After 6 months of stagnancy in a field in Stratham I have The Van back on the road. You are all warned.
Of course, it took two days of labor to get the thing to start but I got well acquainted with the points, the vacuum advance mech., the condenser and the distributor cap and rotor. It needs new oil filter and oil and some better tires and an alignment to be drivable. I feel this is a mode of transportation that is coming to an end. As long as it is running right I can maintain it but the endless labor to keep it working does not correspond to a diverse lifestyle. Only by living in the van was I able to have the time to keep the van running. Now it's like a bitchy mistress who demands more time than I want to give her. For instance, the points were not opening anymore. They had burned a hole in the contacts. And the gap was supposed to be .17 inches. Well, it didn't open at all so the gap was 0. Now, I only have feeler gauges in millimeter. So you multiply .17 times something like .2453 and I got .04mm, which sounded about right. Anyone have an opinion about this? So I gaped the points and put an old rotor and dist. cap on (since the old one suffered damage when the points stopped opening) and it fired up. Good old girl. I need to borrow an oil bucket to change the oil. Anyone have one?
But it did feel good riding in a legend. Maybe I should sell tours of the van. "Ride the Legend!" I can tell stories of the van's adventures in Mexico.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Solar Farms
I was raised by a barking dog. I learned how to bark but not how to bite. That's a tough fact of life. Sometimes you don't learn the important stuff. There was a lot of bitching about the world at my 1982 dinner table. At the end of the dinner I would play video games or sort baseball cards. Then the cycle would start the next day. As early as 9 years old I was trained to thoroughly examine a politician's administration and judge it from top to bottom and then do absolutely nothing to change it. Bitching was sufficient. In fact, I came to see humanity as nothing more than a giant troupe of actors to be judged and critiqued from afar. The favorite activity was to see a problem developing and then wait for the axe to fall and say, "I saw that coming."
Oh, what fun that was!
This went on for easily 15 years and still goes on today in a lesser amount thus completely skewing my outlook on and place in the world. You would think I could move on from this but it's only recently that I isolated the problem and I see I've got my work cut out for me.
Proactive or preventative measures were not something I knew existed until 1999 when I took a class called "Prosocial Behavior" at my hippie college Humboldt State University. The class basically tried to reverse 30 years of brainwashing that I am not to meddle in any realm of the world except by bitching about it all as much as possible. Steve Stamnes taught the class is probably the best method I've ever seen, which is guest speakers like Julia Butterfly Hill from her tree sit, and a jigsaw method which required groups exchange ideas. I did not do well in the class mainly because the street activism I did in Santa Cruz was such a monumental disaster in every way that to have ignorant 19 year old kids tell me feeding the homeless was "good" made me sick. I fed the homeless for 2 years and wasn't sure if it was good or not. Parts of it were completely wrong. This conflict is one of the themes I'm trying to capture in the book I'm writing. If I can't do any good in the world at least I can write about how I fucked it all up. That should be good for a laugh.
I recognize my limitations but want to change and am paralyzed by what must be done. Lately, I've been reading Plan B by Lester Brown of Earth Policy Institute. There's a link to it on the left there that's growing cobwebs since no one is using it. It's a lot of information and as one person it's easy to get overwhelmed by the scope of the problem. Along with trying to stay sober and get a girlfriend saving civilization is a lot to ask. 600 million cars set to double by 2020. Even if 1 billion hybrid or electric cars were running I would say that's not going to work. Maybe the future will turn out like The Jetsons and maybe it will turn out like The Minority Report. Or maybe like WALL-E. But 1.2 billion cars? Come on!
Right now mankind uses 8,500 megawatts of solar energy or 8.5 gigawatts for you Back to The Future fans. That's PV solar, not thermal gathering solar.
That 8.5 GW has to increase to 200 GW by 2020 in order to close the coal power plants that are going to melt Greenland and the North Pole if they keep operating.
When I was in Todos Santos the demand for solar energy was universal. The sun was there and the electric grid was not. So everyone had to fight to get the grid extended but the electricity is expensive as it comes from La Paz where I think a natural gas or oil plant provided energy. It was right outside the city and I don't remember any nasty ash or pollution. Maybe natural gas. I don't know. La Paz really is a gorgeous city of 180,000 people. It's like a paradise during the winter. Go there and get your heart broken. It's fun!
