Veterans Day - 2009

Imagine a time when it all began
In the dying days of a war
A weapon that would settle the score
Whoever found it first would be sure to do their worst
They always had before...

(Song Lyrics” RUSH: Manhattan Project - Power Windows, 1985)

At the south end of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum’s Park is a giant flowing water fountain. This Fountain of Peace was created four decades ago in 1969 in order to give prayer to all of the people who perished in the second Atom Bomb dropping while vainly searching for water. At the base of the fountain is a black stone plaque with Lines from a poem carved into it. They were written by a girl named Sachiko Yamaguchi, who was nine at the time of the bombing,

It reads:
"I was thirsty beyond endurance. There was something oily on the surface of the water, but I wanted water so badly that I drank it just as it was."

Nagasaki Atom Bomb Park Photos

The New Regime
And thus we American’s celebrate our first Veteran’s Day under the guise of new leadership, as President Barack Obama follows in the nebulous footsteps of George W. Bush, as although we haven’t dropped any Atomic Bombs to date(?) Nevertheless Obama continues Bush’s legacy by continuing to fight two LOSING Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, while preparing to increase the numbers of troops being sent to fight these USELESS Occupations!

And while I prefer to post my traditional Veteran’s Day’s thoughts which first began in my story Time Stands Still, this year I’m changing tact slightly, as something has been sticking in my craw ever since listening to the STUPID debate on Speed Freaks….

Spindrift
As sun goes down

On the western shore

The wind blows hard from the east

It whips the sand into a flying spindrift

As the sun goes down

On the western shore

It makes me feel uneasy

In the hot dry rasp of the devil winds

Who cares what a fool believes

(And) What am I supposed to say?

(Song Lyrics” RUSH; Spindrift – Snakes & Arrows; 2008)

So the debate in question on Speed Freaks revolved around whether or not Middle East money should be allowed to flow into the NHRA (National Hot Rod Association) and dare (I say it?) to potentially work its way into RASSCAR?

MidEast beyond Cleveland

As this “Hot Button” topic was centered around the fact that Larry Dixon currently drives for Alan Abi Racing in the NHRA’s Top fuel division, while another “Rail Jockey” Hillary Will ran Bahrain sponsorship on the side of her Top Fueler previously…

This comes on top of the current speculation that George Gillett is planning to sell a minority stake in Richard Petty Motorsports (RPM) to Saudi Prince Faisal bin Fahd bin Abdullah al-Saud as part of a package including Ownership in Gillett’s Liverpool Football Club; while reportedly the deal could include running a Richard Petty Driving Experience program at a NASCAR style venue yet to be built in the Desert.

And now speculation suggest that Bruton Smith of Speedway Motorsports Inc. (SMI) is pursuing an alliance with the Emir of Qatar, Sheik Hamad Bin Khalifa al-Thani regarding a massive Motorsports complex similar to SMI’s “Los Wage$” (Las Vegas) 1300 acre site, as Bruton claims a design is already completed and is separate to any of Gillett’s proposed racing venues, in which he hopes to have up to 14 NASCAR-style facilities operating in the future.

Thus business is truly open in the Gulf; along with the black tar spickets being open, the region is now diversifying into Motorsports with the just completed running of the Inaugural Abu Dabi Grand Prix, along with the Bahrain GP (both Formula 1 events) plus the annual MOTO GP night race held in Qatar.

And yet while some RASSCARHEADS are blathering’ on ‘bout how we cannot have ‘dem Saudi’s in our be-LUV-ed Roundy round series, (DAMN! Weeze alreadys gots ‘dem darn Toy-Yoter’s, yuhs here?) As they shouldn’t be allowed to cherry pick the best NHRA Teams and simply buy their way into motor racing…

Yet perhaps current racing teams wouldn’t be force to look outside the box for new financial backers (money streams) if Obama hadn’t just signed a $680 BILLION Pentagon budget into law in order to keep the United States entangled in two utterly USELESS conflicts, eh? As this is just a one year budget for Military spending which doesn’t include the countless Billions approved to fund the Occupations, nor the extra $44b given to Homeland Security, and these are just the reported “Black” budgets; SHEISA!

Since it’s reported that the cost of having just One Soldier for One year in Afghanistan could pay for twenty schools to be built there; so what are we fighting for?

Veterans Day - 2008

Imagine a time when it all began
In the dying days of a war
A weapon that would settle the score
Whoever found it first would be sure to do their worst
They always had before...

(Lyrics” RUSH; Manhattan Project, Power Windows, 1985)

Time Stands Still (2008)
Nagasaki photographs

Although I try to refrain from the topic of mainstream politics, I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’ve been voicing my opinions a little bit lately, and I’m quite happy that this will be the final Veteran’s Day under the Bush regime...

