Saturday, June 2, 2007

whence Flyover Country

Many, many Boomer years ago when I was a Freshman at University of FLYOVER, I was conversing with an Out-Of-State Student (this was then the code for Jewish from New York), when I happened to mention Saks Fifth Avenue ( of what this conversation was actually about I have absolutely no recollection). My friend, the OOSS, pulled back, gave me a "who is this?" look, and asked "How do YOU know about Saks?". At the time I thought "Who doesn't know what Saks Fifth Avenue is?" It took a little time before it dawned on me that I was born into a world that is viewed by both the East and West Coast Trend Setters and Newsmakers as just an adjunct to the "Real World". You know, the part you fly over to get to somewhere else that matters.

This feeling came back to me in 2002-2003 into the lead-up to the Iraq invasion. It seemed to me (and most of my friends) that there was plenty of evidence in the public domain to show that Iraq was of no immediate danger to the US, and yet, the Wise Men of the MSN told us this was not so and we were in imminent peril. My imaginary OOSS here is Hillary Clinton "How did YOU know ther were no WMD's?" The answer here is the same as it was 30 plus years ago: There is plenty of information out there to learn what' s real in the world if you are willing to look for it and care enough to sift the truth from the lies.

The bottom line here is I hope to winnow a few grains of truth from the incredible amount of BS that fed to us daily. Hopefully we can have some fun along the way and all learn a bit more today then what we knew yeaterday.

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