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Monday, November 30, 2009


Binion's closing Las Vegas hotel; casino remains

The Associated Press LAS VEGAS—A Binion's Gambling Hall & Hotel spokeswoman says the downtown Las Vegas property that used to host the World Series of Poker will mothball its 365 hotel rooms in a cost-cutting move. TLC Casino Enterprises spokeswoman Lisa Robinson said Monday that Binion's casino will remain open, along with the poker room, sports book and well-known Binion's Ranch Steakhouse. Robinson says about 100 of Binion's 800 workers have been notified they'll be laid off when the Binion's hotel and former Mint tower close Dec. 14. The Binion's Original Coffee Shop will also shut down, and keno operations will cease. Robinson calls the decision a result of the economic downturn and a decrease in room rates and hotel occupancy at Las Vegas-area hotels.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Ode to America

This editorial was written by Mr. Cornel Nistorescu, managing editor of the Romanian newspaper Evenimentul Zilei, in which his piece was published under the title "Cîntarea Americii" (translated into English as "Ode to America") on 24 September 2001.

Why are Americans so united? They don't resemble one another even if you paint them! They speak all the languages of the world and form an astonishing mixture of civilizations. Some of them are nearly extinct, others are incompatible with one another, and in matters of religious beliefs, not even God can count how many they are. Still, the American tragedy turned three hundred million people into a hand put on the heart. Nobody rushed to accuse the White House, the army, the secret services that they are only a bunch of losers.

Nobody rushed to empty their bank accounts. Nobody rushed on the streets nearby to gape about. The Americans volunteered to donate blood and to give a helping hand. After the first moments of panic, they raised the flag on the smoking ruins, putting on T-shirts, caps and ties in the colours of the national flag. They placed flags on buildings and cars as if in every place and on every car a minister or the president was passing. On every occasion they started singing their traditional song: "God Bless America!".

Silent as a rock, I watched the charity concert broadcast on Saturday once, twice, three times, on different tv channels. There were Clint Eastwood, Willie Nelson, Robert de Niro, Julia Roberts, Cassius Clay, Jack Nicholson, Bruce Springsteen, Silvester Stalone, James Wood, and many others whom no film or producers could ever bring together.

The American's solidarity spirit turned them into a choir. Actually, choir is not the word. What you could hear was the heavy artillery of the American soul. What neither George W. Bush, nor Bill Clinton, nor Colin Powell could say without facing the risk of stumbling over words and sounds, was being heard in a great and unmistakable way in this charity concert. I don't know how it happened that all this obsessive singing of America didn't sound croaky, nationalist, or ostentatious!

It made you green with envy because you weren't able to sing for your country without running the risk of being considered chauvinist, ridiculous, or suspected of who-knows-what mean interests. I watched the live broadcast and the rerun of its rerun for hours listening to the story of the guy who went down one hundred floors with a woman in a wheelchair without knowing who she was, or of the Californian hockey player, who fought with the terrorists and prevented the plane from hitting a target that would have killed other hundreds of thousands of people. How on earth were they able to bow before a fellow human?

Imperceptibly, with every word and musical note, the memory of some turned into a modern myth of tragic heroes. And with every phone call, millions and millions of dollars were put in a collection aimed at rewarding not a man or a family, but a spirit which nothing can buy.

What on earth can unite the Americans in such a way? Their land? Their galloping history? Their economic power? Money? I tried for hours to find an answer, humming songs and murmuring phrases which risk of sounding like commonplaces. I thought things over, but I reached only one conclusion.

Only freedom can work such miracles!

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Suggestion for Normalcy

The following was in response to a post on a forum suggesting that terrorism against the US would stop if only the US would abandon Israel.

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I would suggest that we will be an enemy of Islam until we all accept Allah, regardless of what countries we support. The Islamic extremists only want to kill anyone not of their faith.

The nature of the universe is chaos. Chaos is only thwarted by intervention of mankind. The Islamists have promoted chaos for centuries. Remember the Turks slaughtering 1.5 million in the 14th ( I think) century. They have never been contributors to civilization, only takers. When is the last civil, scientific, medical, technological, or any other positive discovery you can recall coming from an Islamic nation?

Those that are guilty of being politically correct either have an agenda to allow Islamic takeover of the world or are in fear of Islamic reprisal. I am not.

I would think that we should TAKE one minute, twice a day while at work, school, wherever, and pray to our respective Judeo-Christian diety for the return of civilization to the world. We should all do this at the same time each day, together. While it's obvious our Congress won't listen to us, our President won't listen to us, our business leaders won't listen to us, there is One who will, and He is the One that can make a difference.

Suggestion for Normalcy

The following was in response to a post on a forum suggesting that terrorism against the US would stop if only the US would abandon Israel.

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I would suggest that we will be an enemy of Islam until we all accept Allah, regardless of what countries we support. The Islamic extremists only want to kill anyone not of their faith.

The nature of the universe is chaos. Chaos is only thwarted by intervention of mankind. The Islamists have promoted chaos for centuries. Remember the Turks slaughtering 1.5 million in the 14th ( I think) century. They have never been contributors to civilization, only takers. When is the last civil, scientific, medical, technological, or any other positive discovery you can recall coming from an Islamic nation?

Those that are guilty of being politically correct either have an agenda to allow Islamic takeover of the world or are in fear of Islamic reprisal. I am not.

I would think that we should TAKE one minute, twice a day while at work, school, wherever, and pray to our respective Judeo-Christian diety for the return of civilization to the world. We should all do this at the same time each day, together. While it's obvious our Congress won't listen to us, our President won't listen to us, our business leaders won't listen to us, there is One who will, and He is the One that can make a difference.