July 4, 2003
TRINITY (part 2)
If you think chasing filthy lucre makes you venal and reptilian, just wait till you meet the kind of person who would rather legislate themselves into money than work for it.
Now if the subject of money was the endless plain upon which vast herds of nonsensical ideas flourished and thrived, then government is the watering hole around which all species of dim-witted theories naturally gravitate. It�s like a trip through Lion Country Safari: we�ve got our faces pressed to the glass in amazement as the Idiotarian ideas thunder by. Look, a Hildebeest! It�s attacking it�s mate! So let�s just keep the windows rolled all the way up, and move on. This one will be a lot easier.
The second item in the American Trinity is far easier to understand and agree upon, so let�s just all have a moment of silence for all of those men and women who gave their lives, and continue to give their lives, for Freedom.
This, surely, is the single most astonishing American invention: a government whose rights are limited by the people. And as with the first pillar of our Trinity, the idea of limited government causes thin tendrils of smoke to rise from the ears of those on the Far Left. Really give then a healthy dose of this concept and they start to shake and vibrate like Fembots before their heads explode in a shower of sparks.
Now it's not fair to be too hard on these people. After all, we as modern humans go back for several hundred thousand years, and we have always had chieftains and barons and kings to tell us what to do.
A few days ago, I was spending a few moments reading an online poll taken on why the rest of the world hates America. Many people had posted comments, and while all of the answers were entertaining, this one was priceless:
What behaviour can you expect of a country who sought independence because it didn't want to pay taxes?
Gonzalo Arriaga, Finland
Citizens, behold the soul of a slave! Gonzalo loves paying taxes, thinks it is sublime ecstasy to walk down that golden hall, pathetic handful of shriveled potatoes and a scrawny chicken in hand, and lay them � eyes averted! � at the feet of the master. The more we smile the less he will beat us.
If you want a quick rule of thumb about what kind of person you are dealing with, ask one of these folks lined up at the government feed trough a simple question: whose money is this?
Money is a work token, remember. We get money in exchange for our work, our creativity, our inventiveness, our sweat.
Whose money is this? Whose sweat is this? Whose missed family time is this? Whose inventiveness is this? Whose genius is this? Whose work is this?
You want to know whose money it is? It's your money, that's whose money this is. Your money. Not the King's money. The King never worked a goddam day in his life. Not the State�s money. Your money. Your sweat. Your hopes. Your ingenuity.
Yours.
When we talk about Freedom, that central, mystical pillar of the Trinity, we are not talking about government. We are talking about Freedom, and they are not the same. Democracy is a tool. A republic is a tool. The US Constitution is the greatest tool to unlock human creativity in the history of the world, and I no longer give a flying damn if some people recognize that fact or not.
To date, the Founders have accomplished the unthinkable: they have made freedom idiot-proof.
Democracy, The US Republic, and the Constitution of the United States of America are stainless-steel, lifetime-guaranteed tools to limit government and preserve freedom. Because government is nothing more and nothing less than other people telling you what to do.
Can we all hold hands and say that together?
Government is other people�telling you�what to do.
Government is other people�telling you�what to do.
Government is other people�telling you�what to do�
And let's be clear on one point: many people, perhaps most people in this world, fear freedom. They will never admit it, but it is true. When the lights go out and they look at the ceiling before they go to sleep, the idea of being responsible for themselves, for feeding and clothing and defending and ordering their lives, scares the hell out of most people out there.
Poor, servile Gonzalo, Ward of the State, is not the aberration; he is the norm. We ignore that fact at our own peril, fellow citizens. Everybody wants a little freedom, little bite-sized pieces of freedom, like a cheap toy handed out in the state-sponsored Happy Meal. But real freedom, untrammeled, unrefined, raw self-determination: that requires more than a vague desire. That requires some guts.
Now while some limited government is a necessary evil, and can, on rare occasions, do some good, let us never forget that deeply moving scene at the end of Braveheart, when Mel Gibson looks down at his disemboweled intestines, then out to the Baleful Crowd of Oppressed Peasants, and with his dying breath utters his last word on earth: Bureaucracy!!
If Capitalism is a litmus for optimism, then the idea of State is one for independence. And it really comes down to whether or not you conceive of yourself as a child who needs to be taken care of, or as an adult who can make his own way. Freedom isn't free. If you want the State to feed and clothe you, to provide you a job and health care and housing, don't think that comes without a price. It comes with a hefty price, unbearable in my mind, and I'm not talking about what gets taken out of my wallet, either.
It makes us dependent, and dependence makes us stupid. It makes us stupid and willing Gonzalos, the same money fodder that has fed those in control for millennia. Happy Dependence day, everyone!
There's a scene in Bowling For Columbine where Michael Moore interviews a typically decent and friendly Canadian as he emerges from a health clinic. The poor fellow had, as I recall, some serious injury, and Mssr. Moore wanted to know what it had cost him for treatment.
The man couldn't reply. They hadn't charged him. This took Michael Moore's carefully rehearsed breath away! No charge? You mean, you got that medical attention for free?
That's right, eh.
Cut to beatific look on directors face, as if he had just been handed a clean plate at a Shoney's Breakfast Bar.
Folks, Canadians are great people. They are not a stupid people. So can we not, please, not ever again, call this Free Health Care? It is Pre-paid Health Care. That Canadian fellow paid for that treatment every week, for the past twenty years. It was taken out of every paycheck he made. He paid for that medical care, and much, much more. He paid for it whether he needed it or not. And he not only paid for the doctor, he paid for the bureaucrats and administrators in the National Health Service or whatever it's called. It was not free. It was paid for. Whether he needed it or not. When he has fully recovered, years from now, he will still be paying for it. Every week, from every check. That car or vacation he couldn't afford, got eaten up by health care he paid for but did not need.
So the question is, who better decides what kind of health care you and your family need: you, or Hillary Clinton? I understand that not all poor people can afford health insurance. Again, being a decent sort of fellow beneath my strikingly handsome exterior, I don't mind paying a little extra for Medicare for people who need help. I can even live with my insurance rates being higher to cover the cost of caring for the uninsured at the Emergency Room.
But! What I most assuredly DO NOT need is for someone taking my money to give me a health care system I do not need or want. As my all-time idol P.J. O'Rourke once said, if you think health care is expensive now, just wait till you see what it costs when it's free.
This is a great example of the seduction of the state, because "Free Health Care" sounds like a great deal. It's Caring! It's Healthy! And it's Free!
It's not free. And not only do I object to being told what I need and don't need, I also object to the idea that some dim-witted Student Council dork thinks he knows what's better for me than I do.
P.J. Again: if you think that Public is an altar to worship at, put the word "public" in front of these words and tell me how you feel: Restroom. Swimming pool. Transportation. Here's another: Take the words Decision, Officer, Appointment, and then add the word "political" to the front end and watch them drop in value.
So, look around. Look at how people feel about government, and ask yourself, does this or that person think of themselves as an adult or as a helpless child? Freedom is not for children. Freedom means responsibility. It means making tough decisions yourself. Freedom is not government. Almost all government is the enemy of freedom; the bigger the government, the more powerful the enemy.
The things government does well, the things government should be for, are few and simple. If you want to know what these things are, you will never do better than this:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Simple. Direct. Perfect. The most wondrous sentence ever written.
So as far as I am concerned, I say: Government, you can do this, this, this and that �- that�s it, that's all, shut up and go away. Build us some Interstate Highways and some aircraft carriers and stop hanging around looking eager.
Compare this to the recently unveiled European Union constitution, weighing in at a modest 225 pages (down from the 97,000 pages of accumulated laws and regulations known as the acquis communautaire. �Acquis Communautaire�, by the way, is French for "we're f---ed." ) The main �author� of this abomination, which reads like a refrigerator repair manual written by a guy who really digs refrigerators, was Val�ry Giscard d'Estaing of France, who in the spirit of restoring Franco-American relations, compared himself to Thomas Jefferson. This is completely unfair to Mr. Giscard d'Estaing; Jefferson would have had to have written for decades, if not centuries, to produce a document this lifeless, meaningless and dense. Oh, and that's if he had, uh, actually been the author of the Constitution, rather than the Declaration of Independence.
As I say, I�m not an unreasonable fellow. Some government, some restrictions and regulations are good. The FAA actually does a very effective job at giving us the most safe and extensive transportation system in the world. In cases like that, even though the government doesn�t actually produce anything, it does add value in terms of safety and user confidence.
And that's how we should look at every regulation and law. Does it add value, or is it just one of those plastic pancake alien amoebas on Deneva that lands on Spock's back, or yours, its tendrils working their way into your nervous system until you are finally driven mad with pain and commit suicide?
My friend, the irrepressible Kim Du Toit, once asked me what I thought would happen if every government agency had to cut 25% of their regulations �- they get to decide which ones, of course. I think that would be A Good Idea Generally �- certainly worth trying on a test basis. How many of these regulations are there to protect you from yourself?
Children need to be protected from themselves. Adults don't need to child-proof the pool. They already know how to swim.
And after all this, after all these creeping intrusions and regulations, we're still the most free people, with the least intrusive government, on the planet. Go figure.
Freedom. We've still got more of it than they do. Reason number two why we rock.
And behind door number three, the easiest of all to get a grip on, that perennial favorite, good old Yankee Ingenuity.
We work hard. Lots of nations work hard. But we work hard ahead of the curve. Hey man, we define the curve. That curve belongs to us.
We are the fast adaptors. If European technology is cutting-edge, ours is bleeding-edge. Whatever it is, it was almost certainly invented here, and even if it wasn't, it still will live or die on how it does in America.
