Imagine - the fatcat gets even more of the pie in most other countries...
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
It Says It All...
As a follow up to my last post regarding the rich, I thought the 'cat' chart showing American wealth distribution below was rather fitting:
Imagine - the fatcat gets even more of the pie in most other countries...
Imagine - the fatcat gets even more of the pie in most other countries...
RANT: The Rich Get...More Vile
It's churlish to bash on the rich. It seems a case of sour grapes, even somehow self-defeating. After all, it would be stupid to deny that money can be very seductive in what it can do for one's life. It buys you independence and gives you more options in life. Money gives you choices, no doubt about it.
Why the hell do you think I play the lottery every chance I get?!
I refuse to play the hypocrite and pretend that being wealthy wouldn't make my life better in more ways than one. Of course it would. I consider myself genuinely fortunate in that I'm not motivated by huge homes and fancy cars and private jets and wardrobes the size of small Central American countries. I never have been.
I don't want the billions. Or all the flash of conspicuous, gaudy, yucky wealth. But to have enough money to have have a home fully paid for, know that my mother will never again have to work a day in her life, have NO DEBT at all and never have to worry about money again - bliss.
But in this recession on the back of so much profligate stealing by uber-rich bankers and Wall Street types, the rich have only become more tasteless. A reminder of how flawed our money systems are and how so very much is for the benefit of so very few.
And so I come across an article today on Yahoo regarding a survey of rich Americans done by Fidelity Investments. According to the findings, most of the rich surveyed declare that one needs a minimum of $7-million in order to be 'rich'. Yip, six million bucks and you ain't yet 'rich'. Jeepers, talk about inflation!
And, the survey found, the rich continue to fret about money - the poor (rich) things. AND it seems the older they get, the more money they believe is necessary to be comfortably 'rich'! It seems the itch to be rich only gets worse with age.
So, yes, it seems the rich do get richer - not to mention more vile.
After all, who goes around pondering what it is to be 'rich' and frets about staying so obviously rich? And who feels comfortable enough to answer such ludicrous surveys about wealth in this day and age? Who are these people?
They are the cocooned, the pampered, the powerful 'other' who influence governments and make sure that governments bail them out when they get too greedy. Okay, that's mostly the super-rich to whom $7-million is really chump change, but you get my drift.
The words of Thomas Jefferson seem so pertinent here:
Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.
Harsh words perhaps, but somehow strangely relevant when one reads surveys like this.
Do you get my point?
Why the hell do you think I play the lottery every chance I get?!
I refuse to play the hypocrite and pretend that being wealthy wouldn't make my life better in more ways than one. Of course it would. I consider myself genuinely fortunate in that I'm not motivated by huge homes and fancy cars and private jets and wardrobes the size of small Central American countries. I never have been.
I don't want the billions. Or all the flash of conspicuous, gaudy, yucky wealth. But to have enough money to have have a home fully paid for, know that my mother will never again have to work a day in her life, have NO DEBT at all and never have to worry about money again - bliss.
But in this recession on the back of so much profligate stealing by uber-rich bankers and Wall Street types, the rich have only become more tasteless. A reminder of how flawed our money systems are and how so very much is for the benefit of so very few.
And so I come across an article today on Yahoo regarding a survey of rich Americans done by Fidelity Investments. According to the findings, most of the rich surveyed declare that one needs a minimum of $7-million in order to be 'rich'. Yip, six million bucks and you ain't yet 'rich'. Jeepers, talk about inflation!
And, the survey found, the rich continue to fret about money - the poor (rich) things. AND it seems the older they get, the more money they believe is necessary to be comfortably 'rich'! It seems the itch to be rich only gets worse with age.
So, yes, it seems the rich do get richer - not to mention more vile.
After all, who goes around pondering what it is to be 'rich' and frets about staying so obviously rich? And who feels comfortable enough to answer such ludicrous surveys about wealth in this day and age? Who are these people?
They are the cocooned, the pampered, the powerful 'other' who influence governments and make sure that governments bail them out when they get too greedy. Okay, that's mostly the super-rich to whom $7-million is really chump change, but you get my drift.
The words of Thomas Jefferson seem so pertinent here:
Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.
Harsh words perhaps, but somehow strangely relevant when one reads surveys like this.
Do you get my point?
