“Wolf mother where you been? You look so worn and so thin.
Wolf mother you’re a taker, death maker, hear you sing, ya ya.
Wolf mother at the door, you don’t smile anymore.
You’re a drifter, a shape shifter, see you run, ya ya.”
Feb 142012
Jan 222012
Walking away from communication challenges because they might cause others to re-examine their cherished beliefs, or lead to irritation, anger, hostility, and sometimes violence, is how the world got to be what it is today: compromised, polluted, sliced and diced into billions of pieces and parts called yours and mine.
I do not fear truth. I fear those who do not respect truth enough to leave it unmolested, and who instead water it down into something they can bludgeon others with called an opinion. Life isn’t just about forming opinions, it’s about the quest for truth. The acquiring and letting go of opinion for something greater. Not your truth, not my truth. Our truth. THE truth. With a capital T. There is such a thing you know. Not a thousand shades!
Look for truth and it will find you, but so will ignorant people who would like nothing better than to bring you down to their particular shade of gray, and often succeed because it’s easier for them to drag you down than it is for you to pull them up.
Opinion, like ignorance, does not trump fact. But it sure as hell tries.
Nov 212010
Another dog and pony with a potential investor in my company who “knows other people with money” happened yesterday, and this afternoon the person sent me a polite no thanks email. Didn’t offer to make a symbolic donation. Or even leave a personal endorsement on our web site. Instead she spent 5 valuable hours interrogating me like a beat cop to come to her “decision” to refuse to even introduce me to people in her loop.
Worse, this person wouldn’t even consider tapping out a 100-word endorsement for introducing water-soluble, biodegradable fuel made from wastes. She couldn’t see the value in lending her name to our effort because “nobody” knows her. (Never mind that the request is coming from the company’s CEO, who’s also been a personal friend for a decade, he thinks it’s important enough to ask.) Besides being lame it’s completely untrue; she is quite well known and respected. But this is the norm in latter-day America. Hide when somebody asks you to do the right thing, especially when it involves taking a chance.
People not willing to lend their name to a new business with an incredible mission, even when the upside is a complete remake of the energy landscape, and a real hope of repairing the planet’s tattered environment, is absolutely baffling.
It takes more than money to shift an unhealthy, some would say suicidal, fossil energy paradigm. Petroleum and coal are filthy, toxic sources of energy that can be made much cleaner simply by making and blending in clean higher mixed alcohol fuels before they’re combusted. All that needs to happen is for you to shine a light on the subject!
It takes intestinal fortitude and stubbornness to keep pushing when nobody is behind you supporting the business effort beyond lip service. Even good lip service is hard to come by. But text is too much trouble for people who believe they aren’t capable of making a difference in large-scale outcomes, or that a simple endorsement doesn’t matter. What if your endorsement was the one that tipped the scales in our favor?
Next! Care to leave your endorsement of Bioroot Energy? Here you go. Thank you very much, it is greatly appreciated.
Oct 252010
“Coming home from very lonely places, all of us go a little mad: whether from great personal success, or just an all-night drive, we are the sole survivors of a world no one else has ever seen.”
I’m done with being an active daily visitor on Facebook. In 1998 I moved to the mountains of western Montana and telecommuting as a career to be mostly shed of collective, in-your-face human stupidity, negative and aggressive people, the all-consuming urban milieu, and the obligatory crap that comes with living like maladjusted rats in a cage right next to hundreds, thousands or millions of other similarly afflicted rats.
A year on Facebook being “social” has reminded me why, over and over again, I made the right choice. Most of what people who live in America’s cities, drive cars to work and have regular jobs think is important, isn’t. Same with folks camped out on Facebook, generally. It’s just plain stupid socializing, like a cocktail party after midnight, and from what I’ve seen it brings up that level of saccharine banality and occasional streaks of meanness from people (if that…) and leaves little room for more.
Ignoring what’s important? Check. Niggling over minutia? Check! Whipping up sentiments? Good luck. Blurting trite tripe into the ether for other people to react to? Check! ”Click Like if you love Jesus Christ!” Being witty and “personal” in under 455 characters? Yep. It’s all there. Facebook asks, ”What’s on your mind?” In a great big nutshell, it’s people ignoring mountains, and instead manufacturing false Everests out of molehills. Much ado about not much at all.
I’ve learned that people who are interested in what I’m up to are a fraction of the people listed on my Facebook account as Friends. Real friends can always visit my personal site. The rest of you can, uh, talk about ‘Smores or the latest “undiscovered” video of the Monkees on Facebook.
If I die tomorrow, I will go happy knowing I did the right thing. I love my friends and family but there are more important and more rewarding pursuits than being a stalwart Facebooker.
Like just about everything else. 
Oct 242010
Who’s electable, and who isn’t? Compare the life experiences and platforms of the Republican, Democrat and Libertarian candidates:
Ron Ehli (R) has been a member of the Hamilton Volunteer Fire Department for 23 years, and a small business owner for 28 years. He’s been married to his wife Laura for 30 years. He’s a solid Republican, a member of the community who wants to help reign in out of control spending and work to bring jobs back to Montana by reducing the tax burden.
Terry Moran (D) is a fourth-generation Montanan. She was a health educator for 14 years, teaching and advising individuals and families on health issues including smoking cessation, disease prevention, healthy lifestyle choices, babysitting and parenting classes. A stalwart Democrat, Terry has been married to Michael Moran, M.D., a family doctor at the Bitterroot Clinic, for 26 years.
James Pearson (L) is a recent transplant from southern California with no public service experience or apparent interest in holding political office until recently. A studio musician by trade, he claims to have worked with musicians such as Isaac Hayes and Edgar Winter, among others.
Here’s a man who, in the span of a few years living here, now believes all wolves in the Bitterroot are “criminals” that should be shot on sight, and who believes that manufacturing “charcoal” for burning in woodstoves is clean renewable energy that will rid the skies of pollution and bring jobs and economic security to the Bitterroot valley. He also claims to know some things about forestry because he recently composed the soundtrack to a movie about Montana forests. Which is perhaps why his grasp of local and state issues seems to derive mainly from the ample backsides of the resident equines on his 20 acre property south of Darby.
Ravalli Republic Candidate Forums (Videos): Watch Pearson look down his nose at the psychiatric profession, call taxes “a theft of our freedoms” and accuse wolves of “stealing our economy” and more.
News for Mr. Pearson: Taxes are the price of freedom. To paraphrase George W. Bush: “Freedom is not free.”
In any community there will always be a range of behavioral decency. Some people prefer the word morality, but morality is rife with disputed meanings. Decency has a broader, more recognizable understanding. At the bottom end of the range of behavioral decency are people who not only act selfishly, but deceptively, in ways that are harmful or injurious to others who have done them no harm, and may even do so as a form of enjoyment.
After our tentative friendship of a few years ended badly in 2009 with a remarkably passive-aggressive display of contempt for me, and for the Golden Rule, by Mr. Pearson, I can honestly say that I no longer trust or respect this man or his social and political motives—especially as a representative of the people of Montana House District 88.
