Posted on by JR

Open Thread July

Open Thread July

The Tea Party contender may seem like a goofball, but be warned: Her presidential campaign is no laughing matter by Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone

I actually disagree. This is a great article by Taibbi, but Bachmann’s whole deal is hilarious.

TWO THINGS TO SAY ABOUT RON PAUL’S ALLEGEDLY AWESOME POSITION ON DRUGS
By Mark Ames

One more thing: This goes out to all of you Weed-Nazis out there. You better not be planning to do what I think you’re going to do once you get your foot another inch or two inside the respectably-legal door: You better not turn around and slam that door on every other drug-user’s face. Because I know that’s what you filthy pot-heads are planning. As all drug users know, Weed-Nazis are the most duplicitous, moralizing blowhards of all drug users. They never shuttup about their idiotic moral categories, ranking marijuana as a “soft drug” as opposed to “bad” “hard” drugs like meth and opiates.

Marijuana is for dumbshits; it makes dumbshits feel creative. In a charitable moment, I’d be okay with giving dumbshits that chance to experience a false sense of purpose on this planet, but the thing is, those of us with more refined drug tastes, with more advanced cognitive powers, know that marijuana is one of GAIA’s most terrifying booby-traps she ever set. THC equals pure terror and paranoia. Which is why I’m all for imposing a federal death penalty on anyone caught using marijuana or referring to it as a “soft drug” in public, or in the privacy of their own homes. That is, unless the Weed-Nazis are on board with an all-or-nothing drug decriminalization program.

246 Replies to “Open Thread July”

  1. I can personally vouch for the paranoia that ensues from the THC in mary-you-wanna. Once, on my wy home from an undergraduate college party where we had been embibing booze and weed, I was so drunk that I had to drive with one eye closed to stop the lines in the road from crossing. Every time I passed through a traffic light, I’d look back to see the red lights for the opposing traffic in my rear view mirror and get all paranoid about cops following me. That was not the booze, that was the THC.

  2. a couple of years back (maybe 10) i got a couple of prescriptions for some amphetamines. that shit was great; i remember adderal in particular. as a young man, used to love barbituates and opiates. whent through a brief period of thc use, hash and pot. i’ve been a steady drinker for going on 40 years at this point.

    what does all or any of this mean, anyone is who champions or deamonises drug use is a fucking idiot. it’s just one thing that monkeys do, or not.

  3. here’s the deal, no matter what anybody might say to the contrary: a life of liesure is the only life worth living. how to achieve, given your particular set of circumstance, that is the only thing that should occupy anyone’s attention, ever.

  4. you know, seriously, i had my silly heart all set for a Sarah Palin – Obama race in 2012, and now this Barbara Bachmann interloper comes along to try and wrest the crown away from Sarah as “silliest woman to ever aspire to be President of the US because her mommy told her she was smart enough and if she only had the will she could someday be our great leader, never mind the negative, reality downer part”. now i’m really bummed.

  7. If if I ever see Mark Ames in real life I will be very tempted to spit in his dumb ass face. But more likely call him a real nazi. Cant figure out a why someone named theroachman would ever think like that? Must be a dumbshit

  8. “None of the butt-plugs running for president are a choice, they’re consolation prizes.”

    Its all a big hootchie kootchie show paid for by corporations and the wealthy. I’ve got more ability and talent in my little finger than those candidates have in their whole bodies and my little finger isn’t half as good as it used to be.

  9. “Its all a big hootchie kootchie show paid for by corporations and the wealthy.”

    As it ever has been, GB! Unfortunately, anybody with “talent” is not interested in the job. If you think it’s bad here, look at the circus going on in Europe.

    On a more positive note, glad to hear the garden is doing its thing! Lettuce on July 2nd??? Now there’s something that has been long gone in the Chesapeake Bay region for months.

  12. “consolation for what?”

    Why for losing of course dave. That’s what consolation prizes are for – losing. Pathetically, it hasn’t dawned on a plurality that voting for and electing a loser doesn’t make the voter a winner.

    “fucking hot in flyover land, i think.”

    Indeed. I had to order shade cloth for the garden. Should get here next week. I am interested in seeing my electric bill for last month – it was much hotter than what is normal for June. I recently replaced a 20+ year old cooling compressor (actually, the whole heating/cooling unit was replaced, the heat portion back in January) with an allegedly efficient 2-stage unit. Apparently, efficient enough to require reduced over-current protection on the existing 30-amp circuit to 20-amp for a 2-ton unit. (no McMansion here)

    One of these days I’ll put an Amprobe on it and see what its current draw is. I am getting a lot of the second stage these days as well as higher speeds on the air handler fan to keep up with the heat load.

  13. Why for losing of course dave.

    well remus, ya gotta pick your poison; or someone will pick it for you, if that’s any consolation for ya.

  14. Uncle, at least you’re safe there from the roaming zombie herds that will be wandering around the NE Boston-New York-Washington DC high-density corridor. I guess they’ll be chasing Nudge on her bicycle after they run out of Salvia, looking for an easier way of getting around without fossil fuel. I’m sure once they find dave’s house, he’ll invite them all in for some warm cookies and cold milk.

    I get hit upon by the Democrats for campaign money “to keep hope alive” or some such bullshit. Fool me once…

  16. “…after they run out of Salvia…”

    I didn’t know zombies like this stuff. I’ve got some of it, but I can’t imagine why a zombie would want it.

