I don’t know why this struck me…

… or even how it’s striking me, precisely: President Bush Welcomes Seven Nations to the NATO Alliance.

The nations in question are Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Only two of those countries even existed when I was born, and all of them were ruled by dictatorships. Now…. well, according to Freedom House they’re free, at least, and they’re certainly part of NATO. And it all seemed to happen in an eyeblink.

The world can seem a mad place sometimes, although in this particular case I’m certainly not complaining.

9 thoughts on “I don’t know why this struck me…”

  1. This is part of the reason I stopped celebrating birthdays. 🙂
    The world gets faster, and you get slower. This is probably a good thing, but acceptance and equilibrium never seem to catch up.

  2. “Given the rate Moe’s been posting tonight, if this is him on slow mode he must have vibrated in his youth.”
    Bah: only two more posts than normal, and one of them was an introduction.
    But I was a bit manic as a child, yes. 🙂

  3. Wow! You must be ancient. I’m 63 and all but Slovenia and Slovakia have been countries all my life.

  4. “I’m 63 and all but Slovenia and Slovakia have been countries all my life.”
    Only if you consider Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to have been truly independent countries, instead of conquered provinces of a tyrannical, ruthless, yet ultimately tawdry empire that did its best to drown – first in blood, and then in red tape – any trace of independence or excellence that might be found in the soul of Man.
    Three guesses which opinion I have, and the first two don’t count. 🙂

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