Tom's Musings

Al Franken, one of my favorite public figures, commented on the most recent U.N. report suggesting that the globe put its collective affairs in order since we are all going to die soon. Like our friend the dinosaur, who went extinct suddenly after an unfortunate collision with an asteroid, we are on the precipice of a similar fate due to anthropogenic (human caused) global warming.

His perceptive take on the issue is that many Americans, especially baby boomers, feel like they are lucky enough to be on the ‘last chopper out of Saigon.’ They will die just in time, before the apocalypse becomes reality. Such a clever man.

For those of you too young to recall party line phones that were tied by a cord to the wall, the ‘last chopper out of Saigon’ references the embarrasing and hasty retreat of the American military and their South Vietnamies allies as the NVA and the Vietcong swarmed into the South’s capital in 1975 and toward their inevitable triumph. Those on the chopper escaped ‘just in time.’

To mercilessly beat this analogy into the ground, baby boomers and those even older (like the ancient fart writing this post), can smile in the face of doom. We likely will die before the inevitable collapse of civilization into toasty cinders. We will have boarded the last chopper to whatever comes next. So, do we have a dog in this fight? Since I was raised as a Catholic, I am wrought with guilt and therefore feel some reponsibility in this matter. Catholic guilt is a terrible thing … avoid it like the plague.

It is not like we have not been warned. I mean, the dinosaurs were caught by surprise. Over a century ago, there were reports in our major neswpapers that fossil fuel use was releasing dangerous amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere. Now, we have irrefutable scientific evidence of our complicity in our species’ doom. Carbon dioxide emissions grew very gradually over time until the early 1940s (when I was born though I don’t think their is a causal thing going on here). After that, they increased exponentially and now imminently threaten the homeostatic status of our atmosphere that has kept temps relatively stable for eons. Soon, very soon, the game will be over, the last chopper will have left.

Our collective teponse to doomesday? We worry about March Madness, Prince Harry’s relationship to the Royal Family, Hunter Biden’s laptop, and whether Aaron Rodgers will play for the Packers next year. Really? Give me a f#@king break!

I am freaking glad I’m on the last chopper out of Saigon. I don’t want to be around when the ice caps melt and astonished politicians point fingers and say ‘but no one told us.’ We have known for a long time and chose not to respond. Shame on us!

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PS: An old Peace Corps buddy of mine has written a scholarly book on the topic. Climate Policy Foundations, William C. Whitesell, Cambridge Press, 2011). He writes useful books, unlike me.

I can now insert a foto. Not bad for someone who has trouble changing the time on any of his clocks or watches. I marvel at the ability of young people to master all things technological and yet remain so dumb in other ways.

Of course, I did many questionable things in my sketchy youth. This is me overlooking the Thames River some 55 years ago. Can that be correct … 55 freaking years? At least, I think this is me. After all, this guy has a full head of dark hair and is skinny as shit. I’m on my way to spend two years in India, as a Peace Corps volunteer. Ah yes, two years living in a remote desert region of Rajasthan, defecating in a hole, and trying to be an ‘expert’ in an area about which I knew virtually nothing. Actually good training for my later career as a policy wonk and academic type … refining the ability to fake things.

India was a tough site, especially back then. We were really isolated, no cell phones of wi-fi. You were on your own, battling disease and heat and loneliness. But, in the end, despite our griping, this turned out to be a special and unique experience. While India merely survived our presence, we, on the other hand, learned who we were. I know I absorbed so much about the impact that culture has on an individual, lessons I brought forward and which greatly influenced my policy and academic work.

There are three things I really miss from those years and experiences:

1. Having a full head of hair.
2. Being that skinny.
3. Having all that time to reflect on things.

I can’t share all I want about those years here. But listen, go and find Our Grand Experience, my memoir on India 44. It is a witty recollection of my fruitless efforts to be an agricultural expert along with the equally funny stories of my fellow volunteers. Humorous, sad, and insightful. End of my self-promoting pitch (for now) :-).

Welcome to WordPress! This is your first post. Edit or delete it to take the first step in your blogging journey.

I am a refugee from Facebook who is seeking asylum in a blog. I cannot count the number of times I’ve been thrown in their gulag for using sophisticated humor or sarcasm or irony. I was thrown off their site (presumably for good) after posting a meme fearuring Jesse Owens getting hid gold medal at the 1936 Olympics. You are right, that makes no sense. I had almost 30,000 friends and followers at the time.

I started over as Jim Corbett and quickly rose to have some 7, 000 friends and followers. Still, they kept throwing me off, the final time for commenting on a post from an octogenerian about his lonely life. I jokingly commented that he would be visited by someone from the escort service. I guess they thought I was selling sex. Sure, a 78 year old geezer was selling sex to an 80 something geezer. Give me a break. Their community standards program is beyond incompetence.

I’ve gotten many emails from former FB freinds pleading for me to find a way to connect again. Several suggested a blog since Facebook is hopeless, Twitter is owned by a neo-Nazi, and the other sites seemed aimed at kids. So, here I am!

At present, I have no idea where I will go with this concept, other than experiment for a while. On Facebook, I posted a number of humorous and political memes along with occasional musings on our politics and current events. I may do more of the latter here but, as an experiment, anything is possible.

Join me in this experiment. Let me know what you are thinking. I can be reached at:

corbettirp@aol.com