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Don Corleone

I haven’t sat down like this and ‘penned’ an old fashioned blog in quite some time; maybe it is time. There’s some sort of spinning cyclonic whirring and worrying at play here; something which moves, emotes and scares me. Cutting to the chase; I just don’t love irresponsible American corporations. A while back, in my first novel, ‘Vichy Water,’ I developed a character who thought that certain companies (like cigarette companies) had collectively contributed to killing (yes, there are other ways of wording this) more people than the Germans did during World War II (that would be  50 million) It’s quite a statement; and I still think as the creator of that character  the statement is true.

So what provoked me?  General Motors recently had to pay a $35 million fine because  it took them around a dozen years to recall cars that had faulty ignitions; something about  the engine turning off and disabling air bags. They know for sure at least 13 people died from that.  It would appear that a  decision (the buck stops here) was made to let it ride all those years and not incur the expense of recalls (2.6 million cars). The thing that irks me is why the higher-up execs avoid punishment and the company gets fined a few inconsequential dollars. They probably saved more than $35 million by not recalling the cars. So they’re ahead of the game.

heading to a distopian view of the world

with a real zombie in asbury park convention hall (zombie walk). and to think the pentagon came out with a report last week how america would deal with zombie invasion (true)

A few weeks ago I started looking to buy a new car. There is no way I would ever buy a General Motors product.  And here’s more of my thinking. I’ve seen ‘The Godfather’ over 100 times. I wonder about  Don Corleone and his nefarious undertakings and murders and time spent “going to the mattresses.” Thing is, I think General Motors “killed” more people (13) than the ‘Don’ did personally. Wouldn’t it be a step in the right direction to make corporate executives criminally responsible for decisions affecting the lives of people? Knowing about a bad product and doing nothing and letting people die  somehow appears to be akin to walking over to a parked car in Brooklyn at 1 AM and shooting the couple kissing in the front seat.

i was going to sponsor a contest. guess the number of black and white dogs on my lap.

away in a recording studio near the jersey shore.

Last night I watched ‘Erin Brockovich’ for the 20^th time.  It is so clear cut and obvious that ‘PG & E’ knew all about the evils of hexavalent chromium which they used as an anticorrosive for water cooling. Inter-office memos proved they all knew how bad it was and did everything they could to cover it up for a long time. People got sick and died because of the deadly chemical. They were fined $333 million and really nothing of significance for them. It’s too bad company executives who knew and sanctioned what was going on, didn’t go directly to jail. Personally, I think what PG & E did was far worse or the same as what Don Corleone did.

with Danny Aiello, Tara_Jean Vitale and Gary US Bonds (recently turned 75)

guitars in asbury park, a global music destination.

I had a busy night last night. I learned of the evils of the chemical ‘Corexit’ which BP uses to disperse oil in the gulf. Those involved say the chemical is safe.  I’d love to see the executives of BP and the chemical manufacturer, Nalco Holding Company be put on a diet of fish (shrimp) from the gulf for a year so we can see how safe the chemical is.  And so it goes; an endless line of companies with really bad products swearing it’s all good and safe and doing nothing about it. I guess the executives all figure, by the time they get caught; they’ll be dead anyway.

This blog becomes a cerebral catapult for me to look down the brown brick road (it used to be yellow) and start thinking about a new writing project because we’re running out of time.

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