Jul 212010
Lovable, gentle, wise and wonderful 15 year old Mr. Chu passed away on Sunday, July 18. He’d been suffering his age for a while, so it was a relief to have him go peacefully in his sleep to the heavenly doggie playground he so richly deserved. We’re going to miss him!
Chuman was an inspiration to all on matters of general dogginess, exhibiting unconditional love, patience, understanding, tolerance, having a good disposition, and self discipline. He was my best doggy friend from the time we laid eyes on each other back in 1996 or so, when Paul Boruff brought him over to my place to see if I wanted him, talking about “…otherwise it’s going to the dog pound!” Young pit bull had been wandering around a small park near Paul’s house and needed a home. One look at those frightened, curious puppy eyes and I was his.
He was well liked around the neighborhood, always on his best behavior, even when visiting dogs would challenge him with a nip and a ferocious bark. He seldom got angry, and when he did it was for a good reason and usually over in about ten seconds. He was an equanimous doggie. He was good even when he was bad.
I have lots of pics and video of Chu to remind me of my precious years with this marvelous animal. Goodbye Mr. Chu.
How fitting for a large-scale environmental and human disaster to happen in the good old polluted USA on Earth Day, 2010. It is a vivid reminder of everything the United States has yet to learn about taking care of the planet. And it offers a compelling reason to reconsider Barack Obama’s recently announced plans for “limited” expansion of U.S. offshore oil and gas drilling.
With today’s massive explosion and complete destruction of Deepwater Horizon there’s been a tragic loss of human life, and the threat of an oil spill that could really make a mess of the Gulf of Mexico.
Think big oil is going to put the brakes on deep water drilling because of this? Think again.
Mar 152010
You’re part of the solution. Well, technically we’re all parts of the environmental problem and the solution. But are you more “problem” than solution? Take a good look around at all you and your family or business associates consume and throw away each day; I’ll wait. See, that didn’t take long. Your lifestyle is a problem because it creates a good deal of solid waste. It’s an American thing. But don’t take it personally. Here’s how you can be more of the solution.
Don’t change a thing. Keep driving, keep throwing away your trash, and continue generating what is generally considered to be a problem (solid waste, tailpipe emissions).
Some enterprising company will find a way to take all that we throw away and turn it into a water soluble, biodegradable mixed alcohol fuel you can put in your tank; and get more power and mileage to boot.
Oh wait, some enterprising company already has.
Jan 212010
Whatever happened to truth in advertising? I found the original Walmart Fan Club ad on Facebook deeply offensive and complete devoid of truth. (I added the word “Avoid.”) First off, one does not—cannot—save money at Walmart. One spends money at Walmart. That’s the only reason people go there. And one does not live better because of Walmart. One dies faster and fatter because of Walmart’s smorgasbord of cheap goods, most of which are exceedingly bad for one’s health.
Then I asked my Facebook friends a rhetorical question:
Is this like being a fan of Exxon?
Well, is it?
Nov 172009
She gets a 1.25 MM advance to write a tell all. And didn’t write it!
Lynn Vincent, the real writer of “Going Rogue” and Sarah Palin
Rogue:
a dishonest or worthless person (n)
a mischievous person (n)
a horse inclined to shirk or misbehave (n)
an individual exhibiting a chance and usually inferior biological variation (n)
resembling a rogue elephant especially in being isolated, aberrant, dangerous, or uncontrollable (adj)
corrupt, dishonest (adj)
Thanks to sarahwatch.org
Nov 062009
“When the foo shits, have the composure to say “yum.”
- Me
If you could fit the entire population of the world into a village consisting of 100 people, maintaining the proportions of all people living on Earth, that village would consist of:
- 57 Asians
- 21 Europeans
- 14 Americans (North, Central and South)
- 8 Africans
There would be:
- 52 women and 48 men
- 30 Caucasians and 70 non-Caucasians
- 30 Christians and 70 non-Christians
- 89 heterosexuals and 11 homosexuals
6 people would possess 59% of the wealth and all would come from the USA
- 80 would live in poverty
- 70 would be illiterate
- 50 would suffer from hunger and malnutrition
- 1 would be dying
- 1 would be being born
- 1 would own a computer
- 1 (yes, only one) would have a university degree
If we looked at the world this way, the need for acceptance and understanding would be obvious.
But, consider the following :
If you woke up this morning in good health, you have more luck than one million people who won’t live through the week.
If you have never experienced the horror of war, the solitude of prison, the pain of torture, were not close to death from starvation, then you are better off than 500 million people.
If you can go to your place of worship without fear that someone will assault or kill you, then you are luckier than 3 billion (that’s right) people.
If you have a full fridge, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are wealthier than 75% of the world’s population.
If you currently have money in the bank, in your wallet and a few coins in your purse, you are one of 8 of the privileged few amongst the 100 people in the world.
If your parents are still alive and still married, you’re a rare individual.
If someone sent you this message, you’re extremely lucky, because someone is thinking of you and because you don’t comprise one of those 2 billion people who can’t read.
And so,
Work like you don’t need the money.
Love like nobody ever hurt you.
Dance like nobody is watching.
Sing like nobody is listening.
Live as if this was paradise on Earth.
Share this message with your friends.
Bypass those who are determined to see the worst in the world no matter what.
If you don’t send it, nothing will happen. If you do, someone might smile while reading it, and that will be a positive.
And apart from the above, have a nice day.
- Thanks to Mark R. for forwarding this gem, author unknown.
Oct 282009
Passive aggression can be a terrible thing when you experience it firsthand from another person. I think you’ll be seeing lots more of this form of anti-social behavior from people as the economy deteriorates further and the pressure to maintain one’s personal status quo and lifestyle increases. I certainly am experiencing it.
Recently a person I believed was a fairly close and trustworthy friend decided to end our friendship in a rather spectacular manner. Even though he’s the one who blew up the friendship for no reason in particular, he blamed it all on me with a searing email that basically took me apart, piece by piece. “I’m selfish. People don’t like me. I don’t do anything for anyone. My pessimism is stifling. My politics are insane.” (He’s a Republican.) I’m a fierce independent who doesn’t cotton to party lines or parroting what I’ve heard somewhere else. Yea, having a personal opinion and the guts to lay it out, I guess that’s insane.
M’kay…So it’s pretty hard to be friends with someone who now thinks that low of me. But I won’t return fire what I could say in response because I still like the guy, in spite of his crudities and massive failure to cope. I think he’s under pressure to keep his life from blowing to smithereens because his family’s overhead is far larger than his family’s income. He could lose his house.
I “caused” it just by being myself, not for having done anything in particular, just for being who I am. Who I am is apparent within an hour of meeting me. It doesn’t take three years to discover what I’m about and form an opinion. I see myself as being like garlic and onions. You either like me or you don’t. Just don’t act like my best buddy for three years, then blow up and expect me to believe the incredibly personal criticisms.
I’m going to keep the sunny side up in all of my interactions with other people even if the other guy goes Ape shit.
Oct 262009
*Other People’s Shit
Jay’s Analogous Hierarchy Of Social Shit™ (1st Wipe) (2nd Pass)
- Chicken Shit
- Bull Shit
- Elephant Shit
- Ape Shit
Want to be a social animal, adroitly ascending the proverbial ladder or at least stay put, and hone your natural sensitivity for all kinds of social interactions, occasionally going “deep”, while adeptly keeping even the shallowest friendships and contacts with other acquaintances sunny side up? Me too.
