WORTH RECOMMENDING BY YOUR CORRESPONDENT: Doesn't it always seem like, when you buy more conventional mouthwash, you're not quite getting your money's worth (i.e., you're probably paying for water)?

Which explains why I'm recommending none other than Odol mouthwash concentrate, that old infallable German standby for oral hygiene morning and night. (I should emphasise the fact of Odol being a concentrate which you add to water before rinsing your mouth out.)

In fact, Your Correspondent felt compelled to try Odol after the brand he had been using, Watkins Mouthwash Concentrate, had been discontinued from their product line; being a "value-for-money" type, Your Correspondent prefers stuff which, though expensive @ first, goes a long way over time, adding value in the process. He was going to try Eau de Botot, the mother of oral rinse, but as it happened, Smallflower.comdidn't have any Eau de Botot in stock.

Hence, the next best thing: Odol, an old reliable German standby.

Which he's been trying for about a fortnight now on and off, and can say that his breath is rather pleasant. (About 5-10 drops to a small cup of water should do--no more than 10, please.) Both in the morning and when he brushes his teeth after dinner is when Your Correspondent makes use of Odol.

True, while it may be more expensive--$10 for a 5-oz. bottle--consider the value for money you can get over time cf. Listerine, Scope or even cheap Wally World brand by virtue of Odol's concentration and your adding your own water. I think you'll agree with me.

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IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: The preceding reflects personal experience and opinion only and was not paid or otherwise renumerated for by Smallflower.com (as in the Merz Apothecary of Chicago). Any pay he would receive, if @ all, would be as commissions on your purchase of Odol from this weblog (as in clicking on the picture @ the head of this item).

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HIS FRAUDULENCY'S GREAT WITHIN MUST STILL BE DESPERATE IN WANTING CUBA TO AGAIN BECOME A FREE AND DEMOCRATIC STATE, especially so in light of Fidel Castro's shock announcement overnight that he was stepping down from his Presidential positions after 49 years of outright power in Havana.

Meaning, in effect, that his brother Raul is now de facto Cuban head of state after serving in an acting capacity since Fidel's shock announcement that ill health was forcing him to step down for the interim in the summer of 2006.

But still, though, the Great Within and his K Street corporatist droogs, not to mention Fox Noise (with exclusive television rights), can't wait to converge upon Guantanamo Bay Naval Station and provoke "sponatenous popular uprisings" in a March Upon Havana expected to translate into "restoring democracy and liberty to a heretofore enslaved people"--but, in Reality, replacing one form of enslavement (as in Communism) with another (as in Fascism, which, in Benito Mussolini's immortal words, "ought really be called Corporatism, as it is a fusion of State and Corporate power").

Dominated, it turns out, by the Zealots and True Believers of K Street as regard free-market capitalism as Great White Father of the Lower Classes in particular--notably the Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the Club for Growth and--surprise! surprise!--the so-called "Church of Scientology," hoping to use the return of democracy to Cuba as agency for establishing a Scientologist State.

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MEANWHILE, BACK IN THE "MORALLY SUPERIOR" UNITED STATES, how do we know this "Church of Scientology" isn't really in bed with the GOP, looking for "creative and innovative ways" to incorporate Scientologist mind-control techniques into the War on Terrorism (especially if a State of National Emergency needs to be imposed)?

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IF THE OUTCOME EMERGING FROM THE LONG-DELAYED PAKISTANI PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS is any indication, the GOP-dominated status quo could be in clear and present danger come November.

As in the opposition Muslim League and Pakistani People's Party winning heavily in said elections, meaning they would have to form a coalition Government of National Unity in Islamabad which would be expected to ensure democracy and fight corruption, abuses of power and general socioeconomic mismanagement along with the clear and present danger of International Terrorism.

Which, come to think of it, may have been helped by quite a few among the eligible electorate staying away from the polls out of fear that violence and ballot-box-stuffing by the Musharaf regime's goons could predominate.

Is it any wonder, then, that the GOP must be anxiously studying all the news footage of pre-election violence and the emergency rule period for ways to disrupt the November elections as can "officially" be blamed on International Terrorism--but, in reality, may really be the work of brainwashed mentally-unstable elements acting as patsies (eventually given safe passage into Canada, say, before suspicions start emerging)?

(With, perhaps, a little help from the "Church of Scientology"?)

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AND COULD IT BE THAT GOP PRESIDENTIAL WANNABE MIKE HUCKABEE may be closer in actual Presidential mindset to the late Turkmeni President-for-Life Saparmurad Niyazhev, himself rather notorious for his eccentricity fused with a despotic streak as would make Stalin look like Mickey Mouse?

(Howbeit unconsciously, mind you.)  

OVERHEARD ON THE INFORMATION STUPORBAHN:

Merely including the name of TV evangel Benny Hinn in a blog post is a sure-fire way to attract traffic off the search engines.

The Exaggerator now puts this theory to the test, as above.

(In the process, I hope you who were thus attracted to test this theory can also do some online shopping as a way to show your support for this nascent weblog. Which could use it all the more.

