November 8, 2010, Streak show
Amongst formerly trapped Chilean miner Edison Pena demonstrating the power of the human spirit, Subway sandwich shops' pitchman "Jared" cheapening the whole thing by his commercial presence (fortunately, most media refused to cover him), and the usual world class super-elite runners (sadly, the world record holder and many people's "greatest marathoner ever" Haile Gebrselassie announced his retirement after dropping out in the 16th mile; his countryman, Ethiopia's Gebre Gebremariam won the men's race and Kenya's Edna Kiplagat won the women's race, with American Shalane Flanagan taking second in her marathon distance debut), not to mention numerous other celebrities and 43,000 or so others in presumably the largest marathon ever staged, your talking dog kept intact his streak of running every NYC Marathon since 9-11, finishing yesterday just barely in the expected range (that's between 5:20 and 5:40, a minute or so faster than Senor Pena!) for TD's 10th NYC finish in a row (and 28th marathon overall... plus this year's 4 ultra finishes). A brisk day in the mid-40's and a relentless wind took their toll... as did the possibility of lingering fatigue from the 50-miler of three weeks ago... but none of this was going to force a surrender. "More training outside" (such as... any) might be next year's plan... along with that 'speed work"... whatever THAT is! We'll somehow need to knock off 130 minutes or so for Boston qualifying... that, or turn 80 and knock off only 40 minutes... hmmm....
Anyway, what I love most about the marathon is its elemental simplicity: the clothing and the sneakers and the timing equipment and the elite training methods may be space-age, the paved roads and urban backdrops of the high industrial era... but the act of propelling oneself over the distance is entirely primal... our forebears did it to run down their food, or to out-run the possibility of being food. One foot in front of the other... nothing more. (The barefoot running craze is alive and well as I saw one man... barefoot. I'm not sure that makes this more simple... or harder... but good for him for trying it.) Some days are better than others... and like everything else, the challenge is getting through it on days when everything isn't clicking into place... knowing (or sometimes just hoping) that the preparation has been adequate for nearly all contingencies.
Yes, yes... a metaphor for everything else. I'm sure many, if not most of the participants can check their marathon off their life's to-do or bucket list; something so pointlessly American in that-- an experience to be had, checked off and thrown away. I hope that many more will see it as I do-- an ongoing challenge. Something to be endured to be sure, but also something to learn and to grow from. Marathoning's popularity has a way of increasing in comparatively difficult economic times here in the USA... and God knows, that's where we are now. One hopes this is because so many realize that joy and fulfillment are to be derived not from material success... but from valuable experiences, and meeting the challenge of something like a marathon is just that.
Well... God willing, we'll see you this time next year for a report on TD's 11th. Until then... this has been... "Streak show."
November 5, 2010, Living large
It was pointed out to me by the young 'un, and confirmed by Mrs. TD, that in Orwell's 1984, the all-encompassing state used the mechanism of a state lottery as one of its numerous means to keep the proles in line; the lottery was extremely popular amongst the proles. State lotteries as of the 1940's (when Orwell wrote 1984) were not all the rage as they are now; but as in so many things... Orwell was prophetic. It was once suggested to me in blog comments that 1984 was not intended as a manual. Well, whether or not it was or wasn't so intended, it has sure as hell been used as one, especially here in the United States of late, from its creative methods of torture, to serving the public rot-gut cheap crap (Victory gin, anyone?) to keep it in line... to state lotteries.
Anyway, fast forward to Canadian couple Alan and Violet Large, who won over $11 million in a lottery prize, and then proceeded to give every last loony, quarter and penny away to friends, charities and hospitals, noting that... they're happy... they have each other!
Everything I read tells me that "stuff" doesn't make one happy: experiences and especially doing nice things makes one happy, and, not coincidentally, will help one live longer and healthier. Which is one of the truly great ironies of a Western world that is choking with stuff, but starved for "doing nice things." And so we come to the United States, with tens of millions of people on antidepressants while choking amidst stuff (much of it made in Eastasia, with whom we're at war... or is it Eurasia?)... virtually none of whom would even dream of doing what the Larges did, no matter how good it might make them feel.
I throw this out there because when we run out of comparatively-cheap oil in the next few years... the incidence of "stuff" (that would also include food and pharmaceuticals, as well as i-pods and x-boxes) is going to collapse (along with so many other things)... if we were already inured to "doing nice things"... such as favors for friends or just random kind acts... we might be of the kind of mind-set that would get us through the privation. Of course, being Americans, many of us feel "it's about the stuff," and even though, the ultimate irony is that money really can't and won't be able to buy happiness... most of us probably won't adjust.
