We'll see how it works.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
So, the Privateer takes on the Profiteers.
Since I've neglected this site for most of a year I've decided to revive it with a goal in mind. Since it's very difficult for one with such a strict anti-consumerist message as I've had for years to make ends meet--I'm going to try out a sort of wacko "sustainable" business model here. In other words, I'm going to attempt to offer guidance and leads to resources that help one to "not consume." We'll see how this all works. The idea is to proactively subvert consumer attitudes and especially anything that stinks of "greenwash." while advocating good products, business, and ways of living.
Monday, September 8, 2008
The storm has hit. . .
Looks like I bought a house today. Too bad I'll never get a chance to see it.
Watching the financial markets today is more interesting and exciting than watching the NFL.
I'm pretty much going to drop the Commonstrike blog, more info on this later in the day.
So this is where I'm heading: Sensible Simplicity
Watching the financial markets today is more interesting and exciting than watching the NFL.
I'm pretty much going to drop the Commonstrike blog, more info on this later in the day.
So this is where I'm heading: Sensible Simplicity
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Friday, July 4, 2008
Happy 4th of July.
A thoughful one, at least for those that think, with oil at 145, unemployment rising rapidly, rumors that neither GM nor Chrysler will survive the year, and Budwiser to be sold overseas.
Worth a read.
As well.
Worth a read.
As well.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Hello Mr, Wolf, won’t you please sit down?
Just a few thoughts.
As we come off the peak of what may well be the greatest period of wealth the world may ever see, it is interesting to see what it is we have gained in terms of standard of living, the hypothetical(if you can afford it)quality of health care, relative(for the moment) security, and a host of marvelous tools, machines, and technological gadgets. Most of these things are good for the most part, and while we can continue to afford them we will enjoy their benefits, no denying.
It is as important as well, to see what we have lost. Many things for sure. Privacy for one, as the same technological gadgets we enjoy aid snoopy meddlesome folk in the extreme. The ecology of the world has all been shot, and the Mother Goose of Nature that laid golden eggs has mostly been slaughtered, to the point where those who are caught up in the Neo-back to the land movement should stop and really consider how viable a vision that is, especially in the face of unpredictable climate disruption. Individual Sovereignty as envisioned by Enlightenment political thinkers has more or less been tossed out, with the State being asserted in most every manner, and with the rising power of Corporate power the individual is more or less powerless in fact to resist even the most mundane of affronts and injustices. Don’t think so? Try to combat an erroneous charge on your bank statement. . .
Still, I think perhaps the most dangerous thing we have lost is a sense of community, and especially community responsibility. That notion perhaps exemplified in the Amish tradition of “Barn raising,” an incontestable display of “take care of your neighbor”--where within the community exists the value that one should be COMPELLED to care for your neighbors, that good neighbors are valuable, and good neighbors in tern will take care of you. Unfortunately, wealth has given many the luxury of independence, and many have never learned the skills of “getting along” in the human community and its many social contracts--even within most families--most relationships and marriages in fact-- the bonds of mutual responsibility are pretty thin. That may feel liberating while things are good and life is easy, but there is quite a skill in people knowing how and that they can rely on each other in hard times that is GREATLY undervalued. Community spirit isn’t so much taking up causes that you value when in your free time--that is simply indulgent dilettante ethics borne of affluence. Community spirit is taking on the causes that are NOT fashionable, nor fun--and taking them on when it’s inconvenient or frankly a hassle.
This may well become a major difficulty here in Hawaii, as there is a fair amount of bad blood and alienation floating around, there are strong racial and economical factions here, there are strong cultural factions as well. We need to get beyond this. The population here is too small, and our location is far too remote from the rest of the world to indulge in the luxury of “not relying on each other.” Self-sufficiency is a myth--and as one who has studied homesteading and frontier lifestyles extensively I will have to say that the single largest cause I can identify with failure is alienation and lack of community support.
As far as I can see we as a world, and as an island face some very very difficult times in the relative near future. We are simply not prepared for resource scarcity and the rising costs that we will be facing in the next 3 - 5 years. Most of the suggestions for short term remedies we see may have been sensible 15 years ago, but today we need real solutions, and those solutions unfortunately are lacking. I don’t believe those solutions exist. Our lifestyles are likely to change radically, and this is going to create a good deal of individual difficulty and outright suffering here--and as one with a lot of skills to share I’d like to be positively proactive in building real meaningful social networks that will allow our area to weather these difficulties in “relative” ease. Hawaii has a lot going for it in many ways, and has a tradition of pretty easy living. So does the grand experiment of Sea-steading. Let’s not let that relative easy lure us into the complacency that may well entrap the rest of the world.
As we come off the peak of what may well be the greatest period of wealth the world may ever see, it is interesting to see what it is we have gained in terms of standard of living, the hypothetical(if you can afford it)quality of health care, relative(for the moment) security, and a host of marvelous tools, machines, and technological gadgets. Most of these things are good for the most part, and while we can continue to afford them we will enjoy their benefits, no denying.
It is as important as well, to see what we have lost. Many things for sure. Privacy for one, as the same technological gadgets we enjoy aid snoopy meddlesome folk in the extreme. The ecology of the world has all been shot, and the Mother Goose of Nature that laid golden eggs has mostly been slaughtered, to the point where those who are caught up in the Neo-back to the land movement should stop and really consider how viable a vision that is, especially in the face of unpredictable climate disruption. Individual Sovereignty as envisioned by Enlightenment political thinkers has more or less been tossed out, with the State being asserted in most every manner, and with the rising power of Corporate power the individual is more or less powerless in fact to resist even the most mundane of affronts and injustices. Don’t think so? Try to combat an erroneous charge on your bank statement. . .
Still, I think perhaps the most dangerous thing we have lost is a sense of community, and especially community responsibility. That notion perhaps exemplified in the Amish tradition of “Barn raising,” an incontestable display of “take care of your neighbor”--where within the community exists the value that one should be COMPELLED to care for your neighbors, that good neighbors are valuable, and good neighbors in tern will take care of you. Unfortunately, wealth has given many the luxury of independence, and many have never learned the skills of “getting along” in the human community and its many social contracts--even within most families--most relationships and marriages in fact-- the bonds of mutual responsibility are pretty thin. That may feel liberating while things are good and life is easy, but there is quite a skill in people knowing how and that they can rely on each other in hard times that is GREATLY undervalued. Community spirit isn’t so much taking up causes that you value when in your free time--that is simply indulgent dilettante ethics borne of affluence. Community spirit is taking on the causes that are NOT fashionable, nor fun--and taking them on when it’s inconvenient or frankly a hassle.
This may well become a major difficulty here in Hawaii, as there is a fair amount of bad blood and alienation floating around, there are strong racial and economical factions here, there are strong cultural factions as well. We need to get beyond this. The population here is too small, and our location is far too remote from the rest of the world to indulge in the luxury of “not relying on each other.” Self-sufficiency is a myth--and as one who has studied homesteading and frontier lifestyles extensively I will have to say that the single largest cause I can identify with failure is alienation and lack of community support.
As far as I can see we as a world, and as an island face some very very difficult times in the relative near future. We are simply not prepared for resource scarcity and the rising costs that we will be facing in the next 3 - 5 years. Most of the suggestions for short term remedies we see may have been sensible 15 years ago, but today we need real solutions, and those solutions unfortunately are lacking. I don’t believe those solutions exist. Our lifestyles are likely to change radically, and this is going to create a good deal of individual difficulty and outright suffering here--and as one with a lot of skills to share I’d like to be positively proactive in building real meaningful social networks that will allow our area to weather these difficulties in “relative” ease. Hawaii has a lot going for it in many ways, and has a tradition of pretty easy living. So does the grand experiment of Sea-steading. Let’s not let that relative easy lure us into the complacency that may well entrap the rest of the world.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Optimism
As I've come to say a lot lately--a pessimist does not plant trees.
Actually, part and parcel of the vision I see for the future--with the collapse of affluent human society, climatic destruction, and a tend towards overt neo-feudalism--as part of this process SO many people are going to take such a beating that there is simply NO WAY that the cultural values now in place will survive. That trend is already occurring among the "newly maturing." Those under the age of 20 hold a radically different perspective towards their future than those of my age. They are, to my mind, best described as complacently hopeless, simply willing to take on without resistance the semi-feral future that awaits for them. Of course, this attitude is still an attitude born of relative affluence, as no one who has ever gone hungry is complacent ever again. . .but I certainly signal that as the beginning of what one might call "the revaluation of all values."
