Far East Cynic

Good news for guys like me.

But a new paper in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research suggests that — for reasons that aren’t entirely clear — abstaining from alcohol does actually tend to increase one’s risk of dying even when you exclude former drinkers. The most shocking part? Abstainers’ mortality rates are higher than those of heavy drinkers.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2014332,00.html#ixzz0yA3TwO9f

Oh barkeep, fetch me a beer,  please!

Could be.

More strangely, the lobbyist and his boss both declined to comment on the supposition just days after being widely quoted on the topic. The Navy said, essentially, “No comment.”

But naval analysts and a retired admiral who commanded Atlantic Fleet surface forces say they’re hearing exactly what the lobbyist claimed: 2nd Fleet, in charge of fleet operations for defense of the East Coast and afloat training in the North Atlantic for more than 60 years, could soon be a thing of the past.

“I’m hearing that it’s going away,” said Norman Polmar, a nationally respected naval analyst who stays closely connected with the active and retired Navy. “U.S. national interests are no longer centered in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. … You don’t need a three-star admiral there for the one or two exercises a year.”

Quite a far cry from the great days when USS Mt. Whitney ( also known as witless) led port visits into British ports at the end of large NATO exercises. Of course now Second Fleet has no flagship and those days are long gone.

But this only makes sense if you also get rid of 4th fleet-an organization whose stand up made no sense to begin with.

The one positive side of this is that it would mean that there would be only one fleet for all the ships in CONUS-and given the desire to “load” ships on the Pacific side of the country, this might be a doable thing.

Now if they could just get to one Type commander staff-now you would be talking.

While commenting over at Phib’s place-out of genuine concern for a blogger I really like and read regularly-I put myself at odds with many members of the herd over there. My mistake-asking Phib what he was doing writing for a sleazebag like Breitbart. The thing is, as I started researching it, in order to better counter some of the more unfounded criticisms, I really got an eye opening about just how truly vile Mr. Breitbart is.

Like Glen Beck, Andrew Breitbart would just be dismissed as a crank, except that a lot of people read him. And quote him. That alone makes him-like Beck-a very dangerous guy. Very dangerous indeed.

Breitbart portrays himself as a journalist-but that’s really a stretch. What he really is, is a fabricator. A person who starts with an intended conclusion and then shape’s snippets of information to tell the story his way. Even though he has been caught out in an outright lie on several occasions, the media still refuses to treat him with the scorn that he deserves.

Breitbart owns several web sites: Big Government, Big Hollywood, Breitbart. com and his newest effort Big Peace. He advertises it as place for meaningful discussions about foreign affairs. That’s really a stretch-especially after one of his writers had the stupidity to compare New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s eloquent defense of religious freedom to Philippe Pétain’s selling out of France to Hitler.  Breitbart uses his writers like he uses his websites, to advance a particular Tea Party agenda.

Now that’s fine-he has a right to say what he wants-but he does not have a right to play fast and loose with the truth. Or when that doesn’t work-he just lies out right.

Consider the Sherrod case for example. In  heavily edited video clip Breitbart posted shows Shirley Sherrod, then the USDA Georgia Director of Rural Development, speaking at an NAACP Freedom Fund dinner in Georgia, and stating that she didn’t give a “white farmer” the “full force of what I could do” because “I was struggling with the fact that so many black people have lost their farmland, and here I was faced with having to help a white person save their land.” Breitbart characterized Sherrod’s comments as her“describ[ing] how she racially discriminates against a white farmer.”

The video got big play on Fox and it was used to pummel the President and others as being a racist-the charge Glenn Beck has made and just this weekend retracted. Sherrod was fired from her job.

Only there is a funny thing, when the entire video is viewed-the message of Ms. Sherrod’s speech is 180 degrees out from what Breitbart said it purported. Of course by then Fox News and every other outlet for the mentally impaired supporting conservative causes had ran it and made everyone involved look like dirt. Even when he was cornered about it-Breitbart refused to acknowledge the truth.

For example, NRO’s Jonah Goldberg has said that Sherrod is “owed apologies from pretty much everyone, including my good friend Andrew Breitbart,” CNN’s Anderson Cooper said Sherrod’s remarks “were taken out of context … She was smeared by allegations of racism, lost her job, and is now being redeemed by the truth, it seems, the whole truth,” and Fox News’ Glenn Beck said Sherrod “deserves her job back.”

There was of course-no such apology from our boy.

