Random thoughts from a Baby Boomer
Nest Egg or Next Egg » Posts for tag 'Living in the Moment'

Good-bye Tai Shan

 I was so sorry to hear that my favorite panda bear is headed to China. Tai Shan was the first baby panda  born into captivity to survive infancy (I guess that makes him First Panda).  I followed his story and wanted so much to see the little bear in person.  When I finally visited our nation’s capitol, the National Zoo was on my list of places to see.   Tai Shan had just turned two years old when I met him one hot July afternoon and he looked so chubby and cuddly in his little fur suit but my heart went out to him.  If I was overheated in a sun dress, I can’t imagine how uncomfortable he was.  Pandas love the winter, and the snow storm that traveled through Washington this week, dumping snow on our capitol, was a fitting send off from mother nature.  Good bye and good luck little American bear, may the people in China care and love you as much as the people of these united states do.

Terrorism Stops with You and Me

The other day, I received this email titled Advice from an Israeli Agent.  When I read it, I thought this was good common sense and we, as individuals, should take more responsibility for our own personal safety.  Little did I know that the next day these words would trigger me to take action.  The day after reading this email, I was in our little post office and a man walked in with three packages, stood in line for a minute and then set his packages down on the table where I was addressing an envelop.  He asked me if I would watch his packages while he ran back to his car. 

I said, “No, I would rather not.”  He said, “You’re kidding?”  I said, “No, I am very uncomfortable watching your packages and I would appreciate it if you would take them with you.”  He said, “You’re crazy!” left the packages and walked out.  I felt myself start to panic as he left.  I picked up the packages and threw them toward the door.  I figured if I was going to die I was going to take him out too!  The people around me looked at me like I had lost my mind.  The man came back in, saw his packages on the ground and proceeded to call me some very lovely names and wish me dead at the hands of a run-away car. 

He picked up his packages and went storming out before the person in charge at the post office came out to see if she could help.  By this time, I was seriously shaking and I told her what had happened.  She got it.  Of all the people in the post office at that time, she was the only one who understood the impact of a person leaving a package unattended.  I know that everyone who witnessed that scene probably thought that I was over-reacting, but I can’t help wonder “What if?”  There was no bomb (this time) but I was proud of myself for reacting. We think things like that can’t happen in our small towns but no place is really safe anymore.  I am not ashamed of what I did and I would do it again. 

We have to acknowledge the fact that terrorism is a possible threatto all Americans. I am attaching that email in hopes that others read it and if put in a similar situation, have what it takes to react.  We need to show the terrorists that we are not lambs to the slaughter who leave our safety and security up to other people.  We need to show them that every citizen in this country is prepared to take them on.

 

Advice from an Israeli Agent

AN ABSOLUTE MUST READ !! 

Juval Aviv was the Israeli Agent upon whom the movie ’Munich’ was based. He was Golda Meir’s bodyguard, and she appointed him to track down and bring to justice the Palestinian terrorists who took the Israeli athletes hostage and killed them during the Munich Olympic Games. 
In a lecture in New York City he shared information that EVERY American needs to know — but that our government has not yet shared with us.
He predicted the London subway bombing on the Bill O’Reilly show on Fox News stating publicly that it would happen within a week. At the time, O’Reilly laughed, and mocked him saying that in a week he wanted him back on the show. Unfortunately, within a week the terrorist attack had occurred.
  Juval Aviv gave intelligence (via what he had gathered in Israel and the Middle East) to the Bush Administration about 9/11, a month before it occurred. His report specifically said they would use planes as bombs and target high profile buildings and monuments. Congress has since hired him as a security consultant.
  Now for his future predictions. He predicts the next terrorist attack on the U.S. will occur within the next few months.
 

Forget hijacking airplanes, because he says terrorists will NEVER try and hijack a plane again as they know the people onboard will never go down quietly again. Aviv believes our airport security is a joke — that we have been reactionary rather than proactive in developing strategies that are truly effective. 
For example: 
1) Our airport technology is outdated. We look for metal, and the new explosives are made of plastic. 
2) He talked about how some idiot tried to light his shoe on fire. Because of that, now everyone has to take off their shoes. A group of idiots tried to bring aboard liquid explosives. Now we can’t bring liquids on board. He says he’s waiting for some suicidal maniac to pour liquid explosive on his underwear; at which point, security will have us all traveling naked!