  17. GB, apparently, if you smoke that weed (nice photo BTW) it makes you want to crawl out windows and shit. Maybe OK if you live on the ground floor.

  19. dang the link did not work I will copy the photo on tuesday post it on photobucket. Its perfect 4th of July american stupidity

  24. Mark Ames is a bored malcontent who couldn’t be happy if his life depended on it. The Civil War wasn’t about slavery, it was about money. There was no moral high ground on slavery except what was fed to the cannon fodder.

    Whether you view the War On Drugs in moral, states rights or prohibition terms is moot – it is an unmitigated money-pit of a disaster and at best a distracting burden on law enforcement and the courts – something a financially bankrupt society can no longer afford.

    Now, the War OF Drugs by Big Pharma is whole other kettle of residual-drug laden fish.

  25. “Bachmann seems so unduly obsessed with Shariah law that, after listening to her frequent pronouncements on the subject, one begins to wonder if her crazed antipathy isn’t born of professional jealousy.” Matt Taibbi – Michele Bachmann’s Holy War

    This hits the nail square.

  26. Now, the War OF Drugs by Big Pharma is whole other kettle of residual-drug laden fish.

    drugs, lecit or ill, are your friend(s). if they don’t pay off with some type of psychic reward, you will not take them. kinda like picking raspberries in the hot summer sun, but with a little extra, somethinsomethin. fish like drugs too, i guess.

  27. something a financially bankrupt society can no longer afford.

    scapegoats of any variety are cheap. let’s keep attention where it belongs ya know.

  29. Bachmann seems so unduly obsessed with Shariah law that, after listening to her frequent pronouncements on the subject, one begins to wonder if her crazed antipathy isn’t born of professional jealousy.”

    good for her. as long as her laws provide for submissive women sucking cock, i’m all for it. kinda like wine wine and raspberries, the payoff is there, in plain sight, for me no less.

  30. i mean shit, if the kids didn’t like ritlen, would they take it? fucking of course not. oophra would be running specials on how you have to stop your kids from flushing thier ritlen. kids love that shit, just like tix cereal.

  35. it’s weird how some people think something is somehow more true when it’s in print.

  36. True about that shira law Dave not much differance between it and old testement rules for women. Only differance between the two is Shira law demands women be completely covered old testement leaves all the good looking woman with out any clothing

  37. then I vote for the old testament for good looking women, and shira for all the rest. in hawaii, we already have a hybrid, the mumu dress. it is worn by all, but more so by big (fat) women. the good looking ones wear bikinis and other skimpy, revealing clothes.

    big men wear large t-shits and aloha shirts. first time i saw an XXL and XXXL size was in hawaii. then there was brother iz.

  40. Love the IZ have all his albums.

    If he would have cut back a bit on the Poi then…

  43. yep thats a McD parking lot and the photo was only taken this last Sunday. classic!

  44. i had a Hawaiian plate lunch at my favorite lunch wagon on friday. it consisted of: kalua pig (shredded roast pork, smoke flavored), lau lau (more roast pork, plus some steamed fish and taro chunks wrapped in taro and ti leaves), lomi salmon (diced smoked salmon, onion, tomatoes, chili peppers), white rice, chicken long rice (clear rice noodles with shredded baked chicken, some vegetables) and poi. since i was on a diet, i got a low-cal bottled water. cost: $10. cheap, but if you eat that way on a regular basis, you will begin to look and feel like brother iz. singing talent not included.

  46. If you are going to be very physically active, such as engaging in long distance cycling or running some time later, its useful to take in a certain amount of calories in the form of carbs for maximum energy – hence “carbo-loading”. Otherwise, its best to restrict carb intake.

  47. Beer works well for this. I’ve carbo-loaded myself with beer many times. Sometimes I run afterwards, sometimes not.

  49. yeah, some do much better with carbs(starches and sugars) than others. i feel better without them.

  51. No. Can’t be a balanced meal until you throw in a quart of fresh-picked raspberries for dessert.

  52. Does JHK ever do that picture of the month thing anymore? I realized the photo I posted is a good one for that old thing.

  53. OK, GB, if you insist, fresh raspberries it is. i guess you folks thank the lord that all the grizzly bears are gone from those parts. they like fresh berries, too.

  56. We have black bears here in the northeast. Unlike ill-tempered grizzly bears, our bears are more civil, have good manners, and rarely kill people.

  58. ah yes, east coast civilized black bears. practically members of the family. it must be the proper schooling back there.

  66. Doom, I don’t have to be the fastest around here, just faster than the rest of the putative meat herd. Lotta folks out here don’t bother to be in shape anyhow.

    Do Thal or Babystepper ever show up here anymore? Miss ya both :)

  67. Nudge, I’m sure you’ll survive and the future will be heroic in those parts, especially in winter.

    Thal and MOU/babystepper make an occasional appearance. They seem timid, to me at least. Tipper uses the site as a personals section to JR. Please forgive me, but I liked JR moron when he was high on something. I think he’s reverted into a Babbit CEO with a digital camera and a blog with a life of its own. Jus sayin.

  68. all i can say is that i’m glad that i don’t live in OK these days. if it’s possible for me to experience empathy, then i feel for remus, and all the other monkeys stuck in flyover.

  69. anyways, also, i watched that movie, “127 hours” a couple of days ago; what a metaphor for industrial life in general. what part of your anatomy are you willing to sever in order to be alive?

