Easy and fun things to help the environment

Humorous Reflections on Fun Incremental Change.

Friday, December 12, 2014

Socialism. It's not just for Stalin anymore.

Whenever a progressive even hints at trying to apply some of the trappings of Socialism, the right wing goes full-tilt-defcon-four-batshit and screams about the failure of socialism in the past, usually citing Joe Stalin. The logic, I have to suppose is that socialism killed millions of people, not a seriously homicidal psychopath. They refuse to even consider the more recent, yet equally as deadly failures of Capitalism. The (First) Great Depression, the thousands of lives and treasure lost in the wars for oil, the systematic robbery of mortgage holders, the crash (and subsequent bailing-out) of Wall Street, Lehman Bros. AIG, etc. Miserable, hateful, racist bastards.

No More War.

I'm seriously considering giving up my godless heathen card. Every year I get drafted into this War on Christmas and every year we are defeated by these Fabulous and Christ-like "Christ"ians. While I swing the battleaxe of not excluding others from the holiday season, Christ-like warriors like Bill O'God-I-Love-Torture-Reilly beat back our every sallie. Unfettered Greed and Selfishness (the way Jesus intended it) continues to rule over love, and kindness. I give up in the face of such religious righteousness. Merry CHRISTmas, Mofos!

Monday, October 27, 2014

Count your Gas Blessings Carefully.

The cost of fuel (Okay, the price) has gone down a bunch recently. I have to think that it's because the big oil companies are cutting back on their profits in order to help the economies of the world.

HA! Just kidding. But, wouldn't it be nice?

I suspect that the price of gasoline going down is related to many issues, not the least of which is the success of renewable sources of energy. Don't let them fool you. Even the Biggest, Oiliest Oligarchs are divesting from oil. Every one of them uses solar and wind energy generation at their "Dacha's". Why wouldn't they? They like to save money, too. You just won't see it in their, "aren't we responsible?" advertising. According to the ad, BP have invested over 4.5 Billion Dollars in the Gulf for rebuilding. That's not so much an investment, as a court ordered fine to compensate for all the damage that their slovenly practices caused to the people and the environment of the Gulf. It's like me saying, that I invested over $20,000 in the State of Colorado, instead of me saying, I've had three DUIs!

Unfortunately, a huge contributor to this gasoline "discount", is the glut of natural gas, that these very same companies are extracting out of the ground in ways that make oil extraction look like a gentle kiss from a dying grandmother. You've heard of "Fracking", haven't you? This term is short for Hydraulic Fracturing, which is FAR more hideous than you'd ever expect. These oil barons take pipes and force them into the ground under your homes and into "seams" where free methane and propane are trapped as part of the decaying process of ancient organic life. In order to fracture the rock formations, and therefore "free" the trapped gas, they inject millions of gallons of fresh water, because everyone knows that we don't really need water for human life to exist, mixed with a concoction of carcinogenic chemicals and other chemical agents that assist in the destruction of the rock layers. The contents of this mixture are top-secret because Dick Cheney made sure we'd never know what's in it. Thank God, we know we can trust Cheney. Now, historically these oil entrepreneurs, have always looked out for the welfare and well-being of the public, and in these cases, they are just as publicly responsible as they always have been (Exxon Valdez, Deepwater Horizon, Keystone XL Pipeline, etc).

Take the dip in gas prices with a grain of salt and remember that in Battlestar Galactica if you got "Fracked" it meant something altogether different . Or maybe it didn't.

Baby Steps...

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Did that Hurt?


They say that Capitalism has no morals, no ethics. It has no soul and certainly no empathy or compassion.
I say, “Let's change that.”

We're going through a strange phenomenon where really, truly, horrific behavior is being overlooked, even justified, because it effects someone's profit. What's a little whipping on the bottom of a child when it comes to the bottom line? Want to cold-cock your wife? Go ahead. But, as always, if you or any of your INF(L) crew are caught on tape, the commissioner will disavow any knowledge of your actions.
Are we willing to rewrite the laws and/or the morals of thousands of years, because there just happens to be Billions of dollars at stake? Apparently, yes.
Just watch in fascination as these coaches dance around in justification of what their star players are doing. Sounds like the lyrics to Natalie Merchant's Luca, “he's your kid, do as you see fit.”
When are we going to realize: Wrong is Wrong!

