1911-2007
I miss him. I wish I knew him better.
1 comment May 29th, 2007
(Eco)logical
It’s like a rash that won’t go away. Not that I lose any hours of sleep over a subject like global warming, but where news programs used to be chock-full of stories like fires and disasters and robberies and murders, it seems like everywhere I look in the media there’s another organization out there trying to scare up some money so we can put a stop to global warming. Thanks, Al.
Today, I give in. I am purchasing my Global Warming jersey. I’m hopping on the Global Warming bandwagon. I’m gonna start waving a flag and crusading around the world preaching that we’re all doomed. The evidence is mounting, and you’d have to be an idiot to not believe it.
Now that I’m a card-carrying member of the Global Warming League of Justice, let’s start discussing all the facts that we’ve learned in the last few months about all this hoo-ha. The numbers are typical – straight from your latest Powerpoint presentation: methane and CO2 levels have risen between 30-50% over the last 250 years. The IPC estimates that temperatures will rise another 5 degrees by 2100. Sea levels will change between 20-60 centimeters in the next 70 years. (I’m totally pulling these figures from memory, which as you know, might as well be from my ass. There is a point to this…)
Wow. This sounds like a death sentence to me. We better start acting on this, lest it becomes too late for us to do anything but to stock up on sunscreen. Trouble is, if you accept all these estimates and theories about global warming, seems like we’re already dead. There is not a thing that man can do to make a lick of difference.
Under the assumption that CO2 reduction is the answer to all our problems, Fareed Zakaria in Newsweek estimates that we’ll (The collective “we.” Not just the good ol’ USA) need to start cutting emissions by 60%.
Cut emissions by 60% on a global scale!?!? Why not ask for unicorns to reappear as well?
He reports that in order to slash carbon dioxide emissions by over half, the entire industrialized world would have to effectively halt production of just about everything. It would be like the leap backwards from assembly line to a single man with a screwdriver.
The Kyoto treaty calls for a 5% reduction in emissions over the next #*%@ years (Hell if I know). China and India are the second and third largest consumers of fossil fuels, but they are not included in the Kyoto accords. As a matter of fact, even if all the signatories of the Kyoto treaty were adhering to their targets (which they are not), China and India alone burn five times the total savings of the Kyoto accord. Even if the most aggressive international plan to combat greenhouse gases were adopted, China and India completely negates it.
This is clearly a case of you’re-damned-if-you-do-you’re-damned-if-you-don’t. But from the beginning, I’ve said that the truth of global warming probably lies somewhere in-between. In 100 studies, you’ll get numbers that vary by as much as 100%. Put in persective, if you make an educated guess about something and you’re 100% off, just pull it out of your ass next time.
Which is exactly the point.
The next big thing asking for your tax-payer dollars and life-style change is global warming. Am I opposed to caring about our environment and weaning ourselves off dirty fuels? Of course not! I am, however, opposed to scare-monger tactics trying to convince me that unless we pour billions of dollars into as-yet unresolved theories, we’ll see the end of the world. I also don’t believe that the coal and gas industry fear losing business and therefore fund skeptics. There are probably hundreds of reasons to shift away from fossil fuels in the next century, and we’ll be able to do it without legislation, financial incentives, or the blah-blah-blah of the media. Nobody had to ban horse drawn carriages to make way for the steam engine.
As before, my recommendation is to not worry about it. Let’s continue killing ourselves in less spectacular ways.
3 comments March 28th, 2007
Superchick – We Live
There’s a cross on the side of the road
Where a mother lost a son
How could she know that the morning he left
Would be The last time she’d trade with him for a little more time?
So she could say she loved him one last time
And hold him tight
But with life we never know
When we’re coming up to the end of the road
So what do we do then
With tragedy around the bend?
We live we love
We forgive and never give up
Cause the days we are given are gifts from above
And today we remember to live and to love
We live we love
We forgive and never give up
Cause the days we are given are gifts from above
And today we remember to live and to love
There’s a man who waits for the tests
To see if the cancer has spread yet
And now he asks, “So why did I wait to live till it was time to die?”
If I could have the time back how I’d live
Life is such a gift
So how does the story end?
Well this is your story and it all depends
So don’t let it become true
Get out and do what we were meant to do
We live we love
We forgive and never give up
Cause the days we are given are gifts from above
And today we remember to live and to love
We live we love
We forgive and never give up
Cause the days we are given are gifts from above
And today we remember to live and to love
Waking up to another dark morning
People are mourning
The weather in life outside is storming
But what would it take for the clouds to break
For us to realize each day is a gift somehow, someway?
So get our heads up out of the darkness
And spark this new mindset and start to live life cause it ain’t gone yet
And tragedy is a reminder to take off the blinders
And wake up and live the life we’re supposed to take up
Moving forward with all the hands up cause life is worth living
We live we love
We forgive and never give up
Cause the days we are given are gifts from above
And today we remember to live and to love
We live we love
We forgive and never give up
Cause the days we are given are gifts from above
And today we remember to live and to love
(Fade with:)
We live we love
We forgive and never give up
Cause the days we are given are gifts from above
And today we remember to live and to love
We live we love
We forgive and never give up
Cause the days we are given are gifts from above
And today we remember to live and to love
Add comment March 6th, 2007
Bluetooth Enabled?
In my opinion, there is only one situation where wearing a bluetooth headset is acceptable: driving. Wearing it for anything else usually makes you look like an asshat. Now now. Before you jumpt to conclusions, of COURSE I know plenty of friends who wear bluetooth headsets. And yes, they usually look like asshats too. I mean, I can understand the need to be “hands-free” while taking a call in the restroom at a mall, but only for those very special phone calls if you know what I mean.
In the car, however, I’m a complete advocate of bluetooth headsets. Hell, I don’t use mine often enough (or ever…depending on how you see it…). San Gabriel/Monterey Park/Alhambra is already a bad enough place to drive without having to dodge old Asian ladies who can’t see over the steering wheel. The other day I was tailing a grandmother who was going FORTY on the 10 freeway. C’MON!!! Add that to a few people who swerve halfway into your lane because they’re talking on the phone and you’ve got a magical place to drive in LA.
Nevertheless, if you’re driving and you own a bluetooth headset…have at it. If it helps you avoid old Asian ladies and swerving jackasses and keeps you out of a wreck that may potentially cost me 20 minutes on my commute, I give you my blessing. I WANT you to wear your bluetooth headset. But unless you lost both arms in the war (thanks, by the way), please take that ridiculous hunk of plastic out of your ear.
Add comment February 27th, 2007
Nobody Cares…
…that Britney Spears is a wreck. I know I don’t. Lindsay Lohan? Cry me a river. Paris Hilton? Not even if you PAID me to care. S’matter of fact, the sooner they’re out of the public eye, the better I’ll feel that their influence won’t affect my kids.
2 comments February 22nd, 2007