Letter to the Editor

A letter I submitted today after having read a column by the delightful, but IMHO sometimes mildly misguided, Marlo Campbell.

The inconvenient truth that leaders of the Climate Change movement are also perpetrators of crimes against the environment aught not to be as easily set aside as columnist Marlo Campbell would have it be (Call off the hounds -- green messengers are OK, Mon. Nov. 12, 2007). Mr.’s Gore and Suzuki are both extremely wealthy and respected men who, despite their posturing, have not made the sacrifices to lifestyle they demand of humanity in general. Should the rest of us practice austerity because it is good for us while our multi-millionaire prophets and their cohorts continue to live large? Real leaders set examples with their actions rather than relying upon heart-felt words and vainglorious endorsements from other elites to make their point. They do this because they realize that blatant hypocrisies are an invitation for all to doubt their belief in and commitment to the message they bring.

The Dali Lama Sells Out

I wrote something about a picture in today's paper on the ALFA Blog earlier. For the benefit of those who don't follow ALFA (although lord knows you should) here's the link: http://alabelforartists.blogspot.com/2007/11/dali-lama-sells-out.html

Musings on the Music Industry

This is an article I am going to submit unsolicited to the U of W Student Newspaper The Uniter in response to an opinion piece in last week's edition.

Musings on the Music Industry

Last issue's Uniter featured an article that attempted to defend the roll of the recording industry in the wake of Radiohead's recent label-free, pay-what-you-want release "Rainbows". Although it raised many valid arguments it failed to mention what may be the most fundamental point about the business of music in general. Namely: that until about 100 years ago there was no such thing as a recording industry. Although publishing sheet music and composing were a source of revenue for some, most musicians then, as now, made their money by touring. Thus the current woes of the major labels are no great threat to the great cultural gift that is music. While it is often said that a band tours in support of a current release, from the perspective of the working musician it is quite often the reverse.

There's no denying that the recording industry has brought to our attention many stupendously talented artists for whom we should be eternally grateful. But let's not forget that the industry is also responsible for the awful crap that constituted "Can Rock" in the 1980's; an era of shame that we get to live over and over again thanks to the omnipresent 92 CITI FM. Kim Mitchell anyone? And let us also remember that it was the record industry who, without justification beyond greed, gouged us more seasoned record buyers when they decided that CDs should replace LPs at nearly double the price, despite the fact that production costs were the same or lower for CDs. Should we accord these scoundrels any quarter now that the shoe is on the other foot?

New technologies have found the soft underbelly of the once mighty corporations that made a mint off of recording the talents of others, and I for one couldn't be happier. Now it is possible for bands with a bit of know-how to make their own records and decide their own fate. If it means that less musicians get to own private jets and live the celebrity life of a Radiohead or Led Zeppelin it's quite alright with me. Fame is overrated anyway.

Indie Rock, and Canadian Indie Rock particularly has seen a great rise in prominence and record sales since the 1990's. Not only are these acts as talented as the ones who pack stadiums worldwide they are often far more accessible. Bands like The New Pornographers, Arcade Fire and Winnipeg's own Weakerthans play shows at smaller, more intimate venues where the object is not to witness a spectacle but to hear great live music.

Indeed this is the kind of music one should be supporting with one's wallet. Who cares if The Rolling Stones ever make another cent on anything they do? Does Jimmy Eats World need my $20? Those guys are doing just fine last time I checked. And what about the schmoozers that acted as A & R reps for these bands? Should I be paying for their champagne breakfasts in the Bahamas? No. I should be at the Zoo banging my head to Priestess or at the Burt singing along to Tegan and Sara. Acts I didn't hear about in the latest issue of SPIN, acts I got to know because they have actually been across Canada a number of times and attracted a following. That is how musicians made money before there was a cigar chomping executive cutting the cheques, and that is how they should be making money now.

I urge record buyers to lay the boots to antiquated notions of what supporting the artist means. Copy as much of EMI's catalogue as your conscience dictates, anything older than 15 years aught to be public domain anyways. Feel free to follow my motto: "if an artist (or band) is dead, just go ahead." And for God sake, don't pay for punk, it's anathema. However, make sure you go to lots of shows and buy something off the merch table, and/or buy a new, undiscovered record or two from an indie label every time you need to give a gift. Your friends and friendly neighborhood musician will thank you.