America has horrible, appalling public schools -- they used to be the envy of the world. But our universities are the envy of the world. The sheer amount of money and mental freedom we have �- starting to see how this Trinity works? �- means that the science done at US universities is the best science on the planet, and it is produced in mammoth quantities. Those pictures taken of Triton, that distant moon of Neptune on the outer edge of the solar system? They were not snapped by the European Space Agency. Or the vaunted Japanese. Or even the Russians. No sir. Those pictures of Jupiter, and Saturn, and the surface of Mars and Venus and Mercury, were brought to you by some long-haired, badly-dressed geniuses at Cal Tech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Some of these guys barely have their driver's licenses. They�re the smartest people on the planet, and I stop the car and get out to Kow-Tow every time I go past them on the 210 Freeway. Geniuses. American college kids.
(Capitalism + Freedom) x Ingenuity = Voyager.
Trinity.
Not only are we great scientists, we are great tinkerers. How many ideas �- airplanes, light bulbs, personal computers, a thousand others �- had been floating around for decades, or centuries, or millennia, until American ingenuity, that practical, hard-headed garage engineering, got a hold of them and made them actually happen?
I live in two worlds. On one side, the hard side, is aviation. I cannot think offhand of a field (other than Cousin Aeropace) that is as technology and engineering intensive. And with a smattering of exceptions, all of the innovation in experimental aircraft is homegrown. Almost all of the new avionics, the new materials and the breakthrough designs: homegrown.
But the other world I inhabit is that of entertainment, a soft field. And even there, I am surrounded by twenty-first century, cutting-edge, American technological mastery. Every time I fire up my Avid Media Composer, I can count the sixty-odd patents listed on the start-up screen. Those of you unfamiliar with non-linear, computer-based editing may find this hard to believe, but I assure you that we can now do in an hour or two what would have remained impossibly complex twenty years ago with a month of work on tape and film. Avid, Pro Tools, Photoshop �- all American inventions. Invented by tinkerers. Kids, mostly.
You know, those idiot Americans you hear so much about.
One last story about this American Trinity before we go back out to that bunker in the desert and then home.
Waaaaaaayy back at the top of this journey, I told you about looking for investors, and finding some. So let me tell you about a man who I would love to name, but won�t.
He is a scientist. A real scientist: a geologist.
While he was a University professor, he and his (business!) partner found a more efficient and more accurate procedure to get some data they, and other geologists, needed frequently. So they formed a company. They went private. They hired Grad students, paid them a fortune relative to any other jobs they could possibly get, and gave them a piece of the company. Brilliant.
So now, this new procedure harnessed all of the work, ingenuity and ambition of a bunch of very bright young men and women whose intellectual passion and economic rewards were pulling in the same direction. Stampede!
They began to become ten, then twenty times more efficient. Accuracy and quality remained superb, because accuracy was in fact their product. And since this was what they had all wanted to do with their lives in the first place, they worked nights, weekends, whatever it took to make this company a success.
And it was a success, a spectacular success, and remains so to this day. The former grad students are set for life, and my friend's father, the scientist, is now a millionaire many times over. I admired and respected him from the very first, back when they were drinking powdered milk to save money. He is a brilliant, hysterically funny, generous and good man. He now owns three houses, and a mountain. He worked for, he earned, every handful of dirt on that mountain. He has made scientific data more accessible, more accurate and more inexpensive than it would have been without him.
And I will say this about him, and about the many other millionaires I have known: he was the first in, and the last out of his office every day, for decades. The boss never leaves work. The Money Fairy did not accidentally stagger into him after a night of heavy drinking. He worked hard, and smart, and deserves every dime.
And he has bailed me out �- twice �- and kept my dreams alive. Twice. Without this man, without his genius, his ambition, his hard work and his generosity, you would not be reading this, for I would not be here today. I have taken his investments and failed him. Twice. And he still talks to me.
I guess because when it's all said and done, it's only money. There's more, in the air, where that came from.
Okay, back to the beginning of this Road Trip: The Desert. The Test Site. The Blast Doors. The Bunker.
Trinity. American Power.
But see, you're undoubtedly thinking about Los Alamos, New Mexico. About Atomic bombs. About July 16th, 1945. About Trinity.
But we�re nowhere near Los Alamos. We�re in California. See, that's what you get for sleeping in the car.
There are people out there who maintain that we are a strong nation only because of our military might.
That�s exactly wrong.
Our military might does not make us strong. We have military might because we are strong. It is a by-product of our strength, not the source of it.
Any idiot can build bombs. Our Trinity sits not on some desert sand seared into glass at an abandoned, sad pillar of stones. It�s in our heads and our hearts, it's in our genes, this beautiful, gorgeous marriage of money, freedom and ingenuity.
We're not here to look at some dark sigil, some monument to destruction. We're builders, we're dreamers. We�re in the Mojave desert, under cloudless skies split by man-made thunder, a place where people strap themselves into bullets and dare sonic booms to get out of their way.
We're going to space, dammit! And best of all, we're going on our own dime.
The test stand looks exactly like the Viking lander would if you'd built it at Home Depot. Get a little closer though, and the finesse, the genius, is in the details. Anodized gold, remote-controlled, cryogenic valves. Stacks and stacks of huge horizontal gas tanks, like the big babies they fill balloons from, all plumbed together to push enough liquid oxygen to get to where it needs to go.
The bunker at the distant corner of Mojave airport used to store ammunition back in the day. Now it stores TV monitors, a home-made control console, lots of chairs, boxes, pipes, pumps, and an old, battered Jet Ski. Oh, and it stores Rocket Scientists too. About a dozen or so.
I'm not in there with them, though. I see enough of the world on television monitors. I'm crouching down on the top of the bunker, perhaps thirty yards away. If this thing explodes, I won't be able to duck in time, but I can make myself as small a target as possible and still see this with my own eyes.
Foam �ears� are handed out. I pretend to screw mine in. I'm already half-deaf from years working in a Miami night club. I want to hear this thing. But that's because I am an idiot.
Fifteen seconds!
The Home Depot Viking� farts. White cryogenic gas spurts from valves on top, sending a white frozen plume across the desert. It�s a disappointing sound. Okay, so you have to purge the LOX system, but--.
Five seconds!
Another noise, throatier this time. Wisps of super-cooled gas emerge from the back of the combustion chamber, which looks like nothing more than a plain silver coffee can �- no cool bell-shape, no piping, no sign of any---.
BBBBBAAAAARRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPPPPP!!
Holy God!!
A thirty-foot tongue of white hot flame lights up the midday desert floor �- did you get that? This is the sound that God makes after polishing off a case of Old Milwaukee and a jumbo sized bag of Cool Ranch Doritos.
It lasts exactly 1.3 seconds. And no, now that I think about it, it's not �a tongue of white-hot flame.� It looks nothing like white-hot flame. White-hot flame would be friendly, compared to this. This is a supersonic plasma spike, that's what it is, the shock diamonds backed up into the chamber like�well, like shock diamonds. A photograph was taken in broad desert daylight and stopped down to catch the brightness of the exhaust plume!
When you actually see something like this this close, you have one thought, and one thought only, and that is: DO IT AGAIN!!
And they do. Several more times. I watch a few from inside. (And I screw in my ears from now on.) The same procedure, again and again. Test. Inspect. Discuss. Restart.
Every now and then, some distant shriek of tearing canvas causes us all to run outside like little kids following the ice cream truck, as a different company is trying a different rocket engine, about a quarter of a mile away. It�s not even close to full power out there, and it�s kicking up a huge brown dust plume.
Down on the Home Depot rocket, that little coffee can goes from room temperature to 420 degrees Celsius in a fraction of a second. We peek inside, trying to divine the signs from the burn patterns -� the data will take days to decode. They are kind enough to let me inspect it. I nod like I know what I'm looking at.
These are great people, too, the nicest bunch of men and women you�d ever want to meet. Once they manned the halls of Lockheed and North American and Northrop and Grumman. Now they�re out there, working for peanuts, building rocket motors for themselves, just a little garage-based, mom-and-pop aerospace company called XCOR. They built the EZ-Rocket, flown by Dick Rutan, the man who piloted the Voyager around the world, nonstop, unrefuelled. Dick stepped out of the phone-booth sized afterplane after 9 days; his first words on the ground were "see what free men can do?"
If I hear another soul talk about the death of American ingenuity, I will bring them out here to meet those normal, smiling, somewhat scruffy, every-day rocket scientists at XCOR. I will introduce them to test pilot Dick Rutan, and his brother Burt. Burt Rutan is one of those people whose work you cannot look at without the word genius escaping your lips in a hushed whisper, unconsciously. His company, Scaled Composites, a few doors down, has a working, flying spacecraft.
No, that's not fair. They�ve got a working, flying space launch system. And they are going, by God! They are flying into Space. The whole lot of them: XCOR, Scaled, a few others.
This is the Trinity I wanted to show you. It�s not just aerospace �- it's all through the very fiber of this magnificent, brilliant country of ours.
These people are using their own money, their own freedom and their own ingenuity to do what governments won't give them the means to do: follow that ultimate dream into and through that deep, delirious, burning blue and out into by-God outer space! Well, if you want to be an astronaut, here in America you can build your own spaceship and you can go.
These people, these private citizens, are the best people there are. Smart, dedicated, disciplined dreamers who have the guts and the savvy to do what all of Europe, or all of China, or Japan, have yet to do: fly in space. XCOR needs about $10 million to build a working space plane: that's about the promotional budget for Legally Blonde 2. No one knows what Burt has spent at Scaled. We only know it wasn't tax money and no one has ever been killed working for him over the past quarter century of tearing out the foundations of what we thought we could do.