In the hours immediately following Senator Ted Kennedy’s death, Breitbart called Kennedy a “villain,” a “duplicitous bastard,” a “prick” and “a special pile of human excrement.”  Whether you disliked Kennedy or not-that is a little beyond the pale-but right in character for this guy.

But then again-what do you expect from a man who trained at the feet of Matt Drudge. As I noted, in an earlier post-you should always be very afraid when an acquaintance says, ” I was just reading on Drudge”. Stand by-you are about to be insulted with some very stupid things. And this was where Breibart supposedly earned his chops.

Most recently-Breitbart has actively gone after Ezra Klein- a pretty good writer who writes seriously and with conviction about the events of the day-placing a “bounty” on his listserv account where other journalists could exchange ideas. Breitbart maintains that it is a conspriacy to slant the news-Klein maintains just the opposite. Klein was forced to shut down his listserv-even though he had done nothing wrong and wrote two very well written posts debunking Breitbart’s hypothesis. First of all as Klein pointed out-the people in league with Breitbart have similar listserves and second-the evidence of a conspiracy is easily debunked. Nonetheless Klein was forced to shut it down to protect his other participants from the kind of outrageous character defamation Breitbart practices.

What is truly sad is that he gets away with it. Apart from Sherrod’s lawsuit-the rest of the media seems blind to his hypocrisy or afraid of it.

And you ask yourself why America has become so stupid and 87,000 sheep  people show up for Glenn Beck’s rally about nothing. Well look here-we have folks like Breitbart to blame.

Well sort of. The Romanian revolution actually started in Timiosara-but soon spread to the Capitol.

Revolutionary square to be exact:

Or as it is known to locals-the “olive on the stick.”

The big building on the left is where Ceaucescu was giving a speech when the crowd went nuts.

On the morning of 21 December Ceau?escu addressed an assembly of approximately 100,000 people, to condemn the uprising in Timi?oara. However, Ceau?escu was out of touch with his people and completely misread the crowd’s mood. Starting his speech in the usual “wooden language”, spurting out pro-socialist and Communist Party rhetoric, Ceau?escu delivered a litany of the achievements of the “socialist revolution” and Romanian “multi-laterally developed socialist society”. The people, however, remained apathetic, and only the front rows supported Ceau?escu with cheers and applause. As the speech went on, some in the crowd actually began to jeer and boo and utter insults at him. Ceau?escu’s lack of understanding of the recent events and his incapacity to handle the situation were further demonstrated when he offered, as an act of desperation, to raise workers’ salaries by 100 lei per month (about 9 US dollars at the time, yet a 5-10% raise for a modest salary) and student scholarship from 100 to 110 lei while continuing to praise the achievements of the Socialist Revolution, unable to realize that a revolution was brewing right in front of his eyes.

As he was addressing the crowd from the balcony of the Central Committee building, sudden movement came from the outskirts of the massed assembly, as did the sound of (what various sources have reported as) fireworks, bombs, or guns, which together caused the assembly to break into chaos. Initially frightened, the crowds tried to disperse. Bullhorns then began to spread the news that the Securitate was firing on the crowd and that a “revolution” was unfolding. This persuaded people in the assembly to join in. The rally turned into a protest demonstration.

The entire speech was being broadcast live around Romania, and it is estimated that perhaps 76% of the nation was watching. Censors attempted to cut the live video feed, and replace it with communist propaganda songs and video praising the Ceau?escu regime, but parts of the riots had already been broadcast and most of the Romanian people realized that something unusual was in progress.

Ceau?escu and his wife, as well as other officials and CPEx members, panicked, and Ceau?escu went into hiding inside the building.

If you come to Bucharest, I strongly recommend you skip the history museum and got to the military museum instead. It is interesting in two ways-first for it’s lack of explanation of historical events-but also for its gallery about the revolution. Including a display including the clothes the head of the Securitate was shot in. The blood stains still remain.

There are some monuments to those who died.

Same is true in the military museum-there is a huge plaque with probably 100o names on it.

Right across from the square is an old orthodox church:

That is one thing about this city-you do not see big Cathedrals like you see in Europe. Rather, you see lots of small churches tucked away in some of the most interesting places.

Located right up from Revolutionary Square is the Athene theater:

See the rest of the pix here.

At Beckapoolaza.

Just cause I like to beat this particular horse ( and I have never known anyone else who deserves a beating more than Beck does. And before you start Curtis it is not wrong to hate him.) I thought I would post a few pics from “real Ameruuuika”:

There it is, all wrapped up in minature, everything that is wrong with the festival of stupidity that occurred yesterday. Fat and stupid is no way to go through life lady…….