This will be uncharted territory, but by a quarter way through this century I'm certain that any semi-conscious semi-informed person alive will be unable to feel anything other than having been royally, thoroughly, ruggedly screwed over. They will feel that they've been lied to at every turn, insulted, manipulated, marketed, fucked over so completely that the sense of distrust towards any and all expert opinions or authority figures will be unprecedented. And of course this attitude will be completely justified. This will be a very dangerous time, as far as I can see, but ultimately Hobbesian ethics will prevail--and to avoid a life that is "nasty, brutish, and short" a sense of community will arise, if for no other reason than it will be impossible to survive without--but I tell you, people will really give the stink-eye to anyone who is remotely sketchy, unclear, or underhanded in their motives.
BRING IT ON!
If there is anything I thoroughly despise about culture as it exists is the utter depraved dishonesty of it. The surest and fastest way to find alienation is to speak the truth: the fastest way to finding acclaim is to fake it. Don't you dare do anything on your own, for real. That makes others look stupid and they won't appreciate it. Be sure you demand nothing of anyone. Virtue has been turned on its head: the latin term "vertus" in its day meant nothing other than explicitly manly values--to speak the truth, to shoot well with arrows. Today, virtue is equated with effete, non-confrontational sentimentalism--good natured but harmless. It will be obvious that this has served no one.
One of the more interesting predictions I've heard so far, from Kunstler: "this will be the year that conspicuous consumption goes underground." I think he's a little bit ahead of the curve, but it's bound to happen at some point, as it's going to be far more likely to bring you a bullet than admiration.
Ah well, a little rave here waiting for the rain to clear so I can buck up a little more timber. The garden here is growing so fast I can actually see it. Thanks you guys for the robust camaraderie. Dennis especially, I enjoy that direct and straightforward unrepentant gun-toting liberalism. I wish we had more of a chance to shoot the shit before I moved out of Bellingham. Maybe October!
Actually, part and parcel of the vision I see for the future--with the collapse of affluent human society, climatic destruction, and a tend towards overt neo-feudalism--as part of this process SO many people are going to take such a beating that there is simply NO WAY that the cultural values now in place will survive. That trend is already occurring among the "newly maturing." Those under the age of 20 hold a radically different perspective towards their future than those of my age. They are, to my mind, best described as complacently hopeless, simply willing to take on without resistance the semi-feral future that awaits for them. Of course, this attitude is still an attitude born of relative affluence, as no one who has ever gone hungry is complacent ever again. . .but I certainly signal that as the beginning of what one might call "the revaluation of all values."
This will be uncharted territory, but by a quarter way through this century I'm certain that any semi-conscious semi-informed person alive will be unable to feel anything other than having been royally, thoroughly, ruggedly screwed over. They will feel that they've been lied to at every turn, insulted, manipulated, marketed, fucked over so completely that the sense of distrust towards any and all expert opinions or authority figures will be unprecedented. And of course this attitude will be completely justified. This will be a very dangerous time, as far as I can see, but ultimately Hobbesian ethics will prevail--and to avoid a life that is "nasty, brutish, and short" a sense of community will arise, if for no other reason than it will be impossible to survive without--but I tell you, people will really give the stink-eye to anyone who is remotely sketchy, unclear, or underhanded in their motives.
BRING IT ON!
If there is anything I thoroughly despise about culture as it exists is the utter depraved dishonesty of it. The surest and fastest way to find alienation is to speak the truth: the fastest way to finding acclaim is to fake it. Don't you dare do anything on your own, for real. That makes others look stupid and they won't appreciate it. Be sure you demand nothing of anyone. Virtue has been turned on its head: the latin term "vertus" in its day meant nothing other than explicitly manly values--to speak the truth, to shoot well with arrows. Today, virtue is equated with effete, non-confrontational sentimentalism--good natured but harmless. It will be obvious that this has served no one.
One of the more interesting predictions I've heard so far, from Kunstler: "this will be the year that conspicuous consumption goes underground." I think he's a little bit ahead of the curve, but it's bound to happen at some point, as it's going to be far more likely to bring you a bullet than admiration.
Ah well, a little rave here waiting for the rain to clear so I can buck up a little more timber. The garden here is growing so fast I can actually see it. Thanks you guys for the robust camaraderie. Dennis especially, I enjoy that direct and straightforward unrepentant gun-toting liberalism. I wish we had more of a chance to shoot the shit before I moved out of Bellingham. Maybe October!
Friday, May 2, 2008
This is nuts. . .
Reading the financial news daily, mostly I read the macro finance stuff off of Bloomberg or Mish's link at the bottom of the page. Jesus. . .if you were going to diagnose the "mood of the markets" at this point you could only say that you were dealing with a undedicated manic/depressive paranoid schizophrenic with multiple personality disorder.
The Fed and the Treasury want to "restore investor confidence." You do, eh? Right.
If there is anything that wholly destroys investor confidence it is fucking around with financial policy. Once you start bailing out banks(bear sterns) that simply screwed up and should by rights fold at whatever cost, when congress starts talking about linking foreclosures with jail time, and all sorts of fiddling with the economy--while you screw with and devalue a nation's currency--you create an environment of utter uncertainty in which any informed investor will simply sit on the sidelines. Or invest in whiskey and ammunition. Uncertainty is not risk. Risk involves a calculated chance: with uncertainty you have no means of judging what's coming at you. And any prudent investor or businessman never takes chances with uncertainty. This alone will have a profound impact on the economy as a whole.
For those of us who have lived very prudent financial lives, we especially are very pissed off. Those of us who didn't speculatively borrow during the housing boom, as it was fucking obviously unsustainable, or elsewise, and didn't get ourselves in a hole, thinking perhaps we'll buy in when the bubble bust, as it did, will now look at a situation in which government policy is only interested in protecting bad speculative behavior and devaluing the cash some of us have saved. That isn't funny in the slightest, and it will take a while for most of us to forget it.
The policy is clear. Protect the kleptocratic banking system, and devalue the dollar to shed the vast amount of unrecoverable debt that the US now holds. Those with a lot of money will hide their assets in Dubai and the rest of us can all go to hell. 5 years down the road these guys will come back, and buy up the remaining country for pennies on the dollar.
The Fed and the Treasury want to "restore investor confidence." You do, eh? Right.
If there is anything that wholly destroys investor confidence it is fucking around with financial policy. Once you start bailing out banks(bear sterns) that simply screwed up and should by rights fold at whatever cost, when congress starts talking about linking foreclosures with jail time, and all sorts of fiddling with the economy--while you screw with and devalue a nation's currency--you create an environment of utter uncertainty in which any informed investor will simply sit on the sidelines. Or invest in whiskey and ammunition. Uncertainty is not risk. Risk involves a calculated chance: with uncertainty you have no means of judging what's coming at you. And any prudent investor or businessman never takes chances with uncertainty. This alone will have a profound impact on the economy as a whole.
For those of us who have lived very prudent financial lives, we especially are very pissed off. Those of us who didn't speculatively borrow during the housing boom, as it was fucking obviously unsustainable, or elsewise, and didn't get ourselves in a hole, thinking perhaps we'll buy in when the bubble bust, as it did, will now look at a situation in which government policy is only interested in protecting bad speculative behavior and devaluing the cash some of us have saved. That isn't funny in the slightest, and it will take a while for most of us to forget it.
The policy is clear. Protect the kleptocratic banking system, and devalue the dollar to shed the vast amount of unrecoverable debt that the US now holds. Those with a lot of money will hide their assets in Dubai and the rest of us can all go to hell. 5 years down the road these guys will come back, and buy up the remaining country for pennies on the dollar.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
The Accounting.
Have you ever stood on a precipice, quietly, and just contemplated the profundity of the moment? The place itself, with highly resolved definition, its obvious hazards and possibilities, forces a conception of a finely discrete moment in time. . .one MUST be aware.
I am halfway through the last year of my thirties, to the day. I've been in Hawaii for six months, to the week. The world heaves around me, with the first suggestion of a convulsion. It is food for thought for sure. Having walked Kilauea enough now I can surely see the signs.
Someone asked me the other day, taking note of the projects around the place: "Dude, you REALLY think the shit is going to hit the fan, don't you?"
I was a bit taken aback, actually. The shit HAS hit the fan. It's simply a matter now of the spray pattern, where one was lucky or unfortunate enough to be standing, and whether one ducked quick enough.
