Skip to main content

The World In Which We Live: Safety Is An Option Edition

In a world in which Fight Club, The X Files, and the complete works of Phillip K Dick have collided into one twisted reality we call normal (with a dash of Black Mirror and The Big Short for flavor), we now learn that software upgrades that could have prevented the crashes of two Boeing 737 Max passenger jets were available... at a price. "Want your passengers to live to fly another day? Sure, but it'll cost you." And I'm unsure who is more evil, the manufacturer for making safety features ON A FLYING MACHINE optional at additional cost or the airlines for declining to install the features. This is a stunning failure of human decency in the eyes of this writer.

Perhaps I shouldn't be so surprised. This is business as usual in our extortionary economy. In the US, medical bills are the leading cause of bankruptcy, a real-world manifestation of the "your money or your life" ethos of the street thug in literature and film. The hand wringing over what should be done differently continues as the pace increases. Corruption. Fraud. Violence. The wheel spins faster. And we look on helplessly.

This is the world in which we live on this 28th day of March, Year Of Our Lord 2019.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Building a FOSS Writing Platform

 I've taken a few steps toward resuming writing. I've written off and on over the years and now feels like a good time to get a few pieces started, maybe even finished. I have a long habit of starting more than I finish. As a Free/Open Source Software ( FOSS ) enthusiast, I plan to build my workflow exclusively around such software. The Linux operating system will be the platform; I have a strong preference for Linux Mint . Mint is a stable, conservative sort of operating system, an Ubuntu derivative that surpasses its foundation. This would provide an enterprise-grade platform for my writing and small publishing firm (more on this later). As mentioned, I want my writing and publishing to be done on a FOSS platform. I've used Ubuntu Linux for some time and find it works well, but their parent company, Canonical, appears to be drifting toward centralization, while the Snap application packaging is proprietary software, which is the opposite of FOSS. Canonical isn't a pu...
Post a Comment
Read more

In Memorium: Mitch

Author's note. I've reached the age where friends and loved ones pass with greater frequency. This is my attempt to memorialize those who have gone before, the first in a series dedicated to absent friends. These are people I love and respect, whose stories deserve to be told. Mitch I met Mitch my junior year in high school. He'd transferred from a nearby school and was a year younger than I. This was a fortunate move for me, as both of my closest friends had moved out of state over the summer and I was feeling a bit lost. Marijuana and rock music solidified the friendship, and soon we were hanging out alot with the mutual friends. Our group of friends were stoners and lived the stoner lifestyle, getting high, watching too much TV, living on junk food. We’d tell the same jokes repeatedly, laugh like we’d never heard it before, only for one of us to tell it again soon after and repeat the cycle. It was like a scene in Philip K Dick’s “A Scanner Darkly,” when Bob Arctor ...
Post a Comment
Read more

How To Beat A Billionaire - Updated

If you've spent any time at all on this site, you will have noticed I have an interest in investing. I had no interest in finance until my mid-40s, when I took a job at a printing company in which one of the partners is a CPA. I learned personal finance the hard way, struggling with credit card debt in my early 20s (it was the 90s; I blame the guitar and camera stores). After digging myself out of the hole I was in by age 27, I was cautious to avoid debt anytime I could. Investing, aside from employer retirement plans, was not on my radar. Fatherhood really spurred me into action when it came to investing. There's simply no way a savings account can outpace inflation; if you want to thrive financially, investing is the best way to get ahead. So, with encouragement from my boss, I began to study and learn. Investopedia and The Balance proved to be immensely helpful. In time, I opened an account and started buying exchange traded funds (ETFs) and was on my way. I read a few...
Post a Comment
Read more