I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!

Even Warren Buffet said it: people on Wall Street make too much money. I think she's on to something.

I asked a girl to marry me.

When she could talk again, she said "Absolutely." With that, my life seems absolutely right. It's like when you're driving down a long stretch of an empty road, and you drive down the middle of it, just because you can. You would drive over those yellow lines all the time if you could, because things are balanced and the direction you're going is absolutely clear.

I think I have the beginning of country song. "Driven down that two lane-highway, 'cept it's one lane just for us."

All I want to do is sit in a slightly dim room and talk very quietly with her, holding her hand and rubbing her shoulder. This moment is enveloped in understood love, and nothing external can get in to it. Now I see why Denise said to stay engaged as long as possible.

Obama, Politics, and Comedy

The point of this post is to provide some context for a couple of Chris Rock quotes. Yeah, he's a whiney comic, but sometimes he makes some flippantly insightful comments.

On the way in to work today, I was listening to Minnesota Public Radio's Midmorning talk show. A middle-aged white woman was interviewing two black men on the subject of Obama's inauguration. I don't remember the question, but it was something along the lines of "Now that America has elected an African-America/mixed decent person to the Office of President, is it a sign that our country has moved on from the days of blatent racism and its counterpart, the Civil Rights Movement?"

One man responded with a general "no" as he discussed the dispoportionate number of black and other minorities in prison. I can agree with that. In a way it's weird--totally bizzare, actually--that prison populations aren't respresentative of the U.S. population as a whole. However, he went on to discuss how a significant number of the minorities of America live in toxic neighborhoods/polluted communities. He summed it up by describing this situation as "environmental racism."

That is bullshit. It's not racism. "Polluted homes and communities" are cheap because demand for a polluted residence is low. When demand is low, price is low. Poor people buy cheap houses because that's all they can afford. Unfortunately, a disporportionate percentage of the poor people of America can be classified as 'minorities.' (At least, I've heard this. I don't have the time to look up Census data.) There could be a correlation made between minority housing and polluted areas, but not causation. In my book, someone who subscribes to the idea of "environmental racism" will probably believe in the Trilateral Commission--they're a conspiracy nut.

Back to the radio show - guest numero dos was asked if Obama's election meant that the U.S. was entering a post-racial period. His reply was "I don't even know what that means. I look at myself in the mirror and I don't see 'post-racial.' " I think this guy was being intentionally thick headed. Post-racial doesn't mean "sans-racial." YES the U.S. will always have a racial stigma; YES the U.S. will continue to describe people based on their skin color; however--YES, the U.S. will also continue to describe people based on their age, orientation, hair color, job title, household income, and a million other metrics. What the host was getting to was the heart of MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech--we're different races, but it becomes irrelavant. I voted for Obama for several reasons:

1. He was a better choice than the Other Guy.
2. He seems brilliantly smart and surprisingly well-rounded.
3. He uses 2+ syllable words, unlike his predecessor.

I did not vote for him because he was black, although I am proud to have voted for a guy from a statistical sub-set of the population. However, if we're talking about stigmas, I wouldn't call him a black kid. I would call him an Army brat. He was born in the U.S., was moved to Indonesia and lived there until he was 10 with his white-skinned mom and black-skinned stepdad. He lived with his white-skinned grandparents in Hawaii from 10 until 18. There are a lot of people that might say he grew up white.

I know I don't have any grounds to make these statements, since I am white-skinned and was raised white, but the "black" community (whatever that is) needs better role models, constructive peer pressure, and to abandon it's sense of victimization. Big statement, I know, but Louis Farrakhan and Jesse Jackson have made similar statements. It's not just me.

CNN: At one point in your act, you said, "Racism will never die. It will only multiply." Why do you believe that?

Rock: Well, it's never going to die. Maybe it won't multiply. Is racism going to end? No.

It's not even race. People are always going to, you know, find something wrong with people who are not the exact same as them. That's just what it is. Black, white, short, tall, religions, whatever. People are bad, man.

Now the other Chris quote:

CNN: What are you hoping Barack Obama does for this country? What do you think is his most important task?

Rock: You know, if you're the president you only have two jobs: peace and money. That's it. I mean, it's like, what did Clinton do? We were at peace and we had a budget surplus. That's it. That's the gig. The closer you get us to those two goals, you know, that's pretty much the gig. Is that too much to ask for?

It's simplistic. I know it's simplistic. I know people are joking when they quote "It's the economy, stupid." But you know what? He's dead on. Chris Rock needs to be Barack's alarm clock, and should whisper that in the President's ear every morning and every night.

"Real American Hero"

When was the last time an airliner landed in a river? Have you ever seen a jet with pontoon landing gear? I didn't think so.

The mention of a large, commercial jetliner in trouble still makes Americans' blood run cold. The events of September 11th, 2001 live on in the corners of our minds, and between the National Threat Level and President #43 continuing to warn us of the boogey man (even on his way out the door), we can't help but to get wide-eyed and goosebumped if something goes awry in the friendly skies.

So when Flight 1549 was reported as landing in a river, we all got nervous (M I RIGHT?). And when the reports came out the next day that everyone survived, we were incredulous. The nearly-blind governor of New York called it a 'miracle on the Hudson' ; I saw the plane floating in the water, and I still can't come up with a more impressive way to describe the outcome.

How miraculous is it really?

