Historical Tidbits

I found and stole a Newsweek from 1988. Bush senior is on the cover, a tough cowboy on a horse with snocapped mountains in the backround and "the spirit of Marlboro in a low tar cigarette" and picture of said product is in supreimpsed on the picture which covers the back of the magazine.

Highlighting the sad stories (when looking back) in this issue is an article on Chiles Pinochet and its "glow of prosperity." Pinochet has only avoided prison and the death penalty because of some laws which prohibit prosecuting former heads of state there... or something like that. He did lots of terrible things and was placed in power by a United States supported coup that ousted Allende (I forget his first name, father of famous author Isabelle Allende) for his socialist stance. The article speaks glowingly of Pinochets work. Newsweek redeems itself a little bit by later talking about the "two chiles" (rich and poor) noting htat "to a large extent teh economic recovery of the past three years has been made possible by a shar reduction in salaries" and acknowledges that while the Chilean economy is doing well "there is truth to the fact that.... the average chilean is not.

There is a hopeful article on the ousting of a military dictatorship in Burma... sad to realize that 20 years later there is another military dictatorshiop there.

who knew? apparently in TS Elliot{s early writings there were some very anti-semetic statements.

Some people are abusing the new nicarette gum

"Irans Crusade Falls Far Short" but fundamentalism is still rising. A cease fire had just been agreed upon between Iraq and Iran. Hussein is referred to as "President Hussein." Iran "accused Iraq of using poison gas one more time." Oh yeah, and do you guys remember how the United States sold arms to Iran, who was fighting against our ally, Iraq?

After an article on how Bushs strategy will center around slinging mudballs at Dukakis, a following intervew article has the headline "Bush blames Dukakis for the negative camaign" Bush said, "I will never apologize for the United States of America,-- I don{t care what the facts are" Newsweek writes "Fortunately for Bush, his own slips of tongue have become so common thast, like Reagan{s, they have ceased to be big news." Bush was struggling to break away from his elitist image, eating pork rinds was apparently a flop. A pollster in another secion advizes that bush "Go heavy on family values."

There are also letters to the editor praising what Pinochet has accomplished in Chile

ok, some of my plans to travel have, sadly, been swamped, but I will still have a good Christmas here in Lindo Charcha.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Jordan

throw a snowball if you have one