  71. dave, I don’t consider myself “stuck” in flyover. There are a lot worse places to be – I know, I’ve been to and even lived in a few. Phoenix, for example.

    Having grown up a military brat and then served a stint myself, I don’t get too attached to places or things, you never know when you have to leave and pack light. And, most folks I know who were military brats acclimate quickly to new environs.

    If shit gets ugly, I am betting it gets ugly someplace other than my neck of the woods first.

  72. JR, there’s still hope for you: try acting drunk when you are really sober! You’ll be healthier and live longer, and at least some of us will be moron appreciative of your wit and wisdom. But you have to blog for us to know you’re doing it. Worth a try, I’d say.

    Also, courage up and tell us what the hell happened with your Moldovian babe, Katya. We’re still your friends here, and who knows, we might even be sympathetic, pathethic for sure. [Post nothing incriminating, please. We’re hoping you didn’t go all Casey Anthony-OJ on her.]

  75. Well Doom, that is downright neighborly of you. Of course, the same applies to you and dave. Then again, the other advantage of living in flyover is the typically it is not a destination.

  77. absolutely remus. like i’ve often said, you got exactly 2 choices: you pick your poison, or you let someone else pick it for you.

  78. Doom, my only problem with fleeing to Hawaii like that is the weather there. It’s warm, right? With my metabolism that means wearing less which means mega UV damage from lower-latitude sunshine, unless I take care to only go out at night and when the sun is low on the horizon. Such is the trouble of being adapted for living at 60 degrees north or higher. Seattle might be workable however.

  79. I hope you all are having a nice summer, sipping off of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, so refreshing.

  81. Pour moi, dipping into the SPR is just another signpost we pass on the road to the Olduvai Gorge. I think the USA will show the rest of the civilized world how to fast crash a society right into oblivion.

  83. That 10¢/gallon difference (from dipping into the SPR) doesn’t seem to have attracted anyone’s attention. SUV’s are still being sold and used here. Agreeing with Doom’s comment on signs reading “this way to Olduvai Gorge”.

    The people on Democracy Now! (Amy Goodman & crew) quote the number as being six countries where the US is presently waging active war. Umm, how many countries does it need to be before it gets called a world war? I think Nazi Germany got as far as only 2 or 3 before someone pulled the emergency World War bell.

    What was that SPR for anyway? It just means the tanks will be emptier sooner.

  84. SPR was nothing more then a payment on US bonds. Gas here dipped about 30 cents then back up 20 cents after the holiday

  86. I would characterize this moment as Dead Man Walking on the undulating plateau. Simon and Garfunkel singing “Mrs. Robinson” in the background. The song echos, as if it were coming from a cave.

    I’m crying.

  90. “you cannot print oil” so love this quote.

    Vine weeds = Tea Party members the more you clear them out the more they poop up somewhere else even more annoying then before, just saying.

    Apologies to Tipping for the use of the word “just.” Which by the way since being pointed out the word for the most part useless, I have thus removed it from my poor yet prolific writings and rants. Same goes for the word “that.”

  94. So, I’ve noticed many college educated people using “So,” as the first word in every other sentence.
    So, what’s up with that?
    Listen to NPR, you’ll hear it.

  97. I doubt Janis Joplin got a college degree in the performance arts, but she could have taught courses there almost anywhere, if they would have been lucky enough to get her to do it–NOT. She was too smart. Some stuff is innate ability, self taught = talent.

  98. so, anyhoo, the greatest sentance ever written, in english: “life is like a play, written by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying absolutely nothing.” -WS-

  99. i am so fucking ashamed to be an american. everything has to be turned into somekind of pussified disneyesque oophra approved lie. at least the russian lies involve a man doing manly type shit.

  100. living in america is like being out in a field, in the hothot sun, with no shade to be found, anywhere.

  103. Rumor has it Putin is also good with an ice pick…

    chipped ice is important for iced tea. oh yeah…, putin…not obama.

  107. There could be sharks in the water dave. Body surfing is can be dangerous. Or Obama could step on a sea shell, a very sharp one. Could cause a cut.

  111. No, pour moi, it was pre-speedo days. I first saw a speedo on the HS band director, who liked to show off by the HS pool. It was white and tight. That was mid to late ’60s. yeah, I guess the polo team wore them, too.

  112. EEofDC

    Wow, that is outrageous. My home was destroyed by a tree in April, a tornado got it. The house was finally demolished yesterday. I am rebuilding. I fully plan to take out any remnants of regular yard and sod and do the whole thing like a small farm. I will not pretend anymore by trimming the edges of the beds. I’ve been through too much, fuck it. Thanks for posting that.

    MOU

  113. For MOU – If you are able to plant a thick screen of perennial (and ideally some evergreen) vegetation – trees, shrubs, vines around the perimeter of your yard which blocks any sight of the interior of the yard from the road no one cares whether you have a garden there or a nude statue or whatever. Out of sight, out of mind.

  114. Or, you can put up a fence or a wall. Thanks to our many paranoid neighbors and the former (gay couple–party down) owners, we have lots of high walls and fences in our ‘hood. Then, as GB suggests, you can run around all naked, watering the plants here and there, and no one knows the better. fences/walls are great for running your dogs and having a fire perimeter to take out any zombie intruders.

  116. yeah, MOU, sorry to learn about the house loss. hopefully, no one got hurt, and the insurance will pay. btw, what are the compelling reasons for continuing to live in “tornado alley”?