(Likewise with a donation to the Virtual Tip Jar.

(In any case, bloggers like Your Correspondent cannot live on traffic alone.)

AS YOUR CORRESPONDENT WRITES THIS, HE CAN'T HELP BUT IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITY for where you can count the last surviving World War I veterans on the fingers of one hand.

Or maybe less.

It's my understanding that in the United States, there are only two veterans of the War to End All Wars (or so it was hoped) surviving as this is being composed online, aged 109 and 106, respectively.

In France, the passing of their pentultimate survivor thereof, Louis de Cazenave, made headlines.

But in Germany, meanwhile, their last survivor of a war for which Germany was subjected to such depths scorn and contempt that Hitler would exploit to "reclaim German honour and glory," only to subject them to a second such, died New Year's Day without much notice.

His name was Erich Kaestner, who died @ 107 years of age in an old-age home in Cologne (and is no relation to the poet and novellist of that name); his family did not announce the death until about three weeks afterwards, and Germany has no central clearinghouse for tracking war veterans similar to the Department of Veterans Affairs in the United States.

Several years back, the last surviving Victoria Cross receipent from World War I died in Canada.

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MEANWHILE, THE NUMBERS OF WORLD WAR II VETERANS ARE IN RAPID DECLINE around the world, as witness where the opening of the World War II Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, DC a few years back was accelerated to allow for such veterans as were in frail condition to see the memorial for themselves out of concern that they would be unable to attend the dedication ceremonies because of death or illness.

And the numbers are in continuing decline every day.

Not to mention the numbers of such who survived the wholesale atrocities of the Nazi regime known as the Holocaust, which sought to achieve the final perfection of an "Aryan Master Race" by "culling" the "undesirables" from the German population--Jews, Roma, Slavs, Jehovah's Witnesses (known in much of Europe as "Bible Students," as if to confuse matters), homosexuals, war cripples, the "mentally defective" and others deemed to be "life unworthy of life."

Once the last Holocaust survivor snuffs it, then, such could prove to be too easy a triumph for the Holocaust Denial community, notwithstanding the records of numerous war crimes trials following World War II of such among the Nazi regime who carried out such inhumane and unspeakable atrocities against mankind and the testimonies of Holocaust survivors.

Such lessons of history should serve as a warning, unworthy of cheap trivialisation or footnoting for sick and perverted purposes.

===NEVER AGAIN!===

THE FOLLOWING ITEM FROM RAW STORY VIA AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, AS BROKE THIS PAST WEEK, should be of particular interest to the Lou Dobbs crowd and other unreconstructed specimens of Fu Manchu-model xenophobia who invoke discredited "racial honour and integrity" platitudes and bromides to excuse their opposition to immigration reform--let alone wanting to dust off apartheid South Africa's "Make Babies for Botha" appeals to increase white birth rates:

Chinese leader Mao Zedong proposed sending 10 million Chinese women to the United States, in talks with top envoy Henry Kissinger in 1973, according to documents released Tuesday.

The powerful chairman of the Chinese Communist Party said he believed such emigration could kickstart bilateral trade but could also "harm" the United States with a population explosion similar to China, according to documents released Tuesday by the State Department on US-China ties between 1973 to 1976.

In a long conversation that stretched way past midnight at Mao's residence on February 17, 1973, the cigar-chomping Chinese leader referred to the dismal trade between the two countries, saying China was a "very poor country" and "what we have in excess is women."

He first suggested sending "thousands" of women but as an afterthought proposed "10 million," drawing laughter at the meeting, also attended by Chinese premier Zhou Enlai.

Kissinger, who was President Richard Nixon's national security advisor at that time, told Mao that the United States had no "quotas" or "tariffs" for Chinese women, drawing more laughter.

Kissinger then tried to highlight to Mao the threat posed by the Soviet Union and other global concerns as he moved to lay the groundwork for restoring diplomatic ties a year after Nixon's historic visit to China.

But Mao dragged the talks back to the topic of Chinese women.

"Let them go to your place. They will create disasters. That way you can lessen our burdens," Mao said.

"Do you want our Chinese women? We can give you ten million," he said.

Kissinger noted that Mao was "improving his offer."

Mao continued, "By doing so we can let them flood your country with disaster and therefore impair your interests. In our country we have too many women, and they have a way of doing things.

"They give birth to children and our children are too many."

A shrewd diplomat, Kissinger seemed to turn the tables on Mao, replying, "It is such a novel proposition, we will have to study it."

The two leaders then spoke briefly about the threat posed by the Soviet Union, with Mao saying he hoped Moscow would attack China and be defeated.

But Mao again lamented, "We have so many women in our country that don't know how to fight."

The assistant Chinese foreign minister, Wang Haijung, who was at the meeting, then cautioned Mao that if the minutes of the conversation were made public, "it would incur the public wrath."

Kissinger agreed with Mao that the minutes be scrapped.