Well... an exemplary (and cautionary) tale from the Great White North... one we might consider heeding.
November 1, 2010, Happy day of the [politically and economically] dead
Here we are, one day after Halloween, on "All Hallows Day" in some places, a/k/a "Day of the Dead" in others. Given that I'm down to no more than a few dozen of you (if that) who are still likely to be reading this, there's no real reason to sugar-coat here.
And so, it seems, many Americans have figured that out... Based on polls like this, we can apparently conclude that 75% of those surveyed believe things suck right now (although the bizarrely American pollyannish streak has 58% believing things will be just fine in a year)... we can expect those that vote tomorrow to take things out on the party nominally in power, the Democrats (rather than, of course, on the party actually in power, the Republicans Rockefeller family plutocrats who run corporate America which, of course, since that party controls both of the nominal parties, can't actually be "voted out" by any means other than citizens either taking to the streets in protest, or taking themselves out of the money economy.)
Having spent the last two years in a desperate quest to convince me that every minute of effort (such as spending the last two federal election cycles in Pennsylvania on Election Day) and every nickel I contributed to Democrats and Democratic causes was not only unappreciated, but a huge mistake, as not only issue after issue I hold dear was thrown back in my face, but the White House itself felt the need to say that any dissent to its corporate program on liberal grounds by dirty hippies was to be derisively dismissed.... let's just say... I'm sold! I'm done helping the Democrats; I'll be staying home tomorrow. I'll be voting-- but only because there are state and local elections at stake that, unlike the federal ones, might make a difference in my own life; I plan on leaving the federal lines blank. After decades of Democratic Party attempts to convince me, the Obama Administration has finally done it and convinced me: there is no meaningful difference between the two parties on anything important, be it advancing the interests of investment banks and the military industrial complex, the shredding of the Constitution, or, of course, asinine recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance when actual considered action is required. I wish I'd've been listening sooner: I could have saved myself some time, effort and money. Well... better late than never.
And just as our political system, as far as I'm concerned, is on its last legs (if not past them), our economic system is not going to be far behind, as Brother Dmitri reminds us... we've done nothing to diversify our economy away from oil (foreign or domestic), and, since Earth ain't making any more of it,,, we'll be running out pretty soon, and well... things won't be pretty.
The only thing we can be absolutely certain of is that the collapse of our political and economic systems will not be met by any kind of rational response. Many can take delight, or misery, at the results of the elections tomorrow... but why? Regardless of which of the two parties our plutocrats allow us to have that "prevails" tomorrow, we still won't ease up on either our program of exporting homicide or our program of importing petroleum (and both on money borrowed from the Chinese.) Yes... the benevolent incompetence of Reid and Pelosi will likely be replaced by the malevolent incompetence of McConnell and Boehner... but... so what? Is anything going to fundamentally change? Other than possibly for the worse (and that, regardless of the electoral results).
So... in some sense, much of this might end up being liberating. Many if not most of us were being ground under by industrial capitalism as it was... maybe we'll have a fighting chance in what comes after. Who knows? The one thing not to do is to somehow think "conventional wisdom," such as the pollyannish conclusion that life can magically go on exactly as it has before even amidst evironmental, economic and political collapse, is anything other than a suicide pact. If I can do you any service at all, I'll just say-- do something to "take yourself out." In my case, I've started to grow vegetables on my roof, but am way behind on where I need to be... and yet, I still know that most people won't even start until things have already collapsed.
Here's the thing: Americans are far smarter than our elites give us credit for; after all, we generally don't vote, and we don't like soccer. So we at least have something to work with. But we'll have to at least start acknowledging the reality of our situation, and start taking action, preferably starting yesterday. And on that... well, I'll just hope for the best, I guess.
This has been..."Happy day of the [politically and economically] dead."
Update: In a baseball World Series no one really cared about (since the New York Yankees weren't playing), just 53 years after the team left New York for greener pastures Westward, Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco Giants have defeated George W. Bush's Texas Rangers 4 games to 1. Boo ya.
October 31, 2010, Seasons Greetings
October 30, 2010, October surprise
I know I'm supposed to be scared s***less about today's official thing-I'm-supposed-to-be-incredibly-afraid-of, be it incompetent would-be terrorists trying to blow up their underpants on airplanes, or blow up Times Square, or mailing explosive packages from Yemen... to synagogues in Chicago.
