World Trade Center 23 years later

 I went into Manhattan this afternoon to pay my respects.

My company has a commemoration every year. The names of the employees  who were lost are displayed along the perimeter of the two pools that are in the footprint of the two buildings. The names of our lost people are read aloud, a yellow rose placed by each name.

Belfast Grand Central Station is open

 

New York City has its Grand Central Terminal, and now Belfast has its Grand Central Station, which  has just opened.

Grand Central Station replaces the Europa bus station as the departure point for long distance buses. Inter city buses I think are a bigger thing in Ireland that they are in America. 

 Before the end of the year, we are told that Grand Central Station will have train service, including hourly trains to Dublin.

Good show for Belfast.. This is exactly the kind of first class facility that a large and confident city should have..

The name Grand Central Station is of course an homage to New York City. 

Good show, Belfast.

a quick temporary post

 Hi Team

I am busy tidying up a website that hasn’t been used much at all over for more than a decade

Some of the old blogroll has been removed, Many of the old blogs that I once linked to no longer exist, 

At least, for the foreseeable future, I will use  comment moderation, to ensure that everybody plays nice. Also, it will make it much easier to keep the spammers away.

The default setting was that you had to be a Google account in order To comment. I have changed it so that those without Google accounts can comment on an anonymous basis ( but in their comment, they can still identify themselves if they choose to ) 

Some of the links and posts might not be as much interest to some because they are neighborhood specific

A given Post might be talking about a restaurant in the neighborhood, while the next one attempts to solve the insolvable problems in Europe and the Middle East. We will figure it out as we go along

Suggestions are welcome

Putin the Slav Killer

There are two major imperialist powers in the world today. Of them is Russia. The other one is Russia’s increasingly senior partner, China.

Putin has said that the dissolution of the USSR was a great tragedy. He seeks to reclaim as much of the old Soviet territories as he can.

Many years ago, Solzhenitsyn wrote of the deep connections between Russia and Ukraine, how it would be impossible to separate them. Putin would have agreed with that assessment.

But, by his unwise and clumsy invasion, After all the bombings and deaths, Mr. Putin has created a hard separation between the Slavs of Russia and those of Ukraine.

I can see a truce Agreement at some point, but it’s hard to foresee any true peace Any century soon. Putin has divided these Slavic peoples as they have never been divided before.

Bay Ridge Blog Is Coming Back

 After a short hiatus of 13 years, I have decided to resurrect this website.

I will need to do some tidying up over the next few days. After that, The intent is to have maybe two posts per week.

The focus will shift from the very local in Brooklyn to national US and international issues.

Comments are welcome. 

Noel, Charles, Patrick, Peter are all welcome to come, as our -most-  from the old ATW. I will invite David and Pete Moore to drop in, should they choose to. If there is a way to reach out to mahons and  Daphne, tell them that they are welcome as well.

I think that some lessons have been learned over the last many years. There will be no ad him, and I don’t want any score settling. This is meant to be a place where people with significant disagreements can  meet in a spirit of friendship.

Check Out My Internet Radio!

I'd been hearing about these things for a few years. A couple of weeks ago, I bit the bullet, and bought a Logitech " Squeezebox " internet radio.

This " internet radio " is a radio that doesn't pick up stations the normal way. It picks them up in streams from the internet via an Ethernet physical connection or via your Wi-Fi signal.

With internet radio, you are no longer limited to what is likely a lame selection of local stations. Almost every " over the air " radio station puts their signal on the internet now without charge.

I've played around with internet radio for maybe ten years, via the computer. But the advantage of having a dedicated " internet radio " is that it works even when the computer is off, at any location in the house, with a very good quality audio signal.

I recommend this device - especially if you want to get a get a broader music selection than your crummy local station offers, or someone who wants to follow the news, especially the news from another part of the world.

It's really easy to set up and use - and makes a great present for an older relative who wants to hear the sounds of the " old country "

There are six preset stations. My current selections:

• RTE One, Dublin
• BBC LW
• Deutsche Welle News, Germany
  

• WFUV New York
• KPOA Hawaii
• WWOZ New Orleans

I recommend this product, which is available on Amazon or at quality stores such as J&R.

Thoughts on the Death of Osama bin Laden

They got him.

Nearly ten years ago, my city and my country suffered the worst terrorist attack in world history.

This unspeakable act impacted people from all over America. Even if you were from a small town in say Alabama, miles away from the attacks, it was as though it was your family who had lost somebody. Because you had. This was personal.

Today, US forces have finally delivered justice to the man responsible for the destruction of the building I worked in, as well as the other atrocities done on September 11, 2001.

Let's take a moment to honor those who died nearly ten years ago. And to remember how very grim it was that day.

God bless the US Military, including the Special Forces, and the CIA, FBI, and our brothers from in Britain and many other lands, and all in the Obama and Bush administrations who played any part in bringing Obama to justice this day.

The mills of God grind slow, but they grind exceedingly fine.

God bless America.