Scary Stuff

So I got up at 6 this morning as I tend to do on Fridays and went swimming. Granted, I had a hard time getting out of bed this morning, and it was more like 6-30, but whatever, you get the drift. Peacefully I am strolling along, humming a song (literary reference, anyone who catches it wins something, or maybe not, we'll see), when all of a sudden out of the early-morning mist I see a troop of guys in camouflage, all loaded with guns (these hand machine gun things I believe) and massive backpacks, being led by some dude with an American flag in the front. Scary stuff man. I mean just ROTC (some weird army preparation program they have here for y'all Europeans) probably, but still, scary stuff.

So, while ploughing through the pool I was thinking, what is scary about the US? I came up with some things:

• People at sports events who actually become teary-eyed because some random guys in uniform hold a flag and someone (more or less well) sings a song about a military victory in 1814, instead of cracking up about the pathetic situation they are involved in. Post modernism anyone?


• Twenty to thirty people standing in a circle, clutching their respective neighbors shoulders, singing some kind of a bizarre song in order to join some honors fraternity or sorority or whatever


• Ten to fifteen guys (or girls, they meet independently of each other) sitting in my dorm's study lounge doing a bible study.


• Finally, the complete loss of dignity when it comes to the acquirement of crappy free goods (not so much different from large segments of European society actually, but still). Everybody wave their vic-card (some stupid discount card at the local supermarket here) in order to receive a t-shirt we paid 50 cents to produce and that is full of advertisement for us (the company and the sports team). Yeah, great idea, why don't I do that? I mean it sounds like a good deal, what is some sense of dignity and appropriateness (and I realize how stiff I come across here, sorry, that's how I am) for a free t-shirt after all?

As I was saying, scary stuff. If you think I am just some stupid America-bashing European now, read this post.

Finally, the joke of the day: Wolfowitz has been named to head a high-level advisory panel on arms control and disarmament. Wolfowitz. Good thing this president will be gone soon.