environment Archives - Page 3 of 3

Obama v. Romney

Sometimes I want to just take on the system, sometimes I want to write in quiet contemplation; much of the time, I worry about the fate of the planet.

Answering more Ask Roger Anything questions:

Tom the Mayor, who I know personally, pondered:
Here is a hard one Roger! Who do you think will win the presidential election?

I went to 270towin.com. The map there suggests that Obama has 217 likely electoral votes, and Romney with 191 electoral votes, with 130 electoral votes listed as a tossup. Three states in that latter category are hugely important – Florida (29), Pennsylvania (20), and Ohio (18). I suspect that whoever wins at least 2 out of 3 will probably win the White House.

Some statistical piece – I can’t find it presently – states that the Republicans were far better controlling the argument in the media than the Democrats regarding the presentation of the healthcare law dubbed Obamacare. The GOP was able to stay on message, using the same keywords, while the Dems were more diffuse. This tends to be true on other issues as well.

I mention this because, even when the Democrats have good issues, they don’t seem to be able to capitalize on them. Obama’s support of gay marriage can’t really help him much; those supporters weren’t going to Romney. Obama’s announcement that he wouldn’t go after illegal immigrants who were brought to the US by their parents might have been popular with some Hispanics, but Republicans managed to turn it into a Constitutional overreach by the President.

FOX News blamed Obama for rising gas prices, and incorrectly predicted worse. Now that they are actually falling, FN notes that they are signs of a “looming global economic crisis.” Ya can’t win. And people with selective memory recall that Obama’s to blame for all of it.

Now, I think that Romney has been amazingly non-specific about what he would DO as President on many issues, save for building that pipeline. But if the economy is still weak – and the Dow Jones lost 250 points the day you posted the question…

If the election were held today, I think Romney wins. Of course, the election is NOT today, so things could change. I’m not optimistic about Obama’s chances at this moment.

Tom also asked:
Did you get the new Paul McCartney Album? What do you think of it?

I assume you are referring to Kisses on the Bottom, rather than the reissue of Ram. In general, the less I knew the song, the more I liked it. I don’t need another version of It’s Only a Paper Moon or I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter, and I don’t think Sir Paul added much to those. But I liked tunes such as My Very Good Friend the Milkman, Get Yourself Another Fool, and The Inch Worm, plus a couple of original songs. I think my decision to buy a Macca album depends on the reviews.

BTW, there are nice Coverville podcasts for Paul McCartney and for Brian Wilson/the Beach Boys that you might want to check out; for the latter, I made a couple of requests that were played.
***
Chris from Off the Shore of Orion wonders:

Is there a limit on the number?

Yes, no more than 37 at a time. So you’re safe – so far…

What historical figure do you most identify with?

Oh, it varies, depending on the issue, and my mood: Nat Turner, Henry David Thoreau, Rachel Carson. Sometimes I want to just take on the system, sometimes I want to write in quiet contemplation; much of the time, I worry about the fate of the planet.

Something at work reminded me of this: when I was 9 or 10 and wanted to wrap presents, I would get the Sunday funnies from the newspaper and use those. I would be severely mocked, even/especially by my own family. These days, what I did is considered environmentally cool, but then as doofy, a word one of my sisters used A LOT in describing me.

Who do you think was the most evil person who ever lived?

Oh, there are so many. The obvious ones such as Genghis Khan or Hitler.
So, I’ll pick US President Andrew Jackson, whose support of slavery, and especially his Indian removal policy should get him removed from the US $20 bill.

What’s the most heartbreaking novel you’ve ever read?

A Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. That said, I don’t read a lot of fiction these days. I was very affected by Maus by Art Spiegelman. I had actually met him a couple of times before that book was released. He was publishing this eclectic, oversized magazine called RAW; boy, I wish I had kept those.

Storage media creep, dismal future, and what if Lincoln had lived

Would Lincoln have run for a third term?

Jaquandor, Buffalo’s favorite blogger, who answered so many of my questions that you’d think I was from New Jersey, writes:
(Sorry to be so late in the game with these!)

You’re not late. One can ask me questions anytime, though I specifically request them periodically. Hey, if anyone else has questions, ask away.

To what degree are you tired of “storage media creep” — meaning, the progression from LPs to CDs to MP3s or from VHS to DVD to Blu-ray to streaming?

I am EXHAUSTED by it. I rant about it periodically, especially when it leads to what I like to call W.W.C.T.G.Y.T.B.N.C.O.S.Y.A.O. (the World Wide Conspiracy To Get You To Buy New Copies Of Stuff You Already Own). This is why I 1) still have an LP player, a CD player, a VHS player, DVD player, and 2) don’t jump on the next technology bandwagon very quickly. I’m not going to get all of those newfangled things, because of cost and some incompatibility with each other. I do have music in the cloud – I have no idea what that means – but it’s mostly stuff I got from Amazon for free or cheap (Lady Gaga’s last album for 99 cents.)

