Irak and Afganistan "wars"

It's a reality, there are still quite a lot of US military troops in Afganistan ; for the moment there are almost 70,000 militaries in this country. In december the number of US military deads in Afganistan was 2,000. The war deads arrive in the US by the Dover Air Force base which is in Delaware.

Great books, about the Irak war, more ancient, were just released ; for instance The yellow birds from K Powers and Billy Lynn's long halftime walk unabridged by Ben Fountain.

The excellent TV show Homeland is also about a US military marine hostage in Irak coming back in his country.

The gun industry needs marketing also....

The gun industry is flourishing in the US, look at the profit numbers of Smith and Wesson, Colt Firearms, Ruger. However they would like to have more young consumers to fidelize them during all their lifetime.
They target them with the help of the Shouting Sports Foundation which the national headquarter is in Newtown where the shooting in an elementary school took place one month ago... They do a great job by introducing children to shooting sports... By the mouth of the director : "guns and riffles are tools not any different than a car or a baseball bat" and those tools (do you believe that ?) "can teach lifeskills such as reponsability, ethics and citizenship".

They do active lobbying in states to lower the minimum hunting age to 10 from 12, it's effective already in some states. They sponsor youth camps and scouts camps by donate rifles, firearms, ammunitions ; look at the AR 15 rifle, woulod you like to have it for recreational use ?

Luggage inspection

After I flew to France, I opened my suitcase in Rennes and found a paper to inform me that my suitcase had been opened and inspected. It was a little bit messy inside.
On my way back I was a little bit scary because I put in my bag britain's creps and maroccan biscuits. I even lied when I answered two times that I have no food coming from France in my luggage.
Creps for breakfast are delicious, the same for the "cornes de gazellees"...

An homeless artist in Central Park

Last week-end the New York Times was telling readers a very nice story, is it sad ? It makes you think, that's for sure.
A quite old woman is spending her days in Central Park drawing and painting birds that she sells at the end. She has an accurate eye for owls, scarlett stanager birds, woodpeckers, pigeons, passerines... She is sleeping in front of church porches but as the winter is coming she has  migrated to a  women's shelter.
She is secretive about her life prior her homeless situation. We just know that she is from Virginia. She just told the journalist that the park helps her to avoid the city, an area where she can be very anxious.
We wish a long and peaceful life to this great lady ; another Into the wild tale.

An idea of the South

Beginning in Virginia, we enter the states named The South, it's the states which were for the secession during the Civil War.
In 1863, before the Civil War, the wealthiest American were from South Carolina. They had rice plantations, it was a rice of very high quality, cultivated by slaved labor. Now there is no more plantations, they used too much the soil at this time. It's an example of failing "nation", the theory of Acemoglu and Robinson in Why nation fails?, because of extractive institutions where the wealthy takes all the added value from the majority.
It's possible to admire in Charleston a lot of Antebellum mansions from this time, pre civil war wealthy houses. In the country side we enjoyed the forest in this state with majestuous trees.
The food is also a story by itself. The sea food is great, a specialty is shrimps with grits.

On the road between the north and the south of the east coast

We spent our Christmas holidays in Charleston, South Carolina. To get there, we had to drive more than 630 miles (approximately one thousand kilometers). Diane and Eugenie were quite afraid with the distance. Hopefully we had a lot of CD's to listen on the road.
To reach it, we drove all the way until the end of the Delmarva peninsula where the Delaware is located and we took the Chesapeake bay bridge tunnel. It's an impressive bridge-tunnel in the middle of the sea, one of the most lengthy world's bridge, 23 miles long. It is connected to Virginia beach.

For the return,  as we were struggling with the traffic jam on the I 95 (precedent post) 100 miles south of Washington DC, we decided to quit it and made our way through Annapolis. We enjoyed another astonishing bridge, the Bay Bridge.