Map of life expectancy at birth from Global Education Project.

Thursday, January 30, 2020

Hagiography

Proposed headline: "Rapist who played a children's game for a living dies flying a fucking helicopter to his daughter's basketball game."

Think about this. Routinely getting around town in a helicopter is absurdly self-indulgent and environmentally irresponsible, as the LA Times kind of hints at but doesn't exactly want to say, because you know, a WaPo reporter got suspended for linking to a perfectly legitimate news article about the time Kobe Bryant raped a 19 year old hotel clerk. The helicopter Bryant was riding in costs about $5,000 an hour, so let's say he spends 2 hours at the basketball game, we're talking $20,000. Can you think of anything else to do with $20,000? And could an unemployed guy find the time to spend an hour driving each way in a minivan instead? Maybe.

Actually dying in private plane and helicopter crashes is one of the few occupational hazards of being obscenely rich. Golfer Payne Stewart died when his Learjet depressurized and flew on autopilot full of dead people before running out of fuel. The carnage among the plutocracy is substantial, actually, more than 300 deaths a year. Commercial aviation is far safer, by a couple of orders of magnitude. But I guess it's worth the risk to separate yourself from the little people.


3 comments:

Rank and File said...


I saw a post where you mentioned that your parents were not wealthy. If you went to private school and private university, there are a whole lot of people that would consider you wealthy.

I have a socialist brother-in-law who hates the rich. He has amassed about 4 million in net worth. He says no one needs more than 10 million.

"Wealthy" is the guy that makes more and has more money than you do.

Cervantes said...

I don't know what this has to do with the post, but how many times do I have to repeat myself: I was on scholarship. The sticker price of private education is not the price that most people pay. Also, college was a lot cheaper back then anyway. I did not inherit one penny, as a matter of fact -- my parents' money was completely wiped out by my father's terminal illness, and my mother is now destitute and on Medicaid. Every penny I own I earned out of my salary.

Also, fuck you. You are an asshole and hereby banned.

Don Quixote said...

How about this for a too-long headline:

"Political party representing mega-rich donors votes to cover up treasonous crimes of rapist/con man political chief, move ahead with plans to steal social security, medicaid and medicare from population."