Are we not paying attention?
Oil is at 120, expert mainstream opinion suggests stability later in the year at 150-180.
In the last 12 months.
Wheat has quadrupled in price.
Corn tripled.
Rice quadrupled and even so, spot shortages occur now.
Copper tripled.
Aluminum doubled.
Molybdenum doubled.
Countrywide went bust.
Bear Sterns went bust.
Citigroup is near bust.
Ambac is near bust.
Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Washington Mutual--are all in dire situations as well.
Aloha Airlines dead in the water.
ATA dead in the water.
Others flounder.
The dollar has slid 30 percent in its buying power around the world.
The Fed has loaned out at giveaway rates 80 percent of all the capital it has available, more or less for the collateral equal in value to a sack of dirty socks.
Real estate values across the country(and Europe) have slid 25 or so percent, experts call for another 20. There's 1.1 trillion dollars of home equity loans out on that crap.
Consumer Confidence Index at record lows. No damn doubt!
Bush has taken up singing and dancing, and seems strangely Nero-esque.
I have:
Made a choice to move to bum-fuck no-where Hawaii to avoid Zombiegeddon.
Planted 100+ koa trees
1 dozen coffee
1 dozen tea
1 dozen papaya
3 cashew
1 allspice
1 nutmeg
a 2000 square foot garden
all the taro I can get a hold of.
Built a producer gas generator(which works) to power in event of gas shortages and rationing.
Invested in a ton of tools.
And basically am training myself to get to hunkerdown living in the most comfortable way possible, which is no small deal.
I would REALLY encourage those people I care about to pull the head out and take a good look around, and be very very careful: make every attempt possible to prepare for what may lay ahead. There is a real possibility, not yet a certainty, of a very dire and disruptive future not far ahead. There IS a certainty of a merely difficult one.
Only while ignorance and denial still holds the popular mind will there remain an ability to act.
I am halfway through the last year of my thirties, to the day. I've been in Hawaii for six months, to the week. The world heaves around me, with the first suggestion of a convulsion. It is food for thought for sure. Having walked Kilauea enough now I can surely see the signs.
Someone asked me the other day, taking note of the projects around the place: "Dude, you REALLY think the shit is going to hit the fan, don't you?"
I was a bit taken aback, actually. The shit HAS hit the fan. It's simply a matter now of the spray pattern, where one was lucky or unfortunate enough to be standing, and whether one ducked quick enough.
Are we not paying attention?
Oil is at 120, expert mainstream opinion suggests stability later in the year at 150-180.
In the last 12 months.
Wheat has quadrupled in price.
Corn tripled.
Rice quadrupled and even so, spot shortages occur now.
Copper tripled.
Aluminum doubled.
Molybdenum doubled.
Countrywide went bust.
Bear Sterns went bust.
Citigroup is near bust.
Ambac is near bust.
Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Washington Mutual--are all in dire situations as well.
Aloha Airlines dead in the water.
ATA dead in the water.
Others flounder.
The dollar has slid 30 percent in its buying power around the world.
The Fed has loaned out at giveaway rates 80 percent of all the capital it has available, more or less for the collateral equal in value to a sack of dirty socks.
Real estate values across the country(and Europe) have slid 25 or so percent, experts call for another 20. There's 1.1 trillion dollars of home equity loans out on that crap.
Consumer Confidence Index at record lows. No damn doubt!
Bush has taken up singing and dancing, and seems strangely Nero-esque.
I have:
Made a choice to move to bum-fuck no-where Hawaii to avoid Zombiegeddon.
Planted 100+ koa trees
1 dozen coffee
1 dozen tea
1 dozen papaya
3 cashew
1 allspice
1 nutmeg
a 2000 square foot garden
all the taro I can get a hold of.
Built a producer gas generator(which works) to power in event of gas shortages and rationing.
Invested in a ton of tools.
And basically am training myself to get to hunkerdown living in the most comfortable way possible, which is no small deal.
I would REALLY encourage those people I care about to pull the head out and take a good look around, and be very very careful: make every attempt possible to prepare for what may lay ahead. There is a real possibility, not yet a certainty, of a very dire and disruptive future not far ahead. There IS a certainty of a merely difficult one.
Only while ignorance and denial still holds the popular mind will there remain an ability to act.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
A Sermon
. . .taking a deep breath, and attempting to avoid a screaming fit.
Within any sensible moral or ethical system there is a hierarchy of importance: which is to say that in order to be able to claim "goodness"--assuming one can't be "perfect"--one is compelled to right the biggest most important wrongs first and move down the line to the trivial. For example, supposing some screwball murdering pedophile wanted to reform and become a good person, it would be important that the first step would be to remedy one's biggest crime--ie, quit killing kids. If our murdering pedophile decided rather that her first step towards righteousness be to work on clearing up her profanity, even if those efforts were successful, any sensible ethical system would declare those efforts more or less pointless--even inherently bad--as all the efforts achieve, really, is simply perpetrate one's major crimes through self-serving evasion.
We live in a world where 3/4 of the worlds population lives on less than 2 dollars a day, and that fully 1/3 of humanity dies of malnutrition and cruddy water. This is a fact. I believe that this issue will only get worse, as we face climate change and resource depletion, and a perpetual trend towards wealth disparity--we may quibble about those issues, barely. Still the FACT remains that the conditions of life of the vast masses of humanity is miserable in the extreme, and to ignore this, and to evade the notion that one might be culpable in some degree for this condition, to my mind is criminally inhumane.
So then, where the hell do we get the right, we fat and lazy privileged folk, getting all worked up about GMO's, invasive species(though useful and edible), and other bourgeois fetish issues, etc.,--in light of the reality that faces the masses of mankind?
That here in Hawaii we would arbitrarily ban all GMO's, technologies that have the potential to feed the starving--because we somehow have the notion, completely unsupported by any evidence, and GMO's are all bad and unhealthy. I'm certain that one out of 3 people in this world, if you gave them a glow in the dark, semi-poisonous lab grown utterly synthetic blob would eat it eagerly and thank you for it. GMO's? If you could show me one case where you could factually document that any GMO's kills more people than organic peanut butter. . .well, then we have a place to start. Otherwise this is kneejerk fopist ethics.
That here in Hawaii we would get completely bent out of shape about invasive species, unquestionably the most powerful and viable plants on this island, that in many ways act as Gaian scar tissue healing the damage of the sugarcane fields, clear cuts, road cuts, cattle damage and the rest--what would is island look like if these plants were never introduced? I'm in no way arguing for the further introduction of such things--but am simply calling attention to the fact that we ecological progressives have vastly more important things for us to spend our time worrying about. There is a fair chance, that if moderate climate change forecasts are accurate, that the invasive plants will be the ONLY plants on this island that are viable and adaptive enough to survive the next 500 years.
I expect I need to lay off the coffee, but am not done yet.
The difficulties that face us as a world are so massive, and so dire, and the human cost, and the cost to life in general, is going to be so vast--that anybody not pulling to remedy those basic issues is pulling in the opposite direction. To remedy these basic issues is going to require basic sacrifices--large sacrifices--in our current standard of living. Outside of a few radicals, I see next to no meaningful efforts towards constructive change. In fact, I see an entire industry being created, as evil and insincere as any ever created, that generates "products" and "activities" marketed to mostly well meaning informed people, that are designed wholly to satisfy the urges of "good" people to "do something" but actually accomplish nothing whatsoever, and demand no personal sacrifice. As if compact fluorescent bulbs are going to feed anyone. . .
Something, I hope, to think about. Are some of our busy efforts well meaning? Misguided? Insincerely self-indulgent? I think it's important we ask these questions of ourselves, and for many, that in a very sophomoric manner fancy themselves as the vanguard of "change"--I think the answers will be uncomfortable.
Within any sensible moral or ethical system there is a hierarchy of importance: which is to say that in order to be able to claim "goodness"--assuming one can't be "perfect"--one is compelled to right the biggest most important wrongs first and move down the line to the trivial. For example, supposing some screwball murdering pedophile wanted to reform and become a good person, it would be important that the first step would be to remedy one's biggest crime--ie, quit killing kids. If our murdering pedophile decided rather that her first step towards righteousness be to work on clearing up her profanity, even if those efforts were successful, any sensible ethical system would declare those efforts more or less pointless--even inherently bad--as all the efforts achieve, really, is simply perpetrate one's major crimes through self-serving evasion.