Scrabulous Junkie

I've got eight Scrabulous games on the go right now. Everyday when I come home from work I check on which ones have the little green go light. Same thing in the morning before I leave, and also check regularly through the evening if I happen to be at the computer. I'm sucked right in. Maybe it's because I won like the first six in a row and now I get that gambler's high, like I'm gonna win everyone and somehow prove I am a person of superior intelligence and gamesmanship. Unlike the gambler though, there's no money on the line, and that's not really a place I want to go.

I like that they have the chat application front and centre now though because what's cool about Scrabulous (aside from the fact that I can use the dictionary at will in most games and that no-one gets mad if I take to long to plot my perfect moves) is that I can actually carry on a bit of a conversation with a far away friend.

I've also joined an online chess thing at chess.com (I think) under the name Wassily Kandinsky (you fans of Modern Art out there will know who I'm talking about). I'm not sure how much I'll get into that whole business, because my chess skills are pretty average and I've never been able to delve deep enough into the math of it to get too excited. Plus I used to get really hyped up and I was a bad looser (perhaps because I associate it with some kind of intellectual prowess that I know I am inferior with) so I'm not sure it's all that good for me to be getting back into it. For example, in the first game I made a dumb mistake on my second move and lost a pawn for nothing. No big deal one pawn, but I was down on myself already.

BTW: My best Scrabble so far (or Bingo in Scrabulous' non-copyright infringing lingo) is UNvEILS (where "v" is a blank tile) for 86 points, and my favourite is URINATED for 68. I have also learned of the existence of the Super Scrabble word "OXYPHENBUTAZONE" which nets a bonus of about 1500 (but can probably only be played by players who are cooperating. Pretty damn fascinating, non?

The forgotten blog

Seems I'm not taking much time to write anymore. I'm not sure why, laziness maybe? Anyway I only work six hours a day so I should have plenty of time for writing, etc. but nothing's getting done. I have been playing a lot of Facebook Scrabulous lately though. I don't think I can claim to be doing anything literary because of it, but here is a pictue of an interesting game I just started.
I have had two Scrabbles (0r Bingos as they are called in Scrabulous terms) in a row. On the second scrabble I used the word LUNGE to make PLUNGED which coincidentally turned the word LUNGE into another PLUNGE. If I were a superstitious person I would be seeing a clogged toilet in my very near future. Anyway, not that this post is particularly useful or thought provoking, but it's a small sample of the kind of minutiae that is keeping me from more important thoughts. If someone knows how I can get my groove back I 'd be glad to hear about it. In the meantime if you want to play some Scrabulous then just challenge me baby.

Letter of the Day

This is today's Winnipeg Free Press Letter of the Day as written by yours truly (with some minor edits from the WFP):

The new Wi-Fi deal struck by the City of Winnipeg and MTS is a terrible deal for Winnipeggers. In exchange for a portion of the revenue -- ostensibly to pay the mere $23,000 it cost to install the system in 20 library branches and one public pool -- the city gave MTS five years to charge $3 per hour for the service. In addition to the fee, MTS also benefits by having exclusive use of city-owned property to hawk its wares and recruit new business.

Three dollars an hour is a gouge. An entire month on a private plan from MTS costs around $41 for speeds higher than most users can realize with current wireless technology. Allowing a private firm to control and profit from an information service offered within publicly owned libraries undermines the goal of these institutions, which I always assumed was to provide such services free of charge (or at least paid for by civic taxes).

With reference to the new service fees Mayor Sam Katz cynically pronounced: "There's no such thing as free service." Now, granted no library is under any obligation to provide a free wireless service, but given that Winnipeg libraries already provide free Internet to patrons with cards and enough patience to wait for a terminal, why should it not strive to provide a wireless signal for free to people who have their own equipment? If it was not possible to provide wireless to all city libraries due to budget constraints, would it not have been preferable to build these capabilities into the main branches first, and then later equip the satellites, as funds became available?