Plus-if you want to know what yesterday was really about-follow the money!

That I am glad I am not back in the states. (But it looks like I will be soon….. ).

Glenn Beck marching on the Mall to take back honor? Boy, that’s rich. Glenn Beck has no honor-save for his own pocket book. That is all he cares about. Somebody pour some tequila down this guy’s throat and get him back off the wagon.

Retaking the Civil Rights movement? It would be out-rightly ludicrous save for the sad fact that  sheep people will actually show up to this event. Ask yourself this one question:  If today were 8/28/1963, do you think Glenn Beck would have joined the March on Washington in support of the equal treatment of all Americans, regardless of race or economic status?

Not a chance in hell.

This rally is about two things and two things only. Enriching Glenn Beck and staking the claim that Tea Baggers always make that they-regardless of whether it is true or not-are mere victims. Of what you may ask? Evil conspiracies to deprive them of their wealth, their health and to reduce their status in society. Evil liberal conspiracies. Never mind that a lot of conservatives- people just like them-made some pretty narrow minded decisions, in their holy of holies, the free market, that deprived them of a lot of wealth.

Cause if there is one thing Glenn Beck does not have it is any command of the facts.

Does Beck want to take the full mantle of Martin Luther King? As in becoming a martyr? Maybe that is his  long term plan, to keep jacking up the rhetoric until finaly some nut takes a weapon and shoots at him? I really wonder-especially when you hear the hysterical tone in his broadcasts.

Because at some point if one keeps us this “we” vs evil “them” rhetoric it will come to violence-of that I am becoming rapidly convinced. Politics in America has become so crazy, so polarized and so based on basic stupidity, that its only going to take some spark to set off the powder keg.

Which is exactly what Beck wants.  It is not a new paradigm-in fact it is as old as time itself.  In a sane world the ravings of Glenn Beck would be dismissed as the ravings of a lunatic. Sadly however, we live in a country with too many stupid people-who actually listen to what this buffoon says and believe him.

Well I will not be among those sheep on the Mall-screw you Glenn Beck. I hope it rains on your parade-literally.

The person who wrote this must know how it feels to work for the place I work with. This is a gem that you should send to your friends.

KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 24 (UPI) — Throughout my career I have been known to walk that fine line between good taste and unemployment. I see no reason to change that now.

Consider the following therapeutic.

I have been assigned as a staff officer to a headquarters in Afghanistan for about two months. During that time, I have not done anything productive. Fortunately little of substance is really done here, but that is a task we do well.

We are part of the operational arm of the International Security Assistance Force commanded by U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus. It is composed of military representatives from all the NATO countries, several of which I cannot pronounce.

Officially, IJC was founded in late 2009 to coordinate operations among all the regional commands in Afghanistan. More likely it was founded to provide some general a three-star command. Starting with a small group of dedicated and intelligent officers, IJC has successfully grown into a stove-piped and bloated organization, top-heavy in rank. Around here you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a colonel.

For headquarters staff, war consists largely of the endless tinkering with PowerPoint slides to conform with the idiosyncrasies of cognitively challenged generals in order to spoon-feed them information. Even one tiny flaw in a slide can halt a general’s thought processes as abruptly as a computer system’s blue screen of death.

The ability to brief well is, therefore, a critical skill. It is important to note that skill in briefing resides in how you say it. It doesn’t matter so much what you say or even if you are speaking Klingon.

Random motion, ad hoc processes and an in-depth knowledge of Army minutia and acronyms are also key characteristics of a successful staff officer. Harried movement together with furrowed brows and appropriate expressions of concern a la Clint Eastwood will please the generals. Progress in the war is optional.

Each day is guided by the “battle rhythm,” which is a series of PowerPoint briefings and meetings with PowerPoint presentations. It doesn’t matter how inane or useless the briefing or meeting might be. Once it is part of the battle rhythm, it has the persistence of carbon 14.

And you can’t skip these events because they take roll — just like gym class.

The start and culmination of each day is the commander’s update assessment. Please ignore the fact that “update assessment” is redundant. Simply saying commander’s update doesn’t provide the possibility of creating a three-letter acronym. It also doesn’t matter that the commander never attends the CUA.

