We have reached a point at which patriotic Americans, with only the best interests of their country at heart, are fervently hoping for a recession.
I try to watch the debates as I do baseball - while reading a book - but whenever there's cheering there's never a replay.
My concern about socialism in the U.S. (having lived for two years in the Soviet Bloc) is: Will it come with socialist realism?
I started this blog on January 2, 2009 by writing about a visit to Versailles on New Year's Day - the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution. (Some old men drinking coffee tried to lecture us on the evils of Communism and Hania told them not to bother - "I'm Polish," she said.) Saturday I stayed away from the famous Little Havana restaurant - it seemed to be a uniquely Cuban celebration and, even though welcomed, I would have felt like a party-crasher. Watching it on TV I realized that Cuba is now in the unusual position of possibly becoming one country in the world that actually moves forward.
(I'm off again, this time on a little road trip to promote my book. Will be back here on Dec. 5th.)
A lasting image (at least for me) of the 2012 Summer Olympics is of London mayor Boris Johnson suspended on a zip line several feet above the ground. As I recall, each of his chubby hands held a small Union Jack. The announcer, Bob Costas, painted the mayor as something of a buffoon, unaware, probably, of his journalistic career which included editorship of The Spectator, in whose pages I first made his acquaintance. I thought it unfortunate that this learned, witty man would now be seen by Americans as an ineffectual clown. How things can change in four years.