What do these people have in common?

I mean besides the fact that they all have bad taste in clothes?


Answer in comments.

¿Cómo está?

The other morning I walked into an office and a man leaning on the counter turned to me and said "¿Cómo estás?"
I stopped for a beat, thought and said, in English, "Not too bad."

After leaving, I though on my discomfort for a while. What should I have said?
I ran a few ideas around in my head. ¿Cómo estás? What does that mean? Idiomatically it means How are you? But literally? literally it means What is your state?

What is my state? Well, 'Georgia'. But more than that, the United States. Los Estados Unidos. Personally, I prefer not to learn Spanish. I am not Xenophobic. I had high school Latin. Three years of high school French and placed out of the language requirement in college (my only out-placement). I used to be able to speak and understand Vietnamese (hardest language I know of) after being in their country only a few months. I Speak some Japanese (better than most sushi-bar patrons. I actually took classes from the local Japanese association) I can say Thank You in seventeen languages, Merry Christmas in six.

But I reserve a special place of contempt for Spanish. You see I live in an area that has been a special target of the Mexican invasion. Some of my schools are 70% or better children of recent Mexican immigrants. Others have immigrants from as many as 100 countries. But there is only one group that will not learn English -- the Spanish.

So my answer to ¿Cómo estás? henceforth will be "États-Unis". Close enough for them to get the point.

Diogenes, Is He The One?

Roughing It

The hotel has no pool, there is no firewater served in the Navaho Nation, and it is a long miserable (although beautiful) drive to civilization (or actually anywhere else), but comfort is relative. The hotel, the only one in miles and miles, is so new that it doesn't even show on Google Maps. The restaurant serves Navaho specialties (bring Tums) that are delicious and attracts locals as well as international visitors. The view is spectacular ... and familiar.

When I think of all the films that were shot here I also think of a photo of a woody station wagon in front of El Capitan taken in 1941 of what is now US 191. This was when approaching this area required hours of non-air-conditioned driving on dirt roads across the desert. And I think of John Wayne and John Ford and all the entourage required in shooting a movie being brought out here for who knows how long to shoot against these beautiful and familiar backgrounds.

I am glad I did it ... Once.

A Living, Breathing Document (with Disclaimers)

New Record: Oldest Person Ever Fired For Cause!

Is it just me, or does she look like the personification of evil just on appearances?



Veteran nonagenarian Helen Thomas was asked to resign today as White House correspondent. Ms. Thomas was noted and widely loved for her free-wheeling attacks of Republican Presidents over the last 60 years; but she crossed the line and exposed her true feelings about her employer's (Hearst News), and one of William Randolph Hearst's, pet projects:

Hearst described Kristallnacht as “making the flag of National Socialism a symbol of national savagery” and advocated the creation of a "homeland for dispossessed or persecuted Jews.”* When news of the Holocaust began to seep out of occupied Europe, Hearst covered it as important news, in contrast to other newspapers which downplayed the mass murders.*

Wikipedia on William Randolph Hearst

I suspect Ms. Thomas, based on her observations of President Obama's speech and actions toward Isreal and the Jews, and Secretary of State Clinton's and the press's disapproval of recent Israeli defensive actions thought it was now sufficiently safe to be open with her antisemitism.

Somewhere in Highland Ranch, Colorado there is a man ... A man who, I hope remembers a conversation we had in the Summer of 2008. The man was an observant Jew and an Obama supporter. I warned him of antisemitism coming back into favor along with Candidate Obama and his support of the Muslim world. He told me it was the Christians and not the Socialists who were antisemitic. We will see who was right.



*Jerusalem Post, April 22, 2009, Rafael Medoff, Hearst and the Holocaust

Great Comments from Washington Times Online

f42b3b70037e2dca783d250c37a5f7 says:

Welcome comrades! Our most blessed leader knows what is best for us, oh unworthy sheeple. Soon, we will not be subjected to the incessant arguing that occurs on that hateful FOX News, but will hear only the quiet still words of our dear leader. All will be in harmony, as we rise to new levels of debt and to government spending yet unimaginable. We must throw off the yoke of these outdated 18th century concepts of freedom, constitution, and truth and be liberated to enjoy the unfolding of a glorious new world order. Dear leader knows what is best for us. Listen to his soothing words as he leads the way into the light . . .

Wait . . through the light. . what is this vision? Why do I see teeming masses of people with electronic counters on their heads? Ah, comrade, these are the damned, the taxpayers of the new world. They pay a tax for each breath, each thought, each word, each motion, for the good of dear leader so that he can spread his message of peace and bring harmony to our world.

Good bye America. R.I.P.

*****************************************************

and by Soxconn:

The only thing Obama could not control during the election was the internet. If you take into account the Fairness Doctrine, net neutrality and now this, it is three attempts to constrain the first amendment like no other president has. Number four is placing an 'I believe the first amendment should be constrained for socially redeeming purposes' judge on the Supreme Court. Only time will tell.

We're All In This Together, Really?

"It only stands to reason that where there's sacrifice,
there's someone collecting the sacrificial offerings.
Where there's service, there is someone being served.
The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters,
and intends to be the master."

Ayn Rand

Expensive Tomatoes

I was given a gift bought on an impulse purchase - the latest fad item for growing tomatoes. It cost about $10 at Fry's.
To round out the purchase I have bought:

A Tomato plant $4.00 (The set has to be sufficiently large to survive the transplant)
A Bag of peat moss to fill the bag $6.98.
Tomato fertilizer (OK I had that from last year)
And a stand to hold the bag high enough and out in the sun for 7 hours a day. $15.87

These tomatoes had better be good -- $35.85 will buy a lot of tomatoes!

Not all white elephants are white. Some are green.

We Have Met the Enemy, and He Is Us

Pogo was right. How many times this week have you heard that we need to get those bastards at BP and "make them pay"? I have even heard the death penalty called for. The more astute among us will note that we are responsible because we buy all that gas. But, even that is incomplete. Who are these bastards we want to get? Who owns BP? Are you certain that you don't? That's right, your very own retirement fund or mutual fund may be invested in BP. That's who owns most companies. So when you say punish them, you are really saying "Punish me". Remember this when retirement time comes.

Or when it never comes.