Holy crap! Remember these?

Something reminded me of this today, and I have no idea why. I remember dozens of kids bouncing on pogo balls in the gym at school when I was a kid.

The phase was short-lived, as I remember, though. My pogo ball is now gathering dust in my parents' attic.

Any Bethel alums out there who also remember this?

President Bush finally made it to Vietnam. The long plane ride seems to have messed with his logic a bit, though.

President Bush, on his first visit to a country where America lost a two-decade-long fight against communism, said Friday the Vietnam War's lesson for today's confounding Iraq conflict is that freedom takes time to trump hatred.

Whaaat? This is the lesson Bush gets from Vietnam? I wouldn't call Vietnam a place where freedom trumped hatred. But Bush seems to think so:

"My first reaction is history has a long march to it, and societies change and relationships can constantly be altered to the good."

The lesson I would take from that, then, is that we should leave Iraq and in 30 years they'll have figured it out on their own. And that would seem a bit contrary to Bush's "stay the course" policy. The man is confused - or confusing, at least.

Bush is equating the emergence of capitalism with freedom, which isn't quite the same thing. Not even close. I wouldn't say that the Vietnamese have a free society, much like the Chinese don't. That's not to say that things haven't progressed, but Vietnam is no beacon of freedom.

Am I wrong here?