Do you honestly believe that ANYONE , in their heart of hearts believes that there isn't a clear and present danger from Global Climate Change? It's quantifiable and it's bloody obvious to anyone who has ever gone outside in the last 10 years. Of course not!
Then why are there still politicians and corporate big wigs and higher-ups who deny it up and down?
Because it might alter the way they do business, and therefore, affect their bottom line. What about the planet? What about their offspring? All of that nonsense is Trumped (get it?) by profit. Profit at all cost.
As somebody once said, “The love of money, is the root of all evil.”

I hope that their money if fire-proof, cause they're going to need it in Hell.

Baby Steps...

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Let's Re-Think Family Planning.


It's weird.
I know a lot of women (my wife included) who have remained childless by choice and I'm a little sad to announce that these lovely and educated ladies are sometimes the object of ridicule by the strange “traditional” family-values cadre. Considering the rather dire straits that we find ourselves in, due to over-population and willful and negligent environmental devastation, I feel that this is not only ignorant and cruel, but just plain backward thinking.

I understand that, as mammals, there is a certain, small instinctual drive to procreate. I get that. But it's no greater than the drive to kill and eat other animals, and we've done a pretty good job curtailing that activity over the course of history. There was a time when a male individual would just mount the first female individual he saw whenever he got “the urge.” Thank goodness we've evolved beyond that.

The major reason that the vast majority of woman feel they need to continue to crank out children, is because of religious conditioning and programming. There may have been a time when it was logical to have children (mainly boys) so that you'd have some help in your chosen field of work. Farms needed lots of hands. So did blacksmithing. Same goes for ranching and sheepherding. These people had children for “practical” reasons. In many, if not most, cases this is no longer the case. But whatever religious tradition you adhere to, you are encouraged to breed indiscriminately. The more the better! The training starts at a very young age and is never questioned by anyone. Little girls play with dollies, but rarely do they play NFL owner or CEO. The subject of happily choosing not have children is never even suggested. As a woman, if you don't dream of having children, you're considered some kind of freak.

Smart, intelligent, educated women have myriad reasons for not getting involved in that lifelong commitment of child bearing and raising. Some have aspirations of travel, which is rendered difficult with small children. Some want to make a difference in the world other than populating it. Whatever their reasons, they don't deserve derision for making that choice. Hell, I commend them for even knowing that the choice exists. Your religion won't tell that to you. Or your school. Forget about hearing it from your government. Did you know, these institutions have a vested interested in making sure you have children? Preferably lots of them? People with families are much easier to control. And by control, I mean coerce. Your economic resources are spread thin, so that you have very few options.You will do whatever you are told, because you can't risk the health and safety of your family.

We don't really need any more people. When was the last time you were driving in rush-hour traffic, or walking through a mall and said to yourself, “You know, there just aren't enough people.” I'm not trying to vilify the people who have kids and families, but the #1 worst thing you can do environmentally is have a child. The source of most of our modern ills, is overpopulation and its cousin, thoughtless overconsumption. Restaurants throw away approximately 30% of all of their food. The figure is a little lower for personal households, but not much. In the name of convenience we make cleaning products out of chemicals and instead of cloth, we have to use paper products that can be thrown away. But there is no away. I bring this up because the biggest offender is disposable diapers.

I'm not saying don't have families. I'm not saying people who have families are bad. All I'm saying is let's start letting little girls know that it's okay to dream about things other than becoming a baby factory. And let's start showing them that it's alright to make other choices and maybe even wait. They have to be educated in proper family planning (birth control), and encouraged in pursuits other than gestating. Stop the tyranny of religion. It's not necessary to have a baby to take some

Baby Steps...

Thursday, July 24, 2014

The American Dream was just a Dream.

Remember when hard work and perseverance were all you needed to "make it" in America?
That was before the Ultra Monster Pirana of Uncontrolled, Unregulated, Unfettered, Un F-ing Believable, Un-American Pseudo (Vampire) Capitalism took over.

