The Nancy Pelosi Charade

Grandma Nan pounded dozens of her weaker members into politically dangerous ground Saturday, and now the media are reporting that, duuhh, her health care bill has about the same chance of Senate approval as Osama does of a B'Nai B'Rith brotherhood award.

Is there anything to this woman besides ego and Maybelline?

The Wall

Twenty years ago this week I was standing over the Model 15 Teletype printer in my Utulei office on a Pago Pago harbor beach. Crowded around were Samoans, Europeans, and Mainland Americans. It was the only AP ticker on the island, the only source of current credible information on the amazing teardown of the Berlin wall.

My buddy the middle-aged Dane started crying. He tried to control it, couldn't, and left. Later he told me one parent was German and this entire side of his family had been locked in the Communist East since August, 1961. That's time enough for one generation to be be born and grow to adulthood while another one rots away and dies in a Peoples Republic where everything was decided by government for your own good. There was universal military service, universal government health care, universal employment, universal civilian gun prohibition, universal misery.

As I remember my friend's tears, I hope everyone can find a way to help our young people absorb the notion that things like The Berlin Wall are very real with very human consequences. They are not made for teevee movies.

Abby on the Ft. Hood massacre

I find a lot to agree with here.

Messing the troops

The electric teevee showed a busy mess hall during the moment of silence. I don't know where it was, but the on-camera troops were predominently Air Force enlisted men. There wasn't enough detail to identify the actual chow as the troops stood reverently, but it had nice color and was served on plates. The drinks (coffee, Coke?) were in stemmed glassware. Table cloths. Copious condiments. Carpet on the deck.

Ladies and gentlemen, today's military establishment is different from the one I knew.