Aug 3, 2010

Second Warning

The AP is again reporting the annual compilation of  auto thefts by model. The top of the list is the "blinged-out Cadillac Escalade SUV, a favorite of A-listers like Tiger Woods...".


I have previously, in this space, recorded my decision that bling is a silly and unnecessary word which should be avoided. I now note that I have already spoken sharply to the mainstream media about this, and my patience is not  inexhaustible.

Aug 2, 2010

We are supposed to be comforted?

In Atlanta today President Barack Obama tells the VFW: ""But make no mistake, our commitment in Iraq is changing — from a military effort led by our troops to a civilian effort led by our diplomats."


If I were one of the tens of thousands left in uniform in that godforsaken hole, I would be petrified because I can name the supreme leader of dipomats in one bar: Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Jul 30, 2010

Many things  are now very clean here at NEF Headquarters, particularly the  command van and outside decks. The Plan of the Day includes squeaky cleaning the truck transport section, along with a portion of the base maintenance/administration building prior to exterior painting.

This makes your Commandante feel good, but PsyOps cautions him that the novelty of the new power washer will, in due course, wear off.

Gung Hay Fat Choy

And that pretty much exhausts my fund of Chinese language skills. Oh, I know a few Cantonese words that are supposed to request a package of cigarettes, but they were taught to me by an impish Russian/Chinese girl in Hong Kong who was not above a little joke. For all I know she was having me tell the shopkeeper that I desired a bowl of bat feet garnished with navel lint.

These quirky memories were triggered by the morning news report that China has become the world's No.2 economy -- our chief competitor. For the sake of my grandsons'  future, I hope we are keeping track of the dragon with an appetite for lebensraum. I hope we are carefully watching the the strange machinations of the Communist capitalists in the Forbidden City and the Capitalist communists down  around Shanghai.

But I wonder.  Do what ever you want with these fun facts:

China's GDP now exceeds every nation but our own. Spain and Latin American aren't even in the running.  Spanish is,  by millions of students, the most studied foreign language in the United States.

And then there's France,  and when's the last time you heard of a French accomplishment except  the annual public relations  explosion celebrating their successful sale of another year's worth  of pre-nubile Beaujolais to American naifs? French is the second most studied language here.

Students of Chinese don't  make a blip on the charts.

Mon Dieu! I thought this was the kind of disconnect between the real world and the publik skul classroom we'd never have to worry about once we got a cabinet-level Department of Education.