Any photos of that Chevrolet, or of the nooky wagon?
No photos readily at hand. I may have something buried in the archives but none of the cars specifically; they would be lurking in the background and it's not really worth the trouble. I don't know where to begin looking for all that old stuff.
-----
Why do you suppose so many cars nowadays are drab and monochromatic, mostly ranging from white to silver/gray to black? Nary a bright color to be seen, to say nothing of those two-tone pastel paint jobs of yore. I'm sure the factories offer other color choices but the public seems to suffer a lack of imagination. Maybe they're just trying to blend in with all the other anonymous jelly beans but it must be a pain to find your car in a crowded parking lot. Hardly any bright blues, reds, yellows, or greens anymore but pickup trucks seem to be somewhat more colorful. Maybe the pendulum will start swinging the other way, to the glory days of the Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby. That would be swell, in my humble opinion.
-----
First item on the agenda: What are we going to do about North Korea?
Not much, I guess. Latest reports are that the North Koreans are backing off with their rhetoric. As crazy as Kim Jong-Un may seem, he showed good sense and blinked instead of continuing the insane march to Armageddon.
I don't think North Korean missiles are reliable enough to pose any threat, but the possibility that they've developed a warhead small enough for a missile is troubling. Instead of using it themselves they might simply sell it to another party, a terrorist faction perhaps, and let them do the dirty work. This does not seem to be beyond the realm of possibility. Any warhead small enough for one of their missiles is probably small enough to fit in a delivery van, assuming it can remain undetected during transport across our borders. Quite a chilling thought if you think about it. If small boats and planes, loaded with hundreds of pounds of drugs, can sneak into the US, why not a small nuke?
-----
Maybe I'll let Old Dog settle this one, he has been in the South Pacific after all.
Huh? You are betraying an ignorance of geography if you think Okinawa is in the South Pacific. The island of Guam, being north of the equator, isn't in the South Pacific, either.
-----
Sorry, keep losing my train of thought...back to the North Korea topic. Except for sanctions the US has done nothing for the last sixty years or so, correct? That policy has served us well, and should continue. There is enough of a US military presence in the area that it is not in the best interests of North Korea to act haphazardly. The North Koreans have been tweaking Uncle Sam's beard for a long, long time, and will continue to do so. Kim Jong-Un is ruthless but he isn't stupid, and he is playing Trump like a cheap violin, knowing his own relatively empty threats will elicit an outrageous response from the Golfer in Chief. Trump is involved in a game of political intrigue he is ill prepared to play. And since he eschews the advice and counsel of wiser heads and, instead, spouts off with the first thing that pops into that muddled brain of his, circumstances may not improve in the short term. In the long term, I think things will be fine but we may have already gone crazy before then.
Any major conflict will, I think, be unintended or accidental. World War I comes to mind with the assassination of a relative nobody snowballing into a tragic avalanche of warfare because of the many convoluted alliances. The US has many political and economic alliances, but does it have any friends willing to go the distance? I think not. With Trump in charge we are on our own.
-----
And speaking of His Orangeness, it appears that he is trying his hardest to get tossed out of office, being too proud and arrogant to do the right thing and resign. Case in point, his initial statement after the "rally" in Virginia where that lady was killed. He could have immediately denounced the KKK and Nazis by name, but no, instead he shifts the blame to "many sides." Another off the cuff remark that makes one think, WTF? He finally named them as the main culprits but it was like pulling teeth and you could tell his heart was not in it.
He would have very little to lose (aside from possible legal issues involving financial improprieties) by being dumped. In his return to the life of tasteless opulence and wheeling and dealing, he could claim that he did his best but the lying media and swamp rats of Washington wouldn't let him do his job. Not his fault, he tried. Whatever happens, he will leave quite a legacy but, as has been said, we get the leaders we deserve. But we don't deserve this, do we?
-----
Did you guys read science fiction in your youth?
Oh, sure, and still do but mostly listen to podcasts. Science fiction has been terrible in predicting the future, though, but was always a pleasant diversion. Once in a while there were some good ideas presented, not with the technical stuff but with changes in society. Are stories like 1984, Brave New World, or Fahrenheit 451 science fiction or social commentary?
One of the reasons I liked watching the TV series Babylon 5 was that, despite the aliens, space ships, and other futuro-gizmos, it dealt with culture, religion, and politics. Alliances come, alliances go, and it was fascinating to see how they played out. The series was much grittier than the polished optimism of Star Trek; folks actually used the bathroom. Urinals of the future didn't change much from what we have now.
No comments:
Post a Comment