We live in a world where 3/4 of the worlds population lives on less than 2 dollars a day, and that fully 1/3 of humanity dies of malnutrition and cruddy water. This is a fact. I believe that this issue will only get worse, as we face climate change and resource depletion, and a perpetual trend towards wealth disparity--we may quibble about those issues, barely. Still the FACT remains that the conditions of life of the vast masses of humanity is miserable in the extreme, and to ignore this, and to evade the notion that one might be culpable in some degree for this condition, to my mind is criminally inhumane.
So then, where the hell do we get the right, we fat and lazy privileged folk, getting all worked up about GMO's, invasive species(though useful and edible), and other bourgeois fetish issues, etc.,--in light of the reality that faces the masses of mankind?
That here in Hawaii we would arbitrarily ban all GMO's, technologies that have the potential to feed the starving--because we somehow have the notion, completely unsupported by any evidence, and GMO's are all bad and unhealthy. I'm certain that one out of 3 people in this world, if you gave them a glow in the dark, semi-poisonous lab grown utterly synthetic blob would eat it eagerly and thank you for it. GMO's? If you could show me one case where you could factually document that any GMO's kills more people than organic peanut butter. . .well, then we have a place to start. Otherwise this is kneejerk fopist ethics.
That here in Hawaii we would get completely bent out of shape about invasive species, unquestionably the most powerful and viable plants on this island, that in many ways act as Gaian scar tissue healing the damage of the sugarcane fields, clear cuts, road cuts, cattle damage and the rest--what would is island look like if these plants were never introduced? I'm in no way arguing for the further introduction of such things--but am simply calling attention to the fact that we ecological progressives have vastly more important things for us to spend our time worrying about. There is a fair chance, that if moderate climate change forecasts are accurate, that the invasive plants will be the ONLY plants on this island that are viable and adaptive enough to survive the next 500 years.
I expect I need to lay off the coffee, but am not done yet.
The difficulties that face us as a world are so massive, and so dire, and the human cost, and the cost to life in general, is going to be so vast--that anybody not pulling to remedy those basic issues is pulling in the opposite direction. To remedy these basic issues is going to require basic sacrifices--large sacrifices--in our current standard of living. Outside of a few radicals, I see next to no meaningful efforts towards constructive change. In fact, I see an entire industry being created, as evil and insincere as any ever created, that generates "products" and "activities" marketed to mostly well meaning informed people, that are designed wholly to satisfy the urges of "good" people to "do something" but actually accomplish nothing whatsoever, and demand no personal sacrifice. As if compact fluorescent bulbs are going to feed anyone. . .
Something, I hope, to think about. Are some of our busy efforts well meaning? Misguided? Insincerely self-indulgent? I think it's important we ask these questions of ourselves, and for many, that in a very sophomoric manner fancy themselves as the vanguard of "change"--I think the answers will be uncomfortable.
Monday, March 24, 2008
AADD Nation
As for diatribes: this will be a diatribe.
First, taxes. It's 10 in the morning, and I'm drunk. I alway get drunk to do taxes, as it's the only way it's sensible and keeps me from having screaming fits. As one who would claim to be a humanitarian, ecologically minded progressive, it fires me in the extreme to be compelled by law to "tithe" to the church of corrupt materialism, and it's certain that my tax dollars I pay go to, solely, undo any good I try to work in the world. It is absolutely measurable to show that of any dollar I pay in taxes, x amount goes to a corrupt kleptocratic banking system, to Haliburton, to bombing people for oil. . .and on down the line. It is pointless for me to protest, ineffectually, that I "don't support the war", when a very factual way I do. This has bothered me enough that for years I lived in a minimalist enough fashion that I paid no taxes--but I got tired of not getting laid so I changed my ways. Even the hippy chicks expect you to keep them fat in organic food(expensive) and weed. Ah well. I sold out and was back in the saddle in about a week.
It's official. I don't call myself an environmentalist anymore--I call myself a survivalist.
Just how fucking stupid are the American people? Seriously, I ask this non-rhetorically. I'm well aware that the vast majority of the US is profoundly screwed up and deliberately capital "F" dumb--like they believe the world is 10000 years old and angels walk the isles of Walmart. . .or that homeopathy is a science. . .but let's ignore that crowd and move towards people who have actually done a bit of education--perhaps we'll look at big buck fund managers--9 out of 10 which, in spite of their high dollar degrees, cannot out perform the indexes, or a team of moneys flicking shit at a wall, and where it sticks BUY. This is no hyperbole, mind you, this is a fact. As well it is a fact, that in spite out how I bitch, I seem incapable of overestimating the tremendous inertial effect of ignorance. In the great greater fools game we call the American Economy, I had begun to believe we are out of fools. Well, we haven't hit "peak fool" yet apparently. Last week, consensus: the financial world is ending. The Fed waves it's magic wand. Monday--all is saved! Seriously, who the hell believes anything has changed? As for myself, any crisis great enough that the central bank feels compelled to more or less give away a HALF TRILLION DOLLARS should scare any sensible person into the hills. But it hasn't. And that should scare you even the more.
So then, my freinds call me and tell me they are worried about their credit rating. I, am with rabid intent perfecting my wood gas generator and learning everything about this lost technology I can. It hasn't been simple. There are loads of information out, and on the net, for free, and all too often you get your money's worth. Yet progress is made, and the system runs, but woe to anyone who tries to undertake this project once the crunch finally hits. Er, you'll run that welder on what? Still, I've learned a bunch, and that's worth while, but gadzooks, what a hassle.
We have no idea what the value of fossil fuels really is. We take that utterly for granted. We seem incapable to relate to a world of unmechanized work, as we've never seen it--but again, the rule of thumb is that if you've got a gallon of gasoline at your disposal, you can get more work done in a day than you can in a month without. At that point, if work needs to be done, there is really no price at which fuel doesn't pay--a hundred dollars a gallon would still be cheap. Unfortunately, much of the "ecological progressive" community works in a world of academics and service, and has no connect whatsoever to reality. If they did, they'd be much more thoughtful. Even of the wilderness community, of those who have spent some time backpacking and understand the natural world to some degree--woodcraft--ie, primitivism and skills, is much lacking. Synthetic tents, clothes, and fossil fuel based cook stoves preparing vacuum packed freeze dehydrated meals. Getting back to nature, eh? Damn--it would be well that a dose of reality would be dumped on everyone. . .but I'd rather it would happen before the game was for keeps.
First, taxes. It's 10 in the morning, and I'm drunk. I alway get drunk to do taxes, as it's the only way it's sensible and keeps me from having screaming fits. As one who would claim to be a humanitarian, ecologically minded progressive, it fires me in the extreme to be compelled by law to "tithe" to the church of corrupt materialism, and it's certain that my tax dollars I pay go to, solely, undo any good I try to work in the world. It is absolutely measurable to show that of any dollar I pay in taxes, x amount goes to a corrupt kleptocratic banking system, to Haliburton, to bombing people for oil. . .and on down the line. It is pointless for me to protest, ineffectually, that I "don't support the war", when a very factual way I do. This has bothered me enough that for years I lived in a minimalist enough fashion that I paid no taxes--but I got tired of not getting laid so I changed my ways. Even the hippy chicks expect you to keep them fat in organic food(expensive) and weed. Ah well. I sold out and was back in the saddle in about a week.
It's official. I don't call myself an environmentalist anymore--I call myself a survivalist.
Just how fucking stupid are the American people? Seriously, I ask this non-rhetorically. I'm well aware that the vast majority of the US is profoundly screwed up and deliberately capital "F" dumb--like they believe the world is 10000 years old and angels walk the isles of Walmart. . .or that homeopathy is a science. . .but let's ignore that crowd and move towards people who have actually done a bit of education--perhaps we'll look at big buck fund managers--9 out of 10 which, in spite of their high dollar degrees, cannot out perform the indexes, or a team of moneys flicking shit at a wall, and where it sticks BUY. This is no hyperbole, mind you, this is a fact. As well it is a fact, that in spite out how I bitch, I seem incapable of overestimating the tremendous inertial effect of ignorance. In the great greater fools game we call the American Economy, I had begun to believe we are out of fools. Well, we haven't hit "peak fool" yet apparently. Last week, consensus: the financial world is ending. The Fed waves it's magic wand. Monday--all is saved! Seriously, who the hell believes anything has changed? As for myself, any crisis great enough that the central bank feels compelled to more or less give away a HALF TRILLION DOLLARS should scare any sensible person into the hills. But it hasn't. And that should scare you even the more.
