Swords? Really?

SWORDS - NEVER OUT OF FASHION

According to the BBC in Egypt, "On Sunday, men in plain clothes armed with swords and petrol bombs confronted the pro-democracy activists..." "The army started firing in the air to disperse us," Mohammed Fahmy told Reuters news agency.

Apparently, the secret police in Egypt were just like the good ole KGB; "Activists who stormed the Cairo headquarters told the BBC they had found evidence of a parallel state structure that monitored all aspects of life in Egypt." and "Evidence of torture was also found..."



GREECE

It is rioting!

I was talking to a lawyer I met at the coffee shop the other day. He had mentioned that he thought the EU turned a very blind eye toward Greece's financial status when they were getting them into the EU. I'm not sure if this is true, but it now seems to be biting the EU in the butt. There are a lot of stories in Der Spiegel about the probable need to economically bail out Greece yet again and, simply put, nobody wants to pony up the money.

I'm not sure where I read it (sorry, flitting through articles) but 1 in 5 jobs in Greece and something like 15% of the GNP relies on tourism. This is a bigger percentage than I was reading about in Egypt. Much like Egypt, Greece seems to be enjoying riots of it's own. This in turn is causing it to get less money from tourism and hence have less to pay back their huge frigging debt. Which may cause the to get kicked out of the EU and go back to the Dracma (money).

I find this interesting. Unlike in the various 'world war' scenarios where nations (well, at least the politicians that ran them) were pissed at each other, in these cases (Greece, the Arabic world) the people seem to be pissed at the politicians. Nobody seems worried about a 'world war' but more so 'how will the government end up and will our government be able to exploit that?'



THE TOOTH

Yes, definate pain now. I'm concerned that it will be 'crippling pain' by the time I get to Czech Republic to get it pulled. Fortunately, they seem to have a lot of pain killer in beer form there. We'll see what happens but I suspect that it will be:

Jana: "Welcome to the Czech Republic!"
Logan: "Thanks. Where is the dentist?"

Actually, knowing me, it may be "Where the fuck is the dentist?" We'll see how much pain I'm in by the time I get there.

For the people who would ask "Did you check to see how much a dentist would be here in the states?" Yes - double or more. Sure, I'd like to have it done before I go but the extra couple hundred dollars is a real bummer. Right now, my jaw feels sort - like I got punched a week ago. Is there no help? Yes, help is around.



MORE IDIOCRACY

Today on the bus, I got to see a rather large (ie fat) woman teaching her rather large (ie fat) children a chant: "We go to Arbys! We go to Arbys!" For those who don't know, Arby's is another American fast food place (ie fat causing). Also, no, the English she was using isn't 'good English'. "We are going to Arby's" would have been better English, though still a bad thought. I know I am personally no stick figure but I'm thinking I'm going to 'get lapped' [(General Sporting Terms) (tr) to overtake (an opponent) in a race so as to be one or more circuits ahead]. Hence, if I keep my weight at it's present 'too much' amount, I will be considered thin in another few years.

This sort of thinking ("We go to Arby's!") from the same people that need instructions from automatic hand driers.