Thursday, October 30, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
continued...
So it's the government's role that is primarily to blame. If factory farms had to pay all the costs of doing business that way and their prices were reflected in the market, they would get priced out.
But thanks to lobbying and maybe the illusion that they are doing everyone a favour by keeping meat cheap, bigger problems are being created.
Just another place that the government has no business in. I was reading on Wikipedia how the environment is being trashed mostly because the courts won't allow it to be protected. Their decisions usually favour industries, I don't know enough about it though.
So instead of creating and enforcing environmental regulations, the government gives everyone a free pass.
I know people don't look too far into the future when it comes to the impact of their actions. But we can't have a government that does the same thing. Everything we do has to be geared to the long-term, or life just becomes a casino. Sure you can think you are lucky for a while playing roulette, but eventually you will lose everything.
This is the difference and value of the tribal ways of thinking and living.
But thanks to lobbying and maybe the illusion that they are doing everyone a favour by keeping meat cheap, bigger problems are being created.
Just another place that the government has no business in. I was reading on Wikipedia how the environment is being trashed mostly because the courts won't allow it to be protected. Their decisions usually favour industries, I don't know enough about it though.
So instead of creating and enforcing environmental regulations, the government gives everyone a free pass.
I know people don't look too far into the future when it comes to the impact of their actions. But we can't have a government that does the same thing. Everything we do has to be geared to the long-term, or life just becomes a casino. Sure you can think you are lucky for a while playing roulette, but eventually you will lose everything.
This is the difference and value of the tribal ways of thinking and living.
Monday, October 27, 2008
This is disturbing.... watch it anyway.
Read after viewing:
Either this type of food production has gone too far, or we are OK with our food being produced this way.
Look, I love burgers, steak, chicken wings, turkey, ham sandwiches, all of it. Does meat have to be produced this way? For it to be cheap and available to the majority of the population, apparently the answer is yes. Well, since when is meat eating a right? Shouldn't the market dictate the price of goods? I just read that governments subsidize meat and dairy heavily (16oz of beef should be $30 approx. - don't quote me on that), to keep them cheap enough for everyone to consume. Is that true? Government intervention seems to distort the market and create negative externalities...
If the government did not subsidize meat and dairy or whatever, and the market dictated the price, what would happen? The price would go up and less people would be able to afford it. Good! Then the demand would go down, supply would go down, and there are other sources of nutrition. Maybe obesity would go down too and diabetes! Who knows.... any ideas?
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Krishnamurti
There is so much good shit by this guy but here's a sample:
Then there is the question of dying, which we have carefully put far away from us, as something that is going to happen in the future- the future may be fifty years off or tomorrow. We are afraid of coming to an end, coming physically to an end and being separated from the things we have possessed, worked for, experienced - wife, husband, the furniture, the little garden, the books and the poems we have written or hoped to write. And we are afraid to let all that go because we are the furniture, we are the picture that we possess; when we have the capacity to play the violin, we are that violin. Because we have identified ourselves with those things - we are all that and nothing else. Have you every looked at it that way? You are the house - with the shutters, the bedroom, the furniture which you have very carefully polished for years, which you own - that is what you are. If you remove all that you are nothing.
And that is what you are afraid of - of being nothing. Isn't it very strange how you spend forty years going to the office and when you stop doing these things you have heart trouble and die?
Krishnamurti founded schools in England, India, and the U.S. The Oak Grove School in California looks like a pretty good school but is obviously prohibitively expensive. How to provide an education like that for all?
The Krishnamurti Foundation of America website.
Check out the Arrowsmith website. The school corrects many learning disorders. For $4,000 a teacher can be trained to administer the program, but of course the school board has to see value in it to pay you, and the way things look I don't think LD kids are a top priority. To attend the Arrowsmith school in Peterborough for 1 year costs $17,000+, yet the materials of the program are easily replicated and distributed.
Then there is the question of dying, which we have carefully put far away from us, as something that is going to happen in the future- the future may be fifty years off or tomorrow. We are afraid of coming to an end, coming physically to an end and being separated from the things we have possessed, worked for, experienced - wife, husband, the furniture, the little garden, the books and the poems we have written or hoped to write. And we are afraid to let all that go because we are the furniture, we are the picture that we possess; when we have the capacity to play the violin, we are that violin. Because we have identified ourselves with those things - we are all that and nothing else. Have you every looked at it that way? You are the house - with the shutters, the bedroom, the furniture which you have very carefully polished for years, which you own - that is what you are. If you remove all that you are nothing.
And that is what you are afraid of - of being nothing. Isn't it very strange how you spend forty years going to the office and when you stop doing these things you have heart trouble and die?
Krishnamurti founded schools in England, India, and the U.S. The Oak Grove School in California looks like a pretty good school but is obviously prohibitively expensive. How to provide an education like that for all?
The Krishnamurti Foundation of America website.