Thus, it’s hard to believe that it’s already been one year since I had those most appalling thoughts while sightseeing in Japan, now having been to both World War II Atomic Bomb sites; Hiroshima, 2004 and Nagasaki, 2007. Obviously both sites are different, yet both were civilian targets with Hiroshima being a larger city than Nagasaki. Actually Nagasaki wasn’t the primary target on that fateful day, it was a back-up target picked when Kokura was blanketed by dense clouds, obscuring the city.

With Boxcar, the second B-29 bomber assigned to carry a nuclear bomb, being low on fuel and making only one pass over the target before dropping its lethal cargo at 11:02AM. As the bomb detonated above an unsuspecting tennis court...

Thus, I suppose it’s ironic, that the Hanford Nuclear facility, here in the state of Washington, which was built in 1943 specifically for the Manhattan Project was responsible for producing the very plutonium needed for the “Fat Man” bomb...After driving from Sasebo to Nagasaki, Tanja, Albin & I hopped aboard a Tram (Street Car) and rode to a nearby Atom Bomb museum stop. The museum is of an interesting design, as we walked down a continuously spiraling carpeted walkway, into the bowels of the museum. There are several artifacts on display, beginning with pictures of the city prior to the blast. There’s a picture of an entire city street, a school, temple, farming, horses, etc. Then there’s the clock with its hands frozen at 11:02AM, retrieved from a house approx. 3 kilometers from the blast. There are several items of glass & metal that are either twisted, bent or fused together from the bomb’s massive heat. There’s even a piece of roofing you can touch, which shows the affects of the intense temperature afflicted on the ceramic tile. There’s a single wall left of the church that was destroyed in the holocaust, as well as a counterpart of the horrific plutonium core bomb of the original “Fat Man” weapon used on Nagasaki. It’s gigantic and I think it weighed 4,000 tons. Reports differ over the total effects of the atomic wasteland, as Nagasaki like Hiroshima three days earlier was pulverized. And although it was known that the bombing could instantly kill everyone within a 4 kilometer radius, the then unknown effects of radiation were not understood. As countless scores of people simply died in other towns listed as; Dying, causes other than Atomic bombing… There are several gruesome pictures of dead bodies and injured people, as Nagasaki’s population was approx. 240,000 at the impact of Fat Man. Imagine in just 30 seconds, the bombs horrifically radiant heat killed over one-fourth of the population. Another one-fourth was injured along with countless thousands left homeless! Blast damage occurred as far away as 15 kilometers, with shrapnel flying as far as 8 kilometers. The city was leveled 2.6 miles approx. (radius) with anything black catching fire up to 4 kilometers away. As all of the telephone poles left standing were charred on the side facing the blast! On display, a section of wall recovered is quite intriguing. It too was also 4 kilometers away from the blast. Yet the bombs flash and heat was so bright and hot that it fused a man’s shadow and piece of leather into the wall! There’s also the shadow of a picket fence on the wall along with the image of leaves fused into a piece of wood… Various exhibits with time lines of the history of the Manhattan Project are interspersed with other related events. There’s current day Atomic statistics, like every Nations projected nuclear arsenal with Russia listed at 16,000 weapons followed by the US at 10,000. And there’s a display listing every Nations atmospheric and underground Atom bomb tests since WWII. Yet the most chilling display to me was the current day Nuclear weapons facilities, since this included Hanford, WA. I suppose why it sent a chill up my back was because it was the only video playing in English, as person after person discussed the devastating health effects of the “Down-winders.” Ranging from damaged Thyroid’s, cancer and multiple birth defects! (40+ years after being built) Which the U.S. Government is still denying, although supposedly it has now actually admitted that it did indeed release “Mega” amounts of radioactive toxins into the surrounding environment, as Hanford is now the nation’s WORST Nuclear site, containing 53,000,000 gallons of radioactive waste; the nation’s largest amount!

Hanford was responsible for producing the majority of plutonium utilized for our nation’s 60,000+ nuclear weapons, before being decommissioned at the end of the cold war and is currently the nation’s largest toxic waste Super-fund clean-up project...Next we walked to the adjoining Peace Park, which features an elaborate display at Ground Zero, with the grass lawn being interspersed with concrete rings leading inwards to the huge 10 meter tall peace statue adorned by a black marble vault containing the names of the atomic bomb victims and survivors who died in subsequent years. A plaque gives the following statistics:

Dead: 73,884 Injured: 74,909 Sufferers: 120,820 Houses burned down: 11,574 Houses half-ruined, 5,509 Houses partly damaged 50,000
At the south end of the park is a giant flowing water fountain. This Fountain of Peace was created in 1969 giving prayer to all of the people who perished in the bombing while vainly searching for water. At the base of the fountain is a black stone plaque with Lines from a poem carved into it. They were written by a girl named Sachiko Yamaguchi, who was nine at the time of the bombing, It reads:
"I was thirsty beyond endurance. There was something oily on the surface of the water, but I wanted water so badly that I drank it just as it was."

