GaryNMaine Blog

Today, April 1, 2011, we are still in the midst of quite a storm. The snow has been falling all morning and we are sitting with about ten inches so far and it may snow ’til after midnight. Some Spring!

At this point, we have lost one tree, with one bending over to the ground.

This poor apple tree. It is so old. Must have been here for well over 80 years. The contractors who built this house just didn’t have the heart to cut down this poor thing. Contorted from the many years of lost major limbs, it is a sight to behold.

Two years ago, this same tree was hit by another catastrophe. A brief rain and wind storm came out of nowhere and tore off the front side (closest to the house). We had to spend about three hours cutting this major branch away and, since this happened in late August, the ground was covered with apples. The deer found them within a week and gobbled most of them up.

Now, this. The back side (farthest from the house) has split away and will have to be dealt with after the snows stop.

I have noticed that Winter here is not kind to the trees. Most of the trees up here seem somehow very brittle. Poor, rocky soil, perhaps. We see lots of downed trees every year.

By the garage, there is another downed tree. This one, however, is just bending and not breaking (yet). We’ll see, when the snow leave the limbs whether it will every be able to stand up straight again. (As an update, the white birch by the garage stood up straight until the leaves matured. Even the weight of the several thousand leaves has brought the tree down nearly to half mast. She will have to be cut down :>( )

That’s it. By the way, Molly is doing fine.

The countries that do well are the ones that:

1) do not get involved in foreign intrigues;
2) trade in a fair way with other countries;
3) only use their military as a defensive tool;
4) treat their citizenry with a great deal of respect; and,
5) do not treat the world like their own private playground where everything is theirs and the humans who object can easily and ruthlessly be brushed aside.

For a long time I thought that those who hold right-wing leadership positions used fear and hate to move the masses in their direction because these leaders had an abundance of fear and hate themselves. They do, in a way. But the movers and shakers on the right see the world as an absolutely negative place, but few of these movers and shakers actually feel the fear and hate personally. Right-wing thinkers see danger at every crossroads. And, that the only way to navigate through these dangerous intersections is to drive the biggest vehicle on the road and just blindly barrel their way through these intersections.

Just think how ignorant that would be in the real world. That is why we have stop signs to give the drivers of all the vehicles an opportunity to look both directions before proceeding through the intersection safely.

Yet, right wingers want to deregulate the world. No more stop signs? No. They just want to deregulate those areas where they see regulation as an impediment to their goals. You and me? We will still have to obey the seat-belt rules, the stop signs, the drug laws, the laws that have been set down to control our behavior.

The real motivation that steers the right-wing leadership to move their followers toward right-wing thinking is that there is great wealth to be had if you have a big enough club to make those who stand in your way step aside. But, folks, this is not great wealth that you will ever see; unless,

1) you are one of the movers and shakers,
2) you are at the top of the peaking order at one of the corporations who provide “things” for the masses who still have jobs,
3) you are a yacht builder,
4) you design and build lavish homes, or
5) you sell goods that only the most ardent right winger would appreciate (high-ticket guns, gold-encrusted bibles, fast and expensive transportation devices).

Right-wing lackeys will have to settle for much, much less than they even have in these hard times.

The problem with this motivation is that it won’t last. But, this works out fine for those who think short-term (as in the extent of their own lifetimes). For those who truly want to leave the world a better place for their kids and grandkids, this motivation would rank lower, but not out of the question. You see, if one fears poverty and deprivation, then even their children and grandkids (my spellchecker does not like “grandkids” so I decided to use it again) (but, it likes the word “spellchecker,” what’s up with that?) wouldn’t deter them from working towards building wealth over the torn and shattered bodies of those unwilling to bend their direction.

Now, this might sound like I abhor wealth. On the contrary. Wealth is good, but wealth should come with a number of rules. Mankind has had such rules in the past, and they are much easier to follow when times are good. I would have to say that Americans would be happier if these rules were adhered to even when times are not so good. I am sure I needn’t spell the rules out here. Everyone knows the rules, they seem of late, however, to be hard to follow. Even people of faith seem to be having trouble remembering the rules.

