Back from Vacation
I have some chores to do in the next day or two before I gear up again on Donkey Path. The vacation was good though my wife and I had to dodge some spring time rains. We saw some beautiful sunsets though. And we saw two sea otters playing in the surf completely oblivious to all the troubles in the world; I was jealous.
I finally got around to reading George Packer's, The Assassin's Gate; an excellent book I highly recommend because he doesn't settle into easy lines of discussions. I found plenty to disagree with and plenty of new material I was glad to read and I kept muttering to my wife, "I knew it was bad over there, but it was bad, really bad." Bush reduces all of us to incoherence!
While I was gone, Bush seems to have launched a public relations campaign to deal with the three year anniversary of his disastrous decision to invade Iraq. Bush truly is the MBA president. He's like a guy who's still making personal pagers or even slide rules who thinks if he can just wave the flag hard enough and spend enough money on public relations, he can get people to buy his product ("Support the troops. Buy my slide rule!").
In the meantime, Rumsfeld is blaming the media for pointing out that slide rules are out of fashion. Rumsfeld is quick to point out that he has the most modern equipment available for making slide rules but he can't admit that slide rules will never do the job.
Cheney, at the same time, is claiming that slide rules work for him and they ought to work for everyone else. This is from the guy who can't shoot straight.
Condi Rice, of course, claims she's an expert on slide rules, knows their history and knows everything there is to know about slide rules but she fails to admit that she doesn't actually know how to use one.
In the meantime, conservative members of the media are trying to tell us that working a slide rule is just as good as computer calculations; if it's good enough for Bush, we ought to salute the president and stuff our pockets with slide rules.
Every few months, Bush's poll numbers fall further. It is admittedly a slow process but Americans are catching on.
Note: If you don't know what a slide rule is, visit your local museum or just Google.
I finally got around to reading George Packer's, The Assassin's Gate; an excellent book I highly recommend because he doesn't settle into easy lines of discussions. I found plenty to disagree with and plenty of new material I was glad to read and I kept muttering to my wife, "I knew it was bad over there, but it was bad, really bad." Bush reduces all of us to incoherence!
While I was gone, Bush seems to have launched a public relations campaign to deal with the three year anniversary of his disastrous decision to invade Iraq. Bush truly is the MBA president. He's like a guy who's still making personal pagers or even slide rules who thinks if he can just wave the flag hard enough and spend enough money on public relations, he can get people to buy his product ("Support the troops. Buy my slide rule!").
In the meantime, Rumsfeld is blaming the media for pointing out that slide rules are out of fashion. Rumsfeld is quick to point out that he has the most modern equipment available for making slide rules but he can't admit that slide rules will never do the job.
Cheney, at the same time, is claiming that slide rules work for him and they ought to work for everyone else. This is from the guy who can't shoot straight.
Condi Rice, of course, claims she's an expert on slide rules, knows their history and knows everything there is to know about slide rules but she fails to admit that she doesn't actually know how to use one.
In the meantime, conservative members of the media are trying to tell us that working a slide rule is just as good as computer calculations; if it's good enough for Bush, we ought to salute the president and stuff our pockets with slide rules.
Every few months, Bush's poll numbers fall further. It is admittedly a slow process but Americans are catching on.
Note: If you don't know what a slide rule is, visit your local museum or just Google.
posted by Craig at 12:21 PM
4 Comments:
Welcome back. I had a slide rule... where is that thing!
terrell, I had a slide rule too and I was waxing nostalgic to my wife about them five or six years ago. Three months later, I got a slide rule for my birthday that she had found on e-bay!
And yes, I put the slide rule on a shelf with other curios from my past.
Now if I can just get my old Royal manual typewriter fixed.....
Well, after doing a little research on major wars, especially WWII, Americans weren't the only ones slow to come around to somebody's S.O.S. (Snake Oil Salespitch).
jenifer d, welcome to Donkey Path!
Forgive me if I'm not totally sure what you're saying in your comment but if you're reading about World War II, you're ahead of most people these days. Over the years, I've read extensively about the 30s and 40s and most of what I have learned still applies in 2006; if you're interested in the era, read Malraux, Koestler, Orwell, Primo Levi, Paul Scott and even Herman Wouk, all of whom give some honest perspectives on the times that are outside the many excellent histories and biographies.
I hope you hang around.
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