I have one thing to say to these people:
ME!! PICK ME!!
So how stands this magnificent experiment, this monument to ambition, hope, freedom and ingenuity on her 227th birthday? How's the old girl holding up after all these years?
Militarily, she is unrivaled. The men and women who serve and defend her today are not only the most capable, disciplined, and effective soldiers in her storied and glorious history; they are the most motivated, decent, flexible, daring and victory-prone troops deployed by any nation at any time. The all-volunteer, citizen soldiers arrayed in the defense of this experiment in self-government have placed the United States in a position that I cannot find a precedent for in history, for they now comprise a force so powerful and effective that the very idea of a direct armed attack upon us has become actually unthinkable. To that extent, we can stand on this Fourth of July and think of a promise we have kept to those young men trapped in the sinking hulls at Pearl Harbor, to those airmen flying through fire and blood to hit their targets at Midway or Frankfurt, to the Marines in the jungles of Tarawa and Guadalcanal, the kids who never came home from beaches at Normandy, and all the others who have fought and died to preserve and strengthen this union, and through whose sacrifice we stand here free and alive and happy today.
The stain of racism, the dagger that nearly pierced our heart, continues to fade, its practitioners in a full-scale rout from a battle that may not yet be over but which has certainly been won. We can look out upon the most ethnically diverse nation on the planet and see not the looming disaster that darkens the horizons of much of Europe, with vast, furious, and growing populations of unassimilated radicals, but rather the serious beginnings of a society where people are indeed judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. The office floor on which I work is a kaleidoscope of racial, national and sexual identities. They are not only my colleagues, they are my friends. The fact that much remains to be done should not blind us to the really remarkable battles won in the hearts of each of us since Dr. King looked out from the shadow of Lincoln and shared a dream that becomes more real every day. Good for us. That, too, is something to stand proud of; something worth celebrating with fireworks.
Our economy, even when hung over, continues to show a broad and unshakable strength, the envy of the earth. American productivity leads the world, as we do in scientific breakthroughs and world-changing inventions. The fact is, fierce competition does indeed keep us honest. Science and freedom eats superstition and tribalism for breakfast every morning. We don't have time for that nonsense.
Our water and air are far cleaner than they were a generation ago, and what comes out the back of a modern automobile is practically cleaner than what goes in. The black streaks behind departing jetliners, rivers that catch fire, belching brown smokestacks and the little blue-grey puffs of poison floating up in their millions from sputtering tailpipes are a fading memory. We can do even better, and we will.
Of course, our times are defined by a new enemy: a brutal, ruthless, utterly inhuman scourge that targets little girls' birthday parties and office workers and commuters on a bus home from work.
I stand in mute amazement at some of the angry voices I have heard from Europe, who claim as a virtue having put up with terrorism for decades, and who emerge through some sick moral wormhole into a position where fighting back is looked upon with scorn and derision. Get used to it, they say.
Well, here's an Independence Day thought for you cowards and defeatists out there in your millions: to hell with that. Since that horrible morning, I have had the consolation of knowing that thousands of those murdering bastards have had, as their last thought on earth, the realization that maybe 9/11 wasn't such a good idea after all.
And I have also watched in total admiration as a genuine leader stood up to pressure the likes of which I have never seen, and committed this nation to the removal of two of the most odious regimes on earth. With them have gone all sorts of future mischief, and likely, certainly hopefully, we will continue to trample this snake until our enemies realize that resorting to Terror will bring them nothing but the swift and total end to their regimes and ambitions, not to mention their personal death and ruin. The jury is certainly still out, and will remain so for many years to come. But I, for one, feel like a man who has watched history's great projector rewound, with Churchill at Munich standing in for Chamberlain, with Fascism crushed in the cradle, and a horrible, brutal lesson learned �- by a few, at least -- at long last.
So Happy 227th Birthday, America. Thank you for all you have done for me and my family. You have asked so little of me, and given me so much, that words seem absolutely inadequate. Thank you.
And where ends this Trinity of capitalism, freedom and ingenuity?
Far be it from me to be one of those mindless ideologues who wish to see the United States triumphant for the next century, or 500 years, or a thousand. No, I�m not that kind of person.
I want to see her triumphant forever. I want that shining city on the granite cliffs to keep that beacon of freedom and hope and optimism alive for as long as we are human, to continue her painful, never-ending, beautiful growth towards a more perfect Union, to be the ideal that we all struggle and fight for each in our own way and according to our own inner lights. I want that lamp to light the way down through history, the scourge of tyrants and torturers in ages yet to come. I want her to remain the polar star of those whose hope, optimism, genius and hard work have lifted, and continue to raise, all of us from the darkness of our animal selves.
And someday, somewhere, I hope and believe those Stars and Stripes will snap and flutter in unimaginably distant skies. I hope and believe that proud parents will sit on bleachers and watch their kids playing little league baseball on brave new worlds we can barely dream of. Right now, at this moment in time, it looks like a great, big, magnificent, empty universe. One day, a day closer to us than July 4th, 1776, I think those wagons will roll again, out to new frontiers, carrying painful lessons learned and yet filled with the identical hope and optimism and confidence that alone define us as a people and a nation.
Some species, somewhere, is going to do it. It might as well be us.
Welcome to the Eject! Eject! Eject! commenter community. Please read and understand the following:
1. This is not a public square. This is a dinner party on personal property. Good conversation is not only tolerated but celebrated here. But the host understands the difference between dissent and disrespect, even if you do not. Louts will be ignored until the bouncers can show them the door.
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Now let's see some distributed intelligence and basic human decency! Don't make me come down there every five minutes!
Comments
Well, I finally did it! I broke Movable Type!
Got a CODE 6330 error: PATRIOTIC ESSAY TOO LONG, so I had to break it into two pieces. Anyway, here it is, at long last.
I tried many times to push through it, but much of that started to look like a parody of myself -- an autopilot essay.
It's different. As usual, I don't know if it's any good, but at least its certainly LONG enough to explain why it took me so long to get a handle on it.
Anyway, Happy 4th to everyone. Even the trolls. And this one, I predict, will be an extra-juicy troll magnet.
Now I must sleep for 22 hours.
Posted by: Bill Whittle | July 4, 2003 1:12 PM
GGGGGGGrrrrreat!
Posted by: Mrs. du Toit | July 4, 2003 1:14 PM
probably too long because you had a repeat section in the middle - saw it before the tweak.
Another good one, Bill. I even like the Cheetah's reference!
Posted by: Wind Rider | July 4, 2003 1:17 PM
I made a comment, but it was on part 1, and those are now gone, so I will say again:
Great work! Like taking my own thoughts and expressing them better than I could.
Posted by: Jay Solo | July 4, 2003 1:23 PM
"It might as well be us."
I'm already signed up.
Thanks, Bill.
Gonna get the book out in time for Christmas?
Posted by: Kevin Baker | July 4, 2003 1:32 PM
Well done! So worth the wait, your analysis of "free" health care was spot on.
Posted by: jpd | July 4, 2003 1:37 PM
And then there was MORE!!
Again, absolutely wonderful Mr. Whittle, thank you for this wonderful essay on a wonderful day.
Posted by: Jason Henderson | July 4, 2003 1:52 PM
Yes.
Thanks.
Posted by: Swerdloff | July 4, 2003 1:53 PM
When I got to the bit about California rather than Los Alamos, for a minute I thought you were going to talk about those chumps over at Lawrence Livermore. And then I'd have to stop reading out of laboratory solidarity.
Seriously- great as usual. Blew a hole right through economic density and into what should be obvious but so rarely is.
Posted by: LabRat | July 4, 2003 1:54 PM
You expressed a lot of what was in this 57 year old Heart--Well Done--
Posted by: Airboss | July 4, 2003 2:11 PM
Damn you! I AM AT WORK! I AM GOING TO GET FIRED!
:::weeps:::::
Thanks Bill, you rock! It's worth the wait, and I haven't even read the first word yet, I just know it. Happy 4th to all.
Elizabeth
Posted by: EB | July 4, 2003 2:19 PM
Wow! Worth every minute of the wait, and every bad joke that was passed in the waiting. A graduate level education in adult thinking, and just the slap in the face I needed to see just how good I've got it here.
I've always enjoyed... to the point of taking them for granted... every right, privilege and opportunity available here, and I was proud to serve my time in their defense. But until now, the "thing" that I was appreciating was just an amorphous abstraction, like a beautiful scenic view seen through a fogged-over window. I always liked the colors and the shifting patterns of light, but really didn't know what I was looking at. I just knew I liked it.
Now you've gone and cranked up the defroster, and THERE IT IS!
So THAT'S what I've lived by all this time!
Wow! Again!
Happy Independence Day indeed!
Anybody know the President's e-mail address? I think he could use a copy.
GHS
Posted by: GreatHairySilverback | July 4, 2003 2:22 PM
I think we have a Pulitzer winner........if we can get it printed somewhere. The only other writer cranking out stuff this insightful is Victor Hansen.
BTW, Bill, when were you at Techapi? (yes, the spelling is wrong)
Posted by: Mike McDaniel | July 4, 2003 2:23 PM
Dear God. Was it worth the wait? Is air important?
WHAT a birthday present for America, and to us! Thank you, Bill.
I watched Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo live, and I have been to the Mercury block house. My dreams of being an astronaut died with 20-400 vision (not just 20-50 or so).... I watched 2001 and said "of course we will have a scheduled flights to a space station. Why not?" The X- Prize had given me hope that I will get to orbit some day.
I got to *touch* Voyager when she was still in Mojave, and I was at Edwards for both the takeoff and landing. The Rutans are the heirs of the Wright brothers, and both have proven they have the Right Stuff over and over and over again. Has anyone else seen the pictures of the rocket-powered E-Z?
