“The business of America is business” said Calvin Coolidge, America’s greatest president; the obvious implication is that the business of America’s enemies, the Foreigns, is using their eight weeks of vacation to sit around in romantic cafes, smoking and discussing their latest extramarital affairs with rueful detachment. That’s why it’s particularly disheartening to learn that America remains a nation of unemployed slobs while European countries like Germany, Spain, and even (shudder) France are doing better. That’s just pathetic, America. Pathetic. [BBC]- Top-level military officers are unsettled by Robert Gates’s plans to cut the number of top-level military officers. [WP]
- One of the spies that we traded those sexy Russian spies for seems kind of ungrateful! He wants to go back to Russia, the country that put him in a Siberian prison camp, and still isn’t sure how sending newspaper clippings to foreigners constitutes treason. [NYT]
- The Afghan National Army launched a big-boy operation all on its own, without NATO help! It went “disastrously wrong.” [BBC]
Hott lederhosen pix courtesy of www.goaslschnalzer.de
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Did the German’s return to practicing 15th century Austrian economics? Is that how they did it?
The important thing is that our rich people and corporations are better than their rich people and corporations, because our rich people and corporations are persons with constitutionally guaranteed rights — unlike in Europe, where they have “duties” and “obligations.”
Let’s all tune in to “The Real Housewives of Corporate Corruption” next week. I’ll bet Tasha accuses $tephanie of being a slut.
My prediction: Just as the US instituted the Marshall plan in the 1950s to keep Europe from turnning Commie, Europeans will soon institute a Sarkozy plan to keep US Americans from becoming the Teabag Kingdom of Freedonia (It will involve massive shipments of Bordeaux, Brie, unfiltered Galoises and the Classics Illustrated versions of La nausee and Being and Nothingness).
[re=638031]Cape Clod[/re]: Yes, they battled the Turks to a standstill before the gates of Vienna, and then invented pretzels and/or croissants. Now, they’re just raking it in.
(Note: I know I have the century off. But, well, pretzels.)
Yes, but the girl in the picture obviously has a vitamin deficiency. She hs ricketts. Reminds me of the Popeye song:
“I likes to go swimmin’
with bow-legged wimmin
And swim betweens their legs.”
[re=638035]Serolf Divad[/re]: You forgot Asterix. But aside from that I fail to see anything wrong with that scenario, as long as it works. And even if it doesn’t, we’ll have our bordeaux, brie and gauloises.
[re=638035]Serolf Divad[/re]: Cher M. Sarkozy, I am leaning towards going full-on teabagger rogue unless I get one of those airdrops by this afternoon. Bisous, Norbert.
Oh, that Afgan Army action, really, really, didn’t go very well. What drives me insane is that who fights for who over there is really just a matter of who pays more. The Taliban pays like 300/month and the Afgan Army pays like 225/month. It cost us a million dollars a year to keep one U.S. soldier there, so we could basically buy off the entire Taliban for about a platoon worth of U.S. soldiers. Instead we decide to do it “tactically”, which pretty much amounts to using a Diamond studded Rolex watch as hammer, and then constantly complaining about how expensive the Rolex watch hammers are.
I, for one, welcome our new French overlords.
First of all, if you read your history, those guys were totally down with Ben Franklin, and if you didn’t know, he’s one of the Founding Fathers you hear so much about. Also, Ben Franklin was a notorious kinky fuck, like Frank Booth in Blue Velvet, and that’s why his name is now slang for MONEY and you DO know what’s up with THAT.
So that’s why I have sex with anonymous people I met on Craigslist. Because I’m a patriot. In France.
Duh. Fewer Indians means fewer chiefs.
Awwww… pity the poor academy grads. All your gaming of postings and choice staff positions will have come for naught.
Don’t you guys remember your Von Clauswitz? “No plan survives first contact with the enemy.” That includes your career plans in becoming the next MacArhur or Fredenhall.
It’s a shameless lie that we have 8 weeks of vacation.
Most people in Germany have only miserable 6 weeks.