Every strategy we have is reactionary
3) We only focus on security when people are heading to the gates. 
Aviv says that if a terrorist attack targets airports in the future, they will target busy times on the front end of the airport when/where people are checking in. It would be easy for someone to take two suitcases of explosives, walk up to a busy check-in line, ask a person next to them to watch their bags for a minute while they run to the restroom or get a drink, and then detonate the bags BEFORE security even gets involved. In Israel, security checks bags BEFORE people can even ENTER the airport.
 

Aviv says the next terrorist attack here in America is imminent and will involve suicide bombers and non-suicide bombers in places where large groups of people congregate. (i.e., Disneyland, Las Vegas casinos, big cities (New York, San Francisco, Chicago, etc.) and that it will also include shopping malls, subways in rush hour, train stations, etc., as well as, rural America this time. The interlands (Wyoming, Montana, etc.). 
The attack will be characterized by simultaneous detonations around the country (terrorists like big impact), involving at least 5-8 cities, including rural areas. 
Aviv says terrorists won’t need to use suicide bombers in many of the larger cities, because at places like the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, they can simply valet park a car loaded with explosives and walk away.
 

Aviv says all of the above is well known in intelligence circles, but that our U. S. Government does not want to ‘alarm American citizens’ with the facts. The world is quickly going to become ‘a different place’, and issues like ‘global warming’ and political correctness will become totally irrelevant. 
On an encouraging note, he says that Americans don’t have to be concerned about being nuked. Aviv says the terrorists who want to destroy America will not use sophisticated weapons. They like to use suicide as a front-line approach. It’s cheap, it’s easy, it’s effective; and they have an infinite abundance of young militants more than willing to ‘meet their destiny’. 
 

He also says the next level of terrorists, over which America  should be most concerned, will not be coming from abroad.  But will be, instead, ‘homegrown’, having attended and been educated in our own schools and universities right here in the U.S. He says to look for ’students’ who frequently travel back and forth to the  Middle East. These young terrorists will be most dangerous because they will know our language and will fully understand the habits of Americans; but that we Americans won’t know/understand a thing about them. 
Aviv says that, as a people, Americans are unaware and uneducated about the terrorist threats we will inevitably face.  America still has only a handful of Arabic and Farsi speaking people in our intelligence networks, and Aviv says it is critical that we change that fact SOON.
 

So, what can America do to protect itself? From an intelligence perspective, Aviv says the U.S. needs to stop relying on satellites and technology for intelligence. We need to, instead, follow Israel’s, Ireland’s and England’s hands-on examples of human intelligence, both from an infiltration perspective as well as to pay attention to, and trust ‘aware’ citizens to help. We need to engage and educate ourselves as citizens; however, our U. S. government continues to treat us, its citizens, ‘like babies’. Our government thinks we ‘can’t handle the truth’ and are concerned that we’ll panic if we understand the realities of terrorism. Aviv says this is a deadly mistake. 
Aviv recently created/executed a security test for our Congress, by placing an empty briefcase in five well-traveled spots in five major cities. The results? Not one person called 911 or sought a policeman to check it out. In fact, in Chicago, someone tried to steal the briefcase!
  In comparison, Aviv says that citizens of Israel are so well ’trained’ that an unattended bag or package would be reported in seconds by citizen(s) who know to publicly shout, ’Unattended Bag!’ The area would be quickly & calmly cleared by the citizens themselves.
  Unfortunately, America  hasn’t been yet ‘hurt enough’ by terrorism for their government to fully understand the need to educate its citizens or for the government to understand that it’s their citizens who are, inevitably, the best first-line of defense against terrorism.
  Aviv also was concerned about the high number of children here in America who were in preschool and kindergarten after 9/11, who were ‘lost’ without parents being able to pick them up, and about our schools that had no plan in place to best care for the students until parents could get there. (In New York City, this was days, in some cases!)
 