The mayor said that part of the reason the city did this was to be "hip." How hip is it for Winnipeg to charge an inflated $3 per hour for what many other cities in North America offer for free?

Find Me, Fine Me, Fire Me

There's been quite a bit of buzz lately about people who are dumb enough to put incriminating stuff on Facebook and then get caught. Underage drinking, rushing the field after a football game, setting up a white supremacist group "as a joke." It's hard to have sympathy for anyone dumb enough to let the world search his or her profile for these incriminating tid-bits when it's so easy to set your privacy at a more discreet level. Although it sucks when you have done so and someone else hasn't, and they've got a picture of you spraying graffiti on a public monument or something. Still, I have no sympathy. Protect yourself, know who your friends are, and if you don't, don't let them snap incriminating shots of you, or wall stuff about how you cheated on your exams, taxes, etc. End of story.

Modern Austerity Rant: Turn off your damn TVs.

Many people I know spend a great deal of time watching television, until I was in my later 20’s I would have fit this category too. In fact in my youth I probably watched more TV than anyone. There was no restriction on my viewing habits, no commands to complete homework. If I wanted to I could watch TV well into the night, and I often did.

Maybe that’s why I don’t even keep a TV plugged in anymore. I haven’t had cable in more than a decade, except for the time Shaw tired to hook me in with a three month trial. I know there are good shows in the world I’m missing, and spectacular news footage that will have people buzzing at the water cooler for days. I am far removed from the celebrity break-ups and make-ups, distant from the latest reality show results and probably considered a by freak most of my urban contemporaries; but frankly, I don’t mind.

After a while you forget what it’s like to need that thing in your life. Of course you never real forget about it, it is omnipresent in our society, and there are important NHL playoffs going on every spring to jog one’s memory.

In the end it’s kind of like giving up smoking, another vice I have been lucky to have the fortitude to overcome. At first all you think about is that thing. It’s everywhere you look, and all your friends are still indulging. You start to obsess: what will happen in all the serials you’ve abandoned? What peril awaits at Season Finale? And all those glitzy music and film awards, the documentaries, the nature shows, Pop-Up Video...

But when you’re no longer shaking and sweating, when the last of the shooting pains has ceased, you find a little space in the world that’s not explicitly trying to sell you something. A place where you don’t need constant injections of entertainment to wash away the dull and mundane.

People have always enjoyed entertainment; history is full of examples of fulfilling this basic human need. The Roman Coliseum stands testament to it, so too does Kabuki theatre and classical music. But never in history has man had so much time to percolate. To just sit around, long after the sun has gone down, bathed in electric light and utterly bored.

The television would appear to be a near ideal solution to this dilemma, and it’s popularity since the 1950’s is ample evidence. It has linked us to events around the globe, brought directly to our living rooms by some cheerful and heavily made-up Ken or Barbie with a clip-on mike. By way of compromise we need only suffer a few zillion ads and oblique product placements, sometimes cleverly hidden within the news as reports.

On the negative side TV tends to make people a lot stupider. The proliferation of tabloid news programming and celebrity worship rags on the newsstand is just the tip of the iceberg. A closer look reveals people who believe what they see (even in this age of image manipulation), who view the value of things cleverly advertised as status items as self-evident. People who’s opinion about the world is shaped by a Ken or Barbie journalist that is really just the mouthpiece of a sour old fart who doesn’t believe in anything.

Certainly this is not the case for everyone, and there were probably a lot of easily manipulated sorts in the golden age of radio and beyond. But seeing is believing, and critical thinking is no longer in vogue.

Most people I know are figuring out ways to get their hands on bigger and skinnier idiot boxes, rather than admitting they have a problem. And I suppose it’s a bit hypocritical of me, the ex-TV junky to preach austerity. But it’s a bit like the ex-smoker being the loudest voice in the room when someone lights up.

My mom used to embarrass me when she became an ex-smoker in the 80’s, making a big stink over someone else’s stinky butt. Now I get it, and I’m not afraid to say it: Turn off your damn TVs.

