O dark thirty in the Albuquerque Sunport. Eight ticket agents at the United counter and no passengers. Scary! On the way to Anniston, AL (drive to ABQ, air to Houston, connect to Atlanta, 2 hour motor coach to Anniston to take a FEMA course that I had previously completed at FEMA’s national training center in Maryland, taught there by the acclaimed “dean” of instruction). But here is it required to “check a box.” Go figure.
Departed
Santa Fe in the midst of severe statewide flooding, described by one official
as “biblical.” I’m not a religions person, but would direct her attention to
the section of the Bible that references Noah and the Arc. But troubling
nevertheless, with arroyos that can morph from dry to a raging torrent in
30-minutes time.
Spent
most of the week in the company of first responders discussing the consequences
of someone (anyone) trying to confiscate their firearms. And lots of locker
room talk that took me back to junior high. But they do rush into burning
buildings and confront terrorists, so I cut a ton of slack.
##########
“Cut
off your nose to spite your face,” a favorite expression of my grandmother, a
tough Pennsylvania Dutch matron who baked & sold pies, squirreling away
some of the proceeds from her husband (a loving but tightfisted German) in
order to dole out a nickel here and there to each of her five kids.
I
never fully comprehended the meaning, but it does appear to have some relevance
to the current political theater inside the Beltway.
My
namesake George Will provided a Lincoln quote with the power of a bazooka. If (the
horrendously misnamed) Affordable Care Act is as bad as some believe, allow the
“silent artillery of time” to bring it down.
Yet
an immutable that might join "death and taxes" is the certainty that given government
largess to the populace in whatever form, the likelihood of its withdrawal
approaches that of lottery winners and lightning strike victims.
##########
“Happiness
is complicated; freedom is not.” This may not be original. Thoughts
occasionally pop into my head and I’m never sure whether they were self-
generated or inadvertently cribbed. I tend to submit such items to Google, and am
occasionally amazed that the likes of Oscar Wilde, Flaubert, Lincoln and I have
similar thoughts.
##########
I’ve
clearly been watching too much TV lately. Current annoyances:
“Limited
time offer” and “supplies limited” vice “offer good to the end of time” and “infinite
supplies available”.
The
plethora of “reality TV.” As folks slink with excessive stealth to repossess cars, boats,
airplanes and whatnot, I can’t blank out the fact that there is a TV camera
crew in close proximity that could blow their cover.
A
proliferation of ads that announce "if you owe the IRS more than $10,000, we
can help you get up to 85% of the debt quashed." How proud they sound helping
deadbeats while we poor schlubs pay and pay.
But
isn’t that what we have become, a burgeoning class of “takers” and a diminishing
group of "givers"? Historians muse that all great civilizations of the past
have withered, and speculate on when it will be our turn. Perhaps the tipping
point will be when the 1% is no longer able (or willing) to subsidize the 99.
Actually the ratio here is more like 45-55, but going south daily. Gerord Bernard Shaw opined that "those who rob Peter to pay Paul will always have the support of Paul."
##########
Government
shutdown tomorrow. Perhaps. Incredible stupidity or a “march into hell for a
heavenly cause”? The coin is in the air.
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