studies for 20 years!!
THEY CANNOT THINK FOR THEMSELVES, and many of their teachers are just as ignorant. I was always amazed, as a teacher, at how stupid some of my colleagues were!

I used to spend a LOT of time trying to de-program their minds and trying to teach them that FIRST: We are not a democracy but a Republic and that a TRUE democracy can hardly exist. I then make them learn about the Delian League of ancient Greece to see how democracy breaks down into chaos and socialism / Oligarchy. SECOND: The names of the political parties are just names and do not necessarily reflect the political opinions or views that some people might attribute to them.
I then introduced them to Aristotle's political cycle that was augmented (perfected) by Polybius and had them see how the only truly stable government that supported liberty was a conglomeration of forms (checks and balances) that was seen in the Roman Republic and which was reborn in our own Constitution. With a group of halfway bright 14-year-olds, I can have them comprehending this and being truly enthusiastic about our Constitution and personal liberties.

But alas - I am but one teacher who was driven out because he expected too much of his students and refused to compromise when Johnny wouldn't even TRY to read. I was tired of dumbing down our system so that the apathetic idiots could get an A and the smart kids could get perfect scores while asleep. High scores mean that the principals and superintendents get pay bonuses, so which side do you think THEY support?! IT'S ALL ABOUT THE NUMBERS AND THE MONEY! My expression was that "They are pulling an Enron." ...falsifying what was really happening in order to get more people to invest in what is NOT really working. The administrators are the corporate executives who walk away rich - the kids and society are the investors who lose everything.

Result: We have a majority - albeit small - that continue to vote for Obama and his Democrat friends who would erode our freedoms to become like North Korea. Students who were never taught that voting "Democrat" does not mean voting for democracy and their parents, who also know no better, who would sacrifice freedom for the false sense of security that the government will help them or do something for them.
Some, like our president, know exactly what they are doing to this country, but I am convinced that the vast majority, upon whose shoulders he rose to power, are simply too ignorant to understand that they are daily losing their freedoms and doing so at their own bequest.





roberthuffstutter (5 hours ago)




You are an excellent writer.One of the best works I have read explaining why the Democrats have taken the lead politically. Your words perfectly describe how the educators have robbed our youth of the truth.

Perhaps it is by a lack of qualified teachers, but I believe much of this anti-Republican mindset is designed by teachers who have an organized agenda promoting Socialism.

There was a time when the majority of the educators were either part of the "greatest generation" or their immediate offspring. Today, few teachers remember the hardships of WWII or the joys of growing up in the 50s and 60s, eras of very little government interference or impromteau rules and regulations.





Pacific Kilroy (2 hours ago | reply | delete)


Thanks for the accolades. From my own perspective, you are right. There are many teachers out there who are not qualified. But you are also right in your assumption that there is a general trend among educators who seem to promote Socialism. I will not venture to guess why that is the case at this time other than to speculate on a decay of values and education in the home and the lack of a life lesson or trial by fire.

My reason for that statement is this: I am a son of a WWII veteran and a Great Depression child. My parents constantly talked to me and taught me about our own, American, culture and filled me with the pride of being an American. We were poor. I remember being laughed at because I wore homemade shirts to school. I remember being a little excited when we actually had meat with dinner. When I went to college, I had professors that tried to fill me with their hateful attitudes that derided and ridiculed all that is good about America. Because of the foundation my parents had given me, I was able to hear the professors and approach their philosophies with an open mind, therefore, admitting that not everything about this country is perfect and pure. However, I was also well trained enough and knowledgeable enough and had enough common sense to see a bigger picture than the one they were forcing upon the class. I was able to listen respectfully, respond in a way that did not displease the instructor, yet maintain my own beliefs.
Too many young people these days have no beliefs at all. They are not properly parented, in part, because both parents are trying to earn enough money to buy all that happiness that they have been lied to about by the "undercurrent" of our society. So they are complete voids and tend to believe whatever relatively intelligent sounding individual happens to get to them first.

Many teachers in public and private settings are essentially intellectual snobs who have never really DONE anything. Their minds are full of theorems and formulas, but they have no real social experiences with which to "fill in" the blanks. Our teachers of the past were, as you say, part of the Greatest Generation who had real struggles to conquer and whose perseverance caused them to grow in WISDOM as well as knowledge.

Today, we have developed into an instant gratification society where everyone wants to have everything...without a struggle.

The other problem (that really gets my blood boiling) is that we, as a society, no longer value social studies. From the time I was in THIRD GRADE, I can remember people talking about how far behind American kids were compared to other industrialized countries. The reaction: every few years there is a huge push among educators to promote math and science. I have no problem with that, since I have ACTUALLY SEEN students get out a calculator to subtract 2 from 2 (not a joke!). But what I DO have a problem with is the fact that we constantly sacrifice knowledge in social studies for our efforts to improve our industrialized society. In my state, social studies is usually taught by a coach who cares more about his off-season weight lifting program than what his students are or are not learning. But that is sufficient because state standards are so low that kids who can barely write their names SOMEHOW manage to pass a standardized test. The result is that these kids go on to college - where they decide to be coaches but realize they also have to teach something...so they pick the subject they remember as being the easiest - social studies - and become a coach and teacher who perpetuates the problem. Without a firm foundation and knowledge of who we are as a people, how can we possibly develop into an even better society?
Kids these days don't know about the Bataan Death March, for example. I once conducted my own survey of sorts and found that less than 10% of my high school's students ever heard of it, and most associated it with Hitler and the Nazis. I once picked up a history book and turned to the unit on World War II. It had the entire Pacific Theater of the war condensed to one page, BUT it had an entire CHAPTER on Jesse Owens at the Berlin Olympics...as part of World War II!!!