Hurray for the Germans! The Deutschlanders are a 1.5% monthly economic growth, mostly from exports. That would be trinkets like BMWs & Mercedes (plus Rolls Royce & Bentleys which now are part of VW_land) purchased by America’s bidness bonuses. Those German car purchases couldn’t have happened if the bonuses were cut and used for payroll. But speaking of payrolls, or the lack thereof, in the 2nd QTR US manufacturing productivity jumped 4.5% while labor costs went down 6.1%. Hurray again and thank you unemployeds!! Amurica could not have done it without you. Zombie Coolidge is still doing his magic, so Glenn Beck can stop his praying!!!
[re=638047]Troubledog[/re]:
Old Ben also used to sit naked in front of an open window each day for his health. I’d really prefer if our new French overlords didn’t bring that back. My neighbors just aren’t attractive enough. Heck, I’m not attractive enough.
We’re going to have to go Cold War on their Euro butts, and not in a Marshall Plan/Free World way either. More like a Monroe Block police state to keep Real America from noticing the prosperity of the rest of the world.
If I wasn’t such a slacker I’d have my American Bride site up by now. OTOH, that export biz comes after the fall and Americanas are still just to fat to compete in this market.
Will this prompt the broke-as-we-are Brits to crank out more “comedy” about WWII or less?
[re=638040]Baby who ate the Dingo[/re]: No, no. It goes like this:
“I likes to go swimmin’
With bow-legged women.
Bend over, I’ll drive you to Dallas.”
At any rate, that’s how we sang it in Texas.
I don’t know who these jokers are – bring back bow-legged Heidi so I can sweat up my lederhosen some more.
If that’s what our intelligence services amount to, why can’t they just send some embassy staffer down to the corner kiosk for a copy of Pravda every morning and shitcan that whole CIA thingie
[re=638085]BeWoot[/re]: I learned at UTSA that “gig” meant to use your male protuberance near the output section of livestock. Like, “Gig ‘em Aggies!”
[re=638101]Baby who ate the Dingo[/re]: Hey! Go OOTSAH Roadrunners!!! —1988
[re=638058]Terry[/re]: Maybe old Ben was on to something with his “air baths” — he lived to be 84 in a time when the average person lived to be 47.
But Americans can still remember very proud of the fact that we have the most entitled, spoiled, narcissistic, frivilous upper class EVER!
[re=638054]Herman the German[/re]: 6 weeks vacation plus 14 public holidays = 8 weeks.
New Years Day
Epiphany
Good Friday
Easter Monday
Labour Day
Ascension
Whit Monday
Corpus Christi
Assumption
Day of German Unity
Day of Reformation
All Saints Day
Repentence Day
Christmas
“Afghan defence ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi told the BBC that ANA operations like the one in Laghman routinely take place ahead of parliamentary elections.”
Who’d a thunk?
This can’t be right. Europe is socialist.
USA!!! USA!!! USA!!!
[re=638361]DC Hates Me[/re]: Unless you live in Bayern where you get a few more.
[re=638850]butlerdi[/re]
You all missed St. Stephen (which makes me doubt Herman is a German).
Anyways, there is no way to enjoy all those holidays even if one would life in Bavaria (i.e. no Reformation Day there – only eastern states have that one).
Actually it’s 12 or 13 holidays in Bavaria and 9 to 11 in most of the other states, for most predominantly Lutheran states having dropped Epiphany, Corpus Christi, Assumption and All Saints.
[re=638057]weejee[/re]:
This is not about Americans buying German cars (i love my Ford!). The trade deficits or surpluses of most European nations reflect trade within the EU more than anything else.
German trade surplus is mostly about importing vegetables from Almeria (insert a region in another european country with a trade deficit here), exporting some manufactured goods to Spain and spending the surplus on vacation (and probably puking on some innocent Spanish guy’s shoes in the process).
All of this is caused by the inherent defects of having a single currency for entirely differnt economies and fiscal frameworks. Of course, from a southern European perspective that’s not exactly…nice.
Most Germans being completely naive and oblivious about this is rather depressing as is me never having more than 9 holidays so far.
Anyway, comparing imports and exports of NAFTA to those of the EU is probably more useful than comparing German trade to U.S. trade.
[re=638058]Terry[/re]: Used to swim daily in the Thames, when he was a lobbyist in London. Considering how foul the Thames was, that took courage.
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