He stresses the importance of having a plan, that’s agreed upon within your family, of how to respond in the event of a terrorist emergency. He urges parents to contact their children’s schools and demand that the schools too, develop plans of actions, just as they do in Israel. 
Does your family know what to do if you can’t contact one another by phone? Where would you gather in an emergency? He says we should all have a plan that is easy enough for even our youngest children to remember and follow. 
Aviv says that the U. S. government has in force a plan, that in the event of another terrorist

attack, EVERYONE’s ability to use cell phones, blackberries, etc., will immediately be cut-off, as this is the preferred communication source used by terrorists and is often the way that their bombs are detonated. 
How will you communicate with your loved ones in the event you cannot speak to each other? You need to have a plan.
  If you understand, and believe what you have just read, then you must feel compelled to send this to every concerned parent, guardian, grandparents, uncles, aunts, whomever. Don’t stop there. In addition to sharing this via e-mail, contact and discuss this information with whomever it makes sense to. Make contingency plans with those you care about. Better that you have plans in place, and never have to use them, then to have no plans in place, and find you needed them.
  If you choose not to share this, or not to have a plan in place, and nothing ever occurs – good for you! However, in the event  something does happen, and even moreso, if it directly affects your loved ones, then this e-mail will haunt you forever.
 
 
 

 

Two Ways to Age

In my goal to be totally organized before the year’s end, I spent this morning sorting through old photographs; reminiscing over some and baffled by others. What caught my eye for the first time however, are the pictures of my grandmother.   When I was a child, I never thought of her as being old and yet, every picture I have of her is of a shriveled up little white-haired woman. I remember her as a hard-working, farmer’s wife; one who always had time to tell me stories or let me help her gather eggs from the chicken coop.  My memories are not of how she looked, but of the way she treated me and the time she spent with me. They are good memories with the “world’s best grandma” and I treasure them.   I think of her in comparison with some of the elderly women I know now.  This made me realize that there are two types of elderly people: old ones who live their age, and gently-aging citizens who really enjoy life.   Read more »

Give Time a Purpose

The season of giving, getting and exchanging are finally behind us.  Now we look toward the new year and the thought of making resolutions. Angeline Jolie want to adopt the Vienna Boys Choir And President Bush wants to take the Karaoke machine back to Texas.But what about you, what do you resolve to do?  Will it be a new diet?  An attempt to live healthier?  Perhaps the goal to live inside a budget.  I know that I have tried all of these and more and these are all great resolutions, but what about making a resolution this year dealing with your time.  I don’t mean managing time more effectively.  I mean spending the time we are given in a more joyous way. Think about it, are you happy with how you spend your time? Do you make commitments that you don’t want to honor?  Do you waste time procrastinating or dreaming about what if?  Do you waste time waiting for the right time to happen? Everyday we are gifted with just 24 hours. It is up to us to decide how to use that time. Of course, we need to eat regularly. And we do require an appropriate number of hours of sleep, and then there are always the things that have to be done.  But is there something more purposeful you would like to include in your daily or weekend routine that you don’t feel you  have the time for?  Maybe this year is the year to rethink how you are spending your time?  Read more »

Paulson Uses the “R” Word

Well, it’s official.  According to  MSNBC the U.S. economy began the fall into recession back in December of 2007, just about a year ago.  The National Bureau of Economic Research panel, made up of academic economists, finally declared what most private economists, lawmakers, business people and common everyday folks already knew.  At least, I have know this for quite some time and that’s why it boggled my mind why all of a sudden it made the news.  Anyone who has been the least bit attentive is aware that  unemployment has been on the rise and the stock market has been on the decline, major financial institutions are crumbling under the weight of bad debt and, in my mind, the biggest indicators of all: cars aren’t selling and people are using their credit cards less.  Despite the fact that President Bush is not ready to acknowledge that this isn’t a full-blown recession yet, Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson finally agreed and actually used the “R” word Monday.  This is really an omen that things are bad. Read more »

Top of page / Subscribe to new Entries (RSS)

This blog contributes to the web with Nofollow Reciprocity.