|
|
|
|
6 September 2004 - MondaySeem to have missed my goal of writing more often. Still working at a very cool company, The Insitu Group, and the area around Hood River, Oregon and White Salmon, Washington is still surprisingly beautiful. The company now has small robotic uninhabited (unmanned) aircraft, of about 40 pounds or 16 kilos max takeoff weight or mass, take your (corrected) pick, in the field, with good reports. The principal customers are military so far, though commercial customers exist as well and preceded military orders. We just haven't made announcements yet. Since last posting, my country continues on its path of intensifying lukewarm fascism, which is hard to write about in any case, and more so in my current circumstances. One post to the good, at least.
19 January 2004 - MondayBeen working at a very cool company, The Insitu Group, for the new year, in a surprisingly beautiful area around Hood River, Oregon and White Salmon, Washington. The company makes small robotic uninhabited (unmanned) aircraft, of about 40 pounds or 25 kilos max takeoff weight or mass, take your pick.
1 January 2004 - ThursdayPeace to all, and let us hope that this page updates more frequently, and more cogently, in the new year...!
10 December 2003 - WednesdayEvery group is a democracy—some just do it better than others.
5 December 2003 - FridayThe existence of creationists and 'creation science' proves that evolution doesn't work.
3 December 2003 - WednesdayWe now have a debt-o-nator for governor in Kalifornia. Charming.
2 December 2003 - TuesdayAh-nuld promised in his campaign that all we had to do to fix Kalifornia was to get rid of waste and fraud. That was just one of many outright lies. Idea: He is a waste, and a fraud.
1 December 2003 - MondayIn a cult, believing is seeing.
27 November 2003 - ThursdayThanksgiving Day Still hard to write about the state of the world, given what is, compared to what could and should be. Optimists can be their own worst enemies, always finding hope in the face of tragedy and treachery, even when fierce attack is the only reasonable course of action to stave off disaster. I am not often called an optimist, so it would surprise some to find out that I believe that I have been, and still am. Massive corrupt forces have robbed humanity of our best future, and perhaps any future, and those forces are gathering strength — not losing it. Yet, every day we must remember that there is still, and always, hope.
19 November 2003 - WednesdayThe world is so surreal, it's hard to write about it, whether personal, national, or global. We have an awkward, unfunny, boorish Austrian as governor of California, who is described what seems like everywhere as 'charming.' This in itself is a reason to worry, and not just about our press. He wants us--virtually commands us--to vote for a $15 billion bond in order to overcome a debt. How can a regular citizen hear that and not choke on the lie? It is too absurd to joke about, in a state with $1 trillion in personal income, perhaps less, but perhaps more, which means we could fix the whole shortfall with an overall 2% tax increase. Wall Street, Washington, and Sacramento practice every form of financial terrorism on the population, and the population applauds. Regarding Iraq, the press can't seem to tell the difference between breaking down a door with a warrant, versus without a warrant. The warfare, in Iraq, which is going very badly, is said to be good because it ousted a dictator. If the police are allowed to shoot anybody they have capital evidence against, we could say the same thing. 35 years ago Reagan was in California bankrupting the state, and Nixon was going to Washington to take the program national. Then it got worse, for a long, long time. The world could be a much better place, but there's no reason to bet on it, today.
5 November 2003 - WednesdayCouple of very important birthdays recently... In 1949, my father took the bus from St. Louis, Missouri, where each of us was born, to somewhere near Los Angeles. He would have been about 13 or 14. I don't have time to make it pretty, just now, but some of the postcards he sent and wrote, but kept, are here.
28 October 2003 - TuesdayBusholini is in way more trouble, on many more fronts, than Nixon ever dreamed he could attempt. Yet the simplest justice seems as remote as ever. The greater mass of the American people are still like an abused spouse, battered, weak, embarrassed, yet still in deep denial about their partner. They spew hysteria and histrionics to defend the scum, even while being treated for the latest life-threatening wounds at the emergency room. We have got to face the beasts, America. They are right here at home.
23 October 2003 - ThursdayIt seems that some Republican from Florida is going to be brought in to audit Kalifornia's books. Who is he going to bring in to audit our elections -- Katherine Harris? (Harris is currently sitting in Congress with no protest from so-called Democrats, to make another point.) Arnold apparently thinks that she can find $300 million. That's less than $10 per person, for the whole year. This state, which has produced Nixon and Reagan and other historic embarrassments, has sunk to a new low. Truckers, farmers, and anybody with common sense, including most of us that is, should be watching their wallets, their children, and their privates more alertly than ever before.
20 October 2003 - MondayThe screamers on sucker radio have finally made it clear: The poor have stolen all of our money.
18 October 2003 - SaturdayThere is so much work that needs to be done -- look around. How can we have so many unemployed, underemployed, and underpaid when so many schools, water mains, electrical grids, roads, medical centers, and other foundations of our general welfare need significant repair and upgrades? It's disgraceful. Wealth is responsibility first, obligation second, and privilege a distant third if that. The righteous currency of America is liberty. You can't print that, but it is a promissory note from the Constitution, nonetheless. The money currency of the United States is no less ours than the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And you can take that to the bank.
17 October 2003 - FridayIt is simply common sense to see that more than two-thirds of the newly wealthy either married their money or inherited it; that is, they did not earn it by any American standard. By the same logic, the greatest fraction of wealth in this country is old money. These people do not take the most cash every year, so most of them are not even visible to us most of the time.
16 October 2003 - ThursdayWe are told that CEO's must be paid our big bucks because of the risks they are taking. When they promise to pay back the money they lose, and actually do it, I will begin to believe that they are taking risks. Until then, we are just being robbed. It's our US Treasury money we're talking about here. It is going to take many years of very high taxes on the rich and those who take lifetimes of cash every year (the 'cash holes'), to get back to where we need to be. There is no other way.
month of October 2003 |
||
b.rad
|
brought to you by ...
| |
... copyright 2003 brad schrick ... | ||