Josh - ProfilesArchive

About Me

I'm a Baby Boomer. Well I was always chasing the ass end of it anyway. The guys I hung out with when I was 12 were years older and had cars and girlfriends with hair that smelled nice. They are retiring now. They're done. Oh my. At 17 I enlisted so not to miss out on Vietnam and got stranded on a coral island in the Pacific. Supposed to have become my Dad but didn't. Might be unsettling to my grown children not to have had a protector around who knew everything and could tell them exactly what to do. But they are just fine and still live with us. Wouldn't want them to leave. They think for themselves. One likes to read better than the other and a smart man said I've done my job if I influenced that. Baby Boomers are a selfish lot I suppose. Maybe we just want more to come. And I don't mean stuff but that feeling that the horizon sky still holds promise of something more than another cruise. I still share the angst I see on pages here by young people. Who am I? Where am I going? Will it all work out?After the war my wife put me through college and then law school. We've got stuff now but that was never the goal. So if you're real young and your car won't make it cross-country and you don't have a credit card and you think you'll never buy a house, get married or have kids, go to Europe, put the kids through college, save for retirement, aw...hell. I worried on that and still do, so I have no advice for you.I keep thinking it's still the weekend and I should put on something decent, grab my wife and go somewhere that live music is playing.John Lennon said "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." Don't tell me I've got maybe 20 years left. I'll race your ass to the end of the block.

My Interests

Politics and tomatoes.

I'd like to meet:

People who believe as I do that life for all of us is getting better and better. We are better off than any society that has gone before us. Despite troublesome conflicts in the world, human suffering overall is on the decrease. In this country violent crime has steadily decreased over the past 15 years despite the hysteria of the media and law enforcement. We get distracted sure, and that is read as us getting dumber, but overall, we are more educated. Everywhere in the world. We are certainly more aware of suffering and strife all around us and that is a good thing. Even children and the elderly are working to make this a more just world. Look around MySpace. Look at the consciousness that's being raised at every turn, for every just cause. This activity is not easily dismissed as shut-ins sitting idly at a keyboard. It is a raging river of ideas. And as Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said a hundred years ago "An idea is an incitement to riot".Yeah, there's a lot of bunk out there too. Hemingway said that all a person needs to get through life is a Shit Detector. In 1644 John Milton was a little more eloquent when he argued:"Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to dwell upon the earth, so Truth be in the field. Let Her and falsehood grapple; for whoever knew Truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter?"Also: I would like to meet friends who have a summer vegetable garden and know how to get rid of gophers. We can also talk about good fertilizer. Or a last minute blast below the border for cold Pacificos, loud music and broiled lobster. And then maybe a nice nap.

Music:

Just about anything recorded between 1963 and 1977. Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Movies:

I have seen almost every mainstream release and most classics. I'm getting heavily into Korean crime dramas, thanks to Netflix. Nothing formulaic there I'll tell you.

Television:

History Channel, The Daily Show with John Stewart, Adult Swim, AMC, TCM, and HBO's "Six Feet Under" and "Entourage".

Books:

Haven't even cracked the surface. Give me some new ideas.

Heroes:

The ladies of CodePink, Seymour Hersh and Captain Paul Watson of the Sea Sheperd. The writers I adore would tell me to look elsewhere. They didn't sign up for that crap.