Monday, March 14, 2011
RANT: The Occupation of Bahrain
The world's attention remains understandably riveted on the ongoing tragic events in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
However, something very serious is afoot in the Middle East. More to the point, something very serious is going on in the Gulf state of Bahrain. The small island state, rocked in recent weeks by mass protests against the ruling monarch and elites, is now occupied by no less than about 1000 soldiers from Saudi Arabia. You know, that bastion of democracy, freedom and rule of law. The Saudis have been joined by soldiers from neighbouring countries Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
According to the BBC, they have been called in by Bahrain's rulers in an effort to "guard key facilities such as oil and gas installations and financial installations." Of course, it makes sense - make sure the bucks and oil are well protected whilst the people revolt in the streets.
The BBC also stated how the Bahraini opposition viewed the foreign troops on their territory as "[amounting] to an occupation." You got that right.
Imagine suddenly having soldiers of a country with one of the most hardline and appalling human rights records in the world (read: Saudi Arabia) in your midst as you yourself try to overthrow an authoritarian regime in your own country...
The Bahraini people have a lot to be worried about with this latest development in their recent quest to rid themselves of the ruling monarch. I sure wouldn't want the likes of Saudi Arabia flexing its muscle in my front yard.
If this isn't occupation by foreign powers, then what the hell is?
Do you get my point?
However, something very serious is afoot in the Middle East. More to the point, something very serious is going on in the Gulf state of Bahrain. The small island state, rocked in recent weeks by mass protests against the ruling monarch and elites, is now occupied by no less than about 1000 soldiers from Saudi Arabia. You know, that bastion of democracy, freedom and rule of law. The Saudis have been joined by soldiers from neighbouring countries Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
According to the BBC, they have been called in by Bahrain's rulers in an effort to "guard key facilities such as oil and gas installations and financial installations." Of course, it makes sense - make sure the bucks and oil are well protected whilst the people revolt in the streets.
The BBC also stated how the Bahraini opposition viewed the foreign troops on their territory as "[amounting] to an occupation." You got that right.
Imagine suddenly having soldiers of a country with one of the most hardline and appalling human rights records in the world (read: Saudi Arabia) in your midst as you yourself try to overthrow an authoritarian regime in your own country...
The Bahraini people have a lot to be worried about with this latest development in their recent quest to rid themselves of the ruling monarch. I sure wouldn't want the likes of Saudi Arabia flexing its muscle in my front yard.
If this isn't occupation by foreign powers, then what the hell is?
Do you get my point?
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Nature is Goliath, Humanity is...Nothing
The aftermath of the terrible earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan brings in more and more horrific images and footage of the maelstrom caused by the tsunami.
Cars and buses swirl and bob around in the torrents of blackened water, and it's shockingly surreal. They remind me of Matchbox dinky toys I may have played with as a young boy, when I too created hell-hath-no-fury 'floods' in my backyard with the help of hose water and mulchy earth. My childhood backyard Matchbox floods and the footage I've seen on TV from the Japanese tsunami look more alike than not. Eerily so.
Nature is not always kind. It can be down right mean and ugly, especially when we're in the way. Which seems to be most of the time. Nature pummels through, as if we and all the vestiges of our civilized lives are mere afterthought and pesky minor hindrance to the raw, stupefying power that is Nature.
It's humbling, to say the least. Each and every time I see it.
We scurry around and count the dead and mourn the dead, fret about the hubris of having nuclear reactors at the mercy of the elements, and wonder at the sheer power of this amorphous thing that can kill, maim, destroy and change forever. This thing we take for granted, this thing we think we control. But it controls us - and out of nowhere it, or rather, Nature, reminds us of that.
The Japanese are better prepared than any other country in the world for earthquakes. Not much they can do about those tsunamis, however, something that is no doubt part of their history and their national psyche, as evidenced in their traditional art (as below). How beautiful it looks when etched in a painting, how horrible it looks when captured in minute detail on a television screen.
Nature - however much we try to represent it and somehow conquer it, it always has a way of showing us who's boss.
Cars and buses swirl and bob around in the torrents of blackened water, and it's shockingly surreal. They remind me of Matchbox dinky toys I may have played with as a young boy, when I too created hell-hath-no-fury 'floods' in my backyard with the help of hose water and mulchy earth. My childhood backyard Matchbox floods and the footage I've seen on TV from the Japanese tsunami look more alike than not. Eerily so.
Nature is not always kind. It can be down right mean and ugly, especially when we're in the way. Which seems to be most of the time. Nature pummels through, as if we and all the vestiges of our civilized lives are mere afterthought and pesky minor hindrance to the raw, stupefying power that is Nature.
