What George Carlin Knew

George Carlin knew plenty when it came to lances and tigers and he made that plain in the opening of his final concert before he died in 2008.

A Lot of My Favourite People are Dead

It's true. An awful lot of the good ones, the best ones are gone. In fairness so are a lot of the bad ones although there always seem to be plenty of newcomers to take their places.

One of the good ones now gone was once known as George Carlin. As that great Canadian blog MetaBall reminds us, Carlin had a good eye for what was coming:

"...There is another take on this whole save the planet thing, from an excerpt from "The Planet is Fine" by George Carlin, God bless his lovely soul. (Warning profanity) "We're so self-important. So self-important. Everybody's going to save something now. Save the trees, save the bees, save the whales, save those snails. And the greatest arrogance of all: save the planet. What? Are these fucking people kidding me? Save the planet, we don't even know how to take care of ourselves yet. We haven't learned how to care for one another, we're gonna save the fucking planet?

"The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through all kinds of things worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles...hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages...And we think some plastic bags, and some aluminium cans are going to make a difference? The planet...the planet...the planet isn't going anywhere. WE ARE!

"We're going away. Pack your shit, folks. We're going away."

I guess George just jumped the line and got there ahead of us.

http://metaball.ca/2008/ball_Jul-08/0708_04.html

Not Like He Didn't Have It Coming - George Carlin, 71

George is gone. If that sounds callous, I really don't believe he'd have the slightest problem with my tagline above. If there were a few things Carlin believed it was that your Karma would catch up with you eventually. He embraced the sinner except more to partake than forgive.

71? I guess it sounds early but maybe we should first ask Keith Richards.

There always was a dark spark inside that guy, try as he might disguise it in the "commerical era" of his career.