 Muse in the Morning |
An Opened Mind XVIII
| Presumption must be quenched even more than a fire.
– Heraclitus |
 Garnet with Inlay
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September 2010 archive
Sep 06 2010
Muse in the Morning
Sep 06 2010
Happy Labor Day
It may not be the real Worker’s Day, but it’s what we’ve got, and we just need to learn to make the most of the things we have if we’re ever going to change things for real, change things for ourselves.
Happy Labor Day!
Sep 06 2010
Pique the Geek 20100905: Star Trek Gadgets
Most of you who read my posts know that I am a big fan of the Gene Roddenberry Star Trek universe of science fiction. Those of you who do not read my posts as often also know that I am a dedicated fan of Doctor Who.
What you might not know is that both of those TeeVee Series have contributed more that you might not have thought towards our technology as it stands at present. Well, we do not have a TARDIS just yet, but we have many of the things that Star Trek pioneered. Tonight we will study just a few of them that are common.
Please stay with us on this trek. By the way, the term “Star Trek” was NEVER used in the original series, but finally was uttered in the very last installment of Star Trek, The Next Generation, by “Q”.
Sep 06 2010
Sunday Train: Sustaining Our Suburbs
Burning the Midnight Oil for Living Energy Independence
As Dean Baker reported on the (bookmark worthy) Real World Economics Review Blog, new home sales figures for July are out, and they are exactly as would have been expected when the Mortgage Brokers Association reported a slump in mortgage applications in May.
The stronger figures earlier in this year, in other words, included more than a normal rebound from a recession:
People who might have bought in the second half of 2010 or even 2011 instead bought their home before the tax credit expired. Now that the credit has expired, there is less demand than ever, leaving the market open for another plunge in prices. The support the tax credit gave to the housing market was only temporary
This does not mean that all policy response is futile: what it does mean is that the policy response must address the problem we are experiencing, not the problem we wish we were experiencing.
Sep 05 2010
The Collapse of Everything?
In case you missed it, RawStory on September 01 published an article by Daniel Tencer.
German military report: Peak oil could lead to collapse of democracy
Peak oil has happened or will happen some time around this year, and its consequences could threaten the continued survival of democratic governments, says a secret Germany military report that was leaked online.
According to Der Spiegel, the report from a think-tank inside the German military warns that shrinking global oil supplies will threaten the world’s economic foundations and possibly lead to mass-scale upheaval within the next 15 to 30 years.
International trade would suffer as the cost of transporting goods across oceans would soar, resulting in “shortages in the supply of vital goods,” the report states, as translated by Der Spiegel.
The result would be the collapse of the industrial supply chain. “In the medium term the global economic system and every market-oriented national economy would collapse,” the report states.
Sep 05 2010
The first Rule of Holes: When you’re in one, STOP digging.
The first Rule of Holes: When you’re in one, STOP digging.
Stop Digging? Check!
Heck, even Erin Burnett (of CNBC) admitted the Stimulus is working, today on MTP … that
“Without the stimulus we would be significantly worse off than we are now.”
— any serious economist says so. … She has the charts.
so do we.
Sep 05 2010
Timing IS Everything. Look to Labor.
I had a surprise knock on my door yesterday. Cindy Denby is our MI House State Representative, and she is running for re-election. Truth be told? When I heard the car door, and saw her plodding up my walk, I thought, someone lost a dog or something. She handed me her doorknocker sized pamphlet, and started to introduce herself. I glanced down at the picture and the bright red “Conservative Republican” and said, “Oh, honey, I’m sorry, never going to happen, I’m a wild liberal!” She actually laughed. “Wild?” I wished her a nice day anyway. I suppose on a better day, a day I was remotely in the mood for people, I would have taken that chance to ask her in for coffee and debated with her. She seemed pleasant enough. I have to give her credit for going door to door herself. I must be growing soft, I didn’t even have the remote desire to rip her spine out through her mouth. I totally blew off the chance to get on my soapbox and ask if supporting the Rich really was good for the People.
Other than hunkering down with our immediates and stockpiling toilet paper, what is it we can do? That’s the question the far-left keeps asking. Communes are a pretty pipe dream, but post-oil Armageddon? We could suggest the survivors all do the pilgrimage back to the Georgia Guidestones, and renew the World with our new angelic ways. But Georgia has Georgians, and they know the lie of the Land. Ever seen Deliverance? I’m pretty sure the area is tropical swamp. It has lots of fresh water, 887 thousand kinds of poisonous snakes, and the mosquitoes have gunner pilots on board. Besides, most of us are old fucks and couldn’t survive the 3 year walk it would take to get there.
( map wouldn’t work here…)
So what now, Diane? You blow off change from within, and you won’t let us think we have special powers to survive, find one another and live happily ever after. Hell, you won’t even let us hunker down and wallow in self-gratification as the Empire burns. Just when you thought your porn collection and stockpiled heirloom weed seed would come in handy!
Don’t despair. I have an angle. I always have an angle. You did read the Title, yes?
Sep 05 2010
The Collapse of American Liberalism
Also at Antemedius and at dKos.
Real News Network – September 5, 2010
Chris Hedges: “When you have bankrupt liberalism you descend into moral nihilism”
This is Part 1. I’ll post each part of this interview as they become available.