A Long Way Home

Here is something that amused me for an entire hour the other day:

Go to google map, search for Directions from China to Taiwan.

Take a look at Direction Number 55.

Here, I have taken the liberty to show you a composite screenshot. I am awesome like this.

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Before you sneer at how easily I am amused (even though it is true!) please know that you cannot do this for trips between say the U.S. and Europe. google will not allow you to swim in the Atlantic Ocean. Whereas trips to Asia? Google says, “Be my guest!”

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This is why, ladies and gents, we do not complain about air travel...

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This is why, ladies and gentlemen, we should never complain about air travel.

Looking at this 38-day, 10,000 mile trip in which I have to kayak, jet ski and swim across the Pacific Ocean, I now feel much better about my 2-leg 16-hour-in-middle-seat one-day trip to Taipei.

Perspectives. The cure for whining.

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On an unrelated note, I think I may partake in NaBloPoMo again. National Blog Posting Month. I did it last year: I was crying uncle and said NEVER AGAIN! when I emerged from the darkness called “Blogger’s Block aka I ran out of shit to write about on the third day”. Call me compulsive masochistic nuts. At this moment, I thought I’d give it a go simply because they have a category “Psychotic Ranting/Anonymous Foaming”; I simply need to be part of something this awesome.

Yes. NaBloPoMo looks and sounds very similar to NaBloMoFo, and believe me, by the end of this month, I’d be calling it NaBloMoFo. When your spouse complains about your even crazier blogging obsession, erratic schedules and the unfed children, just tell him that next month could be NaBloJoMo if he pipes down, and oh, does the laundry (by laundry, we mean “folding the goddamn clothes too”. Thank you).

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Something that really made my blood boil today and I think we all need to read this excellent investigative reporting by NPR. Please take a look at this and be outraged. As a nation, we need to be outraged by this: Prison Economics Help Drive Ariz. Immigration Law

… What he was selling was a prison for women and children who were illegal immigrants That’s because prison companies like this one had a plan — a new business model to lock up illegal immigrants. And the plan became Arizona’s immigration law.

NPR spent the past several months analyzing hundreds of pages of campaign finance reports, lobbying documents and corporate records. What they show is a quiet, behind-the-scenes effort to help draft and pass Arizona Senate Bill 1070 by an industry that stands to benefit from it: the private prison industry.

The law could send hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to prison in a way never done before. And it could mean hundreds of millions of dollars in profits to private prison companies responsible for housing them.

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What Laura Sullivan and NPR uncovered gives an evil spin to the catchphrase “It’s the economy, stupid.”

Here is my silent scream, something I wish someone in a position to do so could actually confront Arizona state Sen. Russell Pearce with, invoking the famous retort by Welch against McCarthy:

“Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”

18 thoughts on “A Long Way Home

  1. magpie

    You used to be able to swim from NY to Paris. Well, the ocean part. I figured that Google had lost its sense of humor when that went away – but apparently not.
    magpie recently posted…My CowgirlMy Profile

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  2. dufmanno

    Now I worry that there is some backroom meeting with people planning nefarious case scenarios for me.
    Don’t act like you aren’t all there!!!!!
    Paranoid conspiracy theories aside, it makes you terrified about the millions of other plots we have yet to uncover. I mean, can you seriously imagine the crazy that’s brewing?
    I had friends who tried to write books during NaNoWriMo and they are still curled up in the fetal position!
    dufmanno recently posted…We’re Making Plans For NigelMy Profile

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  3. pattypunker

    i hope you have a remarkable trip, dahling!

    no way in hell could i find the time to write a post everyday. for instance, i would have made this three posts just to buy some days. but i applaud your discipline.

    what the fuck is wrong with arizona. the hits just keep on coming from the state.
    pattypunker recently posted…kiboshingMy Profile

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  4. Tom G.

    Ain’t capitalism great? The mere existence of a “private prison industry” is enough to make me want to pick up pitchforks and torches and storm the god damn Bastille.

    I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. As Andrea noted, at the root of every political decision is someone lurking in the shadows who stands to get rich by it.

    On a lighter note. Have a good swim, er… kayak, … I mean Flight home.
    Tom G. recently posted…The Bone MachineMy Profile

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  5. Andrea

    I’ve come to the conclusion that every decision is just a scam to make big money for someone somewhere. No decency indeed.

    Good luck with NaBloPoMo! Can’t wait to see what you come up with! I tried NaNoWriMo once — made it about one week, I think. Never again!

    Reply

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