Non sinas bastardi tere te deorsum

I had a conversation on Twitter yesterday although to call it a conversation is to do the term a disservice. It would be more accurate to say that I was accosted by a fervent supporter of President Obama who decided that there was a need to straighten me out on a few things. She had jumped into another 'conversation' being led by yet another fervent Obama supporter who was offended by comments I had made on my blog.

She started by talking about all the jobs created by the president and it is true that over the past 29 months, the United States has seen consistent job growth and a decline in its unemployment rate from just over 10% to 8.3%. When I pointed out that this was still significantly higher than the 6.1% unemployment rate in 2008 when President Obama was elected, I was informed that the unemployment rate was fluid.

Fluid? Of course it is fluid; that was never at issue. The issue was, and remains. is it higher or lower under this president and according to the United States Board of Labour, it is higher. I was then sent a blog post by someone who went to great lengths to point out that the president wasn’t responsible for anything that happened during the first nine months of his presidency. Therefore, the steep increase in unemployment was the fault of the previous administration.

Sometimes the contortions people go through to try and avoid facing reality amazes me.

This Is Honouring Pearl Harbour?

On December 7, 1941 the Japanese Imperial Navy attacked Pearl Harbour damaging all eight of the battleships in the harbour, sinking four of which two were later raised and six later returned to active duty. More than 2,400 Americans were killed and 1,200 injured.

It was a surprise attack intended to prevent the United States from entering the war. The attack was successful, the intended result was a failure. It awakened ‘the sleeping giant’ and America did enter both the European and Pacific conflicts which ultimately led to the downfall of Japan’s imperialist ambitions.

That happened more than sixty years ago and since then the United States and Japan have been allies and trading partners. Japan has invested heavily in the American economy providing thousands of jobs at American-based plants of Shimano, Toyota, Nissan, Mistubishi, Sony and countless others. When the tsunami hit Japan last year, the United States was one of the first to provide aid and assistance.

In other words, enemies have become friends and that has benefited both nations as well as the broader world.