I really need to develop a better nose for detecting the type of shit I’m hearing, or reading. My online and offline social life could well depend on it.
So world, behold what I believe are the 3 4 fundamental political, rhetorical and social interactive devices of our time. It seems much of what dribbles in spurts and gushes from the minds, fingers and mouths of people online and off is classifiable into distinkt, readily detectable buckets of crap. Very much like the odoriferous emanations which flow regularly (and oh so abundantly) from the backsides of the aforementioned animals.
Sure there’s good stuff to be had in almost all the categories. That’s the whole point of human interaction isn’t it? Richness and loamy variety to please the intellectual appetite, not too cheesy or too volatile. But sometimes, what comes from other people needs to be carefully examined and managed before you digest it. So take a deep breath and read on!
Oct 122009
In Montana, short visits can turn into long ones.
In 1998 almost everyone worried about the Y2K issue. It turned out not to be a big deal. Then came September 11, 2001, which continues to be a big deal (at least for some), and our rosily naive American outlook began to crumble across the board, eroding by the day. Wars, killer hurricanes, and economic calumny ensued. 8 more years pass and today we’re worried (some terrified) about almost everything: the climate, the economy, and the environment.
It’s all gotten much worse, hasn’t it? Oh, you haven’t noticed? Been living under a rock? How about in front of a television? What mainstream media is serving up might not be the whole truth.
Can you see, learn about and appreciate the world better by staying put and browsing your way around the world? Would the world be a better place if more of us stuck closer to home and practiced what is often our worst skill: Internet computing? The answer from my perspective is a definite yes!
By inclination, and twelve years of work-at-home conditioning, I see our world and interact with other people from a very different angle as a telecommuting techie type. Face time is a rare luxury to me because we live in the woods, and all my clients live somewhere else. Online is it. So when I do interact with people in the real world, it’s a treat because I’m not living among the teeming hordes. As a result I’ve lost that weary, urbanized social fatigue somewhere along the line…I’m not tired of people. Yay! Life among people is a carnival and I have the energy to enjoy them.
For most people I know, travel is something that happens almost exclusively in the physical world, such as driving to work and back each day. Or going on vacation, or “expeditions” to far flung corners of the world.
Online travel? For most people it’s limited to shopping at Amazon (online mall if there ever was one), and Facebook excursions, where people can hook up and exchange one liners across great distances, mostly. Facebook has become the new email on steroids, easier to use, and with words, pics and videos posted in full view of one’s friends, which makes it even more stimulating. But it’s kind of like cotton candy. Tastes good, but gives you no nourishment, save for the few people who take the time to comment or post their own stuff.
After 12 years of working from home here in outer Montana, I’m sure my perspective isn’t just a paranoid Kaczinsky-esque delusion fueled by too many lattes or too many hours years working alone. (I’m down to 1 cup of java a day, so that’s definitely not it…and I’ve been making sure to get out and interact with real people instead of mailing them bombs.)
In the meantime, our world suffers ever more dearly from the byproducts of our supposed freedoms. Travel (at least in a car or truck) is a big nasty byproduct! Until mankind learns to stay put, we’re screwed. Got it?
Recreation, online or offline, is where you find it. And so is a contrary thought to stir the conscience of anyone who ventures here.
Aug 122009
I’ve been harassed intermittently since 1990 or so by a wacko in Salt Lake City. For why, I haven’t a clue. Obviously I tweaked something in the guy’s twisted psyche to the point he felt the need to strike back and take me down a peg or three. (Good luck with that, Stalker Boy.)
When I still lived in the city of salt, I used to keep a log of the late night phone calls I’d get from this guy. Nearly 100 calls, as I recall. I’m sure it was a guy because of the obnoxious noises that came out the earpiece as I held it a foot or two away. (No woman could ever make such noises.)
I won’t tell you what kind of sounds because I don’t want to encourage any copycats. At any rate, the guy dropped a lot of quarters in payphones to let me know his, uh, feelings.
I even received a couple of letters and Christmas cards from the guy, reminding me that I am a “looser” and that my music sucks. Alrighty then.
I move to Montana. 11 years go by with no contact from the weirdo. And then, last week, a letter arrived in the mail from Salt Lake from somebody whose name and address were unfamiliar to me. (Turns out they were fictitious.) The content of the letter?
“You’re still a big looser, cause no matter where you go there you are!”
Anonymous cowards, in real life and the Internet, are a sad lot. The only thing sadder is an anonymous schmuck who tries to unhinge people with a tasteless bag of stupid psychological tricks.
Good luck with your strategy to bring me down, Stalker Boy. I don’t have those kind of buttons to push.
The latest letter is in this post. I’ll be scanning and posting all of Stalker Boy’s “contributions” to my well being so that his handwriting (and pathetic spelling) is exposed for the world to see. Maybe someone who knows him will recognize the signature handwriting traits and rat him out.
Jul 282009
Ah, the terrible true tale of a telecommuting techie’s fiscal traumatization at the hands of a dim-witted client. Last week a new small business client bounced their initial check for $1,000, and then followed that up via email saying “…sorry, but we don’t know when we can pay you the total due of $3250″ for the site (they’ve said repeatedly they think it’s great) because their products weren’t selling.
The bounced $1,000 check was the deposit on the project, which I held after beginning work on the project because they told me it might not clear “for a few days.” Well, finally, I did deposit it 9 weeks later, and it did bounce like they said it would.
I spent a few weeks of my life to design and build them a nice-looking, ridiculously easy to use, database-driven interactive web site, and then trained the managers, office staff and sales team in how to do all the site tasks they need, like editing and publishing pages, managing users, etc. But since the site went live nobody in the company or the sales team has even logged in lately, letalone edited or added any content [Hello Success Story, or gosh! a video] or manage a user account.
The site is dead in the water of owner/user non-activity. And now I don’t get paid on time because they can’t sell their product. I wonder if there’s a correlation.
Gee, Mr. Company President who can perfume the pig for hours just like Zig Zeigler but can’t balance the company checkbook, when I write a check for business or pleasure it’s spent money and NEVER spent twice. Accounting 101. Sheesh.
My harshest recourse is to take down the site. Who turns off the power when the bill goes unpaid, right? I could turn up the heat a bit and put up a SUSPENDED for NON-PAYMENT page. I’ve read that other developers have done this with some success, although this technique for collecting a past due invoice tends to destroy what’s left of the developer-client relationship. And there’s always Small Claims.
So there are options, but none of them is as good as simply getting paid for services without a load of crap.
I can’t solve the problem of clients who are broke, untruthful, lazy, too busy or stupid but I’m here for [paying] clients, 24/7.
Jul 172009
A local couple looks forward to a long weekend attending a music festival 120 miles from their mountaintop home. Man gets up early the day before they plan to depart and drives his econobox diesel import 90 miles closer to the event to set up a tent early (he’s a cautious guy) to reserve a spot in a campground located 30 miles from the festival grounds.