First Day of School

Yesterday was my first day back at University in more than 13 years. I decided to take one course with the intent of boosting my GPA while at the same time earning a credit towards a "teachable minor." The course I ended up with is "Islam and the West" a second year History course that explores the development of Western (i.e. Christian) and Islamic cultures comparatively from the fall of Rome. In the first class the Prof. talked mainly about Rome and the crisis that led it to Christianity, followed by the loss of it's western portion two centuries later. He also touched on the Persians, the great near-eastern civilization at that time, the Germanic tribes (aka Barbarians) and the Huns, both of whom were responsible for the fall of Rome. Hopefully this course will not conflict with my intended profession of Educational Assistant, but I can't be completely sure of that yet. The course starts at 4pm so hopefully most of my sub postings will be over by then?!

Marx Bros. Interlude

I've never really checked out much Marx Bros. but they are some pretty amazingly talented dudes. Here's a little quick piano piece by Chico.

Ode to My Last Day of Work

Yesterday I wrote a poem/comment on the ALFA blog, click here to read it.

Glorious Feedback

These are letters published in today's Free Press refuting the commentary I had in Sunday's paper. This is the first time the paper has published letters based on an article I've written. Frankly, I'm a bit tickled. Here they are:

Letter of the day

Wed Aug 22 2007

Car thieves aren't victims

Re: Persecuting and Prosecuting Children, Aug. 19.

Ryan Kinrade equates children as equal victims in instances where they are objects of sexual attack and also as youthful car thieves causing willful damage and even death to others. I respectfully beg to differ.

A child who is the victim of a sexual attack is the target of a predator who is searching for someone who is less powerful than he to exercise power over. The perpetrator may have been the victim of some past injustice himself. In our society this does not entitle him to act out his resentment and frustration on an innocent human being.

In the same way the youthful car thief aligns himself with the sexual predator. The car thief may have been the victim of some sort of crime, but he is not entitled to steal and damage the property of others, or to maim and kill innocent third parties to empower himself or relieve his frustrations. The unfortunate victim of the car thief stands in the place of the child sexual assault victim in Kinrade's parable.

I do agree that child car thieves need to be treated differently than sexual predators, but when murder by motor vehicle results from car theft, the punishment needs to reflect the seriousness of the crime. Every perpetrator of every crime suffers from lost innocence. That does not excuse them for their willful and destructive behaviour.

I am extremely tired of the "everybody is a victim" culture, which I feel may be encouraged by Kinrade's musings. In some ways we are all victims of something in our pasts, but we can never use that as an excuse to victimize someone else with our own destructive behaviour.

WILLIAM D. WATSON

Winnipeg

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Excuses, excuses

Re: Persecuting and prosecuting children, Free Press (Aug. 18). Ryan Kinrade's article says the reason so many of these kids steal cars is because they are in impoverished environments. I beg to differ. As long as people make excuses for these kids they will keep doing it.

I grew up with two verbally and physically abusive alcoholic parents. I grew up in the north end in the 1960s. I used to roam the streets sometimes until 2 a.m. but not to vandalize or steal. I was on a mission. That mission was to find enough pop and beer bottles to cash in so I could buy milk for my baby brother. I also went to bed many nights where my supper was a bowl of milk and a slice of bread broken up into the milk.

I never used my childhood problems to steal anything, including food. I weighed 69 pounds when I graduated from high school. Please quit giving the kids of today a cop out. It won't help them in the end. The poor-me attitude will only get them so far and it probably shouldn't get them anywhere if they want to grow up to be productive members of society. One last thing, I am a proud Metis so don't think I'm being prejudicial.

Sandi Miller

Winnipeg

FP Article

I previously reported that this article had been rejected, but it appeared in today's paper, so if you've read it already it's nothing new, only difference is it's status has changed from "unpublished" to "published."


Two separate but equally devastating crimes that have captured the attention of Winnipeggers recently point to what a paradoxical pursuit Justice can be in the case of children.

In one case we have a man who’s sexual urges are reviled by society, who is judged by the masses as a monster, and who, if the common man had his way would likely be castrated or worse.

Liberal as Canadian society is in matters of sexual preference, we draw the line at children. We do so because we don’t believe kids have the gained the knowledge to appreciate the value of their sexuality, and are in general far more susceptible to manipulation from adults who would abuse their trust. We believe that an adult has an obligation to respect the innocence of the young, and to know the boundaries, liberal as they are in Canada, in which “consensual sex” is legally considered consensual.