My point is that solar and wind power is already past the experimental stages. What it needs now are contractors and skilled installers. I'd like to return to Todos Santos and build a solar farm. The town is still wild with only about 4,000 population a mango farmer who sees expensive equipment on a hill thinks nothing of taking it and selling it. It's not even considered theft, especially if the victim is a gringo. But the demand is there and they are already paying for electricity so the goal is to learn enough about 1+ Megawatt solar farms to build one in La Paz. A mere mile out of town is vast empty shrubland perfect for solar farms. It would only need maybe half a megawatt to take care of Todos Santos and Pescadero.
I'll start my new prosocial activism by pointing out that BP has a gigantic solar division BP Solar
so while boycotting BP oil is understandable, the oil money finances the solar research. It's kind of senseless crying over spilled milk like BP loves losing money. It'll be the most expensive clean up in history and I'm considering getting a Hazwopper certification and going to Louisiana to work scrubbing marshland. They give you a room and board so the money is all banked. If you want to boycott something you should boycott your government, which has failed to tell the environmental truth about our resources for over 100 years. Or Shell oil which is intentionally attacking indigenous Ecuadorians and destroying their jungles in a mad genocidal dash for oil.
Let me put it this way. The total cost of a pack of cigarettes if you include health care costs and days lost at work is over $10. That information was used to put taxes on cigarettes (fought by the tobacco companies) to even out the cost to the idiots who are smoking. Cigarettes would still be a dollar a pack if the companies had their way and everyone would be paying the additional costs for someone to get lung cancer. $5 isn't even half of what they really cost us all. In fact, if you buy a pack for $5 you are basically stealing $5 to make up the difference.
Here's what Lester has to say about Nuclear Power:
"Nuclear energy is expensive to maintain and poses a serious threat to security. If we use full-cost pricing—requiring utilities to absorb the costs of disposing of nuclear waste, of decommissioning the plant when it is worn out, and of insuring the reactors against possible accidents and terrorist attacks—building nuclear plants in a competitive electricity market is clearly not economical."
See? Nuclear power is only cheap if you toss the wastewater in your backyard. If you pretend that the earth is not a toilet then...shit...it's expensive!
Now, the same math can be applied to gasoline: if you include the costs of pollution a gallon of oil costs $15. Right now we're getting taxed like $1 and that's probably squandered on useless anti-pollution stickers. Gasoline is the same price in France, except they add $12 in taxes. If you want to drive in Europe then you carry the full cost of driving. America has intentionally let drivers get away with murder because we're about "freedom". But like Lester Brown says, "The cost still exists. Someone has to pay that $15 a gallon." Someone makes up the difference either today or tomorrow. That's the problem. We're generating this debt that is getting nearly impossible to pay off. We will have a vast interstate highway and advanced infrastructure but it's balanced on the thinnest foundation of debt and false economy. Never mind that it's irresponsible, it's the same kind of creative accounting that led to Enron's collapse. We're kind of in the stage when Enron was selling $200 shares and lighting cigars with $100 bills. With some trickery they bought themselves some time, but eventually it all collapsed. I hate using the sky is falling cliche because it's all speculation and is like falling back on my useless bitching strategy. Old habits die hard.
Oh, what fun that was!
This went on for easily 15 years and still goes on today in a lesser amount thus completely skewing my outlook on and place in the world. You would think I could move on from this but it's only recently that I isolated the problem and I see I've got my work cut out for me.
Proactive or preventative measures were not something I knew existed until 1999 when I took a class called "Prosocial Behavior" at my hippie college Humboldt State University. The class basically tried to reverse 30 years of brainwashing that I am not to meddle in any realm of the world except by bitching about it all as much as possible. Steve Stamnes taught the class is probably the best method I've ever seen, which is guest speakers like Julia Butterfly Hill from her tree sit, and a jigsaw method which required groups exchange ideas. I did not do well in the class mainly because the street activism I did in Santa Cruz was such a monumental disaster in every way that to have ignorant 19 year old kids tell me feeding the homeless was "good" made me sick. I fed the homeless for 2 years and wasn't sure if it was good or not. Parts of it were completely wrong. This conflict is one of the themes I'm trying to capture in the book I'm writing. If I can't do any good in the world at least I can write about how I fucked it all up. That should be good for a laugh.
