A Brit looking at President Obama

Courtesy of the UK Telegraph

Cool Obama makes US yearn for Bush

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/6520286/Bloodless-President-Barack-Obama-makes-Americans-wistful-for-George-W-Bush.html

The last two paragraphs of a somewhat lengthy article are offered to you verbatim including UK English spelling.  America would like to note the contents and word choice.

“The White House argues that Mr Obama was not on the ballot last week and there is therefore no need to fret. The problem with this complacency is that voters were angry about the state of the economy, which Mr Obama can’t keep blaming on his predecessor. With unemployment now above 10 per cent, Mr Obama needs to show Americans that he can relate to what they’re going through, and take responsibility.

It could do him good to show he has a bit of fire in his belly. Perhaps he might make a decision or two based on gut instinct and deep conviction. In other words, maybe he should try being a bit more like Mr Bush.”

The writer Toby Harnden is one of the most respected journalists in Europe and writes for the UK Telegraph from his base in Washington DC.

Married to the Family

A family medical practitioner who often happened to be called upon in marriage squabbles once told me that there are most often three sides [or stories] to every divorce. I asked him because it was the first time I heard that.

 He said: “Well, you know, there is her side and there his side with the truth, the third side, somewhere in the middle.” I reminded me of what they say is a true story in a local rural community. It was the best farm in the region [everybody’s envy and the owner’s pride] and it was the fiftieth wedding anniversary. It was to be an all day affair and the old guy had decided to do the wise thing to throw it open to all comers; some total strangers came as he had expected anyway. There was everything, but everything, and plenty of it, free and on the house.

Towards early evening one of these fellows asked the old guy how they had managed fifty long years; what was the secret to be happily married for fifty years [he confided that he had had three failures in ten years].

The wise old guy said: “Regular holidays apart, son. My old girl came back two months ago from a visit to her family in Greece, and it has been bliss ever since, just like the time we got married fifty years ago.”

 “How long was she gone this time?”

 “Son, I shall tell you the secret only because you asked me. She has only been away once. I took her there two months after we got married because she always wanted me to meet the whole extended family and she was starting to nag me about it. I had the farm to run and came back after two weeks; she returned two months ago as I told you. She came over for short visits and I went over once in a while in between.”

He then pondered briefly before he added: “And you know what? Divorce is messy at the best of times, and a very expensive affair what with legal costs and court hearings. I didn’t have the guts for it and I didn’t want to lose my farm.”

 That’s the third side in the medical practitioner’s version; the truth is that people often marry the family or they are expected to do so. The family all want to advise and to do that they have to visit or you must visit them. Don’t tell them about you seafront cottage; they will occupy it all the time with you footing the bill for repairs, drinking and eating, plus new bed linen of their choice.

You can’t debate anything with that kind of family; and you are not allowed to argue or lose your cool with them because you will be accused of discrimination. They want to take over your whole life and run it for you; they want to make the decisions and you must obey, because you married the family with the spouse. It’s a kind of a package deal.

 “Why would you want to keep a milk cow in your city home, and feed the whole herd that she comes from on the open range as well if you can buy enough milk at the supermarket,” another wise sage once asked.

 So I am asking:

 Why does Obama want to marry America to the Middle East, and why, I mean what on earth for, would England want to marry the EU or Europe? Who is going to pay for the divorces?

Joe the Wordsmith

Senior Time/CNN/Times Warner/Swampland Joe Klein is indeed a gifted Wordsmith.  He has a way with words that many of his contemporaries have reason to envy.  Joe can write almost every genre.

But unfortunately for Joe he has attached him to the shadow of the President and cannot see the wood for the trees.  Most other times he gets the cart before the horses and starts fumbling in the ensuing confusion.

Let us take his latest childlike fantasy:

Obama’s Foreign Policy Needs a Domestic Boost

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1925834,00.html?xid=rss-joeklein

I take that means if the President can succeed with Healthcare at home his foreign opponents will embrace him with fondness and come to his rescue at home.

But the Presidents Foreign Policy initiatives are in tatters and all countries are in the same boat with Domestic issues on the priority lists.  Prime Ministers and Presidents Worldwide are fighting for their own survival.  Traditional Voter Support Blocks want to change and are opposing the incumbents.  British Voters want to get rid of their Government and the European Commission.

What support can President Obama expect from?:

Time Joe Klein Pursuing conventional warfare in Afghanistan is about as effective ….. [read it and have a chuckle].

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1924324,00.html

  Ahmadinejad: Iran’s Man of Mystery

By Joe Klein Thursday, Oct. 01, 2009

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1927100,00.html?xid=newsletter-daily

 ObaMao on the (Fake) Cover of TIME

http://china.blogs.time.com/2009/06/11/obamao-on-the-fake-cover-of-time/

 It clearly shows what China thinks of the President.