Now it doesn't matter what you do to try to get ahead. The dice are loaded. The table is rigged. And you're the rube. Smile.
It used to be easy to understand, only the poor and desperate stole from others. Now it's the Corporate business plan. And it works! For them. For us, not so much.

Good for you. You get up early in the morning so you can take your time and get on the road to beat the ridiculous traffic. Guess what? Now the rich guy can pay to get in a lane that he can go fast in and make it where he's going in time. He just negated all of your planning and hard work. It's okay. He's rich. You're screwed. Welcome to the new economy!

The airport is where this is most apparent. Stand in line to go through TSA security check? Check!
It's the American way to do stupid stuff (that's stuff with an sh...) when they've told you to be paranoid. Billions of dollars go to the companies that make the scanning and screening machines that are used to humiliate us and make us feel like we're less-than-human. These machines are the modern day equivalent of a scarecrow. Or one of those owl sculpture that are supposed to scare away birds and other pests. Basically, just to make the general public feel good. They do nothing to protect us, and I can prove it.

They have a new system that can be used by the rich to circumvent these long lines and delays. Just pay the toll, and breeze right through and past the line. The good news is, terrorists would never pay to get through in this manner, so, no problem here. Just shut up and wait in line, loser!

The airport is where you can find another little piece of inequity. In the parking garage, If you call (write, e-mail, whatever. I suppose if I were rich I'd know how) ahead and pay the price you can get preferred parking in the deck where you used to have to drive up and down and down and up and hither and yon. No more. If you want to avoid that work that is part and parcel of a normal existence, you can pay to NOT be treated equally. Hooray!!

I'll bet you can think of lots of examples where the normal everyday, play by the rules consumer gets outbid by the upper echelons, and made to feel less-than.

We've got to stand-up. Let's face it, we've got more practice than they do, because we have to actually wait in those lines. Stand up for your rights! Stand up for the merit that should be afforded by the hard-work that used to be the backbone of the American Way. Stop all this pay to win. Make your voice heard! Join a union. Join a party. Join a club. Join, join, join. We are stronger TOGETHER.

We just gotta change things or we will be ground under by the 1%.
Baby Steps...

Friday, July 18, 2014

Old King Coal. Not so merry.

Coal miners have been around for a awhile. 

Mining is dirty, dangerous work, that doesn't take a lot of education, just mostly muscle and courage. And a desire to take care of your family.
Especially in rural areas where the coal is found, West Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri, to name just a few. Miners generally have a pretty tough life, filthy, back-breaking work, for long hours. As long as the employer can legally require, that's how many hours a coal miner will work.

I just drove through Ludlow, Colorado where an abomination against humanity took place a while back. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre)

Fortunately, thanks to the unions and the incredible war-like struggles that they went through to get the miners a living-wage and some protections, the miners can enjoy a somewhat normal standard of living. A liveable standard, even though these mines tend to be in horrible, back-woods locations where the boom-town economies inflate all the costs that the miners incur. Many of these miners have worked the mines for generations, so much so that it's the only existence that they've ever known, or that they can even contemplate. The job is so ingrained with the life and the culture, that the miners, not only put up with the horrible conditions that the employers thrust upon them, they defend it against all logic and against their own well-being.
The nation should be getting off coal. And petroleum. And Natural gas.

It's obvious. Coal is a dirty source of fuel and mining kills miners through bad and unsafe practices and disease. There are natural, renewable sources of power generation that we can transition into, and these miners can, with very little adaptation, be transitioned into without the loss of any income. These types of energy can, and will, be in the same rural locations where these workers now live. But there's a catch. Isn't there always? The fossil fuel energy companies have powerful and deep-pocketed lobbies that won't allow that to happen.

Workers need to be educated in these things. (another reason that the rich and the corporations are dead-set against any public education) The Politicians and the corporations aren't your friends. They fought against your rights every step of the way and killed countless miners who only wanted to make life better for their families.