Check out the Arrowsmith website. The school corrects many learning disorders. For $4,000 a teacher can be trained to administer the program, but of course the school board has to see value in it to pay you, and the way things look I don't think LD kids are a top priority. To attend the Arrowsmith school in Peterborough for 1 year costs $17,000+, yet the materials of the program are easily replicated and distributed.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
in light of the financial crisis and the U.S. government's response to it, the role of federal government must be called into question. Personally, i'd like to see education and health care moved to the local/regional level, leaving regulation (enforcement of rules on important industries like financial markets and large industries) and the military to the feds... Ideally federal government will eventually cease to exist.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
I was listening to Robert Kennedy Jr. on his radio show, Ring of Fire, on Air America on Saturdays, which you can also podcast from iTunes. On October 11 he was talking to Naomi Klein and they were saying how the bailout is another example of the Bush administration giving a handout to corporations.
The point that sticks in your head is when they say the economic system is crony capitalism - profits are privatized, and losses are socialized. Wow. What a world we live in. I mean, you get the sense that you are up against some powerful interests, but that just lays it down for you. The government lets the companies keep the profits, and the taxpayers pay for the losses.
Where is true capitalism when you need it.
The point that sticks in your head is when they say the economic system is crony capitalism - profits are privatized, and losses are socialized. Wow. What a world we live in. I mean, you get the sense that you are up against some powerful interests, but that just lays it down for you. The government lets the companies keep the profits, and the taxpayers pay for the losses.
Where is true capitalism when you need it.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
(in the voice of Harry Caray): Hey! What about this?!
Get rid of the centralized government (for most things). It is fat, bloated, and so inefficient that it's leading the charge to our graves. Distribute power so that communities/regions/cities are the masters of their own domain.
Let local governments tax their own people, and have that tax money go right back into the community. The way the world is connected now, it is so easy to move people, share information, and trade goods and services. We don't need a big bureaucracy making decisions, and there are so many benefits to having local government make the decisions. First of all, transparency - you can actually see the lifestyle of your local leaders, have a say in their decisions, and see the effects of decisions. Second, if people know that the money they give the government is the same money that is going back into the community, they will have goodwill towards the government. They will pay taxes (maybe even on under the table transactions) because they know that it's paying for their hospital bills, kid's education, roads being paved and plowed, etc. Third, culture - people get to live the way they want to. Sure, there would be a minimum standard of laws for everyone that protects property and against crime, but other than the important laws, people could determine how they want to live.
This country's infrastructure has been built, and now the centralized government is unnecessary because it is just ripping us off while living the high life and skim the fat for their corporate "real" constituents.
I guess a centralized government is necessary for regulatory bodies - stock market, media, etc. But then again, these bodies aren't doing jack shit. Centralized ownership of the media gives us the same news wherever you go, dissenting points of view are hard to find in the mainstream.
So let's move to what all the right-wing pinheads say they want - a free market (unless they REALLY screw up, then please bail us out). But instead of bailing people out when they make mistakes, let the market dictate where money flow. All the government should be doing is creating the playing field - make the rules and enforce them, but stay out of the game.
There are obviously questions with this, economically is it feasible for example. Well shit, look at the waste. We pay 18 billion for the war in Afghanistan, for what? So we can stop the Taliban? Bullshit. Sure, there is progress, but it's not lasting. Stop the Taliban by cutting off their money - I just heard we need the opium produced there for morphine in our hospitals, so why don't we just pay the farmers directly? But that's getting beside the point.
The point is, we are wasting so much money that we are powerless to stop the flow of, other than in freaking elections to elect leaders who probably aren't going to make enough change. Not only that, but a big chunk of the population is uneducated and gets their political views from 30 second sound bites and marketing style commercials. Either that or they base who they want to lead the country, on what their local leader will do for them. So we end up with impotent minority governments and waste another 1-4 years of country's life. We need to break this system apart.
Get rid of the centralized government (for most things). It is fat, bloated, and so inefficient that it's leading the charge to our graves. Distribute power so that communities/regions/cities are the masters of their own domain.
Let local governments tax their own people, and have that tax money go right back into the community. The way the world is connected now, it is so easy to move people, share information, and trade goods and services. We don't need a big bureaucracy making decisions, and there are so many benefits to having local government make the decisions. First of all, transparency - you can actually see the lifestyle of your local leaders, have a say in their decisions, and see the effects of decisions. Second, if people know that the money they give the government is the same money that is going back into the community, they will have goodwill towards the government. They will pay taxes (maybe even on under the table transactions) because they know that it's paying for their hospital bills, kid's education, roads being paved and plowed, etc. Third, culture - people get to live the way they want to. Sure, there would be a minimum standard of laws for everyone that protects property and against crime, but other than the important laws, people could determine how they want to live.
This country's infrastructure has been built, and now the centralized government is unnecessary because it is just ripping us off while living the high life and skim the fat for their corporate "real" constituents.