90 miles later, the man returns home, having laid the groundwork for a wonderful American-style weekend.
Early the next morning the man gets up and drives 40 miles round trip to drop off their dog to a dogsitter. (Me.) Man then returns home, hooks up pickup truck to his 5th wheel RV and along with spousal unit drives 75 miles up and over a mountain pass back to the aforementioned campground. Sets up RV camp, eats dinner. Probably asleep before sunset.
Friday morning they get in their pickup truck and drive 30 miles to the festival. Drink beer, eat food, listen to music. All well and good. Then its 30 more miles back to camp.
Saturday morning they again drive 30 miles to the festival. Drink beer, eat food, listen to music. All well and good. Then its 30 more miles back to camp.
Sunday morning they drive 30 miles to the festival. Drink beer, eat food, listen to music. All well and good. By afternoon they’ve had enough of the sun, food and music, then its 30 more miles back to camp. The man and woman pack up and head home, 75 miles away.
Once back home, man drops off spousal unit and RV, jumps back into the econobox and drives 40 miles round trip to retrieve his dog.
He was dog tired too.
Isn’t freedom wonderful?
180
40
90
180
90
40
___
720 miles
But is this kind of excess an anomaly for the couple in their quest for mobility? Uh, nope. The man has driven more than once from Montana to the east coast to bring cases of wine to his old friends.
Jul 142009
I see from my site log that a person online from Wasilla visited after clicking a Google search link to an earlier post about SarahPAC one week after Obama took office. Golly. I hope I didn’t hurt anyone’s feelings, especially Sarah’s, with what I said.
I hope you, Sarah, can keep up with everything we in the chattering class have to say. I’m sure it gets old, huh? Has anyone (possibly even a cursed “liberal”) ever offered criticism you felt was valid and it made you somehow stronger?
That WaPo letter you wrote today expressing your concern about Obama’s Cap and Trade actions was brave, but predictable, Republican stuff. Feel better now? How about that blowback that says you don’t know what you’re talking about?
I agree with Andrew Sullivan. You don’t seem to understand cap and trade or acknowledge even one of the imperatives of having one in the first place.
Yes we need to drill responsibly, yes we need lower taxes. But America needs to innovate to survive the effects of stagnation and debt. We need to start making much more than oil when it comes to energy. You don’t seem to understand that as well.
We can’t drill our way out of this hole. We can’t tax our way out either. So don’t get your knickers in a knot about Obama and his plans to pick your pocket. Or waste time trying to cut us chattering nabobs down to size with your seething pen. Ain’t gunna happen, sweetie. We are all in this together, even if we’re worlds apart. Some of us are actually focused on solutions to what ails us. And some aren’t. They’re too busy pointing fingers.
Let’s chat about that, shall we?
| VISITOR ANALYSIS | |
| Referring Link | http://www.google.com/search?q=jay toups&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a |
| Host Name | rdbk-14558.mtaonline.net |
| IP Address | 72.35.116.44 |
| Country | United States |
| Region | Alaska |
| City | Wasilla |
| ISP | Mta Solutions |
| Returning Visits | 1 |
| Visit Length | 5 mins 14 secs |
| VISITOR SYSTEM SPECS | |
| Browser | Firefox 3.0.1 |
| Operating System | |
| Resolution | Unknown |
| Javascript | Enabled |
Navigation Path
| Date | Time | WebPage |
| 14th July 2009 | 03:55:10 | www.google.com/search?q=jay toups&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a www.jaytoups.com/ |
| 14th July 2009 | 04:00:24 | www.google.com/search?q=jay toups&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a www.jaytoups.com/ |
Jun 172009
Enjoy what could well be our last few months of culturally reinforced American insularity and relative plenitude. But at least put this bit of news in your pipe and smoke it in the meantime. Talk about it with family and friends. Or start digging up your backyard to grow some veggies.
I’m a happy guy despite how it may appear, but I am concerned about our economic situation. And I’m sure you probably are as well. If you aren’t concerned yet, you will be, even if you are a filthy rich redneck living off the grid at the end of your private road.
I think Americans across the board are about to experience a whole new world of hardship and economic pain that is incomprehensible to most of us at this juncture. I really hope not, but I’m not going betting against this out of control economic freight train.
“Barack Obama, and the criminal class on Wall Street, aided by a corporate media that continues to peddle silly video moments, fatuous gossip and trash talk as news while we endure the greatest economic crisis in our history, may have fooled us, but the rest of the world knows we are bankrupt. And these nations are damned if they are going to continue to prop up an inflated dollar and sustain the massive federal budget deficits, swollen to over $2 trillion, which fund America’s imperial expansion in Eurasia and our system of casino capitalism. They have us by the throat. They are about to squeeze.”
So what’s the big problem? The rest of the world’s leading nations are actively dumping the dollar as reserve currency. What does this mean? How about the end of the American way of life. The end of American hegemony. The end of rampant militarization. And possibly much, much worse.
When we elected Barack Obama, I was hopeful until I realized (again) that the problems which ail our country are fatal flaws that no politician can possibly fix. We are beyond broke. But of course, Obama’s good at fixing small problems with a single swat.
We are to put it mildly, screwed. Don’t say you didn’t know or believe the worst was still in front of you, read the article and get ready for the next economic crapstorm.
Hide me as a friend if you don’t like the topic. Or thank me later after you acknowledge that nobody you know is really talking about what’s going to happen next in this country. It’s called denial.
Or don’t thank me at all. But at least try to remove as much of yourself from the tracks as you can or you might get squashed flat like a Lincoln cent or smushed like the fly in the vid.
Jun 122009
Everything Americans think they know, they learned from a televised morality play. It’s all theater. You root for some good guy and boo some bad guy. You pick your own, but you dance to the tune of the men running the show. It’s mind control, pure and simple, and if there is an American immune to it, then he is probably living in a snow cave somewhere in Alaska.
- Gypsy Joe Hess (1919-1988), prospector, self-educated philosopher and horse trader
Source: Joe Bageant
We are supposedly a God-fearing country. You may or may not be a God-fearing person. But there’s something even more fearful going on right before our very eyes: the crumbling of America’s economic foundation.
The United States economy is in freefall across all sectors. Banking. Finance. Insurance. Housing. Commercial Real Estate. Automobiles. Auto Parts. Retail. Fast Food. We are sliding into a bottomless chasm of long-term debt from which we may never recover. America and its people are being led off an economic cliff by horribly stupid politicians, anachronistic budget policies, and a preoccupied, mostly clueless electorate.
Americans saw $1.3 trillion of wealth vaporize in the first quarter of 2009 alone, as the stock market and home values continued to decline, according to the flow of funds report by the Federal Reserve released Thursday.
I believe America needs to do an about face and invest in peace for any real positive change to occur in our country’s direction. I don’t believe we should invest heavily in the tools of war and expect our desperate economic and environmental situations to improve.
Why do we insist on digging America’s hole deeper? Is this the real American Way? Why will we burn through more than 600 billion dollars on military expenditures in 2009? Look at the difference between the USA and its nearest-spending military and economic “rival” China. That 522 billion dollar differential could solve a lot of problems in this country. And to keep us all safe, we’d still be at parity with China’s military budget.
