Afghanistan = Son of Vietnam

Last August, I created a post about the heartbreak of the Vietnam war. 

The war in Afghanistan has worried me a lot.  The reason is...if you take most news items about Afghanistan, and make the following substitutions...

Instead of  "mountains"  insert "jungle"
Similarly:
                  "Taliban"      "Viet Cong"
                   "Pakistan"     "North Vietnam" 
  the result would be indistinguishable from a news article from the 60's about Vietnam.  It was the same sort of thing.  In the post last August, I noted about how during the Vietnam war, young men bled and died to take a hill that was abandoned after a day or two.  Just a few days ago, there was a TV news item about a soldier in Afghanistan who was receiving a medal for heroic action during a fight for a hill, which, guess what, was abandoned 2 days later.  Why????  The Viet Cong figured this out.  Just wait - the Americans will leave.  Why do we think the Taliban won't? 

Thank GOD we are getting out.  In Viet Nam, it was the only solution.  In Afghanistan, it is also the only solution.  The Taliban may come roaring back as soon as we leave - or not.  It cannot be helped.  Here's the big difference - this time we are leaving before hundreds of thousands are dead. 

Heads roll surprisingly well here.

Last year, I posted several items about people being fired (or at least encouraged to quit) here at the college where I work.  This was because of their involvement in unscrupulous activities that were evidently spearheaded by our fired president. 

There have been lots of folks that have left the University since then.  It is not know by anyone of my close aquaintence how many of these resignations were due to the scandal, or just due to individuals finding better jobs.  But, these folks are gone.  Following, there was a lot of office restructuring, reorganization, physical movement (I can't find any of the offices I need now), and general confusion.

Now, there is something new.  The state's chancellor for higher education retired last year, not long after our president was fired.  The new chancellor was unpopular from day one, and his list of enemies is growing.  Now the state House and Senate are getting into the fray.  Although they can't actually fire the chancellor, they can appropriate funds for a buy-out of his contract, and one bill has been introduced to do just that. 

I think I have been going about my career all wrong.  If they chancellor can get hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for doing nothing...gee...where do I sign up for that??

Movie Review - Hansel and Gretel

I had a little free time last weekend and I thought I would take in a movie.  I picked Hansel and Gretel, Witch Hunters.  Bad choice.

Normally, I have no trouble suspending disbelief for fantasy-type movies, and this one sounded interesting.  It starts with the traditional children's tale, then the premise is that these two grow up to be professional witch hunters, hired by villages to get rid of children-eating crones.  It could have been very entertaining.  Parts of it were interesting - a very few parts - such as what really happened to their parents.

But somehow, in the middle of midieval Europe, Hansel and Gretel have machine guns.  Also, it seems that because of the original incident in which the twins are forced to eat a lot of candy,  Hansel somehow develops type 2 diabetes, and must inject himself with insulin every 2 hours, with a very midieval-looking syringe.  It is never made clear where the insulin came from. 

At one point in the movie, a group of people behind me started laughing out loud in a spot where I really doubt the movie producers intended humor.  You get the idea.  Just too stupid for words.