Thing is... I've seen this movie... the last-minute-before-the-election "surprise" of some kind of "terror thing." The Bush Administration used it beautifully, and Republicans magically got elected. The Obama Administration, it seems, appears to be using it for the identical purpose (that would be getting Republicans elected in this mid-term election).
Naturally, without any "evidence" besides its own say-so (and we're supposed to "trust it" with respect to everything else), we are told that the perpetrator of this is "radical cleric" Emmanuel Goldstein Lex Luthor Anwar al-Awlaki. Not to worry your pretty little heads, all you "security moms"... al-Awlaki has been "marked for death" by those patriotic killers at the CIA. Thing is... he's never been convicted of anything... or even tried... or even charged. He's just been marked for death because the Government says so Oh... I think I should mention that Mr. al-Awlaki is a United States citizen. The Fifth Amendment to our Constitution... that no person shall be deprived of life or liberty without due process of law...?
I guess the Government's response to that would be... "surprise"!
The other thing I'd like to throw out there is that the [we are told] targeting of synagogues in Chicago [where former White House chief of staff Rahm Emmanuel, himself a Jew of Israeli background... is running for mayor... coincidence?]... comes within days, if not hours, of Omar Khadr's pre-composed-by-the-government guilty plea that includes his confession that in addition to wanting to do battle against and kill Americans, he also wanted to kill Jews.
Maybe it's all just... a coincidence... that our nemeses at the new-and-decentralized al-Qaeda, in the Arabian peninsula, or wherever, are changing their M.O. to unibomber style mail bombs... to synagogues... in Chicago... and it just happens that we catch them a few days before a federal election... or maybe it's... something else. Like a government in need of a public justification for a step-up in the dictatorial powers it is taking on for itself... just as it is about to go into full-time Presidential reelection mode [that would be the day after the mid-terms, btw], the last thing it wants to be reminded of is that Barack Obama campaigned against the totalitarianism of the Bush-Cheney Administration's executive excesses... and that not only is it not reversing the dictatorial arc the country was on, but, in its policies on state secrets, eavesdropping, accelerating the wars, and programs to liquidate enemies of the state... it is going way beyond where the Bush-Cheney Administration ever dreamed of, and worse, proposes to institutionalize this with legislation and court precedents and the like.
I guess the Government's response to all that would be... "surprise"!
October 26, 2010, Happy birthday to...
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton... actress Jaclyn Smith... game show host Pat Sajak (all three born on this date in 1947, btw)... the late Jackie "Uncle Fester" Coogan, Leon "Party Animal" Trotsky (at least according to some calendars), gospel singer Mahalia Jackson... oh, and "Family Guy" progenitor and voice-guy Seth McFarlane... one of whose characters, Brian, is in fact, a talking dog... and of course... to your talking dog, who, despite his preposterous stamina, at two score and eight, can nonetheless no longer deny his chronological status as "late forties" (nor, of course, as "middle aged.")
October 25, 2010, President Gus Monty Hall
What else can you say about the Obama Administration's sudden willingness to play "Let's Make a Deal" with respect to the poster child for show trials Kangaroo Courts military commission trials, when it reached a plea deal with Canadian national and juvenile defendant Omar Khad. Pursuant to the deal, at least what is being reported (since, once again, it seems, details like "the sentence" are evidently not to be shared with the public... "state secrets" you know) is that Khadr would serve up to an additional year at GTMO before being transferred to the custody of Canada, where he will serve the remaining seven years of his sentence, or eight years on top of the nine he has already served in America's gulag Guantanamo Bay.
Some background on Khadr's case may be found in my interview with his former counsel Rick Wilson. In brief, "what's wrong with this picture" is that Khadr (1) was 15, and (2) was probably unconscious, at the time he allegedly threw a grenade that killed a soldier in combat, (3) which is not a war crime, let alone a crime at all, and (4) Khadr was heinously abused, if not outright tortured, while in American custody. But other than that... a fine day for American justice, as the Obama Administration avoids the spectacle of being the only country to try a juvenile for war crimes since World War II or earlier.