  117. Atlanta teaches their children to cheat.

    “Administrators — pressured to maintain high scores under the federal No Child Left Behind law — punished or fired those who reported anything amiss and created a culture of “fear, intimidation and retaliation,” according to the report released earlier this month, two years after officials noticed a suspicious spike in some scores.

    The report names 178 teachers and principals, and 82 of those confessed. Tens of thousands of children at the 44 schools, most in the city’s poorest neighborhoods, were allowed to advance to higher grades, even though they didn’t know basic concepts.

    One teacher told investigators the district was “run like the mob.””

    http://news.yahoo.com/atlanta-schools-created-culture-cheating-fear-130521276.html

  118. One teacher told investigators the district was “run like the mob.””

    er, what part of this society isn’t “run like the mob”? we are the mob.

  121. dave, if you want to see some just amazing stoopidity, look at figure 1 of Gail’s recent post on TOD: http://www.theoildrum.com/node/8126

    then ask yourself, “Is it really, I mean really, a good idea to be seeking reductions in government spending when all that is keeping this ship afloat at the moment is government spending?” The republicans and the Tea Party in particular have got their head’s stuck up their bums.

    the non-government spending is following the net energy curve.

  122. “Is it really, I mean really, a good idea to be seeking reductions in government spending when all that is keeping this ship afloat at the moment is government spending?”

    Yes.

  124. then ask yourself, “Is it really, I mean really, a good idea to be seeking reductions in government spending when all that is keeping this ship afloat at the moment is government spending?” The republicans and the Tea Party in particular have got their head’s stuck up their bums

    well, i guess you’re refering to the debate on the debt cieling, should it be raised or not? i don’t know wether it’s a good idea or not. all i really know is that the fucking oil must be burned, as fast as possible. if the fucking chinks, etal, can do it faster than us then the debt ceiling will not be raised. personally, i think that we can still burn through that shit faster than anyone else, so current arrangements will be preserved, for the moment anyway. but i really don’t know. honestly, i’ve internalized my inevitable, and my childern’s inevitable demise. so i don’t really give a rat’s ass one way or the other.

    as far as some old fuck crying about not getting his/her medicare, or whatever, i care even less.

  125. ya, it should be all ours to burn, and we should (and probably will) blow up anyone who tries to get in our way of burning it. why, we could maybe go another decade or two doing that “outta my way, that’s my oil, chump” routine.

    use that military muscle or lose it, that’s my motto.

  126. remus, i’m not the only one predicting bad times beginning in about 2 weeks, here:

    “Another recession

    If the impasse lasts for more than a few days, the economy will “almost certainly” be pushed back into a recession, Blinder says. That’s because of an unprecedented cutback in government spending. Even if the government avoided default by paying off its debt, losing the ability to borrow would mean a 40 percent drop in government spending — about 10 to 11 percent of GDP.

    The stock market is very likely to tank, as well, driven by a serious loss of confidence in the U.S. government.”

    http://moremoney.blogs.money.cnn.com/2011/07/16/debt-ceiling-your-finances/?hpt=hp_t2

  127. Wo fat know great people’s republic can burn more oil, eat more pork, hump more women. ha ha. not even close ha! dumbshit.

  130. I was replacing a tire this last week at the store they had a road and track which I read. Porscha has hybrids I did not know. At 800K though.

  131. Hi All,

    No one was hurt. We thought the cat was dead but he showed up 10 hours later, hungry. He is the dude, he abides.

    We are still living out of boxes and garbage bags, but now we are in a rental house and we have bought some basics (beds, washer/dryer). Things are getting much more civilized.

    It would block some of my sunlight to do too much fencing/shrubbing, but it is always a good back up plan (even if it means less garden space) to be ready if they did start harassing me.

    I under insured but I will be okay. I should have insured for the replacement value, not what it would sell for. I could build a shitty house with the money I got, but I won’t so I will add funds to it. I will build using something called ICF. Bullet, blast, and storm resistant. Can withstand 140 mile per hour winds. Termite resistant. Very tight and excellent on heating and air bills. Does not accumulate dust. LEED and Energy Star compliant.

    The storm may be a blessing in disguise.

    I stay because of the Job, Doom. I might ask you why you stay where you are, given all the potential for tsunamis, storms, and radiation coming from Japan. None of us have anywhere to really run to, or hide.

    The second I really got down to considering my doomstead in the country, I had to think about commuting from there to my work. I don’t want to drive, period. My husband’s practice is in the city. So, like the parasites we are, we will live off the beast until it dies, or kills us. I think that is the game plan of most if they were honest.

    Thanks for the concern.

    As you can see, I still lurk from time to time.

    Hope you are all doing well to downright excellent.

  132. Dont forget the dead bodies and other assorted Japaness plastic nic nacks which will be floating onto Doom’s shores sooner then later.

    Good to hear everything is all right. Two years ago we missed a tornado hitting our house by only a couple hundred yards.. I think I posted a photo of it on this blog?

  133. MOU, I admire your honesty. Unlike some folks, I’ve always lived where I wanted to live since I was 22 years old. I chose to live in Hawaii, on the Island of Oahu. Fought like Hell to achieve this, also. Needless to say, I am very unpopular these days with my family and anyone else here when I tell them that (a) there are too many people on this island for the local crop production, and (b) in a supply crunch, many are gonna die from starvation, unless lack of water, disease or a bullet gets to them first.

