Eyelids Drooping

I was up late last night... doing nothing really, chatting online, organizing pictures, browsing the news, generally doing anything but productive work. My brain shut down around 9 pm and wasn't even turned on when I woke up this morning, swearing a blue streak because I slept with my finger on the snooze button on my PDA-doubling-as-alarm-clock.

So now, at the napping hour of 4 pm, I'm having trouble staying awake. After getting a triple-shot-tall-skim-latte from the Starbucks corporate monster, am browsing the news again. Not many of the crew that reads my blog subscribes to the Asian Wall Street Journal, and frankly most of the time it's full of hooey anyway. But two things pop out in today's (March 22, 2005) paper:

1. With U.S. Election Over, President Bush's Message Takes On a New Accent. - John D. McKinnon

This is a short article about the change in Dubya's speech mannerisms, which apparently has refined and improved compared to his cowboy bush-ism days post-nine-eleven.

"... Last month, addessing European leaders in Brussels, Mr. Bush spoke precisely, with only traces of his twang. He paid homage to the continent's political legacy, such as the Magna Carta, and flawlessly pronounced the name of Albert Camus. ... He is enunciating more clearly and dotting his remarks with more literary references. Gone is much of the verbal swagger, which produced such memorable first-term phrases as "bring 'em on" (said of Iraqi insurgents) and "dead or alive" (said of catching Osama bin Laden). Some linguists even say they detect a dialing-down version of Mr. Bush's Texas accent, at least in his formal speeches."

Does a refinement of speech also reflect a refinement of thought process? Or is this another case of sing sweetly to your victims while you crush them with all the subtlety of a demolition stone. In a way I find President's Bush's supposed sophistic-izing a little unsettling - instead of a bumbling Texan playing cowboys-and-indians with U.S. military as his props, now he sounds like a refined statesman playing cowboys-and-indians with U.S. military as his props. Surely the latter is a more malevolent scenario?

2. OpEd: And Now Kyrgyzstan - Editors

How many people know where Kyrgyzstan is? And how many of us have been following the pro-democracy protests that have been occuring there recently. I sheepishly hang my head and admit to not following the news on
this. But an old friend and her husband are there (last I heard, doing missionary work) and when I read this OpEd column, I got worried.

"The democratic ideal, once unleashed, appears to know no bounds. ... Pro-democracy demonstrations are now rocking Kyrgyzstan, a crucial juncture where the Russian sphere of influence abuts China and Afghanistan's neighbors. ... The difference with Kyrgyzstan, and one not to be overlooked, is that while the massive protests in Georgeia and Ukraine were peaceful, the central Asian republic is hanging on a knife's edge."

Here is an updated article from BBC.

I hope she's okay. Going to start the grapevine to find out what's going on with her these days.

Okay enough of a diversion. Back to the salt mines....