Engrish of the Week

For those of you that don't know..I am a follower of Engrish. Engrish is the non standard variation of English in Asian countries. It is often confusing and funny.

Pirate Drama

I have been following the Somali pirate situation for a few months now. In the fall of last year the British news followed intently as pirates attacked ships and stole gold, money and general pirate booty. As we all know, the pirates recently managed to capture a boat with American citizens.

Despite international efforts to step up security, pirates have been operating with near impunity off the Horn of Africa. This year, there have been more than 50 pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia -- six of them in the past week alone.

The Pirates also boast an array of sophisticated weaponry that your average seafarer does not have. The Pirates are armed with automatic weapons, anti-tank rocket launchers and even grenades. Sec. of State Hillary Clinton is now alarmed out the amount of terror the pirates are spreading. Organizations who are providing aid, goods are oil venture into the most dangerous waters are now being taught how to fend off a pirate attack.

It will be interesting to see how far this eventually will go.

Colbert's: The Doom Bunker

Stephen Colbert's response to Glen Becks hysterical segments.

Conservative Populist Anger: Glen Beck

Glen Beck tops the list of Conservative populist anger at the moment on Fox News. His program typically draws 2.3 million viewers. That is amazing and frightening at the same time. I have only seen snippets of the program and I am usually bewildered by his overly dramatic antics. The thought that came to my mind the last time I saw, Glen Beck ranting was that he was pandering to the audience as if he were on a movie set. Well… as it turns out...I am rather insightful because according to interview that Beck gave he admitted to watching Network and related to one of the main characters. The character that Beck relates to is Howard Beale, (pictured above) the crazed anchorman who states “I’m mad as hell and I’m going to take it anymore!” Take a gander at Becks regular segments entitled “Constitution under Attack” and “Economic Apocalypse” and see for yourself the parallels to Beale and Beck. I have heard that during these segments, Beck will begin to actually cry.

Am I just as apprehensive about the state of the economy? Sure…but unlike so many Conservative pundits I don’t rant and rave and consider it political discourse. I do understand that Beck appeals to a part of the American public that feels alienated, but going as far as saying that God and America are under attack by an evil socialist new world order ? A new order that will result in a complete collapse of the economy that will escalate to widespread violence in the streets? Beck says that he stands behind his words one hundred percent.

A day in the life

I decided to take all of my books into Half Price Books today to see what I could get for upcoming trek back across the Atlantic. Half Price Books is an interesting place..the employees seem to like and dislike their jobs at the same time. I once worked in an independent bookshop and came across some really interesting and quality people..both employees and patrons. At Half Price Books the employees seem to like being around all the books, but not so much the people. They weren't rude or abrupt in any way, but seemed preoccupied by what they wanted to read next.

I browsed the political section and got really stuck into a book on the legislative process of Latin America. As "fascinating" as it sounds...I found myself going back to the book after my books were processed. I would have bought this book, but spending money on books after I sold mine seemed to defeat the purpose of reducing clutter for the move. That look must have been written on my face because a guy that was in the same section said "It's OK to sell 25 books and come out with 1" We ended up discussing the out of date Cold War books and having a chuckle.

I am not sure if it's in my anticipation of the final move over to England, but I seem to be really taking in all my environments that I put myself in.