 Don’t Worry So Much about Iran’s Nukes

Joe Klein Thursday, Jul. 23, 2009

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1912132,00.html?xid=newsletter-daily

 But Europe is demanding President Obama’s head for this.

 Time Joe Klein McChrystal may have overstepped by dissing one possible course of action.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1929103,00.html

 Others have stepped into the fray and it looks bad for President Obama:

http://my.telegraph.co.uk/lockey/blog/2009/10/29/an__open_letter_to_president_obama_?com_num=20&com_pg=4

 A man from Turkey gets his point in:

Absurdity!..US President Obama awarded Nobel Peace Prize

http://my.telegraph.co.uk/metin_yilmaz/blog/2009/10/09/absurdityus_president_obama_awarded_nobel_peace_prize

Metin YILMAZ

Oct 9, 2009

 And a Brit is laughing out loud:

President Ihaveano Dinnajaket of Iran wins Nobel War Prize

http://my.telegraph.co.uk/steddyeddy/blog/2009/10/09/president_ihaveano_dinnajaket_of_iran_wins_nobel_war_prize

 The President’s problems don’t stop there.  It is merely the Start because China is on the move.  They have taken over the GM Hummer but that is small fry.

 In the past week the South African Corporation announced China and the Democratic Republic of Congo have signed a massive Road Construction deal.  They have signed with Zimbabwe for mining and new Coal Electricity Plants.

 Australia signed a Trade Pact with China

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,,26279240-36418,00.html

“The relationship between Australia and China is very unique; we want to build it into a model for relationships between China and other western countries,” Mr He said.

“Not to be driven by ideology, not to be driven by single issues but driven by common interests and our more converging interests. That is how to bring the benefits to the people.

He will address business leaders in Sydney at lunchtime today before travelling to Canberra to meet Kevin Rudd, attend a state dinner tonight and end his trip in Brisbane. The leaders will sign agreements covering forestry, protection of cultural relics, education and training and telecommunications.

On top of all this, in the past weekend in El Campeador’s American WordPress Blog site:

http://elcampeador.com/2009/10/31/china-taps-huge-copper-reserves-in-afghanistan-what-do-we-get-ohh-just-some-dead-brave-americans-who-sit-there-as-target-practice-for-maggots/

 State Secretary Clinton throws her hands up in despair about progress with Pakistan:

 http://elcampeador.com/2009/10/30/we-never-will-hillary-people-must-must-understand-that/        

What does President Obama keep himself busy with in the meantime?

 http://elcampeador.com/2009/10/30/obama-lifts-ban-on-us-entry-for-those-with-hiv/

Joe, I somehow doubt whether President Obama can expect any assistance from abroad and it seems evident the His success at home will be determined at home.

An American Halloween Story

This is great fun because I picked it up, courtesy of an American Blogger, in a Blog in the UK Telegraph Blogsite and quote verbatim with [I am sure] his permission, seeing he is from Elkins AR where all the nice people live.

HALLOWEEN COSTUME

A bald man with a wooden leg gets invited to a Halloween Party.  He doesn’t know what costume to wear to hide his head and his Leg.  So he writes to a costume company to explain his problem.

A few days later he received a parcel with the following note:

Dear Sir,
Please find enclosed a pirate’s outfit. The spotted handkerchief will cover your bald head and, with your wooden leg, you will be just right as a pirate.

Very truly yours,
Acme Costume Co.

The man thinks this is terrible because they have emphasized his Wooden Leg and so he writes a letter of complaint. A week goes by and he Receives another parcel and a note, which says:

Dear Sir,
Please find enclosed a monk’s costume.. The long robe will cover your Wooden leg and, with your bald head, you should really look the part.

Very truly yours,
Acme Costume Co.

Now the man is really upset since they have gone from emphasizing his Wooden leg to emphasizing his bald head, so again he writes the Company another nasty letter of complaint…

The next day he gets a small Parcel and a note, which reads:

Dear Sir,
We have TRIED our very BEST Please find enclosed a bottle of molasses and a bag of crushed nuts.  Pour the molasses over your bald head, pat on crushed nuts, stick your Wooden Leg up your arse and go as a caramel apple.

Very truly yours,
Acme Costume Co.

Courtesy of, and credit to the man from Arkansas in:

http://my.telegraph.co.uk/oldcountryboy/blog/2009/10/26/halloween_costume

Poor guys on the Island across the pond don’t know about Halloween because there was only one comment, FROM ME, YOURS TRULY.

