Monday, December 31, 2012

The Moai Territory Cliff Crisis

It was the 11th hour
and all the chieftains
of the Moai-head worshiping
Island had gathered to discuss
the Moai Territory Cliff Crisis . (Sometimes pronounced as Moan-ah-tarry Cliff Crisis --not to be confused with any Monetary/ Fiscal Cliff Crisis of any modern society)

It seems that years of
boastful chest pounding
had led to productivity
claims that just couldn't be met.

Try as they might, the Moai Head fabrication experts couldn't come up with a math that would appease the unease of them who were realizing there would be a By-the-Cliff Moai Territory Crisis soon befalling all who lived on this of-finite-size Moai-head worshiping Island.
What to do?

Some argued for
taxing the under
the cliff fishing
people more severely.

Some said that
a mere extension
of the Moai Head deficit
ceiling number would
fix the problem at least
until the next 2-year chieftain
re-election counsel met.

How did we get into this Moai print press mess in the first place? Some began to ask

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Go ahead, do blame my ge ... generation

Whether you are a Baby Boomer (BB'er) or
a member of a latter day generation,

you sense by now that the George Jetson
Future-topia
is just not going to happen.

We're not going to all have our own
levitated jet car

ive waiting jetson car 7 years jetson car

or a cushy one-button to push job
(if any job at all)

or a jobless wife who can
shop (consume) all day

But there will be blame


Fickle Finger of Blame


So if that's what it takes

to get
"the message" across

Go ahead
Do blame my generation



Tuesday, December 25, 2012

The joke is (on/over) us

Creating a (weak) joke was not the intent when starting
the "But I have Rights!" post
(one below this post).

In the writing of it though,
it occurred to me that quick humor might be necessary because
on the Internet, we are all ADHD.

How long can any one post
hold your attention?
Each must include a provocative image
or an emotion eliciting statement.
Or a joke.

The true goal was ...

to investigate the
"Property rights trump Nature"
mentality of Libertarians and associated Right Wing Thinkers.

This came about from trying to understand the logic
of a Libertarian named Alex Epstein
in his so-called "debate" with Bill McKibben regarding Climate Change and continued burning of fossil fuels:

(Warning the below video is over 90 minutes long)

In the words of Mr. Epstein:

"McKibben is dead wrong about fossil fuels and our environment. If we take an objective, scientific look at how fossil fuels have impacted the human environment, including our climate, the overall result is amazing--we live in the [economically] greatest environment in human history. The countries with the worst environments--with the most filth, disease, crop failures, low life expectancies--are the ones that use the least fossil fuels."
[Bracketed text added]

There is nothing "scientific" about Mr. Epstein's notion of "But I (and my fellow Libertarians) have property rights", in other words, "economics" trumps the "eco-sphere".

Mother Nature is blind to "property rights".

Destroy "her" atmosphere and we all die.


Destroy "her" oceans, "her" fisheries,


and we, the overly-sapien apes, all die.

"Money" will not undo the damage.
Money ($$$) is no more than a government sanctioned "claim" on assumed future production by those who are willing (and able) to keep playing the game.

In a recent video talk, Nate Hagen (PhD Eco-systems & finance)
explains this and much more

Some of Nate's points:
(1) Growth can't be forever ....
(2) What goes up usually comes down ....
(3) Oil is finite ....
(4) Post Carbon Institute (300 seconds)
(5) URR convolved with EROEI
(6) Communication skills for delivering negative factoids


Can we live with our own "progress"?

Or is the joke on us?

But I have "rights"!

A conservative dies,
and arrives at Heaven's Gate.

Saint Peter is not there to greet him.

Instead, it's Mother Nature.
Her name tag says, "Call me Gaia".

Mustering up all of his right wing ingenuity,
the Conservative frantically sweeps though
all the "talking points"
he has amassed in his studied life.

What to say in his defense?
That he was totally wrong?
That he was duped
by a Great Right Wing HOAX?

No.
Now, more than ever,
is the time to double down.

"Men," he argues,
"are born with unalienable rights! Among them is the right to do with one's property as one pleases and to pursue happiness for oneself by maximizing profits."


"Seriously?" quips Mother.

Conservative nods assuredly in the affirmative.

"Let's test that hypothesis."
Mother presses one of her Laws of Nature buttons.
Poof! He is gone.
It is as if he never existed. As if all his thoughts had been mere illusions. None of what he had conjured in his mind was part of a serious "reality".

"Next?" she says to a camel waiting on line.

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Using Metaphor of Physicality (Cliff, Avalanche) to make Fantasy look Real

Dear friend,
Look here.

In one hand there is
nothing but hot air.

In the other,
warm and fuzzy fantasy.

The mouth is, however
faster than the mind's eye.

Hocus Pocus and Behold.
Hands' holdings are clapped together to form tangible substance.
Fiscal Cliff.

Here, for your consumption my friend, are images
of cliffs, of avalanches and
of going over the "edge".

Here also for your intellectual intake is
the adjective "FISCAL".

Ask NOT what that modifier might mean.
For if you do, you might look foolish
and disloyal to our faith
.

You wouldn't want that to happen, would you?

Someone who creates your "job" for you might suspect the truth (that you really don't know what "fiscal" means) and then "THEY" might take away that "job", take away your way of life, take away your freedoms from you.

Observe that "FISCAL" has a Freakin' F in it.
How eFF'in cool is that?

"cliFF" has a lot of Freakin' F's in it two.
Put 'em together and ... magic happens.

The freaked-out fear center in your brain is already abuzz
worrying itself to death about
the implications of going "over"
the Fiscal cliFF.

Lions, tigers and Bears.
Oh my!

But now comes the eFF'in Freakin'

AVALANCHE

Fiscal Avalanche.
How good and scary
is that?

Don't even think about it.
Don't even think about anything.