American Views Abroad


Monday, April 28, 2008
 

It's time out for total hip replacement surgery. The so-called merry month of May will be devoted to learning how to walk again and to take some time off from observing the political circus and all the ill winds it brews up in wars, torture and running the nation aground. It will be time to read books again. Novels, for example, The Sorrows of an American by Siri Huvstvedt, and an interesting book sent over by a good friend in Pennsylvania, Three Cups of Tea --- One Man's Mission to Promote Peace---One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, as well as Das Wochenende by Bernhard Schlink, among others.

Back in the late 70s working on an MA in England, it was perplexing hearing other Americans mock Jimmy Carter for taking time-out to think about things before making decisions. Real Americans know on the spot how to make decisions. Think about that 3am telephone call. Perhaps it would not be a bad idea for all of Washington to take some time off and get a grasp at what is really happening in the world outside.

Till sometime in June......


Monday, April 21, 2008
 

Putting things into perspective before the voting begins tomorrow, a letter from Washington: Campaign stereotypes are spoiling the race by Albert Hunt.

'And Barack Obama isn't an elitist. When he graduated from Harvard Law School he didn't join a Wall Street firm or serve on the board of a big company; he became a community organizer at a fraction of what he could have made. ……Judging by polls and conversations with some voters, rank-and-file Pennsylvanians see through the phoniness of bittergate.'

www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/20/america/letter.php

Of course, there isn't anything left to do but wait and see till early Wednesday morning.


 

 


Sunday, April 13, 2008
 

No one can point it out better than Dick Cavett. Memo to Petraeus &Crocker: More Laughs Please:

And no one need be unlucky enough to be dead or hideously wounded anymore. Those unfortunates are merely 'casualties' ---- a sort of restful-sounding word. I have a friend who would like to say to our distinguished warrior, 'General Petraeus, my son was killed in one of your challenges.'

http://cavett.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/11




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