The Ocklawaha River cuts through central Florida, from its headwaters in the outback to its joinder with the St. John’s (or maybe it flows the other way!). It is a beautiful scenic river, much of it running through the Ocala National Forest. Once upon a time, some really stupid politicians and developers thought it would make a much better ditch than river, and got the “Cross Florida Barge Canal” authorized. Much more romantic and appealing sound than “Ocklawaha River,” don’t you think? Anyway, some dredging and uglifying was done (billions wasted), and evidence of these can still be seen. There’s a really high bridge on Rte. 40 out in the middle of the national forest, intended to let high loads pass under. Well, cooler (smarter) heads prevailed and the project got stopped. The river remains. Fish Camps are found throughout old Florida, I have no idea why they are called that. This one lies just south of Rte. 42 which runs from Altoona to Pedro (well, there are other towns, but those two will do).
I see that the horrible military dictator/tyrant Musharraf is in a bit of a pickle (and we’re in the barrel with him). Our nation has a long, and really ugly, history of supporting evil blood-sucking dictators (the Shah of Iran comes to mind) when it (allegedly) served our national interest, and this is just another chapter. General Mushy destroyed what democracy there was in Pakistan, in a military coup, and has ruled with an iron fist since (with mucho help from us). Like most dictators, he’s an absolute coward, and has done little or nothing with the billions we’ve borrowed and given him to quell the evil of Moorish terrorists, and has allowed a large section of his country to be ruled by these hypocritical murderous thugs (I do not now, and never have, accepted that a love of “god” has ever played a role in their slaughters). What now Mushy? What now Bushy? This guy has nuclear weapons–do we doubt that he’d use them to stay in power? Do we have any doubt what the Moorish Murderers will do with them if they get them? Well, Mushy’s first response is to arrest everyone in his country who might disagree with him, and Bushy’s response is, well, let’s see, hmmm, (I’m still thinking, and while this thinking is occurring I see Secy. of Defense Gates on TV saying, of the crisis, that he has, well, nothing to say).
Not to be more long-winded than necessary, I’ll just throw out this thought to go along with the above: how come we are on the brink of war to keep Iran from having nukes, while we bent over like a guy at the proctologist’s office when Pakistan got nukes?
Before I sound too one-sided here [like I mean that], let us recall how dearly we are paying in blood and borrowed treasure to turn “Iraq” into a “democracy.” Maybe in Afghanistan, too. Billions to support repressive dictatorship, billions to support nascent democracies. We have the worst foreign policy (or policies) imaginable, and have had for decades, in fact, in my opinion, ever since WWII, or, perhaps more cogently, since the formation of the CIA. We have been “blessed” for many years by having really “smart” people think they had the inside track on how to run the world (truth is, I think they just liked playing cloak-and-dagger games), when, in fact, they were stupider than shit. Most of them had trust funds, so they were pretty cavalier about reality. They were the “best and the brightest” or “the smartest guys in the room” or some such thing. Lucky us.
I know my readershop goes straight into the tank when I mention anything serious, so here’s the light part of today’s missive: the town of Orme, TN, has run out of water. They tank some in from a town in Alabama, so people have a couple of hours of water in the evenings, but their budget is pretty much exhausted (buying this water and transporting it). Well, those folks probably never completely abandoned their outhouses, so they probably have a place to do their business and read about stupid starlets in magazines before using the pages for, well, their intended purpose. I’d feel bad talking about Orme and outhouses if I hadn’t, in my youth, had the “advantage” of those quaint facilities (I ain’t making this up!).
How about them Sox? Bears? Patriots? Jets? Etc.? How about Britney Spears budget of $100,000 a month for entertainment (and her $500 a month for charity)? How about that Hollywood writer’s strike?
Out.
