w.atching the w.orld unw.ind

Today's lyric:
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"I got mine, let me tell ya - I got mine.
I grabbed that money 'n out the back door, I went flying
Well, ever since the big crap game
I've been livin' on chicken and wine.
I'm the leader of society since I got mine."

Ry Cooder: "I got mine"
From the album: "Chicken Skin Music"

I'm still bemused by the UK Governm1nt's unilateral decision to impose and subsequently increase airport taxes, on the grounds of environmental damage?

Now my daily commute takes me twice through Gatwick railway station and I'm not alone among my fellow passengers to continually marvel at the miracle that is man-made flight. Because many other travellers will also always look skywards as we approach the station, to see if any jets are dropping in to land. They really are so low at this point in their approach to the runway as they transverse the train at right angles, that you feel you could reach up and pluck them from the air!

Yet for most of the year* I'm unable to see the actual landings because of the foliage on the untended trees and bushes which form a natural barrier between the tracks and the runway.

How can it be that with thousands of landings spewing countless litres of hot kerosene vapour like industrious crop-dusters, these plants not only survive but flourish well enough to provide an impenetrable curtain?

Someone who does her damndest to promote green issues does use this method of transportation on occasion, so I'd like to know if I'm maybe being just the tiniest bit cynical that the tax is not actually a means of atoning for us wanting to see our world but just another financial leach by our Dictator**?

* in Winter, it's too dark at both ends of the day to see anything anyway
** Dictator = Unelected leader of a country or nation