So I get this EMail from an old high school chum....

It's a picture of President Obama carrying Fareed Zakaria's book The Post-American World as he gets on Marine 1.

It's obvious my old chum had never read the book because he implied that this was a book about the world after Obama, a secret Muslim, you see, takes down the US from within when in reality it's about how America can position itself in a world where the US is still a dominating part of a multi-polar world. Not the strongest, mind you, but certainly still influential in all aspects from cultural to military and everything in between. The Muslim part comes in because the author is Muslim as is Obama (because, I guess, of his funny sounding name) and that India, Muslim again (only part), was one of the four country's that make up a multi-polar world. (In case your interested, Brazil and China are the others.)

I laughed out loud thinking it was a joke and then I realized, hey, this guy I use to party with is really out there.

I EMailed the person back who had forwarded the EMail and wrote that I had in fact read the book and explained what it was really about. She EMailed back that she was just passing it on and that she was afraid our mutual friend had joined a cult.

I wrote back, yea the ignoramus wing of the GOP.

Return, LOL.

Now I would think this was funny but to me it really is just sad. People my age and older have to come to grips with the fact we are not completely in charge anymore and in reality, when we were in charge, things just got worse, not better. They will end their lives wallowing in bitter disillusionment thinking that their way of life has changed and is forever gone.

But what we, meaning those my age and older, should realize that America and, for that matter, the world is governed by waves of history whether we like it or not, that change is inevitable in an age when we all can communicate ideas in the blink of an eye.

Change comes fast now a days and the pace of history is just going to step it up exponentially. We can't stop it.

I, for one, embrace the challenges we as a nation in an ever changing world will face in the coming decades.

My only regret for a good chunk of my generation is that those people my age and older who are clinging so desperately to the way things use to be will miss all of the excitement.

For me, hell bring on the change. I only hope I live long enough to witness an America that is truly the land of the Free the home of the Brave.

Stay thirsty, my friends, thirsty for change.

That would be news to the 86 percent of people in India who are NOT muslim.

If you notice I said, parenthetically, only part.

my response would have been "India is Muslim???"

Trying to get him to question his other facts by pointing out the obvious flaw.

I thought I made that pretty clear that someone had forwarded the eMail to me.

I read the book, I know what is in there, I also know that India is predominately Hindu.

And if I was talking to the original EMailer, I would have challenged his assumptions surrounding the book instead of the demographic make-up of India.

Very clearly writes "...and that India, Muslim again (only part)..."
When one considers the post-WWII construct of Pakistan-India-Bangladesh, Muslims do make up a substantial percentage (hundreds of millions) of that region, much more than the 1/7 of India which is Muslim.

group of 4 powers theorized by the book that Obama was, presumably, reading.

China, India, US, and Brazil.

I, for one, am very happy that President Obama reads stuff, even stuff which construct futures that are not dominated by US as the only superpower, or even US,Russia, China as the only superpowers.

At least he reads.

However, I was simply pointing out the one obvious misstatement which is easy to verify without getting into the whole "Obama is/is not a secret Muslim" faith based argument. To say that India is Muslim is to NOT understand at all the struggle that Islam and India have been involved with over hundreds of years (and which still dominate the foreign policies of India today).

And I'm afraid your old friend has lost his taste for whatever he used to drink...

He is feeling the bitterness of being left behind...

And it's all so unnecessary. He could have stayed involved and informed...

Instead he stopped growing and learning...

I had a couple of e-mail exchanges with an old high school buddy I haven't seen in years. She claims she marched against the Vietnam War, supported Eugene McCarthy and is a registered Democrat. But she voted for McCain and corresponds with Glenn Beck. She sent me a copy of an e-mail she sent to him saying he should keep protecting the Constitution before she loses any more rights and that he should fight the MSM. I told her Beck manipulates his audience and lies daily to them and challenged her to give Rachel a look for one week. Haven't heard back. Oh yeah, she lives in Hawaii.

like Jimmy Carter said, "they are not only in the South"