However society does not afford children who commission motor vehicles for the purpose of joy-riding the same measure of innocence. Indeed, when a child--who is perhaps just old enough to consent to sex--steals a car he is no longer a child, but a “youth,” and as such is subject to the all disapproval and bloodlust an enraged citizenry places on it’s most hated criminals.

Tragic results, such as last week’s death of an innocent cyclist, seem to further mobilize public support and government musings on the redrafting of laws, intended to protect youth, to reflect a desire for punishment in the name of public safety. Only by strong deterrence and proper detention—so the theory goes—can we hope to end the madness that has threatened our property and our lives.

There is little discussion about the lost innocence of the perpetrators of these crimes. We have no tolerance for those who would know right, and do wrong, and not much interest in why they would choose wrong over and over again. Apparently, to most it is simply a matter that bad behaviour that goes unpunished will not be amended.

But I see a substantial amount of hypocrisy in our desire to protect one group of children from harm on the one hand, while seeking punishment for another group of children on the other. Are not all children equally worthy of our protection? Is it not the indifference and callousness that we as a community have showered on these persecuted children and their families that has caused them act as they do?

A typical young car thief in Winnipeg is most often the product of an impoverished environment. He is the possessor a stolen childhood lived out on the mean streets of our city, in neighborhoods most people do not live in or visit unless they are forced to. What his crimes indicate above all is the failure on the part of our society to shield it’s most vulnerable citizens from the harsh realities that come as a consequence of poverty and an interminable cycle of despair.

In 1989 the Federal House of Commons promised to: “seek to achieve the goal of eliminating poverty among Canadian children by the year 2000.” Seventeen years later we are no closer to closing the gap, and providing this city’s unfortunates an opportunity to engage in activities and a lifestyle that most would find preferable to stealing cars and living as a pariah.

My guess is that few thieves, even the most chronic among them, would wish to be feared and reviled, if other forms of respect were available to them. If they could find a sport, or an artistic outlet or a hobby that could bring pride to themselves, their families and their neighborhoods would they feel the need to inflict hurt on society over and over again?

We must take greater pains to understand how our indifference is paid back in crimes of property and violence, rather than insisting that more severe punishments will restore order to the streets (which they most certainly will not). Only then will we be closer to finding the answer to what to do about these spectacular crimes—which seem to be the only indication of the epidemic of poverty and despair that better-off citizens pay much attention to these days.

The One That Got Away & Other Fish Tales

Yesterday afternoon I got back from a two day semi-annual fishing excursion with my long-time brother-from-another-mother Dr. Steve. This year we hit Dogtooth Lake which is accessible from the Rushing River Provincial Park (about 20 minutes outside Kenora).

Steve and I paddled his canoe out of Rushing River on Thursday afternoon towards the meeting place of Dogtooth and Kilvert Lakes (about a 7 KM journey). We had a very strong wind at our backs most of the way, which was fortunate given that we did not arrive at the boat launch until after 2pm. On the way out we stopped to fish a couple of bays and I was lucky enough to bring in a decent sized bass that we cooked for supper that night.

We spent all of Friday fishing the bays around the fabulous campsite we found on an island close to the opening of Kilvert. Unlike the Manitoba campsites we are used to from years past this site was completely unmarked by map or landmark. The area we camped in is a part of a proposed Provincial Park, but as yet is mostly undeveloped crown land (with a few notable exceptions in the form of some nice cabins along the way). Anyway, the island had been used previously and a decent fire pit existed, along with a fairly flat clearing in the middle that was perfect for pitching our tent.

The weather was ideal for the entire trip; hot and sunny with just a bit of a breeze. I managed to get a fairly embarrassing sunburn on my chest where I did not do up the shirt I was wearing. Currently I am sporting a rather nasty red stripe from the nape of my neck to the top of my shorts.