I recognize my limitations but want to change and am paralyzed by what must be done. Lately, I've been reading Plan B by Lester Brown of Earth Policy Institute. There's a link to it on the left there that's growing cobwebs since no one is using it. It's a lot of information and as one person it's easy to get overwhelmed by the scope of the problem. Along with trying to stay sober and get a girlfriend saving civilization is a lot to ask. 600 million cars set to double by 2020. Even if 1 billion hybrid or electric cars were running I would say that's not going to work. Maybe the future will turn out like The Jetsons and maybe it will turn out like The Minority Report. Or maybe like WALL-E. But 1.2 billion cars? Come on!
Right now mankind uses 8,500 megawatts of solar energy or 8.5 gigawatts for you Back to The Future fans. That's PV solar, not thermal gathering solar.
That 8.5 GW has to increase to 200 GW by 2020 in order to close the coal power plants that are going to melt Greenland and the North Pole if they keep operating.
When I was in Todos Santos the demand for solar energy was universal. The sun was there and the electric grid was not. So everyone had to fight to get the grid extended but the electricity is expensive as it comes from La Paz where I think a natural gas or oil plant provided energy. It was right outside the city and I don't remember any nasty ash or pollution. Maybe natural gas. I don't know. La Paz really is a gorgeous city of 180,000 people. It's like a paradise during the winter. Go there and get your heart broken. It's fun!
My point is that solar and wind power is already past the experimental stages. What it needs now are contractors and skilled installers. I'd like to return to Todos Santos and build a solar farm. The town is still wild with only about 4,000 population a mango farmer who sees expensive equipment on a hill thinks nothing of taking it and selling it. It's not even considered theft, especially if the victim is a gringo. But the demand is there and they are already paying for electricity so the goal is to learn enough about 1+ Megawatt solar farms to build one in La Paz. A mere mile out of town is vast empty shrubland perfect for solar farms. It would only need maybe half a megawatt to take care of Todos Santos and Pescadero.
I'll start my new prosocial activism by pointing out that BP has a gigantic solar division BP Solar
so while boycotting BP oil is understandable, the oil money finances the solar research. It's kind of senseless crying over spilled milk like BP loves losing money. It'll be the most expensive clean up in history and I'm considering getting a Hazwopper certification and going to Louisiana to work scrubbing marshland. They give you a room and board so the money is all banked. If you want to boycott something you should boycott your government, which has failed to tell the environmental truth about our resources for over 100 years. Or Shell oil which is intentionally attacking indigenous Ecuadorians and destroying their jungles in a mad genocidal dash for oil.
Let me put it this way. The total cost of a pack of cigarettes if you include health care costs and days lost at work is over $10. That information was used to put taxes on cigarettes (fought by the tobacco companies) to even out the cost to the idiots who are smoking. Cigarettes would still be a dollar a pack if the companies had their way and everyone would be paying the additional costs for someone to get lung cancer. $5 isn't even half of what they really cost us all. In fact, if you buy a pack for $5 you are basically stealing $5 to make up the difference.
Here's what Lester has to say about Nuclear Power:
"Nuclear energy is expensive to maintain and poses a serious threat to security. If we use full-cost pricing—requiring utilities to absorb the costs of disposing of nuclear waste, of decommissioning the plant when it is worn out, and of insuring the reactors against possible accidents and terrorist attacks—building nuclear plants in a competitive electricity market is clearly not economical."
See? Nuclear power is only cheap if you toss the wastewater in your backyard. If you pretend that the earth is not a toilet then...shit...it's expensive!