Another way to look at this militarized rape of the country’s budget?
Add the figures for the next 9 countries and you get 476.4 billion. That’s right, America spends more on planes, guns, bullets, grunts and combat boots than the entire rest of the world combined.
This is not the kind of momentum America needs or can afford. We need to secure our borders here at home and invest in domestic programs that result in greater economic security. We need to stop the bleeding and start healing our national psychosis. We can claim there are bad guys out to get America, but the baddest, most dangerous guys are the folks in Washington selling us all up the river without a paddle.
President Obama, are you listening? You better listen, that’s why we elected you and not that other guy.
Top 10 military spenders in 2008 ($bn)
1. USA 607
2. China 84.9
3. France 65.7
4. UK 65.3
5. Russia 58.6
6. Germany 46.8
7. Japan 46.3
8. Italy 40.6
9. Saudi Arabia 38.2
10. India 30
These are conservative estimates, putting America’s military expenditures at about 36 percent of our annual budget. Some watchdog organizations peg US military spending at 54 percent of the US Budget for 2009. That’s 1.449 trillion dollars!
At what point will the straw break the camel’s back, President Obama? Congress? The middle class can only take so much. Will you raise my taxes to pay the interest on the national debt? I hear my share will soon be $155,000.
Send me a bill. I dare you.
Source: Yearbook on Armaments, Disarmament, and International Security published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri)
Jun 082009
Ready to live more in the next couple of hours than the rest of your life to date? Just tell yourself you have only 120 minutes to live. (Whisper it to yourself a few times, it helps to get this profundity front and center in your mind.)
Of course time will pass the same no matter what you tell yourself. Months. Years. Decades. But when you forget to seize the day in bite-sized, 120-minute chunks, tell yourself again and again whenever the urge strikes: I have only 120 minutes to live.
One day it will come to pass that you find yourself arriving on the doorstep at the end of your life. And there will be no more seconds, minutes, days, months, years or decades.
You now have 119 minutes. Good luck making the minutes count.
May 072009
Sage words of advice by Koa on finding true freedom in this whacked-out world. A compelling personal statement wrapped around a warning to prepare for what’s next if ever there was one.
Thanks to Survival Acres (John) for posting this where I could stumble across it.
We have a large woodshed. This time of year there’s lots of room in it because we burn a fair amount (6-8 cords) of wood during the winter to keep the house and ourselves warm.
We also have an aging septic system built in the 1970s, along with plenty of the world’s best drinking water, which flows down canyon from Nelson Lake up in the wilderness area for 6 miles down Nelson Creek, where we have a diversion ditch (cut in in 1899) that is the source of our drinking and irrigation water.
One fellow who lives out this way has a nice bathroom with a tub and shower, but there’s no toilet in the entire house. He uses a sawdust toilet in an outhouse a few steps outside his door. He’s been using it exclusively for 40 years. He’s the first guy who ever said to me, “Why do we piss and shit in perfectly good water?” Which got me to thinking. Even though we have abundant free water, it’s still a shame to see perfectly good water go to waste just because people need to do their business. So I started looking for options…
When we have house concerts and lots of guests, I set up a temporary outhouse in the woodshed, complete with a standard toilet seat, a candle, some reading material, and to keep a lid on the smell, a bucket of sawdust. I let our music-loving audience know that they have an “interesting” bathroom option: we have two full bathrooms, but we also have a really nice outhouse in the woodshed, complete with candle, matches, reading material and toilet paper, that takes you back to when this was the only way to go.
Our temporary outhouse is about to become a permanent addition to the Lapwai hacienda. There’s a lot to like about outhouses and sawdust toilets. Just a handful of sawdust is all you need to kill the stinkiest odor. Sawdust is easy to come by out here in the dog-hair forests of western Montana. I mean, trees are everywhere. So it’s only natural that people find ways to put these dead trees to good use, for firewood, for woodworking, for building. (Don’t worry, with 7 million acres of wilderness around us tree harvesting types, there’s still plenty of standing dead trees to provide homes for the woodpeckers and owls.)
Here’s the water we’re saving. The source of our drinking water is Nelson Lake, Montana, viewed from the ridge above, which is actually in Idaho. This is a terminal moraine lake, created by the advance and retreat of glaciers at least 10,000 years ago during the last ice age.
Notice there’s no pourover; water in Nelson Lake drains from the bottom just like a bathtub. Nelson Creek starts about a half-mile downslope where the stream gushes from the side of the mountain and begins its descent down the mountain. Nelson Lake water is naturally filtered to begin with, and requires only minimal filtering to drink.
So you can see, we have perfectly good water, which rolls downhill to our house for free, along with constitutional options in these parts that city people don’t usually have. We are at least allowed to have outhouses. Which means we don’t necessarily have to do our daily deeds in perfectly good water.
Apr 232009
No Facebook addiction here.
People all over the world are joining the never ending party on Facebook and finding lots of things to like about the FB interface, and the relative ease of staying connected with friends and family. Facebook is great for interacting with people, plus adding your photographs, videos, music, etc.
People who camp out on Facebook will probably never create a site of their own as a result, unless there’s a new and pressing personal or business need. And what passes for their Internet presence will be locked away behind logins, obscured to the general public (unavailable anyone who isn’t already a “friend”), and lost forever. That’s right, your whole Facebook account is like an unlisted number. You only give it out to friends and family. But the whole point of the Internet is being able to be found by anyone in one mouse click. Not ten or twenty or thousands. Or lucky enough to be invited to be your Facebook friend.
FB is fun to tinker with. But I have stopped adding media (music, videos, pics, etc.) to my Facebook page because it defeats the purpose of having a personal web site. I’ve also turned off the bothersome email notifications about new posts on my Facebook wall. The groups feature is good though…
This site is my wall, and a lot more. It’s been live since 1998. There’s tons of [me]dia stuff here, and more all the time. I’ve been careful to keep my stuff in a single place so that it amounts to more than a splattering of repartee, one liners and witty rejoinders and media posted across a bunch of web sites. Sure I have a Facebook profile. It points here.
Real friends actually visit here, and some even leave comments, etc. Other friends don’t take the time to do either. Fair enough.
Strong stuff. But it’s how I view the world and my place in it, especially the Internet world. Why add stuff to a social network controlled by someone else? In this case, a ballooning new Internet corporation that continues getting bigger and bigger because they have a firm grip on your eyeballs and those of all your friends? Isn’t this comparable to bringing your living room furniture, pajamas, a bottle of wine, and wall art to a nightclub and letting every friend and their friends sit on it, drink it or view it? What if you could invite your friends and family to your home on the Internet, i.e., your own web site?
I’m not about to say things on Facebook that require more than a sentence or two, infrequently. That’s what my personal site is for. I have much more to say to you and the rest of the wired world. I offer technical services too, descriptions of which would look kinda klunky on my Facebook profile. There’s more context to work with on this site.
Almost nobody I’ve friended on Facebook has a web site. A few musicians have sites, but the rest of them, nah. Too much trouble, not enough reason, independent streak isn’t strong enough, who knows the real reason why. Cost? It’s free to build a site. Reason? You do have more to say and share than one liners don’t you?