Hiroshima-Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Exhibit (2000)

Time Stands Still

Imagine a time when it all began

In the dying days of a war

A weapon that would settle the score

Whoever found it first would be sure to do their worst

They always had before...

RUSH; Manhattan Project (Power Windows, 1985)

Although I traditionally refrain from the topic of politics, I simply cannot avoid the most appalling thoughts I had while sightseeing in Japan recently. You see I’ve now been to both WWII Atomic Bomb sites; Hiroshima, 2004 and Nagasaki, 2007.

Obviously both sites are different, yet both were civilian targets with Hiroshima being a larger city than Nagasaki. Actually Nagasaki wasn’t the primary target on that fateful day, it was a back-up target picked when Kokura was blanketed by dense clouds, obscuring the city.

Boxcar, the second B-29 bomber assigned to carry a nuclear bomb, was low on fuel, making only one pass over the target before dropping its lethal cargo at 11:02AM. As the bomb detonated above a tennis court…

After driving from Sasebo to Nagasaki, Tanja, Albin & I hopped aboard a Tram (Street Car) and rode to a nearby Atom Bomb museum stop. The museum is of an interesting design, as we walked down a continuously spiraling carpeted walkway, into the bowels of the museum.

There are several artifacts on display, beginning with pictures of the city prior to the blast. There’s a picture of an entire city street, a school, temple, farming, horses, etc. Then there’s the clock with its hands frozen at 11:02AM, retrieved from a house approx. 3 kilometers from the blast. There are several items of glass & metal that are either twisted, bent or fused together from the bomb’s massive heat. There’s even a piece of roofing you can touch, which shows the affects of the intense temperature afflicted on the ceramic tile.

There’s a single wall left of the church that was destroyed in the holocaust, as well as a counterpart of the horrific plutonium core bomb of the original “Fat Man” weapon used on Nagasaki. It’s gigantic and I think it weighed 4,000 tons.

Reports differ over the total effects of the atomic wasteland, as Nagasaki like Hiroshima three days earlier was pulverized. And although it was known that the bombing could instantly kill everyone within a 4 kilometer radius, the then unknown effects of radiation were not understood. As countless scores of people simply died in other towns listed as; Dying, causes other than Atomic bombing…

There are several gruesome pictures of dead bodies and injured people, as Nagasaki’s population was approx. 240,000 at the impact of Fat Man. Imagine in just 30 seconds, the bombs horrifically radiant heat killed over one-fourth of the population. Another one-fourth was injured along with countless thousands left homeless!

Blast damage occurred as far away as 15 kilometers, with shrapnel flying as far as 8 kilometers. The city was leveled 2.6 miles approx. (radius) with anything black catching fire up to 4 kilometers away. As all of the telephone poles left standing were charred on the side facing the blast!

On display, a section of wall recovered is quite intriguing. It too was also 4 kilometers away from the blast. Yet the bombs flash and heat was so bright and hot that it fused a man’s shadow and piece of leather into the wall! There’s also the shadow of a picket fence on the wall along with the image of leaves fused into a piece of wood…

Various exhibits with time lines of the history of the Manhattan Project are interspersed with other related events. There’s current day Atomic statistics, like every Nations projected nuclear arsenal with Russia listed at 16,000 weapons followed by the US at 10,000. And there’s a display listing every Nations atmospheric and underground Atom bomb tests since WWII.

Yet the most chilling display to me was the current day Nuclear weapons facilities, since this included Hanford, WA. I suppose why it sent a chill up my back was because it was the only video playing in English, as person after person discussed the devastating health effects of the “Down-winders.” Ranging from damaged Thyroid’s, cancer and multiple birth defects! (40+ years after being built)

Next we walked to the adjoining Peace Park, which features an elaborate display at Ground Zero, with the grass lawn being interspersed with concrete rings leading inwards to the huge 10 meter tall peace statue adorned by a black marble vault containing the names of the atomic bomb victims and survivors who died in subsequent years. A plaque gives the following statistics:
Dead: 73,884
Injured: 74,909
Sufferers: 120,820
Houses burned down:11,574
Houses half-ruined, 5,509
Houses partly damaged 50,000

At the south end of the park is a giant flowing water fountain. This Fountain of Peace was created in 1969 giving prayer to all of the people who perished in the bombing while vainly searching for water.

At the base of the fountain is a black stone plaque with Lines from a poem carved into it. They were written by a girl named Sachiko Yamaguchi, who was nine at the time of the bombing,

It reads:

"I was thirsty beyond endurance. There was something oily on the surface of the water, but I wanted water so badly that I drank it just as it was."