I guess a centralized government is necessary for regulatory bodies - stock market, media, etc. But then again, these bodies aren't doing jack shit. Centralized ownership of the media gives us the same news wherever you go, dissenting points of view are hard to find in the mainstream.
So let's move to what all the right-wing pinheads say they want - a free market (unless they REALLY screw up, then please bail us out). But instead of bailing people out when they make mistakes, let the market dictate where money flow. All the government should be doing is creating the playing field - make the rules and enforce them, but stay out of the game.
There are obviously questions with this, economically is it feasible for example. Well shit, look at the waste. We pay 18 billion for the war in Afghanistan, for what? So we can stop the Taliban? Bullshit. Sure, there is progress, but it's not lasting. Stop the Taliban by cutting off their money - I just heard we need the opium produced there for morphine in our hospitals, so why don't we just pay the farmers directly? But that's getting beside the point.
The point is, we are wasting so much money that we are powerless to stop the flow of, other than in freaking elections to elect leaders who probably aren't going to make enough change. Not only that, but a big chunk of the population is uneducated and gets their political views from 30 second sound bites and marketing style commercials. Either that or they base who they want to lead the country, on what their local leader will do for them. So we end up with impotent minority governments and waste another 1-4 years of country's life. We need to break this system apart.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Chomsky
Good interview with Chomsky about the current state of affairs (neoliberal globalization, the current financial crisis, Latin America, etc.
Link to Chomsky's Z Space page. Articles, interviews, audio, video, blog posts.
Link to Chomsky's Z Space page. Articles, interviews, audio, video, blog posts.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Grade 2 Science
What the grade 2s learned today: The water on earth has always been here. The dinosaurs drank it, and all future generations of humans will drink the same water.
This reminds me how human actions run counter to knowledge. I know that if I pollute the water it is harder for the earth to clean it and that I eventually I will have less water to drink and over time this may put the future of mankind in jeopardy. But...... I can't see any instant effects of my actions, so what the heck.
What we are seeing is knowledge superseded by short term gain. Sure, the knowledge is not conscious -I'm not thinking about the fact that polluted water means it becomes more scarce and is not an easily replenished resource- but even if I was thinking about that, I wouldn't care. I wouldn't care because my actions don't matter. It's the classic water and wine story. The problem is, this trait in humans is killing us.
If everyone realized that their actions were everything (which they are, since you can't have a sum without the parts) things could be very different. I've written before about the power of one person changing their choices, but it's worth repeating.
If you can change yourself, you create a standard against which others are forced to compare themselves. Without an example of a better way, it is easy to rest in complacency.
Human actions running counter to knowledge can be found in many areas of life. Health and nutrition; the environment; the kid who knows he'll get in trouble but does it anyway; the educated smoker; the list goes on...
What this amounts to is this: Longevity is not top priority.People say they are afraid of dying, but apparently only of a quick or accidental death. They do not always act in their long-term, overall health's best interests.
This reminds me how human actions run counter to knowledge. I know that if I pollute the water it is harder for the earth to clean it and that I eventually I will have less water to drink and over time this may put the future of mankind in jeopardy. But...... I can't see any instant effects of my actions, so what the heck.
What we are seeing is knowledge superseded by short term gain. Sure, the knowledge is not conscious -I'm not thinking about the fact that polluted water means it becomes more scarce and is not an easily replenished resource- but even if I was thinking about that, I wouldn't care. I wouldn't care because my actions don't matter. It's the classic water and wine story. The problem is, this trait in humans is killing us.
If everyone realized that their actions were everything (which they are, since you can't have a sum without the parts) things could be very different. I've written before about the power of one person changing their choices, but it's worth repeating.
If you can change yourself, you create a standard against which others are forced to compare themselves. Without an example of a better way, it is easy to rest in complacency.
Human actions running counter to knowledge can be found in many areas of life. Health and nutrition; the environment; the kid who knows he'll get in trouble but does it anyway; the educated smoker; the list goes on...
What this amounts to is this: Longevity is not top priority.People say they are afraid of dying, but apparently only of a quick or accidental death. They do not always act in their long-term, overall health's best interests.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Hmmmmm..... what the?
Graham this is who you are fighting re: Palin
Dick Morris on Fox News
Also, a must read review of Newt Ginrich's book.... this guy talks about how Norway runs its country, sounds like there is some good stuff there.
Dick Morris on Fox News
Also, a must read review of Newt Ginrich's book.... this guy talks about how Norway runs its country, sounds like there is some good stuff there.
Al Gore on Climate Change (TED talk)
The point he makes about the cap and trade system is excellent, where if the whole world was united in this effort to minimize pollution, corporations would have a legal obligation to maximize profit by decreasing pollution. Thus, the market would be the force of change - seemingly the only way to get bipartisan support for an idea in the U.S.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)