Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Green Motors?
While the CEO’s of Ford (Mustang!), Chrysler (LeBaronski!) and GM (Caddilacky!) are presenting hats-in-hand while getting paid millions in bonuses every year for their accumulated losses, may I make a teensy suggestion that might have a very nice compact... impact, impact! Chevy chevy, eh, ya know? Sawee.
Go ahead and take 50 million out of the original 750 million the feds were going to use to bail out the mortgage holders or buy bank shares (or roll dice) and hope the Americans take this rare opportunity to insist on a couple of conditions:
1. No more golden parachutes for exiting executives and keep their salaries and bonuses within a range that doesn’t appear obscene to the rest of those taxpayers whose money they’re pleading for;
2. Pay back this principal amount at bank prime + one (devilishly ironic, bank shares et al);
3. And by far most importantly: insist that these Big Three - whose cars look like each other's and who could not, or refused to see the inevitable consumer trend to smaller, less gas guzzling vehicles of lesser emissions - just go green.
And that’s what this 50 million should be used for: retooling their factories to create electric and crossover, city-friendly vehicles. Then all those zoom-zoomers at every little red/green light in cities, braking hither and thither can finally relax and stop counting their gas-fueled frustrations amidst all their noise.
I always did know: the louder your vehicle the smaller your ... (ahemski). Just ask the Hell's Weenies. "Vroom, vruh, cough, cough, see my big belly and hairy ass hangin' out. WOW am I cool!" I suppose it's too much to ask those morons to just give us all some relief from their means of coping with their shortage in the manly dept.
After all this minor revolution directed by goodness, we can finally and legitimately ask GM to change its name: Green Motors.
BoobToobitis?
The University of Maryland analyzed 34 years of data collected from more than 45,000 participants and found that watching TV might make you feel good in the short term but is more likely to lead to overall unhappiness. - Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
You mean after watching all those gratuitously violent, shamelessly vulgar, intellectually vapid, joyless programmes we might actually not feel so hot after a big dose of viewing?
As if the so-called TV Standards people didn't know this for decades. Now that these programmers, producers and celebrities have created this embarrassingly massive appetite for crap, me-wonders how we get back to genuinely interesting and rewarding television viewing?
Go ahead and take 50 million out of the original 750 million the feds were going to use to bail out the mortgage holders or buy bank shares (or roll dice) and hope the Americans take this rare opportunity to insist on a couple of conditions:
1. No more golden parachutes for exiting executives and keep their salaries and bonuses within a range that doesn’t appear obscene to the rest of those taxpayers whose money they’re pleading for;
2. Pay back this principal amount at bank prime + one (devilishly ironic, bank shares et al);
3. And by far most importantly: insist that these Big Three - whose cars look like each other's and who could not, or refused to see the inevitable consumer trend to smaller, less gas guzzling vehicles of lesser emissions - just go green.
And that’s what this 50 million should be used for: retooling their factories to create electric and crossover, city-friendly vehicles. Then all those zoom-zoomers at every little red/green light in cities, braking hither and thither can finally relax and stop counting their gas-fueled frustrations amidst all their noise.
I always did know: the louder your vehicle the smaller your ... (ahemski). Just ask the Hell's Weenies. "Vroom, vruh, cough, cough, see my big belly and hairy ass hangin' out. WOW am I cool!" I suppose it's too much to ask those morons to just give us all some relief from their means of coping with their shortage in the manly dept.
After all this minor revolution directed by goodness, we can finally and legitimately ask GM to change its name: Green Motors.
BoobToobitis?
The University of Maryland analyzed 34 years of data collected from more than 45,000 participants and found that watching TV might make you feel good in the short term but is more likely to lead to overall unhappiness. - Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
You mean after watching all those gratuitously violent, shamelessly vulgar, intellectually vapid, joyless programmes we might actually not feel so hot after a big dose of viewing?
As if the so-called TV Standards people didn't know this for decades. Now that these programmers, producers and celebrities have created this embarrassingly massive appetite for crap, me-wonders how we get back to genuinely interesting and rewarding television viewing?
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
NO POPPY FOR ME
My Dad was a war hero. Last one left for dead at Rimini. And then his letters show he was prepared and expecting to return to the front.
After the war he suffered the memories of his dead fellows in the river of blood. As to his command: “The failure taught a useful lesson: not again in Italy in the 11th Brigade was a Company dispatched to take a Battalion objective.”
My Dad suffered and was hospitalized for 24 years as a veteran. After his death, successive federal governments stole his and other veterans’ estates from their families by not allowing them interest on the monies accrued and not permitting their families an inheritance.
My eldest brother has been waiting four years to receive from the Veteran’s Affairs Dept my Dad’s war record. So far nothing.
So much for all this weepy sentimentalism.
Blow somebody else’s horn.
After the war he suffered the memories of his dead fellows in the river of blood. As to his command: “The failure taught a useful lesson: not again in Italy in the 11th Brigade was a Company dispatched to take a Battalion objective.”
My Dad suffered and was hospitalized for 24 years as a veteran. After his death, successive federal governments stole his and other veterans’ estates from their families by not allowing them interest on the monies accrued and not permitting their families an inheritance.
My eldest brother has been waiting four years to receive from the Veteran’s Affairs Dept my Dad’s war record. So far nothing.
So much for all this weepy sentimentalism.
Blow somebody else’s horn.
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Sunday, November 02, 2008
Winning Back Our Earth
This morning as I strolled I noticed a patch of ground, ¼ block perhaps, that had been transformed into an urban garden. I couldn’t make out exactly which vegetables were growing as the gate was locked but it reminded me of my mentor’s comment: “All you need is food, shelter and the company of loved ones.” In this holus bolus part of Vancouver (downtown eastside, Hastings) it is well to bear those words with us day to day.
And why are we so busy as a society exporting crap, importing crap from China and manufacturing jobs that have nothing to do with “the company of loved ones” or eating?
It is time to deindustrialise. Industrialisation was born only 100 or so years ago and born from greed. And now it is consuming our earth in harrowing ways (ask the polar bears).
Deindustrialise now. Make more gardens until the urban area is full of brightly coloured veggies for all. And easy on the eyes.
And why are we so busy as a society exporting crap, importing crap from China and manufacturing jobs that have nothing to do with “the company of loved ones” or eating?
It is time to deindustrialise. Industrialisation was born only 100 or so years ago and born from greed. And now it is consuming our earth in harrowing ways (ask the polar bears).
Deindustrialise now. Make more gardens until the urban area is full of brightly coloured veggies for all. And easy on the eyes.
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