So then, my freinds call me and tell me they are worried about their credit rating. I, am with rabid intent perfecting my wood gas generator and learning everything about this lost technology I can. It hasn't been simple. There are loads of information out, and on the net, for free, and all too often you get your money's worth. Yet progress is made, and the system runs, but woe to anyone who tries to undertake this project once the crunch finally hits. Er, you'll run that welder on what? Still, I've learned a bunch, and that's worth while, but gadzooks, what a hassle.
We have no idea what the value of fossil fuels really is. We take that utterly for granted. We seem incapable to relate to a world of unmechanized work, as we've never seen it--but again, the rule of thumb is that if you've got a gallon of gasoline at your disposal, you can get more work done in a day than you can in a month without. At that point, if work needs to be done, there is really no price at which fuel doesn't pay--a hundred dollars a gallon would still be cheap. Unfortunately, much of the "ecological progressive" community works in a world of academics and service, and has no connect whatsoever to reality. If they did, they'd be much more thoughtful. Even of the wilderness community, of those who have spent some time backpacking and understand the natural world to some degree--woodcraft--ie, primitivism and skills, is much lacking. Synthetic tents, clothes, and fossil fuel based cook stoves preparing vacuum packed freeze dehydrated meals. Getting back to nature, eh? Damn--it would be well that a dose of reality would be dumped on everyone. . .but I'd rather it would happen before the game was for keeps.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Drunkenly searching for good news. . .
Well, I'm fucked.
Prophecy. The fed drops rates next week .50. Gold goes to 1015, oil to 116, and the dollar loses two percent against the euro and the yen. Does anybody else read the news?
And by the way, a Holtzman gas generator doesn't work worth a damn on wet wood.
Prophecy. The fed drops rates next week .50. Gold goes to 1015, oil to 116, and the dollar loses two percent against the euro and the yen. Does anybody else read the news?
And by the way, a Holtzman gas generator doesn't work worth a damn on wet wood.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Emerging from the jungle
Here I am in my new little cabin in Hawaii, typing away at a much overdue update. . .
Gosh, have got a lot done in the last few months. I've got a small house, fruit trees, a koi pond, coffee growing in the yard and a bit of time to sit and think. It is interesting, having been removed from the screaming media mostly for most of 4 months, the shift in attitudes towards many issues that may seem incremental to many--but if you take a vacation from the noise it doesn't' seem so.
It's interesting how notions of peak oil, global warming, and the collapse of the US banking system have become mainstream ideas at this point. Talk about boiling frogs! The most alarming thing I find in these issues is exactly that--the more or less total lack of alarm. I'm scared shitless, and better prepared than many to weather this gathering group of storms. Even among those who are relatively educated, informed, and progressive--there is a complete disconnect between their views of the future and their actions. Just as the nice couple the other day who was quizzing me about my small homestead, and how to build--we discussed these issues all in depth. And then, they ask--well, how do you finance your homestead? Uh, of course, you DON'T. You pay for it out of pocket. And you especially pay for it out of pocket in a world with failing banks. And you certainly don't expose yourself to the threat of loosing your little home by lost jobs and missing a payment. You're better off to live in your car, if you are secure there--then take the risk in the forthcoming environment. But the question was telling--they ape the words, they enjoy the culture of apocalypse--but they don't fucking get it. We're talking about the real deal here, where knowledgeable intelligent experts are talking about the end of human civilization--not a recession.
Being counterculture so often is really just being component of the the culture, and the modern green ecologist is certainly THAT. It's Patagonia rather than Bebe, its Land Cruisers rather than Range Rovers--it's flying to Bali rather than Cancun, but it's all the same bullshit American consumerism. It's all about big dogs and babies too, frogs laying eggs in boiling water. Hell, I've got to say that at this point it's all but obvious that GW BUSH is probably the greatest president of all time, as he most accurately and broadly reflects the values of the American people; ie., ignorance, entitlement, and smug self satisfaction. But give it a couple of more months. . .
Gosh, have got a lot done in the last few months. I've got a small house, fruit trees, a koi pond, coffee growing in the yard and a bit of time to sit and think. It is interesting, having been removed from the screaming media mostly for most of 4 months, the shift in attitudes towards many issues that may seem incremental to many--but if you take a vacation from the noise it doesn't' seem so.
It's interesting how notions of peak oil, global warming, and the collapse of the US banking system have become mainstream ideas at this point. Talk about boiling frogs! The most alarming thing I find in these issues is exactly that--the more or less total lack of alarm. I'm scared shitless, and better prepared than many to weather this gathering group of storms. Even among those who are relatively educated, informed, and progressive--there is a complete disconnect between their views of the future and their actions. Just as the nice couple the other day who was quizzing me about my small homestead, and how to build--we discussed these issues all in depth. And then, they ask--well, how do you finance your homestead? Uh, of course, you DON'T. You pay for it out of pocket. And you especially pay for it out of pocket in a world with failing banks. And you certainly don't expose yourself to the threat of loosing your little home by lost jobs and missing a payment. You're better off to live in your car, if you are secure there--then take the risk in the forthcoming environment. But the question was telling--they ape the words, they enjoy the culture of apocalypse--but they don't fucking get it. We're talking about the real deal here, where knowledgeable intelligent experts are talking about the end of human civilization--not a recession.
Being counterculture so often is really just being component of the the culture, and the modern green ecologist is certainly THAT. It's Patagonia rather than Bebe, its Land Cruisers rather than Range Rovers--it's flying to Bali rather than Cancun, but it's all the same bullshit American consumerism. It's all about big dogs and babies too, frogs laying eggs in boiling water. Hell, I've got to say that at this point it's all but obvious that GW BUSH is probably the greatest president of all time, as he most accurately and broadly reflects the values of the American people; ie., ignorance, entitlement, and smug self satisfaction. But give it a couple of more months. . .
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Hi all,
Back from a wedding on Cape Cod, saw a lot of the area and was certainly admiring of the preservation of both small boat cruising and vintage(read practical) types of boats. It is so very important to realize that boats are expressions of their environment and tasks, and that no type of boat is equally successful in all environments.
It is critically important to understand just what one is going to expect a sailboat to do.
Had an interesting conversation with a fellow from a local maritime museum. He was familiar with my projects and very supportive of the need to preserve sail-handling techniques. The museum had just completed a replica of a typical cape cod fishing cat boat and was actually going to exhibit scallop fishing under sail for the first time in nearly a century. I was very keen on the project indeed, as net handling under sail is something I know nothing about but certainly have a good deal of interest, and would say that THIS is the sort of preservation programs we need to see more of--and less of the tall ship bullshit that really teaches very little but exclusivity and bad renditions of watered down sea-chanties.
The great PROBLEM with the program, however, was this--we're talking about a $300000 30 foot boat. Sure, a beautiful thing for certain--solid old-growth cypress with a spit shine--but all in all wholly misses a very critical component of traditional sailing: COST EFFECTIVENESS. I wonder if the boat will actually ever break the 100 dollars a scallop mark for return on investment. I doubt it. There is no way in hell that such boat represent anything working craft at all--it's purely a rich man's toy to dabble with playing fisherman--and in some ways an affront to the whole idea. I'm not against building such a boat, but I'd probably not launch it--rather put it in a glass case for people to look at. If you want to fish scallops, build a boat that's similar in concept but built out of old car hoods or ferrocement--something that will actually fire at cost effectiveness. We'd learn more all in all.
Working sail craft is on the cusp of viability as we speak. Ocean freight for small packages is currently selling at 5 dollars a cubic foot to major ports, more expensive to small ports. Fishing open source fisheries under sail becomes profitable as fuel for run and travel time becomes more and more expensive and the fish of less value. Sail has the potential to be very very very cost effective indeed, especially with long lived modern materials--and I really hope we don't loose all the skills needed before it all comes back. The average sailor doesn't know what he doesn't know, and it will be a rude awakening for many to rediscover these skills.
Just proves again how important the Oar Club and Seasteading projects really are.
Back from a wedding on Cape Cod, saw a lot of the area and was certainly admiring of the preservation of both small boat cruising and vintage(read practical) types of boats. It is so very important to realize that boats are expressions of their environment and tasks, and that no type of boat is equally successful in all environments.
It is critically important to understand just what one is going to expect a sailboat to do.
