tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5549306427964459740.post7867501002321971694..comments2023-12-23T05:14:34.273-05:00Comments on Wit's End: Let Them Eat PizzaGail Zawackihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01800944469843206253noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5549306427964459740.post-81716326037904095172014-10-01T17:35:07.721-04:002014-10-01T17:35:07.721-04:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16249928046569067647noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5549306427964459740.post-63679238854677136602014-09-26T21:36:24.560-04:002014-09-26T21:36:24.560-04:00Yep, "...nearly threw up with anger the day a...Yep, "<i>...nearly threw up with anger the day after when a friend sent me the 'amazing' movie...</i>" was also my reaction to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vaajVtgRuI" rel="nofollow">that abject propaganda piece</a>! Just so I am clear, it has been abundantly clear to me for a long time that <b>every</b> actor, director, 'producer,' musician, 'professional athlete,' politician and <b>most</b> doctors, lawyers, accountants, business owners, etc. are nothing more than self-serving <b><i>whores</i></b> and <i>anything</i> they say or do has no more, and probably less, merit than the excrement from the south end of a north-bound pig! When Freeman says "our," I am certain he refers primarily to himself and his fellow 0.1% parasites. Yes, all the rest of 'us' have to 'sacrifice' as much as possible so scumbags can inherit the Garden of Eden. Alas, the really <b>sad part</b>, Anonymous, is aptly described in your penultimate sentence. :(colinchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16925142870563262957noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5549306427964459740.post-72398774017854560582014-09-26T19:49:38.607-04:002014-09-26T19:49:38.607-04:00Dear Gail, I marched (walked) on Sunday with my fa...Dear Gail, I marched (walked) on Sunday with my family, for many complex reasons and desires, not all of them come true, but some, yes. So I was happy to have gone. I nearly threw up with anger the day after when a friend sent me the "amazing" movie "What's Possible, " which was made for the UN Summit and is now inextricably linked to the March (and me and my family co-opted). How much prozac are people taking?? Morgan Freeman will make THIS happen for all 7.3 billion of us? Disgusting Hollywood claptrap and people just suck it up like candy. I wouldn't feed this drivel to my nine-year-old!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5549306427964459740.post-43366977859537088252014-09-26T10:20:21.313-04:002014-09-26T10:20:21.313-04:00Thanks everyone for your comments. It is far, far...Thanks everyone for your comments. It is far, far too late for a political solution so whether there are demands in a demonstration matters not. Today I have been reading about famine, which was appallingly common around the world throughout history and is on the horizon for all of humanity with no outside relief. The frequency, causes, and response to famine are instructive. Typically populations grow when food is plentiful and then, often because a drought comes along, there is a shortage and the result is starvation. As anyone with a pea for a brain should know, in addition to widespread droughts (and floods), lakes, rivers and fresh water aquifers are disappearing and being polluted, which is also going to contribute to a reduction in the food supply dramatically and soon (to say nothing about overfishing, seafood being a primary source of protein for many). For one example among countless others, in Europe: "...Starting with bad weather in the spring of 1315, widespread crop failures lasted until the summer of 1317, from which Europe did not fully recover until 1322. It was a period marked by extreme levels of criminal activity, disease and mass death, infanticide, and cannibalism." This is how people react, and it's not with cooperation or rational planning: "...When scarcity of food became apparent to peasants, they would sacrifice long-term prosperity for short-term survival. They would kill their draught animals, leading to lowered production in subsequent years. They would eat their seed corn, sacrificing next year's crop in the hope that more seed could be found. Once those means had been exhausted, they would take to the road in search of food." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famine<br /><br />This also led rather comically to the legend of Wendigo (or Wetiko), a concept which is tediously presented by white middle-class subscribers to the WooWoo as the Native American peoples' diagnosis of the White Man's endless evil greed and overconsumption. Turns out that actually, the Wendigo monster pre-existed contact with Europeans and was a cautionary mythical figure to deter the indigenous people from resorting to cannibalism in time of famine. So much for sustainability. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendigo "The most frequent cause of transformation into a Wendigo was if a person had resorted to cannibalism, consuming the body of another human in order to keep from starving to death during a time of extreme hardship, for example in hard winters, or famine....<br /><br />Among northern Algonquian cultures, cannibalism, even to save one's own life, was viewed as a serious taboo; the proper response to famine was suicide or resignation to death. On one level, the Wendigo myth thus worked as a deterrent and a warning against resorting to cannibalism; those who did would become wendigo monsters themselves."Gail Zawackihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01800944469843206253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5549306427964459740.post-73145115958413054132014-09-25T21:46:32.184-04:002014-09-25T21:46:32.184-04:00making it difficult to convince uncaring peoplemaking it difficult to convince uncaring peopleAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5549306427964459740.post-22941208504480563262014-09-25T21:13:26.374-04:002014-09-25T21:13:26.374-04:00Great post, Gail, and I am very pleased that you s...Great post, Gail, and I am very pleased that you spent some quality time with your daughter instead of participating in that laughable 'exercise' in NYC over the weekend. By all means, do more of that, much more, even if it means you don't post here (or comment anywhere) as much as you would 'like.' Alas, I also wasn't surprised by your recap of the "Flood Wall Street" fiasco on Monday. "Tilting at windmills" indeed! Perhaps my observation that 'we' have all been <i>programmed, pigeon-holed and played</i> is becoming more poignant. Toward furthering that 