Real friends take the time to appreciate who their friends are, for who they are, and where they are. I’m just a click away. Not just because it’s cute to be found present and witty on some social network where every other friend can digest what’s being said as well. I will never get to know a lot of my Friends’ Friends. Not sure I want to, truth be told.
I hope you don’t take any of this personally. Or let me say that I hope you do take it personally and strike out on your own with an Internet presence that captures who you really are instead of a caricature served up by a corporation. Just because it’s free doesn’t mean it’s good for you. If you build a site, I’ll be a frequent visitor. Why? Because I like you and respect your opinions and value the time spent savoring who you are.
Real friendships are good for one’s health. Shallow friendships are like junk food consumed on the run. Real friends take the time to drop by every now and then for a dose of the real me.
Apr 222009
Come to my house for a very special concert on Friday night.
Last night I spent at least an hour swapping messages with a new friend on Facebook who happens to be the daughter of an interesting woman who lives nearby. I mentioned an upcoming concert featuring an internationally known fingerstyle guitar player at the absolute top of his game. And that she and her mother would be most welcome to attend. (This is outer Montana, very rural; every seat is a great seat, and every seat with a paying person in it counts. Which is why I work hard to sell the events. They wouldn’t happen otherwise.)
The artist in question is a music industry legend who fills concert halls and listening rooms and music festivals and who delights and thrills his audiences with every thumb-busting performance he gives. All over the world. This artist could easily win a place on a list of the top guitar players who have ever lived. At least among followers of fingerstyle guitar.
No kidding. This artist is easily a world-class performer, composer and musician, by any credible measure. One Google search would provide all the artist credibility needed to validate a decision to see the artist. But we’re not talking about what is credible here.
My new Facebook friend’s incredible ensuing interrogatory was predictable for someone who was looking—first and foremost—for a way out of “having to” attend a concert with an artist she did not yet know. She wasn’t interested in what she could learn about the artist by simply showing up, putting her butt in a seat and digesting every juicy moment of the show with the artist less than 8 feet away.
My Facebook pal wanted to know more about the artist: did he sing? Or does he “just” strum?
Apr 142009
People generally like to change, but only because they want to: lose weight, quit smoking, find or lose God, make or save more money, get sober, or even get drunk. But sometimes people are confronted with change because they have no other choice. Since this involuntary change taints America’s manifest destiny to do as we damn well please, it will take a while before we realize those uncontrollable changes are often the changes we need to make most.
We’ve thoroughly exhausted the cherished capitalist premise that more is better: we built bigger houses for all our stuff but they became too big to heat; we bought cars that could ferry a soccer team (or just a soccer mom) but were too big to park and too expensive to own; we thought we were embracing a simpler life by squeezing in a day in the garden between working and shopping and even an extra job to pay for it all.
No more.
I’ve done my share of propping up the American status quo. So have you. Admit it, we’re all culpable for the bubbles and the busts that have stolen the soul of our country. Not just the other guy or other party. No amount Tea Partying is going to fix the mess.
Now that America is bleeding like a stuck pig, you’re probably doing less propping up of the status quo in lockstep with everybody else because you can no longer afford to. That’s why Detroit is in the shitter. Ditto every other business you can think of. Why? Because you have to reign your purchasing in, not because you want to, most likely.
So finding yourself having to do much more with far less, what’re you going to do? Change your lifestyle and purchasing habits, only more than what you’re doing already.
I’m as guilty as the next person who lives in the industrial world when it comes to consuming stuff as my birthright. But I’m not so caught up in personal psychodrama (maintaining the status quo) that I don’t feel the need to rebel against this dangerous, bleeding beast called consumerism, wherever it rears its ugly and stubborn head. And I see it in the lives of people who call themselves environmentally aware, responsible adults. Uh huh.
You can rebel. And then you can rebel some more. But first you have to let go of some of your stuff, both mental and physical. It isn’t easy getting over yourself and your stuff. I’m slashing my consumer footprint. I seldom drive my car, which I bought new in 1989. I’ve worked from home for 11 years, eat little meat, drink water from a creek, wear extra layers instead of reaching for the thermostat, and while I’m at it, tend a compost heap and a garden (with my wife and partner Tamera) and chop wood to burn in a high-tech soapstone stove. Oh yeah, we don’t watch TV either. So pin a medal on my chest, right?
Years ago I made a decision to live more like people did 100 years ago and still do in developing countries because it’s far more sustainable and affordable. I ride a bike for recreation, or ski, hike, raft or kayak. Human-powered recreation is one way to pummel the status quo because when you do something physical it’s always in the moment. So we moved to the mountains next to a real river with fewer than 10 people per square mile. The simple life only makes sense in a simple place. If you’re in the middle of the urban milieu, good luck cutting through your own crap that keeps you there.
While we choose to live differently, some people I know and love (though not necessarily respect their rec choices) choose to race cars, motorcycles, ATVs, etc. Some have 50-inch flat panel televisions in every room and leave their computers on all the time. Or stay stuck in places that cost an arm and a leg, clinging to their personal traditions and lack of inertia to make real changes.
Seems whatever some people do personally to conserve is lost in a mad rush to entertainment by fossil-fueled lifestyles and diversions that are so deeply ingrained it is astonishing.
“It’s overconsumption, not population growth, that is the fundamental problem: By almost any measure, a small portion of the world’s people – those in the affluent, developed world – use up most of the Earth’s resources and produce most of its greenhouse gas emissions.”
Here’s an interesting article that explains why (y)our precious American-style consumerism is more dangerous than overpopulation.
Here’s another brief but interesting article about “economic survivalism.”
Seems as if America would like to just forget the horror of September 11, 2001 altogether. But amid growing worldwide skepticism of the veracity of the US government’s official report, it seems a lot of people are refusing to give up searching for credible answers to the baffling events of that fateful day.
9-11 Truthers are generally credible professionals (chemists, architects, explosives experts, physics professors, etc.) with a range of skills trying to prove scientifically that the US government’s official 9-11 story is, at least, wildly inaccurate, and at most, a cover-up of a grotesque travesty of justice unrivaled in human history, and needs to be thoroughly reinvestigated. I’m inclined to agree. What about you? Is it time to take a fresh look at what happened on September 11?
Mar 112009
Don’t have a site? You’re not alone. For most people who have Internet access, “surfing” the Internet is much more about getting stuff (get/send email, shopping, searching) instead of gathering up and putting stuff on a web site. Too bad, because putting stuff on the Internet is the source of at least half the fun, and more importantly, the only source of whatever financial reward there is in having an Internet connection and a fancy computer in the first place.
- Build a secure, beautiful, easy to use site in minutes for free
- Publish your stories, videos and pics or sell your product or service
- Make money by displaying ads on your site
- Set up an Amazon affiliate store, make 4-11% on every product sold through your site
- Share your site with whoever you want, worldwide
- Create a secure team workspace, invite collaborators, family, etc.