Back to the fishing. Our quarry consisted mainly of small to medium sized Large Mouth Bass. I had great success using two classic Rapala lures which happened to be swimming at just the right depth. Steve had a bit more trouble finding a killer lure, but between us we managed to catch a decent amount of fish. I did happen to catch a couple of Walleye while casting with the Rapala. The first one was a very nice sized fish (2 to 3 pounds) that I brought all the way into the boat only to loose while trying to put it on a stringer. Unfortunately I didn't even get a good shot of me with this beautiful specimen, so you'll have to take my word for it. The other Pickerel was a tiny, tiny little fellow, hardly worth mentioning. Of course there were a few dinky Jack to be had as well. All the fish fought well (especially the bass) and it was a pleasure to catch and release them all.

On the Friday afternoon just prior to catching the Walleye that got away Steve and I noticed a huge Bald Eagle in the bay opposite our campsite. S/he followed us around that afternoon as we fished getting up and flying overhead whenever we got too close, but always sticking around. I called her/him our Spirit Eagle and wondered if s/he was not responsible for finding us a good spot to camp and fish. We were also treated to some spectacular loon songs a beaver sighting and some amazing sunsets.

In short, a wonderful time was had, and we got to immerse ourselves in the natural wonder that surrounds us if only for a brief few days. Sadly the Lake of the Woods region is over-runneth with float-planes and powerboats during the summer season and Dogtooth Lake is no exception. However there were plenty of moments when one could imagine that there was nothing but wilderness and loon song, and star filled skies above.

A previously unpublished rant

This is something I wrote a few weeks back, kind of similar in theme to the article below. I thought I had posted it already, but I don't see it on the blog. So here it is:

It's funny this world of convenience we live in. For example, imagine the amount of energy and material it takes to make every plastic water or soda bottle you buy and casually dispose of. Little toxic bombs in everybody's hands. But there is no complaint about this phenomenon. When the price of gas goes up a few cents, or when the average temperature of Earth goes up a few degrees there is hysteria and global conferences called. What is really going on is that people are not spending enough time thinking about how they are living. A few cents more at the pumps doesn't add up to too much, no one's a hundred percent that fixing the carbon problem will reduce the temperature, but goddamn it if we washed a glass or a fork once in while would it kill us?

Sometimes I like to think of how people fit in the overall plan of evolution. Where are we compared to the dinosaurs and the death of the Sun. Will other beings someday mine down to our civilization, using are garbage dumps as an energy source in a time where the Sun's rays are starting to ebb a bit. Are we just some wonderful interim experiment of what happens when you take the two elements of life--the Adam and Eve, if you will--and cast them into an environment such as our own.

What puzzles me a bit is our insistence that for in order for intelligent life to exist on other planets they must have conditions like our own. A stable atmosphere, a moderate temperature, water. Well what if the seeds that scatter to those stars become other beings; what if they adapt to rivers of lava and million mile an hour winds. I tell you something, we wouldn't stand a chance against those boys if they decided to wage intergalactic war.

I can see how some people just don't care that much about what they do. Their lives are consumed by who they will be, rather than who they are. I suppose it is a perfectly natural, and perhaps essential trait on the grand scale. But the problem is that there are so many good people trying to be more than they aught, and too many great brains out there bent on convincing them. If there was half the energy it took to tell people to buy Gucci or Baskin Robbins put into a campaign about how all bottles should be reused as often as possible, it would be topsy-turvey and insane, but I for one would like to see it.

Right now I am drinking a bottle of 7-Up, one of many I have consumed over my life time. I think of the massive populating of this place over the last 200 years. How it has become profitable to put a soda in a plastic bottle designed for disposal. What a short and crazy trip from staking claims to living in big urban centres. That's what Canada is, the great land grab. A new land, claimed by a shrewd crew of English traders and an hearty bunch of French settlers. And then of course there are the founding peoples. A diverse group of nations, many of whom were subjected to harsh forms of cultural, if not actual genocide, that live among us today. When one adds the many Asians, Africans, Arab and Island people that come here it makes for quite an international stew.

That is what we should be proudest of. Not our seat in the exclusive G7 club, not even our hockey championships (although we should be damn proud of those). What we should be proudest of, and work hardest at, is the fact that we are all people from different places. And assuming our species can weather a few extra degrees, and the continuing possibility of all out nuclear holocaust, in a few hundred years we'll all be Irish-Polish-Tahitian-Jamaican-Tasmanian-Burundi-Cree-French-Korean and so on.

