Guest Contributor – ArthurinCali – 27JAN2023 – Observations Overseas

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Japan is high on my list of most interesting countries for several reasons. One, the aesthetics of the architecture and layout of the landscapes were so distinctly different from what we see in the US. Decorative shrines, the villages, even big cities were impressive. Attention to detail and respect for their history could be seen in a lot of things they build, if that makes sense.

I was fortunate to be there for extended periods while on detachment which allowed the opportunity to travel around during my off time. Taking the train to Hiroshima to visit ground zero of where the atomic bomb was dropped is humbling. They has an interactive museum there with many artifacts that survived.

Not one country, but the Middle Eastern region was an experience of near-total culture shock. Dubai, Kuwait, Bahrain, and the UAE left quite an impression on me as to how different other ways of life can be from the USA.

Europe…was kind of disappointing. Yes, France and Monaco were neat, especially as I have French ancestry, but the attitudes towards Americans they display is not just a stereotype. I understand that is a strain of the culture to be a bit brisk and come off as rude, but for an East Texan raised on Southern manners and politeness it was not easy to get used to. haha

One quick example of French ‘politeness’: I was at the Cannes train station about to head to Monaco and spotted a deli with croissants. Looking in the glass display I saw that the price appeared to say €10 for one. I thought that might be mislabeled as the currency conversion meant it was over $10 for one. I asked the deli employee if that was the price. “That what it says on the paper,” he replied as he walked off. So yeah, it was an experience.

Italy is one of the countries I want to go back to one day. I spent one day in Rome seeing the sights, and would love to go back. Being able to walk right up to the Coliseum and touch it felt amazing. So much history to take in.

Steel, Lead or Silly Putty

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This week has been a crazy mish-mash of unexpected occurrences.  Extra work, surprise meetings, a pleasant event on the website, some additional weather-related work around the homestead and a couple of unexpected appointments.  Nothing bad but enough interruptions to my schedule to put me off my game.  Complain, moan groan.  But the show must go on.  So, here’s hoping I get my act together going forward.

I love Dopey Joe’s vow to veto any legislation that comes to his desk.  The stupidity of that statement truly reflects the reality of his intellect and the intellect of his voters.  The Democrats control the Senate.  Any legislation that comes to his desk for signature has to be approved by the Senate.  So, if the Republican House gets the Democrat Senate to agree on a bill, then Biden will automatically veto it?  Either he’s a moron, which is true, or he believes his voters are morons, which is also true.  Come to think of it, he’s remaining true to himself and his voters.  Gosh, he’s a paragon of integrity.  He’s the moron’s moron!

I’m very anxious to see just how far the House will go to fix the budget problems.  If they were very serious, they would write a real budget bill with realistic additions and subtractions that the Democrats would hate but could live with.  Then they could dig in their heels and only respond if the Senate provided a counter proposal that they in turn could respond to.  In other words, restore the former procedure whereby an actual budget was legislated.  And as I said they could delete most of the crap that the Democrats have filled the current budget with.  And they can write in laws to prevent things like the COVID lockdowns from happening again.  That would be a revelation.

Sure, during the lead up to such an event the media slimeballs would be keeping up an hourly drum beat on all the people of color and LGBTQ people who were, possibly, dying in the streets because a budget wasn’t in place.  People like Mitt Romney and Mitch McConnell would be on the steps of the Senate weeping and flagellating themselves over the white guilt they felt over this outrageous cruelty to the most vulnerable among us.  Think of the children!

But if McCarthy and his people could just hold together their majority, eventually Dementia Joe and Chuck Schumer would come begging with hat in hand to get the budget done.  And then we could eliminate this monthly ritual of approving the non-budget that we’ve been living with since Obama and finally get some measure of fiscal responsibility happening again.  One thing they should demand is that the budget of the FBI should be reduced by twenty percent and everyone working there also take a twenty percent pay reduction to begin the process of pulling their teeth.  Sure, there would be an enormous noise and some of our congressmen would mysteriously die but that’s not too high a price to pay for making things better.  At least not to my mind.

So, let’s just see what kind of spine Kevin McCarthy has discovered.  Is it steel, lead or silly putty.  Hopefully we’ll find out soon.

Guest Contributor – TomD – 26JAN2023 – Life on the Florida Panhandle – Part 1

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TomD

 

I live on the Florida Panhandle. I think the area is ideologically closer to being a part of Alabama than the peninsula. Add to that the heavy military, ex-military presence and relatively sparse Southern indigenous population and we’re essentially our own little time capsule.

There are damn few weirdos here to self expel, though, if they ask, we’d be happy to help.

My nearest neighbor, who lived a few hundred yards away, died a few weeks ago. He was, like me, an ex-Marine, A Sergeant Major (E-9) but he had 24 years in compared to my pitiful 4.You can’t imagine how impressive a real USMC Sergeant Major is. They are disciplined, dedicated, controlled, focused, steady and composed. Marines call it squared away. Everything we should aspire to be but almost all of us fail in some or several aspects. He had a flagpole in front of his house and played reveille and taps at appropriate times and ran the Colors up and down with appropriate ceremony EVERY day. You don’t see that in Manhattan.

 

Update:

Comment from Ed Brault

Reminds me of this great short:Reveille.
https://youtu.be/YyZ9b4My6NUhttps://youtu.be/YyZ9b4My6NU