    I turn 62 in February, and can begin to draw out my Social Security, assuming it is still there to draw on. I’m thinking hard about an early retirement. I would only do that if I could use the time better to get my family and others prepared. Amusingly, my high-tech business is poised to take off, and I guess will fly in the face of all else in the economy, like a lone salmon swimming upstream. It’s been ten long years in the making, and now that it is ready, and we have customers lined up, the US and global economy is poised to tank. Oh, the irony. Oh well.

    Meanwhile, I admit to enjoying a perverse situation with my clueless or perhaps hopeless colleagues. They really don’t know what to do, so they just keep on doing what they were taught to do. We educate the new ones for a career in a dead-end profession in a jobless, hopeless, dead economy. They are like so many lemmings….or zombies.

    If I was single, I would have already retired from the university and would be living a simpler life with friends in a foreign country. Since I am married with children, I am still here, clinging to the mast post and singing hymns with the other passengers on the ship, all the while noticing that the deck is getting farer and farer from horizontal.

  134. yeah, all of us were born as industrial monkeys. chances are that all of us will die as industrial monkeys, one way or another.

  135. anyhoo, since seeing that girl in the video, i’ve been having joohn rhee sit on various types of frosted pastries so i can lick the residues from the crack of her ass. this keeps her kind of pissed of and me entertained. life is good.

  140. “…all of us were born as industrial monkeys. chances are that all of us will die as industrial monkeys, one way or another.”

    Agree. We today on this planet are all creations from fossil fuels. If it weren’t for oil and coal then probably none of us current inhabitants would exist.

    Without fossil fuels, human existence would have continued down an entirely different path, and would have led to a different lineage of human beings, subject to different challenges along with nature’s process for culling and pruning, in ways that selection of the fittest is not experienced (or is avoided) today. Nomadic hordes by land and sea, bringing deforestation, grazing the land to the nubs with sheep and goats, exhausting land, spreading desertification. I think feudal agrarian society would have devolved into this after the land became increasingly unproductive and insufficient for any group to last long in a stable stationary arrangement.

    Successful groups ultimately would have been marauders and good fighters, herdsmen, probably savvy in understanding the hydrologic cycle and the seasons, and also pyromaniacs. Much of the world would become savannah in response to our livestock grazing and the burning of the land.

    Smaller groups of barkeaters would scamper around in mountains where the last large stands of trees remain, or in the deeper forbidden swamps, perhaps coming out to raid the camps of seasonal nomad herdemen, or picking them off and eating their goats. Like wolf people.

    Well, we’ll probably get around to all that after the industrial monkeys pass from the earth, taking their machines and organic chemistry with them. What do you think?

  141. “If it weren’t for oil and coal then probably none of us current inhabitants would exist.”

    So, are you saying we coulda been a contender?

  143. One of the most audience disturbing slides that I’ve ever displayed in my Peak Oil and Peak Everything talks was a picture of a crowd at some stadium with the caption: Excess people are made out of oil.

  144. What do you think?

    what do i think of what? that, absent ff’s, pasturalism would have taken over the world in some similar fashion to the way industrialism has? well, people, and all other life forms for that matter, do thier best to produce as much entropy as they can, as fast as they can. so, no matter the circustance, they would definately do the best they could to fuck things up but without a stockpile of high energy fuel, they’d be reduced to operating within within the flows provided by solar gain. so i don’t know.

  146. Did you hear about the bike vs plane thing in LA? The plane and engergy loving waster complained the whole thing was stacked against the plane. It wasnt fare the people on the plane had to go through securtiy and other exucses and the bike people had a lovely sceinc route. Thus unfair. The Bike won btw.

  147. hot as hell, all i can think is something like: clear thinking could cure our condition. but, our conditions are the cause of our confusion; no way out.

  150. “our conditions are the cause of our confusion”

    OK but there are times when air conditioning is a really good idea.

  151. One thing about the FF age is we put people in space and crash landed shit on nearby planets and their moons. It really is an accomplishment for a monkey don’t you think? I think it was impressive while it lasted. Thing is though now everyone is lamenting that we have no plans now for sending more dudes into space. Its weird we fret over this when the shoe is about to drop all over the place and we probably won’t be able to feed ourselves in a few years. Maybe if we went back to putting tail fins on cars everyone would feel a a little better.

  152. I passed through JFK today and saw an Emirates A380 parked next to a Singapore 747. Holy shit, that 380 double decker looked awesome. I’d give my right nut for a ride on a 380. That’s living, brother.

  154. “Maybe if we went back to putting tail fins on cars everyone would feel a little better.”

    Damn good idea, Bif. I always loved tail fins. And the twin rocket launchers on the hood of mom and dad’s ’57 chevy. Killed many a semi in my day.

  156. look in the bright side, all we managed to do is clutter up low Earth orbit with space debris and left a little junk on the Moon, Mars and a few moons of Saturn and Jupiter. we coulda made an even bigger mess on the places, had we just found a few moron Saudi Arabias.

  157. hot, sweaty, confused and half drunk, that’s how i’ve spent a good part of my life, all-in-all, not all that bad.

  158. Midsummer: heat, weeds and grass, scarlet tanagers, hummingbirds, berries, horse race season, pretty women.

  163. I’m allergic to pot but OK. I don’t do drugs so I would trade it for an A/C window unit in my bedroom. Gimmee the good stuff so I can score some monster BTUs.

