Dr. Strangelove

If you have never seen the movie Dr. Strangelove you should probably check it out on a rainy day. It is a political comedy/satire about the cold war that is a reflection of how paranoia, nuclear weapons and power can corrupt people into insanity. It is extremely dry and you have to pay attention – but if you ‘get it’ then you will watch it again. I used to watch it with my father during the summertime on our island house on Thassos. Wow, talk about some odd father and son time – but, hey, sometimes it takes a 60s movie to bridge the generation gap. And, no, I was not an aristocrat growing up because we had a summer house on a Greek island – it’s called a great investment. My parents bought the dilapidated house for less than you will probably pay in rent/mortgage over the next 6 months – and then spent the next 15 years fixing it up as the Europeans made a run for the remaining properties (until they were all bought up). In case you have a time machine, it was 1985 – a time when many Greeks had abandoned the old homes on the islands that they inherited from their parents & grandparents. Talk about a steal.

Anyways, back to our regularly scheduled blog. The reason I brought up Dr. Strangelove is because I had a conversation with a close friend of mine the other day and we talked about how “Dr.Strangelove-ish” the world is getting these days. Let us look at the current events of this bizarre-o world:
**Instability is mounting in nuclear Pakistan
**Who the hell is going to be the next U.S. President? Take your pick – it scares me.
**The U.S. dollar is crumbling quickly – where will the bottom be?
**Russia is turning from friend to enemy quickly. Thanks Bush.
**China shot down a satellite in space – I wonder how the U.S. will respond: MILITARIZATION OF SPACE
**No progress for a Palestinian state in the 8 years of Bush’s presidency
**The Iran dilemma – will Israel just bomb their facilities and get it over with?
**N. Korea is becoming reasonable? Did NetFlix cut-off Kim Jong Ill or something?
**And Bin Laden still lives..
**Darfur could be the beginning of an era of genocide in Africa
**Don’t fall asleep on mother nature, she always has her say in disasters
**There goes another iceburg melting into the sea.

Now that you are thoroughly depressed – look on the bright side, I might have room for a few of you at my summerhouse. At least from there we will have a good view when the shit hits the fan - & we will be able to watch Dr. Strangelove and reminisce about how calm and normal things were back in the good ol’ Cold War days…