Sunday, December 21, 2008

Solstice greetings

This December 21st, when the season is expressing its most foul temperment,
I hereby extend warm greetings to all!
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We are now on the downhill slope to June 21st. It will go by in a heartbeat.
Lifes concerns and neccessities will seize us, carry us along
On a fast river of haste, hurry, worry.
We should get there soon.
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Hopefully you are all in a warm, comfortable abode, sheltered
From winters bitter weather.
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Additionally, it is hoped you are well-fed, perhaps with a cup
Of some warm beverage to sip.
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Stay warm, be of good cheer, and hang in there.
Spring will be here soon.
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Happy Holidays to Everyone!
Chris Pirillo is having a gift contest. He is offering three different gift bundles to lucky winners who enter via a Twitter comment, a posting on his site, or on their own blog post. Being a Star Wars fan, I of course chose the Star Wars package as my preferred win. This being Christmas, I would give away most of the items, to my local Starbase17 club, to local charities (would keep the encyclopedia for my own inner child, who can be pretty vocal at times).

Here is the link: http://chris.pirillo.com/2008/12/15/receiving-the-gift-of-giving/

It is worth checking out, to see what this dynamo is up to if nothing else *grin*

Also, http://geeks.pirillo.com is a fascinating site as well.

Happy holidays everyone!

Monday, December 15, 2008

The other day, while out running errands, I came across the same thing twice:

People leaving their car motors running while going into the grocery store.

Gas is so cheap that many folks do not care if they waste some, by cavalierly leaving their engine running
while going into a store.

All of a sudden, it is okay to pollute the air, to waste energy that is transported thousands of miles from the Middle East, all in the name of convenience!

Times like this, I wish for some kind of 'waste police' that would slap a 100-dollar ticket on people like that, and donate the proceeds to energy research of some kind.

How soon we forget, how easy it is to slip back into a mindset of burn, baby, burn that gas.

Heaven help us all.


Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Peace Institute invitation

I recently got an invitation in the mail to join the Carter Institute for Peace, or somesuch. Of course it was a solicitation for a donation (you can do your part to advance the cause for peace). Now, I would love to advance the cause for peace - I believe in peace, goodwill, and all that. But peace donations take affluence. And this is not an affluent age we are living in right now, especially me.
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With an ongoing military presence in Iraq and Afganistan, not to mention military bases around the world, we are spending a lot of peace and goodwill already maintaining our open-ended commitments. Our new president-elect made a statement recently promising that we would continue to be the "greatest power on the planet." Considering the size of Russia and China, just how are we going to be able to afford to do this? Short of starving the people, I mean. It appears to me some strange shadow chacanery is going on here.
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85 billion goes to AIG, and what? Dissapears into a vaccuum? And then they give them more? Why does CITI require so many billions. Wells Fargo is healthy, but they vaccuumed up 25 billion or so. These companies do not manufacture anything except paper waste and fattened-up execs. We should be putting more of this money into consumer hands, the ones who need it.
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Peace is a great goal, worthy of strivings and efforts. But the average middle-class family today is being squeezed on both sides, laid off, charged more, and in general screwed over. Peace my foot. We will be lucky if there is not a huge increase in thefts and even violence in the near future.
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Every decade since the 1970's has seen more and more financial shell games, bailouts like the S&L crisis, and international intrigues. When will this end, and how ugly will the end be, I wonder. Peace assumes affluence and stability. Desparate, hungry people do desparate things. Well-fed, healthy, affluent folk are ones most inclined to hold civilized discussions. Perhaps rationality itself is the province of the priviledged, well-off people.
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The rest of us have not been served well by these leaders in business. They always seem to leave a worse mess for the next 'shift' to clean up. Sure, if only we could become energy independent. If only we could root out every last person who ever thought of terrorism. If only every nation on Earth were a functioning democracy. Would it help? Hard to say, but I doubt it. Human nature is too good at screwing things up. But peace is a nice thought anyways (I just can't afford it right now).
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Maybe the best one can hope for is a "piece of the action". Get your bailouts, your tax rebates while they are hot. Hang on folks, this could be a real bumpy ride.

Avoid Nuclear War

  Ever since I’ve been alive, all I’ve known is the nuclear sword poised, hanging over us all, ready at any moment to fall and send u...