Recently I was engaged in a discussion on "the most embarrassing moment of your life".  I can honestly say that I have over the course of my many years I've had many embarrassing moments, but one that sticks out in my mind as perhaps my most embarrassing moment came at the age of 12. 

At that time, our military family was stationed at Camp Zama, in the Sagamihara Prefecture, Japan. My brother (10) and I regularly took our allowance, caught a train outside our base and rode for 40 minutes to the regional shopping district for a day of fun and pachingco playing. One day, we arrived at the station to find a beautiful silver and blue train at the station. Not knowing any better and not being able to read or speak Japanese, we didn't realize that this was the wrong train.  Deciding that it was much more attractive than the regular brown rickety trains we were used to, we hopped on to ride this pretty train. Turned out that this was the fabled 120 MPH bullet train and in the normal 40 minutes, we were deposited in the main train terminal in downtown Tokyo. Suffice to say, this was a rather other worldly experience kind of akin to Dorothy landing in Oz. We found ourselves ambling about Tokyo in fear, awe and wonder about our predicament. We couldn't get help from the Japanese because Japanese of 1966 did not speak English and we didn't speak Japanese.  As we wondered about trying to decide what to to, we came across a beautifully manicured park and wandered up to a small river to sit and discuss our predicament. No sooner had we sat down than a flock of black swans came swimming down the river, raced out of the water and attacked us. As one started grabbing at my brothers red sweater, I picked up a large (for me) stick and started to beat the swans. 

The commotion caused an uproar and we were soon surrounded by a bunch of Japanese officials screaming at us in a language we could not understand. We were taken to a police station, the US embassy was called and an interpreter arrived to determine how two young American kids could be wandering around downtown Tokyo causing such a commotion. 

Turns out that we had wandered onto the grounds of the Imperial Palace, the "river" was the surrounding moat and the swans were the protectors of the moat and were sacred. We caused an international incident and endless embarrassment to my father who had to drive more than 50 miles to come recover us from the clutches of the angry Japanese. I don't think either of us were able to sit for a week and we were never again allowed to ride the train.

Obama's Budgetary Discipline

Does anyone remember that Obama said he would cut the deficit in half in his first three years as president?

Interesting point is that at the time he said it, the deficit was "only" 400 billion and he was blaming Bush for his overzealous spending. I can only assume that Obama was a student of new math because he has more than DOUBLED the deficit every year he has been in office and this is along with directing the use of TARP funds and the STIMULUS program of a TRILLION each.

Of course all this was accomplished with the promise that unemployment would not rise above 8%. I would like to see it get back down to 8%. Hell, he could have given all that money to individual American taxpayers if they were willing to start a business and hire someone and we would have been much better off. Oh wait, that would be like cutting taxes and this wouldn't be "fair" would it?

Remember this in November when you are in the voting booth.

"PREEZY" SETTING AN EXAMPLE

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/president-obama-campaigner-in-chief/2012/04/30/gIQATAfbsT_story.html?wpisrc=emailtoafriend

When Dana Milbank decides to call Obama out, you know he has really gone over the line.

I especially like the conclusion:

"Still, Obama’s acquiescence to an intolerable status quo raises a question: Shouldn’t presidential leadership be about setting an example?

Instead, he is erasing the already blurred lines between campaigning and governing. During his “official” speech to the union group Monday, he hailed Tim Kaine as “the next United States senator from the great commonwealth of Virginia,” and his partisan speech spurred audience members to shouts of “Vote ’em out!” and “Gotta throw ’em out!”

“Not everything should be subject to thinking about the next election instead of thinking about the next generation,” Obama said of the Republicans. “Not everything should be subject to politics.”

He should follow his own advice."

Shouldn't we expect the President to set a positive example? Shouldn't we expect the "preezy" to have an uplifting message for the country he governs? Or are the citizens of this country expected to accept our "campaigner in chief" vilifying segments of the population for his own political aggrandizement?