Have a happy Halloween gals and guys, make it last into the weekend.

Bless America!

Joe the Fumbler

It never fails to amuse how many guys we get that is called by the name of Joe.

One happens to be Joe Klein, senior writer for the Time Rag, and the sage at Time Warner/CNN Blogsite Swampland.

Indeed a prolific writer he is, but though he likes to sneer at Krauthammer and Mark Steyn, and of course at Former President Bush who happens to be happily retired, Joe is the greatest critic of Joe because he forgets what he wrote the previous time[s].

Once a vociferous opponent of the Iraq war he propagated an all out war against “the real enemy” in Iran.  In the process he has tackled Israel and French President Sarkozy, the latter whom he scorned more than Italy’s President whom he called “ The Berlusconi thing” in:

The Berlusconi Thing Comes To The White House

http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/06/15/the-berlusconi-thing-comes-to-the-white-house/

Meantime he became disenchanted with President Obama about Iran; it seems he [being Joe the Great] felt that the President of the United States should listen better when Joe speaks.  See:

Ahmadinejad: Iran’s Man of Mystery

By Joe Klein Thursday, Oct. 01, 2009

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1927100,00.html?xid=newsletter-daily

He did remain quiet when President Sarkozy had a tiff with President Obama.  See courtesy of Breitbart/Big Government/by Maura Flynn via Instapundit in:

http://elcampeador.com/2009/09/26/sarkozy-mocks-obama-at-un-security-council-hello-big-media/

This must have been too much for Joe:

Obama: “We must never stop until we see the day when nuclear arms have been banished from the face of the earth.”

Sarkozy: “We live in the real world, not the virtual world. And the real world expects us to take decisions.”

Poor Joe!  He doesn’t know which way to go now but must make an effort to show he is still the greatest, but then he fumbles everything in a hopeless mess between USA foreign and domestic policy affairs.  All he can muster is “But diplomacy moves slowly, if at all”.  See:

Obama’s Foreign Policy Needs a Domestic Boost

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1925834,00.html?xid=rss-joeklein

It is hilarious and reminds me of what someone else told him a short while ago.  Was it Ezra Klein who said: “Stop kissing Joe. It’s not going to work this time. We all know about the one?”

Meet Joe the Fumbler.  Or is it time to call for Joe the Plumber?

Nobel Prize as seen by Europe

What does Europe say about the Nobel Peace Price?  If you want a good spread of opinion the UK Telegraph Blogsite is a good starting point.

Here is one with a bit of humor:

http://my.telegraph.co.uk/steddyeddy/blog/2009/10/09/president_ihaveano_dinnajaket_of_iran_wins_nobel_war_prize

Another one is from a Turk with a known dislike for Europe and the EC, except for his desire for Turkey to become a member and his hatred for the countries that oppose Turkey’s membership in that Union without Unity.  Americans may not like his views because he doesn’t always come over well, but he is a regular:

http://my.telegraph.co.uk/metin_yilmaz/blog/2009/10/09/absurdityus_president_obama_awarded_nobel_peace_prize

This one is very serious:

http://my.telegraph.co.uk/wbc/blog/2009/10/09/what_were_they_thinking

And this is from an analytical mind that drew a lot of response:

http://my.telegraph.co.uk/mr_peregrine/blog/2009/10/09/peace_prize

An American presents Catholic American views.  He is a regular at the UK Telegraph:

http://my.telegraph.co.uk/frj/blog/2009/10/09/the_nobel_prize_is_a_joke

Read the articles and comments and judge it the way you decide.  The links will take you straight in but if you want to leave a comment you have to register as a Blogger with the UK Telegraph before you can do that, and that may be tedious.  Just reading will give you enough of an idea.

Sefrican Redneck Story

For my American Blogger Friends [tongue in cheek but with a smile].

 

Courtesy of my email friend.  Contents verbatim, no editing.  Names of towns and cities are as in real life in the Northern Territories near Sodom and Gomorra in South Africa.

 

Subject: Vasectomy – A Different Type (JA) [that JA means Yeah in American English, pronounced more or less the same in Sefrican, which means South African, but you will be able to work the rest of the pronunciation out, I HOPE].

After having their 11th child, a Brakpan couple decided it was enough. So the husband went to his doctor and told him that he and his wife didn’t want to have any more children…

The doctor told him that there was a procedure called a vasectomy but that it was expensive. (For people staying in Brakpan, paying more than R50 for anything other than booze, car accessories or a sound system, is expensive).

A less costly alternative, said the doctor, was to go home, get a cherry bomb (fireworks are legal in Brakpan), light it, put it in a beer can, then hold the can up to your ear and count to 10!
 
