A Country Full of old men

Just got back from Florida – note – leg room in a flight makes all the difference in the world – I had not flown Jet Blue before and I have to say – while I did have a problem with a flight being canceled – and delays – even with that I was able once on the flight to sit back listen to the Satellite radio and doze a bit. I’d have really hated having to deal with all that and then spent the flight home eating my knees as well.

Florida at least where I was is full of old men – and old women too – it makes driving on the highways – especially the deadly I-95 which features at least one fatal crash a day – as you have people driving 100 miles an hour suddenly confronted by a car doing 45 in the left hand lane driven by some old lady where the only thing you can see are her hands on the wheel.

We went on a nature walk at a place called Green Key which is a combination water treatment plant and a while life refuge – it has as couple of over head walk ways you so can get a sense of what most of Florida looked before the retirees arrived.

It was a swamp – once you got past the barrier beaches Florida was a swamp – and we vanish tomorrow it’ll turn back into a swamp. It says something about us as a species that we do things like this – I’m not sure if it is good or bad but it is what we do.

Saw a lot of birds – one gator and bunch of turtles – swamps are not kind to mammals in general – too hot too wet too much really. Didn’t get to see a great Blue Heron which is a magnificent bird really but they do tend to go deeper into the swamps and don’t think much of people in general.

Played golf with my dad – it’s my annual golf game. I don’t hate the game but it’s not something I like to do with my time – maybe it’s being with people who play golf – the best game of golf I ever had was a round I ended up playing all by myself in the poconos. People who play golf a lot tend to be pretty intense about the game – and overly fond of betting. I was playing with my brother and some other relatives (I think) and my brother kept trying to get bets going on the game – I kept saying no no no but he persisted. One I don’t like to bet anyway – (I find Vegas to be very boring because of that), two I was easily the worst player of the foursome – but he kept at it until I finally asked what would be the most I could lose on the round – He said something like twenty bucks – so I reached into my pocket/

“What are you doing?”
“Giving you the twenty so I don’t have to worry about it”
“You’re not going to lose every hole”
“Why not? ”

At that point he changed his mind.


I didn’t catch all the details because they were very very sparse with the details but Obama’s pastor or one of them – is on tape saying bad things about white people. The reaction of the overwhelmingly white beltway village press was shock that a black minister (or any black person) could have a bad impression of white people. Some of the ministers that have floated about Obama’s campaign have expressed bad opinions about gay people as well but that seems okay with them – ditto several pastors who came out for McCain including one who seems to want Armageddon to start really soon now all that is okay.

As the village talked among itself about the ‘issue’ (which was ‘we are shocked that not everybody thinks white folks are the bee’s knees cause we are’ so let’s talk about how shocked we are) Obama actually made an adult speech about race in America. It’s a speech he probably will have to make more than once and it’s a speech that any black candidate would have had to make.

Obama’s major mistake I think was making an adult speech since the people who have been going on about this are a pack of gibbering apes with an IQ of about 12 – and attention deficit disorder to boot.

None of this is going to go away – alas.

Peace Love back in the New York Groove.