Last week I did it again. I watched the movie after reading the book. The Men’s book club chose Ender’s Game as the month’s selection. I had never heard of it, but what the heck why not? It is science fiction and I am in the throes of writing a book which is fantasy, science fiction, so I thought it might be a great read. As always I began with the Introduction. The copy of the book I had is a new edition, and the author added an introduction. I suffered through it, and thought if this is what the rest of the book is like I am in deep trouble. Thankfully, it was not. The author had me hooked within a few pages, and I couldn’t put it down.
Ender’s Game takes place one hundred and fifty years from now. An alien civilization attacks Earth, and nearly wins had it not been for a courageous warrior who saves the planet. To avoid another attack, Earth’s rulers search for another commander who can take out the aliens in the future. They do so by monitoring little kids from age three on. By the time they are six, Big Brother has an idea of what characteristics the kid will have. Ender is one of those kids. At age six and a half he is taken from his family to go to Battle School. The school is a huge ship in orbit around Earth. Educators teach the tactics of war as a game. To cut this story short, Ender is in command of the entire army by the time he is eleven. The school put him through a relentless grind of battle after battle with little time between, and Ender continues to come up with winning strategies.
I described this scenario to my son and he told me that there is a movie of this story. I found it in the library and thought I would really enjoy it. Although, the movie is well done, the story is way too big to tell effectively in two hours. The author Orson Scott Card wrote the screen play so his story would be told accurately, but he had to cut so much the movie lacked. The visual effects were as good as those in Star Wars, and the action scenes were exciting, but it left me wanting more of what I read. This is one case where reading the book is the better choice over watching the movie. Both stories are good, but I preferred the book version over the film.
During the course of my years on Earth I have seen many war movies. Beginning with WWII to Korea to Viet Nam, To Iraq, to Afghanistan, and some I have forgotten. Many of the WWII films were rah-rah propaganda movies that formed my opinion about the Germans and the Japanese. Nevertheless, John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Rory Calhoun, all became super heroes in my mind. Today, I saw American Sniper and cried. In December I watched a short promo clip on the movie and decided this is one I had to see. My intuition was correct. I am glad I saw the film. The story is true and chronicles a true American from Texas. Raised in the country by strict parents who taught their sons not to start trouble, but if they were in trouble, or if one theirs was in trouble to come to their defense, and to end it. Kyle watched the twin towers fall after radical Islamists flew commercial airliners into the building. The incident caused him to serve his country, the rest is history.
It was easy to understand why this film has six nominations for Academy Awards including best picture of the year. It is easy to understand why the Academy nominated Bradley Cooper for best actor. I’ve seen Cooper in a couple of films, and each time I liked the way he played his character. In American Sniper he plays the role of Chris Kyle believably. To me if an actor can make me believe he is the character in the story he has succeeded in his craft. Cooper does so expertly. He also had to gain a lot of weight and muscle to look like a Navy Seal. He did that too.
His story is not all peaches and cream. Kyle’s drive to protect his fellow Marines from harm comes with a price to his own psyche. It became very clear that he progressively changed with each of his four tours of deployment. I give the VA doctor who finally out-physched him by suggesting that there are plenty of vets at home that he can protect. The Doctor convinced him to use his energy to help fellow veterans disabled with PTSD. Kyle threw himself into the effort and that is what finally caused his death.
The Marines used Kyle as a sniper, and he was very good at it. However, Kyle did not think sniping saved enough people and he also served to conduct ground missions to clear the enemy from local hiding places. He was a well-rounded soldier.
There have been several people who made themselves news worthy by jumping on the Kyle story for their own benefit. It is my opinion that these people should lose their citizenship in the USA and be given one way tickets to live with the enemy in ISIS held territories. Who are these People?
2. Michael Moore, Documentary film producer and over eater made derogatory comments about Kyle. Still upset over his uncle being killed by a sniper during WWII, Moore resents making snipers into heroes. I have news for you Mr. Moore, a sniper is a weapon just like a hand grenade, or a bomb. The military uses the most effective weapon to get the job done. Kyle was acting out his orders. Oh Sure he could have turned down the assignment and been court martialed, but why even join the military if you refuse assignments.?
3. Seth Rogan, coward extraordinary who proudly made a movie about assassinating North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and then went into hiding when North Korea hacked Sony Corp computers. In response, Sony took the movie off the market because of fear of retribution from North Korea. Rogan compared American Sniper to Nazi propaganda.
4. Howard Dean, former Doctor, Governor of Vermont, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and a failed candidate for President. Is an outspoken Socialist who is so far left in his thinking he cannot understand another point of view like Conservatism. He invoked a lot of furor when he said the following:
He was referring to Tea Party people when he said there is a lot of anger in this country. I agree with him, but the anger came after his comment not before.
American Sniper is a biography, a historical perspective, a documentary on the effect of war on the soldier, and his family, and an anti-war film all rolled up in the story of one man’s life.
