Posts Tagged ‘environment’


In Case You’re Wondering, Too

September 1st, 2005 by Oskar Kennedy

  An old friend/former colleague sent me an email asking what I thought.

  I think about a lot of things. I’m reminded of the Chinese parable about the man whose son breaks his leg falling off the horse. I don’t remember it word for word, but the point is that life is unpredictable, and that things which seem like a blessing may be a curse, and vice versa.

  Everybody was so quick to point out how New Orleans was spared the worst of the storm, and some people were still talking about it while the levees were crumbling and water was flowing into the city. I can’t think of a clearer warning against rushing to judgment than that.

  I feel a sense of guilt, because I’m getting on with my life while millions of people try to absorb the fact that they’re now homeless. I fight a morbid fascination, and try not to start spewing my fears about chaos and social breakdown.

  I think about small things. I recently opened my home to a dog for the first time in my life. I’m very fond of him and our cats, and I feel a measure of grief for the thousands if not millions of pets whose owners left them at home, thinking they’d be gone for only a day or two.

  I think about big things. I think about the stupidity of building an entire city below sea level, between a lake and a river. Except that’s a mental cop-out. Nobody ever said “hey, let’s build a big city here!” Like most cities, it just sort of grew up around natural resources. By the time it was big enough for people to start worrying about a major catastrophe, it was already too large to move.

  I think about how we treat the Earth like it’s ours to do with as we wish. We cut down forests, we pump tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Everybody is screaming about the high price of gasoline. Do they realize that oil drilling operations in the Gulf Of Mexico directly contribute to the destruction of coastal wetlands, which could have helped to absorb the tide and diminish the storm surge that eventually overwhelmed the man-made barriers?

  So many people believe that this entire complex ecosystem was designed just for us. They cling to this belief so fiercely that, when nature does something dangerous, they attribute the destruction to the wrath of the designer. I guess it’s easier, in a way, to believe that God is smiting the wicked than to take collective responsibility for our wanton and wasteful ways.

  Actually, I think the hardest thing for most people to accept is that life is by and large a craps shoot. Sure, you can nudge the odds in your favor. Don’t smoke, buy a car with airbags, don’t juggle chainsaws while drinking gin. Still, at the end of the day, there’s a lot of Universe out there, and not a lot of you. If something good happens to you, cherish it. If something bad happens, be upset and angry. You deserve it. Just stop trying to explain it as divine fury. Gays and prostitutes and anti-war protestors don’t cause hurricanes, and thinking pure thoughts won’t keep you from getting hit by a car. Life happens. Welcome to the world.

spread the panic!
[Ask] [Bloglines] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Fark] [Google] [Mixx] [MySpace] [Newsvine] [Reddit] [Slashdot] [Sphere] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!] [Email] More »
└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Links For Brains: 12/12/2008

December 12th, 2008 by Oskar Kennedy
  • Notorious hate-based sect Westboro Baptist Church looks to put a sign blaming Santa for the bad economy into the mix outside the Washington state capitol building. (Fred Phelps is having those dreams about sweaty Elf sex again. Time to crank out some brimstone.)
  • Amanda Peet and Paul Offit team up to fight fear-mongering anti-vaccination propagandists. (The kids would call it “made of win,” if they hadn’t all died of measles and whooping cough.)
  • President Bush ties Endangered Species act to a tree, cuts out science oversight, leaves it to die. (Threatened species, including snail darter, spotted owl, intelligent Republicans, said to be terrified.)
  • Senate Arms Services Committee report concludes that “[a]buse of detainees in U.S. custody was a direct result of decisions by top administration officials.” (Document is six hundred pages of the word “duh,” with extensive footnotes.)
spread the panic!
[Ask] [Bloglines] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Fark] [Google] [Mixx] [MySpace] [Newsvine] [Reddit] [Slashdot] [Sphere] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!] [Email] More »
└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Waldorf’s Week-in-Review

December 13th, 2008 by Waldorf Van Buren

Week ending December 13th, 2008

(+ + +) Only 37 days or so left!

(- -) To the Vatican. Really? Damn. I guess my wife and I would have been excommunicated a while ago if we hadn’t already excommunicated you. Just goes to show we can always count on organized religion to regress.

(EVEN) On the notion that ANYONE can own the moon. Duh. The MAN IN THE MOON obviously owns it, but until he shows proof of purchase, I suppose it is still up for grabs.

(- – -)  Good Waldorf, I really want to give the Bush Administration some positives on SOMETHING.  Instead, as I watch a lame duck shit all over the Constitution and the Country, I must issue negatives.  Do you not understand the wrath of the Van Buren? Do you need to rape, pillage, and plunder every last bit of environmental concerns and regulations before you leave in 37 days? I can’t even be sarcastic, snarky, or satirical about this! The Industrial Revolution is not something to recreate!

(- – -) To Chicago politics. (Blagojevich) Congrats on being almost as corrupt as New Jersey politics.

(+) To the 43rd President for helping usher in such a fantastic (rethinking of a) series like Battlestar Galactica. I feel a bit grimy for giving him a positive, especially in light of the harm done to this country, but BSG is damn good. Newsweek has a longer, and better written piece about that here.

spread the panic!
[Ask] [Bloglines] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Fark] [Google] [Mixx] [MySpace] [Newsvine] [Reddit] [Slashdot] [Sphere] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!] [Email] More »
└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,