Now we are all here in this new free for all land that no one really knew was here (except for the original peoples of course) a land that is full of resources and so much space. Endless space with a great big Jambalaya of humans who like to drink soda from plastic bottles and drive cars. Most of us live in a few very concentrated spots near the southern boarder and would never dream of doing otherwise.

But being a pissy-pants about how other people live gets boring sometimes. It's not easy being a curmudgeon. Sometimes I like to just live too. Like yesterday when we took the holiday Monday and went to the beach. Those are the days when I can just hang up that bitter old critic and dig into life. Watching people, playing Frisbee having a mini barbecue on the grass at Bird's Hill's fake lake. That's what life is all about, the rest, quite frankly is nonsense.

The New Asceticism

I’m not much of an admirer of the current “Climate Change” fever that has politicians and popular personalities of all stripes singing and dancing for massive change. My much vilified university professor, Tim Ball, taught us to be skeptical, if not downright hostile, to the doomsayers of Climate Change, and though I am no-one’s toady or disciple I will admit that my skepticism continues in the face of considerable public sentiment to the contrary.

The earth has seen massive climate change before the industrial age, and in all likelihood it will see such changes again in future eons when our species is no longer dominant. It is possible that the carbon we produce so much of these days is a significant factor in the Earth’s warming, on the other hand, no-one is sure what the weather will be like next Wednesday, so who’s to say what really causes weather, and what doesn’t. Climate scientists may claim to know what is going on, but the priests and sages of eras past have spoken with as much authority only to be debunked.

However, to me the most interesting thing about our current green obsession is not what we believe is happening to our earth, but the way in which we frame how we will make changes to prevent disaster.

For instance, we insist that there must be other ways to produce energy efficiently and are so eager to believe this that we invest in dubious technologies like bio-fuels. Currently bio-fuels consume tremendous amounts of farmland and tax dollars to produce a negligible benefit. Perhaps in time we will master the extraction of fuels from plant-life, but so far it has proven to be a wasteful and expensive dream. Nonetheless bio-fuels remain a portent myth in the race to solve the climate change riddle.

The one, most obvious, solution to this problem however gets very little ink, and virtually no sound-bites. It is an idea that is as old as civilization itself, something that has been practiced by people of all times and ages whether by choice, or far more often, by necessity. It is called: living with less. Whereas virtually every argument one reads for the adoption of green technology contains some nod toward sustainable growth there is barely a soul alive who would propose that we move toward sustainable shrinkage.

The orthodoxy of modern economics posits that a civilization, in order to be successful and relevant in global terms, must continue to grow at all costs. Even as populations shrink in the nations most guilty of carbon spewing (with the noted exception of the United States) we continue to obsess over how we can go green and keep growing.

Here’s a radical thought. Why don’t we see what it would be like to not be so fixated on our status. How about we build homes that are affordable to heat and cool rather than massive, energy sucking monuments to our own perceived greatness and success. What if we had say one vehicle per family that reflected our needs rather than our annual salaries. Could we get by without lettuce in the dead of winter, and extravagant trips to foreign climbs? If we made more of an effort to live within our means would we still feel the guilt and doom of a future with no polar ice-caps and a prolonged hurricane season?

Like so much of what appears to be relevant today Climate Change is a product of hype and is mired in hyperbole. I am all for changing the way we live on Earth, for using less, working more on ourselves and less for our economies and for spending more time getting to know this fabulous biosphere we call home. But I don’t want to do it because jet-setting millionaires like Al Gore, Bono and Leonardo DiCapprio think it’s a good idea, and I don’t want to do it so Ford can sell me a new car that runs on rabbit food. I want to do it because I believe that our lives are about more than what we have owned when we die, and because I believe that a good, moral life is worthwhile despite the presence or absence of God(s), contrite politicians, Hollywood celebrities or speculative science.

I want to do it because I believe future generations have the right to enjoy the bounty of this planet, but should do so believing that the greatest imperative is take what is necessary and not more. If global warming continues to happen apace it will probably be the most valuable lesson we could learn.