Now, the same math can be applied to gasoline: if you include the costs of pollution a gallon of oil costs $15. Right now we're getting taxed like $1 and that's probably squandered on useless anti-pollution stickers. Gasoline is the same price in France, except they add $12 in taxes. If you want to drive in Europe then you carry the full cost of driving. America has intentionally let drivers get away with murder because we're about "freedom". But like Lester Brown says, "The cost still exists. Someone has to pay that $15 a gallon." Someone makes up the difference either today or tomorrow. That's the problem. We're generating this debt that is getting nearly impossible to pay off. We will have a vast interstate highway and advanced infrastructure but it's balanced on the thinnest foundation of debt and false economy. Never mind that it's irresponsible, it's the same kind of creative accounting that led to Enron's collapse. We're kind of in the stage when Enron was selling $200 shares and lighting cigars with $100 bills. With some trickery they bought themselves some time, but eventually it all collapsed. I hate using the sky is falling cliche because it's all speculation and is like falling back on my useless bitching strategy. Old habits die hard.
Oggy Drinks Vodka and Burns Bridges
Oggy descends from the top of the bus lockers, straightening his wool poncho around his waist and scratching his curly beard, picking crust from his eyes and he rubs his back. He pats his pants pockets for the left over tofu crumbs from last night. He saved them from the night’s dinner, feeling that if he ate an entire tofu cake it would be gluttonous. What kind of a person eats that much food? What kind of a monster would devour the planet and leave only piles of pollution for the next generation? Not Oggy. Oggy lifts his head to the low clouds. Rain falls into his mouth and he thinks that rain is the purest form of water, even if it is filtered through a cloud of poison. The important thing to remember is that the water is not processed.
A man limps past Oggy with a bag of used clothes. That’s the future, thinks Oggy. Using clothes until they turn to dust. We’re procreating for no reason, complicating our lives and taxing resources with no objective. Literally manufacturing pets to drain our bank accounts. Why? Oggy looks around for someone to ask this question and sees a woman leaning against the lockers. Her eyes are half closed but she is standing and awake so Oggy says, “My name is Oggy.”
“Who the fuck cares?”
Oggy presses on.
“We’re pioneers. This is a land of unspoken reality.”
“Bullshit.”
“The most important thing are natural resources. We’re nearing 7 billion humans and the planet can only sustain 2.5 billion so I think it’s time we concentrate on minimizing our impact.”
“Ahhh.”
“Our goals should be to manage our appetites.”
“Uhhhh.”
“I had a whole plan to save civilization but it was stolen when I lived in the forest.”
“Errrrr.”
“The main point was the banishment of western consumer lifestyle and replacement with an agrarian-based culture.”
“You got any weed?”
“What that means is an intentional community. Nothing is manufactured that can be eliminated. No more waste!”
“Ohhhh.”
“And no more waste means we’ll begin healing the earth instead of destroying it.”
“Got a cigarette?”
“We’re toying with disaster. Our approach to resources is like there is no long term consequences and we live forever. The planet can not sustain 7 billion Americans.”
“I hope they got the apple cinnamon oatmeal for breakfast.”
Oggy begins to do deep knee bends as part of his morning preparation that Abe taught him in the woods.
“My teacher told me that if I believe in it then my mind can heal the world.”
The woman scratches under her breasts and nods off. She hasn’t slept in 40 hours.
During one of Oggy’s bends his right knee gives out and Oggy falls backwards onto the wet pavement. The woman coughs. Oggy rolls around on the pavement until he finds the strength to stand up.
“What happened?” he asks.
“Ya fell on your ass.”
Oggy sees a crow gliding over the shelter with black wings extended into the breeze.
“In the woods you can see the crows gather in the evening. They call each other home to the redwood trees.”
“Could I borrow a dollar,” says the woman.
“I renounced paper money. You know it’s not based on anything. It’s a false currency.”
“Eh?”
“False. It’s false. It represents nothing.”
“Eh?”
“If we respect a false currency then it only gives the government more encouragement to continue to print it. But it doesn’t represent anything.”
“I want coffee.”
“So this way, we’ll defeat the government. We’ll win.”
“Ah?”
“We’ll fly like the crow and gather in the trees like one big family.”
Oggy tries to stretch his legs out to touch his toes but can hardly touch his knees. He reaches high above his head.
“Not long ago I couldn’t do this. My arms were completely broken. I couldn’t lift my hands higher than my shoulders. Now look.”
“Ahh.”
