BlackKnight comments

I'm gonna go out on a limb here, but I have a feeling not too many people on JT spend their Saturday nights trimming a bonsai tree.

Obviously a young person ... but I will give the Zen view anyway. Currently and historically the best Bonsai are done by Masters who are in their last 20 year period ... as it requires not only skills but a huge sum of 'patience.'

However, the best use of time is the starting of a Bonsai in the second 20 year period, and allowing the tree to mature in your lifetime, sharing the skill and beauty with others, including your family. We learn a very exacting skill, patience, and appreciation and the beauty of man's control over nature (in this case a small delicate, tree, grass, or object) - it 'enlightens' you.

You also learn how to create miniature forests, or scenes of incredible beauty ~ although quiet delicate.

Perhaps there is a 'test' vote (similiar to the Mass vote last Dec). FL-19 is having a 'special election' (April 13th) long before the Nov elections and the people's repeal of the Health Care Law is on the ballot ... watch and see what the American people think about ~ But remember we still have to deal with this;

“In The Phantom Public, Walter Lippmann took a hard and realistic look at the role played by the American people in government decision-making. He portrayed citizens as relatively uninformed, disinterested, and ritually haphazard in their views. Opinions emerge only in time of crisis, and they fade quickly. Many people do not participate at all.”

Sorry OssanAmerica Marion is right ... Japan did forcibly "occupy," with ever increasing numbers of soldiers from the mainland and China(the unit that was notoriously famous around the Central capital in China was sent to Okinawa) and dug in with almost the same notorious black hearted brutality, propaganda, rape, and sheer nastiness that was dealt to the Chinese against the native Ryukyu-an people as it became obvious that Okinawa was after Iwo Jima next on the US invasion list. Although the US did tear the place up (invasions will do that), they never were as feared as were the Japanese Imperial Army and their Kempitai 'friends' who occupied the place ... Remember the Ryukyu islanders are still mad at Nixon for giving Okinawa 'to' Japan after Meiji Japan sorta just absorbed them from the Kyushu Shimizu family.

But then, you are also correct about the Marines being forward deployed near a 'suspected' theater of operations being their forte ... which lands them right smack dab in the middle of Okinawa ... perhaps we should 'buy back' the land around the base 1.6Km to both "reset" where it used to be, and to prevent further/future accidents... which came first the chicken or egg? (base being there long, long before people of no sense built right up to it perimeter ... same thing happened in Atsugi, Yokota, Iwakuni, and is slowly developing in Misawa ... it would be cheaper than what we are trying to now resolve. The rocks around Ginowan hasn't grown moss yet ... a century has not passed - and as stated in the article, the surronds were once ALL rice paddies

Someone needs to ask the question "Why?"

The attack on Pearl was brilliantly coordinated, and although the U.S. carriers were not home, being a bit of luck for the Americans, the worry that they might return caused the Japanese not to attack two facilities that would haunt them early in the war in the third wave attack.

Adm. Yamamoto was right in saying, we only angered the beast, we did not strike a significant disabling blow.

However the 'why' that should be asked is, "Why was there no warning to the rest of Pacific installations? Why was the Philippines attacked three (3) hours after Pearl Harbor (after the air attack being delayed in Formosa by fog), the Japanese taking off - believing they were flying into a known 'death battle,' with defenders forwarned and ready, they found the planes were arranged in straight lines, no air defenses, no patroling aircraft up to defend - basically asleep enjoying a nice Monday in the sun on their arse!!!

Why?

Seems like we didn't learn too much from that gross mistake, and then repeat it in the debacle of 911, although 60 years had passed from incident one to incident two.

"Those who do not learn from history are destined to repeat it."

It has do with maturity, responsibility and moral code:

How good are you at discerning between 'facts' and 'fiction' and what is acceptable in the society as a whole and what is not?

A continuous feed (or exposure) to violence 'dulls' the senses to violent behavior ... and makes in the mind of the viewer have a greater degree of 'acceptable,' (which may or may not be acceptable in the real society, or society as a whole). Unless there is a respected and emulated elder guiding the viewer, or a higher moral code to which the viewer subscribes, it becomes gradually 'acceptable' in one's mind.