COLLECTIVE MADNESS
“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
probably not. much too hot to be a virgin.
ReplyDeleteoh yea.
ReplyDeleteLink
ReplyDeleteTHAT's WC?
ReplyDeleteNot likely, doug
ReplyDeleteDR, you going to warmer and wetter climes?
ReplyDeleteWC has taken a more religious path these days. She is an interesting lady and I wish her well on her travels. She always has a seat at the bar.
ReplyDeleteLet us hope she does not need to use the Ejection Seat.
ReplyDeleteHas everyone here seen that video of the Phantom hitting the end of the Carrier, and the pilot living to fly again?
ReplyDelete...must have been a bit sore for a while.
There will be a
ReplyDelete"Cowboy in the Jungle"
but not today.
There's a cowboy in the jungle
And he looks so out of place
With his shrimpskin boots and his cheap cheroots
And his skin as white as paste
Headin' south to Paraguay
Where the Gauchos sing and shout
Now he's stuck in Porto Bello
Since his money all ran out
So he hangs out with the sailors
Night and day they're raisin' hell
And his original destination's just another
Story that he loves to tell
With no plans for the future
He still seems in control
From a bronco ride to a ten
He just had to learn to roll
Funny thing about that song, written by J Buffett back in '78,
by '82 I'd partied in Porto Bello and had rode with some Gauchos in Paraguay and then got to play some polo in Argentina.
Then reality intruded
Couple of more years, have to get Jr reeducated and my little girl into college.
Did buy a few hectres in Panama, though.
DR, Hoping to be starting a new project soon in Punterenas.
ReplyDeleteThere were some interesting Golfito properties on craigslist. But the fellow that was promoting the remodeled tico houses seems to have gotten discouraged and wanted to sell out $99,000 USD for two little houses and a building lot.
ReplyDeleteWe picked up a couple of hectres of hillside in Chilibre. Jr is calling on a nine room motel and bar, on the waterfront with a pier in Porto Bello. Starting the recon of the target area. craigslisted at $225,000, but "needs work".
Great educational tool, craigslist.
2164th wrote, "WC has taken a more religious path these days. She is an interesting lady and I wish her well on her travels. She always has a seat at the bar."
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing to talk about on the Global War on Terror front. Bush is busy hyping, as the final solution, another modest troop surge that used to be part and parcel of any pre-election clamp down. Oil prices are trending downward due to a slowing economy and global warming, which will make President Ineedanewjob impotent to jawbone them back up. Democrats refuse to defund Mr. Bush's war, so it will sputter on for two more years. Iraqi roadside bombers make $80 dollars every time they go through the catch-and-release cycle.
We will continue to maintain your place at the bar should wish to post anything that you feel would be of interest.
ReplyDeleteFascinating story on saddam's final minutes:
ReplyDelete..."Before he left the camp, Mr. Hussein bade farewell to American soldiers who guarded him during the latter stages of his 1,110 days in solitary confinement. There, and again after the helicopter carrying him landed at 5:15 a.m. at Camp Justice, the American military post in the Kadhimiya district of northern Baghdad that encloses the Istikhbarat prison, the former dictator went man to man, thanking each of the Americans for looking after him.
At 5:21 a.m., he was led into the prison, a forbidding, four-story concrete building that once housed the headquarters of Mr. Hussein’s military intelligence agency and now is a base for an Iraqi Army brigade. The Americans took him to a holding room and exchanged papers with the prison governor formalizing the transfer.
“At that point, he was dignified,” Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, the American command’s chief spokesman, said at a briefing later. “He said farewell to his interpreter. He thanked the military police squad, the lieutenant who was the squad leader, the medical doctor we had present, the American colonel who was on site.” He added, with emphasis, “And then we had absolutely nothing to do with any of the procedures or any of control mechanisms or anything from that point forward.”
At 5:30 a.m., the Iraqis took over. An American official who watched said Mr. Hussein’s demeanor “changed in the Iraqi prison when the Iraqi governor assumed control of him.” Mr. Hussein had long since told his American captors that he trusted them but not the Iraqis.
“He was still dignified, but he was scornful,” the American official said."...