Burt Rutan may have two of his designs heading to orbit, not just one.
Posted by: Rick Tengdin | July 4, 2003 2:38 PM
Dammit, Bill!
Best... EVER!
I'm speechless, truly and utterly speechless. I take a knee to no man, I never will, but if I ever had to, you'd be at the top of the very short list of people that I could do so for and not hate myself for having done so.
But, I never will.
It would be un-American and it would be completely contrary to all that we are and all that we stand for.
But I am honored beyond words to be counted among your friends and, by virtue of yours and my belief in all that's good and true, your equal.
Thanks.
Posted by: Emperor Misha I | July 4, 2003 2:54 PM
Wow... Excellent Essay.. I figured that when I read Trinity: Part Two, this was an essay on three different pages.. Ah well, that isn't the point.
Either way, this seems fitting for a birthday present for the USA and me too!
Posted by: Stew the Firecracker | July 4, 2003 3:04 PM
I haven't read much of part 2 yet, but I loved the explanation of capitalism as wealth created out of thin air. Yes!
I just have to put in a nit here. "Beaurocrat" is not a word, though it is a common mispelling of the word "bureaucrat". Look it up.
Posted by: Bill St. Clair | July 4, 2003 3:19 PM
Marvelous. Just marvelous.
Beats an essay about Carrie-Ann Moss any day.
Posted by: Russ | July 4, 2003 3:37 PM
Mr. Whittle has again stunned me with his depth of understanding of the American soul, and with his sheer eloquence.
Posted by: Eric Sivula | July 4, 2003 3:49 PM
ARRGH! Here I'd posted and now it's gone. Well, here we go again.
As I said last night on Misha's site:
America is, at base level, fair to all. There have been, are now, and will be injustices. The human condition, as well as the sheer cussedness of humanity allow certain individuals to act in a manner not beneficial to all, but their friends, neighbors, or government will reign them in. Those three murderous scum who chained a man to their truck and dragged him to death in turn were jailed and convicted. The CEOs who tried to line their pockets at the expense of investors and employees are doing jail time, or are to be tried soon. When extremists of any stripe are identified, they are tried for their crimes. Miscarriages of justice will occur. But when they are identified, the innocent are freed. Not many other nations can claim the same. Our citizens know that in America their basic freedom is preserved and defended.
I personally believe that our willingness to serve our country and our fellow citizens is a great strength of America. Unlike Germany, there is no draft to fill our military. Our service members are not dragged, regardless of their wishes, into the military. They willingly follow the Profession of Arms. They take the time to learn what it is they do, practice often, and execute like no other force in the world. If anyone out there thinks they are better, I invite them to try and play against the likes of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Blackhorse Cav) stationed at the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, California. These guys are the finest heavy forces in the world. No one else even comes close. Hell, our Army and Marine brigades come up against them and are handed their hats (and asses) almost each and every time. When you beat the Blackhorse, you've done on hell of a job. But the only people in the world who can do it have US flags sewn on their combat uniforms.
(There was once a Russian general who came to observe the training of the Cav and the rotational unit (3rd Inf Div, as I recall). He said that in 30 years of service, it was the first time he'd ever seen the Soviet model attack formations executed correctly by all echelons).
Our willingness to serve, and even more, to try new things is part of the root of our greatness. We help ourselves and others, and always strive to do more and better. It is kind of a caricature, where the American always wants a bigger and better something. I look at that with pride, because it is true.
Try to imagine another country that would have, as private enterprise, companies like XCOR and Scaled Composites striving to get private vehicles into space. And not as a single use platform, but one which goes up, works, and returns to earth over and over. And while this is happening, there is no government effort to shut it down, but folks on the sidelines in NASA cheering them on.
I, personally, am not blessed with the vision of a Burt Rutan, nor with even 10% of his genius. But where one man can lead, many can willingly follow. As a member of the "vertically enhanced" (in PC lingo; otherwise a tall drink of water, for us Westerners) I shall likely never be able to go to space. But dream I shall until I no longer see lightning and hear thunder. Maybe they need a good, solid, dependable ground side guy. I'll just dream a little differently.
Wonderful damn essay, Bill. Loved every phrase. What can I say? You da man!
Sapper Mike
Posted by: Sapper Mike | July 4, 2003 3:50 PM
I hate you, Bill. Why can't you start to suck so we can be equal?
Just kidding, bud! Great stuff!
Posted by: James | July 4, 2003 3:50 PM
I broke down and started crying at the last passage...because you've captured the sheer joy that it is to be American. Thank you.
Posted by: Michelle Y. | July 4, 2003 3:55 PM
Bill,
I wrote you two e-mails about part 1. I thought you had made a mistake on something and then realized I would simply do it backwards from you...blah blah.
That aside, this is yet another great work of yours. Thank you.
Posted by: addison | July 4, 2003 4:04 PM
Bill, you've done the impossible and raised the standard even higher. Your book is going to make you a rich man. Simply the best!
Posted by: Jared | July 4, 2003 4:18 PM
If you find yourself in need of bodyguards in the near future, I'm onboard. Thank you so much for putting out there what so many need to hear and so few of us can say.
Just another great work to add to the others. Thank you so very much.
Posted by: Cart Williams | July 4, 2003 4:19 PM
Hat off to Bill Whittle - again! And let him remind himself 50 times a day that for every admirer who writes a comment to this blog site, there could be as many as 50 to 100 readers who can only marvel over being treated to another magnificent essay, and would be willing to buy them when they're published in book form.
Posted by: Bloodthirsty Warmonger | July 4, 2003 4:45 PM
Extraordinary writing. All the lessons with minimal invective. These are the lessons we should hope to instill to future generations. No ego involved, just perfect observations of the American hearbeat.
Posted by: Nolts | July 4, 2003 5:11 PM
Wonderful. Thank you. I'll be proud to buy your book when it is published. What talent, what heart, what smarts!!!
Posted by: Beth in Kansas | July 4, 2003 5:18 PM
I was asked yesterday how I was going to spend my 4th of July. Didn't have anything planned, except a nice meal with the my better half and a trip to the lake for a nice fireworks display.
Then, after my usual daily check to see if you had posted Trinity yet, lo and behold, there it was -- A great post for a great day.
Fireworks? We don't need no stinkin' fireworks. Not when we have you, Bill, writing essays that light up the sky with sparkling prose and wild blue yonder enthusiasm for THE greatest nation on earth.
Thanks, Bill, for a wonderful 4th of July!
Posted by: Brian Kuhn | July 4, 2003 6:10 PM
Bill,
"Hammer of Idiotarians" made me LOL!!!
Wonderful work.
Are you channeling Robert Heinlein, by any chance?
MonkeyPants
Imperial Falconer
Posted by: MonkeyPants | July 4, 2003 6:17 PM
Thanks for the kind words Bill, and everyone else- As I've said before, it amazes me that anyone is doing this stuff, but that *I'm* part of the team still blows me away. But then, if someone is going to do it, it might as well be us...
Doug Jones
Rocket Plumber
Posted by: Doug Jones | July 4, 2003 6:30 PM
Thank you.
Posted by: Susie | July 4, 2003 6:32 PM
"And he has bailed me out – twice – and kept my dreams alive. Twice. Without this man, without his genius, his ambition, his hard work and his generosity, you would not be reading this, for I would not be here today. I have taken his investments and failed him. Twice. And he still talks to me.
I guess because when it’s all said and done, it’s only money. There’s more, in the air, where that came from."
----------------------
Ahh...Nobody has ever captured better the essence
of how Americans view each other.
Posted by: Boris A.Kupershmidt | July 4, 2003 6:33 PM
I sat in stunned silence for a good 5 minutes after reading this essay. Stunned that something could move me as much as Trinity has. You brought back childhood memories from when I lived in the Mojave Desert, (and I knew it was the Mojave as soon as you said,
"...let's hop in the car..")
It brought back a time when I was 5, looking out my bedroom window at dusk and seeing a vertical cloud of smoke on the horizon, rising up to the heavens...screaming in excitement for my parents to come here and explain what it was. A huge bond created between me and my dad as we would scour the night sky looking for objects, UFO's to a child, feeling like I was in the greatest place on earth at the greatest time. Those experiences are what began my fascination with science.
The portion on Capitalism is precisely what I needed to hear right now. Not because I'm one of those, (as are my neighbors), who think everyone needs to be equal in results but...well, this line stood out the most to me and I will treasure it always:
"It’s easy to succeed in a country that lets you fail this often and this easily."
I won't bore you with all the gory details but this statement will be my motivation when I feel like I'm starting to lose the drive.
And yes, like another reader above, I was brought to tears with this essay by the time I was done. Tears of pride, tears of optimism, hope, courage and gratitude.
I was going to save this essay to read for another day but I'm so glad that I read it today. When I watch those fireworks tonight, the words from this essay will be ringing in my ears along with the awesome, thunderous booms from the lights and explosions celebrating our freedoms.
And now, the hippies from upstairs are knocking on my door. They've asked me to join them. I wasn't going to but I've changed my mind after reading this. I'm hoping that what I've read here and how I feel today will rub off on them. If not, I will still embrace that even they, as ignorant as they can be, are part of what makes up America and I will celebrate that idea.
Mr. Whittle--I love your essays, I always feel a little more educated, a little more insightful and a little more powerful by the time I get to the last word. But this one, by far, is the greatest thing, in my opinion, that you've ever written. With every, last, infinitesimal meaning of the phrase, I Thank You.
Posted by: serenity | July 4, 2003 6:36 PM
WOW!
