THANKSGIVING

The golden leaves are now gone and the trees are bare. Large piles of leaves are on the parkings for the vacuum machine to come along. We have mulched all of ours as we ususlly do so hopefully are adding more back to the soil. Of course running the mower adds a little more carbon (5 pounds per gallon)to the atmosphere so you can not win every thing but one does what one can!

I have finished reading Thomas P. M> Barnetts new book "BLUE PRINT FOR ACTION" which is a sequel to "THE PENTAGON'S NEW MAP". I am making my book notes on the book the main part of this blog. Also at his web page (www.thomaspmbarnett.com) you can get mor information and listen to audio recordings of some radio interviews and also his blog etc. I thought that his writings were inportant enough that some time ago I was promted to write my one and only letter to my congressman suggesting his book should be read--I did not get an answer--perhpas the folks there do not read!

TITLE: BLUE PRINT FOR ACTION A future worth creatingAUTHOR: THOMAS P.M. BARNETTlibrary no. 327.73contents:1.what the world needs now Understanding the Seam between war
and peace. A department for what lies between war
and peace. Barnett's A to Z Rule set for processing
politically bankrupt states2. Winning the war through connectedness Connecting the middle east and the
world. creating the new rule set on global terrorism3. Growing the core by securing the east Locking in China at today's prices. In the
Future, America's most important allies will be new
core states. The Trains's engine can travel no
faster than its caboose.4. Shrinking the Gap by ending disconnectedness The coming choices. Tipping points in
the journey from the Gap to the Core. Essential
building blocks for shrinking the gap from within.5. We have met the enemy The resumption of history and the latest
enemy. The convergence of civilizations. The
world made one or just nonzero.This is a sequel or continuation of his earlier book
"The Pentagon's New Map"FUNCTIOINING CORE' Those parts of the world that are actively
integrating their economies into a global economy
and that adhere to globalization's emerging
security rule set. Old Core--America, Europe and
Japan. New Core, whose pillars are China, India,
Brazil and Russia.NON=INTEGRATING GAP: Regions of the world that are disconnected from
the globl economy and the rule sets that define its
stability,--The Caribbean Rim, Andean South
America, virtulayy all of Aftica, portions of the
Balkans, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Middle East
and most of Southeast Asia. The main goal and effort of globaliztion is
th "shrink the gap". The military needs to revamp its self into
a war-making component and a peace keeping,
nationbuilding component--post conflict activities.
Thes SysAdm part needs to be just as important as
the warmaking as far as funding etc. In time
should have cabinet level representation.
(?replace Homeland security) To shrink the Gap need to replace hunger. "The
most telling example of misplace funding priorities
is seen in what the Core currently spends on
agricultural subsidies to its own farmers versus
what it would ned to spend to eradicate hunger
inside the Gap....Because we don't facilitate agricultural exports
from the Gap to the Core, we inadvertenlyl lock
many of those nations into long term dependence
on commoditis as their main exports, delaying their
industrial development. The less connected these
states are to the global economy, the more likely
they are to fall into conflict and instability. Spend 10 billion on SysAdmin reconstrucion work
inside the Gap and you'll save the global economy a
good 2- billion or more.

We enjoyed an excellent performance of the "MIKADO" last noght and we will seen the play "The Odd Couple" this Sunday. I have been woking of some power point presentation for use at the Senior Computer learning center and also at some of the Elder living centers. So far, only minimum progress being made in the living centers as many fee that they are "too old" or do not want to try as the machine is too frightening.

Hope that you all have a great THANKSGIVING, we truly do have much to be thankful for.
AF aka happydoc