“That’s what my teacher showed me how to do. He’s so smart. I’ll see him in a few days. I’ll see him and tell him what’s going on down here. He knows how to win. His name is Abe.”Monday, June 14, 2010
Independent and Unscientific Oil Spill Analysis
According to one EPA source, 16 million gallons of oil leaks into the ocean from car crashes and leaking oil pans or guys just dumping waste oil in the bushes.
Several estimates exist for what the Deepwater Horizon spill is putting into the ocean. BP seems to think around 5 gallons a day are leaking while some scientists are thinking around 2 million gallons a day.
So, let's try to put this in perspective. There are around 260 million cars in the US. That's pretty sad since there are only 300 million people here. L.A. carries a lot of the burden with 3+ cars per person. Places like Portsmouth probably have a mere 2 cars per person and in Montana I'll bet it's only one car per person. They must like to suffer in Montana. I own a van and I also drive a car and I own a moped so I'm no saint.
So, these 260 million cars are producing 16 million gallons of oil that is lost to the rivers each year. Now, that's spread out over two oceans and the gulf of Mexico, otherwise known as the oil fondue pot. So, it takes 8 days at the Deepwater site to generate the oil normally lost in one year. And over 56 days that's basically 7 years of normal pollution. See? BP execs don't want to point these figures out because it makes them look like assholes, but that's what they're thinking.
"Americans are freaking out about spilling oil when they each own an average of three cars and drive more than anyone on the planet? Are they kidding?"
This is like the fat guy at the buffet demanding the fried chicken tray get replenished even as liquid shit pours from his ass and out his pant leg.
"Hey, Oggy, do you have to be so offensive and miserable all the time?"
"Yes, I do. And fuck you too."
The three other oil spills that are larger than the Deepwater spill are,
#1, a land based one in California that caused an inland lake of oil in 1910. In fact, this is the 100th anniversary of that spill. Happy Anniversary!
#2, Good ol Saddam Hussein (The Headless Wonder) who dumped oil reserves into the Persian Gulf as he retreated from Kuwait. That was 20 years ago and the dolphins still have not forgiven him.
#3 Ixtoc oil spill in 1979/1980 in a similar underwater leak in the Gulf of Mexico. 30 years later it looks to be eclipsed by Deepwater Horizon.
But what isn't listed is American drivers, who produce 16 million gallons of polluting oil every year. And with 600 million cars in the world we're talking about 30 million gallons of pollution every year. So, in every 4 years cars naturally produce the pollution of the Deepwater Horizon spill. In every 15 years cars become the leading cause of oil pollution to the ocean. And since the popular use of cars in the '30s cars have dwarfed all oil spills as a source of pollution.
This is the definition of irresponsible. You know, people existed before cars? I swear it is true. Look it up if you don't believe me. I've met happy people in Ecuador who never drove a car and saw no benefit to them because the cost just meant more manual labor to maintain a car they didn't need. I guess if you are a useless pencil pusher then you are thankful for your car since you would die without it. But your car is killing those folks in Ecuador so check your conscience; it's a quart low.
Anyway, one gallon of oil pollutes 1,000,000 gallons of water based on 1 quart polluting 250,000 gallons of water. So, I'm no accountant, but we've got 16 million gallons of oil (amount spilled over 8 days) multiplied by seven (or 2 times 56) multiplied by one million. Help me out, you math majors.
16,000,000(7) x 1,000,000
Man, I can tell that's going to be a ton of polluted water.
Let's see, you multiply 16 times 7 which is 112. Add the six zeros...112,000,000. That's the number of gallons of oil spilled. (This could be 250,000,000 but only God knows the real number)
Then add another six zeros to find the gallons of polluted water.
112,000,000,000,000.
So, it's looking like the national debt*. 112 trillion gallons of polluted water.
Now, the oceans combine for 326 million trillion gallons
326,000,000,000,000,000,000 gallons of water including the moat in that sand castle I built near Cabo San Lucas last winter.
Here's where my math skills have reached their limit. 112 trillion is not even one percent of 326 million trillion. It's .0000001%. Like spitting in the Pierce Island swimming pool.
I don't want to downplay what's happening in the Gulf. It's bad. But it was bad in 2003 when there were no leaks except for 260 million cars driving back and forth to Starbucks Coffee for their morning frappuccino.
