This just in...

[niankhsekhmet]

Dan Rather reports that in the state of Florida, flags are at half mast to indicate a tragedy....a tragedy not having occured in that state in a very long time.


I was thinking to myself, actually the last tragedy that happened in the state of Florida was when George W. Bush was elected.

Comments

[sekhmet-iatut.livejournal.com]

Hotep Niankh (henu) Hotep!

Majour Group Hugs to all who are grieving and devastated over this Horrendous trajedy. (((((((((___)))))))))) I heard not to long ago. In fact, I turned on the television at 11:45:00 hours. My first thought was Oh my gosh! The last time something like this happened the Present was
George Bush,Sr. I shuddered. That was an odd thought to have. I can relate to what you said. When I turned on the t.v. and listened to the news, for a second I thought why are they showing
20 year old footage...than I realised, it was not 20 year old footage and everything took on a surreal quality: A feeling of
experiencing deja vu. The only difference between the first disaster and this one is the first challenger went down in Fla. This second one fell over parts of Texas, and Louisiana. Funny
how things like this bring communities together. Right now I sense
many feel loss,need comfort and support. To many people worldwide,
this trajedy is taken quite personally. It is their trajedy...not just the trajedy of the families and friends of the astronauts missing and presumed dead. ((((((Hugs to everyone)))))))again. We
all need one.
Senebty
Sekhmet-Serqet

Correction of errors written in previous post.

[sekhmet-iatut.livejournal.com]

I have correct two errors I wrote previously. I was wrong about the following the year Challenger went down and the President
that was in office when said tragedy happened.

The year of the first explosion was 1986 and the president was Ronald Reagan. I was wrong. It was roughly 17 years ago and so
Bush was not in office. Thanks to Sotpe, (Hi sis!) I got my facts
straight! Posting corrections asap. Here are the correct facts:

The first shuttle went down in 1986.
The president at that time was Ronald Reagan.


From George Bush Sr. bio.

http://www.chez.com/Bush.html

Bush took part in the Republican primaries again in 1988. In particular, he won against Robert Dole. He chose James Danforth Quayle as his running mate and on November 8, 1988 he defeated the democratic candidate Michael Dukakis (54% of the popular vote - 426 voices of the electoral vote, against 46% - 111 voices). He is the 1st Vice-President since Martin Van Buren in 1836 to directly attain the Oval office. However, the Democrats managed to keep a comfortable lead in both Houses.

Re: Correction of errors written in previous post.

[sekhmet-iatut.livejournal.com]

Yes AGAIN!

UGH

The actual correct url is:

http://www.chez.com/georgebush/en/biography/index.html

[x-lydia.livejournal.com]

You are right that tragedies should not be occasions for hopping onto editorial soapboxes; neither should they be occasions for hopping onto political soapboxes.

Touche'! ;-)

[niankhsekhmet.livejournal.com]

Mea culpa for my part on that one. As far as political ones - my stomach turned when some idiot reporter used this event as a political tool to ram home the importance of going to war with Iraq.

I fail to see what one event has to do with the other.

Re: Touche'! ;-)

[x-lydia.livejournal.com]

As you originally quoted the reporter, what she said was:

"We have to not let these men and women down who died today. We have to keep America strong and remember that our space program is responsible for the sattelites that keep America safe, and pre-eminent in the world."

When I heard the reporter say this remark, I understood it as having to do with the general importance of satellites to the national defense and national prestige. Nothing about war, nothing about Iraq. Did I miss something?

Do phrases like "keeping America strong" and "pre-eminent in the world" somehow constitute warmongering? Are there not peaceful strengths and peaceful means of preeminence, such as excelling in science and technology? Did not the Apollo moon landings, the Galileo planetary explorer, and the Mars Pathfinder boost American prestige by peaceful means?

I spent the last 3 of my 20 years in the Navy at the Naval Satellite Operations Center in Point Mugu, California, working with engineers and communications people, and indirectly, with communications satellites, which are a part of national defense, and are a part of "the space program" along with the Apollo expeditions, the scientific missions of Galileo and Pathfinder, and the shuttle. To be even that indirectly close to "the space program" was, well, cool. I worked with actual rocket scientists!

I agree with you that the shuttle tragedy and the situation in Iraq are entirely separate situations, and I likewise deplore the practice of using public tragedies as a forum to promote one's views or agendas. I am not entirely convinced that this particular reporter was doing so - perhaps she was stating a personal opinion on the general importance of the space program, but that is still, of course, nothing to do with Iraq.

If she had only kept the words 'terrorist' and 'Iraq' out of the rest of the report.

[niankhsekhmet.livejournal.com]

Well what I didn't write is the same reporter blathering on and on about how we have to keep this technology out of the hands of terrorists and then went on to mention Iraq - several times in fact.

Re: If she had only kept the words 'terrorist' and 'Iraq' out of the rest of the report.

[x-lydia.livejournal.com]

Okay, I seem to have missed that part of the news coverage - I didn't tune in until rather late in the afternoon. (As Maai can attest, I am a night owl.) I remember a female reporter, not sure which one, making general remarks about the importance of the space program without mentioning terrorists or Iraq; possibly I saw a different reporter.

Anyway, we agree that it's a bad habit.

[bellacrow.livejournal.com]

yep yep