Archives for May 2006

Take a look at this:

That’s Bonds’ 715th on Sunday. See the two guys in white T-shirts in the center of the frame, one with the black ballcap turned backwards and the one with the red cap? My wife’s brother and brother-in-law. Man, that was close to quite a payoff.

(photo via MSNBC)

That’s what they say, anyway. Personally, I’ve never even come close to living that way.

I think if I had to identify the one thing that’s predominantly responsible for the success of Western Civilization in general and America in particular–by which I mean leading the world to virtually everything I consider important–it’s a certain sort of willingness to take risks when there are potentially big payoffs at stake. Without a willingness to undertake risk, nothing much ever happens.

So that’s what I thought of when I heard about that fiasco in Washington on Friday and later read Kyle’s take on it. It’s no surprise. Did you really think that any of those people–a single one of them–are the sort who would or could ever make the world a better place because they were willing to take a big risk for a big payoff? Any Da Vincis in there? Magellans? Einsteins? Henry Fords or Rockefellers? Were there even any take-charge civilians there? Any Flight 93 genetic material? Nope. Not a single one. That’s not where you find such people, and the events of Friday showed that fact very clearly, which of course raises the question: what sort of people do you find there? You find thousands upon thousands of people who play it safe every moment of their miserable lives–sitting around waiting for an authority to tell them what to do.

It’s why they’re there, you see. That’s the place where risk-averse, do-nothing parasites go. It’s the sort of place and the sort of people that’s increasingly representative of what much of American culture is coming to represent. Pathetic. Disgusting. And you voters, evidently stupid to the very core, keep putting them there.

Update: Looks like Texas has undertaken to begin manufacturing just the sort of take-no-risks people I’m talking about. Via Beck.

In the same vein as my last entry, I’m just sitting here outside the New Leaf Community Market off Hwy 9 in Felton, CA up in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Lot’s of spiritual people up here and that’s what I aspire to, above all. Yep. Just sitting here under an umbrella outside sipping my organic coffee, which also happens to be fair-trade certified (of course).

I gotta say, too: these new Sony TX-series notebooks (all 3 lbs. of them) with the built-in wide-area data network are quite sumthin’. This thing now goes with me everywhere, and in general, if I can get a cell signal I can get on line with connection speeds far in excess of dial-up.

I’m just generally feeling the love, the peace, the wisdom. Yes; Wisdom. The ancient kind. Like this, the bulletin board outside the store that I snapped with the Treo a moment ago and emailed to myself in order to get it into the notebook, here, wirelessly–and then published out to the blog wirelessly.

Check out all the opportunities one has up here in the peaceful, enlightened society to gain real wisdom–not to mention serious opportunities to get laid.

Ok, gig’s up. I just can’t take it anymore. Fun while it lasted, and so sorry to reel in all yooz who don’t read regularly. Check out the rest of the blog (other than the last two entries) to see what I really think.

One note: while I’m kinda making fun of the values of a lot of the people who live up here, those are their values and it seems to work up here just fine. No complaints. Very charming, in fact.

Uh, note 2: I’ve been going for over an hour, data going the whole time with the screen turned up to just one notch under full blast brightness, and the battery is at 87% with 4 hrs and 53 minutes estimated time remaining. This thing rocks!

I got this link to an article about John Travolta’s "little place" the other day–the one with the B-707 parked out front. It’s a little laborious to get through. It violates my "no horizontal scrolling" rule and the person who put it up needs to be beat about the head & shoulders for that one.

That said, surely the couple must be gobsmacked by what they have pulled off? Do they ever look around…at possibly the world’s most elegant private airport…the two planes parked in their front yard and just…giggle?

"Oh yea," they laugh in unison. "Every single day."

Well. "Chortle" might be a better description, don’t you think?

I’d just like to know where Travolta and Preston get off. Who do they think they are, taking for themselves such a very large slice of our social pie? Huh? 6,700 square feet of residence, 9 acre estate, and a tarmac large enough for a 707 and a Gulfstream II.

It boggles the mind, such useless and excessive consumption. Disgusting. The thousands of gallons of fuel–for a single trip. The pollution. Yuk!

They need two jets? How many people are living in poverty around the world, going hungry because John and Kelly need two multi-million-dollar jets? And how many people are traveling in that 707 at any one time–four or five?–when it could be efficiently hauling a couple of hundred people who probably have travel needs far in excess of the Travolta’s. Besides…they have two jets. People are in buses, taking days to make a trip that John and Kelly make in hours. What gives them the right? And not only that, what about security? I don’t think the TSA is checking them out out each time they fly so that we can be safe and protected. What about that? How can we trust John Travolta with a fuel-laden jet that weighs several tons and can go 500 mph? Can you imagine what could happen?

I had thought, gladly, that the awful displays of old-money wealth were a thing of the past. At least that other gaudy display, Vanderbilt’s old place, is now a museum for us, the people. We can only hope for as much with Travolta, eventually.

Power to the people! Some glorious day, we’ll be able to take back what’s ours from those who have stolen it from us, democratic society. Democracy demands it!