Don't worry that the horse is blind. Just load the wagon.

The title to this blog is a quote from John Madden, the long time ago coach of the Oakland Raiders football team. It sounds silly, but I thought it was appropo to the subject matter of this blog. Namely that we are all being asked by this government, politicians and the main stream media to do just that.

There is a paradigm shift coming in the world, possibly in my lifetime and if not in my lifetime, definitely in the lifetime of the children of the world. It's the children who are blissfully unaware of the gravity of the situation who will pay the highest price from the coming changes. They were born deeply in debt through no fault of their own. They were born into an environment that has been trashed with greenhouse gases, toxins, nuclear waste, landfills and countless other things, all for cheap energy, industrialization, the ability to make war and the ability to neatly hide the mess we have made of things. Out of sight. Out of mind. You toss it in the garbage can and put it out once a week, and for a small fee a truck comes by and makes it go away. Problem solved....or is it? Ever been in close proximity to a landfill? I have, and I can tell you it's not somewhere you want to have a picnic. It's also not somewhere you would want to put the foundation of a house on 20 years from now. Think global warming is fiction? Take a little trip to the arctic circle and take a full day hike across land that was covered by 50 feet of ice not so many years ago.

The Constitution of the United States, written by some very  intelligent people who tried to look at all the angles and come up with a cohesive document that would cover many bases, isn't even used as a guideline any more. Remember the Writ of Habeous Corpus? It doesn't exist anymore. Heard about the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)? This little ditty of legislation essentially says if your government deems you to be a terrorist, domestic or otherwise, they don't have to bring charges against you or give you the right to an attorney or a speedy trial. They can simply toss you in a cement cube and hold you there indefinitely. I have been in that cement cube, and I can tell you there isn't alot of freedom floating around in there.

Are you likely, as a taxpaying US Citizen who goes to work and pays their bills to  become a victim of NDAA? Probably not, but it's a slippery slope from there to widening the definition of a terrorist when you take the judicial system out of the loop. (Remember checks and balances from high school history?) Let's suppose for a minute that things are going to get worse before they get better (pretty much a given), and people start speaking out more against against government policy, like myself right now, and thousands of others around the country (the Occupy Movement...etc..etc). Who is to say that people couldn't be labeled "domestic terrorists" and tossed in a cement cube without any recourse?

If you are still reading, I will assume you are not in the camp of "this crazy old coot has gone senile and has lost touch with reality and is now a doom and gloom conspiracy theorist"....so let's move on.



 Petroleum products are in your tupperware, your toothbrush, your car tires, your car gas tank and on and on and on. These products are produced from refined crude oil which was created by the carcasses of prehistoric plant and animal life. We don't produce it. We suck it out of the earth. It's going away eventually. Sooner than most of us would like to believe. Look at any  world population chart online. It  has doubled in the last 35 years (roughly a generation). Those people will all eventually want their own car and house and appliances which are powered by...you guessed it...petroleum products (and coal, but that's a story for another time).Nuff said.

I beg of you to take some time out in your world and do your due diligence as to what's happening in the global picture. Turn off American Idol and google any of these issues that you want to know more about. Being informed is the first line of defense against being complacent. 

2.

The end of an era

I am very depressed about Fiona. She is my car. A 1984 Cadillac Sedan Deville. Metallic Blue. A land yacht that will seat six and hold a month of groceries in the trunk . She is very ill these days, and 28 is pretty old in "car" years.

I know I should probably just let go, it's only a car right? Here is the thing: I don't like plastic interiors and tinny light doors that don't *thunk* when you close them. I don't like that every car on the road today has that egg shape for aerodynamics to squeeze out another mpg. I mean can you really tell the difference between a honda fit, a hyundai accent a nissan versa and a kia rio from a distance?...I doubt it. When you saw my car rolling down the highway...most of the population would instantly recognize it as a Cadillac. Why? because its got tail fins and it's as big as a house...that's why.

 Probably at least 30 strangers have stopped me when I was out driving her and complimented her or asked if I wanted to sell her. I am betting that doesn't happen to Kia Rio owners.  Back in the day (I hate saying that shit...it makes me sound old) cars had style. They were built to evoke an emotional reaction by merely looking at them. Part of your individuality was tied to what kind of car you drove. Is that vain and silly?...of course it is...and I am sad that that time has passed in our society. Don't get me wrong, I definitely agree with conserving resources and am all about recycling and the green movement...and I think keeping this car on the road thus keeping another plastic egg from being created and all the associated energy costs and use of resources to make another plastic egg has somehow justified my driving a car that gets 20 mpg on the highway with a tailwind.

 You could comfortably drive it from anywhere to anywhere without a back ache or neck strain. It was like driving your living room couch down the road. It truly rode "like a Cadillac". Oregon to Texas in 4 days with a single one night hotel stay?...traveling with a trailer and a dog? Bring it on. I got this.



I am currently driving a rented Nissan Versa...a very plastic, very egg shaped car that you would never notice in your travels, because it looks like every other plastic, egg shaped car that you pass every time you go out.

I am trying to breathe life back into her, but it may be the end of an era for us.