Bob Morris @ Feb 10th 2007 15:57 - Category: Unfiled ;
“It is absolutely parallel. They’re using the same dance steps - demonise the bad guys, the pretext of diplomacy, keep out of negotiations, use proxies. It is Iraq redux”
Bob Morris @ Feb 10th 2007 00:35 - Category: Unfiled ;
Just wanted to make that clear…
(That the baby could conceivably be heir to a huge fortune is something only the cynical would say explains the increasing number of men stepping forward to claim paternity.)
Bob Morris @ Feb 10th 2007 00:23 - Category: Climate change ;
James Kunstler, who writes and speaks on the coming environmental, oil and economic crunch, has a central thesis. Oil is running out, and the coming scarcity will have profound effects on all parts of society and business.
One example from his scenario. Housing prices in the outer suburbs will plummet as the price of oil rises. Trucking goods to thousands of identical big box malls will get prohibitively expensive, thus dooming Wal-Mart and similar mega-chains. The cost of commuting will soar. Economies and businesses will become increasingly more localized.
In his blog, he presents ideas for what to do.
Expand your view beyond the question of how we will run all the cars by means other than gasoline.
This is his central point. The auto must go. It is the problem, not the solution.
We have to produce food differently. The ADM / Monsanto / Cargill model of industrial agribusiness is heading toward its Waterloo.
Any business based on large quantities of cheap oil will have problems, agriculture included, especially with all that fertilizer that uses oil products during its manufacture.
We have to inhabit the terrain differently. Virtually every place in our nation organized for car dependency is going to fail to some degree.
We have to move things and people differently. This is the sunset of Happy Motoring (including the entire US trucking system). Get used to it.
Life in the USA will have to become much more local.
Factor in the effects of global warming on top of his somewhat apocalyptic visions, and it’s clear the time for action is now. Our world will be changing fast, and in unpredictable ways, now that peak oil and global warming are happening at the same time. Both problems are caused by the same processes and both have the same solutions.
Bob Morris @ Feb 10th 2007 00:15 - Category: Unfiled ;
This past Fall after protracted pressure from the IWW, Starbucks issued yet another nationwide wage increase. While the combination of precarious hours and a still-low wage leaves many baristas in poverty, it’s gratifying that more money is ending up in workers’ pockets because of the IWW campaign. Indeed, many New York City baristas have seen an unprecedented wage gain of almost 25% in just over two and a half years of Wobbly organizing.
They fought back against Starbucks union-busting attempts and won a settlement agreement, publicized the high-fat and sugar content of too many Starbucks products, and were successful in stopping Starbucks from firing an employee for wearing a Wiccan pentagram (she’d worn it for years, Starbucks only made it an issue after she joined the union.) They are expanding and now have the union in Chicago as well as NYC.
The Wobblies were a legendary labor union in the early 1900’s, known for their militancy and successful tactics. Looks like the current Wobblies have the same spirit and organizing chops.
[tags]Wobblies,IWW,Starbucks[/tags]
Bob Morris @ Feb 10th 2007 00:08 - Category: Climate change ;
There’s a wedding going on across the street. The bride and groom arrived in a stretch Hummer. While marriages are always a festive, happy time, I’m guessing a world focused on ending global warming may need to re-think the concept that a regular Hummer just isn’t big enough.
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