Road Report

We made it to Belize City, Belize late last night. So far eveything is going very well. Got to Merida on the 15th. Visited Chichen Itza enroute to Cancun. Booked a tour to "Aruba" and spent three days in the worker's paradise. Fantastic. Many photos to follow.

A pretty good adventure getting from Banana, Aruba to Belize yesterday. One plane, two buses, a taxi, foot power and two friendly natives.

Three new countries and three new UNESCO sites. More to come.

Out.

Have Ruck, Will Travel

Tomorrow this time I'll be "Wheels Up" on my way south. I'm hooking up in the ATL with my friend Jason. Together we head to Merida, Mexico. We'll be working our way on down to Costa Rica over the next month. Mick will join us (Inshallah) in Belize on the 20th. If things go as planned I'll pick up six new countries and at least as many UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Gotta rack up those Frequent Flyer miles.

The Dixie Chicks

Much is being made by the Babblers of mainstream media about how the Dixie Chick's concerts are not selling well in the red states. While their new album, Taking the Long Way, is a smash hit and Chick's concerts in blue states and Canada are selling well, concerts in the southern-fried parts of the US have been canceled. Yet, a second, quickly added date in Toronto sold out in eight minutes.

Country radio stations have revolted against the Chick's ever since members ripped President Sock Puppet and his conduct of the Iraq war. What do you want to bet the vast majority of those stations are owned by the fascists of Clear Channel? So much for freedom of expression. Clear Channel is a huge supporter of right-wing ideologues and as such are guilty of screwing over artists who don't kowtow to the party line.

I'm not a big Dixie Chicks fan. Wouldn't recognize one of their songs right now if I heard one. But, I know idiomatic grit when I hear it.

Heard while flipping through the channels...

One of those Infomercials. The guy is pushing something that cleans out your colon. OK. "The Almighty Cleanse" He said over 50% of Americans DO NOT have a bowel movement at least once a day. No problem there for me.

Claims John Wayne had 40 pounds of shit in his intestines on autopsy and Elvis had 60. Sixty?! Anyone with that much crap hanging on is a control freak.

Sixty pounds...guess that's what made him the King. Should have spent more time on his throne.

Just Finished Reading "Dark Star Safari" by Paul Theroux

He's got me doing some serious thinking about going to sub-Saharan Africa. But, something he wrote toward the end of the book struck me:

"You go away for a long time and return a different person - you never come all the way back."

I've long thought and often said that international student recruiters are ruined for "regular" jobs. Once we've seen the other side of the world we can never work a normal 9 to 5 again.

It ruined me so much I gave up work altogether. A fine decision.

Ever Wonder What It's Like to be a Bird?

I'm out walking the dog. This buzzard is floating overhead. Wings spread wide. Just riding the air currents. Doesn't even have to flap it's wings. Soaring.

This evening, as the sun sets, the flocks of Canadian geese will return to the lake by the house, spreading goose pate throughout the neighborhood as they come. They're always fascinating to watch as they land on the water though. Sort of a controlled fall. Yet graceful in it's own way. Always reminds me of those old World War II air force movies. Bombers returning from a mission over Germany.

But, I also noticed these little sparrows or finches flitting around. They have to go like crazy to get any lift. There is no soaring. And these little guys have NO glide ratio. When they pause in their pumping, man do they drop! Like falling off a cliff. What must that feel like? Of course, they've been doing that all their flying lives.

I'm sure it's adaptive. The vulture and the hawk hangs up high, keen vision looking for prey. The geese don't like to plop into the pond like bags of wet cement. The smaller birds need the speed to avoid being prey themselves.

To Paraphrase Don Corleone:

Zarqawi was a pimp. He was basically a street thug in over his head. If we hadn't whacked him Al-Qaeda would have. Where do you think we got the Intel to nail down his location?

Funny thing is if, by some chance, he had managed to survive a few more years he might have ended up Premier of Iraq. Think I'm crazy? Well, possibly I am, BUT guys like Ariel Sharon and Menachem Begin (from the OTHER US client state in the Middle East) were nothing more than rabid terrorists themselves before THEY got "respectable." Sharon is responsible for the slaughter of hundreds, if not thousands, of women and children in Beirut alone.

