Catching up...
I've been gone to the Four Corners area and not posting or even reading/listening to the news. A lot seems to have happened without really changing anything. We did discover that Qana was probably all faked (anyone surprised?), the Israelis are willing to get a real buffer zone, the UN thinks they can create a buffer zone, the UNIFIL troops don't think so but are game to try, Secretary Rice has done her job and gotten no credit, the POTUS has IDed what needs to be done but is still ridiculed, there's a thing about August 22nd (I've got a dentist appointment on the 21st so at least I'll have clean teeth for TEOTWAWKI), and I'm reunited with my dog.
I was on a bus tour that went from Salt Lake City to Moab to 4-corners to Durango to Silverton to Durango to Chama to Antonito to Sante Fe to Albuquerque. Had to listen to some mountain climbing egotistical hippie decry the POTUS environmental record and some totally ignorant old farts applaud the comment. Had to deal with airlines who apparently no longer care if they are on time or if you make your connections (although the pilots give lip service to the idea). Had to deal with airports that think you enjoy packing your wife over 2 miles from one gate to another through crowds of people trying in vain to make THEIR connections. Had to deal with an irrational fear of bottled sodas and water. I think it will be another 6 years or more until I fly. I bet that helps the airlines.
Met some nice YOUNG folks (hell, I'm almost to the point that anyone NOT on a bus tour is YOUNG folk). Getty Lee Desmond, I guess you get to see your name in print on the net! Getty (or is it Getty Lee?) is a river/rafting guide and aspiring culinary expert. Best of luck to him, he's got the public relations bit down pat. You have to give two thumbs up to any young man who can row 7 miles, tell you everything about everything along the river, get you wet without generating one complaint and nearly dump you in the river to accolades for his "daring".
Of course he wasn't the only one. There's the fiery (can I say that?) young blonde waitress at Christina's Bar & Grill in Durango who had to deal with our tour's resident jerk (and owner/operator of a five-star "French" restaurant). That girl should appear beside the definition of "poise". What a trooper!
Still, we come back home and find that Olmert is going to accept the UN's proposed resolution (hell, they already had one they couldn't enforce) to create/maintain a buffer zone so that the terrs can't rocket (easily/cheaply anyway) Israel. Still not going to help Lebanon's government maintain its soveriegnty or disarm Hezbollah (spelling du jour) or bring the light back on Iran's insane President and nuclear policy.
The big news on the flight home or rather FOR the flight home was the plot apparently centered in the UK to smuggle liquid binary explosives on airplanes. This resulted in the banning of ALL liquids as carried by passengers. We also heard that Ipods, cell phones, and laptops (and other electrical gear) were banned in the UK and Europe. Might as well stay home and ban wrist watches. Why not just arm ALL passengers and put a camera in the toilets for monitoring. At least the rest of us wouldn't have to suffer for these few hell-bent (literally) terrs.
The August 22nd thing? Read or link to all about it at
Glenn Beck's site.