It takes visible catastrophes like this to get people to wake up. If it wasn't for 9/11 we might think the whole world loves Britney Spears as much as we do. And our wars in the Muslim holy land could've stayed covert like they should be instead of being miserably public. My living in a van and preaching resource conservation was obviously not working. My 2009 Arctic Wolf Campaign generated exactly zero support. Did I fuck it up by attacking Hannah Montana?
Anyway, I was reading Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein and I think it's time to apply that same strategy to our relationship with cars. If Bush can mount a private war against a nation like Iraq that was widely opposed and fraudulently justified (They caused 9/11?) then why can't Obama declare a car moratorium and food rationing? Would it be unpopular? Yeah. So what? What are you going to do about it? The gas station is closed by government order. You going to drill for oil in your back yard? Buy oil on the black market? How about for every pelican that is found dead a baby human must be burned alive so I can play Street Rampage on my Xbox 360? Or someone over 70 years old is cremated to generate light for a Little League game. Yeah! Would that get Obama reelected in 2012? Someone run it by his press secretary.
It's going to take a war time consciousness to avoid a Mad Max world and that includes ration cards and mandatory car pools and victory vegetable gardens. The golden years of waste ended with cadmium laced Hannah Montana jewelry.
*National Debt is 13 trillion and climbing.
Several estimates exist for what the Deepwater Horizon spill is putting into the ocean. BP seems to think around 5 gallons a day are leaking while some scientists are thinking around 2 million gallons a day.
So, let's try to put this in perspective. There are around 260 million cars in the US. That's pretty sad since there are only 300 million people here. L.A. carries a lot of the burden with 3+ cars per person. Places like Portsmouth probably have a mere 2 cars per person and in Montana I'll bet it's only one car per person. They must like to suffer in Montana. I own a van and I also drive a car and I own a moped so I'm no saint.
So, these 260 million cars are producing 16 million gallons of oil that is lost to the rivers each year. Now, that's spread out over two oceans and the gulf of Mexico, otherwise known as the oil fondue pot. So, it takes 8 days at the Deepwater site to generate the oil normally lost in one year. And over 56 days that's basically 7 years of normal pollution. See? BP execs don't want to point these figures out because it makes them look like assholes, but that's what they're thinking.
"Americans are freaking out about spilling oil when they each own an average of three cars and drive more than anyone on the planet? Are they kidding?"
This is like the fat guy at the buffet demanding the fried chicken tray get replenished even as liquid shit pours from his ass and out his pant leg.
"Hey, Oggy, do you have to be so offensive and miserable all the time?"
"Yes, I do. And fuck you too."
The three other oil spills that are larger than the Deepwater spill are,
#1, a land based one in California that caused an inland lake of oil in 1910. In fact, this is the 100th anniversary of that spill. Happy Anniversary!
#2, Good ol Saddam Hussein (The Headless Wonder) who dumped oil reserves into the Persian Gulf as he retreated from Kuwait. That was 20 years ago and the dolphins still have not forgiven him.
#3 Ixtoc oil spill in 1979/1980 in a similar underwater leak in the Gulf of Mexico. 30 years later it looks to be eclipsed by Deepwater Horizon.
But what isn't listed is American drivers, who produce 16 million gallons of polluting oil every year. And with 600 million cars in the world we're talking about 30 million gallons of pollution every year. So, in every 4 years cars naturally produce the pollution of the Deepwater Horizon spill. In every 15 years cars become the leading cause of oil pollution to the ocean. And since the popular use of cars in the '30s cars have dwarfed all oil spills as a source of pollution.
This is the definition of irresponsible. You know, people existed before cars? I swear it is true. Look it up if you don't believe me. I've met happy people in Ecuador who never drove a car and saw no benefit to them because the cost just meant more manual labor to maintain a car they didn't need. I guess if you are a useless pencil pusher then you are thankful for your car since you would die without it. But your car is killing those folks in Ecuador so check your conscience; it's a quart low.
Anyway, one gallon of oil pollutes 1,000,000 gallons of water based on 1 quart polluting 250,000 gallons of water. So, I'm no accountant, but we've got 16 million gallons of oil (amount spilled over 8 days) multiplied by seven (or 2 times 56) multiplied by one million. Help me out, you math majors.