America seems to be heading down the road to the right. Why did this happen? Several reasons:

The Decline of American Prestige and Power

After World War II, America had a preeminent position in world affairs, and America willingly took up the mantle and ran with it. Sure, with atomic weapons hitting the stage when it did, with the help of America I might add (but, it was inevitable that someone would have had them by now anyway), someone had to carry the big stick to make sure that atomic weapons were not used to destroy the Earth.

America was it.

Since then, many things have happened and everything was working out fine (except for the Cold War, the usual powerful crazies around the world, and some exceedingly bad decisionmaking) until now. What has changed?

When the rest of the world looks at America they see a beacon of hope, a land of great wealth and opportunity, a safe and free citizenry, a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. But, America, has been having a difficult time living up to these myths of late.

The right wingers of America have a solution to this problem. Rather than finding ways to rebuild on this image of a democratic government who cares for its people and makes opportunity a mainstay of American rights to its citizenry, they would prefer that we just rob and blunder to keep the wealth rolling America’s direction. They figure that a feared America is stronger than a somewhat weaker, but loved, America. They are wrong.

This would not be a long-term solution to their problems. Inevitably, America would end up a pariah in the world community. Sure, America might be able to temporarily gain back some of its power and the wealthy might be able to get a bit wealthier, but America would never regain its prestige. What it would gain, however, is more terrorism, uneasy relations with other world players, travel bans for Americans throughout the world, trade deficits (because no one wants to trade with America anymore) which would lead to domestic poverty and social strife, and eventually the demise of the America we have all hoped would lead the world to better places.

Americans Have Grown Accustomed to the Best

Americans have had a delicious time over the past few decades and Americans are not keen on giving that way of life up. I would say that life might have been better for Americans if they had not been quite so comfortable, had been more charitable when dealing with other countries of the world, and had tried harder to live up to the mythical image that the world has hoped would lead them to a better, safer life merely by having a powerful, benevolent country such as America in the world. Most people of the world, I am sure, would be happy with much, much less than what the American people use to lavish upon themselves.*

In order for the right wingers to make good on their view of how to make their America strong again, they need ready and willing citizens to cast votes (against their better judgment if, in fact, they have good judgment which is often in doubt) to elect right-wing thinkers into elective office. How do they achieve that?

First, they could never move the direction they want to move America if America were economically healthy, and the citizenry of the country were happy and content. As a general rule most Americans, in good times, do not ascribe to right-winger thinking.

Right-wing thinking thrives when things are bad. Not just in America–everywhere. Paranoia is part of everyone’s lives and is much more prevalent when times are tough. Yes, everyone is paranoid to varying degrees. The world is a bad, bad place and we need to be ruthless. Not so.

If Americans want to pursue this line of thinking (that America can be great again by being the world’s biggest bully), then trouble will be their only friend as they head down the road to ruin.

Top Dog

Being the world’s strongest and most powerful country means that all eyes are on you. Your every move is amplified over and over again. Everything you do, as a country, is inspected and dissected with the utmost scrutiny until nothing is left to ponder.

America does bad things = America is a malignant cancer and must be eradicated.
America does not help the needy of the world = America is greedy and living lavishly while the whole world starves.
America steals the wealth of other nations = America is greedy when world resources are dwindling (they want all the marbles).
America pollutes the seas and dirties the skies = America is destroying the planet and must be stopped.

(Molly needs petting)

. . .

Yes, I know the right-wing thinkers look at the rest of the world and loudly proclaim that they don’t give a hoot what the rest of the world thinks but, to their detriment, it does matter–it matters greatly.

We need to slip back neatly into world society as an equal player. Can we? Not by following the right-wing thinkers. America is a great country, has been blessed with a diverse society who can do great things when motivated to do so. Right-wing thinkers do not see a bright and sunny future. They see the world as something to be exploited now before it is too late. They want all the marbles so they can hold them in their hands and say, “you see, I got them all,” as the world crashes all around them.

Needless to say, the world would be a much safer and happier place for most if right-wing thinkers were not allowed near the wheels of power. Sure, right-wing thinkers would not be so happy, but those who hold such negative views of the world wouldn’t be happy until they had it all, and even then happiness would still be doubtful.

