Once again, I find myself blogging from an airplane. There is something so absurd about so many aspects of air travel that I just can’t help myself. For example, they just passed word, “It is absolutely illegal to gather in groups, anywhere on the airplane.”
What does that mean? Are they afraid if too many people get together they will decide to form a rugby scrum and shuffle down the aisle in an attempt to take over the plane? This makes as much sense to me as if they had said, “On this flight, there will be no reading the odd numbered pages in your book or magazine.”
Food will be served soon. I have trained myself to eat anything placed in front of me on an airplane. You never know; your next calorie may be 5,000 miles away. And yes, I did pass on the Peanut M&M’s at the duty free shop – although I was tempted by a bag big enough to qualify as carry-on luggage. I didn’t buy it for one reason: No matter how big the bag, it would have been empty by the time the plane landed. You can eat a lot of M&Ms between Europe and the States.
I am also struck by how unembarrassed people are when crowding at an airport. I usually call then out on this but the guy I picked to make a scene with turned out to have a wife with him. I let him go with a glare that he never saw.
Europeans crowd even if the line is moving so fast they have to jog to stay up with it. It has to be cultural since I never see any shame. I challenged one guy the other day, not knowing if he spoke English or not. He just smiled at me and nodded. I half expected him to say, “No Coke, Pepsi,” like Bill Murray in the old Saturday Night Live skit (cheeseburgercheeseburgercheeseburger).
China has the same sort of “Lack of Shame.” Their national telephone system is made up of phones identical to those used all over the world - All of them rip-offs. On their website, they boast of an R&D department with “nearly twenty” research specialists. This is exactly the same number of research specialists Seven-Eleven has working on their next Frozen-Burrito/Slurpy combo. And yet, they have supposedly, independently developed the same phones that the rest of the world has.
China recently bragged about the new 4G telephone system they have developed on their own. What this means is that their crack team of researchers managed to pry of the label from a competitor's hardware and glue on one saying “Made in China.” Ask them and they will tell you I am speaking the truth. They see nothing wrong with this.
Here in the United States, we have the same sort of unbelievable behavior taking place at the highest levels. For example, we have campaign contribution limits that are specifically designed to prevent corruption. On the front page of the USA Today newspaper were listed 6 Republican presidential hopefuls that have found a way around this law. It’s a loophole and thus legal. I ask you this, if you find a loophole to do something that is deemed to be corruption, is it okay to do it? Morally, I mean.
Here are the six Republicans that want your vote for president in 2012; Six Republicans that are dancing in the field of corruption simply because they found a missing comma in the law that allows them to do so without going to jail. They are: Haley Barbour, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, Tim Pawlenty and Mitt Romney. .
The really bad news in this is that some of us will vote for them.
Alas…
Saving the world is getting to be a full time job.
Up, up and away…
jim