  165. “No one was hurt. We thought the cat was dead but he showed up 10 hours later, hungry. He is the dude, he abides.”

    LOLOL….

    http://www.wallcoo.net/paint/CatDreams_01/KlibanB_CatDreams_04-We.html

    HEY MOU-

    Had been thinking about you for a while when I posted the “Oak Park Hates Veggies” link. Glad to see your resilence hasn’t lessened. A few weeks ago a neighborhood friend who is kind of New-Agey sent me a thought about decluttering (from her feng shui guru) that really resonated with me.

    “If your life isn’t awesome, you cannot afford to hang onto this stuff because it’s taking up the very space where something that could make your life awesome could be. I’m serious. I’ve seen it too many times. I am totally confident when I say that you have no idea how fast your life will change for the better when you just get rid of the stuff that’s hogging up your dream opportunity’s space.”

    XXOO, EE

  166. if you were riding around getting high, this would either really fuck with your brain, or really kill your buzz.

  170. dave, regarding that all-too-common video, had that cameraman been 1 or 2 seconds earlier, there would have been no survivor to post the video (deer through windshield). timing is indeed everything.

  171. MOU – thanks for posting and glad to hear you are OK. The ICF stuff looks very practical. Hope the local building code people don’t have issues with alternative construction materials. It will moderate the internal temperature pretty nicely too. If you pair it with one of those masonry chimneys you’ll be down to really low energy use.

    You are correct about The Job. I just made a new friend here recently, another tall gal at the local bike shop. We hope to go riding sometime, but I’m pretty sure I can’t keep up with her. She is doing the same thing too re hanging onto what has essentially become an irreplaceable thing in today’s corporatized economy: a steady, safe, long-term job with benefits. Even when they’re boring jobs they’re worth hanging onto. Where in the past we each might have moved on in search of more exciting jobs, these days it’s too impractical.

    This is almost sad, but I’m not doing much this summer except trying to get toned & skinny, save money, grow my hair out, and enjoy the bicycling.

  173. driving my sister’s ’54 chevy back to California from her stint living with relatives in East Texas (another story why this was so), my father hit a doe running across the road one night somewhere in the mountains of West Texas. fortunately for him (not the deer), the doe was running low, so it hit the bumper/grill and did little damage. the deer died, but dad lived and continued his lone auto journey back, a little shaken by the collision. he reckoned the deer was being chased, and was running low to keep out of sight.

    also, recall that the ’54 chevy was built like the tank in the ZK banner photo.

  174. never hit a deer, innumerable squirls, a skunk(that was memorable), and a racoon or two, but no deer. i know a guy who hit a moose while he doing about 80 on the main turnpike. he has a pretty good story about that. but that’s his story, not mine.

  175. i don’t know if you’ve ever seen a full grown moose up close, those things are fucking prehistoric in size.

  177. This is almost sad, but I’m not doing much this summer except trying to get toned & skinny, save money, grow my hair out, and enjoy the bicycling.

    sad? that’s about the smartest thing i’ve ever heard from you.

  178. I missed a deer a few weeks back. A big old buck. The kids almost shit their pants. Funniest part was it was the same buck we seen eating weeds next to the park we had the company picnic at.

  179. Dave, seriously, I have ulterior motives for spending the summer this way. There’s a substantial amount of time getting dumped into researching other types of work (more commodified stuff, work that’s easier to get) that might be more recession-proof than my current job. The paper market for books looks to be shrinking by 75%+ within the next 3 years, and when that happens, the company will inevitably downsize.

    Besides, it’s great fun to look into types of work you’ve never done before. I’ve got some prior f2f sales experience, so that’s coloring my career selections a little. Even if these things don’t pan out it’s enjoyable just to look into them.

    Check out the book “Nice Job!” if you’re interested:

  180. hahahaha, ironic that book sales will suffer (Walden books now gone, is Barnes & Noble next?) due to non-sustainable eBooks craze. this just illustrates the power of denial in the face of our approach to a lower energy world. TPTB will push the latest techno because it makes money off those sheep still willing and able to part with some. it’ about as stupid as bottled water, but a money maker and therefore a winner to the greedy.

    my oldest son is on an anti-bottled water campaign. it’s interesting to watch him valiantly fighting the trend, swimming upstream, like spitting into the wind. we have to live amongst and with all these sheep, damn.

  181. The ebooks crazy is batshittiness incarnate. I especially hate what it may eventually do for the used-book trade. Although I do it on the cheap (used editions vs abebooks.com) I do support the book market, albeit indirectly, and try to by good used hardcovers when possible, usually at prices cheaper than the same books new in softcover format.

    At work we share books regularly if people are interested. Forget about that when it’s an ebook; forget about selling them at your garage sale too as you could with a hardcopy.

    We do have one large customer at work (can’t say who) which has invested a lot in upgrading the rail connections to its plants as well as book production equipment that’s profitable only on very long print runs – this while the rest of the market is chasing the smaller-run faster-turnaround segment down the rabbit hole. They’ve shifted their inbound/outbound freight to rail as much as possible. It’s almost as if they’ve gotten a memo that no one else in the industry has.

  182. maybe they got the secret government contract to continue making war manuals for the military? everyone wonders how our mighty military will survive a global ecomonic breakdown where e-gagets will become scarce. well, they easy answer is they won’t, because they depend upon the same chinese manufacturers we all rely upon. it’s a clusterfuck beyond most people’s imagination, i imagine…

    my guess is used book stores will become hot businesses, like pawn shops, and the prices of used books will soar. why, you might have to pay two laying hens or a gold coin for a popular hardcover book on gardening.