16,000,000(7) x 1,000,000
Man, I can tell that's going to be a ton of polluted water.
Let's see, you multiply 16 times 7 which is 112. Add the six zeros...112,000,000. That's the number of gallons of oil spilled. (This could be 250,000,000 but only God knows the real number)
Then add another six zeros to find the gallons of polluted water.
112,000,000,000,000.
So, it's looking like the national debt*. 112 trillion gallons of polluted water.
Now, the oceans combine for 326 million trillion gallons
326,000,000,000,000,000,000 gallons of water including the moat in that sand castle I built near Cabo San Lucas last winter.
Here's where my math skills have reached their limit. 112 trillion is not even one percent of 326 million trillion. It's .0000001%. Like spitting in the Pierce Island swimming pool.
I don't want to downplay what's happening in the Gulf. It's bad. But it was bad in 2003 when there were no leaks except for 260 million cars driving back and forth to Starbucks Coffee for their morning frappuccino.
It takes visible catastrophes like this to get people to wake up. If it wasn't for 9/11 we might think the whole world loves Britney Spears as much as we do. And our wars in the Muslim holy land could've stayed covert like they should be instead of being miserably public. My living in a van and preaching resource conservation was obviously not working. My 2009 Arctic Wolf Campaign generated exactly zero support. Did I fuck it up by attacking Hannah Montana?
Anyway, I was reading Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein and I think it's time to apply that same strategy to our relationship with cars. If Bush can mount a private war against a nation like Iraq that was widely opposed and fraudulently justified (They caused 9/11?) then why can't Obama declare a car moratorium and food rationing? Would it be unpopular? Yeah. So what? What are you going to do about it? The gas station is closed by government order. You going to drill for oil in your back yard? Buy oil on the black market? How about for every pelican that is found dead a baby human must be burned alive so I can play Street Rampage on my Xbox 360? Or someone over 70 years old is cremated to generate light for a Little League game. Yeah! Would that get Obama reelected in 2012? Someone run it by his press secretary.
It's going to take a war time consciousness to avoid a Mad Max world and that includes ration cards and mandatory car pools and victory vegetable gardens. The golden years of waste ended with cadmium laced Hannah Montana jewelry.
*National Debt is 13 trillion and climbing.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Thinking as Clear as the Gulf of Mexico
There must be a disorder to describe how I've been thinking lately.
They asked me if I wanted to work the 8am-5pm shift in July or the 7pm-3am shift. I said,
"I don't think either one of those is going to work for me, Steve."
"Well, Oggy, what do you mean?"
"You see, there's an animal called the Arctic Wolf. And I'm going to find that animal."
"Why?"
"Because what I see in the world is manufactured bullshit. I want to see one thing that is outside the realm of celebrity cellulite stories. I believe the Arctic Wolf is the last thing remaining that fits that description."
"So..."
"So, I'll be taking my leave of this place soon."
"Made enough money to travel?"
"No, Steve, I didn't save more than what I've got in my pocket, but I can't let that stop me. I'll find a way if I have to walk there."
"I envy you."
"Who wouldn't?"
It's lunacy. But I was treated to twenty minutes of apocalyptic news this morning and if that's what sanity brings then I'll stick with lunacy. At least it is my lunacy.
They asked me if I wanted to work the 8am-5pm shift in July or the 7pm-3am shift. I said,
"I don't think either one of those is going to work for me, Steve."
"Well, Oggy, what do you mean?"
"You see, there's an animal called the Arctic Wolf. And I'm going to find that animal."
"Why?"
"Because what I see in the world is manufactured bullshit. I want to see one thing that is outside the realm of celebrity cellulite stories. I believe the Arctic Wolf is the last thing remaining that fits that description."
"So..."
"So, I'll be taking my leave of this place soon."
"Made enough money to travel?"
"No, Steve, I didn't save more than what I've got in my pocket, but I can't let that stop me. I'll find a way if I have to walk there."
"I envy you."
"Who wouldn't?"
It's lunacy. But I was treated to twenty minutes of apocalyptic news this morning and if that's what sanity brings then I'll stick with lunacy. At least it is my lunacy.
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