My dear readers, 
You may note above that this blog will now also be appearing on my author website: www.wgreychampion.com. The website was created by my publisher Luminare Press upon release of my latest book, Ruminata. Three books now in publication are described there with links to purchase them. You may leave comments, contact me by email, and add your own email to the short list. Follow the blog at either site!
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Boiling frogs
Since the death of Fred Hiatt, lodestar of the editorial page at The Washington Post, the depth and relevance of that page have declined, given over as it appears to young people sadly lacking the needed experience or perspicacity. Too often I am finding more interest in the advice columns or Letters from readers. One such letter today, for example, vindicated my essay "Travel: You Can't Get There From Here" in pointing to deregulation as the root cause of airline miseries. The writer, an airline consultant, asserted that deregulation moved the industry toward emphasis on profit and commerce, hence away from its role as a public utility, requiring government oversight. Just as banks are required to have reserves for downturns, airlines once were required to have reserves for unexpected contingencies.

Now slowly the hordes of travelers mobbing airports increase year after year, while the poor souls being crushed must surely put one in mind of boiling frogs. Please refer to the Wikipedia article on that age old metaphor for unexpected guffaws. The truth is, depending on how slowly the temperature is increased, a frog may allow itself to be boiled alive; and the metaphor is often used to warn against the gradual acceptance of the unacceptable. That wonderful fellow, Buttigieg, who heads the transportation department, scolds the airlines for their unacceptable behavior; yet we see with our own eyes that people continue to buy tickets and flock to airports expecting every time to board a plane irrespective of past experience. The frogs are not jumping - they are accustomed to the heat. 

Global warming is a far more dangerous example, notwithstanding the naive idea that people would be sufficiently alarmed to take mitigating action before it was too late. No indeed! Regardless of how often their home has been blown away, flooded, burned to the ground, or sucked up in a tornado, they vow to rebuild, even lauded for their tenacity. The average person must live to a ripe old age even to notice that storms are more frequent and more damaging. His grandchildren will have grown used to it.