I'm thinking that this will go down the way the David Hicks case went down in Australia... this action was taken before the spectacle of a trial inure and redound to both the detriment of the Harper government in Canada and to the Obama Administration. Once Khadr is in Canada... which I'm betting will be sooner than the year suggested... I'm thinking he'll serve quite a bit less than that seven years. But who knows? Canada hasn't exactly been nice with respect to Mr. Khadr until now. (As an added bonus, presumably, the Obama Administration has added a card to the Republicans' deck going into the elections in eight days that it is "soft on terrorism" by cutting such a deal... and if the Democrats lose a few more seats as a result... I guess this would be a true "win-win" situation!)
Well... there is now a possibility Khadr will be a free man around his 30th birthday or thereabouts... a damned site better than the intention of the cowardly Obama Administration for those men who have not been convicted of anything, but whom it nonetheless asserts that the government can hold for life anyway. Well... some resolution of something. The President is already over nine months late on his "close GTMO" promise... but at least we avoid the spectacle of trying a juvenile for "war crimes." In what now passes for our "civil discourse"... we take what we can get.
October 22, 2010, War is hell... etc.
Another day, another massive document dump by Wikileaks, this one concerning the Iraq war, and numerous allegations of torture possibly mean treatment by American troops and mercenaries contractors. Supposedly, the latest document release shows numerous incidents, including assaults, rape and murders, as well as more garden variety torture mean treatment, of Iraqi prisoners in American custody from 2004 through 2009.
Of course, the United States doesn't torture, so we might as well just stop there, and call it a day. You know, you go to war with the men and materiel you have, not those you wish you might have... and all that. And if a combination of too many tours, a (deranged) culture of psychotic permissiveness (which started right in the White House), the ongoing horrors of maintaining an occupation of an already hostile well-armed population on the verge of a civil war as it is, and a nebulous ever-changing "mission" (complete with inadequate body and vehicle armor) aren't enough to drive some of our military personnel utterly over the edge... well, then we'd have to entirely reject "the few bad apples" theory and suggest that the enumerated atrocities were, like a matter of deliberate policy and all... and, you know... we can't go there.
So... we'll just have to satisfy ourselves that most of our military personnel behave themselves honorably and within the law... even as the Dick Cheneys/David Addingtons/John Yoos of the world tell us there is no law, and the Eric Holders/Barack Obamas/Elena Kagans of the world tell us that whether there is law or not... it's a state secret.
Damn Wikileaks and their goody goody "disclosures." Don't they realize that many, if not most, of us would just prefer not to know any of this?
Update (10/24/10): Those namby pambies at the U.N. made a demand that Obama "investigate." See above re: "the United States doesn't torture." Why won't they just take our government's word for it and be done, the way the American public does?
October 21, 2010, If Mrs. Thomas calls...
What Andy Borowitz said.
[BTW... just one more example that our nation really is circling the drain: the environment, the economy, and, of course, the moral fibre of the country are ablaze... and the imperial class... fiddles.]
October 19, 2010, Bronx tale
I suppose I'm not talking about the mighty New York Yankees, whose game 4 starter in a "must win" situation (the Yankees now trail the upstart Texas Rangers 2-1 in the American League championship series)... the incomparably awful A.J. Burnett, has decided to do early Halloween shopping this year.
No... I'm going to talk about the verdict in the case of the would-be Riverdale synagogue bombing jihadists case, to wit, guilty on 30 out of 32 counts. And there you have it. Regardless of the asserted entrapment defense and the other flaws in the government's case, it seems that courts-- with actual lawyers, judges and juries-- seem to have no trouble finding ways to convict accused terrorists, usually of whatever the government wants them convicted of. Regular readers know my general skepticism of the American court system, largely based on what's now nearly a quarter century of working in it for a living... but that said, if one has the staying power to take their case to a high enough court, much of the time, one can achieve a result at least approaching "fair" if not necessarily "just" (whatever that means anyway). And the fact is, in these alleged terrorism cases, and in some of the more spectacular plots (the shoe-bomber, the Times Square bomber, etc.) at that, we've seen prompt confessions and/or guilty pleas, followed by convictions and life sentences, or even in guilty-after-trial situations, like "20th highjacker" Zaccarias Moussaoui (remember him?)... the same thing.
And hence, the question of just wtf the government is afraid of by insisting that it can't have "almost-guaranteed-to-result-in-conviction-and-long-sentence trials" for suspected terrorists in some contexts remains... interesting. The answer, of course, remains "structural": your government wants the option of not having to bother even to pretend to afford due process when it feels like it... the entire Bill of Rights, you see (except for the Second Amendment, and that in "Red States" only), is "optional"... a matter of expedience for the Government, no matter what you may have thought.
