A gift

Was fortunate to get out for a brisk walk with a good friend; the day was chilly, but sunny. Later on, brisk walking was in order for our nonegenarian. The rest of the household dribbled in, and it was good to have a quorum. Evening bit of a walk, in cold air.
There was a "redrawn" map of Afghanistan and Pakistan in the paper; the entire region of Baltistan, where Greg Mortenson has spent so many years building schools for Pakistani children, had vanished into Afghanistan. Here is a bizarre description of its origin: "That the map was first circulated as a theoretical exercise in some American neoconservative circles matters little here. (It accompanied an article by Ralph Peters titled 'Blood Borders: How a Better Middle East Would Look', originally published in Armed Forces Journal.)" I disagree, it matters a great deal that neocons think this is a better division in an area they have no business meddling with, as they didn't in Iraq. Send these all-knowing neocons over to help build the schools.