The three big energy consuming things that humans do, in this order, are: Buildings, meat production, and transportation. Yes, meat is #2, according to Jeremy Rifkin. Look for him on Youtube, I’m not spoon feeding you the statistics.
My ‘theory’ is that if people get on bikes and get out of driving cars day in and day out, they’ll have more energy and inspiration to care about the Earth in other ways: insulating their buildings and eating less factory farmed food. It’s a complete package, and it starts with our personal movements. Car culture is a disease model of behavior, and I’m calling it that today long before medicine is recognizing it as a problem. It is an ‘omni-demic’
It is told to me often enough that I fail to convince people to take action or create change because of my ‘way’, my ‘approach’, that I’m not ‘soft sell’ enough, that i need to work on my pitch.
I say to people that the personal use of cars by so many people (most people in America) has resulted in the collective dis-empowerment of nearly everyone. It has decimated our local economies, destroyed quality of life for tens of millions of us, and has created monstrous voids in many of our cities and sprawling, highly unsustainable ‘communities’. I am seen as a freak or a madman for saying this stuff. How dare I?
I’m talking to people about the merits of using a human powered bicycle as transportation, and trying to get people to realize how important it is to change our currently fucked ways. The majority are still in the paradigm that it is perfectly normal and acceptable to drive a car or truck to the store, or to work every day, and the bicycle is a sunny day recreational exercise thing. It needs to become faux pas or socially unacceptable to use a car for short distance personal transportation. It has NOTHING to do with right wing or left wing priorities.
The building is our civilization. A fire is consuming the building, at a pace of such slow and corrosive nature as to not make us think ‘fire’. The fire is our addiction to fossil fuels. It is going to destroy our home eventually, but we keep emphasizing eventually that is, if we are willing to talk about the fire that is clearly going on. The fire extinguisher is available. It hangs there in your garage. It is the bicycle.
So while we are bullshitting about how I need to treat full grown people like children and have complete tact at all times, and keep the subject exciting for them, and add a ‘soft sell’ to what I’m saying, AND do all the work as the lone activist making change, the building is burning and it’s the only home we have.
As we discuss how interpersonal skills are of the utmost, as is the hygiene and appearance of the messenger, the walls are consumed and blackened. The extinguisher: I beckon to it, explain clear and convincing facts that just about prove beyond a doubt that it IS the solution, and I stress my words and speak in an urgent manner.
My words are ignored, and because people don’t like ME or my WAY OF SAYING THINGS – – – they feel an urge to do the opposite. I’m here trying to sell the lunatic idea that we need to stop the madness of motor vehicle use, as it is done today. It is abuse of the privilege in most cases.
Everyone driving. Still. 10 years of me riding day after day, doing the right thing, risking my life and sucking on fumes, and lo – streets still full of cars… and now more and more see those loud, obnoxious personal diesel trucks.
The big ladder truck drives out of the fire station again, to respond to someone having a ‘medical emergency’, not a fire. There are not 5 fires a day in this town, but there are plenty of diesel fumes for all lungs all around.
Keep doing the same thing people… this is an “endgame scenario” as Jeremy Rifkin says, we either change, or we have to go [extinct]. Keep thinking that I’m the problem because of the ‘way I talk’ or ‘how I approach subjects’.
You just keep thinking that way, people.
Little Dick, I mean Jar. You are probably the most angry/hypcritical/hilarious/blabbering/phony I’ve ever met, or read. Instead of getting rid of alcohol get rid of the rage.
Sincerely,
Fucking Cunt
@bgw
Ya had to say that eh ??
I eat a lot of tuna fish. Tasty and easy.
By your mercury poisoning reasoning I’m probably 2 brain cells away from riding a Little Bus.
I’ll sleep easy tonight thinking of that.
Thanks a lot. Ya dick.
