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Patch Blogs: An Inside Look at Afghanistan

A recap of recent and popular blog posts in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam.

Chris Day, a Rocklander who served two tours in Afghanistan with the U.S. Army, gives Patch readers insight into how the 11-year war jibes with the ongoing struggle for the White House.

Day—whose brother is currently deployed, and whose father works as a Rockland County legislator—lays out how President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney differ in their Afghanistan strategies.

And they don't differ much, according to Day.

"From the Obama camp, we have a 'plan' that seems directly cribbed from the 'Vietnamization' concept implemented by President Nixon," Day pens. "Declare the Afghans ready, and leave before the door hits us on the way out."

Day's assessment of the Romney stance isn't much of a departure.

"Governor Romney, meanwhile, has signed on to a slightly softened version of the same story—apparently out of fear that if he openly endorses a removal of the withdrawal date, he will tank his chances in the election," he writes.

Day's essay goes on to tackle the state of the Taliban, and the role of U.S. allies. It's a must-read for those interested in international affairs—see it here.

In a more festive blog, Sharon Rowley discusses kids and their love of Halloween costumes. This year's possibilities include black cat, Frankenstein and cheerleaders.

Oh, and Big Bird.

Also on the blog front: the greater significance (and stress) of teaching your teen to drive, which pets need homes and what a second term under Obama might be like

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If you're interested in blogging for Patch and sharing your story, insights, opinions or photos, email kevin@patch.com.

Patriot October 22, 2012 at 01:34 am
Look what the regime in Egypt which gets a billion dollars in aid from American taxpayers is praying for. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/egyptian-president-morsi-mouths-amen-after-preacher-calls-for-destruction-of-the-jews/comment-page-2/?corder=desc#comments Why does Obama send Egypt taxpayer money again. Will he condemn this video like he did The video critical of Islam? I doubt it but it shows the double standard once again.
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Just a short thought to get the word out quickly about anything in your neighborhood.
Share something with your neighbors. Write a new post... What's up? Make an announcement, speak your mind, or sell something
Lisa Buchman (Editor) June 13, 2013 at 11:09 am
Congratulations to Nyack Boat Club and member Justin Coplan! Would love to see photos of the team inRead More action!
Aerial of United Water's proposed water treatment plant location
Caleb June 13, 2013 at 10:23 pm
Untrue. Perhaps if United Water wasn't sending over 2 million gallons a day from Deforest Lake toRead More they're customers in Bergen County we would not have this shortage. Hydrologists have shown that there is enough water regularly collected in Rockland's reservoirs and aquifers for our current and growing needs. Many of the "facts" that United Water is putting forward are outdated, and are based on they're own mismanagement of our water basin. Lets remember that United Water has repeatedly been removed as a water provider of major cities throughout this country (6+ last time I checked, notably even from Camden NJ) for mismanagement of water resources. I think its a prudent choice to look into a plant that we will be stuck paying for for the next 4 years from a company that has repeatedly lied and provided water with toxin levels high above legal limits to they're customers. Better safe than sorry.
John Taggart June 13, 2013 at 11:59 pm
Rockland has grown to the point that it needs more water. Terminating the flow of a river and takingRead More the water resources away from other communities (stealing what we need) isn't going to happen.
drostan June 19, 2013 at 03:13 pm
A Response to the Response Mr. Michael Pointing, writing on behalf of United Water, opined in theRead More Journal News (June 7) and the Nyack Patch (June 11) that an Issues Conference on the pending desalination project is unnecessary. When it is so greatly to his personal and professional benefit to support this project, how can he expect to be taken seriously? Comments on the "desal" plant have only rarely mentioned that the radioactive tritium, which each day leaks into the Hudson from Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant - just 3 miles upstream from the plant - will end up, in diluted form, in our drinking water. Problem is, although highly diluted, there's no way to filter out tritium since it is chemically identical to water. Worse, there's no known safe exposure level. Like "normal" water, tritium goes into your body as fast as you drink it. Good news: about half of the tritium you do drink is filtered out by the kidneys within about ten days. Bad news: When your kitchen faucet keeps providing you with small amounts of tritium day after day, it tends to keep whatever levels you have in your body elevated. Welcome to your future, Rockland. Say, how about cracking open a nice plastic bottle of Deer Park for mixing up that baby formula? Why does United Water want this project to go forward so quickly as to necessarily preclude a thorough public education process in which all the variables and all the options can be openly discussed? What if one day you decided you don't like UW anymore and you wished the water utility was still owned by the government and not the private sector, because at least that way through your vote, you could democratically elect new people who would shut the plant down (whereas you can never "vote out" a private corporation from owning the pipes that carry your drinking water)? Let's just say arbitrarily that for the first ten years following completion of this more or less irreversible project there was an average of 500 additional picocuries of tritium per liter showing up in drinking water in Rockland County that was not there before. Even the NRC says Indian Point emits tritium into the ground water and presumably into the Hudson as well, since Hudson water is what flows - 24 hours a day - into and out of the power plant, cooling the atomic reaction that creates electrical power). In 1976 the EPA decided (more or less arbitrarily) that 20,000 picocuries of radioactivity would be roughly the "safe" upper limit for human consumption (due to drinking tritium or any other radionuclide). I say "arbitrarily" because I am aware of no one who has actually tried this since then, to see if it really turned out to be safe. Whose insurance policy would make Rockland homeowners whole again if at some future point tritium (or other radionuclide) levels skyrocketed while property values plummeted? Maybe something so terrible could never, ever happen. I certainly hope it couldn't. But why are we residents the guinea pigs, and how come we pay more - not less - for our water just so UW can do more business and, of course, collect more in utility bills? By the way, Fukushima was also never ever supposed to happen. Human health is not something you go back and study all over again once you realize you've lost it. Doesn't Rockland County have enough cancer already? Dan Rostan Nyack