Glenn Beck on November 4 2013

Why I really liked Glenn Beck's show on November 4, 2013!

#1, He was brave enough to talk about the basic problem facing our country...the philosophical opposites:

The Individual vs. the Collective
He played an excerpt of a video of Nancy Pelosi telling us that "We have to pass the [Health Care] bill before we can read it, before we can find out what is in it."

What? This is crazy, I believe.

The consciousness (Pregressivism, Entitlement, The willingness to let someone else take the reigns)that created this mess is now trying to solve the problem. But it won't work.
The old consciousness is the problem. Regarding the debt problem, the democrats and republicans will do the same thing. It takes NEW THINKING...thinking out of the box.

Here is a quote by Einstein:

Glenn said that the Tea Party is being demonized because it came about from "thinking out of the box".
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THEN...Glenn had on a special guest: The author of the book "David and Goliath" and I was really impressed with this guy and really want to read his book!
Malcolm Gladwell..staff writer of the New Yorker magazine.

The book has many stories of people who had horrible situations and rose above them to do great things.
He  talked about a group of people who defied the  Nazi's...who decided to act instead of thinking they were at a hopeless disadvantage.

 The gist of the book is that adversity has a purpose...it is for our growth. He talked about "desirable difficulties"...he talked about successful entrepeneurs who were dyslexic...he said EVERYONE is capable of doing something unexpected!

Afghanistan History

I heard, on the radio while we were traveling, the author of Games Without Rules:The Often Interrupted History of Afghanistan
 by Mir Tamim Ansary


The title is taken from the concept of The Great Game...and you can read about it here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Game

I am just transcribing my notes that I took while listening. It was quite fascinating and I had to say to myself at the end...If only our leaders would have studied carefully this history, we would never have gone in there.

Why is Afghanistan important/
It is the crossroads of civilized world in that hemisphere.
It is between greatcentersof power. There were 2 forces:
Russian Imperialsim
British Imperialsim

Why does each one want it? To keep the other out!
Afhanistan is HIGHLANDS. From there, the British conquest of India started. Brtiain then had the Indian colonies (India). The power of Britain was that it dominated the seas.
Russia had no access to any reasonable coast so they had TONS of ground troops!
-Arabian Sea to India
-Ocean view
-Afghan highlands
-British want to prevent Russia from entering Afghanistan
British-push to border of Russia
British took over Afghanistan, ousted the King and put in aguy who couldn't rule. Afghanistan fell apart.
So British got out. 40 years later British cam-put in the son of the first guy. Still fell apart. mess. British left.
1st and 2nd Anglo-Afghan War.
Another guy wanted to be king. Turned to the British to help him. They said no. ..and put in someone else. Then regretted it. Said You would have been better.
1750:loose empire
1840 Dash mamed (sic) came back to power. He did OK.
British came back and then left again...left country in hands of tyrant. Iron Ahman (made British or him not cross a line THE DURAN LINE (SE Border of Afghanistan)---who conquered 40 times ? when done Afghanistan in shape of a triangle. Bureaucracy all over now.

YET>>>and still the SOCIAL FABRIC was untouched by all this bureaucracy.
Afghanistan is not hard to conquer, but it is very hard to govern.
There are 2 layers:
new Afghanistan
Old Afghanistan

How it governs:
-DIPLOMACY
-MARRIAGE POLITICS
-RECOGNIZE UNSPOKEN FOLK WAYS
WESTERN FORCES CANNOT OPERATE AT THAT LEVEL AT ALL.

Before Russia invaded, the grandson of the Iron Ahman (1920's) wanted to reform his country. Esp. women, family, etc/ Wanted to be more "western"..he was ousted.Leader of Turkey wanted Islamic Ottoman...wanted constitution..wanted Latin language script..wanted modern medicine.
Now USA and Russia want the Great Game like in Kipling's time.
Containment= ring of communist countries with ring free market countries..
Iraq and Iran were on the side of the USA. Afghanistan was a crucial link. Decided being unaligned was more powerful.
Soviet invasion  1978  -after the coup--be careful to note..it was not a revolution...it was a putsch .

Extreme developmentalists wanted to modernize quickly.  Post coup government drafted women from the villages..."By God, you WILL be literate." So afghans up in arms.
Russia said..lets go in before the USA does. Soviets upset the aple cart.

Taliban grew out of the young boys in refugee camps.
Wahabies built schools...intend Pakistan elements... Taliban driven out by USA. Resurgence now not Taliban...it is dispersed..
It is result fo 2 and 1/2 centuries of the slow destruction of their progress.

Obama's policy: US cames in-sets up stuff-schools, etc. Now all those on board are vulnerable when US leaves.

Our military footprint exacerbated the insurgency that would be there anyway.
We have to choose between 2 evils.
WE DID NOT LOOK AT HISTORY WHEN WE DECIDED TO GO IN>