Had an interesting conversation with a fellow from a local maritime museum. He was familiar with my projects and very supportive of the need to preserve sail-handling techniques. The museum had just completed a replica of a typical cape cod fishing cat boat and was actually going to exhibit scallop fishing under sail for the first time in nearly a century. I was very keen on the project indeed, as net handling under sail is something I know nothing about but certainly have a good deal of interest, and would say that THIS is the sort of preservation programs we need to see more of--and less of the tall ship bullshit that really teaches very little but exclusivity and bad renditions of watered down sea-chanties.
The great PROBLEM with the program, however, was this--we're talking about a $300000 30 foot boat. Sure, a beautiful thing for certain--solid old-growth cypress with a spit shine--but all in all wholly misses a very critical component of traditional sailing: COST EFFECTIVENESS. I wonder if the boat will actually ever break the 100 dollars a scallop mark for return on investment. I doubt it. There is no way in hell that such boat represent anything working craft at all--it's purely a rich man's toy to dabble with playing fisherman--and in some ways an affront to the whole idea. I'm not against building such a boat, but I'd probably not launch it--rather put it in a glass case for people to look at. If you want to fish scallops, build a boat that's similar in concept but built out of old car hoods or ferrocement--something that will actually fire at cost effectiveness. We'd learn more all in all.
Working sail craft is on the cusp of viability as we speak. Ocean freight for small packages is currently selling at 5 dollars a cubic foot to major ports, more expensive to small ports. Fishing open source fisheries under sail becomes profitable as fuel for run and travel time becomes more and more expensive and the fish of less value. Sail has the potential to be very very very cost effective indeed, especially with long lived modern materials--and I really hope we don't loose all the skills needed before it all comes back. The average sailor doesn't know what he doesn't know, and it will be a rude awakening for many to rediscover these skills.
Just proves again how important the Oar Club and Seasteading projects really are.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Be the change you want to see in the world. . .
That's been my mantra from the start.
First, I've certainly realized early on that as we as a culture move through our predicted "revaluation of all values" there would be a great deal of social confusion. And confusion there certainly is: not a single pillar of our social values has remained unshaken--roles of friendship, partnership, family, responsibility(if any) to others, to society, to mankind--relationships between children and parents, parents and children, business, employer/employee relationships. . .if we look, most every relationship involved with human life has in the last 20 years taken a large step into the unknown and has been left on questionable ground. Most of us simply don't know where we stand. All too often what passes for "appropriate" behavior within society has come down to a personal selection of the most advantageous broken pieces of our social mores--advantageous to the "me" involved, and everyone else can take a hike.
That's sensible to a degree, and there's something to be said for the integrity of the Ayn Randian non-altruistic midset, as, we must admit, that's really how most(if not all) people really do behave. Maybe the only difference between ethical behavior and unethical behavior at the core is simply honesty: it's all about me, and if I admit that and play straight up about that, I'm ethical--if I lie about that fact, I'm not. Of course it's really not advantageous to be honest about that.
Who cares--does it really matter?
This morass is the reason I've abandoned such musings in the last couple years, and have discarded the terminology of "ethical" for "constructive." The trouble with "ethics" as a study is that it assumes there is a higher good from the start. Of course, that's indefensible. Constructive, however, as a value, only assumes that you indeed consciously and effectually move towards that you have chosen(arbitrarily) to pursue. Once you make this assumption, you discover many "values" cannot be constructive ultimately, because they're self-defeating. For example, one might decide purposely and deliberately to be the worlds greatest alcoholic. Sure, go for it. While I can't argue that there is some value in becoming the greatest anything, unfortunately the activity itself will defeat the end, as you'll die in the process. But, don't take it all too seriously, as that's where we all end up anyway. Still, some concepts, goals, and ideas are greatly more constructive than others.
SO, after all that blather, one of my personal goals has been to personally demonstrate the possibility of living a constructive life in the absence of god. While all the atheistic books have got the press lately, and I certainly laud Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens and others for making the notion popular, I've got to say, that topic is pretty tired and among progressive thinkers about 150 years out of date. As well, ultimately, so much of what is published is really baby steps into the realm of the godless universe--and the same crap said early, more or less attempting to keep the same values and inserting "science and reason" for "god" as a first principle. Hume won that argument, didn't he? As far as I'm concerned, he sure did.
An atheist in my definition isn't simply someone who doesn't believe in god. An atheist is someone who knows god doesn't exist and knows that the fact of the absence of god is important.
So, certainly my sailing adventures, my books, and the Oarclub and Sea-Steading projects have been part of this whole affair. The new adventure in Hawaii is as well. Simply put, it's a desperate attempt as an orphan of the universe to wrest some meaning out of the unfathomable, and to breathe life into purpose. No small thing that, but knowing what I'm doing all along makes it all a lot more sensible. . .
First, I've certainly realized early on that as we as a culture move through our predicted "revaluation of all values" there would be a great deal of social confusion. And confusion there certainly is: not a single pillar of our social values has remained unshaken--roles of friendship, partnership, family, responsibility(if any) to others, to society, to mankind--relationships between children and parents, parents and children, business, employer/employee relationships. . .if we look, most every relationship involved with human life has in the last 20 years taken a large step into the unknown and has been left on questionable ground. Most of us simply don't know where we stand. All too often what passes for "appropriate" behavior within society has come down to a personal selection of the most advantageous broken pieces of our social mores--advantageous to the "me" involved, and everyone else can take a hike.
That's sensible to a degree, and there's something to be said for the integrity of the Ayn Randian non-altruistic midset, as, we must admit, that's really how most(if not all) people really do behave. Maybe the only difference between ethical behavior and unethical behavior at the core is simply honesty: it's all about me, and if I admit that and play straight up about that, I'm ethical--if I lie about that fact, I'm not. Of course it's really not advantageous to be honest about that.
Who cares--does it really matter?
This morass is the reason I've abandoned such musings in the last couple years, and have discarded the terminology of "ethical" for "constructive." The trouble with "ethics" as a study is that it assumes there is a higher good from the start. Of course, that's indefensible. Constructive, however, as a value, only assumes that you indeed consciously and effectually move towards that you have chosen(arbitrarily) to pursue. Once you make this assumption, you discover many "values" cannot be constructive ultimately, because they're self-defeating. For example, one might decide purposely and deliberately to be the worlds greatest alcoholic. Sure, go for it. While I can't argue that there is some value in becoming the greatest anything, unfortunately the activity itself will defeat the end, as you'll die in the process. But, don't take it all too seriously, as that's where we all end up anyway. Still, some concepts, goals, and ideas are greatly more constructive than others.
SO, after all that blather, one of my personal goals has been to personally demonstrate the possibility of living a constructive life in the absence of god. While all the atheistic books have got the press lately, and I certainly laud Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens and others for making the notion popular, I've got to say, that topic is pretty tired and among progressive thinkers about 150 years out of date. As well, ultimately, so much of what is published is really baby steps into the realm of the godless universe--and the same crap said early, more or less attempting to keep the same values and inserting "science and reason" for "god" as a first principle. Hume won that argument, didn't he? As far as I'm concerned, he sure did.
An atheist in my definition isn't simply someone who doesn't believe in god. An atheist is someone who knows god doesn't exist and knows that the fact of the absence of god is important.
So, certainly my sailing adventures, my books, and the Oarclub and Sea-Steading projects have been part of this whole affair. The new adventure in Hawaii is as well. Simply put, it's a desperate attempt as an orphan of the universe to wrest some meaning out of the unfathomable, and to breathe life into purpose. No small thing that, but knowing what I'm doing all along makes it all a lot more sensible. . .
Sunday, September 2, 2007
The Death of the Environmental Movement
Ah, well, I've often mused that virtue is a luxury item.
As we get more hyped every day about global warming, and as more and more money gets dumped into the propaganda machine, there seems to be to be one obvious and glaring omission from the discussion. . .the omission?
First, preface the issue.
A) Global warming is unquestionably happening, and human activity is unquestionably the major cause of it.
B) The tremendous resistance to meaningful change at this--too late moment--will accelerate us into the higher quintiles of the probability curve of events. The devastating 2-3 degrees C by mid century becomes more likely every moment at we drag our feet and propose one stupid green "solution" after another.
C) Of the carbon fuels we now use--we use the CLEANEST of the lot. For example, the lowest emmission vehicles now available, with conventional gas engines, run on high end formulated fuels in California, actually create less greenhouse gasses than the hybrids do. As fuel prices increase due to consumption pressure and depletion, the pressure to use the remaining dirtier fuels will increase. As we run out of Natural Gas, we'll move to coal. Unfortunately, there's a lot of coal.