And what do you think of the increasing sense in which when we buy something, we’re not getting ownership of anything for our money, but merely permission to use it?

It angers me. One library vendor decided, after the fact, that library patrons can only take out an e-book, I believe, 28 times, because that’s some average book circulation number. Then the “book” would cease to operate. It’s also true of library databases, where what’s available seems to change from year to year, not to mention soaring prices.

To this day, I get peeved around Neil Diamond’s birthday. I bought his CD, 12 Songs. Then I discovered that SONY had placed essentially malware on its own disc which prevents me from copying an album that I own onto my iTunes or other devices; indeed, I believe that even playing the album on my computer could damage the computer. So I must play it on a CD player. I read, well after the fact, that there was a recall, but I keep the disc as a reminder of corporate copyright overreach.

When you think of the long-term problems we face, which one(s) bother you the most from the perspective of your daughter having to be part of the generation that deals with them?

The environment, clearly. I think that the melting ice caps will mean catastrophic weather. Corporations will dupe people into thinking that hydrofracking is a good thing until some disaster that will make the BP oil spill look like lint on a new pair of pants. I also expect that there will be major wars in the 21st century over potable water, more so than fuel.

We may have already passed the tipping points on global warming, say scientists at the Planet Under Pressure conference. Worse. on March 19, Tennessee became “the fourth state with a legal mandate to incorporate climate change denial as part of the science education curriculum when discussing climate change… The ALEC bill passed as H.B. 368 and S.B. 893, with 70-23 and 24-8 roll call votes, respectively.”

How different do you think the post-Civil War era would have been had Lincoln not been assassinated?

Wow, this is SUCH a good question, because it’s so TOTALLY UNANSWERABLE. Which won’t keep me from trying.

Like an assassinated President a century later, I believe that Lincoln was evolving on civil rights issues. I can only wonder how he would have dealt with the Radical Republicans that drove much of Reconstruction in his absence. Would there have been compensation to slave owners that remained loyal to the Union? Would blacks ex-slaves have gotten their 40 acres and a mule, which Lincoln supported but which Andrew Johnson rescinded? If these two things had taken place, might some of the racial animosity that exists in America today have been better ameliorated?

And here’s yet another question: would Lincoln have run for a third term? I always thought he felt his destiny to serve. It was only tradition, not the Constitution, which barred it at the time. And he may have proved more tolerable terms for Southern states to re-enter the union, without the seceding states feeling totally demoralized. I think it was the quick end to Reconstruction that helped allow for the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, lynchings, and the like.

And I just had a debate with someone online about this, so I’ll ask your opinion: how much does the common usage of the phrase ‘begging the question’ bother you? This to me leads to a lot of interesting issues regarding how languages evolve. Thoughts?

It doesn’t annoy me. It has an ancient construction that most people don’t understand. Maybe because it involves “proof” and “logic”, and those are not elements of modern discourse. Politicians beg the question, in the classic sense, all the time.

Its more modern meaning, “raising the question,” the more pedantic complain about, and I can be rather that way, but not on this. Language changes.

I remember that my good Internet friend Arthur was complaining about those folks in the Guy Fawkes masks not knowing who Fawkes really was, or what he stood for. Didn’t bother me.

Whereas I’m still bugged by it’s/its, et al. And the word among no longer seems to be in use at all. I learned that it was between two, but among three or more, yet between is now being used to the exclusion of among. I’ve pretty much given up that fight.

Jaquandor, this begs the question (modern sense): what was the nature of the debate you were having?

EARTH DAY Question

Not only are we going to be saving money during the heating and cooling seasons, but we are getting a federal tax refund that is over $1000 larger than it would have been had we not spent the few thousand dollars to insulate.

Far from my naivete on the first Earth Day 41 years ago, I realize that we have to make some substantial changes if we are going to keep old Mother Earth healthy. Sure there are the BIG issues of industrial pollution and the like to address. But I also find it necessary to look in the mirror to see what I’M doing.

By far, the most significant thing that we’ve done is getting our attic insulated. I should note that we were motivated in no small part by a tax advantage that was available in 2010 but unfortunately is no longer the case. Not only are we going to be saving money during the heating and cooling seasons, but we are getting a federal tax refund that is over $1000 larger than it would have been had we not spent the few thousand dollars to insulate.

We’re still doing the compost thing.

Living where we do, we can walk to the daughter’s school, the post office (which will probably close due to budget cuts), an Indian restaurant, a pizzeria, a pharmacy/drug store, a movie theater, and a supermarket. No small thing, I suppose. Other places are at a bikeable distance or on the bus line, and there are at least four bus routes within a block of my house.

So what are you doing, or want to be doing, to help on Earth Day?