Archive for September, 2015

“It’s Only A Rental.” The Earth As A Cosmic Doormat. De-Immanentizing The Eschaton. (September 28, 2015)

Posted in Global Climate Change, Global Warming, Immanentizing The Eschaton, Religion on September 28, 2015 by e-commentary.org

. . .

A          “One’s relationship to and attitude toward the Earth is a function of one’s religion.  If you believe that life is not a dress rehearsal, then you want heaven on earth.  If you believe that life is a dress rehearsal, then you do not necessarily want heaven on earth.  The Earth is only a rental.  Sort of like a summer beach house that you rent for a week and you take more than pictures and leave more than foot prints.”

B          “Take a few pillow cases and leave a few holes in the wall.  I describe it as the Earth as a cosmic doormat.  And if you have already made it on Earth and are of a stingy nature, you may not want to allow others to immanentize the Eschaton.”

A          “The Pope gets it.  He believes in an Eschaton and also wants to allow others to immanentize the Eschaton.  Heaven on Earth and Earth on Heaven.”

B          “What if you find that you get in the next life what you left in this life.  Not only can you take it with you, you will take it with you.  Mother Nature’s O. Henry twist to the story.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at Immanentize The Eschaton: Move To Sunny Somalia (December 20, 2010).]

Bumper sticker of the week:

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.

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Lights Out: Renegade Nuclear Plants (September 21, 2015)

Posted in Collapse, Community, Energy, Internet, Nuclear Power, Society on September 21, 2015 by e-commentary.org

. . .

1          “A friend wrote ‘electricity’ on the board and then wrote an equal sign (=) and then wrote ‘civilization.’  After discussing the precariousness of the electric grid, she drew a slash through ‘electricity’ and then described the consequences of life without electricity.  And then she punctuated the presentation by drawing a slash through ‘civilization.’  The most existential threat is not a loss of the ability to play video games or chill beer, it is all the nuclear power plants that will not be cooled in a systemic power failure resulting in nuclear winter.  Lights out.”

2          “And radiation favors and savors aviation.”

. . .

1          “My hypothesis is that some consequences are so certain and so grave that we cannot even think about them let alone talk about them.”

2          “Everyone is struggling just to get through the day.  Putting an existential catastrophe on one’s psychological plate is too overwhelming and thus not done.”

1          “Anther hypothesis I entertain is that dark video screens and tepid beer lead to misbehavior.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at Girding For The Going Grid (October 11, 2010).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Electricity = Civilization; No Electricity = No Civilization

Is the grid going or is the grid going?

National Preparedness Month Weekly Themes:
• Week 1: September 1-5 Flood
• Week 2: September 6-12 Wildfire
• Week 3: September 13-19 Hurricane
• Week 4: September 20-26 Power Outage
• Week 5: September 27-30 Lead up to National PrepareAthon! Day (September 30th )

“In my view, nuclear power represents an unjustified faith in the power of human societies to control extremely complex technologies over the very long term.  Any activity requiring a great deal of complex and cooperative control will do badly in difficult economic times.”  Stoneleigh / Nichole Foss

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Do Your Job Or Quit Your Job (September 14, 2015)

Posted in Bureaucracy, Gay Politics, Society on September 14, 2015 by e-commentary.org

. . .

J          “Transfer to the Department of Fish and Game and issue fishing licenses.”

K          “What if she is a committed member of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and is opposed to issuing licenses to allow one to snag and snare smallmouth bass?”

J          “Transfer to the Department of Motor Vehicles and issue driving licenses.”

K          “What if she is a dedicated member of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and is opposed to issuing licenses to citizens who have a ‘driving while intoxicated’ conviction?”

J          “Transfer to the Department of . . . .”

. . . 

K          “Call me a curmudgeon or an old school conservative.  She should do her job or quit her job.”

. . .

[Kim Davis should do her job or quit her job.  And Cliven Bundy should pay his grazing fees or get off the public land.  See the e-commentary at Pay Your Bills, Bundy! (April 28, 2014).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Do your job or quit your job

Pay your grazing fees or get off the public land

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Smedley And Ernest On Our Friend “War”; The “Racket” Continues (September 7, 2015)

Posted in Banks and Banking System, Book Reference, Magazine Reference, Military, Oil, Wall Street, War on September 7, 2015 by e-commentary.org

. . .

_          “Four score years ago this month, the world of arts and letters and the world awoke to a pair of trenchant commentaries on our friend ‘War’ written by two scholars who had spent time in the trenches and developed the ‘street cred’ to command attention and respect.  Smedley D. Butler was a United States Marine Corps major general, the highest rank authorized at that time, and at the time of his death the most decorated Marine in U.S. history who also should have won a Nobel Peace Prize.  Ernest Hemingway wrote stuff.  We should listen.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary presented on a prior Memorial Day on this Labor Day at In Memoriam (May 26, 2014).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers.  In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.  I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914.  I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in.  I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street.  I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902–1912.  I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916.  I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903.  In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested.  Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints.  The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts.  I operated on three continents.”  Smedley D. Butler in a poem in the September 1935 issue of the magazine “Common Sense” that later become an overlooked classic. 

“They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.  But in modern war there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying.  You will die like a dog for no good reason. . . .  The only way to combat the murder that is war is to show the dirty combinations that make it and the criminals and swine that hope for it and the idiotic way they run it when they get it so that an honest man will distrust it as he would a racket and refuse to be enslaved into it.”  Ernest Hemingway in “Notes on the Next War: A Serious Topical Letter,” in a September 1935 issue of the magazine “Esquire”.

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