QATAR

What is today? I think it is Friday April 25. I flew from DC, leaving Dulles on Qatar Airlines at 9:50 p.m. and I have arrived at the Doha Airport in Qatar and it is Friday night here at 7:30 pm. I leave at 9 pm for New Delhi and will arrive around 3:30 am on Saturday morning. I will highly recommend Qatar. They are reported to have the best Business Class in the business and I admit it was pretty good. I missed dinner, went to sleep in my flat bed and pajamas (yep, they give you pajamas) and slept a good 6-7 hours. Probably snored, but no one poking me or telling me to turn over. (I miss that by the way.) Anyway, I am currently sitting in the lounge of Qatar Airlines. It is like a big expensive hotel lobby, but with all the food and drink you want, good stuff like dried apricots and dates, along with more traditional western fare.

Qatar is a small island nation that sits just off the eastern (?) shores of Saudi Arabia. Stable monarchy I think. Nobody marching in the streets, yet. People are very nice. I want to say that Qatar has escaped the sort of suppression of women’s rights that exist in Saudi and some other smaller Emirate nations, but I speak from very little real experience. Just the impression that I got from the very….very talkative lady from Canada who sat, or slept next to me on the flight. She was very friendly. Husband was an accountant and they had lived in Doha for 13 years. I will post a pic with this if I get a chance.

Now it is off to India where the people are many, the services are few and life swirls around inspite of the dramatic differences in social class. Ah the Hindu’s you gotta love em.

The Evil Shopping Cart

February 18, 2011



The Evil Shopping Cart
I was shopping at HEB the other day watching people pile these shopping carts that will hold 4.5 cubic feet (176 lbs) of stuff with tons chips and sodas and meat and bread and super sized boxes of sugary cereal and 5 pounds of potatoes, and I thought “The evolution of the shopping cart was the downfall of the health of the American society.” Prior to the invention of the shopping cart we would not have dreamed of hauling 5 lbs of potatoes home on our back. We would not lug a weeks worth of groceries home to a family of four. We would not carry liter bottles of soda pop home to the house, one in each hand. It is a twist on the classic, but “If you buy it they will come and eat it.” It is clear. Shopping carts are obviously a terrorist plot to destroy the health of American society.
Let’s look at the scientific data. It is believed, according to Wikipedia (source of all knowledge) that the shopping cart was invented in Oklahoma in 1936. One night, the owner of Piggly Wiggly’s grocery, Mr. Goldman “…sat in his office wondering how customers might move more groceries.” Now Oklahoma is one of sixth fattest states in the union. Shopping carts!

It is undeniable that the average weight of American’s is going up, up, up this century. Although I can find no data pre-1936, in 2002, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published the findings of a study that charted the changes in the American body since 1960. It found that Men aged 20 to 74 weighed 191 pounds on average. In 1960 the average was just 166.3 pounds. So the average weight has risen nearly 30 pounds. The Shopping Cart!

Don't you see?!?!? The shopping cart was a uniquely American phenomena. If you travel to most European neighborhoods, groceries are carried in small bags from 90% of the stores around the world. People often stop by the neighborhood markets and grab small loads of groceries on the way walking home from work. Yes, I said walking. It is this thing that lots of people do around the world, and you don’t see them hauling a sack of potatoes on their back and a liter of soda pop in each hand when they walk out on the street. But I’m sure it’s just a matter of time until we improve everyone else’s lifestyle as we have improved ours.

 


Egypt

This is a shout out to every Egyptian who is fighting for a true democracy in Egypt.   Free from fear or reprisal from a government who think they can hang onto power by fear and through abusive behavior.  Those people have risked their lives, their families, their possessions to try and force change.

The U.S. has supported Mubarak for decades because they decided the devil that they knew was better than the devil that they didn't know.   He is an 82 year old dictator that has ruled Egypt with an iron fist, emplacing secret police who have run wild for decades, arresting people, imprisioning people, torturing and abusing the Egyptian people.  It is wrong and it simply has to stop.  For the U.S. to support the emplacement of another of Mubarak's cronies as VP is insulting to the people of Egypt.  I don't blame the protestors one bit for feeling insulted by the gesture and even more insulted and angry that the U.S. who has funded Mubarak's reign for all these years would be so haughty as to say "Here, why don't you take this instead. This is better than what you have now."  Sometimes it insults me to think my government behaves the way it does.

I guess time has long since passed when we felt like we actually had some semblance of control over what government does.   We see in the Egyptian people what it takes to cause change.

Is the North the new South?!?!?

I have been struck by the number of chicks from northern states who are Tea Partyin' bad ass broads who sling guns, drive big trucks, tell the world to kiss off, etc.  I mean look at Sarah P.  She has been setting herself outside the norm for years.  Now she is the darling of the Tea Party jet set.  She can bring home the conservative bacon and gut the caribou.  I'm surprised we have not see her chewing the hide to make a nice leather jacket for 2012.  She is stealthy, I mean what male politician can  sidestep a pregnant, unwed teenage daughter in a political campaign.  I thought that was pretty impressive.

Now this other woman, Michelle Bachmann, has come along from Minnesota no less, who is definitely pushing all the liberal buttons she can find.    I mean is there something about the long dark winters that is breeding the type of woman who we are seeing in Palin and Bachmann, these huntin', fishin', deer guttin',  scarey sort of supremicist types ?  All lipsticked up and lookin' ready to take on the entire money spending establishment.  Is it too much time in the evening to watch reality TV and Facebook?  Is it marketing gone wild for the benefit of the all might buck.

It's like these people are trying to take over the image of the southern, kkk-lovin' good ol' boy, who drives a swamp stomper pickup and tells the entire world to just "kiss my red neck ass".  Is the North the new South?  Have we in the South so failed in our mission to look stupid and say stupid things that this role must be taken over by the matriarchs of the North?  Maybe global warming will tone things down. 

And by the way, why have all the Republicans been showing up on Dancing with the Stars?  First Bristol Palin and then Tom Delay.  It's like the elephant's grave yard.