Links and Writings: Art, Aviation, Photography, Photoshop, and Politics

 
From previous post you know I love LearJets. There are many reasons for this that range from the way it responds to control input to its human size. One of the best features of the airplane is the simplicity of its systems but at the same time the amount of back-up that is designed in. As an example, the other day on approach into MDW when I called for “gear down,” the co-pilot reported there was no green light for the nose gear. With many other airplanes, some with much more complicated systems, this would have required my abandoning the approach and going through lots of monkey motion to confirm a down and locked nose gear. With the Lear I had just lost one of the four ways of confirming a safe nose gear, the other three, red transit light out, gear horn, and engine sync light were available with nothing more than a glance, the momentary reduction of the thrust levers or the flip of a switch. All three checked out and we continued the approach to a landing without so much as a quarter-dot bobble and no sweat.
posted by I'm a OK guy at 12:09

 
“Confidence men, why the myth of Republican competence persists despite all the evidence to the contrary” by Joshua Micah Marshall
posted by I'm a OK guy at 06:37

 
Michael Kinsley writes the column I have been trying to write for several weeks. LBJ was deeply flawed. However, when it got to the nut cutting he stood up and did the right thing. All the time he knew the price that he and his party would pay - losing southern democrats to the Republican party. If the Rs had been half as principled, we could have killed racism as a political force. Instead they chose to sell their souls for power.
posted by I'm a OK guy at 10:17

 
Other times the humor is not intentional nor is it enlightening. After reading this WSJ OpEd my first reaction is why did a tree have to die to publish this and then wonder that anyone much less the leading journal of the right would provide newsprint for such schmaltz.
posted by I'm a OK guy at 23:12

 
Sometimes humor is the best way to make your point.
posted by I'm a OK guy at 22:30

 
From John O’Farrell and the Guardian:

“In the United States it is the custom to include in your Christmas card an annual update on all the things that your family have been up to during the previous 12 months. Needless to say, this practice has become the excuse for highly selective reporting, thinly veiled boasting and general oneupmanship between friends and relations.

Colleagues of ex-President Bush were particularly irked by the round-robin they received from George Snr and Barbara this Christmas: "Young George W is getting on just fine in his new job of President of the United States (thanks for the help, Jeb!). He is looking forward to starting World War Three in the new year and Dad has been helping him find Iraq on the old family atlas. Coincidentally, this is also the time that he'll be beginning his campaign for re-election, and as Dubya says: 'I will not be impedemented!' "
For more.
posted by I'm a OK guy at 06:37

 
I hope you will read this The Nation article. Any one of the listed actions or rulings made by this un-elected government should be enough to cause public outrage, instead we act as if everything is happening to someone else or to another country. I know there is nothing more embarrassing or boring than a true believer ranting and carrying on about politics, but the class warfare the Rs have waged for 20 years needs to be confronted and stopped.
posted by I'm a OK guy at 06:14

 
I don’t want to go overboard on the new job but ...

LearJet charter has always been one of the hardest ways to make a living flying airplanes. It’s not as tough as teaching flying or being a F.O. on a Regional, but still a hard way to earn your beans and tortillas. One reason is the first thought of drunk high rollers wanting to go to Vegas and/or anyone who has an emergency in some distant place is “let’s charter a Lear.” For that reason LearJet charters tend to be middle of the night hauling drunks or hurry up and get me there so I can save the world operations. Like I said, a tough way to live.

The new job has the middle of the night routine down pat, but it also has some things going for it that I’m finding a pleasant surprise. The best is that I know when I strap the Lear to my ass the day may be long; but when it is over I will sleep in my own bed. As an example, yesterday I had a 10:30 departure for Veracruz Mexico to pick-up; we cleared U.S. Customs in El Paso; then continued to San Francisco to drop the client. Then back to Houston with a stop in Albuquerque for fuel. It was a long day fighting as much as 140 knot headwinds, 9.6 hours total flying time and I don’t even want to think about the duty day, let’s just say I was legal. When I finished I climbed into my good looking white truck and drove home. Beats the hell out of trying to sleep in a bad airport hotel. The other nice thing is we always have medical crew members, and they deal with the PXs. All I have to do is show up on time, do my paper work and fly the airplane. When the trip is over, I pack my personal stuff, pick up my trash, complete the paper work and go home. I don’t have to worry or take care of a thing until the next time dispatch calls. I can live with this.
posted by I'm a OK guy at 11:26

 
Michael Kinsley on “How Reaganomics Became Rubinomics. ”
posted by I'm a OK guy at 08:27