Ok, now for my version of the inconvenient truth.
If we want to talk about concepts like "carbon footprint" and sustainability, we make a tacit assumption that every living creature, humans included, have a "birthright" to a piece of the ecological pie. That by the pure fact of existing, one is entitled to a certain amount of resources to exist. That's a sensible assumption, and the alternative--that some people are not entitled to anything at all, is hard to defend. Now, the question becomes: what is fair? That as well is easy to determine. If we assume that a given amount of sunlight falls on the earth, and that human beings have the technology at this moment to claim a given percent of that amount, it's simply a matter of dividing by the global population to determine the number that is "fair" to use. Well, whatever that number is, it isn't much. . .
Here's another metric, and one more candy coated than the first, as it doesn't assume sustainability and relies on depletion--global GDP. While one can cook the books one way or another, one's fair share of global GDP is somewhere in the neighborhood of 3500 dollars year. That's your fair share. Making more than that? Nice for you, but it demands that half the world population life on much less than that amount, in desperate squalor, and that we import the goods of the land they live on for our own use.
So, again, my inconvenient truth. . .
So, we in the developing world, having killed the "golden goose," having used the best resources in the world for our own pleasure, and now, becoming aware that we've wrecked the planet in our doing so--are we really going to now demand that the rest of the world REMAIN in poverty for all time as so to not FURTHER destroy the global environment? Carbon footprint be damned, those people want clean water, and that needs infrastructure, and electricity, and they're going to build coal fired plants the second they can get to it. . .and we're going to tell them no?
I don't see very many ecologists living on that global level of scale--what does Sierra Club boss make again? You couldn't design anybody more suited to make the ecological cause look stupid and hypocritical.
It's easy to cuss at assholes of the likes of John Travolta, who likes to play environmentalist--who also owns a hybrid(and a couple dozen other vehicles) and lecture us in his semi-narcoleptic manner--while he parks his private fucking 737 in his front yard. . .the hubris of these people is scarce to be believed. BUT, I must say, surely much of the world views all Americans is the manner I might view the elite eco-rich. And surely, having tamped them full of propaganda of the American good life they want a piece of that pie too. . .and they'll have it, by god. . .
We're really screwed.
As we get more hyped every day about global warming, and as more and more money gets dumped into the propaganda machine, there seems to be to be one obvious and glaring omission from the discussion. . .the omission?
First, preface the issue.
A) Global warming is unquestionably happening, and human activity is unquestionably the major cause of it.
B) The tremendous resistance to meaningful change at this--too late moment--will accelerate us into the higher quintiles of the probability curve of events. The devastating 2-3 degrees C by mid century becomes more likely every moment at we drag our feet and propose one stupid green "solution" after another.
C) Of the carbon fuels we now use--we use the CLEANEST of the lot. For example, the lowest emmission vehicles now available, with conventional gas engines, run on high end formulated fuels in California, actually create less greenhouse gasses than the hybrids do. As fuel prices increase due to consumption pressure and depletion, the pressure to use the remaining dirtier fuels will increase. As we run out of Natural Gas, we'll move to coal. Unfortunately, there's a lot of coal.
Ok, now for my version of the inconvenient truth.
If we want to talk about concepts like "carbon footprint" and sustainability, we make a tacit assumption that every living creature, humans included, have a "birthright" to a piece of the ecological pie. That by the pure fact of existing, one is entitled to a certain amount of resources to exist. That's a sensible assumption, and the alternative--that some people are not entitled to anything at all, is hard to defend. Now, the question becomes: what is fair? That as well is easy to determine. If we assume that a given amount of sunlight falls on the earth, and that human beings have the technology at this moment to claim a given percent of that amount, it's simply a matter of dividing by the global population to determine the number that is "fair" to use. Well, whatever that number is, it isn't much. . .
Here's another metric, and one more candy coated than the first, as it doesn't assume sustainability and relies on depletion--global GDP. While one can cook the books one way or another, one's fair share of global GDP is somewhere in the neighborhood of 3500 dollars year. That's your fair share. Making more than that? Nice for you, but it demands that half the world population life on much less than that amount, in desperate squalor, and that we import the goods of the land they live on for our own use.
So, again, my inconvenient truth. . .
So, we in the developing world, having killed the "golden goose," having used the best resources in the world for our own pleasure, and now, becoming aware that we've wrecked the planet in our doing so--are we really going to now demand that the rest of the world REMAIN in poverty for all time as so to not FURTHER destroy the global environment? Carbon footprint be damned, those people want clean water, and that needs infrastructure, and electricity, and they're going to build coal fired plants the second they can get to it. . .and we're going to tell them no?
I don't see very many ecologists living on that global level of scale--what does Sierra Club boss make again? You couldn't design anybody more suited to make the ecological cause look stupid and hypocritical.
It's easy to cuss at assholes of the likes of John Travolta, who likes to play environmentalist--who also owns a hybrid(and a couple dozen other vehicles) and lecture us in his semi-narcoleptic manner--while he parks his private fucking 737 in his front yard. . .the hubris of these people is scarce to be believed. BUT, I must say, surely much of the world views all Americans is the manner I might view the elite eco-rich. And surely, having tamped them full of propaganda of the American good life they want a piece of that pie too. . .and they'll have it, by god. . .
We're really screwed.
Monday, August 27, 2007
News from financial ground zero:
Being like the only builder in LA county that has a job at the moment, I must post a little information. . .
You people have no idea what's going on here. We're a inch away from real financial disaster. In a number of neighborhood here the foreclosure rates are no running 1 house in 20--that's right--and there is simply panicked selling but no buying. When one stops to consider the amount of paper wealth that has simply vanished in the last 3 months, well, one becomes desperate to move to Hawaii or someplace like that.
I'm certain that home values here will slide 30 to 40 percent. Certain.
But that's not the end of it all. The credit crunch that just ran through the world and is far from over has a peculiar cause. It ISN'T the sub prime market defaults. These haven't even hit the books yet. The defaults that are coming so far are from builders, with houses they can't move, and from developers in general. The sub prime will hit the market soon(november) and all hell will break loose.
No, the simple cause is that someone somewhere called bullshit on the A ratings of the garbage bond ratings that have floated this whole market. That's all. They didn't buy 'em. And that was the end of that. People panicked, tried to sell what they had, but there just wasn't anybody dumb enough to buy that crap anymore. Finally, in the greater fools game, we ran out of fools.
Or almost, there's still the fed.
Actually, the fed knows exactly what it's doing. It's just waffling on the repercussions of what's going to happen and is nervous about the fallout of it's next move.
That move, of course, is a bailout.
A bailout is the absolute worst thing that could happen to the average financially responsible American citizen. The bailout will and can only come in the form of a expansion of the monetary supply, with the result of high inflation and the immediate devaluation of the dollar(which has already slid 30 percent in the last two years). And of course, none of this will help the economy for the average person, as recession is where we're headed, we're looking at real loss of jobs, economy, high prices, high inflation--far worse than just what an honest crash will cause.
But that's been the point all along--it's just the trick needed to shed cooperate debt, especially debt in dollars-- ie, pension obligations, wages to current US workers, etc. It also solves the social security and Medicaid issue. These won't go bankrupt. You'll just receive your payments at vastly devalued rate while the government receives taxes at the current rate of taxation and inflationary pressure in the real value of present dollars.
So screwed we are.
It's 12 o'clock, do you know where your 401k is?
You people have no idea what's going on here. We're a inch away from real financial disaster. In a number of neighborhood here the foreclosure rates are no running 1 house in 20--that's right--and there is simply panicked selling but no buying. When one stops to consider the amount of paper wealth that has simply vanished in the last 3 months, well, one becomes desperate to move to Hawaii or someplace like that.
I'm certain that home values here will slide 30 to 40 percent. Certain.
But that's not the end of it all. The credit crunch that just ran through the world and is far from over has a peculiar cause. It ISN'T the sub prime market defaults. These haven't even hit the books yet. The defaults that are coming so far are from builders, with houses they can't move, and from developers in general. The sub prime will hit the market soon(november) and all hell will break loose.