We should all be proud of men like Chris Kyle who lived to protect us.
Wow! I struck gold today. Two gift videos from friends who thought enough to share some great feelings. This one is from Mike, a Lion friend. Sainsbury, an English company produced this video. The sentiment in the story is one which we should all feel and share. Wouldn’t the world be a better place if the two sides of any issue would deal with a solution like the fellows in this movie. Enjoy.
Who knew what the unintended outcome would be when President Richard Nixon visited China in the nineteen seventies. Originally, he went there on a goodwill mission, and because China, with its population of over one billion, represented an enormous opportunity for trade. Nixon’s two legacies are his visit to China and the Watergate Scandal. U.S. businesses flocked to China after that visit. He opened the door for trade. The first unintended consequence of his successful trip became the export of every major U.S. manufacturing job. The U.S.A. went from being the manufacturing center of the world to the importers of U.S. designed products manufactured in China. The company I worked for was no different, although they did hold off until the end of the migration. Our first step into the Chinese market was through Singapore, and ultimately into China.
China is thirsty for jobs and they take anything we send them. Their people are hungry and work for minimal wages. Anything over a dollar a day was a big buck job for them. U.S. companies saw the labor cost as a distinct advantage. At home our people demanded ten, fifteen, twenty dollars an hour. Our workers saw that wage difference not as a way for an U.S. company to make a profit, but rather as a theft of their own livelihood. American workers were comfortable with high wage mundane jobs. They could not see the wisdom of re-educating themselves to become marketable in another industry. Those who did see the light did stay employed. The final outcome is that the U.S.A. still struggles with how to create jobs for its people.
The most recent unintended consequence of Nixon’s visit is what I call a Chinese invasion of the U.S. mainland. The amazing thing is that they have done it without a single military brigade, or firing a single shot. They did it with a bug.
The Emerald Ash Borer
Since 2002, when Naturalists discovered the Emerald Ash Borer in Michigan forests, the invasion is proceeding across the country. The borer count is fifteen states and spreading. The cost of the bug in dead tree removal will come to billions of dollars. Estimates for the Ash tree population in the U.S.A. hover at around two billion trees. The latest dead-tree count is in the hundreds of thousands, and there is no plan for how to stop the incursion. There are a few University mitigation methods, but they are costly and do not carry a high success rate.
The reason for this high cost and mortality rate is because there are no known predators for the Emerald Ash Borer. No bird, no predator insect, no pathogen exists today.
So how did the Chinese pull off this highly successful invasion? One theory is that the bug entered the country via some ash boards used to stabilize loads on container ships. Once out of the wood in North America the borer went to town breeding and eating. Some say they also came inside wooden pallets which ship around the country. Whatever the reason, the borer is costing us a fortune in beautiful trees.
On my walk this morning, I counted the number of affected trees in a 500 foot stretch. We in Frankfort are proud of our old tree stands, and of the many neighborhoods with tree-lined streets. The neighborhood I live in now is twenty years old and the trees planted at that time are just beginning to give real shade and a lovely appearance. I counted nine affected ash trees in that 500 foot stretch.
The Village of Frankfort’s plan is to cut down these trees and to replant them with saplings of different species that are resistant to the borer. So far, my street not seen the axe, but it will be near me sooner than I wish.
Coincidentally, I noticed a very tall and dead Cottonwood tree at the back of my property which will cross the roof of my house if it happens to fall over in the direction it is leaning. Most trees do fall that way. I had an Arborist confirm its status and give me an estimate for removal. I’m still in sticker shock, the estimate is $1300.
Let us just say that it will cost $500 to remove each dead ash tree in America. The money spent is staggering. ($500 x 1 billion trees = $500 billion) That is a lot of money to clean up the devastation caused by a tiny bug. Add to that the cost of buying and replacing the dead ash trees with new saplings and another 15o billion dollars gets added for a total of 650 billions dollars. And we are upset because the Iraq and Afghanistan wars cost us a trillion dollars. This one bug will cost us more than half of that.
What is sad is that the Chinese haven’t fired a single bullet, or lost a single soldier in this one-sided war. The Pentagon should learn from this. What kind of bug can we export to the mid-east to cost them a fortune to exterminate?
This article is reposted from the Weasel Zippers website:
We embrace heroes in America. Senior Airman Brian Kolfage defines hero: the triple-amputee veteran of the Iraqi War overcame insurmountable odds to survive his horrific injuries. Kolfage recently sent a powerful – and damning – letter to his commander-in-chief:
“I nearly died in a war that you and most of your colleagues supported overwhelmingly, including the two presidents who came before you. Many citizens may not agree with waging war in Iraq to free the oppressed Iraqi citizens, but it’s something that warriors like myself have zero control over. I joined to serve my country and to better my life. I’ve seen things that you could never imagine, and they have made me the person I am today. . . .”