You may not be unemployed (yet), but if you’re starting to feel the need for a site, read on… Continue reading »
Feb 032009
Thanks for visiting. I spend most of my time out the West Fork so I may never have the privilege of meeting you. That is, unless you attend a house concert or help with your online marketing. Or we meet by chance at one of my favorite local haunts. The chef there, Michael Campbell, is a real life saver.
You may be wondering what our motivation to invite the Ravalli Republic to cover our concerts is: Why do my wife Tamera Rackham and I present touring acoustic musicians in our home on a regular basis? Simple: It’s great fun to stage these small events, and our friends (whether old or new, young or ancient) love the shows!
And on a practical note, knowing we’ll soon have a house full of guests, it’s a great motivator to clean up our house from top to bottom.
I’ll spare you a hastily assembled catalogue of the many well-known benefits of composting organic waste. Almost everything food related that most folks in our great country throw away or send down the garbage disposal—except meat and dairy—is fodder for a compost heap. Even cardboard, unbleached paper and newspapers (soy inks are biodegradable too) are compostable if you can tackle it.
What, if you really think about it, is it that keeps you from composting? The smell? Working compost heaps don’t smell, but they do get warm from all the decomposition going on. The time and effort? Dump your garbage in a neat pile, toss a few shovelfuls of dirt on it and keep it stirred up and you’ll get dirt. Good dirt.
Could it be that you’ve never started a compost heap or sniffed the wormy, rich and loamy soil it magically creates in just a few weeks? This is rather likely.
Starting and maintaining your own compost heap is brain dead simple. Build or buy a composter, or if you have a fenced yard, start a pile in a convenient area and feed it your kitchen scraps and see what it happens! That’s it. But then it gets more complex because rotting vegetable matter makes incredibly fertile soil.
What to do with all that rich, loamy earth replete with earthworms and friendly bacteria? Well, you could grow a garden. Or at least use the resulting dirt to feed your lawn. Get your hands dirty and smell the fruits (and vegetables) of your labor. Better to start when you don’t need the veggies you’d grow. Because these days you never know when you and your family, friends and neighbors might.
Jan 272009
Name a PAC after yourself? You lost me right there, Mrs. Palin. I don’t like egotists of either sex or party. Especially scheming egotists.
This is laughable, but it had to happen. Palin’s angling for a seat at the table in 2012. Nevermind what happens during the next four years, and with Obama in office but one brief week.
She wants it that bad.
Hey if you like Palin, send her some money. And it better be a lot. Only blind, stupid luck and a boatload of brain-dead-yet-somehow-still-rich Republicans would put this woman in the ring again for leading our country.
I’m sure she’s thinking by 2012 the economy and the environment will both be “peachy” and she’ll waltz back onto the national stage, mouth some choice doggone-its in a few dee-bates, win the election and move right into the White House after the country (or at least a very moral majority) finds it can’t live without with her folksy wit, her stunning intellectual prowess, and her legendary ability to field dress an elk she dropped with her own 30-30.
This woman as President would gut our country the same way George Bush did, which was by any measure badly.
No thanks, Sarah Palin!
Jan 272009
Fascinating testimony from Russell Tice, NSA Whistleblower examining NSA data collection methods and the involvement of major telcos in sharing your (our) information. Was your electronic communication and credit information collected and scrutinized by spooks and their elaborate data mining tools in this massive undertaking? Hmm, sure looks like it. Tice has been speaking out for several years in a brave attempt to uncloak the truth about this country’s wholesale disregard for and invasion of privacy for the sake of keeping us safe.
This man deserves a job in the Obama administration and a bust of his likeness placed on the desk of whoever is running the NSA.
Jan 242009
After 8 grueling years we’ve finally got a new president, and with a new attitude that has “can do” all over it. Time for Republicans and Democrats to roll up their sleeves and pitch in to create the solution, which will doubtless be wildly expensive.
God Bless Barack Obama and the United States. We gwine ta need it.
Related: Here’s a nice mashup of obamaiconme posters by Reilly Morse complete with a great version of Allen Toussaint singing “Yes We Can (Can)”. Reilly’s the handsome chap at the end of the vid.
This morning as I sipped my coffee laced with Irish cream and read the news online, I came across dozens of shots of cars and trucks stacked up in every country that makes or imports them. Even with reduced production, car makers are piling up record inventory.
The return of cheap gas is no accident. People worldwide seem to have lost the taste for non-essential driving. And no wonder automakers are broke. Almost nobody’s buying. Banks aren’t lending. Dealers are folding. Soon you’ll be able to buy cars at fire sale prices. That is if you have ready cash or a 750+ FICO score.
The automobile industry has served as the engine of global manufacturing and trade for at least 50 years. This meltdown will change the industry forever. What survives will hopefully be for the better. There will be fewer large manufacturers like GM, Ford and Toyota. Cars and trucks will be ever more efficient, and built smarter, as the industry sheds outdated technologies and adopts new ones.
But first, a lot of companies with a stake in the transportation industry are going to die and put people out of work—perhaps never to return to the auto industry. Many will seek whatever kind of employment they can find. Flipping burgers, working at Wal Mart, retiring early to enjoy what remains in their pension fund.
Maybe some of the people who exit the auto industry will find a way to retrain and become telecommuters.
We don’t need no stinkin’ car for that.
Perhaps as much as $50 billion evaporates and Bernie Madoff is out of jail on house arrest and a pathetic $10 million dollar bail? Awaiting trial in the comfort of his Manhattan apartment? Yep.
The size of this swindle and the scope of injury and injustice wreaked on investors by one man is breathtaking. And he’s free for the moment at least.
This guy’s sitting in his Easy Boy about now sippin’ his favorite cognac and smoking cigars while having his feet massaged. Yet when some hard luck dude sticks a holdup note under a bank teller’s nose and flees with a wad of cash he goes straight to jail, and no bail.
Meanwhile his lawyers are banking hours and plotting their next moves to keep Bernie Madoff’s sentence as light as possible.
Enjoy your remaining days of freedom, Mr. Madoff. Savor it. Fret about it. It should be a rich experience. Very rich.
Jan 122009
Several years back I worked for a software company run by a madman. How mad? You be the judge. After I left the company I wrote a post about my experience working for the guy. Start reading there for some background.
It’s truly amazing the company is still in business and the madman who founded the company still controls the whole operation. Rumors have long persisted that he hasn’t paid taxes in a number of years. But that’s nothing: In 2007, a young man who worked as a “bodyguard” for the CEO was stabbed to death in a drunken brawl outside a bar in the town where the company is located. And in 2008, he was sued by his former housekeepers for sexual harassment and found guilty. He owes them $330,000 in damages and reparations. And just today, another former employee sent me a link to a news article stating that he was being sued for back rent on his office building.
Quite a swath of destruction for a software company and its unscrupulous owner isn’t it? How many CEOs of software companies even need a bodyguard? The other sad part is that the guy is a talented developer of enterprise software. Software in use around the world in thousands of companies. If these customers knew how tenuous the guy’s grip on his business is, they would do whatever they needed to do to stop using the company’s software because it may not be supported for much longer.
This guy taught me a valuable lesson: Slime, no matter how good it might feel, doesn’t pay.
I could name the company and the man, but I won’t. Even if it is all too true. That would just be too slimy.