It is frustrating to see that we have already slipped so far that people are ignorant enough of their own culture and freedoms to literally cheer as those liberties are vanquished.





roberthuffstutter (a moment ago)




Your last sentence says it ALL--in my opinion.

"It is frustrating to see that we have already slipped so far that people are ignorant enough of their own culture and freedoms to literally cheer as those liberties are vanquished."

A SHORT STORY: "LET'S GO TO CHINATOWN FOR A FEW DRINKS"

A SHORT STORY: "LET'S GO TO CHINATOWN FOR A FEW DRINKS", a photo by roberthuffstutter on Flickr.

MANHATTAN BEACH PIER 1959

MANHATTAN BEACH PIER 1959, a photo by roberthuffstutter on Flickr.

MANHATTAN BEACH PIER 1959


I SHOT THIS PHOTO THE FIRST DAY I SAW THE PACIFIC OCEAN, IN JULY OF 1959. MANHATTAN BEACH, CALIFORNIA. IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL DAY. CHECK OUT MY ONLINE JOURNAL WHEN YOU HAVE TIME, BEACHFRONT PAINTINGShttp://beachfrontpaintings.blogspot.com/

Butterfly

Butterfly, a photo by Ankur Paliwal | f o t o g r a f i a on Flickr.

PHOTOGRAPH BY ANKUR PALIWAL

You have captured one of the favorite butterflies whose flights fascinate our minds and imagination. Here, a magnificent Monarch pollinates while energizing its delicate organs and readys for a flight to adventure. RLH
_____________________________________
Butterfly by Ankur Paliwal | f o t o g r a f i a

266 Club Street, Singapore

266 Club Street, Singapore, a photo by tilen-artplanet 2 on Flickr.

To be able to travel the world slowly and paint street scenes that describes the heart of such cities as Singapore would be a dream come true. Planning, however, rather than dreaming, makes reality a truth. My congratulations to the artist. TILEN-ARTPLANET 2 is an artist whose work in watercolors is admired by thousands of people worldwide.The artist's work is available to the public. Visit the photostream for more detailed information.

Fantasy Mountains

Fantasy Mountains, a photo by missduffy59 on Flickr.

If I could still climb mountains high,
these are peaks I would seek
to ascend, not knowing
they were dreams
about ice-cream
and sherberts.

Watercolor poetry by RLH
Dedicated to Miss Duffy, a Flickr Friend and Artist
_____________________________________
Fantasy Mountains by missduffy59

'Smoking room, SS Skerryvore' (1902)

'Smoking room, SS Skerryvore' (1902), a photo by University of Glasgow Library on Flickr.

Ernest Arthur Binstead was a keen amateur artist who produced beautiful pencil drawings and watercolour sketches of the activities that went on around him during the first years of the twentieth century. During 2008, his niece, Miss Lee, donated two of his sketchbooks to Glasgow University Archive Services for permanent preservation. This set contains digitised images of each of the sketches in the first sketchbooks.

The first sketchbook includes sketches made between 1898 and 1908. The majority of the sketches, however, were made during Mr Binstead’s journey on the SS Garmoyle from Glasgow to the Isle of Dogs during April 1901. These sketches highlight both life on the ship and the sights viewed during the journey.

The second sketchbook features scenes around Dover and Folkestone in the summer of 1908. There are a variety of sketches, mostly watercolours, vessels at anchor in and around the harbours, and of locales around the cliffs.

Mr Binstead was born in 1863, the second son of Charles Henry Binstead and Elizabeth Bailey. Having spent his childhood in Grasmere in the Lake District where his father worked as a land and mineral surveyor, he trained as a solicitor. In 1915, Arthur married Mary Openshaw, the novelist, in Hastings and went on to spend the majority of his adult life in London.

For more information about this sketchbook please contact the Duty Archivist at Glasgow University Archive Services:

www.gla.ac.uk/services/archives/contactu s/

'Smoking room, SS Skerryvore'... by University of Glasgow Library

GEDC0973

GEDC0973, a photo by mr_nihei on Flickr.

Birds of this feather I have not seen for more than 50 years if these birds are seen only in Japan.

They look unique and fit into the scene and scheme of the city quite well.

This is a photo I like quite well, the red train speeding to or from the city's center, the river, the nine birds of a feather enjoying their small space beside the Tama River.

It took a photographer of note to notice such a scene that would pass most people by with never so much as a glance.

In this image is preserved a moment in time faraway from where I am, but a place where I have been, a joy to remember. It is a scene I want to see again someday soon. RLH