HTML lesson from a know-it-all

Hi Ren,

I know I told you how to make a link on blogger, but I'm a bit of a know-it-all, as you may recall, and I like to show off my nerdy prowess. As a consequence of my peculiar vanity I thought I'd take a second to explain a bit of HTML. When you know how to do it manually you can leave links in the comments section of ALFA and impress your friends in other important ways.**

• First you use a triangluar bracket: "<" these brackets are always used in HTML to indicate that the text inside is a command, not an actual bit of text.
• After the bracket you type an "a". The "a" stands for Anchor--not entirely sure why Anchor, but it helps to remember the "a" if you know what it stands for.
  
• After that you leave a space and type "href" where "h" is short for "hypertext" and "ref" is short for "reference".
  
• Then you put an "=," for equals.
  
• After the "=" you must place a quotation mark otherwise the link will only refer to another page from the current web address no matter what you type as your link.
• Then you enter your address.
  
• Behind the address you place another quotation mark, and a closing triangle bracket ">" to close that portion of the command.
  
• Then you type the text you want the viewer to see eg. "link".
  
• After this you must end the command. You do this by putting another triangle bracket, then a forward slash "/" with an "a" meaning "stop anchor", then a closing bracket. After this all your text will be normal again.

It should look like this:

<a href="http://www.geostationarybananaovertexas.com">link</a>

The result is this: link

**Relevant, if useless, tidbit: I first gained entry into the inner sanctum of ALFA when I revealed this bit of web wisdom to Dave in a comment.

p.s. I have also blogged this email on the disclaimer.

Your Banner Ads Suck

A little bit of hate mail for the editors of the Free Press's on-line edition:

Dear Web Masters,

Do you know how distracting it is to read any of your paper on-line? Have you tried to read an article with all the banners that flash around the corners of your eye? I had forgotten just what a pain in the ass it is until I decided to try a new browser that I have not installed an ad-blocker on. It is in fact a mild form of torture. Were it not for the fact that your banners are animated to an annoying extent it is possible that I would never have bothered to seek out an ad-blocker for my previous browser in the first place. Static ads aren't that troublesome, they are far easier to ignore, they may even be something I read from time to time. But animated banners are an entirely different matter.

I don't have any statistics on how effective animated ads are vs. static ones, but for me personally I am far less likely to purchase a product or service from an advertiser who annoys me. I urge you to read a few articles in your paper with ad-blockers off just to see what I mean. Perhaps you can launch an unofficial poll to see what readers think. My guess is that the majority will agree that animating banners is bothersome and distracting and not very effective in terms of sales.

Untitled

tossed hither in surf
all I have known
eaten away
now just a pretty shell
washed up
on the beach

my precious meat
dined upon by time
and discouragement
a decoration
for your sandcastle
with nothing true to say

thought I had
so many things to relay
my ideas were going to
light the way
now I swim in darkness
words break like waves
on dikes of dithering indifference

Oh Fickle Google

My 15 minutes of fame on the Google Image Search Engine are up. My usurped image of Santana at Woodstock no longer even places in the top 5 pages. I don't know what changed my fortunes, perhaps the link is just too dated to be relevant anymore (it is a couple of weeks old now, a lifetime it seems in this torrid age of information.) Now it's back to obscurity for this humble little blog, no more daily visits from foreign climbs, no more ill-gotten notoriety. Just you my loyal readers, just you.

It's a bit humbling to realize the power of the search engine, it's capacity to bring eyes from all over the world to a little out of the way blog like this. It's kind of like when the Madonna appears on a piece of toast in some Arkansas backwater and it somehow makes it on to CNN. Next thing you know the whole American Media Circus is on your doorstep to take pictures of your miraculous breakfast and the defective toaster that spawned the graven image. But when interest dries up you are left with a trampled lawn and a dried out piece of toast which hopefully you can get a few bucks for on e-bay.

Oh well, it's back to the drawing board I guess. Hopefully I won't be consumed with posting pictures that have provocative and/or popular search terms attached to drive traffic. Although I admit it is a bit of a jolt to have all those people watching I doubt many of them stick around to digest the real meat of the matter. In fact sometimes I wonder if you do dear readers, I haven't had a comment in many moons.