1. Aircraft are designed (to a very small degree) to float on water. I haven't talked to anyone at Boeing, but hey - flight safety cards show planes floating just like Flight 1549 did in real life. So it's not totally unexpected that the plane didn't sink right away. People had plenty of time to get out, and had the water been 85 degrees, we might have seen a beach ball or two.
2. The actual impact of the plane with the water is probably the most crucial point of survivability, which is almost completely attributable to the pilot (more about him later). The body of the plane is somewhat boat-like: the front of the plane looks like the prow of an inflatable boat, and the fuselage and wings are smooth. Assuming the pilot splashed down with his landing gear up, the only things that would really drag the plane underwater are the wing-mounted engines. There's no doubt in my mind that a water landing is a violent and destructive landing; however, with the right angle of attack and slow enough airspeed, it seems logical to conclude that landing on water would not result in complete destruction of the aircraft.
3. The birdstrike happened during takeoff. The plane was at a sufficient speed to maintain velocity, and both passengers and crew were still buckled in. There wasn't a mad panic to get back to seats, stow luggage, etc. People were still mentally alert (I never see people sleep during takeoff or landing), and were warned in time to "brace themselves." I'm going to say that the timing of the accident significantly reduced injuries.
   
4. Pilots are trained for emergency situations. At least, I assume they are. Why wouldn't they be? There's a stereotype that flying in the 1950's and 60's was glamorous, and that to be an airline pilot was to be among an elite cadre of professionals with reactions and instincts superior to those of mortal men. Despite the annual "Drunk Airline Pilot Arrested" headline, aren't these men (and women!) still a talented and well-trained group of individuals? I can't help but think that pilots are required to spend time in simulators, practicing the skills that help them deal with birdstrikes and water landings.
5. Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger III. This guy has it all:

• Former Air Force Fighter Pilot
• Been flying for more than 40 years
• President and CEO of Safety Reliability Methods Inc., "which provides emergency management, safety strategies and performance monitoring to the aviation industry"
• Instructor and Air Line Pilots Association safety chairman, accident investigator and national technical committee member
• Participated in several U.S. Air Force and National Transportation Safety Board accident investigations, and worked with NASA scientists on a paper on error and aviation
• "speaks internationally on airline safety, and collaborates with the Center for Catastrophic Risk Management at the University of California-Berkeley, whose researchers look for ways to avoid air disasters"

"The final moments of the flight were watched with admiration by Ben Vonklemperer, who was on a conference call on the 25th floor of an office building in Times Square at 3:31 p.m., when he looked up. "If someone's going to land a plane in the water, this seemed the best possible way to do it," he said. "The way they hit, it was very gradual. A very slow contact with the water."

The pilot knew what he was doing and had sufficient control of the aircraft.

So basically there's a decent chance the plane will float if it can land correctly on the water. An ex-fighter pilot with 40+ years experience on the stick is driving the plane. People were mentally aware of the current situation. Assuming Sully had basic control (e.g. flaps and wing surfaces responded, perhaps one engine was still functional), what could go fatally wrong? Sure, there's chances for injury and accident, but what's left?

Drowning and hypothermia. My answer to that? The ferries of the Port Authorities of New Jersey and New York. They immediately suspended service and their crews started throwing life preservers in the water. Plane passengers could crawl through emergency exits onto the wings of the plane. In addition to all of this, the Hudson river splits one of the highest population centers in the U.S. - Coast Guard, police, and fire rescue were all on the scene relatively fast. If this plane had landed in the Mississippi River, it would have taken far longer for rescue boats to arrive in sufficient numbers.

So far, I'm making it sound like success is a foregone conclusion. We don't have miracles any more - the Red Sea doesn't part, bushes don't burn without charring - yet the governor of New York is right: this was a miracle. A plane landed in a place it wasn't supposed to, in a way it wasn't supposed to, in as perfect a way as could be. Why is that?

Because a hero was flying the plane.

Granted, he was the perfect guy for the job. He had all the skills and experience to pull off a landing like this (not to mention the extra credit of being involved in safety and risk assessment). But what does it take to be a hero today? Hell, what are the attributes of a hero? Off the top of my head, valiance, self-sacrifice, and being a decent guy all come to mind.

It sounds like Sully is a smart guy who doesn't beat his wife and doesn't hate his kids. So decent guy is checked off.

Merriam calls "valliance" (aka valor): : strength of mind or spirit that enables a person to encounter danger with firmness : personal bravery.

How do you get that strength of mind? Either through ego and cockiness, or by repeatedly practicing something. The personal bravery thing, though - that's all him. He might have crapped his pants and been shaky on the stick, but he put the plane down softly when it should have crashed hard. That's sheer steel. (I think more of us have it than we realize: but we're afraid of it, we're afraid of what we can do with it, and we're afraid of what showing it to other people might do to our relationships.)

The self-sacrifice one is really what makes Sully a hero to me. After the plane had been evacuated, he stayed aboard and went up and down the aisle twice to make sure everyone got out. Yeah, he probably new the odds of the plane being a boat were pretty good, but c'mon. Sully, you just landed a jet in a river. You have a copilot. Delegate that crap off to him!

We don't get pillars of fire and smoke any more. Our modern-day miracles aren't legend or myth. They're flesh and blood, steel and concrete. Athletes can pull loaded dump trucks and jetliners one hundred feet unaided. Building are half a mile high. Communications are instant, no matter the location on the globe. We can even drive little robots around on another planet with millimeter-level accuracy.

We live in an era of miracles, superheroes, and wonder, and take it all for granted. Why? Is it because they're everyday occurrences? Is it because they're immediately accessible to just about all of us?

Or is it because they're man-made? Does it matter that miracles are now in the hand of man, and not in the realm of the divine?