Monday, February 20, 2012

Random Ramblings & Miscellaneous Musings

Random thoughts that almost became blog articles but, you know, didn’t:


The only truth is the one that conforms to reality.
• • •
Any society that puts a higher value on dead trees than it does on live ones deserves its fate.
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Human beings became stewards of the planet largely because the fuckin’ polar bears and whales wouldn’t stand up and do it. Well, okay, I can understand why the whales didn’t stand up, but the polar bears? C’mon!

The irony is that we humans, despite our supposed superior intelligence and opposable thumbs, have been spectacular failures as planetary stewards; polar bears (and whales) could have done a better job.
Of course, polar bears (and whales) lack a profit motive.
• • •

"Senate Democrats haven't passed a budget in a thousand days even though the law requires it," McConnell said, ignoring the fact that Senate Republicans have blocked every budget proposal put forth by Senate Democrats. Were it not for lies, damn lies and really insane lies, Republicans would operate in total silence (as would many Democrats, come to think of it).*

*My comments (highlighted) added to the original quote.
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Government is not the problem; intellectually challenged morons that think government is the problem are the problem.
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Maybe the best way to end abortion is to transplant an unwanted fetus from a woman that would otherwise opt for abortion into the uterus of a right-to-lifer. Think win/win.
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When right-wing trolls post comments on lefty blogs accusing lefties of being on a mission to discredit Republicans, they confirm my suspicions that right-wingers are incapable of rational thought. C’mon, it doesn’t take a genius to recognize that Republicans are perfectly capable of discrediting themselves (as their track record amply demonstrates) and probably wouldn’t accept help from Democrats were it offered.
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The rest of humanity is doing to the planet what Haitians did to Haiti. Just as Greece is the microcosm of the global economy, Haiti is the microcosm of the global environment. Both countries prove that when your position is untenable, you’re basically fucked. Do we really need to prove it on a planetary scale?
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The powers-that-be and the bastards-that-are, are one and the same.
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The problem is not a job shortage; the problem is too many people. With population numbers, climate change, environmental degradation and non-renewable resource depletion all in conflict, business-as-usual no longer works. Unless we transform our economy into something that is steady state and sustainable, we can expect the economic decline of the middle and working classes to continue its downward spiral in stages punctuated by brief intervals of perceived economic “recovery.”
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Capitalism’s major fatal flaw is its absolute lack of sustainability; no system that consumes its resources to satisfy a profit motive can endure over the long term. Eventually, market saturation sets in, or environmental thresholds are breached, or consumer-demand changes, or critical resources become scarce, or some other limiting factor kicks in, and suddenly reality gives the economy a kick in the teeth. Yo, dumbass, you’re about to exceed the limits of physical reality. Abort! Abort! Having no other recourse, the economy aborts. Economic collapse is inevitable when delusions of endless prosperity through unlimited growth collide head-on with the limits of physical reality; the lesson here is that unrestrained growth cannot sustain in a constrained environment. 

Friday, February 17, 2012

Payback is a Bitch

The Supreme Court’s ruling (Citizens United v. FEC) essentially gave corporations, in the name of free speech, the right to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence the outcomes of public elections and dictate legislative agendas. In effect, the Supreme Court affirmed that money is equivalent to speech.

But if one buys that argument—that money is equivalent to speech—then one must also buy that speech is equivalent to money; what’s fair is fair. Equivalency is a two-way street.

With that in mind, I want to notify my corporate creditors that, beginning with the next billing cycle, all future payments will be made in the form of a short speech. The current exchange ratio of 1:1 (one word = one dollar) will apply. Subject of speeches is limited to a single issue, the evils of corporate greed. Creditors may choose either telephone or e-mail as the vehicle for payment delivery. 

If the 99% got on board with this by midnight tonight, we could end the global economic crisis by noon tomorrow.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Appointment in Samarra

Yesterday, Population Media Center’s daily e-mail contained a link to an excellent .pdf, by Doctor William E. Rees, on issues of sustainability. It boasts lots of fun facts and more than a few interesting parallels that suggest the golden age of unbridled capitalism, unlimited economic growth and mass consumption is about over.

This excerpt―especially the highlighted portions, which are particularly relevant to current economic and environmental conditions―imparts a sense of urgency and fairly demands that people start taking this shit seriously:

 “To stabilize GHGs at even 650 ppmv CO2e, the majority of OECD nations must begin to make draconian emission reductions soon (by 2015).*

650 ppmv CO2e implies a catastrophic four degree C mean global temperature increase.

Unless we can reconcile economic growth with unprecedented rates of decarbonization (in excess of 6% per year), avoiding this increase will require a planned economic recession.”*

Wait! We’re in a recession, aren’t we? Well, okay, then; now it all makes sense.

Still, it seems the prudent thing for us humans is to take immediate steps to ensure that we miss our appointment in Samarra.


*Highlighting/bolding mine.




Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Get a Brain, Morans!

Quoted from George Monbiot’s article in The Guardian (as posted on AlterNet):

“Perhaps it is in the same spirit of liberal constipation that, with the exception of Charlie Brooker, we have been too polite to mention the Canadian study published last month in the journal Psychological Science, which revealed that people with conservative beliefs are likely to be of low intelligence.”*

No shit! Sure makes me want to jump aboard a clown car careening along on wheels that are about to fall off. That people cheerfully and proudly identify as conservative Tea Party Republicans is proof enough of their low intelligence. These same people always double down on stupid, which is one of the main reasons why things always get worse.


*Highlighting mine.