I Brake for Cherries!

Do you like plane pr0n? (“Who doesn’t?” is the appropriate answer, in case you’re wondering.) If so, get on over to Steeljaw Scribe’s place, coz he’s posted a ten minute home video, transferred from 8mm film, of USN carrier operations in the 1954-1955 timeframe, and it’s great…not good, but great…stuff.

Elton John, self-confessed Luddite. You can’t make this stuff up, ya know. I’m talking about stuff like this:

“I do think it would be an incredible experiment to shut down the whole internet for five years and see what sort of art is produced over that span.

“There’s too much technology available."

“Rocket Man,” indeed. Put a sock in it, Sir Elton.

(h/t: Gerard)

Also via Gerard, an excellent essay in the Claremont Institute’s blog, “Recruiting for Element R.” Excerpts:

But in the simplistic polarization between Republicans and Democrats, I believe something is missing - the noble virtue called responsibility. We have a party of the right that prioritizes freedom and the individual viewpoint, competing against a party of the left that prioritizes equality and the communal viewpoint. Seldom asked amid the struggle is the question, "Why? Equality or freedom for what?"

America's democratic conversation occurs in a moral vacuum as to the ultimate ends of human life, even when the air is thick with moral and spiritual rhetoric. Victory may seesaw between the two parties, yet duty steadily loses ground to selfishness, faith to skepticism, prudence to expediency, temperance to excess, higher to lower. The responsibility deficit worsens among us, no matter which side wins.

It’s a short little essay with a Big Point, one that I agree with. The Democrats are really, really big these days on “accountability.” That’s the raison d’être for all these frickin’ witch hunts …er…investigations… no, that’s not right, either… fishing expeditions (got it!) into such things as firing politically-appointed federal prosecutors and the Plame Game. When there just might be real work to be done, like appropriation bills for the upcoming fiscal year. In which case, Gentle Reader, they’ve abdicated their responsibilities in favor of…what? Political point-scoring? You’ll note the essay takes both parties to task, and rightly so. But the Republicans got their comeuppance last November. The Dems are likely to suffer the same fate next November if they continue to disregard their responsibilities.

Just sayin’.

Today’s Pic: While I may not have as many pics of RV parks as I thought I did (see yesterday’s first post), I have literally HUNDREDS of windshield shots I took from the driver’s perch in El Casa Móvil De Pennington at various times during my travels hither and yon. This pic was taken somewhere in Washington state, just west of the Cascades. I failed to see the humor in it originally…my intent was to grab a shot of the road with the spectacular mountain scenery in the background. What I got, inadvertently, was visible evidence…quite visible…of a potential bumper sticker, to wit: “I Brake for CHERRIES!”

June, 2000.