I think I am falling in love with your mind Bill.
You have an amazing ability to crystalize and put into words everything I believe.
The first part about the poor spoke to me. I am presently unemployed (by others) and poor (financially) but starting my own business. A friend asked me why I was doing that - my only response was that as an American If I don't get a job elsewhere I am just going to have to make one. I may be cash poor but I am opportunity wealthy.
No matter what happens I know that there are options and my success or failure is up to ME!
Posted by: mapchic | July 4, 2003 6:45 PM
I said earlier that I would buy two copies of your book when it's out. I changed my mind. I need at least four. And I'm hoping it's out in time for Christmas too! And that it has lots of pictures of America.
Thank you, Bill.
Posted by: shell | July 4, 2003 8:15 PM
Bill,
I'm not sure I can say anything new......you have a real gift. Your celebrity at FreeRepublic continues to grow. I am certainly anxious for the book!
All the best for a great Independence Day!!
Lando
Posted by: Lando Lincoln | July 4, 2003 8:42 PM
Thanks for the Independence Day gift. Just finished watching Yankee Doodle Dandy and followed that up by reading your essay. A good way to finish the day.
Posted by: Duke Nukem | July 4, 2003 8:42 PM
There is an excellent short story by Kurt Vonnegut that illustrates the difference between equality of opportunity and equality of results. It's in the monkey house or something like that.
Posted by: set | July 4, 2003 8:51 PM
Well done, Bill. Granted, I understood all of this before I started reading, but I do not have the talent that you do for explaining with such clarity or such panache.
Simply excellent. I feel that you can put into words what I can only abstractly form in my mind. What talent! Sheesh.
OUTSTANDING![tips hat]
Posted by: doc Russia | July 4, 2003 9:03 PM
More of the usual. Which is to say, it's freaking astounding.
Can't WAIT for the book!
Posted by: Ofc. Krupke | July 4, 2003 9:24 PM
Bill,
If the Wachowskis could make "The Matrix Revolutions" as worthy as followup- of if Lucas could make Episode 3 "the best ever"- as this essay was to your earlier writings, I would lock myself in the theater, and only leave howling after all my fingers and feet had been broken to prise me away from the chair and projector.
EVERY theme from your previous essays was incorporated into this one! I still don't know how you did it!! The HONOR of American servicemen and their unique desire to fight and die wherever the people cry out for aid. The FREEDOM that permeates America in a style that is unique, and always will define this nation. The horsewhipping of the Goddamn ridiculous claim that America is an EMPIRE. A quick shot at the silly pretension of with CELEBRITY status- while some may talk about how a good piece of machinery is worth far more to the global economy as a whole than Weekend at Bernie's 3, I thought that particular example was exceedingly useful. How happy you are that the WAR shows we've learned history's lessons. The COURAGE to try and then fail, and the CONFIDENCE needed to sustain this uniquely American attitude of building spaceships in a garage, this attitude that is almosy invariably found only in certain Americans and stuns the rest of us- even you. :) A quick HISTORY lesson, the kind that shows exactly what would have happened under the "triumph" of Communism. The VICTORY America has clearly shown, in every perceivable measurement of human happiness and prosperity.
And of course, it's MAGIC when I think about how appropriately and amusingly you worked in references to Michael Moore. And more, oh so much more, like the beautifully evocative writing that takes me right back to my childhoop trip across the American deserts, the thumbs-up to Spirit Americans, and the polite applause yet firm myth-shattering needed for many Canadians. Who knows- perhaps your much-appreciated ministrations may set my countrymen on the right path again?
This is almost like a culmination for me. The end of a particularly long book I was privileged to read for free, as it was written. Think of waiting for Order of the Phoenix EVERY FEW WEEKS: I always wanted to come back and find what you have put to type. If you put up a sign saying stop: pay me $50, or you cannot read my thoughts, crap Bill, I would have given you $60. AMERICAN money, is what's more.
I can only shudder to think that this isn't the climax. It's like a virgin not knowing what feeling's coming next (So no pressure, naturally. ;) ). What a beautiful present to America for its birthday, Bill Whittle!
Posted by: trevalyan | July 4, 2003 9:29 PM
Great job Bill.
As much as I like our freedoms however I wish we could tie down some of the libs and left wingers and make them read your stuff. It would probably be a wasted effort on most of them but every mind we can bring over from the dark side is worthwhile.
Posted by: Starhawk | July 4, 2003 9:31 PM
As always, you have a gift for making me know what is great about your nation(I'm a Canadian, geographically at least). Yours are truly the best essays I've ever read, nobody else that I have seen has ever had the same gift for making some abstract principles come alive. I will most definately buy your book the day it comes out(well, if I have a credit card by then...but I'll buy it as soon as I can). Thank you for another great piece.
Posted by: Alex Sloat | July 4, 2003 9:44 PM
you know, i'm currently unemployed, got very little money, but to hell with any bill that gets between me and your book!
Posted by: Samkit | July 4, 2003 10:21 PM
Bill...wow. I take a break from reading blogs for a while, and I come back, to this. Thank you. Simply excellent. The words I have aren't enough.
Posted by: nvdoyle | July 5, 2003 12:18 AM
As I sat in my Lay-Z-Boy (the O-O-O-O-O-nly way to surf!) reading the long-anticipated "Trinity", I had the pleasure of hearing the last few pops and bangs of driveway fireworks shows. Even now, at 1:15AM on July 5th, the /barely/ detectable aroma of burnt gunpowder is wafting through my screen door. God bless America, awwww yeah.
As much as I hate to be the burster of bubbles, I think I have detected a flaw in "Trinity". Now don't flame me, people. The essay was as magnificient as I knew it would be. The error is more rhetorical than substantive.
Bill: you say that wealth is created "from thin air". Okay, we all know what you meant. But it's just a little too close to "Magical Thinking" for comfort. See, if Bill Gates' wealth is created "from thin air", there's very little reason why the Libmonkeys can't come in and redistribute it to their constituency, the Idiotariat. Bill Gates, to name just one (cliched) example, has WORKED for his wealth. Just like your unnamed two-time benefactor, he came early and stayed late in order to get ahead. In short, he LABORED like a pack mule to get where he is today.
This is where the Libmonkeys usually get it wrong. They want you to believe that "Labor Creates All Wealth". The snarkier ones have bumper stickers that drop the "S" for a dollar sign in "Creates". Like Noam Chomsky with his bucket of black sand, they take this small grain of truth and blow it up into the biggest mountain of lies ever heaped upon the macroeconomic world. (Call it Mount Bullshit, if you like.) Bill Gates is spectacularly wealthy because he has traded his labor (Microsoft applications) for the labor of countless millions of people from innumerable occupations. The value of the software was greater to them than the dollars, pounds, yen, or euros they earned at their own jobs.
This takes us to Olson's First Economic Law (so coined by Yours Truly): Wealth is created when labor is freely exchanged between two or more parties.
LABOR, in and of itself, does NOT create wealth. If you doubt this, go into your basement or garage someday. Spend a few hours pounding nails into a 2-by-4. Work up a good sweat. Then ask yourself how much wealth your labor has created. Unless someone wants to buy a piece of lumber punctuated by hundreds of nails, your wealth creation is precisely nil.
Thus, we come to Olson's Second Economic Law: Money is the catalyst that converts labor into wealth, and back again.
You have a job, you get a paycheck, you go and buy (among other things) a new Windows application. This has increased your standard of living, hence you are wealthier. On the other side of the ledger, Bill Gates takes the money you and others gave him, pays his employees who actually wrote the software (creating wealth), pays the people who run the Microsoft buildings (more wealth), pays dividends to shareholders (even more wealth), sticks a buck or two in his own pocket (yet even more wealth), and pays the people in R&D to think up new applications, or improve the old ones (yet still even MORE wealth). All because you wanted the latest edition of Flight Simulator.
So everyone involved is wealthier, but it certainly didn't come "out of thin air".
Waiting for WhittleCon1 (sure hope I haven't fargled my chances of getting an autographed copy of The Book),
--Dave
Posted by: VRWCman | July 5, 2003 12:23 AM
Bravo...
As one of the "Citizen Soldiers" I have to commend you on your excellent essay. (Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar)
And, as someone who sits on the lower half of the bell curve when it comes to wealth (or lack thereof) I cannot agree more with the "Poor get richer".
Opportunities abound in the great expanse of the United States, and those who do not grasp that, who, for some unfathomable reason CANNOT grasp that... well, they are the ones whom would be better off described as "destitute" regardless of their income.
Never before in the history of humanity has one person had so much control over their lives, their future. With the advent of Capitalist technologies, your average salary worker can now elevate themselves instantly into a level of control before known previously only to the upper crusts of society. (Online investing, banking, etc.) And, in doing so, they perpetuate, and broaden your bell curve ever more to the right.
Up and coming companies now have an even more broad base with which to draw investors, and so called "risky" stocks are now seeing a cornucopia of wealth to be utilized, so long as they can find an "average" american citizen willing to give up a couple moderately expensive dinners a month.
With this, the cycle repeats itself. Great dreams. Spectacular successes. Dashing failures. Lather, rinse, repeat. Eventually, the people who grasp the American dream, and dare greatness will be conditioned for success. Some sooner than others, some through sheer willpower, or luck. Regardless.
Fortune favors the bold. We chose to do this because it IS HARD! All great quotes, all great people. All representative of America. For Americans, by Americans.
I have heard many times that America is an idea. Seeing your essay, and reading the comments, I have to strike that one down for a grammatical error.
America is most certainly not an idea. Not anymore. And it really hasn't been for roughly 227 years.