The CUA consists of a series of PowerPoint slides describing the events of the previous 12 hours. Briefers explain each slide by reading from a written statement in a tone not unlike that of a congressman caught in a tryst with an escort. The CUA slides only change when a new commander arrives or the war ends.

The commander’s immediate subordinates, usually one- and two-star generals, listen to the CUA in a semi-comatose state. Each briefer has approximately 1 or 2 minutes to impart either information or misinformation. Usually they don’t do either. Fortunately, none of the information provided makes an indelible impact on any of the generals.

One important task of the IJC is to share information to the ISAF commander, his staff and to all the regional commands. This information is delivered as PowerPoint slides in e-mail at the flow rate of a fire hose. Standard operating procedure is to send everything that you have. Volume is considered the equivalent of quality.

Next month IJC will attempt a giant leap for mankind. In a first-of-its-kind effort, IJC will embed a new stovepipe into an already existing stovepipe. The rationale for this bold move resides in the fact that an officer, who is currently without one, needs a staff of 35 people to create a big splash before his promotion board.

Like most military organizations, structure always trumps function.

The ultimate consequences of this reorganization won’t be determined until after that officer rotates out of theater.

Nevertheless, the results will be presented by PowerPoint.

The last of America’s combat forces are out of Iraq. So there are usual suspects lining up to congratulate the United States on its “victory” in Iraq.

There is only one problem with that line of thinking-the only winners in the Iraq war were China and Iran. China-because it got finance the whole undertaking by loaning money to the US, and by having a free hand to raise its diplomatic and economic profile in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia while it’s biggest competitor was distracted for seven plus years.

Iran because most of its current intransigence on the world stage can be directly traced to unintended consequences of the invasion and occupation-which created most of the pre-conditions for the rise to power of Ahmedwhathisname.

Don’t get me wrong-no one is happier than me to see us finally correcting this seven year old mistake and drawing down to 50,000 troops in that God forsaken country is a good start-but it is only a start. There will not be anything to celebrate for the US until the last America soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine is gone from that place.

Plus until then-its not the end of “combat operations”, the troops left behind still have fighting to do. To say they are not in a combatant role is a huge fiction, just the same as the “Mission Accomplished” fiction of 2003. Does anyone not think that the likelihood of continued combat operations is a reality? When casualties are taken by these “non-combat forces” will those casualties be characterized as “non-combat” as well? Does the public not understand that the secondary mission of our remaining forces is to be prepared to conduct combat operations either to defend themselves or to support Iraqi forces if requested?

We need to be honest with ourselves. The withdrawal is a long overdue development-but it is not the end for the US in Iraq.

Second, we need to be clear that the Iraqis themselves are still pretty screwed up, economically, politically and in about every other way too. Millions are still displaced in other countries or in Iraq. Do they even have a government yet-no. And since the stated purpose of the surge was to buy time for the Iraqis to effect political reconcilation, you can’t even put the “Surge Worked” stamp on the paper, cause it did not accomplish what it was supposed to do.

There is no agreement on how to share oil revenue, no resolution of the basic relationship between the country’s three major groups, and no decision on whether Iraq will have a strong central government or be a loose confederation.

And Iran is still a major thorn in both ours and Iraq’s sides. That hardly constitutes “victory”.

That would appear to be what all Presidents seem to do-from Bush to Obama and even back to Eisenhower.

Andrew Bacevich has a new article out about how Presidential wisdom get us in trouble. He also has a new book out about our disturbing trend towards permanent war.

I am a strong supporter of Net Neutrality-and for that reason I continue to view the Verizon-Google deal as a bad thing for all of the rest of us. Spike found a good primer that explains why:

[Via: Online MBA Programs]

Another week down-still not sure how many to go. I’m more than a little stir crazy at this point, but hey what’s a fellow to do? Have spent the morning, sleeping, eating, paying bills, and catching up on paperwork and expense reports. Another pretty nice day and not to hot here in “the Paris of eastern Europe” (Ummm…I don’t think so).  Have been purusing all the news I missed last week so here, in no particular order are some random thoughts.

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Jeffery Goldberg (Not to be confused with Jonah Goldberg-the idiot who wrote Liberal Fascism and continues to write stupid posts over at NRO) has a new article in the September edition of the Atlantic magazine.

