Thursday, March 6, 2008

When the Pillars of Society get shaky?

My mother disliked Victor Mature a great deal...she called
him "repulsive"..because when she was a rising star at MGM
he approached her in a very unseemly way - a few times! As
I grew up....one of my favorite movies was "Samson & Delilah"
(1949) with temptress Hedy Lamarr. She represented for the
the Philistines pretty darn well. Samson was this local dude
that could slay lions with his bare hands. The "Phily" power
structure was not only disturbed but frightened that someone
with "God on their side"....could easily dispatch Philistines
at will. When you are eight years old and see the beautiful
Hedy Lamarr's alluring moves on the basically "repulsive" Vic
Mature.....it was impressive. To cut to the chase; Hedy took
old Samson, cut his hair and would up seeing him blinded. It
was a classic case of feeling guilt so badly she finally had
to help him tear down the Philistine temple.

Here in Newport Beach, Orange County....we have a lot of big
bad Philistines.....those with all the cash and power and they
buy up as many "Samsons & Delilah's" as they can - to do their
bidding. Now we don't fault the Newport Beach Philistines....
hey, someone has to be in charge. For several years government
in Newport Beach and Orange County was totally out of control.
There were years when "No growth" Paul Hummel & Rycoff were big
players along with Jean Watt and others that came later. In those
days....say 1965 forward....the developers, The dreaded Irvine
Company, General Bill Lyons, Warmington Homes and others were
the main cabin passengers in both design and building of Newport
Beach and Orange County.

So, what is this blog entry all about? History, religion or a
basic philosophy of government? It may be all of those things
if you are talking about John Moorlach or the build out of John
Wayne Airport. What has happened to the Airport Working Group,
the new AIRFAIR (http://www.jwairfair.com/) group? Are they
finally putting our elected's feet to the fire and demanding
answers rather than just bureaucratic protocols? That would
be nice! For you see, "Quality of Life" which started as a real
issue far before 1986 when the phrase was coined..occasionally
jogs our now reality. How many more Parking spots are going in
at John Wayne Airport? Why do we need a special Int'l Customs
area at a so-called regional airport? How many more gates? How
many more people every year? And what about Costa Mesa Country
Club? Should that become a Newport Beach property or become a
part of the City of Costa Mesa? What would Samson do? What
would the Delilah character do? Do we have to buy this on
Amazon or can we rent it at Blockbuster?

So, politics and the choices we make are a lot like "Samson and
Delilah"....aren't they? The people (Judeans) could not rely
on Samson to save them from the evils of the Philistines....but
by paying attention to what was going on.....they made Samson
see the errors of his ways.....and in the end....bring down the
evil Philistines! Of course in this day and age we are left with
just one question: "Do we really want to do that? - when soon all
those Philistines may go bankrupt as our banking system stumbles
and all those Pillars of Society...fall without warning! It gets
a bit scary when you consider all those three letter companies all
being closed - without notice!

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