America is a movement. A defined shift in the way society looks on itself, and looks to its future. The movement may slow, sometimes falter, but only temporarily. It keeps moving. Further an further to the right side of your bellcurve. Soon we will have to get bigger paper to draw it on.
Ski
Posted by: Ski | July 5, 2003 1:17 AM
A fine, honorable and righteous birthday present for the USA,
as an American all I can say is thank you.
PS where is the book, I want a few copies
Posted by: Marc Spitzer | July 5, 2003 1:22 AM
The Vonnegut story Set referred to is, I believe, 'Harrison Bergeron'. It's one of those rare science fiction stories that are still as brilliant, as cutting, as relevant, & as honestly & righteously mean after 40-odd years as the day they were written. I'll go further: 'Harrison Bergeron' may just possibly be a better piece of prose than 'Trinity'. (But 'Trinity' makes the same point as 'Harrison Bergeron', & about 50 others besides.)
In other news: Bravo, Mr. Whittle!
Posted by: Jay Random | July 5, 2003 1:29 AM
What a colossal load of crap! Either you really are the bi-polar Whittle of Edison School fame, or you're Rush Limbaugh. You're funny, is it intentional? You love having government out of your life. Me too. Bush Inc., has eroded our civil rights to a frightening level. He lies and lies and we say nothing.
I am personally very afraid for the future of the United States. When it's treasonous to say the WMD never existed and Bush knew it, we've lost more than a civil right. We've lost our individual freedom of expression. Check out Homeland Security's sites, they are using terror against an already compliant population.
We're carving up the Middle East, Liberia, Ghana to protect Bush family(and Pat Robertson, among others) gold and diamond mines. If you admire that you're a fool.
Let's hold hands and chant:
In the USA, WE are the government.
In the USA, WE are the government.
(Unless the election gets stolen by a dimwitted bully, then we are no longer the government. We exist to admire his
oh nevermind.
never blogged before. holy shit.
Posted by: Dalton | July 5, 2003 1:46 AM
WOW dalton, i dont think i have ever read such librial BS for a while now.
oh and great job bill, ya got to love those trolls dont ya?
Posted by: Matt | July 5, 2003 2:55 AM
Mr. Dalton...
In an effort to show my right minded generosity, I will go ahead and feed the trolls.
Exactly what kind of a dullard are you?
Your losing your rights... Name one thing in the bill of rights that has been amended since President Bush (yes, he IS the president. Show some respect)came into office. THOSE are your rights. (A cute response to this would be to have you defend Clintons action, or inaction on the DMCA, and then talk to me about rights getting trampled...)
Your WMD thoughts have already been shot down multiple times. On so many levels, high and low, that it hardly even registers on my "Wrongo Meter".
Fact: Information has been published (in the news) that details out the furthered efforts of the late Mr. Hussein's atomic/nuclear bomb effort. Add on top of that the inability to accurately state (or refusal to state) the location of enough chemical and biological weapons to completely destroy the entire population of New York City, AND added to that the Iraqi government refusing to let scientists be interviewed alone by the U.N. The math works out, if you take the time to look at the numbers.
But wait... There's more.
I particularly love the part about protecting the Bush family interests. As the readers of this log obviously know, the US has been getting yearly dowries from every country it liberated since the inception of the military. Oh, wait. No, we haven't. Damn. Let me rephrase that. We've been getting dowries from every country that we've occupied, or made into a colony...
Damn, that doesn't work either. Wow. So what does the U.S. get? Stability, and the knowledge of performing a greater good. (read that as generosity)
Iraq will now join the ranks of OPEC. (Yes, the oil producing conglomerate of mostly arab states that sets prices and quantities of oil production each year.) And where exactly are the U.S. interests furthered? hmm... Oil prices will stay the same, all collective countries will just produce less. Wherein lies the profit for this o great font of knowledge?
You can fear for the future of your America all you want. Your America. A new generation is cropping up. A generation sick of those who damage our schools ability to teach, who blame shift for every new problem that crops up, and who, through scare tactics, and woe sowing, have managed to put a stranglehold on the holy trinity that you just read about. And, unfortunately for you, and those of your kind, we are realizing that our voice, and our vote will be the final proof of our convictions.
Ski
Posted by: Ski | July 5, 2003 3:54 AM
All hail the Great Dictator, el Presidente Bush, the first president in the history of the United States with full dictatorial powers! A man completely unaccountable to Congress, unsupported by the nation's upper leadership, a "bully" so "dimwitted" that he had to TAKE the office by force and THEN was so crafty that he was allowed to keep it once he got there. A man who then, once he was firmly ensconced in his ill-gotten position, commanded his mindless minions to do his will for the sole purpose of protecting his gold and diamond mines.
Is that what you're actually saying, Dalton?
I keep telling myself that CAN'T be what you're saying. It's just too appallingly stupid... not just breathtakingly brainless that anyone would make such claims in all seriousness, but that you actually think a NATION (the same one that impeached another president just for ordering a hotel room to be broken into) would be that stupid.
You embarrass yourself, and insult your neighbors with baseless drivel like that.
"Treasonous" to suggest that WMD don't exist? No, just ignorant. And boring. And if you actually believe that you've lost even one civil right or the "individual freedom of expression" (ignoring the fact that you're exercising that very freedom with this mindless rant of yours), then write me from whatever prison the Gestapo takes you to, and I promise I'll bail you out.
Just kidding... I won't bail you out.
GHS
Posted by: GreatHairySilverback | July 5, 2003 4:50 AM
Oops... guess I should have said, "... a nation that was WILLING to impeach another president..."
My bad.
GHS
Posted by: GreatHairySilverback | July 5, 2003 4:53 AM
Bill Whittle's first comment included an invitation to trolls, so I thought I'd try. Trinity mentions the three things which make America great, and I see all of them in spades when I look at your fine country. But you are missing something - the essential glue that ensures that capitalism, freedom and ingenuity have lasted for 227 years: Eternal Vigilance.
A lot of people round here seem to think that the second amendment is enough. It isn't. If it gets to the point where you need to start shooting cops, you don't live in the land of the free anymore - you're in Afghanistan. There needs to be a will to defend all three parts of the Trinity politically now as well as by force in extremis. And (Bill Whittle and a few others excepted) I don't see much vigilance in today's America.
Capitalism requires eternal vigilance because the same entrepreneurial spirit can be applied to redistributing (stealing, in plain English) wealth as can be applied to creating it. And since stealing requires less back-breaking work than wealth creation, that's where America's finest will go if they can get away with it. I see an America which imports its scientists and engineers while its own people grow up wanting to be lawyers and investment bankers. Someone dropped the ball. Here's a question to think about if you think that the coast is clear: will Kenny Lay of Enron actually suffer for his crimes, or will he spend a couple of years in Club Fed and get out to find a few tens of millions of stolen dollars intact to fund a plush retirement at the expense of Enron's employees, shareholders, creditors, customers and suppliers.
Freedom requires eternal vigilance because people are always finding good reasons to give it up. Once upon a time there was a sixth amendment (look it up). There was also a fourth amendment (I assume you know that one). Now those are empty words - if John Ashcroft certifies you as a terrorist, kiss your rights goodbye. Perhaps that is a reasonable trade-off of freedom for security, but when Congresscritters pass the bill without reading it, I suspect lack of vigilance. And if you do think it's a reasonable tradeoff, ask yourself if you would trust President Hilary Clinton with the same powers George Bush has assumed.
As for ingenuity, Bill, I won't believe that Americans really want to hang onto it until bound copies of "MAGIC" outsell anything you find in the astrology section.
Posted by: Jonathan | July 5, 2003 5:02 AM
GHS: don't forget that we impeached a president for getting a blowjob from an intern. ;) (I know, it was lying about it that made the difference, and he was impeached but not convicted or somesuch...but still.)
As for Trinity: Hell yeah. Right on. Not really much to say, except that it was brilliant.
Posted by: Adam | July 5, 2003 5:38 AM
Bill,
Another great essay as usually. You keep getting better with age.
Thank you for this well written Birthday present for America and us, her citizens.
Posted by: Jack Bross | July 5, 2003 6:25 AM
Excellent essay(s), Bill.
To me, what makes America special is not that the American Dream works (and it does), but rather the fact that you guys are the only ones who dare dream it. It's not the fact that your accomplishments are living proof of the vast potential of the human race, but that you believe in that potential and unapologetically strive to realize it. It's not the fact that you are the freest country on earth, but the fact that you hold the value of freedom in higher regard than anyone else. You believe in freedom.
To me, these things are an inspiration, and I would be inspired even if they didn't result in the richest, freest, most technologically advanced nation in the history of mankind.
And whenever I hear someone wail on about how mankind is doomed, how we are not fit to govern nature, how flawed and hopeless and evil we are... I look up at the skies, and I remember that there are human footprints on the moon. And the stars and stripes embedded in the ground next to those footprints.
Happy 227th birthday, America.
Posted by: Sam | July 5, 2003 6:52 AM
Excellent Bill!
A look toward the future. My son is a seven year old with a passion for 2 things, baseball and anything that vaguely resembles an airplane. I was reading your essay early this morning and he walked in sat on my lap and looked at the screen. I was reading the section on XCOR and he read through part of it himself.
He looked up at me with complete seriousness and said, "Dad, can I build my own spaceship like those guys are doing?"
Now you can take that question for the charming innocence of a child, but I looked at him and said "Absolutely." He yawned, said "OK, I'll do it when I'm older" and walked off to watch Roadrunner and Sponge Bob. There is no question in his mind if he wants to build himself a spaceship someday he'll have the chance to try.
And on this Independence Day, I look forward to what America, by the grace of God, will give my son the chance to dream, aspire and achieve.