Let's get out there and help these people, because by helping them, we help ourselves.
The best way to get even with the Robber Borons, is to make what they stole from us, and our planet, worthless.
Let's do it.
Baby steps...


Wednesday, May 14, 2014

It works if YOU work it.

This is exactly the way representative, participatory democracy should work. It's a little slow, admittedly, but the more we participate, the better and faster it will become.

After years of cajoling the White House, the solar panels are back on the White House. The lord and savior of the republican/oligarchic party Ronnie RayGunz spent time, energy and presumably money to remove the solar panels that had been installed by Carter. Had those panels been allowed to remain, who can say where research and development might have taken us by now in the renewable energy industry?
Filthy, polluted water-under-the-bridge.

Bill McKibbon and his group 350.org and their fans have turned the Obama administration around on this one aspect of the argument. Good on 'em!
The Keystone XL Pipeline has coughed it's last disgusting tarry-oily death knell, since The Truth is almost always more powerful than what the Koch's want.

Obama is playing the long-game and in order to do it, he MUST have the grass-roots (you and me) help him. All of this hard work is designed to be a sort of political ju-jitsu, in order to make these changes look natural and organic. And it's working. The bonus is that it also makes all the greedy corporations and politicians look like idiots. I LOVE that.
Keep it up!
Baby Steps...

Monday, May 12, 2014

Global Climate CHANGE. (look it up)

Why oh, why is everybody having SO much trouble with the concept of climate change?
If you've been outdoors lately, it should be obvious.

Oh, yeah. Science. The devil's workshop. The devil's "Call of Duty".
Science. The one thing that hurts God more than the scourging of Jesus.
Science. The battle rages on between science and, uh, who?

Temperatures HAVE gone up. It's a fact that has been recorded for a loooong time.
If you have ever studied meteorology or climatology, you know that all weather patterns are caused by changes in temperature. Changes in temperature are caused by how much of the Sun's radiation reaches a certain part of the planet, land OR water. The relationship between hot areas and colder areas cause high and low pressure zones, which combined with the rotation of the Earth, causes wind. Pretty simple. Amazing how powerful the Sun is! Hey, why doesn't someone figure out a way to harness all of that power? But that's another subject.

Then there are the semi-deniers. "Oh, there is a change in the weather, but there's no way it can be man-made." Really?  God gave us the Earth to do with as we see fit. Take all the resources and use what we want and throw the rest away. If I need a little bit of gas, why shouldn't I pump thousands of gallons of some toxic chemical soup, the contents of which, I won't tell you, into the ground to filter wherever it happens to go. Once we get the coal, who cares where the ash and waste from the process goes?

The way I understood it, God gave man Dominion over the Earth, to be a good caretaker. If I hired a caretaker for a facility and that guy threw trash all over the place, and refused to clean up, I for one would fire him. What if my caretaker treated all of the men women and children, as well as all of the animals, as if they were just an inconvenience, out the door. Pink-Slip.

The big fallacy is throwing things away. There is NO AWAY. The Earth is a closed system. Suppose you lived in a deep sea diving suit, with a tank of air and a years supply of food and water. Within a few days your suit would start filling up (from the bottom, you know, gravity). After a few weeks, you'd be sloshing around in a soup of human waste products. How long do you think it would take till that suit was filled? And you Drowned in Your Own Shit? But thank god, it's not man-made.

The Closed system that is Our Earth is the same way. People that DON'T believe this are either incredibly stupid, or are interested in something other than long-term survival for the planet. If your greed blinds you to these simple truths, I hope we are all gone before you drown in your own shit. Maybe you can build a life raft out of your money. I sincerely hope not.

Those of you who believe in saving the planet, keep working!
Baby Steps...

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Try Love for a "Change."

It's all become clear to me now.
Rich white men are doing something that they've always done.
They are trying to control others.
All others.
They pine for the old days when you could maximize your profits by using slaves.
Wow, slavery was great! Free work, and all you had to do was try and make sure that your slaves didn't die, but if they did, eh, get another one.
Oh, bliss! Oh, profits!
And the slaves were "different," they were not men.
They were less than men. That made it easier on their consciences (those who had consciences).
They even looked different, to make it even easier. They were black.