 What is more likely, then, is that one day next spring, the Israeli national-security adviser, Uzi Arad, and the Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, will simultaneously telephone their counterparts at the White House and the Pentagon, to inform them that their prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has just ordered roughly one hundred F-15Es, F-16Is, F-16Cs, and other aircraft of the Israeli air force to fly east toward Iran—possibly by crossing Saudi Arabia, possibly by threading the border between Syria and Turkey, and possibly by traveling directly through Iraq’s airspace, though it is crowded with American aircraft. (It’s so crowded, in fact, that the United States Central Command, whose area of responsibility is the greater Middle East, has already asked the Pentagon what to do should Israeli aircraft invade its airspace. According to multiple sources, the answer came back: do not shoot them down.)

In these conversations, which will be fraught, the Israelis will tell their American counterparts that they are taking this drastic step because a nuclear Iran poses the gravest threat since Hitler to the physical survival of the Jewish people. The Israelis will also state that they believe they have a reasonable chance of delaying the Iranian nuclear program for at least three to five years. They will tell their American colleagues that Israel was left with no choice. They will not be asking for permission, because it will be too late to ask for permission.

Such an event would no doubt be hailed by “William the Bloody” Kristol and his other dimwit followers as a great event-but Goldberg lays out very precisely in this scenario that there is no free lunch-for either Israel or the US. The roof will most assuredly cave in -presenting the country with hideous consequences.

…..they stand a good chance of changing the Middle East forever; of sparking lethal reprisals, and even a full-blown regional war that could lead to the deaths of thousands of Israelis and Iranians, and possibly Arabs and Americans as well; of creating a crisis for Barack Obama that will dwarf Afghanistan in significance and complexity; of rupturing relations between Jerusalem and Washington, which is Israel’s only meaningful ally; of inadvertently solidifying the somewhat tenuous rule of the mullahs in Tehran; of causing the price of oil to spike to cataclysmic highs, launching the world economy into a period of turbulence not experienced since the autumn of 2008, or possibly since the oil shock of 1973; of placing communities across the Jewish diaspora in mortal danger, by making them targets of Iranian-sponsored terror attacks, as they have been in the past, in a limited though already lethal way; and of accelerating Israel’s conversion from a once-admired refuge for a persecuted people into a leper among nations.

Which was exactly the point Fox Fallon was making back in 2008 before being eased aside to make room for “an ass-kissing little chickenshit” -and a whole lot of other wiser folks have made since then, but that does not seem to have dampened the appetite of some people for war with out end.

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In Bucharest the word “sidewalk” is synonymous with “parking lot”.

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How stupid can your average American be? Pretty stupid, evidently. Consider this latest poll result:

 Roughly one in five Americans wrongly says President Barack Obama is a Muslim, according to two new US opinion polls out Thursday amid a furor over a planned mosque near New York’s “Ground Zero.”

And about 30 percent of Americans say followers of Islam should be barred from running for president or serving on the US Supreme Court, according to one of the surveys, published in Time magazine and available on Time.com.

That last little tidbit is pretty interesting, since it is in defiance of the Constitution, a document that the people who rant such idiocies pretend to hold dear.

Take it away Jon Stewart:

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Meanwhile, over here in Bucharest, I am waiting for the teabaggers to be out in full force in Revelutionary square any minute:

The government has approved the first budget rectification this year, cutting the budgets of several ministries and offering more funds in particular for the payment of pensions, of unemployment benefits and of other social benefits in order to avoid “the eruption of social conflicts.”

Romania has budget problems that make ours look small in comparison. However you don’t see folks out on the street holding stupid signs. What’s up with that?

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Sarah Palin and Dr. Laura get a civics lesson:

[T]he First Amendment doesn’t guarantee that speaking your mind will have no economic consequences. Proclaiming that those without thick skins probably shouldn’t marry outside their race is always going to be, let us say, commercially risky if you’re aiming for a broad audience — or if your sponsors are. General Motors and Motel 6 both reportedly pulled their sponsorship over the flap, prior to Schlessinger’s decision to leave her show. But whether that’s the right thing to do or the wrong thing to do, it doesn’t implicate the government; it implicates the profit motive.

In fact, the organization of a boycott is itself the exercise of First Amendment rights — GLAAD, or the American Family Association, or Sarah Palin, or Laura Schlessinger, anyone can publicly advocate for an end to the economic support of someone else’s speech. If you want, you can boycott them back — “Okay, if GLAAD is boycotting Laura Schlessinger, then I’m boycotting anybody who donates to GLAAD.” It becomes reductive and unhelpful at some point, and it may or may not be justified, and one side or the other may be substantively right or wrong — but all of it, from every angle and every political position, is consistent with the idea of free expression.