No, the simple cause is that someone somewhere called bullshit on the A ratings of the garbage bond ratings that have floated this whole market. That's all. They didn't buy 'em. And that was the end of that. People panicked, tried to sell what they had, but there just wasn't anybody dumb enough to buy that crap anymore. Finally, in the greater fools game, we ran out of fools.
Or almost, there's still the fed.
Actually, the fed knows exactly what it's doing. It's just waffling on the repercussions of what's going to happen and is nervous about the fallout of it's next move.
That move, of course, is a bailout.
A bailout is the absolute worst thing that could happen to the average financially responsible American citizen. The bailout will and can only come in the form of a expansion of the monetary supply, with the result of high inflation and the immediate devaluation of the dollar(which has already slid 30 percent in the last two years). And of course, none of this will help the economy for the average person, as recession is where we're headed, we're looking at real loss of jobs, economy, high prices, high inflation--far worse than just what an honest crash will cause.
But that's been the point all along--it's just the trick needed to shed cooperate debt, especially debt in dollars-- ie, pension obligations, wages to current US workers, etc. It also solves the social security and Medicaid issue. These won't go bankrupt. You'll just receive your payments at vastly devalued rate while the government receives taxes at the current rate of taxation and inflationary pressure in the real value of present dollars.
So screwed we are.
It's 12 o'clock, do you know where your 401k is?
Saturday, August 25, 2007
A busy few weeks
Wow,
So as of last post was ready to start building the new catamaran, had very nearly purchased plans, and fate strikes. . .
So the yard that I was lined up with for a build site calls and says the deal is off. They're done with boat building and don't want to have anything to do with it anymore. They're going through an eviction with someone--a "boatbuilder" just like me--who has been squatting in the boat yard and it's all going to go to court, and well, its just not worth it to cater to the likes of me, apparently.
Well, so it goes.
This was discouraging to say the least. This particular yard was the most affordable by some measure the the whole area, and the only one I could find that was remotely favorable to a boat building sort of project. Elsewise it all involves one-sided leases(I sign up for a year but they can kick me out any time) huge costs of 1200 bucks a month or more for an unimproved site and generally a hassle altogether. And it's not like THIS yard was convenient, nor comfortable, nor serviceable really. It was the only option and the only I could find that would work.
So what next?
Well, I just bought 3 acres in Hawaii as a build site. Why not? The cost of the property is near to what the rental cost of the build site would be, I actually own something, and any improvements I make to the site, ie, boat shed, etc., I actually get to keep when I'm done. Besides, it's Hawaii, and the thought of building a double voyaging canoe there sounds like much more fun in spite of the rain.
So, it's official, the Seasteader's Institute exists. #45 Kalaponi Rd, Mountain View, Hawaii, 96720. Other project minded people welcome.
I'm heading over there in November/December and will bash a build site out of the jungle and build some sort of cabin/bunkhouse. I hope to have help with a pole building for cat building, and will likely set up from the start to crack out cylinder molded cats. I plan as well to plant Paulownia trees all over the back two acres which should provide the lumber to build boats as fast as I can build boats. True, green, sustainable boat building? Really? I'm going native.
I'll keep you posted.
So as of last post was ready to start building the new catamaran, had very nearly purchased plans, and fate strikes. . .
So the yard that I was lined up with for a build site calls and says the deal is off. They're done with boat building and don't want to have anything to do with it anymore. They're going through an eviction with someone--a "boatbuilder" just like me--who has been squatting in the boat yard and it's all going to go to court, and well, its just not worth it to cater to the likes of me, apparently.
Well, so it goes.
This was discouraging to say the least. This particular yard was the most affordable by some measure the the whole area, and the only one I could find that was remotely favorable to a boat building sort of project. Elsewise it all involves one-sided leases(I sign up for a year but they can kick me out any time) huge costs of 1200 bucks a month or more for an unimproved site and generally a hassle altogether. And it's not like THIS yard was convenient, nor comfortable, nor serviceable really. It was the only option and the only I could find that would work.
So what next?
Well, I just bought 3 acres in Hawaii as a build site. Why not? The cost of the property is near to what the rental cost of the build site would be, I actually own something, and any improvements I make to the site, ie, boat shed, etc., I actually get to keep when I'm done. Besides, it's Hawaii, and the thought of building a double voyaging canoe there sounds like much more fun in spite of the rain.
So, it's official, the Seasteader's Institute exists. #45 Kalaponi Rd, Mountain View, Hawaii, 96720. Other project minded people welcome.
I'm heading over there in November/December and will bash a build site out of the jungle and build some sort of cabin/bunkhouse. I hope to have help with a pole building for cat building, and will likely set up from the start to crack out cylinder molded cats. I plan as well to plant Paulownia trees all over the back two acres which should provide the lumber to build boats as fast as I can build boats. True, green, sustainable boat building? Really? I'm going native.
I'll keep you posted.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
So, the new boat project.
So my new boat will be designed to be as practical, as minimalistic, as capable, and of course as fun as possible.
A question that I've been asked a few times, however, is this: Jay, are you going to build this boat out of renewable resources?
Hell no, I reply, at least not purposely.
Simply by the fact I intend to really build on the cheap I'll obviously engage in a lot of personal recycling, and have already started my scrounge for bits and pieces to work into the boat. But, by and large, none of the plywoods, epoxies, nor sailcloth will have a renewable aspect.
Why? Because it's pointless.
From my perspective of NON-PARTICIPATION it's very clear. At this point conversation policy only emphasizes voluntary reductions in personal consumption, not mandatory caps, the best I personally can hope to achieve by my personal reductions is subsidizing someone else's excesses. And I'm not willing to do that. While I might currently drive the highest gas-mileage pickup that can be bought, I do so because I'm cheap, not because I'm trying to save the world. The world is fucked. I can save some cash, but I'm very aware that while policy is what it is, if I personally don't burn the gas, it just lesses demand that very infinitesimal amount, which lowers cost, and encourages someone else to drive a "hummer." Mandatory caps on personal consumption would change all that, but I'll put that concept under "fat chance."
So again, any ecological aspect of this project is simply a net product of living, in essence, non-consumptively. The whole of this boat in terms of it's carbon footprint is more or less equal to that of the average American's fuel usage for two years. Considering the boat should have a lifespan of 50 year, and should produce no emissions during that period, its damn green without trying much to be.
A question that I've been asked a few times, however, is this: Jay, are you going to build this boat out of renewable resources?
Hell no, I reply, at least not purposely.
Simply by the fact I intend to really build on the cheap I'll obviously engage in a lot of personal recycling, and have already started my scrounge for bits and pieces to work into the boat. But, by and large, none of the plywoods, epoxies, nor sailcloth will have a renewable aspect.
Why? Because it's pointless.
From my perspective of NON-PARTICIPATION it's very clear. At this point conversation policy only emphasizes voluntary reductions in personal consumption, not mandatory caps, the best I personally can hope to achieve by my personal reductions is subsidizing someone else's excesses. And I'm not willing to do that. While I might currently drive the highest gas-mileage pickup that can be bought, I do so because I'm cheap, not because I'm trying to save the world. The world is fucked. I can save some cash, but I'm very aware that while policy is what it is, if I personally don't burn the gas, it just lesses demand that very infinitesimal amount, which lowers cost, and encourages someone else to drive a "hummer." Mandatory caps on personal consumption would change all that, but I'll put that concept under "fat chance."
So again, any ecological aspect of this project is simply a net product of living, in essence, non-consumptively. The whole of this boat in terms of it's carbon footprint is more or less equal to that of the average American's fuel usage for two years. Considering the boat should have a lifespan of 50 year, and should produce no emissions during that period, its damn green without trying much to be.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Hi all, getting started here.
Of course I'll try to keep things up on the website as well, but I'm going to try to keep my more political and philosophical views here rather than there. Looks like it all works and we're up and running! Posting pictures is easy here too.
Anyhow, as we work through on the Alpha Pod project, it's important to keep our eye on the prize, even if the prize isn't anything more than just getting caught up in the forthcoming crisis. That's prize enough!
Talked to the film crew today, and they're as ready as ever--chomping at the bit even to see some Sea-Steading in action. So here we go. It's up to us. If we fail, it only us that makes it so.
Anyhow, as we work through on the Alpha Pod project, it's important to keep our eye on the prize, even if the prize isn't anything more than just getting caught up in the forthcoming crisis. That's prize enough!
Talked to the film crew today, and they're as ready as ever--chomping at the bit even to see some Sea-Steading in action. So here we go. It's up to us. If we fail, it only us that makes it so.
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