Eight Feet Deep

Google News has been a favorite site of mine for several years when I want to find news articles about a particular topic, or see a variety of takes on a topic. As those who use Google News know, it also features various international versions on the bottom of the page one might selet.

Several weeks ago, I decided to check out a few of the international Google News sites. Those sites included South Africa. Since then, each time I hit Google News I now get the South African version. This isn’t a serious issue. The news on the page is in English and I’d say less than a third of the stories are about Africa while the rest are primarily international or U.S. stories you’d normally see on Google News. It is also easy enough to scroll down to the bottom and click on the U.S. version. But I don’t understand why the South African site has hijacked my Google. I want my American Google dammit!

Speaking of Google News, I think maybe it was there where on Saturday I found a news article about a potential coup in Fiji. Granted, the story is not one that would shake loose a lot of international interest unless you regularly travel to Fiji, are planning to go or have relatives (or live) in Fiji. I spent a night in Suva, Fiji, when I was on a Navy destroyer about 28 years ago. While I thought the place was pretty in a tropical way, it seemed rather dismal over all. Nonetheless, I decided to see what little I could find on the Web about Fiji and its military history. Interestingly enough, it seemed that the first modern military operation it undertook was with the Ku Klux Klan, according to the Republic of Fiji Military Forces Web site:

“In 1872 the Royal Army successfully undertook its first operation against the Klu Klux Klan, a political organization of white settlers at Levuka which had offered armed resistance to Cakobau’s government.”

By Cakobau, I take it they mean the Fijian chief and warlord, Seru Epenisa Cakobau, who ceded his island to Queen Victoria. According to his Wikipedia entry, Cakobau also was a reformed cannibal. I suppose he found the British who made the long journey to the Pacific island a bit too difficult to clean before eating.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson wants former service members to wear their medals on Saturday, Veterans Day. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I would only wear two medals were I to wear mine tomorrow, which I won’t. One of my medals would be the pictured National Defense Service Medal, which is basically given service members during a time of war, or in other words “just showing up.” The other medal would be a Navy Good Conduct Medal which was really kind of extraordinary for me since it signifies that a sailor did not get in any serious trouble during one’s enlistment. That was definitely a little harder of the two to earn.

So, I don’t have anything against Nicholson’s idea. I just wish he would put his brain power to use in other more substantial pursuits such as cutting down the length of time it takes to see VA doctors or dispensing with all the bureaucratic bulls*it that one has to endure when dealing with the VA. Now that would be a really great Veterans Day idea.

I’m going to come back and look at this tomorrow just to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating.

It appears the Democrats have taken both houses of Congress. This makes me happy not because of any particular party loyalty but rather it provides a little hope that maybe some of our country’s problems can be made just a little better. I know, I know. I’m like Charlie Brown thinking he’s going to kick the football “this time.” But I’m an Astros fan. I’m used to disappointment.

It makes me extremely happy to see Rumsfeld go. I don’t recall Rummy doing anything particularly good or bad when he was Defense Secretary the first time, which was during part of my Navy enlistment in the mid-to-late 1970s. But Rumsfeld’s tenure this time could be equated to the Hindenburg crashing into the Titanic. Oh the humanity!

Rumsfeld does not bear the blame for getting us into the Iraq mess. But he can be blamed for his reckless and arrogant leadership which has put our troops into an untenable position. I just hope that both the Iraq Study Group as well as Rumsfeld’s presumed successor, Robert Gates, can find an exit strategy from this ill-advised war that will neither leave our nation completely dispirited nor weakened.

What is with all this hope and optimism from the original founder of the Pessimists club (Our motto: We would have a meeting but we are afraid no one would attend)? I don’t know. I guess I just like to torture myself. I’ve got to get me one of those waterboards … (Warning, danger Will Robinson: Facetious reference)

The changing of the guard at the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill leave our nation with a host of new opportunities. But those leaders who can make things work will be like a dog chasing a car and catching it. Okay Fido, you’ve got the car, now what are you going to do with it?

SecDef resigns. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out, Bubba.