Dec 162008
Download and use a browser (Firefox, Google Chrome) that doesn’t put you and your info at risk. IE has more holes than Swiss cheese.
Dec 142008
I have friends. You wouldn’t know it from the few snide comments on the site. But for one or two, my ‘friends’ have nothing whatsoever to do with it. I guess they’re too entrenched in their lives, or bummed out, or tired of me trying to be some sort of oracle about the environment. They might even think I’m flat-out stupid for even trying to make a difference in how people live their lives.
I have relatives. You wouldn’t know it from this site. None of them take the content here seriously because if they did they might feel driven to change how they live. They might feel a need to stop doing resource-intensive activities they really enjoy, like riding motorcycles or auto cross racing. Or leaving all the lights in their house on. Of course, they can’t take me or this site seriously. They would have to change.
I have business and professional associates. You wouldn’t know it from this page because they’re all consumed with running their businesses and paying their employees and bills. There’s no profit—and no time to waste—in exploring what they could do to reduce their carbon footprint. So they too ignore this page, even while hiring me to advance their businesses through web development and marketing communications.
I have unknown visitors from the Internet. You wouldn’t know it from this page. They’re mostly too rushed to linger long enough to savor the acrid sentiments of one writer who knows what the real source of the world’s environment problems is.
The real source? It’s you, unique visitor of the moment. I’m not too broke, rushed, bummed out, arrogant or smart to spend time and energy trying to reach you.
Dec 122007
Survival Acres is a web site selling freeze-dried foods and other types of packaged food for long-term storage. The site’s owner also blogs with blunt economy about the coming “collapse” of modern civilization and a die-off of billions of people.
Not a collapse due to a single issue like global warming. More like collapse by a thousand cuts. Let’s start with global warming, wars, drought, disease, species decline, overfishing, a looming economic implosion, and end with the rollup trifecta: air pollution, water pollution, soil pollution? He and his crew of regular posters and commenters think it’s a done deal and go to great lengths to document and pointedly explain their belief that we pathetic humans are, in fact, screwed.
Yes, there are more regular people thinking this way. They’re not stupid, they’re not alarmists. They are paying attention and drawing conclusions that easily could prove true. Especially if you and me don’t radically alter our consumption of resources and get busy cleaning up the planet.
I think it’s certainly possible we will live to experience major disruption of our way of life, sooner than we collectively wish to think. Permanent disruption. Beyond a regional disaster. Perhaps even worldwide.
So, what’s in your survival toolkit?
The most efficient car is the one that doesn’t get driven. How long has it been since you’ve walked to the store, or ridden a bicycle to do an errand? Are you waiting for some corporation or the government to save us from ourselves? Ain’t gonna happen anytime soon. If you want efficiency plus some exercise, park the goddamn thing and walk for a change.
Here’s what happened to Florida: Condominium complexes, Delray Beach, FL Photo: Digital Zen
Read more at Cracker Boy, and for more non-MSM coverage don’t miss Eye On Miami.
Sure you care about the environment? When’s the last time you walked somewhere you would normally drive to? Rode a bicycle to do an errand? Recycled anything? Grew a garden or started a compost heap? Stayed home because you felt a trip was somehow wasteful and unneccessary? Bought something practical at a flea market or second hand store, like clothing? Said “I don’t need a bag” at the supermarket?
Think you care about politics? When’s the last time you wrote a letter to your congressperson or senator about an issue that concerns you? When’s the last time you expressed your opinion about this country’s foreign policies or current leadership among a group of people? When is the last time you tried to change anyone’s mind about their political position? Have you ever boycotted anything to protest a company’s actions, such as child labor exploitation or environmental negligence?
Sure you care about the US economy and your pocketbook? Does our country being technically bankrupt bother you? How about the $400+ billion we’ve squandered in Iraq? How much money do you have in the bank? Did you earn any interest income last year? How much money do you blow on useless stuff? How many times a week do you eat at a restaurant?
So you care about other people? When’s the last time you replied to anything you’ve read online? Unlike television, the web is a bi-directional medium. When’s the last time you made a donation to a charity whose work you support?
Think you care about being more than what you do for a living? When’s the last time you took a day off just for you? Do you have a hobby or a passion?
Think you care about the truth? Does it make you mad that someone else has the nerve to ask what you think about it?
Good.
Mar 182007
So much for our vaunted free market economics and laissez faire government; it ain’t working. When US businesses and their investors ask for carbon emissions growth to be reigned in by US government it’s got to be for a dayam good reason.
Are you people in Washington D.C. even living on the same planet?
Link to Financial Times article.
Mar 012007
My mother was a well-known birder, writer, lecturer and teacher who passed away February 27 from lung cancer. She lived from the Great Depression of the 1930s to the new Environmental Great Depression of 2007. She was a true friend of the environment.
This time, the depression isn’t simply economic. America recovered from the Great Depression. This time it’s environmental. Can mankind recover from bankrupting the planet’s natural environment?
While the earth and all its creatures are suffering from our studious neglect and institutionalized indifference, people in this beautiful country continue doing what they have always done, which is buy into an economic paradigm that equates progress with our ability to consume everything that isn’t nailed down, trash it when we’re done, and leave finding a solution to the problem of our declining environment to the supposed experts.
Just after my mother passed away, I was excoriated by someone I care about for taking a “superior” tone about the source of the world’s environmental problems, such as NASCAR and the huge industry behind it. I was told that people “around here” don’t want to hear criticism about their favorite forms of recreation, all of it mechanized and resource intensive. Moreover I was told that I could expect any number of threats from “Bubba.”
Well Bubba save yourself the dime. I’m onto your games and they suck because they’re suicidal. I’m reaching out to give you a hand to save you from yourself.
I’m sorry if anyone finds the truth offensive. Too damn bad. People who can pull their heads out of their asses long enough to see what is going on make great environmental crusaders. You should try it. I might not come off as superior to you.
NASCAR is the problem. NASCAR sponsors, drivers, fans, mechanics, tracks, bobble head announcers, cameramen, etc., are the problem. Bikers are the problem. Bike week is the problem. NFL is the problem. NFL fans are the problem. Stadiums where lots of people drive to week in and week out, year after year, and watch their precious teams are the problem.
Whatever is unnecessary by environmental measure is the problem.
If you identify with corporatized recreation enough to get mad at someone who insists the stuff that passes for “recreation” in a large swath of middle America is a big part of our environmental problems, you should take a harder look at what’s killing the planet and where it’s coming from.
Any mirror will do.
Here’s a Wired article with a comment thread I’ve been participating in the last couple of days. Looks like I’ve hit a nerve. Perhaps I am being a tad “smug.” There are worse labels.
Feb 212007
China has spent years building a rail line into Lhasa, and before that, surveying an area of the Tibetan plateau the size of California, Texas and Montana for the first time ever for minerals. The takeaway: China will have plenty of new resources (copper, lead, zinc and iron) to continue its emergence as the 800 pound gorilla of global economics and global environmental degradation. (The USA currently swaggers in this role of penultimate polluter, but a few more years and China will be #1.)
Buy nothing from China. Is this even possible for Americans anymore? If you shop at Wal Mart, it sure isn’t.