The man said : ” Aag, yinne, I maait not be de cleverest oke in the wurld, but I dussin see how putting a cherrie bom in a beer can, next to my ear, are going to help me “

“Trust me!”said the doctor…

So the man went home, lit a cherry bomb, and put it in a beer can. He held the can up to his ear and began to count: ” Wun, too, free, for, faaife, ” at which point he paused, placed the beer can between his legs, and resumed counting on his other hand……..

By the way, this procedure also works in: Witbank, Vereeniging, Vanderbijlpark , Springs, Primrose, Kempton, Benoni and Boksburg

Life is a Journey

Yes, it is a journey and not to be confused with a trip from, say, London to Perth.

Trips are cluttered with suitcases, the inevitable cameras and more than twice the clothes you need that you have to schlep through customs and “baggage collect” at airports. When I still traveled a lot my daughter always wanted to come and help me packing “so that Daddy would not forget the toothbrush.” Now I have finished with trips in this Blog though I may occasionally refer to them to illustrate the mind of the Journey.

You don’t take any baggage on Life’s Journey because you don’t need any. You buy a toothbrush at the first stop on the journey.

The Journey does have a beginning and an end but does not have a clear given destination when you start out. There will be weather changes on the way and that means a change in plans. So it’s best to avoid rigid planning of the routes ahead. A traveler will encounter many a moment of choice when he comes to a crossing on the Roads of Life. Each one will present an easy route or a more difficult one. There will be side roads into the highest mountains leading you to lush and fertile valleys on the other side, or you may take the wrong turn and end up in an avalanche. There will be pleasant drives near riverbanks but you will have to cross some dry desert lands too.

There will be changes in seasons and the wise traveler will find joy in all of them. Spring cannot last forever and you need autumn to witness the spectacle of the Red Oak in Arkansas and how they change daily through autumn, or the fall as Americans call it. An eternal spring will rob you of the Red Oak extravaganzas on Life’s Journey. You will have cool evenings with balmy nights and hot days when you can hardly breath; icy cold ones will make you wish you were in the tropics, but then you also miss the red oak. You will only know the full ecstasy of joy on the high mountains if you know about the depths of despair and the pain in the darker lonely valleys along the way. Love and pain are not mutually exclusive on the Journey of Life; they are in fact intertwined and each one part of the other.

Why is this so?

It is because Life’s Journey is in the mind. It all happens up there, if one assumes that the mind is in the head, which I don’t necessarily think is the place because the mind is so much bigger than the brain. The mind is the greatest gift to mankind. That is where Life’s Journey takes place, where you collect the gifts to “take home” if you were on a tourist trip, or with you on the roads ahead as I prefer to call it.

There will be more if you like it. I find myself at a crossing of the roads right now and I have pulled off onto the roadside to rest a while and ponder which way to take at the crossing. But I will take your comments and listen to your advice while I sit here. That much I have learned on my journey through life; to watch, see and listen to the sounds of the mind while you ponder the three ways out of the crossing. I am saying three because you cannot turn back on Life’s Journey. It is an old cliché on life, but irrevocably true in Life’s Journey that each day comes but once, never to be repeated; at the end of this day it is gone forever like all the others before. You can never walk back to repeat the journey behind you.

Two tongue in cheek Questions

Two Blogs recently attracted attention in the UK Telegraph.  One covers America versus China in World Trade and the other one examines the pros and cons, and the chaos, emanating from the EEC.

EU facade could crumble on back of crisis

http://my.telegraph.co.uk/lockey/blog/2009/09/14/eu_facade_could_crumble_on_back_of_crisis

Opening Shots

http://my.telegraph.co.uk/quincunx/blog/2009/09/14/opening_shots

Do read both the Blogs and the Comments.

Regional Trade Agreements are not new phenomena; America has its NAFTA with Canada and Japan enjoyed “preferential trade status” with America for years; Gadaffi gets beaten down regularly on his African Dream of an AEC to beat the dollar.

The EU of recent times however, has a lot in common with the old USSR system where political ties and “Central Governments” became subject to the political will of the predominant country.  This is not the case with NAFTA.

Two Questions:

Name the country that virtually controls the price structure and supply of steel in the World.  We are talking about the finished end product, not the raw ore.

Name the two countries that are about [signing is expected any day now] that will merge interests to establish the third-largest telecommunications conglomerate in the World.

Well, let’s throw a third question in while we are at it:

What was the primary catalyst for the American Independence War?  You have an easy multiple-choice answer; name the correct one from:

Trade Control, Freedom and/or Liberty, Human Rights, Democracy, or was it Capitalism versus Socialism?  Name only one.

Go for it!

It’s 8 years ago today

Will the World remember?