Posted by: Steve J | July 5, 2003 7:11 AM
Dalton is a pathetic imbecile. We actually try to threaten Taylor, in the hope that he may stop the reckless slaughter in Ghana, and the left naturally says that America is trying to "protect its diamond resources." Laughable. I can assure you that if Bush left well enough alone, there would be millions more dead Africans while this empty-headed Engelist would be shrieking about white racism against Africa.
The Republican Party kicked the Greens and Democrats upwards and downwards in the last federal election, troll-boy, and until you understand that FAR more people take national security and national pride seriously, and thusly enjoy intelligent essays by Bill Whittle, than sit around in their communes muttering angrily, you willl continue to lose in a sad, sad style.
Posted by: trevalyan | July 5, 2003 7:27 AM
Actually Johnathan your post doesn't count as trolling. Trolling is saying something like "BUSH LIED TO GET THE OIL" or something equally mindless. (See Moore, Michael for good examples of mindlessness) Your post is actually thoughtful, constructive criticism. Vigilance is always the minimum price for keeping liberty. If you fail to be vigilant you either lose your liberty or end up paying blood for it. I agree with you that President Hillary would brutally abuse the powers that President Bush now has. If you really want to give yourself a good scare imagine A.G. Ashcroft's new powers in the hands of Janet Reno.
Posted by: Frank M. | July 5, 2003 7:39 AM
Dalton, we are not the government. We are THE PEOPLE. My power over you is ZERO.
Treasonous? There is a difference between someone calling you a traitor -- which you might agree falls within the limits of freedom of speech -- and actual charges being filed. I personally have never called my oppponents treasonous, although I have often wondered what facts, historical precedent and logic they use to come up with their positions.
Here, again, another example of the panic reaction we get when the left has their ideas challenged publicly. CRITICISM is not CENSORSHIP, Dalton. And I can tell you this: every one of the people who are laying into you now would be outside your house, armed, ready to defend you with their lives against any government that tried to haul you away for critizing the President.
Take a breath, man. And if you find this first blooging experience so distasteful, may I recommend INDYMEDIA.com or DEMOCRATICUNDERGROUND.com. There you will find many people discussing how GWB had Paul Wellstone's plane shot down, among other things. I'm sure you will feel much more at home over there.
Posted by: Bill Whittle | July 5, 2003 7:41 AM
Oh, and sorry to turn this into my own personal message board, but GHS, can you call me on my cell please?
Hey, WAIT A MINUTE! This IS my own personal message board! SON OF A ---!
Posted by: Bill Whittle | July 5, 2003 7:45 AM
As a freshman blogger and reader of Andrew Sullivan's blog, I decided to go snooping around the blogosphere a bit. A quick look at recent Instapundit links led me here.
I very much enjoyed the essay, and agree with it in essence. Like one previous reaction said, though, I take some issue with the "thin air" notion of wealth creation-- at least in terms of how it's phrased.
Everything comes from somewhere, and nothing comes from thin air. Of course, this doesn't mean there's a fixed amount of wealth to be made; as I read your explanation, I ended up agreeing with just about everything you were saying. But disturbing cases requiring what another poster called "vigilance" do arise and need to be faced.
Dependence on foreign oil is one such case. We are indeed an inventive, creative people, but I think there has been, in our country, a push AGAINST the invention/discovery/development of cheap alternative/renewable fuel sources, whether that be innovations in wind energy, wave motion, sunlight, or whatever else is out there. I for one don't want to be beholden to Saudi Arabia (or Iraq) for ANYthing.
Another problem is the corporate habit of farming out labor to foreign countries who provide cheap labor at terrible human cost. I agree with your implication that corporations aren't as evil as all that, but their rush to the bottom line can involve sinister forms of corner-cutting; again, vigilance is called for. Ask Kathie Lee.
But that's just a minor quibble, and detracts nothing from your central argument. If it comes down to a choice between living in the American Darwinist paradigm, or in some socialist utopian fantasy gone wrong (as they all do), I'll choose Darwinism, the dog-eat-dog world of capitalism. For me, it's philosophically healthy: a moral choice, freely made, has far more value than a morality enforced by the State.
And maybe that's the final quibble with the *extreme* conservative position: too much influence from the Religious Right leading to the irony of a Republican Party that, instead of advocating small government and localized responsibility, seems intent on legislating morality in a host of areas that should be none of its business. Better a Victor Davis Hanson (or Jonah Goldberg) Republicanism than a John Derbyshire (or Rick Santorum) Republicanism.
But in the end... thumbs up. A very moving hymn to freedom and America.
Kevin Kim
Seoul, Korea
bighominid.blogspot.com
Posted by: Kevin Kim | July 5, 2003 7:49 AM
Hey, me again--
Just to clarify: diagreement, even enthusiastic disagreement is not, to me, TROLL behavior. Dalton had a point to make and that's fine. Sticking your head in the door and saying YOU ALL ARE A BUNCH OF MURDERING RACIST NAZIS -- that's a troll.
Also, unless there is a direct personal attack on anyone in particular -- myself excepted -- perhaps we could attack the argument and not the person.
I say this only because we are starting to get a reputation for a really intelligent comments section, and I'd like to preserve this myth for as long as possible. That said, if you want to see the froth fly from my lips, try insulting Lincoln or Reagan or the Constitution OVERNIGHT. I tend to check my mail first thing in the morning before my brain kicks in. The results can be spectacular, as regular readers will attest to.
Posted by: Bill Whittle | July 5, 2003 7:56 AM
Oo, now the comments are getting interesting.
To Adam: good point. So that's TWO presidents that have faced impeachment, to some extent or another, for crimes as heinous and unforgiveable as breaking and entering, and lying about getting a BJ from someone other than the First Lady. Makes you wonder how George W. continues to get away with all these bullying crimes against humanity, and the sweeping away of all our civil rights, and the mass murder of all our sons and daughters in uniform. Clearly we are all impotent to resist the tyrannical will of our leaders. ;^D
To Jonathan: that's an interesting point as well... about the Eternal Vigilance. And I think you're absolutely right that that is an important aspect of sustaining the triune cornerstones of what Bill calls "Trinity." I'm just not sure that I'd put it on the same level as the other three (I don't see it as one of the "foundations" of the United States), and I'm also not convinced it's as threatened as you imply.
There's plenty of wrongdoing going on all the time, as there always has been. And with the interconnectedness of the world these days, the scale and the ramifications of "modern wrongdoing" can have more far-reaching and damaging effects than those of the past. But they're also tougher to get away with, in my opinion, specifically BECAUSE of that interconnectedness. And as long as they continue to be pursued and prosecuted as vigorously as they have been, then I don't see us falling too far behind the power curve anytime soon. But I agree that we shouldn't start relaxing our vigilance now.
And if Kenny Lay does get away with a slap on the wrist, a laughable fine, and a few months in Club Fed, well, that'll suck. It'll be an outrage and an injustice, and it won't be the first (or the last) time it's happened.
Like Bill said, it ain't perfect and it ain't always fair (I paraphrase here), it's just dynamic, invigorating, and full of hope. And you gotta' love that.
And to Steve J: I like your son already.
I'm on a paid vacation right now, on a mountaintop in North Carolina, and loving every second of it. And I live on the left side of that bell curve.
I'm... WE'RE... doing something right.
GHS
Posted by: GreatHairySilverback | July 5, 2003 8:02 AM
What a great Birthday Present!
I read this after coming back from watching the fireworks display over the Washington Monument....
And they are very similar in effect.
Streaks and sparks illuminating the darkness...
Spectacular bursts of insight that make those viewing go OOH and AAH....
Funny thing....most of the people around where I was were immigrants of form groups some would like to think of as "oppressed" or "disadvantaged"
At first I thought how great it would be if they could read Bill's essay....
And then I realized, they dont have to. They are living it.
Thanks for writing for all of us
Posted by: JoeWarrant | July 5, 2003 8:15 AM
Sorry about that, Bill. :( I was a little, ah, tense.
Posted by: trevalyan | July 5, 2003 8:23 AM
Thanks, Bill. It was worth the wait.
I'm not a big Ayn Rand fan, I read her stuff and my eyes glazed over. She had one important truth that made her stifling prose worth the effort when she wrote that America coined the phrase 'make money'. We don't inherit money, most of us. We don't steal money, most of us. We don't beg money, most of us. We make it. We create it.
As for Dalton. Please give me five names of people who have been arrested and charged for saying that President Bush lied. You say that dissent is being outlawed yet you have a national forum to say it, this one. If you were famous, like, say Mike Farrell, the actor, you would be on a national television or radio show saying that dissent is not allowed. You would then be, not in jail but on another national television or radio show the very next week, saying the same thing. The very fact that you are free to say that your dissent is being crushed proves the lie.
Posted by: Peter | July 5, 2003 9:16 AM
Bill,
Great essay. You're absolutely right about the ingredients, and you're even characteristically optimistic. Still, We The People have got a lot of work to do to overcome what resulted when Teddy Roosevelt and his cousin Franklin really did look out across America and cry "BUREACRACY!"
From demonizing innovative capitalists as "robber barons" to threatening to pack the last Supreme Court to take limited government seriously, these two leading centralizers and their many fellow travelers have made a mockery of the bedrock of our freedom: the 9th and 10th Amendments.
