Archive for December, 2016

Public Bathrooms:  “Separate and Unequal” (December 26, 2016)

Posted in Civil Rights/Civil Liberties, Gay Politics, Gender, Privacy, Society on December 26, 2016 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Someone who was one of the three or perhaps four heterosexual intellectuals in American to support gay marriage during the dark ages – in the early summer of 2011 – finds himself troubled by this new unbounded license to choose bathroom policy.”

J          “That makes you all kinds of very bad things, you know.  A reactionary, a red neck, a misanthrope, a misogynist, a mugwump and a sexist.  For openers.”

. . .

K          “Decades ago, I argued that notions of equal protection required more physical bathroom facilities for women than for men.  That turned some folks apoplectic.  Look at the lines outside the women’s bathrooms that form even today.  The average time per visit for women is much longer than for men.  I contended that the only way to achieve equality was and is to implement inequality.  That did not sit well in some quarters.”

. . .

K          “Clean available public bathrooms are key to public health.  Think about it.  When you turn on the television, they say that you invite into your living room deplorable characters that you would not allow to tread anywhere on your property.  Public bathrooms are part of the social contract we make with fellow citizens allowing all of us to enter and share the most private chamber in one’s castle for a short and awkward period of time.”

J          “When I stand next to an imperfect stranger at the wall urinal, I recognize that I am waiving my privacy in an uneasy truce with the other chaps for a minute or two.”

K          “Exactly.  We all agree to a ‘modus vivendi’ that entails a temporary suspension of our privacy.”   

. . .

K          “Thus, there must be an unequal number of stalls for women than men.  And the stalls should be kept separate based on decisions made by Nature.  In all other ways, treat everyone equally.”

. . .

J          “The likely response and compromise will be more single ‘family’ bathroom units in the future.”

K          “Building design will change.  The total number of square feet per person dedicated to public restrooms will increase.”

. . . 

K          “I wonder if being way ahead of the curve in the past is likely to lead one to be way ahead of the curve in the future.  Few see it.”

J          “You are still a filthy troglodyte.”

K          “I resemble that remark.”

. . .  

[See the “e-commentary” at “Brown: 5 – Plessy: 4 (June 29, 2015)”, “The Tsunami Hits Shore (March 24, 2014)” and “The Sea Change Is Now A Tsunami (March 11, 2013)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Public Bathrooms:  “Separate and Unequal”

The Driverless Car Of Tomorrow . . . Is Here Today! (December 19, 2016)

Posted in Awards / Incentives, Genius, Global Climate Change, Global Warming, Nobel Prize, Technology, Transportation on December 19, 2016 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “At the Complexity Lecture in August, the engineering professor promulgated what he posits are the five technological plateaus to achieve the transition from a car that stops when it perceives another object or person to the transportation platform of the future that permits you to slip on board and sleep while being delivered to your destination.”

J          “Public transportation.”

K          “Exactly.  They do not realize how close they are to the solution.  Yet that is the sixth level of spiritual enlightenment that they cannot perceive because they do not recognize that the fifth plateau is what climbers call a false peak.”

J          “I went to a similar lecture, looked around and noted that I was the only one in the room who was not an engineer.  When done listening to the lecture and the question and answer session, I realized that I may have been the only one in the room who was an engineer.”

. . .

J          “To be nice, do you want me to e-mail Elon and you e-mail Senor Google?”

K          “While you are at it, let them know that Mother Nature has promulgated some immutable restrictions that are challenged but will not be surmounted by humans.  Those who control buckets and barrels of fossil fuel resources – and substantial government largesse – may be able to travel to Mars and take a selfie, but there will never be sustainable human colonies there.”

J          “Not having any vision or imagination is so debilitating.  The way I see it, many humans have an impulse to travel and explore.  Some who are imagining a colony/land fill on Mars do not realize that they are unwittingly manifesting their ‘fight or flight’ response by attempting to abandon and flee the great Superfund Site for another promised land.”

K        “And all in an electric driverless car.”

. . .

J          “As I recall, we retrieve our Nobels in December?”

. . .

[See “Google Wants Driverless Cars, but Do We?” by Jamie Lincoln Kitman.]  

[See the e-commentary at “Amtrak – The (Rail) Road to National Security (January 23, 2006)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Be the first on your block to take the transportation device of the future . . . today

Living In The “Peoplocene Age”.  The Inconvenient Truth:  Renewable Energy Is Not Sustainable; The Population Must Be Restrainable.  (December 12, 2016)

Posted in Book Reference, Carbon Surcharge & Dividend, Climate, Collapse, Consumerism, Environment, Gas/Fossil Fuel, Global Climate Change, Global Warming, Overpopulation, Peoplocene Age, Population, Society, Taxation, Technology, Water on December 12, 2016 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “It’s too late?”

J          “It is too late.”

. . .

J          “But we pretend and extend.”

K          “Get up, put on your socks, and soldier on.”