It's humbling, to say the least. Each and every time I see it.
We scurry around and count the dead and mourn the dead, fret about the hubris of having nuclear reactors at the mercy of the elements, and wonder at the sheer power of this amorphous thing that can kill, maim, destroy and change forever. This thing we take for granted, this thing we think we control. But it controls us - and out of nowhere it, or rather, Nature, reminds us of that.
The Japanese are better prepared than any other country in the world for earthquakes. Not much they can do about those tsunamis, however, something that is no doubt part of their history and their national psyche, as evidenced in their traditional art (as below). How beautiful it looks when etched in a painting, how horrible it looks when captured in minute detail on a television screen.
Nature - however much we try to represent it and somehow conquer it, it always has a way of showing us who's boss.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
RANT: Nuclear Hubris, Japanese Style
The repeated footage of the said explosion on all the major international TV stations only made it look even more real.
Already nuclear experts from around the world have been offering their various and varied opinions on what happened, what is still happening and what might happen at Fukushima.
I noticed that few of them were willing to be drawn into what the worst case scenario might be. No wonder - it would only serve to highlight for the BLOODY UMPTEENTH TIME just how unsafe nuclear power can be!
So far it's not looking 'that bad' - and hopefully Fukushima will not attain the same grim celebrity status as Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. I can only hope that is really the case, both for surrounding communities and the (far wider) natural environment.
Unfortunately, it is at times like this that rabidly anti-nuclear people such as myself are not only vindicated but with that feeling that comes with being correct about something you take no pleasure in being correct about.
For all the advances in nuclear safety, for all the huge amounts of money spent on spin in making people believe that nuclear is a 'green' and 'clean' technology and a way to 'combat' climate change, I absolutely must ask:
- Would everyone be freaked out and countless experts be on international television stations had a giant wind farm been knocked out?
- Would everyone be freaked out and countless experts be on international television stations had a field of giant solar power panels been wiped out?
Would everyone be freaked out and countless experts be on international television stations had a giant geothermal facility been taken out?
Exactly. And that is why nuclear power should never, ever, EVER be considered a viable part of our energy future.Do you get my point?
Friday, March 11, 2011
RAVE: Hating Sarah Palin is So Easy
Sarah Palin. Two of the most painful words in the English language today.
My levels of loathing for this despicable woman know no bounds. She is the epitome, the very zenith of all that is backward, parochial, petty, pathetic, populist, uneducated and dangerously stupid about the United States.
Thank goodness then for the countless cartoons that lampoon this putrid woman, a few of which I have included in this post:
My levels of loathing for this despicable woman know no bounds. She is the epitome, the very zenith of all that is backward, parochial, petty, pathetic, populist, uneducated and dangerously stupid about the United States.
Thank goodness then for the countless cartoons that lampoon this putrid woman, a few of which I have included in this post:
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| Courtesy of dekerivers.wordpress.com |
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| Courtesy of members.multimania.co.uk |
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| Courtesy of progressivealaska.blogspot.com |
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| Courtesy of theimmoralminority.blogspot.com |
Sarah, you sad, sad, sad woman...
RANT: Petty Environmental Racism Prevails
I came across an interesting article today about how levels of air pollution today in the state of Wyoming are sometimes worse than those that people have to endure in an infamously polluted city like Los Angeles.
Wyoming, a sparsely populated state of wide open spaces and conservative small town living, has the fairly recent discovery of natural gas in the state to thank for its terrible air quality.
It's a payoff known the world over - a place hits the 'jackpot' with a sudden find of a natural resource, only to find that the ecological and human health costs are often all too high.
It's yet another facet of the infamous 'resource curse'.
I feel for the people of Wyoming, even if they do mostly vote Republican, now that they have such poor air quality and all that goes with that. No people anywhere should have to put up with that.
And then I read a comment by a local science teacher, who states that, "They're trading off health for profit. It's outrageous. We're not a Third World country."
All indignant is Madam Science Teacher, of course - I mean, the fine people of Wyoming are not lowly Third World nincompoops, 'those' (usually 'dark, obviously non-American) people who shouldn't expect to have clean air, now are they? Of course not - the fine people of Wyoming deserve clean air, unlike those 'Third World types'.
What a bloody cheek. As if anybody in the world, whether First, Second, Third or Other (read: USA), should ever have to forfeit their local natural environment and own health in the name of progress.
Environmental racism - always a joy to see it so alive and kicking. Even in the most subtle, off-the-cuff ways.