…just sayin’…
LJ – dude email me judir6@gmail.com if you want. you didn’t have to go all public and shit. i didn’t mean to put it out like that either. i was just curious.
you made it 10 days and then the obsession set in. that’s ok. at least you recognize that. if you think cutting down will help, so be it. only you know whats right for you.
on the dog food situation – i actually know of a turkey processing plant that sells me necks and hearts for .60 a lb. turkey trim, dark meat, is .80 a lb. very affordable to feed, though it goes againest all the PETA stuff if you are into that. i could find you a seatle co-op that feeds raw, if you want.
“You are probably the most angry/hypocritical/hilarious/blabbering/phony I’ve ever met, or read.”
He ain’t even close to that unless you’ve led a sheltered life.
The vast number of preacher men who are banging kids/hookers/horses is the best example.
OK. I made up the horses part.
But if that came true I would not be surprised.
…colonelsandersretired…
…shit, sorry dude but hey i eat a lotta fresh seafood myself…
…i just hope you’re not judging my tastes by the horse comment…she was a big girl & she was a little long in the face but, dammit man, she was all woman…
“she was a big girl & she was a little long in the face but, dammit man, she was all woman…”
Fucking priceless
Bwhahahahahahaha.
@ Barry…I have every right to spend the money that I have earned in manner of my choosing…that, my friend, has an element of freedom to it, no? I never said consumption of fossil fuels was a right, did I? What I said was, I will no longer be able to AFFORD to exercise that right in the future…a bit of a fatalist attitude, but a justifiably fatalist attitude.
For the record…it’s a good thing lj doesn’t live in my neighborhood…as I type this, I can hear CLEARLY 13 miles to my west, NHRA Top Fuel rails and nitro funny cars at Route 66 Raceway. Know how much nitromethane those boys burn up in a 4 second, 330 mph pass? Whew. If you think you are gonna change this society…good luck bro.
I have to jump in on the “tuna fish” posts. It is not tuna fish, it is simply “tuna”. You don’t say steak cow, chicken bird, salmon fish etc. It is steak, chicken, salmon by themselves. I will get off my soap box now and get a glass of water liquid to drink. Thanks
Eh.
If it comes in a can I call it tuna fish.
If I buy fresh from the seafood dept I just call it tuna.
That’s just how it is.
And I’m too damn old to be learning any new tricks at this point.
So you know where you can stick your soapbox eh ??
…being as we’ve devolved the original content of this post to discussions of what’s what in the world of tuna articulation, then i gotta weigh in on the side of the ‘colonel’…
…tuna fish = stuff in a can…
…tuna = stuff laid out on ice @ the fish counter…
…(you’d like to think) you can do it better…you’re denying a particular “definer”, something that distinguishes between the two versions…one of the vagaries of the english language is the lack of consistency but if you’re gonna be pedantic, buck trends or try to precipitate changes, you gotta come up w/ something stronger, in my opinion…
…& no, we don’t say “salmon fish”…we define salmon as fresh or canned & while tuna obviously “could be” defined in the same manner, it’s generally not…
…how do ya like them apples…or oranges ???…
I like those apple fruits! Anyhow after careful deliberation I win you lose. Sorry…
In all my nearly sixty years on this Earth I have never heard the stuff in a can called anything other than “tuna fish”, as in “tuna fish sandwich”, “tuna fish casseroll” or “you can tune a piano but you can’t tuna fish”. That’s the way people have always talked everywhere I have been. And I might not get around as much as some, but I have been around the block more than a few times. Not about to fight over it; hell no. Got bigger (non-tuna) fish to fry. Just reporting that which I have observed.
Damn, now I’m hungry. Where did I put that can opener?
Speaking of observations, the first comment dealt with getting laid. The last couplefew were all about tuna fish. Interesting…
Elecric Joe,
This is where I could get really dirty, but I won’t out of respect to all of us, especialy Judi.
All I want to say is that Little Jar, Good on you.
Yep, we often disagree here but If you look up the thread, we’re all on the same page.
Coming from New Zealand, I don’t give a rats what your politics are, only that you are good people & if you’re on here, you’re good people because you care.
Take care out there,
Hurben