. . .

J          “We are producing far more babies than solar panels.  That scenario is not changing under any scenario.  There is very little hope, there is only collective delusion within the collective.”

K          “Ironic that so many will not acknowledge our global plight and others who will acknowledge our situation do not even acknowledge the underlying and overriding problem.  The ‘Peoplocene Age’ is upon us and we do not know it.”

J          “The ‘Peoplobscene Age’?  Too many people, too little planet.”

. . .

K          “The plebiscite on global climate destruction takes place in the specialized voting booths known as the maternity wards of the world one new voter at a time.  The votes are tallied every day, the voting booth never closes and the decision is unanimous and uncontested.  Everyone endorses global climate devastation one baby at a time.”

J          “We need to reduce the load.  Period.  The only viable solution is to produce fewer people not to delude ourselves into thinking we can produce more panels and power.”

. . .

K          “The inconvenient truth is that renewable energy is not the answer, now or in the long run.  If one honestly calculates all the costs including every opportunity cost, the total cost of renewable energy does not and never will pencil out.”

J          “My concern is that we are not allowed to provide that answer, so we are not allowed even to ask the question.”

. . .

K          “We are in the flood right now.  I don’t recall anyone in the movie even once mentioning overpopulation.  Go through the flick and replace the phrase ‘reduce fossil fuels’ with ‘reduce world population.’  The only sustainable energy policy is a people policy.”

. . .

J          “There are more neurosurgeons than skilled solar panel installers.  Americans contend in response that they can simply wave a wand and the problem is solved.  If the government – or the private sector with generous tax breaks, credits and deductions  – commits to training more solar panel installers, voila, we will have more solar panel installers.  But at what real cost?”   

. . .

J          “Those people who are here must reduce their load.  Period.  Everyone wants to live like they do in Bethesda-Chevy Chase; no one can sustainably live like they do in Bethesda-Chevy Chase.  The Republicans delude the populace that they can live the Bethesda-Chevy Chase lifestyle simply by demanding to live the Bethesda-Chevy Chase lifestyle.”

. . .

K          “The planet will support 500,000,000 souls comfortably and 5,000,000,000 souls uncomfortably.  We are grossly over gross.  Overpopulation is at the headwaters of all of our problems.”

J          “And first and foremost among the downstream problems is our growing inability to provide clean, available and affordable water.”

K          “We need to reverse the two trends.  We need to quit depositing more humans on the planet and quit removing other species off the planet.”

. . .

J          “Yet, by definition, it cannot be the biggest problem confronting humanity unless you use the word ‘terrorist’ to describe it.”

K          “Okay.  Fair enough.  We have overpopulated the planet with almost 7.5 billion precious little miracle . . . terrorists.  And the numbers are growing.  There you go.”

J          “That should work.”

K          “Almost 7.5 billion precious little miracle terrorists are pummeling Mother Nature with poison.  Then we sprinkle nuclear reactors around the planet that are finicky nuclear bombs waiting to be detonated by default.  Pull the plug on electricity, pull the pin on the reactors.  The nuclear reactors are weapons of mass destruction that will go off when they cannot get the electricity to stay on.”

J          “The mutant shall inherent the earth.  We allow one country to pour radiation into the Pacific Ocean day in and day out for over five years and create the world’s largest Superfund Site.  The grazing ground for sea critters is toxic.”

K          “The Pacific Ocean Superfund site and other ocean Superfund Sites also have massive gyres of poisonous plastic and detritus spinning around.”

J          “The ultimate inconvenient truth is that the entire Earth is now a Superfund Site.”

. . .

K          “What if the government only provided a tax deduction of ‘x’ for the first child and ‘1/2 x’ for the second child?  Or no deduction?”

J          “The hard simple truth is that little can be done to slow population growth.  The load has overloaded us.”

K          “A carbon fee and dividend program?” 

. . .

J          “With so many available bodies, there are so many opportunities for corporations to exploit the vast pool of desperate workers.”

. . .

K          “We have met the enemy and it is a little miracle terrorist.  It is us.”

J          “Mother Nature is the only adult on the planet.  She is growing impatient.  Soon she will intercede.”

. . .

[See Daniel Quinn from “What a Way to Go:  Life at the End of Empire” and his “Advice for Young People” at minute 48.  Try to find some joy in this life without deluding yourself.]

[See the e-commentary at “On Overpopulation (June 14, 2010)”, “Kids As Consumer Durables (August 6, 2007)”, “Global Environmental Something (February 16, 2009)”, “A Gentle Landing On Earth (August 1, 2016)”, “‘It’s Only A Rental.’ The Earth As A Cosmic Doormat.  De-Immanentizing The Eschation. (September 28, 2015), “Global Climate Craziness (GCC) and Taxation (March 23, 2015)”, “On Roiling And Rolling Collapse (March 9, 2015)” and “Over Over-Population:  10 Billion Little Miracles (And Counting) (And Costing) (January 26, 2015)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

“We have met the enemy and it is a little miracle terrorist.  It is us.”  Nogo

We need to reduce the load.  Period. 

