"Billy Rose" wrote in message
...

It is strange that while technology flourishes and grows, human spirit
seems to be returning to the "Middle Ages" and it's reptilian mind. That
period when Mediterranean culture lost a thousand years of development,
from the fall of Rome in 500 AD to the "Renaissance" in 1500 AD, and
only rediscovered it in Arab translations of the Roman and Greek
originals. Not that the Arabs didn't contribute with what is now our
numbering system, including the concept of zero, the distillation
process, troubadours, and the idea of romantic love, to name a few.
Reminds me of the Bob Zimmerman lyric about Manhattan where buildings go
up to the sky and people go down into the ground.

I'm sure countless civilizations and societies have come and gone, all
the while believing they are the epitome of what has gone before and will
last forever. Yet, they are gone, and we will go, and it will start all over
again. We are capable of much ingenuity, but are still barely out of the
caves as a species.
All I can hope is that in this time period, we won't damage the planet
irreparably so that it can continue.

The site: http://takeitpersonally.blogspot.com/ has me back in the
mainstream again. The Smedley book is a good read and only 80 pages
long. Listen up "jar-heads", he was a Marine General. Ain't no BS here.
Semper fi.

Yeah, looks like ol' Prescott's plan is back on the table. They wanted
Gen. Smedley to be their front-man but he blew the whistle on them
instead. Gen. Smedley spoke in favor of an early payment of a bonus that
the veterans of WWI had been promised to them (this was in 1932). His
support endeared him to all soldiers. Then Hoover set the dogs (Gen.
McArthur and Gen. Patton and their troops on the encampment. You find
honest men in the strangest places. Of course no good deed goes
unpunished as Gen. Smedley quickly discovered.