  183. Yes .. ebooks will do for the prices of used hardcopies what Cash4Clunkers did for the prices of used cars. Good thing I’ve been collecting useful books for years now :)

  184. jobs? career? silliness. stick to growing your hair and riding your bike, i’d say.

    there will be a huge resurgance in printed porn.

  185. i bought used laptop the other day. it’s main control is a touch pad, as opposed to a mouse. i like it much better, much more sensual.

  186. i hate when i get a used porno mag and the best pages are stuck together.

    the internet era will be known as the golden age of porn, i’d say.

  187. On are darker note the Merchant Marians have gone all computer GPS / e-gagets and no longer teach the use of a sextant

  188. Ever notice that as you get older, you eat a lot more bugs and insects when you go berry-picking…’cause you can’t see the critters crawling on the raspberry anymore, or you just don’t care if they are there? The stink bugs taste especially bad, kind of like eating a lime peel.

  191. bugs are a good source of protein that are widely comsumed outside of the modern western culture. my guess is bugs will become part of our diet as food becomes moron scarce and expensive. also, a lot of bugs are consumed by accident already, like GB has had with his berries. GB, take your readers to the berry patch next time!

  193. interesting times – all this striving, for what? it seems like the other side of the same coin. some know they can’t control to outcome of the toss, but are afraid of the result. others think that, somehow, they can, through incantations of some sort, influence the outcome of the toss. iow, some still cling to thier place in a system over which they have no control. while others still look for ways to influence a system over which they have no control. why not sit back and let whatever is going to happen, just happen, is always my question. easier said than done, of course.

  194. fucking monkeys always need a way to establish thier place within the social hiearchy of thier band, i’d say. unless they happen to be starving, this is more important than food in and of itself, i’d say. fucking monkeys.

  196. I have a new resident critter. Found a large hole in the dry dirt under my garden shed. I’m thinking its a nocturnal, burrowing critter, possibly a skunk, but that is probably wishful thinking on my part. Here are the clues:

    1! the hole was made overnight and no sight of the critter during the day
    2) It could be a woodchuck, but chucks are diurnal and I should be seeing it by now, unless it is laying low on purpose.
    3) It could be a fox, but they are lazy, and rarely dig their own burrows, often using vacant chuck holes. Also they prefer to be further away from people. I would love it if it was a fox…anything to help reduce the squirrel/mice populations.

  197. better check your henhouse for leaks, GB. so, that is the root for the term “chuck hole”. i’ve been hearing that term for holes in the road for over 6 decades, and only now have the root and term been connected. thanks, GB. moi, lexicon artist not.

  201. dave, I am sure that many are getting a perverse kick out of it in a schadenfreude sort of way, others just see it as pathetic and others as voice to their own frustration.

    I see a stereotype not quite parody white middle-class businessman unwittingly confessing his self-imposed victim-hood.

  205. It might be a rabbit hole. There are a lot of rabbits around the premises. They are a nuisance, but I tolerate them.

  207. to me he seems like a poster child for confused thinking. like anyone has the ability, or any intention, to pay back the us soveriegn debt. many will pay for industrialism in general, i guess, if you want to look at it that way. but that’s another story.

  208. acctually, the vast majority of the world’s life forms have been paying for industrialism for some time now. so, for him to sit there and cry, about what, i’m not sure, is very pathetic, i’d say. what makes him so fucking special?

    all i really want to do is punch that guy right in his stupid whinning fucking ugly face.

  209. “There are a lot of rabbits around the premises. They are a nuisance, but I tolerate them.”

    Yep – ya never know when you’ll need a meal.

  213. “we are what we evolved to be.” And we haven’t learned to live with it

    yeah, but you can’t learn to be anything else than what you happen to be. with the right incentives, you can teach a bear to dance, but it’s still a bear; and it only respondes to incentives that are inherantly attractive to bears.

  214. Dave – interesting comment. I make a point of not trying to make things into what they fundamentally cannot be, or burn up too much energy hoping/expecting that something stuck at stage 2 is ever going to move on to stage 3 if it really can’t.

    This approach has especially helped me deal with certain people at work and in other places where I’m a regular due to circumstance or obligation or family ties.

    Unfortunately, from that position of acceptance it’s a short hop, skip, and jump to where you can make use of that “stuck at stage 2”-ness of someone/something, and in that regard it’s always a struggle not to go overboard on being mercenary about it, or making bank on it.

    Oh, wait, what were you talking about?

  215. “yeah, but you can’t learn to be anything else than what you happen to be.”

    Seems we “happen to be” wired for acting with a vengeance on impractical and irrational notions. I’m sure that trait evolved for good reasons, but under present circumstances sure does a lot of mischief and damage, not just to the planet, but our own species. Or so it would seem. Use me Jesus, in your mysterious ways.

  216. How about that Casey whats her face? Slap her and put her in jail. America is about that deep these days. Critical thinking be damned american idle auditions are on the local news!

    My familly raised rabbits back in the seventies. Not much protien in those buggers but tasty. We were bought out by some animal rights group. A nice chunk of change for the family. They thought they where saving the poor wittle bunnies, good for them, but reality was my Dads home biz was picking up so much he did not have the time to put into the raising of them anymore. Suckers…

  217. well, you can try to teach a pig to sing, if that’s how you like to spend your time.