And this is bipartisan folks... to the extent there is "a difference" between the Bush-Cheney ad hoc approach and Constitutional Law professor senior lecturer poseur Barack Obama approach, it is that the latter is attempting to permanently institutionalize the worst aspects of totalitarianism of his predecessors (and hence, ends up being a greater threat to us all.) Did I say that out loud?
Because that's the point. Yes, to be sure, Mr. Holder has to sometimes go on t.v. and justify to blowhard Fascist Republican Party Senators why he is "reading rights" to terrorist suspects, but the fact is, his response is little more than "that's our system"... one wonders if his heart is really in it. With few exceptions (and none I can think of), those poor bastards the Government has accused of terrorism and brought to civilian trials... tend to get convicted, followed by lengthy, if not life-long, prison sentences. (And yet, notwithstanding this... we still can't bring ourselves to have a trial of KSM and the other alleged 9-11 plotters in downtown Manhattan (or anywhere else in the United States) because... well.... it would be inconveeeeeeeeeenient.)
Trials, you see, are only for bit players who are almost certain to be convicted anyway. Hmmm... short of pointing out that "only the fool is authorized to speak the truth"... I got nothin'. This has been... "Bronx tale."
October 17, 2010, Nifty Fifty
The concept of a "blog" (a term not yet in vogue at the commencement of this particular blog, btw) was a contraction of the words "web" as in "world wide web" and log, as in "captain's log, star date 462.3 mark 7"... the premise was a personal narrative, preferably with one or more links to things, and some commentary. The political was never a requirement, and I suspect, comparatively few blogs (in the immense intellectual void otherwise known as what passes for our culture blogosphere, anyway) are "political" in nature... notwithstanding the insistence of some, like yours truly, on doing that.
But, of course, as I like to say, "on this blog, it's always about me." And hence, you'll get to read about... well, me. Whatever little I want to tell you about myself, of course. Which will invariably be of a self-aggrandizing nature because... well, see the first sentence of this paragraph.
Which takes us to a sort of life goal, or a recent goal, or whatever, something I've certainly been itching to do for the last year or so, since I was unceremoniously removed just after the halfway point of the JFK 50-mile ultramarathon last year for missing an intermediate time cut-off. And so, this year, in my fourth ultramarathon of the year... and ever... (plus a 6-hour race I truncated to an "infra-marathon" three weeks ago), and thanks to the amazingly nice race organizers, who not only allowed me to finish beyond the 12 hour "regulation" time, but provided a trailing vehicle with headlights on and two very nice ladies to serve as "pacing crew" for the last eight miles or so, allowing me the thrill of a finish in the Tussey Mountainback Ultra and USATF 50-mile championship. Most people who do this sort of thing do so "competitively"... that is to say, with some sort of "athletic talent," which they supplement by some sort of "training." I bring a minimum of both to these events, with a "goal" of... finishing under my own power. And... that's what I did.
I read somewhere that over 90% of American marathon finishers will never run a second marathon. To be frank, for over 18 years, I was in that position, having completed the 1982 Charlotte Observer marathon when I was 19, and retiring from the sport. I resumed my "career" at the 2001 Achilles Marathon in Brooklyn's Prospect Park, and have run 25 after that (including the last 9 New York City Marathons), plus, of course, this year's 4 ultra-marathons. I don't "win"; I don't win my age group, or even come close to an award. In fact, in 2 of the 4 "ultras," I finished dead last (and I wonder if my "last in age group" double at both 2010 USATF's 50-K and 50-mile championships has been accomplished all that many times). You know what? It's still fun.
I know that no more than a few thousand people could even bring themselves to line up at the start, let alone haul themselves to the finish knowing there was no one to beat except themselves. No prize-- no glory, save that of just being there, and bringing what you got... which, hopefully, would be "enough." There is something so horribly perverse at the American... no, the entire Western world's attitude that "winning isn't everything, it's the only thing," etc., etc.