 
I don’t know if the correct metaphor for what Paul Krugman does is “lifting the rock so we see the scurry of worms and bugs” or “pulling the curtain to show the manipulation of the wizard” but which ever why is he one of the few national pundits writing about the lack of substance from this Administration.
posted by I'm a OK guy at 08:02

 
For years I’ve maintained that after the 1968 election you had to be rich, bigoted, or stupid to be a Republican. After watching Trent Lott for the last week, I believe he hits the trifecta. Damn, this has been fun.
posted by I'm a OK guy at 19:12

 
It started with the Wall Street Journal and now the Washington Post reports the White House thinks the rich are paying too great a share of the tax burden. I know no one in this illegal administration has shown the slightest understanding of truth or economics, but this is so outrageous it is unbelievable.
posted by I'm a OK guy at 06:57

 
The old saws “a stopped clock is right twice a day” or “if you live long enough it will come back in fashion” are in play again. The economics I know, love, and understand is making a come back. Now if Shrub and company had a clue.
posted by I'm a OK guy at 05:26

 
When Charles Krauthammer pulls out the long knife to use on a Republican, you know he’s in trouble.
posted by I'm a OK guy at 05:47

 
Mark Morford’s SF Gate column could be a transcription of one of my foam-at the-mouth rants.
posted by I'm a OK guy at 08:49

 
This from ABC News The Note:

Here is what Senator Trent Lott, Republican of Mississippi, said yesterday at Senator Strom Thurmond's birthday party, according to ABCNEWS' O'Keefe. "I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had of followed our lead we wouldn't of had all these problems over all these years, either."

Wade Henderson of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights told ABCNEWS' Douglass: "This was an offensive and blatant attempt to rewrite the history of the last 50 years …Thurmond ran for president as a Dixiecrat, a segregationist. He gave the longest filibuster in history to try to stop passage of the Civil Rights Act. In his statement today, Lott also embraced those dubious achievements. … Lott betrayed his role as the Majority Leader of all Americans."

Shame on you, Trent Lott. Shame on Mississippi for electing you senator. Shame on the Republican Party for selecting you as Majority Leader, and shame on the United States for having your party in control of our government.

posted by I'm a OK guy at 08:11

 
I received a letter from my uncle Dick yesterday. I’m posting part of his letter:

...Katherine and I went to church last night at 6PM, and she slept in this morning while I went to McDonalds. On some Sunday mornings we will have 8 in the group but this morning we only had four.

Katherine and I have four children. Richard lives about a block from our residence, and he and I have been sharing an office for a number of years. Dora Ann lives in Victoria with her husband Allen Bass. Charles recently married for the second time to a fine female doctor. They live in Corpus Christi. Pat is active in the practice of medicine in Corpus Christi and also here in Aransas Pass.

Richard and I had a joint birthday party that started on Saturday, November 9, and continued on Sunday. I was 90 years of age on November 10. Katherine, our youngest child, was here from Florence, Alabama, with her husband Jim Durrett. Jim and Kay lived in Houston for a number of years and worked for Brown and Root. Still works for the same company. Was transferred to Alabama for a short tine but has continued to work there.They sold their home in Houston and purchased one in Florence. Jim works just across the river in Tennessee.

My brother Bob had two children. The son Bob Hatch came down from Alexandria, VA, with his daughter and wife. Bob’s daughter Karen and her husband Dennis Perry get their mail at ...... in Houston.

Katherine tells me we had 69 people present on Saturday, all but 3 being blood relatives. Katherine and I have five great great grandchildren and the youngest of the five was present, age 11 days. Ruth Hatch, widow of Happy, is still in a nursing home in Big Spring. ...

Richard D. Hatch
posted by I'm a OK guy at 08:14

 
This one is long but a must read. The John Dilulio letter to Esquire’s Ron Suskind is damning, made more so by Dilulio’s apparent fondness for Bush and Karl Rove. Combine Dilulio’s letter with Paul Krugman’s “Hey, Lucky Duckies” and you get a very bleak picture of the next two to six years.
posted by I'm a OK guy at 22:31

 
Recently I read that Auden said, "Great art is clear thinking about mixed feelings.”

Carol and I went to the MFAH this afternoon to see the traveling Alfred Stieglitz exhibit. As I viewed his work, that quote kept bouncing around my mind. Except with the O’Keeffe images, with those I’m not sure about the clear thinking but the mixed feelings were very apparent.
posted by I'm a OK guy at 02:46