In Dubai now, a most cosmopolitan of cities. Apparantly the United Arab Emirates decided to favor capitalism instead of fanaticism (thanks for that one Jay) and have opened their doors to tourism. This means they might do well when the oil runs out. Either way it means that this is the first muslim country where I drank alcohol. While a good number ( Read more... )

In rural parts of eastern Europe, excess daughters are sold into prostitution. Simple economics really. If you can't marry a daughter off, or if you can't provide a large enough dowry for her, she needs to go somewhere. Selling a daughter to a brothel is an economic decision. At least the family gets some money as a result ( Read more... )

Kuwait was decent. It made the last 5 weeks fly by, as opposed to the days dribbling by on ship. A few things happened that I wouldn't expect to happen almost anywhere or anytime else. One of the best was when a herd of camels walked onto one of our ranges. Obviously this stopped us from firing. Even though they were nowhere close to our impacts, ( Read more... )

Its time to get out of here. Messing with the army was fun for a bit. But it was too easy and it gets boring. A lot of these guys look like they need to skip the cardio machines and go right to the liposuction. I know this is somewhat hypocritical of me to say, but they are in the military and their commands should have noted this and done ( Read more... )

Ever have a boss you hated? One who seems to make it their role in life to make yours worse? I'm unfortunately stuck with one of those. Stubborn, pigheaded, can't admit he's wrong even when he obviously is. And pissed off at me because I had the audacity to bring up some of these points to him under his so-called open door policy. Apparantly his ( Read more... )

France was a new trip. I could easily see myself settling down in the south of France while opening up a cafe on a waterfront somewhere. Of course I'm a loud, brash American - and this is obvious. And I don't really speak the language yet. And I really don't know the first thing about cafes or what the French like to eat. But it looks like it could ( Read more... )

daniel.turczan@ponce.usmc.mil

No snail mail till France, either sent or received. Still keeping the faith.

I've had the unfortunate experience recently of hearing of a death. I had to wonder about my reaction to it. Keep in mind, I did not know the person, but it affects people I do know. This lead me back to thinking about a similar passing a few months ago and my reaction to it ( Read more... )

It is my deepest regret that during the cold war neither side started dropping bombs. The more I see of the human race the more I wish we would end it. Atrocity after atrocity, mechanized genocide, the very weapons I mentioned above (one of which is strong enough to crack the earth's crust, assuring the destruction of civilization if not the ( Read more... )

First off, I wasn't supposed to be on this train. At about the last minute I decided to take a later train, if I hadn't the following wouldn't have happened ( Read more... )