My Dad called yesterday, as he does a couple times a month, just to see if I'm still alive I guess. I love the old geezer, but that doesn't mean I don't sometimes want to pound some sense in him with at 2X4. I diaried here about our discussion of Muslims after the shootings at the Jewish Federation in Seattle. And after listening to him and my brother spout Faux News talking points when I went out to Colorado for his 88th birthday, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Follow me over the fold.
But he did surprise me yesterday, he is a holocaust denier. Notice the lower case h on holocaust. I am not talking about what happened to millions of people in WWII, I am talking about what happened to thousands of cars as documented in "Who Killed the Electric Car". I thought I lived in a reality based community, but my father says to me, "I know you believe that stuff, but I don't. They can't keep an entrepeneur from making money." I was flabbergasted. "They've been doing it since the '40s," I reminded him. I was of course speaking of the ill-fated Tucker car.Reading about how Tucker was more or less hornswoggled out of his money,and put on trial for SEC violations that he should never have been indicted for, confirmed for me what would happen if an entrepeneur tried to build a radically new car today. He'd have to go to some investment banker to get the money, who would undoubtedly be golf buddies with the CEO of GM, Chrysler or Ford. The days when you could build a car, or a light bulb in your garage and make life better for all of us seem to be over. But we need tinkerers more than ever.
As I said, my dad is 88 years old, and will probably be gone sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, it looks like my brother will take his place in spades, and he'd 10 years younger than I am. I am also the leftiest looniest in the family. Keep me in your thoughts.