Meandering Crapola

Here's another excerpt from Thirteen Days:

"[...]in these present days of strain, it is well to remember that no country's leader supported the US more forcefully than did France. General De Gaulle said, 'It is exactly what I would have done,' adding that it was not necessary to see the photographs, as 'a great government such as yours does not act without evidence.'"

...

Anyway, PalBrannon tells me there are people disputing the historical accuracy of portions of the memoir, and after a rudimentary search of Wikipedia, was unable to come up with anything. If anyone has an idea, please forward to me via the email address listed somewhere around here.

Seems the intraweb is not on the helpful side today, as I was about to link to Sunday's Andy Rooney bit. Tuned into CBS a little early to watch the latest ep of The Amazing Race (which, by the way, is kicking about as much ass as it had in the early seasons), and was surprised to hear Mr. Rooney suggesting that GWB apologize for blundering into Iraq, and then for him to pull us out of same. Then he expressed that he didn't find it likely, as GWB has yet to concede to anything during his administration, and that Mr. Rooney doesn't remember either Clinton or Carter apologizing for their mistakes...I then wondered what either of them had to apologize for...A bj? How are sky-rocketing gas prices Carter's fault? The point is, you know you're in deep shit when Andy Rooney doesn't back you up.

Tangentially, notice that gas prices seem to go down right around the time elections come around?

I've been doing more reading than the "Musings" section to the right indicates (I really should update that soon)...Just got done reading Animal Farm for the first time in ages, and what a pleasant surprise that was.

No, I'm not going to go all "a perfect corollary to our present times" on you (especially when it's simply a primer for the real world). Instead, I'll just say that this should be required reading at the 5th - 7th grade level (as it was when I was in school). I'm fairly sure that Orwell's satire would go over well with that age range, by and large...excluding the more pointedly adult stuff, like the pigs experiencing a hangover for the first time, but then, the story works a lot like a Warner Bros. cartoon that way. What's really happening becomes clear when you've matured a bit.

I know the above is hardly an original thought. However, the sooner we teach kids to recognize the mechanics of politicians and power, the quicker they become immune, or at least aware, of what's happening around them. Hopefully, this'd happen before they become adept at chanting "Four legs good, Two legs bad/better" alongside the other sheep.

Hopefully.

I leave you with a final quote from Thirteen Days:

"...I believe our deliberations proved conclusively how important it is that the President have the recommendations and opinions of more than one individual, of more than one department, and of more than one point of view. Opinion, even fact itself, can best be judged by conflict, by debate. There is an important element missing when there is unanimity of viewpoint..."