The Common Law that we inherited from England permits The People what it doesn't prohibit. That's why We The People could use our sovereignty to declare independence from a tyrant and to later establish this republic with a limited federal government. The Constitution we ordained explicitly prohibits this limited government what it doesn't permit -- all other powers reserved to the States or to We The People. You rightly recognize that's the basis of our success and the bulwark for its future forever. We The People are sovereign, a man's home is his castle, and no one can tell him what to do behind its walls. In society we establish governments to limit each other's ability to interfere with our unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and we limit those governments so they will not turn into tyrannies that interfere with our unalienable rights. We allow them a few positive functions, things that require coercive powers to defend our rights and promote our welfare. Where we can do it ourselves, individually or in association, the government has no right to coercion.
The alphabet soup of FDA, FCC, EPA, EEOC, OSHA, etc., etc., etc., and all their state and local analogues constitute a continuing monument to the demonizing of private enterprise and the packing of courts with careerists willing to ignore the plain meaning of the brilliant text devised by Madison and others who understood the need to limit government and fragment its most dangerous branch -- the legislature. Both Roosevelts looked at the Constitution and asked "Where does it explicitly prohibit my activism?" Seeing no explicit prohibition, they created new powers where none existed before. Selling their birthrights for a promised mess of pottage, the majority went along. The liberties contracted for by all who established the Constitution were transgressed, the majority imposing its will despite the explicit written protections our Constitution afforded the rights of the minority opposed. And the courts, seeing no evil and hearing no evil as limits fell by the wayside, spoke evil. Rights were denied and disparaged because they were not enumerated.
The Libertarian Party is trying to recapture some of our lost liberties -- the ones not denied or disparaged by the enumeration of others. A constitutional focus would help it immeasurably, highlighting the false oaths sworn by those who pledge to uphold the Constitution and then blithely expand their tyrannical powers far beyond the explicit limits set by that document.
Yes, America is a great country and we Americans have much to be proud of. But We The People have much work to do before we can restore, enjoy, and bequeath the full liberties established by our founders and stolen by the centralizers.
So, enjoy the liberties you currently have, Bill, but think long and hard about joining all those who protect any liberties claimed by any minority. If you don't help fight for every unenumerated liberty, who will stand up for you when the Department of Homeland Security lobbies Congress to give NASA the right to enter your private property and regulate your space flights?
Mark White
www.geocities.com/whitemark1
Posted by: Mark White | July 5, 2003 9:58 AM
Holy Crap!
When's your book coming out; I got my credit card ready.
You really summed up America, saying a lot of things I've been trying to say myself. It's all about the Human Spirit; countless regimes have tried to crush it, but America has the brains to use it as the fuel for our nation. God help us all if the lessons we learned here are ever forgotten.
Posted by: Frank J. | July 5, 2003 10:04 AM
bill brings the idiots out of the woodwork
Posted by: omg | July 5, 2003 10:52 AM
Hey Bill,
I read your column for the first time today, and I have tears running down my face right now. I agree with the defroster analogy from the young military person in the comments above. Every time I hear someone crow about what is wrong with this country, people like Mike Farrell, Sean Penn, Al Sharpton, Hillary Clinton, and morally and ideologically bankrupt organizations like the UN, the EU, etc. I would love to smack them upside the head with this post, a couple of times, then insist that they read it. This is the damn greatest country on earth, and I am proud and honored to be a part of it. I am only 23 years old right now, and pretty darn close to being evicted from my apartment because I was out of work for two months. I have past due bills, and yet I consider myself lucky and wealthy. I too have had friends bail me out and keep me going, in body and spirit. And I just landed not one, but two jobs, and had to turn down another, and I know that things are on the upswing. Even in the worst of times, the optimism you spoke of, along with the wonderful people in my life, sustained me. I have a million ideas in my head (books and songs to write, ideas that may or not ever work, but that are worth a try just the same, etc.) and even more stuff I want to do, but even if I only get to a few of each, I will still have contributed my share to this great nation and to the Trinity, which I too, hope lives forever and ever, AMEN!
Posted by: Chris Whittaker | July 5, 2003 10:53 AM
Damn, I wish I were rich. If I were, I could buy hundreds of copies of your book and distribute them amongst many people who would appreciate it... not just those who would agree with you, but the conscientious folks who disagree with you but are willing to listen to good argument.
Do me a favor and stay ON my side... :)
Posted by: B. Durbin | July 5, 2003 11:07 AM
On my way to America!
Thanks for the inspiration.
Posted by: Ghost of a flea | July 5, 2003 11:13 AM
I'm about to head out of town, and I don't have time to read the essay before I leave. Argh!
I am printing it out to read on the plane, though, so I expect that I'll get lots of stares from other passengers as I cheer and cry to the essay.
To Kevin, and I hope you are still reading: Check out this website - changingworldtech.com - to see about our possible dependence on Middle East Oil. I am unbelievably impressed by this company, and if they can grow, they can almost singlehandedly rid us of our oil dependency and our waste problems. Heck, I'm applying for a job there. I definitely like what they are trying to do.
I do agree that American companies abuse foreign employees. I also believe, however, that those goverments are to blame in allowing such abuse. If you want to try and stop those companies, there is a good book on the subject. "How to Buy American," is a book on consumer patriotism, and it shows how you can put pressure on companies and politicians, etc . . . by using your wallet. It can give you ggod ideas on how to stop companies, at least locally, if writing to your representatives doesn't work.
JK
Posted by: Jason Kallini | July 5, 2003 11:45 AM
K. Kim: I have a quibble with your assertion that there is a national lack of interest in developing alternative technologies to end dependence on foreign oil. At the DOE-funded laboratory up here, the area is cluttered with the remains of DOEZENS of federally-funded failed projects into alternative energy. Oil companies didn't lobby to cut their funding, they just flopped. They were all either much more expensive, far less efficient, or actually dirtier than fossil fuels. (Most people don't realize, for example, that the process to make solar cells generates quite a bit of unbelieveably toxic waste.) I can only assume it's likely the same at other national laboratories, with similar results.
Entrepreneurs aren't slacking off on the job either.
http://www.mindfully.org/Air/2003/Burn-Turkey-Waste-Energy16may03.htm
Posted by: LabRat | July 5, 2003 11:50 AM
Wonderful! What a great column. I'd like to know your opinion on the correctness on inherited wealth, though, as it seems to play against the general meritocracy you've described America being. Can it be reconciled in this scheme? If you, or someone else, has a view to this, let's hear it.
I'll definitely buy the book, too!
Posted by: Jeff Calabrese | July 5, 2003 11:53 AM
I agree with this Trinity, but have to add what is also true and why our country is the greatest:
Ecomomics of free enterprise based on the Rule of Law and private property rights. Without these we'd be another Cuba, Argentina, Sweden, or Canada. Yes, Canada. But look at Chile, the rule of law and property rights was installed there a few years ago and now they have a thriving economy, outperforming all other South American countries. You give people these freedoms and these tools and you cannot but be successful
God Bless the USA and happy 227th!
Posted by: Robin Craviotto | July 5, 2003 12:12 PM
I just finished reading your essay, beer in hand, under the warm July sun, on a laptop enabled with Wi-Fi. There is a lake in front of me, and two beautiful swans gliding across the water. The lake is clean, the beer is a tasty microbrew, and I am using a technology that I was not aware existed a few years ago. What a country!
Posted by: Uncel Sam | July 5, 2003 12:24 PM
Bill,
Thanks for a wonderful 4th of July present. And no, I don't mean your mention of XCOR: it's your thoughts about what makes America and Americans who and what we are. I was reading "To Conquer the Air:The Wright Brothers and the Great Race for Flight" by James Tobin just the other day, and your essay is a nice sidebar to the book. So many people have forgotten that 100 years ago the idea of manned powered heavier-than-air flight was about as laughable as, well, homebuilts in space.
The Wright Brothers and others both in American and abroad refused to give up despite bugs, lack of money, ridicule from friends as well as the press, disdain from established scientists and incomprehension from just about everyone else.
What XCOR and Scaled Composites and Armadillo Aerospace and others are doing is HARD. But it is possible. And once we have shown it's possible others will do it and that will be wonderful.
For years after Dec 1903 people didn't believe the Wrights had flown; not until other inventors were trying and succeeding did the public have a proper appreciation of what the Wrights had done. I think we will see the same cycle with "homebuilt" spacecraft. Success will breed more success, which will foster acceptance, an industry will be created and in turn that will help create new wealth.
I look forward to "paying forward," as Robert Heinlein said, to America when XCOR goes public and the Mojave Spaceport is running smoothly. That won't be overnight but (with a little help from our friends) it will be soon. I also look foward to Steve J's son starting his own rocket company. I'll be glad to help.
Posted by: Aleta Jackson | July 5, 2003 12:37 PM
Folks, Aleta Jackson is the person who invited me up to spend a day with the crew at XCOR. If what these people are doing fills you with pride and excitement, she'd be one of the people to thank.
Posted by: Bill Whittle | July 5, 2003 12:41 PM
Once again Bill. Thank you for choosing me as your mother.
Posted by: Bill's Mom | July 5, 2003 1:09 PM
I'm over here in Israel, where we have a thriving community of Americans and where the AACI (Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel) just celebrated Independence Day (and Canada Day too). One of the things people say to me here that I chuckle over the most is, "Lady, this isn't America" -- precisely because it expresses what many of us here know very well: we American expats are known for shifting the curve. We're known for our work ethic, for introducing some necessary legislation and getting it passed (i.e., prohibiting smoking on public transportation), good manners, decent driving, entrepreneurial skills, and so on. Unemployment is rife here right now, so what have we done? We've started groups where we list jobs, exchange information, and above all help each other and ourselves. (Anyone can join, not just Americans or even English-speakers.) We're creating our own niches and jobs. It's tough going, but we'll survive. Slowly but surely, our Yankee attitudes are filtering into the society here. (We still need a representational system of government here, and some of us are working on that.)
Contrast this with what I hear