… I was at college so I had to buy another one. $87 seems like a lot for 1968.

My Gitane would get me anywhere in Oakland faster than a car.

… here is my reply to Fred’s comment on Terror in Europe:

The War Street Journal reports a terror network has killed more than 160 people in Europe’s capitals in the last four months. For those keeping track, we are still way ahead (The technology we have beats theirs unless we give it all away). It’s just that we don’t have a book commanding us to commit these atrocious acts. We have a document that attempts to make it more difficult. I wouldn’t doubt the authors of that document had an extremely enlightened way of looking at consequences, that is totally lacking with the current crop of death tools in charge today. I’m not optimistic about an end to this trend until a large mass of people are personally affected such as happened in the Vietnam days. It took the acquaintances of 58,000 victims in those days. But those were on TV and mostly appeared as open spaces at class reunions and church services. The world is now a video game. Would our economy collapse without “our” protection of dependent “allies” all over the world, or would it flourish?

…But first this. As an eleven year old in Santa Monica I could have looked in the phone book and gone to visit Stan Laurel. And to think seeing Ronald Reagan was a big deal.

The EX was for Exbrook.

Big terrorist attacks in Brussels. In an airport. What I always thought would come eventually. Back people up in a line waiting to die instead of letting them flow sporadically through. The war on terror will continue to be an economic development project based on petty crime with the cost borne by our freedom and assorted collateral damage. Upstream lies Saudi Arabia, Israel and the defense (sic) industry.

So I found this picture of a popular villain as a diversion from our concerns:

snuh

…or whatever it is, will come to symbolize the feelings of millions of Americans if Trump can pull off the import tariffs he proposes. The $400 TV we just bought will be $600. China, Japan and Mexico will have extreme unemployment numbers. Desperate people do desperate things. But governments have a legal monopoly on force and will use it to deal with the unhappy natives. This will make the war on drugs look like Disneyland.

But then maybe this will be a case of the bride reforming a dipweed groom after the marriage. So far Trump is the only candidate who is solely committed to himself and America. Can’t leave the self out.

He calls Japan a free rider on national security. Well it is about time someone spoke out on this. Maybe he really isn’t a servant of the defense industry who would lose jobs if the US military actually did their job instead of everyone else’s.

http://news.yahoo.com/trump-candidacy-stirs-alliance-angst-japan-020740466–business.html