The Best and Brightest.....
A few years ago....a Forbes Magazine worker assigned to ferret out America's "Best and Brightest" would have probably have been slavering over a fairly recent Harvard grad working in technical parts of a private equity firm....walking point on America's financial patrol of the world markets.
I am a chef guy...with forty years working in hot, sharp and dangerous dungeons where all decisions are instantaneous....and all judgments are permanent. Our loyalties in the kitchens of the world are to each other...and we band together even as we watch the forces of the outside world pick us off one by one and assign us to the void of......
Failure.
The forces that kill us are familiar to all: drugs, alcohol, stress, money, politics, love, jealousy....each and all combining in lethal combinations....
I spend a lot of time with creative folk, and seriously successful folk...and I find the differences to be mostly accidental and genetic.
Still...in the kitchens and dining rooms there are very rarely entire classes of people actually trying to kill us.
I am continually amazed at America's total support for war as an instrument of public and foreign policy....and a complete and total disregard for the agents who wield that instrument....our soldiers, sailors and airmen.
We see this same attitude in kitchens and dining rooms. Random rich fucks appear constantly and expect their own personal culinary fantasies to appear unbidden....and are willing to punish anyone who fails to produce them...and are clinically unable to reward those who actually fulfill the impossible dream they have conjured up.
But rarely does anyone shoot at cooks......
Charles Schultz was a client. Every waiter of a certain age remembers a comic strip where Lucy is approaching Snoopy's doghouse.
"Snoopy....I love you, and I have for you that which every dog dreams of."
Snoopy snaps to attention, dreaming of Chateaubriand and center-cut pork chops....
"The ultimate expression of love......"
Snoopy is wide awake and all about it as Lucy approaches.....
"A pat on the head......"
Pat. Pat. Pat.
Exactly.
In the real world it doesn't work out like that.
Our bridges and overpasses have been stuffed with Vietnam vets for 40 years who could not deal with the transition from being the center point of American policy to being part of the re-cycle.
Our new millenium warfare has become infinitely more efficient....and has chewed up and generated an order of magnitude more potential bridge and overpass dwellers.
Fair enough. Fuck you. You couldn't get into Harvard? Enjoy your bridge.
What is awful, horrible and revolting is that our modern discarded warriors are no longer opting for the whole bridge and overpass life-style...they are just cutting the crap and just killing themselves after fulfilling their obligations to our nation and our nation's foreign policy.
Suicide rates have ballooned past anything even contemplated in the Vietnam era. 2008 was a banner year....way beyond anything experienced in the American military in its history.
2009 blew past the 2008 mark six weeks ago. In seven months we obliterated the previous 12 month record that dominated anything experienced by our troops in the 225 year history of our Republic.
Official policy has lagged decades behind reality. George Bush was a dumbfuck who was concerned....but lacked the technical and organizational ability to help. And his corrupt friends had already stolen all the money anyway.....
Obama can intellectually feel the pain, and is not a dumbfuck.....but his people somehow know better than those little people out there. They are so much smarter than all of us....that they don't need our input.
So....it all percolates back down to the local level......
Generals and Admirals posture and strut....
Staff Seargents and Captains....and the occasional enlightened Colonel..... run the actual world.
Here are 9 PTSD guys.....lives turned upside down after committed service to their country....who found themselves walked into a corner whose only escape seemed to be a short trip with a heavy bullet or a giant mouthful of pills......
I submit to you that the people running this story......
Climbing Mt. Whitney.......Highest peak in the Lower 48........
With our un-recognized wounded........Getting all nine guys up to the peak and back......
Our folks at Paradox Sports.......
Are our best and brightest......Far and away.
Maybe it is time to get them off the battlefield.......
Check it out.......here.
Yes.....one of our returning disabled officers from Iraq does climb Mt. Whitney in a Chicken Suit.
Where there is Life....there is Hope.....
I am a chef guy...with forty years working in hot, sharp and dangerous dungeons where all decisions are instantaneous....and all judgments are permanent. Our loyalties in the kitchens of the world are to each other...and we band together even as we watch the forces of the outside world pick us off one by one and assign us to the void of......
Failure.
The forces that kill us are familiar to all: drugs, alcohol, stress, money, politics, love, jealousy....each and all combining in lethal combinations....
I spend a lot of time with creative folk, and seriously successful folk...and I find the differences to be mostly accidental and genetic.
Still...in the kitchens and dining rooms there are very rarely entire classes of people actually trying to kill us.
I am continually amazed at America's total support for war as an instrument of public and foreign policy....and a complete and total disregard for the agents who wield that instrument....our soldiers, sailors and airmen.
We see this same attitude in kitchens and dining rooms. Random rich fucks appear constantly and expect their own personal culinary fantasies to appear unbidden....and are willing to punish anyone who fails to produce them...and are clinically unable to reward those who actually fulfill the impossible dream they have conjured up.
But rarely does anyone shoot at cooks......
Charles Schultz was a client. Every waiter of a certain age remembers a comic strip where Lucy is approaching Snoopy's doghouse.
"Snoopy....I love you, and I have for you that which every dog dreams of."
Snoopy snaps to attention, dreaming of Chateaubriand and center-cut pork chops....
"The ultimate expression of love......"
Snoopy is wide awake and all about it as Lucy approaches.....
"A pat on the head......"
Pat. Pat. Pat.
Exactly.
In the real world it doesn't work out like that.
Our bridges and overpasses have been stuffed with Vietnam vets for 40 years who could not deal with the transition from being the center point of American policy to being part of the re-cycle.
Our new millenium warfare has become infinitely more efficient....and has chewed up and generated an order of magnitude more potential bridge and overpass dwellers.
Fair enough. Fuck you. You couldn't get into Harvard? Enjoy your bridge.
What is awful, horrible and revolting is that our modern discarded warriors are no longer opting for the whole bridge and overpass life-style...they are just cutting the crap and just killing themselves after fulfilling their obligations to our nation and our nation's foreign policy.
Suicide rates have ballooned past anything even contemplated in the Vietnam era. 2008 was a banner year....way beyond anything experienced in the American military in its history.
2009 blew past the 2008 mark six weeks ago. In seven months we obliterated the previous 12 month record that dominated anything experienced by our troops in the 225 year history of our Republic.
Official policy has lagged decades behind reality. George Bush was a dumbfuck who was concerned....but lacked the technical and organizational ability to help. And his corrupt friends had already stolen all the money anyway.....
Obama can intellectually feel the pain, and is not a dumbfuck.....but his people somehow know better than those little people out there. They are so much smarter than all of us....that they don't need our input.
So....it all percolates back down to the local level......
Generals and Admirals posture and strut....
Staff Seargents and Captains....and the occasional enlightened Colonel..... run the actual world.
Here are 9 PTSD guys.....lives turned upside down after committed service to their country....who found themselves walked into a corner whose only escape seemed to be a short trip with a heavy bullet or a giant mouthful of pills......
I submit to you that the people running this story......
Climbing Mt. Whitney.......Highest peak in the Lower 48........
With our un-recognized wounded........Getting all nine guys up to the peak and back......
Our folks at Paradox Sports.......
Are our best and brightest......Far and away.
Maybe it is time to get them off the battlefield.......
Check it out.......here.
Yes.....one of our returning disabled officers from Iraq does climb Mt. Whitney in a Chicken Suit.
Where there is Life....there is Hope.....
posted by Txacoli at 11:15 PM
1 Comments:
And Chicken Man has some great coordinating tats to go with his ensemble!
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