The Illusion of Central Position

I read somewhere that, in the Russian history books, World War II isn't called "World War II", it's called "The Great Patriotic War". I suppose, from their perspective, it was all about Germany versus Russia, with all the other players operating on the fringes. In the beginning, Germany and Russia were kind of allies. They had something called a "non- aggression treaty", until Germany double crossed Russia, driving the Russians over to our side. I suppose the Russians didn't think of themselves as being on our side, they thought of us being on their side. Funny how living in a bleak northern climate can make somebody think that they are the center of the universe, or so I have been told. Those Sunnis and Shiites live in the desert, so what's their excuse? I understand that the desert can get pretty cold at night, but that's not the same as putting up with a long winter. All you need to do is grab a blanket and huddle up with your camel for a few hours, then the sun comes up and it's summer again.

I was going to ask you what a bunch of Sunnis are doing in the Iraqi Army if the Iraqi government is being run by a bunch of Shiites, but then I remembered my old buddies in the Royal Inniskilling Fusileers. The were all Irish Catholics, but they were in the British Army. I asked them about that, and they explained that the Irish Army was small and didn't have troops stationed all over the world like the British army did. If you wanted to travel and see exotic places, you joined the British Army. Besides, the British Army paid better. Since then, I found out that Inniskilling is actually in Northern Ireland, which is technically part of the U.K. I wonder why none of the Fusilleers  mentioned that at the time. They did tell me that, if I ever came to visit them in their home town, I should tell everybody that I'm an Atheist rather than a Protestant, which is what I really was, I suppose because it would be easier to fake being an Atheist than to fake being a Catholic.

So anyway, Iraq has both a Sunni army and a Shiite militia. Maybe our own cities should take a page out of the Iraqis' book. They could organize a Black militia to patrol the Black neighborhoods, keeping the White cops in reserve to bail them out if they get into trouble. You think?

You're probably right about how each generation of kids comes along and disrupts the social order. I remember seeing a kid on my school bus wearing a t-shirt that said, "Yes, as a matter of fact I do believe that the world revolves around me." He was an annoying kid anyway, one of my "usual suspects".

My hypothetical wife once called a catalogue company to straighten out some kind of mistake that had been made on her order. She said that she had a hard time understanding the lady because of her accent, which sounded Black, or maybe Southern. At one point the lady asked my hypothetical wife to repeat what she had just said, claiming that she was having a hard time understanding her accent. What accent? Michigan people don't have an accent! Do they?