'understanding,' a commentator (Robert Callaghan, who I perceive as one of the sharper pins in the cushion), on NBL, embedded "Part 2" of another outstanding Adam Curtis piece, "<a href="http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/all-watched-over-by-machines-of-loving-grace/" rel="nofollow">All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace</a>," which I highly recommend. The entire series is as profound, if not more so, than "The Century of the Self" but, if your time is 'limited,' that 2nd part may just be a real 'eye-opener' for the attentive viewer. Speaking of "<i>...a more wretched hive of scum and villainy</i>," another video you may find of 'interest' (tho' I found it somewhat 'revolting,' too) is "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNfjQzIVfNA" rel="nofollow">Traders: Millions By The Minute</a>." <br />On a different(?) note, and I've yet to investigate further, earlier today my wife told me that on TWC she heard Richard Branson say he would be allowing any/all of 'his' employees to take as much vacation time as they wished, whenever they wanted!! Perhaps tomorrow (or over the weekend) I'll try to find his 'exact' quote but, in the meantime, I can only see this as an 'omen' that the 'jig is about up.' However, on the other hand, he <b>is</b> as adroit with 'mixed,' self-contradictory messaging as any billionaire 'player.' <br />I also found it 'interesting' (in the HuffPo video) that Naomi actually said most of her 'feedback' was along the lines of "It's too late, nothing can be done." She certainly didn't say, or even allude, such when she was on with Colbert a couple nights ago. Well, I guess I'm just going to have to get my ass in gear and start selling a bunch of 'stuff' the wife and I have accumulated over the years while there are still 'suckers' out there that will buy it! :) <br />Lastly, our Buckeye tree here in northern OH, not 20 miles from Lake Erie (ewwww!) is almost totally bereft of leaves and the Lilacs aren't far behind! Please, do not allow yourself to be incarcerated due to an act of utter futility. The 'majority' are just gonna' <i>keep on keepin' on</i> until they can't.colinchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16925142870563262957noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5549306427964459740.post-32247452605351159352014-09-25T21:09:29.708-04:002014-09-25T21:09:29.708-04:00They say apathy is running rampant in modern civil...They say apathy is running rampant in modern civilization, but who cares?<br /><br />It's far too late for any political action to "work" because the system is so corrupted by wealth and money that any attack on the status quo is labeled, pigeon-holed, shouted down by the media, co-opted and derailed before it can even be a threat. Anything that gets past that gets a more violent response, and they're not above disappearance, torture and death.<br /><br />Likewise with regard to any scientific or engineered climate hacking solution - it would undoubtedly make matters worse, speeding up our demise. We've already let the genies of radioactivity, disease, climate chaos and methane out of their respective "bottles" and now they've teamed up to become the Avengers of Mother Earth - and she's just gettin' warmed up (okay, pun intended).<br /><br />This situation we're facing took centuries to slowly unravel, so it isn't going to be "fixed", even by the planet, for probably at least thousands of years (if ever).<br /><br />Use the time you have left "wisely." [After a comment by Michele from Montreal, "enjoy" is no longer in the lexicon unless you're a sick human that refuses to see what's clearly happening and are only pursuing personal reward for being 'so special.']<br /><br />Tom<br /><br /><br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5549306427964459740.post-70922477441190862382014-09-25T21:00:58.076-04:002014-09-25T21:00:58.076-04:00Lorna Salzman,
I notice that since last week'...Lorna Salzman, <br />I notice that since last week's announcement that the Rockefeller Foundation would be divesting from Fossil Fuels, the stock market has been steadily falling. Maybe the tactic of divestiture really works. (When the stock market is up the exploiters are in full force, a falling market will be a step in the right direction.) This is a move that I encouraged since first learning that burning fossil fuels is causing the end of our reign on earth. <br /><br />So it would seem that if Big Media (the 5 media giants) are yet another part of our problem, making it difficult to of uncaring people that the deniers have been lying all along and our ecosystem is in danger of total collapse, a similar divestiture might be another step worth taking.<br /><br />Divest from Big Media!<br />Stop burning fossil fuel.<br />Think globally, act local .<br />Plant a garden.<br />Invest in sustainable, non-exploitive energy. <br /><br />Catman306<br /><br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5549306427964459740.post-57320706539605368552014-09-25T18:07:30.873-04:002014-09-25T18:07:30.873-04:00I agree with your political analysis completely bu...I agree with your political analysis completely but not with your disappointment over being prevented from committing principled civil disobedience. CD has its legitimate and justified uses but ONLY when there is an explicit<br />objective! In the case of the march and the flood Wall St. protests, there is no unified objective. That was the problem from the beginning, shored up by the belief of thousands that they all shared them, when I would wager that the vast majority have no desire (yet) to substitute socialism for capitalism, or give up their second car or, most pertinent, pay more for energy in the form of a carbon tax (fee and dividend..which should have been the<br />objective of the march but McKibben's mouth is sewed shut on anything that might be identified as a platform). There were arrests at the DC protest against Keystone and coal, including McKibben's and Hansen's but that was at least targeted to coal and shale oil. This march was merely an amplification of Occupy Wall St. No demands, no agenda, no goals. A big fat zero. Anyone who thinks a movement to curb climate change or make any of the necessary radical changes will come out of this march is smoking something from the Big Bong. Back to Business as Usual. First let's dethrone McKibben and stop pretending he is a leader. Second, defect from the<br />Democratic Party. Third, do something useful like supporting the Citizens Climate Lobby and the Carbon TAx Center to put a LARGE price on carbon and seriously reduce energy demand. Then let's see what happens.Lorna Salzmanhttp://www.lornasalzman.comnoreply@blogger.com