Don't fix the mortgage crisis. They tried that in Africa a decade ago. The result: no mortgages available. You want a house... save up and buy it. No loans. Want to build an apartment complex? Build the first few floors, leave the verticle beams exposed on the top floor with rebar exposed....when you have enough cash build a few more floors. Makes for a strange view....all those verticle concrete pillars with rebar sprouting up like hairs in an old mans ear.
Opera is making a comeback. Hope so anyway. Have a daughter, Olivia, trying her hand at it. Tough to break in. Many auditions to get roles. But plenty of Baby Boomers are getting tired of 2.5 minute songs that are nothing but ear candy. We want something that is longer, has more texture and is more than even a two-dimensional HDTV can give. Nothing beats live music. Right Martina? Keep the pit full of musicians, no sound machines please! We don't want a karaoke version of "Tosca"!
I used to have a travel company doing river cruises in Russia. People loved them. Great two week adventure. Great art, music, visuals. Imagine hearing Tchaikovsky's Seasons as you glide on a smooth river surface through the early fall color changed aspen forests. Intoxicatingly peaceful. I was there last September and it was as beautiful as ever. I want to go again with friends that like great music, art, ballet, and going from Moscow to St.Petersburg. Let me know if you want the details.
How is Iraq? As my dipolmat son says: "Not as bad as CNN would tell you, but not as good as Fox would claim." Ummm......sounds like the truth. He's trudging away saving ag in Afghanistan. Been getting a lot of ink lately. I guess the heavies trust him to stay on message.
The Panama Canal Authority is enlarging the Pacific side of the canal. The world's richest man, Carlos Slim, has a company that won the bid. Heard the Bechtel didn't have the executive leadership to handle it. Dirt moving contract has been reported as $3.5 to 5.5 Billion. Lots of dirt and rock. They are using Terex shovels and Cat 777 ATD to haul it away.
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And Afghanistan is still a cause worth fighting for. Things have flared up again sure...but why? Because things in Iraq are working and the ill-doers have moved to softer targets with more stand-off space and mountains to run up into. We're not nation buiiding in Afghanistan, we're trying to secure it while they fix it themselves...just hope it happens sooner that later. May have to wait until some of the old ones die out and the young ones devoid of Russian scars and hot for IPODS see the sense of growing beans instead of poppies, trading food instead of weapons, and making peace instead of bringing the armored westerners into their homes. They'll figure it out...they are already doing quite well. And as for Iraq...jeez what a mess...but nothing the Air Force can't fix. Can anyone say glass factory?
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