Stream of Consciousness...
Random thoughts...
I recall numerous times in my travels overseas when someone would point out that their grievance with the USA is aimed against the president and his policy. They emphasize that their ire and disgust is NOT directed to the American people, or the American culture. On the contrary, I have seen too much anger and invective hurled at the people of 'middle America' and what we stand for from arrogant, contemptuous, sardonic spewers from Old Europe. I am mighty grateful and relieved that the majority of Americans have emphatically disavowed the Kerry idea of a 'global test' for the conduct of our own affairs. What I'm alluding to here is the French Disease (You don't have to be French to have it). I learned, for the first time last night, while watching a documentary about WWII that Hitler had not even completed his conquest of France when in the summer of 1942 the American navy was attacked by the French navy off the coast of North Africa. We lost 7,000 men in that battle, but within three days the French navy was decimated. The Vichy government, true to form, chose the wrong ally, its conqueror no less. The French reaction when Hitler attacked north and eastern France? Rapid retreat...impulsive armistice...let loose on their ultimate liberators. What gets me cranked is hearing that French president Chirac left a European Union summit early to avoid meeting interim Iraqi prime minister Allawi. Chirac did rush to the bedside of the deathly ill Arafat in a French hospital. I determined long ago that Chirac and his supporters have taken French Leave. Millenia of history indicate they will never return...
Speaking of Arafat, I noted in the news this morning that his confidants and lieutenants are desperately trying to retrieve the codes for secret bank accounts holding up to a billion dollars. Unfortunately, these codes are supposedly only residing in the dark depths of Arafat's memory. Science fiction couldn't come up with a better storyline...a frantic search for that Sony machine which sends camera probes into sewers...an evil genius adapts it (doesn't need anything but downsizing) to fit in Arafat's manhole...doesn't work so Israelis recruited and quickly and cleanly solve this Gordian knot.
I recall numerous times in my travels overseas when someone would point out that their grievance with the USA is aimed against the president and his policy. They emphasize that their ire and disgust is NOT directed to the American people, or the American culture. On the contrary, I have seen too much anger and invective hurled at the people of 'middle America' and what we stand for from arrogant, contemptuous, sardonic spewers from Old Europe. I am mighty grateful and relieved that the majority of Americans have emphatically disavowed the Kerry idea of a 'global test' for the conduct of our own affairs. What I'm alluding to here is the French Disease (You don't have to be French to have it). I learned, for the first time last night, while watching a documentary about WWII that Hitler had not even completed his conquest of France when in the summer of 1942 the American navy was attacked by the French navy off the coast of North Africa. We lost 7,000 men in that battle, but within three days the French navy was decimated. The Vichy government, true to form, chose the wrong ally, its conqueror no less. The French reaction when Hitler attacked north and eastern France? Rapid retreat...impulsive armistice...let loose on their ultimate liberators. What gets me cranked is hearing that French president Chirac left a European Union summit early to avoid meeting interim Iraqi prime minister Allawi. Chirac did rush to the bedside of the deathly ill Arafat in a French hospital. I determined long ago that Chirac and his supporters have taken French Leave. Millenia of history indicate they will never return...
Speaking of Arafat, I noted in the news this morning that his confidants and lieutenants are desperately trying to retrieve the codes for secret bank accounts holding up to a billion dollars. Unfortunately, these codes are supposedly only residing in the dark depths of Arafat's memory. Science fiction couldn't come up with a better storyline...a frantic search for that Sony machine which sends camera probes into sewers...an evil genius adapts it (doesn't need anything but downsizing) to fit in Arafat's manhole...doesn't work so Israelis recruited and quickly and cleanly solve this Gordian knot.
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