Stranger things have happened. Remember, bin Laden and Saddam were both pals of the US at one time. The crap flows both ways.

Baseball's Drug Problem

I see where major league journeyman pitcher Jason Grimsley is in deep crapola over his alleged distribution of Human Growth Hormone (HGH). According to him and others this problem is more widespread in the game than steroid usage.

Hey, if that's the way it is then Barry Bonds homeruns aren't tainted. If you are juicing, but going up against juiced pitchers, don't they cancel each other out? It's a level playing field.

The shape of one man's opinion.

MORE Proof Ann Coulter was Dropped on her Head as a Child!

This from Ann's interview with Matt Lauer on the Today Show:
Coulter talking about the 9/11 widows: "These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief-arazzis. I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much." [p.103]

Pressed by Lauer to defend her statement that the widows were "enjoying their husbands' deaths," Coulter responded: "Yes, they're all over the news." She criticized the widows for "speak[ing] out using the fact that they're widows" and "using their grief" and "the fact that you lost a husband" to make "a political point while preventing anyone from responding." She further argued that "the Left" exploits a "doctrine of infallibility," and that "[i]f they have a point to make about the 9-11 Commission, about how to fight the war on terrorism," they "put[] up Cindy Sheehan ... put[] out these widows." As a result, Coulter said, conservatives "always have to respond to someone who just had a family member die" and appear to be "questioning the authenticity of the grief."

When Lauer said, "I don't think they've ever told you you can't respond" to the statements of 9-11 widows, Coulter replied: "[Y]ou're getting testy with me," adding, "[Y]ou think I shouldn't be able to respond."

Although Coulter also criticized 9-11 widows for "cutting commercials" for Sen. John F. Kerry (D-MA) during his 2004 presidential campaign against Bush, Lauer failed to note that other 9-11 widows made campaign appearances for Bush. As Newsday reported September 25, 2004:

[A]t the Republican National Convention, Debra Burlingame, whose brother piloted the American Airlines flight that crashed into the Pentagon, was one of three women who spoke in highly personal terms of their loss. She told the Associated Press yesterday she, too, was willing to make campaign appearances for Bush to outline her differences with the pro-Kerry families.

I'm reading Paul Theroux's "Dark Star Safari"

It's about his journey from Cairo to Capetown. I've only read about 60 pages, but one thing he wrote struck me:
"I really did suspect that I might be headed to a dark place, and as with all long trips I fantasized that I might die there."

Sometimes, leading up to a long trip in which I'll be going out of my comfort zone I have similar feelings. Not that I will die, but more like dread or depression or despair. It's hard to explain.

I used to have the same feeling right before the starting gun of each Boston marathon. You're entering the unknown and we humans always fear the dark.

On my first big trip (in January '05) after Jan died I had the same feelings. Just outright dread. Maybe it's a combination of what will happen "out there" and what will happen "back at the house?" You have little control over either.

HAd a dose of it before the Sri Lankan trip and maybe a little on this Central American trip coming up.

Nonetheless, I will always go. The rewards far outweigh the risks. The trips are over so quickly and when I get back I wonder what the deal was.

I think many people wish they could travel like me, in the abstract, but hesitate to pull the trigger and go. I don't hesitate.

There Was A Big Crack Up out on the Highway Today

That just ain't right.

I See Where Rev. Pat Robertson Claims He can Leg Press 2000 Pounds

If you believe that, I can see how you'd believe creationism.

One Year

Today marks exactly one year since I retired. It's been a helluva year. If I could put 20 or 30 more together like this I will have some kind of life!

Do I miss work? Hah! No longer am I defined by what I do. More by who I am. AND I only answer to the fool in the mirror.

Funny thing though, people keep trying to give me jobs. Man, I ain't flying no desk no more.

Retirement. Mikey Likey! Remember the movie/play "Chicago?" Love the Life you live. Live the Life you love.