He asked, I answered redux: Men in Blue

On the way back to monshu's from the Printer's Row Book Fair (verdict: LAME! I only bought two books; nuff said), we saw a surprising number of Chicago's Finest at the intersection of Winthrop and Balmoral. I counted: 17 officiers, eight cars, and a paddy wagon. For what? I have no idea; there didn't seem to be a drug bust in process. In fact, the overall mood was very block party, although none of the blues actually had their fingers wrapped around a cold one. As we got nearer, monshu asked, "A gaggle of geese, a murder of crows...what do you call a gathering of cops?"

"A donut shop," I answered.

In the bush with Norforce

"What makes the regiment unusual is that about two-thirds of its 600 soldiers are Aborigines, a stark contrast to the regular Australian army, which has very few indigenous troops."

I worry about the effects on the survival of Aboriginal languages--army recruitment is the enemy of minority languages almost everywhere--but, really, anything that teaches members of the majority respect for the knowledge and experience of their "primitive" neighbours--diminishing Aboriginal poverty and lawlessness in the process--is to be encouraged. Besides, better Yirrkala than Karbala, eh?