But when Kissinger joked that he would raise the issue at his next press conference, Mao said, "I'm not afraid of anything.

"Anyway, God has sent me an invitation," said the Chinese leader, who coughed badly during the talks.

Mao died in September 1976. US-China diplomatic relations were restored in 1979.

I will leave any judgement on these freshly-released developments up to you.

DESPITE GETTING BUT HALF AN INCH OR SO OF SNOW HERE IN THE MINNWISSIPPI YESTERDAY, it's shaping up to be a rather cold President's Day where Your Correspondent is sitting.

And should remain so the next couple of days, especially in view of pre-sunrise windchill readings likely to crash to the -20 to -25 range.

Speaking of weird weather, Your Correspondent has to wonder whether the late spate of tornadoes across parts of the Deep South are some class of Divine Wrath and Judgement for such being major bastions of support for the Pseudoreligiopolitical Right.

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ONE OF THOSE "DEFINITELY NOT FOR TOURISTS" SIGHTS TO BE ENCOUNTERED in parts of Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and Bhangladesh is dog fighting a la mode--traditionally the enclave for the local version of Angry White Men Eating Krispy Kreme Donuts, with many such contests featuring under-the-table betting and substantial cash prizes.

Seeing as how a suicide bomber disrupted a dog fighting tournament in Khandahar, Afghanistan yesterday (with 84 deaths ensuing) makes me wonder if said suicide bomber really had as motivation therefor a protest against such a cruel, inhumane and degrading sport--especially given the laxity of police power in parts of Afghanistan.

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STAYING WITH ANIMAL-RIGHTS ISSUES, AS IT WERE, FOR THE MOMENT, you can expect the People for the "Ethical Treatment" of Animals crowd to be rejoicing @ the news of the Department of Agriculture's Food Safety Inspection Service recalling some 144,000 tons of ground beef produced by the Westland/Hallmark company out Southern California way--most of which you may have already eaten, alas for it! by way of either:

• the School Lunch programme; or
• Jack in the Box and/or In-N-Out Burger locations, both concentrated largely in the western states.
  (Both chains concurrently announced they would stop buying ground beef from Westland/Hallmark forthwith.)

The order being issued in response to undercover video made by Humane Society officers discovering where halt and lame cattle as should not otherwise be processed for human consumption were being forced into the abattoir--in some extreme cases, resorting to cattle prods or even forklift trucks.

Remember, boys and girls, that PETA sees releasing flatulence for the sake of dietary reform to be a Badge of Honour--the louder and smellier, the better.

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SO MUCH FOR THE CONTINUING HANNAH MONTANA MANIA ABROAD, especially to the point where such is getting too much attention as "junk food" news (a/k/a prolefeed) serving only to distract the attention of the weak-minded and vulnerable from The Bigger Picture of the ur-RAHOWA's failings and Indecision 2008.

Which recalls this Burma-Shave sign from the around 1936:

RIOT AT
DRUGSTORE
CALLING ALL CARS
100 CUSTOMERS
99 JARS
BURMA-SHAVE

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MUHAMMAD AL-FAYED, THE ANGLO-EGYPTIAN BUSINESSMAN AS OWNS THE RITZY LONDON RETALER HARRODS (motto: Omnia Omnibus Ubique--"Everything, for Everybody, Everywhere"), finally got his opportunity to tell his version of events in what he always wanted all along: That inquest by the Paris authorities into the tragic 1997 accident as killed Mr. al-Fayed's son Dhodi and Diana, Princess of Wales.

To hear Mr. al-Fayed put it, such was actually part of a Greater International Conspiracy--involving, if not the Usual Suspects in conspiracy theories of Jews and Freemasons, then the British Royal Family, MI6 (Great Britain's overseas intelligence agency), Interpol, the Central Intelligence Agency and Other International Operatives acting, if not exactly sinister, then weird and unwholesome.

Which is enough to wonder whether Mr. al-Fayed may be overdoing it in his claims and substantiations, let alone fearing the likelihood that he may have to reimburse the French courts if it emerges that the grounds for his inquest request turn out being frivolous, vexatious or otherwise tending to malicious prosecution. Let alone the prospect of al-Fayed having close connexions to the Britophobe extraordinaire, Lyndon LaRouche, considering the British Royal Family being implicated.

And if it turns out that Mr. al-Fayed has to make reimbursement (yet wants to avoid needlessly tying up his own cash resources), he can always turn to Harrods Bank, Ltd., the in-store banking service of Harrods, for an overdraft facility on any personal accounts he may have as a matter of course with same, catering largely to the gin-and-Jaguar belt along the M25's outer fringe with much the same range of banking products and services as the High Street such--howbeit in a more personal and discreet stylee.

In other words, Harrods Bank isn't for everyone.

But then again, if the Banking Halls (where Harrods Bank has its premi on the Ground Floor of the Harrods premi in Knightsbridge) were to demand timely repayment of any overdrafts from Mr. al-Fayed, the question is whether he's likely to make repayment @ all, invoking his position in the management of Harrods.

"Think about it"