This is a short transcript from a blog called “Nissan Leaf’s Strangely Moving Polar Bear Ad (VIDEO).” (First Posted: 09-10-10 05:17 PM, Updated: 09-10-10 05:22 PM. Apparently, not attributed to anyone.) Will not write the article here as it is linked above, if you want to read it.

(here is the video ad that this article was talking about. If the video is too large for the column shown to you by your browser, you can, if you have sufficient width space with your monitor, make your browser window wider.)

jefke: Of course polar bears are actually vicious killers which makes the ad a little ridiculous, not that that lessens the gravity of the effect of climate change on the polar bear population.

jabailo (commenting on jefke’s remark): If the ice was melting, wouldn’t the polar bear try and go further north to where its colder…instead of south to where it’s warmer?

GaryNMaine (comment on jabailo’s remark): Surely, you wouldn’t want to make a ‘logical’ argument against this ad? The ad is effective even if the actual facts would not support the animal heading south when crises arise. However, there will be an ending to the polar bears heading north once there is no ice left. But, if the polar bear can quickly adapt, the polar bear might survive. That being said, this type of adaptive capability is not available to mammals of the size of a polar bear. Farewell another endangered-by-man species. We can always read about you in our environmental-studies textbooks if, by then, we haven’t banned education altogether.

That’s about all I could write before the comment stream would shift to page two which, in fact, would make the whole point of commenting moot, since few venture beyond the first page of comments.

Mankind is at its wit’s end on how to deal with critical environmental matters such as climate change and man’s effect on his own environment.

There are people out there, those who own much, and pay so little into preserving this planet, who fight tooth and nail to preserve their financial interests. Why? I don’t know. Maybe they came up in a culture/household where grubbing for every last dime–let no one get in my way–kind of thinking. I am unqualified to analyze anyone’s motivations for the way they live and act. All I know is that the planet needs our help and we still follow the same course where anything that might slow business down is automatically poo pooed.

One day I do see the polar bear going extinct. The environmentalists will be up in arms well in advance of their demise. When the politicians and the corporate leaders finally realize that the environmental scientists were right all along, they will probably finally step in and try to fund projects to move the last polar bears to Antarctica, where the ice is receding, but not completely gone, yet. Being a very expensive endeavor as it most certainly would be, especially with the dwindling supply of fuels (to fuel the ships and move the apparatus forward) to get this done, there will be tremendous uproar from the right.

They would say:

• Logical: The preservation of the polar bear species would put huge economic burdens on our failing economies.
• Narcissistic: I got mine, so who cares what might happen in the future.
• Bad Science: Sunspots are the true cause of climate change, so there is nothing we can do to change our plight.
• Cynical: Animals have been going extinct throughout the history of this planet–what’s another animal, or two in the whole scheme of things.
• Ignorant: [whoever they perceive as the Al Gore of their time] is a twit!
• Party Line: I only vote [whatever party may be representing the interests of the right of their time]! It’s the other party’s fault that things are so bad these days!

You get my meaning. There are always arguments from those who have much too lose from progressing to a more sustainable future. It is, however, amazing how adept they are at getting ignorant people to vote against their own best interests. I mean, it is within most folks interests to see the planet survive for the benefit of future generations.

Essentially, there is only the first argument that has a logical basis. The rest are just cold-hearted, bitter people who have not found a way on Earth to be just ‘plain and simple’ happy. Or, they are simply too ignorant for their own good, and tend to listen to those with the gloomiest of messages.

Since it is impossible to predict politics into the future, it would be safe to say that there are only two directions we can go. The bitterness on the right, and the shock and horror from the left of what has been happening in the last few decades, has left us all in a position where, one way or the other, there will be a sizable shift politically in our near future. Guaranteed.

If we move to the right, this is what might happen:

There turned out to be not enough support for funding on the plans to move the polar bear from the Arctic to Antarctica. Though some funding was established for a certain number of polar bears to be sent to zoos around the world.

If we move to the left, this is what might happen:

Funding was established for the relocation of the polar bears to Antarctica, though environmentalists and left-leaning politicians have voiced concerns that this may very well be ‘too little, too late,’ and they hope to fund future measures to protect endangered species.