Be fruitful and don’t multiply; multiple fruit fruitfully

Slow climate destruction; practice birth control

Too many live people; too few dead dinosaurs.  To say nothing of the too chilling consequences of burning the few available dead dinosaurs (or whatever spawns gas and oil).

Price carbon

Stay calm and price carbon

Panic and price carbon

Better never than late?

Preserve the Nest; at all costs.

The mutant shall inherent the earth. 

Too many people, too little planet

“Can you think of any problem in any area of human endeavor on any scale, from microscopic to global, whose long-term solution is in any demonstrable way aided, assisted, or advanced by further increases in population, locally, nationally or globally?”  Albert Allen Bartlett, Great Challenge

Dispatches From The War On Journalism: The New “Nixon’s Enemies List” (December 5, 2016)

Posted in First Amendment, Journalism, Newspapers, Press/Media on December 5, 2016 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “The unconscionable indignity inflicted on those poor souls who have worked and sacrificed all their lives only to be excluded from The List is reprehensible.”

J          “Imagine the shame having to face your friends and loved ones in this holiday season and admit that you did not make The List.  You do not measure up.  You are, as they now say in popular parlance, a loser.”

K          “John Michael Greer at “The Archdruid Report” and Greg Hunter and Paul Craig Roberts at “USAWatchdog” each commented on the travesty and indignity.” 

. . .

K          “Some individuals never recovered from being excluded from the ‘Nixon’s Enemies List’ released back in 1973.”

J          “Not one of them was ever interviewed for ‘Where Are They Now’ stories because no one even knew who they were.”

K          “Deserving individuals excluded for no good reason.”

. . .

K          “What a schism and chasm in journalism.  Adam Johnson at ‘Fair & Accuracy In Reporting’ wrote in ‘Why Are Media Outlets Still Citing Discredited “Fake News” Blacklist?’, and I quote to the best of my recollection, that ‘USA Today (11/25/16), Gizmodo (11/25/16), PBS (11/25/16), TheDailyBeast (11/25/16), Slate (11/25/16), AP (11/25/16), The Verge (11/25/16) and NPR (11/25/16) all uncritically wrote up the Post’s most incendiary claims with little or minimal pushback’.”

J          “Under the circumstances, a question or two is not inappropriate.” 

. . .

K          “The very real and serious danger is that extremely sophisticated players carefully devised an attack on anyone who thinks and writes something that challenges the official government/corporate line.  The article is a direct and ominous threat.”

J          “The attack is broadly against any commentator not owned by and subservient to the Owners.  The threat is very effective at chilling any criticism.”

. . .

K          “I heard a rumor that George Orwell is on a suicide watch.  It’s gotten that bad.”

. . .

Click on a site or two:

The Washington Post’s Propaganda about Russian Propaganda” by William K. Black at “new economic perspectives.org

The Corporate Media’s Gulag of the Mind” by Charles Hugh Smith at “of two minds.com

We’re Under Attack” by Yves Smith at “nakedcapitalism.com

The ‘Washington Post’ ‘Blacklist’ Story Is Shameful and Disgusting” by Matt Taibi at “rollingstone.com

The Propaganda About Russian Propaganda” by Adrian Chen at “newyorker.com

Washington Post Reporter Won’t Discuss His Controversial ‘Blacklist’ Story” by Dion Hinchcliffe at “truthdig.com

Why Are Media Outlets Still Citing Discredited ‘Fake News’ Blacklist?” by Adam Johnson at “fair.org

Counterpunch as Russian Propagandists: the Washington Post’s Shallow Smear” by Joshua Frank at “www.counterpunch.org

Timberg’s Tale:  Washington Post Reporter Spreads Blacklist of Independent Journalist Sites” by Pamela Martens and Russ Martens at “www.counterpunch.org

Truthdiggers of the Week: Journalists Who Ripped Washington Post, PropOrNot for McCarthyite Hogwash” by Natasha Hakimi at “truthdig.com

No, Russian Agents Are Not Behind Every Piece of Fake News You See” by Matthew Ingram at “fortune.com

Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post — and the journalism it’s practicing” by Patrick Maines at “thehill.com

The End of the American Century” by John Michael Greer at “thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com

Fake News List Death Knell for MSM-Paul Craig Roberts” with Paul Craig Roberts and Greg Hunter at “USAWatchdog

The Deepening Deep State” by James Howard Kunstler at “kuntsler.com

Fascism with a Democratic Party Face” by Glen Ford at “http://blackagendareport.com/

I Am a Dangerous Professor” by George Yancey at “The New York Times

[See the e-commentary at “A ‘Journalist’ Declares War On Journalists . . . And Journalism (November 28, 2016)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Mass Media Breeds Mass Deception