Freedom

This restaurant is called American Bar although, with the government permitting this violation of its role to protect people's life, liberty, and property, it's violating the original intent of America's founders. How? See how the sliding doors are wide open? Also, see the vents on the white wall facing the wide open window? Those vents are blasting air conditioning into the outdoors. Why should anyone care if they pollute and deplete? This nation's Founders (and writers of the 14th Amendment) didn't just suggest protecting life, liberty, and property for the fun of it. They recognized that if we don't think our future will be better than today, or that if we create something someone can just take or destroy it, we lose reason to invest…

Common roles for auxiliary police officers include crowd control and traffic control during big events, like parades. July 4th fireworks is another big one (scroll down for pictures from last year's Thanksgiving parade). This year my patrol during the fireworks was right next to the water. I took a video toward the beginning (after ensuring it was okay with the officer I report to). Should I say it's only a minute because the fireworks went for half an hour, or it's a full minute, because even a few minutes would seem long for fireworks in most places. In any case, I love volunteering, all the more when I'm fulfilling what feels to me like civic duty. Here are two pictures from before the fireworks started.…

I've read several books on racism lately. One of them, I think The Myth of Race, remarked how American soldiers after D-Day found Nazi vehicles had GM and Ford engines in them. I found it hard to believe, but possible. I looked it up and found this 1998 Washington Post article, Ford and GM Scrutinized for Alleged Nazi Collaboration: When American GIs invaded Europe in June 1944, they did so in jeeps, trucks and tanks manufactured by the Big Three motor companies in one of the largest crash militarization programs ever undertaken. It came as an unpleasant surprise to discover that the enemy was also driving trucks manufactured by Ford and Opel---a 100 percent GM-owned subsidiary---and flying Opel-built warplanes. This part of the article was…

Travel used to mean something. You had to work to go somewhere. In many places you could find a different culture. Today, you just pay money and go from one airport to another. The concept that "it's the journey, not the destination" is over. For most people the journey is passive. Going across the world takes marginally more effort than going across town. I've written before that “Traveling” with roller suitcases isn’t what traveling used to be. Today, most places are just slightly different versions of the same global culture. Again, going across the world takes you to people little different than you can find across town, and I don't just mean in a place as diverse as New York City. Signs that your travel…