Tuesday May 15th. I am sitting in the ship computer room looking out a window directly at the walled city of Valletta in Malta. There are two large domes of cathedrals and the twin towers of another one directly past the high stone walls and the palm trees along it. Several cruise ships are tied along piers in the harbor. We went to town taking the bus as recommended by the people here. The cost was one Euro and it…
Harry Bernstein is a published author whose first book "The Invisible Wall" has been published by Random house is receiving excellent reviews. The book, about his early childhood in a poverty stricken street where Jews and Christians were strictly divided, was rejected by a number of publishing houses before being accepted by Random House. So what’s so unusual about this? Well, Harry is 96 years old! Harry says "I’m more of an expert on failure then I am success." (For…
The May 2007 AARP Bulletin reports that FEEMA stockpiled some 8000 new manufactured homes in Hope, Arkansas to be used for the homeless in connection with Hurricane Katrina. When a tornado hit the Arkansas town of Dumas in February it left over 150 people homeless. Since the FEEMA manufactured homes were only 126 miles from Dumas, the officials asked for housing assistance, but FEEMA refused. Why? Well, because President Bush hadn’t declared the town a federal disaster area. Under bureaucratic…
Monday May 14, 2007. We are at sea traveling from Greece to Malta. The ocean is like a lake, thank goodness. Our last stop was at a Greek island at the port of Fiskardko where we anchored. The beautiful small town is located on the water with small fishing boats along a walk way that runs around the harbor and villiage. Shops and outdoor restaurants line the walk. Only small ships like ours would fit here. The island was devastated…
Saturday May 12, 2007. Greetings from Itea, Greece where the weather is warm, but not really hot and the seas are calm. This is the location of the Delphi and we are at the Port of Itea where there is a small town, but no reason to go there. We have had an incredible trip through the Corinth Canal to get here. The first attempt to dig this canal as a short cut, was begun by Nero in 67 AD…
We have arrived at the port of Piraeus, located about thirty minutes from Athens itself. The weather is pleasant and the seas were calm. Of course Athens is the place of the Panathenian Stadium built in 329 BC. It was the venue for the first Olympic games of 1896. The Acropolis is here some 230 feet above the city and is probably the most famous attraction in Athens. Athens was also the site of the 2004 Olympics and one sees…
I’ve expressed my concerns about the George Orwell government the Bush administration has created. Its political actions are too often hidden from public view, it has been exempted, until now, by the Republican controlled Congress from revealing or explaining its political actions and it has created courts that conduct their business behind closed doors, but which authorize secret surveillance of citizens. (See post 11/6/06) Now we have a report about the actions of a secret court operating under the Patriot…
We are in Mykonos, Greece. Last night, before leaving Turkey, there was a party at Ephesus for the passengers. Ephesus was one of the great Ionian cities and a leading seaport. The great St Paul went to Ephesus where he preached in the synagogues, but after causing protests preached to the gentiles. He was there for two years. He became the center of a controversy when the silversmiths of Ephesus rioted over the loss of work in creating Diana worship…
I’ve reported about the similarity of the teachings of Joseph Goebbels as Hitler’s propaganda minister and Karl Rove’s role in the Bush White House.(See post of 11/3/06) Joe A. Palermo has an excellent post in the Huffington Blog of 5/2/07 regarding the anniversary of the infamous Bush landing on the aircraft carrier to proclaim "mission accomplished." He notes the Karl Rove statement that Rove ran campaigns as if the people watching TV had the sound turned off. That is, the…
I endured the tuexdo dinner with the first engineer. Interesting people at the table. One couple have scheduled a 60 day cruise on this ship. The woman next to me was German and spoke no English. Another couple is from Vancouver, BC. Charlie and his wife are from South Carolina. The woman across from me is from England, but was born in France and tells a story about her family being held by the Germans when they occupied France. The…