Because the “free” in that concept means “free from government interference,” not “free from consequences.” 

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And finally on a lighter note.

H/T to Spike!

Have a good weekend!

When you sit down to read Sarah Palin’s Facebook page:

Take pictures of people out and about on the streets. Try to sneak pictures of people! (And figure out what not to do with a zoom lens).

You can….Go to McDonalds-and check your cell phone:

You can go shopping in Old Town-and take your time to figure out what you want:

You can kiss your girlfriend on the street:

While others just wait for the bus:

Or you can go to the park and ride your skates:

Or just wear your short shorts:

Or just walk with your friend and talk:

Told you I’d get some pictures of the girls!

Complete set here.

It is not easy to combine a commentary on the New York Mosque with an additional comment on “Genbaku no hi” , but I am going to try anyway.

Just because you understand why the Japanese are the way they are-does not mean you are endorsing what they did. However, there will be no closure on either side until both sides have walked a few km’s in the other person’s shoes.

Judging by the amoung of commentary I have gotten on the previous post, I think it is important to state that-as a dedicated Japanophile-I still support the decision by the United States to drop the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I think deep down a lot of Japanese realize that too-even if they publically cannot admit it. But I also think people on the American side of the Pacific underestimate the change that has taken place in the Japanese people. The people who live in Japan today are no more responsible for what happened in 1945, than I am for American slavery. At some point people have to move on-when I do not know. Can any amount chagrin change the past?  No it can’t. But I would submit the Japanese have learned from theirs more than we have learned from ours.

Exhibit A:

Please note that Prime Minister Kan DID NOT go to Yasukuni, which is the equivelant of Arlington. That is a big deal. I think it because he is pragmatic and also willing to take on the folks in the black vans. He apologized to Korea. The US has never done that-unless you count the Korean War as an apology for TR’s active and one sided support of Japan taking over Korea. ( Something well documented in the book Imperial Cruise).

I can hear you saying, “Times were different then”. Yes they were-and times are different now. We need to make allowances for that.

Japan is a great country and I have nothng but respect for its people. That does not, however, mean that I don’t understand their idiosyncrasies.

What does all this have to do with the Manhattan Mosque controversy?

Simple-the Muslims have every right to build the facility on private property that has been legally obtained. Whether its appropriate or not is another matter-but the Constitution is clear about freedom of religion. I am no fan of Islam or Arabs-but the President’s statment was the only one he could make.

As “James J.  Wells” pointed out in one of my favorite movies, “We rely on you people in the press (the teabagger movement)  to behave responsibly. But when you don’t,  there ain’t a lot we can do about it. However today, I am going to issue a statement. You won’t like it very much. It is going to say that the Muslims are not the most sensitive and smartest people we have ever encounterd. But they haven’t done any thing wrong. It’s going to say that Sarah Palin and Newty Gingrich were real wrong to raise the ruckus they did about a clear cut legal issue. You may not want to print it-but it is going to end up in the paper”.

As Spike pointed out,

 ”One day you restrict where Muslims can build a mosque, the next day you’re drawing lines on where someone else can build a temple for followers of another religion, be it Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, whatever.  It’s as simple as that.

So as an American, as someone who was born in New York City and lived there for 40 years, as a Jew, as someone who lost friends killed on 9/11, I support the right of the Muslim community to build this mosque in this location.

And all of these people who are screaming about this, no matter how loudly they may proclaim their patriotism, simply do not understand the United States, its laws or what Freedom really means.”

That sums it up pretty well. We either do what we say we believe or we are no better than those we condemn-like the Japanese.

I have been very lazy this weekend. The weather here is so hot-that if you spend any appreciable time outside you are just dripping in sweat. So yesterday I just read a book, Bangkok Tattoo by John Burdett. I did go out and treat myself to a decent dinner-but soon after I was overtaken by real tiredness. So instead of going out prowling, I just went back to the hotel and fell asleep watching TV. Pitiful way to spend a Saturday night in Bucharest-especially if this project winds up soon. Which I hope it will. I’m thinking its time to get on home.

But today I will go up to Aviatorilor Boulevard to see this again:

Every weekend they have this flea market-only its more than just a flea market. They have some pretty unique things there. For example I was suprised more than a little bit to see this picture on display:

They had lots of Nazi military things too-like German military medals etc.

But they also have some other art as well:

The S.O. had a field day walking around looking for things to buy.

I just enjoyed taking in the scenery:

All types of scenery:

You can see the complete set of pix here.