  218. Seems we “happen to be” wired for acting with a vengeance on impractical and irrational notions.

    impractical and irrational by what standards? we’ve been the most successful species that ever was, and probably ever will be, depending on how you measure success of course.

  219. success = maximum waste of planetary resources, eliminating and/or subduing all other life forms. hands down, the winners are…..bacteria.

  220. “impractical and irrational by what standards?”

    Well I guess it would be by the standard that you shouldn’t kill the host unless you have another host ready and waiting in the wings.

    Successful by what standards? Long term prospects as a species? Looking out for the survival of your offspring?

    Yeah, I would say enormously successful up through the ice age and into the experiment with domestication of planmts and animals. After that it remains to be seen. The party really just got going, the evening is still young.

    They were who they happen to be on Easter Island. Fun while it lasted and very successful for about two seconds.

  223. I’d argue that we’re unfortunately wired to weigh minor short-term consequences far more heavily than major long-term consequences .. like they say re perspective, the further away things are, the tinier they look.

    How few generations did it take, once Euro-style industrialism took root in the colonies, for us to repeat the same experiment, to wit, Look Ma, all the trees are gone, what do we do now for fuel?

  224. success = maximum waste of planetary resources, eliminating and/or subduing all other life forms. hands down, the winners are…..bacteria.

    well, everything, i mean everysinglething, in the universe, is making entropy as fast as it can. so yes, maybe, i don’t know, if bacteria are the champs, as far as life forms go. bacteria, however, are not normally considered a spiecies. they have a kingdom of thier own.

  225. biff,

    from some sort of human centric perspective, most of what you say be kinda true.

  226. nudge,

    i’d say that there’s nothing fortunate or unfortunate about it. it’s just the way things are.

  227. It was the rats on Easter, Bif. Diamond got it wrong.

    yeah, the rats crossed a 1000 miles of open ocean by themselves. they didn’t bring anypeople with them, i guess.

  230. they were polynesian rats that either snook on board their canoes or were deliberately introduced (oops, bad idea). the fossil oil palm nuts have clear evidence of rat knaw marks. See Terry Hunt, Easter Island, rats.

  231. EE and I met up this evening and had a nice steak dinner downtown. Looks better than her pictures. We already knew she was smart.

  232. they were polynesian rats that either snook on board their canoes or were deliberately introduced (oops, bad idea). the fossil oil palm nuts have clear evidence of rat knaw marks. See Terry Hunt, Easter Island, rats.

    yeah, well, i guess that my point is something like, weather they did it with axes or rats, they still managed to denude the landscape; wich is what humans are best at, way better than bacteria in fact, wich makes them, again, in my mind, the most successful speicies ever, i guess. not that any of that is much of a point, i guess.

    i mean shit, all the bacteria in the universe couldn’t burn up a trillion barrels of oil and pave over(literally and figuritivly) half a planet, and all in less than 10,000 years, i guess. this huge entropy production. all other life forms can only dream of shit like this.

  233. so anyway, did you and ee have sex? tell her if she wants some, i’d do her that favor. all she has to do is ask, nicely.

  235. dave, it was a platonic first meeting.

    yup, you’re right, nothing beats humans at deliberate entropy production. we are indeed the best yet, and probably the best ever, in our little corner of the universe. too bad no other intelligent life forms will likely visit here in time to see all that we accomplished.

  236. “.. it’s estimated that humans are appropriating 20-40% of primary productivity ..”

    We’d get that number even higher if only those dang dilithium crystals would cooperate ..

  238. Polluters just need a reason to pollute.

    If the Earth is not has bad as we thought… polluters jump and celebrate in joy… saying out-loud:

    “What a great moment… now we can polutte some more; now we can destroy our planet a little more. Now we can cause more skin cancer, extinguish a dozen more species, increase the incidence of asma, make our skies a little more gray, raise the oceans (that will submerge human communities and kill other species like the arctic bears and change weather patterns). Well, we really are going to have some fun”

    With this kind of people on our planet, I can understand why NASA chose to keep this information secret.
    They were protecting Planet Earth from it’s biggest enemy…

    (Sorry Eric if I went to far, but I just had to say something…)

  239. From the poster Anita over at eruptions (its a blog about volcanos dave)

    The good news about solar these days is more to do with batteries but tesla corp has a way now to make batteries with out so much rare earth metals from China and they are sharing the tech for free supposidly. Still need the china people for the solar panals though.

  241. “dave, it was a platonic first meeting.” –Dr. Doom

    Oh, c’mon, you’re way too modest, DD.

    It was a three-way with Doomy’s oldest (a strapping, handsome and delightful young lad), dave. We feasted on all sorts of scrumptious aphrodisiacs, then headed off to get it on at “Union Station,” if you catch my drift.

    His last words before heading off into the sunset: “It sure is hot… Aloha, Doom” leaving me with thoughts of hot fusion, magma, and mass spectrometers. Eat your heart out…

  242. Just back in the door to read this grim news:

    “Bear in mind that so-called “renewables” cannot replace oil, neither quantitatively nor qualitatively. “Renewables” are predominently electricity, generated by equipment that needs fossil fuels for construction, operation, and maintenace. We cannot eat electricity. ”

    Damn. Double damn. But hey, Congress and Obama finally agreed they are gonna raise the debt limit and cut spending! Oh joy…

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