"Hey, remember that one magic grifter book that we've convinced everyone was written by God? What if we could find something in that that explains why these guys are less than men. Look at this. Mark of Ham. Works for me. We can sell this to the rubes. Tell them it's God's will. I bet this book will come in handy later. Let's build some buildings and use brainwashing, conditioning and threats and really pound our dogma into all of the people. If they don't believe us, they'll go to this really horrible place FOREVER, and experience pain and suffering like they can't even imagine, but we'll help them imagine it."

They will ALWAYS resent that the institution of slavery was abolished and they will do anything to get back to those principles.
They hate the blacks for no longer being slaves, and expecting to be treated equally and with justice.
They hate the liberals for helping to bring down slavery and expecting to have everyone treated equally and with justice.
They hate unions, because they fight for equality and justice for the workers (who, by golly, should be slaves and not get wages).
They hate immigrants for getting here AFTER slavery.
They LOVE free-trade agreements, because they allow us to ship jobs to places where the pay for workers is just barely above slavery.
They hate women, because, just like slaves, they have had the gall to believe that they deserve equality and justice.
They hate the middle class because they want a share of the money. Not gonna happen. "It's OUR money."

The best way to keep blacks down? Poverty and taking away the right to vote by using the magic grifter book, that says whatever we want it to say.
The best way to keep immigrants down? Poverty and taking away the right to vote by using the magic grifter book, that says whatever we want it to say..
The best way to keep women down? Use their bodies against them by using the magic grifter book, that says whatever we want it to say.

How do they do it?
Buy the government.
Buy the media.
Keep us scared, keep us down.
Turn us against each other.
Give us bread and circuses.

Time to stand up and fight.
Don't believe them.
Demand the truth.
Demand equality.
And start loving each other. It disrupts their plan.
I love you.
Peace.

Baby Steps...




Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Who're you callin' an animal?

Over the last couple of years, I have seen a increasing number of videos posted on the web, that show the amazing capacity of dogs to show love and compassion. In one video, a dog blocks highway traffic to protect another dog whom has been injured. Dogs protect their owners. And the babies of their owners. Dogs protect each other and in the case of search and rescue dogs, people they don't even know.

The only times that these dogs get upset or frustrated, is when they don't have the resources to do more. These magnificent creatures will risk their own lives and go to whatever lengths are in their ability to protect and save their charges. They have no promise of monetary reward. There is no outside agency that motivates them. They don't crave media recognition. They won't be going on a speaking tour, or given endorsement deals. They do it for love. Isn't that incredible?

In a lot of religious traditions, these heroic creatures are considered to not have a "soul" and therefore, cannot go to "heaven." First of all, I wouldn't want to go to a "heaven" that didn't include dogs. They are better "people" than most of the people I know.

Now, when there are "people" who refuse to use the resources they have (By the way, those resources are given to them by us!) to help others who are sick or poor, they have made themselves much, much less than any dog. Any. Dog. The same dogs that, by their religious beliefs, are not allowed into "heaven". A dog will use ALL of the resources it has, and go beyond, to help. When all along, there are "people" who refuse to help others, even though they have virtually unlimited resources (that they were given by US, the taxpayer), and they refuse to use them, insisting instead to give them to the rich and comfortable.

I think this demonstrates perfectly, who does and does not have a soul.
It shows without a shadow of a doubt who will and who will not get into "heaven."
It proves to me who deserves to be called an Animal.

Baby Steps...

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Sometimes thing happen just like you planned.

In a past post, I mentioned that you might be able to ask your landlord to consider making some changes that would affect our impact on the planet. Well, by golly, my landlord did just that.
Recently our complex installed hot water-on-demand in all of the buildings. Not only does the water operate on this system, so does the heat (which is hot water). I'm not going to pretend that their motives were environmental and altruistic, in fact, I'm sure they are just enjoying the HUGE energy savings, but I'll take what I can get.
In fact, that is exactly how it works. Once businesses realize that they can actually save money by doing the right thing, hey, look at that, they start doing the right thing.
Baby Steps...