Because that's bullsh*t. What matters is not riches or poverty... material success or failure, academic or business or social "achievement"... or anything exogenous. What matters is whether you-- YOU-- are happy... and find your life meaningful and fulfilling. That's it. If, for you, it takes physical exertion... or "winning"... or "success"... or whatever... good for you. But it has to be meaningful to you. If you find that you have lots of money, and lots of trappings that society tells you should have, like fancy academic credentials, a cool car, a physically attractive spouse, etc., etc.... and somehow it doesn't seem to be "working" for you... Well... Am I seriously saying that someone who may have finished hours and hours ahead of me, but who went home "disappointed" because they failed to meet some "time goal" they had set for themselves or to place at a certain level is a bigger loser than the guy who finished dead last? Yeah-- that's precisely what I'm saying. Because the guy who finished dead last considers himself a winner. And in any walk of life: it's fine to use "life's little failures" as motivational tools to improve one's performance... we used to call that sort of thing "learning" before our schools simply became the socio-economic version of the Harry Potter "sorting hat," and faux-achievements started to out-rank real ones. But to take actual accomplishments in their own right and be disappointed simply based on some nonsensical idea of "competition"... is as asinine in an ultra-marathon as it is as an organizing principle of a so-called "society."
You see... we can all "win"... every last one of us... if we simply allow ourselves to...... regardless of our material or social standing. If... we are happy and find our lives fulfilling. That's it. Because after that... dignity... the most underappreciated but oh-so-critical intangible I can think of... follows from fulfillment. And this is the biggest threat to "the power" that there is... the great secret "the man" doesn't want you to know.
And all it took for me to realize it was 12 hours and 55 uncivilized minutes of pounding up and down central Pennsylvania mountains. I wonder what it will take you?
October 10, 2010, Perfect 10 (10...10...)
10 October 2010... a day that will live in... anniversary... as MSNBC tells us of an unusually high number of weddings on this numerically auspicious day. An interesting Sunday curiosity, to be sure.
Hey, I like this sort of thing. I'm delighted to hear that there may soon be hope for the rescue of 33 miners in Chile.
Happy news in what now passes for our civilized world... [for those wondering what irks me in particular, WaPo hits the nail with this discussion of the outrageous use of the "state secrets defense" to cover a multitude of governmental sins in... secrecy. Just the tip of the iceberg of course... the perfect analogy, as most of the iceberg is... out of view...]
And so, as I took my holiday weekend jog around lower Manhattan, going by "the Mosque"... a sad looking building on Park Place guarded by two NYPD police officers (who, I hope to God have been removed from Rudy's personal security detail that I understand the City's taxpayers-- like me-- are paying for), and a Brooklyn Bridge walkway dominated by picture taking tourists (bring us your tired, your poor, your euros...)... and spending much of the day with the family... on a picture perfect day weatherwise here... we picked some carrots from the roof container garden... and had some milkshakes at our neighborhood Brooklyn soda fountain... maybe this is as good as it gets...
Or something.
October 9, 2010, Happy birthday, John
John Lennon was born 70 years ago, today. We'll never know what he'd have accomplished in the last 30 years had our nation's gun fetish not allowed a mad-man to have the ready means to kill him... but at least we know... whatever Lennon is, was or would be... the FBI remains interested.
Fascinating. Rest in peace, John. Even if, it seems, our government remains threatened by a man who has been dead for decades. Huh.
October 3, 2010, Broken records
Yes, I do sound like one myself, as I regale with you tales of completed marathons (this week, state no. 15 and marathon no. 27, "Freedom's Run" starting and finishing in the great state of West Virginia, albeit mostly of its course being in Maryland, in a comparatively blazing fast time for yours truly... and coincidentally ran into a high school friend there, who is much farther along in her quest for 50 states glory than I am... she is also somewhat faster than I). And this, just a week after an early exit from what was supposed to be an "ultra-"... the Trail Mix-Up Six Hour. Well... going into the USATF 50-mile championship in two weeks... hopefully... I'll be ready for it. (Thing is, it's not just about the physical fitness... it's about being out of contact with the vagaries of our civilization, and the misinformation provided by the corporate p.r. dept. media, and in contact with the universe itself, unfiltered and unvarnished.)
The other point being that the broken records I'm trying to talk about do not involve peak performances and fastest time ever kinds of things... just that I keep talking about the same things over and over... kind of like the United States Government, which, like the British government, has issued an alert advising of possible terrorist activity that Americans traveling to Europe are supposed to worry about.
Is it... red? Orange? Yellow? Until you tell me the color... I don't know what to think about this... other than... somewhere, I've heard this sort of thing before. I guess passengers should be prepared to pounce on any other passenger doing anything suspicious.
Your government wants you to know this. Be afraid. It's patriotic.
September 29, 2010, More milestones
As there seems nothing much else to talk about... Mrs. TD and I celebrate our 19th anniversary. Woo hoo!
