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Weekly Notes:
August 18, 2008
I have crossed the Rubicon and I am ready to lead.
Don’t I look noble? After all, I look just like JC. No, not Christ.
I’m no egomaniac. I mean Julius Caesar. I think my likeness should be
on a gold coin.
Quotations:
I often quote some of the great writers of history in my
writing. That is because they have said things I wanted to say, but they did
it better. I always try to give proper credit for these little gems I use.
Therefore, I was a bit chagrin when Mrs. Gaffer pointed out an oversight to
me. I have used the quote, “What fools these mortals be,” often
in these weekly notes. I thought it was just an anonymous public domain
phrase. Of course, it is public domain, but it is not anonymous. I might have
known, it is part of Shakespeare’s work. It was part of Midsummer
Night’s Dream. Here it is in context. This is Puck speaking.
“Captain of our fairy band,
Helena is here
at hand;
And the youth, mistook by me,
Pleading for a lover’s fee.
Shall we there fond pageant see?
Lord, what fools these mortals be!
There is more of course, but that is enough to make the
case. Be assured, I will not use that bit of wisdom again without giving
credit to the author. I stand corrected.
War:
That is an ugly concept, but it keeps on happening. Now it
is Russia and
Georgia.
Historically, this Georgian republic has been in and out of Russia’s
control over many years. It was a prosperous kingdom before it was taken over
by Russia
somewhere around 1820. Then Georgians managed to break away in 1918 only to
be invaded by Russia
again in 1921. Once again they broke away taking advantage of the collapse of
the Russian empire following the Berlin Wall debacle.
Now they are under siege again. It seems Putin is
determined to rebuild the Soviet Empire. He is starting with Georgia,
but I am sure he will not stop with that. At this time, our great heroic
leader George can only bluster and posture. We do not have the wherewithal to
do anything else. Our army, pitiful as it is, is tied down in the Middle
East. It is too small to be a threat anyway. The Mad King is not
responsible for all of that lack of military muscle. He simply continued the
trend. We are at the end of a long decline in military power that began after
WWII when we though the bomb would be enough and we would not need an army.
Here is what Ronald Reagan had to say when he was President.
“We're in greater danger today than we were the day
after Pearl Harbor. Our military is absolutely
incapable of defending this country.”
Nothing has changed since then. We are very vulnerable and
we seem to lack the will to do anything about it. When Hitler took over Europe,
he gave us a lot of time to gear up once we became aware that he was not
going to stop, that we would have to stop him. Putin will not give us that
much time. He has a huge military capability and he has the will to use it.
He wants to rebuild the Soviet Empire and dominate the world. We are
powerless to prevent that. Putin has everything we do not have. They are
making words about a cease-fire, but don’t buy it. Hitler made the same
promises, over and over again.
Oh My!
This is one quote I will never forget. The local ABC news
show had a little eleven-year-old girl on their show. Her mother is in prison
and the girl said. “I will not have to worry about her being on the
streets now.” I wanted to cry when she said that.
A New Low:
McCain and his henchmen are making the case that Obama is
not quite American. His citizenship is in question according to these fools.
He was born in Hawaii. I always
thought that was a state in the Union. I thought it
became a state in 1959. That was fairly recent so I guess Hawaii
is not American enough. That seems to me like a thinly veiled racism. Duh!
Major Boondoggle:
The Zilwaukee Bridge
on I75 in Michigan is beginning
to compete with the infamous Boston Tunnel for screw-ups and bungles. This
thing was screwed up when they built it many years ago. It began to fall down
before it was complete and they had to brace it up with a quick kludge job.
It has been a problem ever since then and now they are kludging again. The
expansion strips or something is not right and they have been dinking with it
for over a year. MDOT, Michigan’s
department of Transportation keeps making statements for cover. The overriding
truth is, MDOT screwed up in the oversight of this project and the contractor
screwed up big time. They were never punished for that. It don’t change
much from year to year.
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