WW2

Sunday's Sunday School class with Jim Juhnke was on his chapter of "The Missing Peace" on World War II. A point of interest was his account of the Japanese balloon bombs which landed in the United States. Jim said there was no reporting on this, at the request of the U.S. Government, and Japan abandoned the effort thinking it was ineffective.

I asked Jim if he was coming down on the side of suppression of the news. He gave the rather lame answer that he was just reporting. I mean to ask him when I get a chance what that passage is doing in the book, as there are many stories that could have been included--why include that one? There had to have been some reason for its inclusion.

One point he tried to make is the greater level of reporting from WW2 to the Vietnam War. However, the claim that there is a trend is perhaps belied by the 2 Iraq wars, with the term "embedded" which we heard so often implying that the reporters are seeing only what the military wants them to see. I doubt that one can make a decent case that the media is doing a great job these days.

*****

Great trivia results this week. Last night playing Six at Stooges, while waiting in Andover for my daughter to be picked up after her evening class, I got a near 57K score. I played with the bald-headed guy who plays as Oil; he is quite congenial and we had a good time.

Tuesday night I almost won the 8:00 game on total-trivia.com. I was one point away from the winner.

*****

Today'[s quote comes from Bill Maher: "In the 2004 election, MoveOn.org compared Bush to Hitler, ignoring the first rule for being taken seriously by grownups, which is: Don't call everyone you don't like "Hitler". Bush is not Hitler. For one thing, Hitler was a decorated, frontline combat veteran. Also, in the election that brought him to power in 1933, Hitler got more votes than the other candidates."

This is from page 188 of Maher's delightful book, "New Rules: Polite Musings from a Timid Observer".