Do you get my point?
Wyoming, a sparsely populated state of wide open spaces and conservative small town living, has the fairly recent discovery of natural gas in the state to thank for its terrible air quality.
It's a payoff known the world over - a place hits the 'jackpot' with a sudden find of a natural resource, only to find that the ecological and human health costs are often all too high.
It's yet another facet of the infamous 'resource curse'.
I feel for the people of Wyoming, even if they do mostly vote Republican, now that they have such poor air quality and all that goes with that. No people anywhere should have to put up with that.
And then I read a comment by a local science teacher, who states that, "They're trading off health for profit. It's outrageous. We're not a Third World country."
All indignant is Madam Science Teacher, of course - I mean, the fine people of Wyoming are not lowly Third World nincompoops, 'those' (usually 'dark, obviously non-American) people who shouldn't expect to have clean air, now are they? Of course not - the fine people of Wyoming deserve clean air, unlike those 'Third World types'.
What a bloody cheek. As if anybody in the world, whether First, Second, Third or Other (read: USA), should ever have to forfeit their local natural environment and own health in the name of progress.
Environmental racism - always a joy to see it so alive and kicking. Even in the most subtle, off-the-cuff ways.
Do you get my point?
Bubblewrapped: Chew On That For a LAUGH
Bubblewrapped (www.bubblewrapped.org) is a deceptively simple-looking site, as it is in fact chock-full of the most delicious tidbits regarding the various shenanigans and red faces of the financial terrorists (including Alan Greenspan, a cartoon of which I just had to include here) who helped cause the recent global financial implosion.
The priceless pic on Bubblewrapped's site banner alone tells you where they stand...
I clicked back on to their site today and read through their list of 'must-read' book titles in their "Humble Pie' section:
•Dow 30,000 by 2008: Why It's Different This Time
•Dow 40,000: Strategies for Profiting From the Greatest Bull Market in History
•Dow 100,000: Fact or Fiction
•Why the Real Estate Boom Will Not Bust – And How You Can Profit from It
•The Bush Boom: How a Misunderestimated President Fixed a Broken Economy
Brilliant, tongue-in-cheek stuff. And some of the (caustic, vicious) comments by readers of these titles on Amazon.com is a terrific read in and of itself!
Oh boy...
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| Courtesy of wallpaperz.co.nu |
I clicked back on to their site today and read through their list of 'must-read' book titles in their "Humble Pie' section:
•Dow 30,000 by 2008: Why It's Different This Time
•Dow 40,000: Strategies for Profiting From the Greatest Bull Market in History
•Dow 100,000: Fact or Fiction
•Why the Real Estate Boom Will Not Bust – And How You Can Profit from It
•The Bush Boom: How a Misunderestimated President Fixed a Broken Economy
Brilliant, tongue-in-cheek stuff. And some of the (caustic, vicious) comments by readers of these titles on Amazon.com is a terrific read in and of itself!
Oh boy...
RANT: Libya, Where Are You Going?
The crisis in Libya has raged for a few weeks now, and there doesn't seem to be any abating of the mounting madness in that country.
Forget the revolutions that took place in Tunisia and Egypt, what's going on in Libya is on a whole other playing field. A whole other stratosphere for that matter.A few weeks back, Gaddafi's insolent, arrogant prick of a son wagged his finger on TV at Libyans and the world and warned darkly of "civil war" if the uprising, then only a few days old, continued. Seems the bastard was on to something - the country is indeed perched on the verge of a terrible civil war.
He clearly knew what his father, the so-called 'Mad Dog of the Middle East', had at his disposal. And what his father was capable of doing.
Gaddafi Senior and his followers, which appear to be in surprisingly large numbers, are running amok. Towns and cities seized by anti-Gaddafi rebels are now being taken back by Gaddafi's forces, often brutally and with resulting civilian deaths, according to reports coming out of the country.
I don't know what to think about the proposed 'no-fly zone'. I don't know what to think as to what the world should do best to stop the madness and get that bastard and his family the hell out of power. The US getting involved could go down very, VERY badly in what is an entire region on the precipice.
All I know is that this could get very ugly and it too could have huge repercussions in the region and indeed around the world.
May democracy, in whatever form the Libyan people choose, eventually prevail. May Gaddafi be run out and, hey, maybe even killed on his beloved Libyan soil, as he so clearly wishes.
May the pre-Gaddafi era flag fly once more over Tripoli and everywhere else in Libya. Hopefully soon.
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