I do not precisely recommend sending a destroyer out to WestPac under orders to conduct gunnery practice over the bow of any KorCom ship engaged in pissing us off. But let me hasten to add that if our Commander in Chief so orders, I shall not editorialize against it.

---

I certainly wish history had something to teach us about how seriously we ought to take aerial threats against Hawaii by insane oriental governments.

How much is that in real money?

It isn't all that much in context, just $10 billion, that China proposes to loan to the Stans of central Asia. They have to do something with the baled currency we send them for leaded-paint toys and food-grade melamine for babies. And I suppose it's just as well they lend it to used-camel dealers as spend it on more attack submarines.

Global strategic implications are somewhat worrisome, but the real ass-kick comes in the side announcements at the meeting. The Chinese participants grinned and grinned as their comrades the Russians declared that the dollar is an interesting historical artifact but had seen its day as the world's reserve currency.

( Medvedev and China don't want to kill the dollar just yet; they have a lot of them to get rid of and so are pleased to continue to support Bush and Obama magic show while they dole greenbacks carefully around the world in return for goods and, particularly, influence.)

And I'll just betcha that someone in Washington today is going to go on the electric television and act surprised. If he's faking it he's just another shrewd politician. If he really is amazed that someone is attacking the American Dollar, he's a doofus who thinks you really can have an honest dollar while taking on debts you can't repay -- such as volitionary wars and free doctoring for the masses to eventually include everything from Viagara to liposuction to hair restoration, (quality-of-life issues, dontcha see?). All paid for by an economy based on trading paper promises back and forth with Washington as the referee and creator of additional promises.

Economic predictions get pretty Nostradamic, but it isn't much of a stretch to imagine your grandkids knowing, right off, how many bushels of dollars it takes to buy a 6G X-Box priced in zlotys.

From the Ministry of Horticulture

A small stand of sumac is finally flourishing in the southeast corner of the Camp J grounds, and from the angle and distance at which I see them right now, they look quite a lot like the scene setter for a Robert Ruark screenplay-- tiny replicas of the baobob.

(Getting a sumac patch started is easy enough, You just transplant one or two. But it takes a looong time, several years, before the seeds in the deer turds outpace what the deer damage. At some point the rhizomes seem to get into the act, and you start seeing sumac galore.)

Flash!

Hot off the wires, Government announces kumquats won't cure cancer and ginseng won't give you a hardon.

That'll be $2.5 billion, please.