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Showing posts with label Opinion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Opinion. Show all posts
Conservatives Argue Against the Constitution When They Oppose Gay Marriage
My introductory piece on Politicus (www.politucususa.com), Conservatives Argue Against the Constitution When They Oppose Gay Marriage
Revivalism and the Progressive Heathen
My new piece as part of the PAGAN+politics blog at Pagan Newswire Collective: Revivalism and the Progressive Heathen.
Choice is Not Hate - It is Freedom
My new article appearing on GodsOwnParty, Choice is Not Hate - It is Freedom
The Crooked Cross and the Cross: Nazism and Christianity
My new piece on NewsJunkiePost can be found here The Crooked Cross and the Cross: Nazism and Christianity. This piece investigates more deeply the associations between National Socialism and Christianity, a topic touched on only in passing in my "Back to the 30s" series.
America the Progressive
I've begun a new blog to replace Restitutor Orbis. It was a choice of trying to change the direction of that blog or outright replacing it and I went with the latter option. I feel the only real hope at this point for America is a return to the Enlightenment - a Progressive Renaissance - thus the name. The call for change has gone missing, as has change itself, except incrementally.
My new article there is America the Progressive, a refutation of claims put forward by The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History.
My new article there is America the Progressive, a refutation of claims put forward by The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History.
We're Taking Back Our Nation
My new guest-post is up at God's Own Party? - We're Taking Back Our Nation.
Back to the 30s: National Socialist and Republican Discourse 5
Part 5 of my series examining the similarities between Republican and National Socialist Discourse is now up on NewsJunkiePost.com
Note: Part 4 was published yesterday here
Note: Part 4 was published yesterday here
Back to the 30’s: National Socialist and Republican Discourse 2
Part II of my examination of the similarities between National Socialist and Republican discourse is now on NewsJunkiePost.
Redux - Back to the 30’s: National Socialist and Republican Discourse 1
This piece, previously appearing on ProgressiveNation is now, for technical reasons, appearing on NewJunkiePost
The second and third parts of the series will appear over the next couple of days - Thursday and Friday morning.
The second and third parts of the series will appear over the next couple of days - Thursday and Friday morning.
Mythical America
I have written a new piece, Mythical America. It has been posted at Gods Own Party (the title above will also link you to it).
Back to the 30’s: National Socialist and Republican Discourse 1
My new piece, "Back to the 30’s: National Socialist and Republican Discourse 1" has been published by ProgressiveNation. It is the first in a series of articles examining the similarities between National Socialist and Republican discourse and making a comparison between tactics used by the Brownshirts (Storm Troopers) and the Tea Party movement.
Update 12.9.09 5:53 AM: ProgressiveNation is temporarily out of service due to the same technical issues that put A Heathen's Day down. I have created a mirror site for this post at RestitutorOrbis until the issue can be resolved.
Update 12.9.09 5:53 AM: ProgressiveNation is temporarily out of service due to the same technical issues that put A Heathen's Day down. I have created a mirror site for this post at RestitutorOrbis until the issue can be resolved.
They're After Our TV's!
Environmentalism impacts our lives in many ways - sometimes unexpected. We many of us recycle - some more than others, with it being understood that different communities can hinder or advance efforts at recycling. It can be particularly difficult in apartment buildings, as I've discovered. Where I am now, recycling reduces my garbage output by a good 33%. It makes a noticeable dent in what I throw out, even being limited to type 1 and 2 plastics.
We're also all familiar with the need to not leave all our lights on, and vampire-energy and so forth, and the evils of big SUV's and other gas-guzzlers.
But now they're after our TVs. I just read on Saturday that "California assails TV power usage" and that a "one-third cut" has been mandated by 2011.
The problem is that the big new flat-panel TVs, though lighter and easier on my back, suck up more power than the old fashioned cathode-ray tubes of yesteryear. TV's account, they say, for 10% of household electrical use if you include "related devices" like digital recorders and game consoles.
Egads, they'll be after our games next, and my gods' given right to record programming for later viewing. The Consumer Electronics Association, as might be expected as an outfit representing manufacturers, disagrees with the 10% figure and says 3% is more reasonable.
Personally, I'm more worried about my back than the power.
Even so, I wasn't consulted and California has decided that there be limits on TVs over 58 inches wide.
So they're shooting for a one-third reduction by 2011 and a one-half reduction by 2013. Those that can't meet the standards won't be allowed in CA. I wonder if they'll stop you at the border when you're moving into the state and make you throw your TV into the desert if it's too big.
And that's not all. Washington, Oregon, and Massachusetts, along with Canada and Australia, are considering similar measures.
My biggest TV is 42 inches. Just upgraded from 27. So I'm set even in California, but it's not about me.
Well, okay, it's about me, but it's about a lot of other things as well - where do we draw the line, for instance, between consumer rights and the needs of the environment? What becomes necessary? And how much can we justify in the way of government interference?
The environment is a precious thing. We only have one. I'm a Heathen - a Pagan if you will - and Pagan religions are nature religions, as all original religions were. We have a good healthy respect for the environment. That's perhaps natural when you understand that we live in a world filled with the divine.
As such, I try to be careful. I try not to drive when I don't have to. I don't leave unnecessary lights on. In short, I follow Solon's advice: Nothing in excess. Or, as it is put in the Icelandic Sagas, "A wise man does all things in moderation" (Thorkel in Gisli Sursson's Saga).
If everybody lived according to these rules, we could go a long way towards voluntarily resolving some of the problems we are now seeing legislated against. As we go on, we may see more extreme measures taken to protect the environment.
And they will likely be necessary. The problem is, most of the burden falls on the individual in this country. Very little in the way of regulations control what industry does to our environment. They have power lobbyists in Washington. They practically own members of Congress.
So industry pollutes and we lose our big TVs.
Now being a moderate guy, I can probably live without a TV bigger than 58 inches. Honestly, I don't have the wall space for more than that unless I finish my basement.
Will that be next? You can't finish basements because the construction process pollutes? Or will it harm some heretofore unknown microbe that dwells in the cracks of the concrete.
Excess, you see, can go many ways, not only in individuals who might be careless environmentally, or in businesses which remain unregulated, but in governments - even environmentalists, who resort to extreme solutions where moderation might suffice.
I'm not trying to discourage California. After all, they've always been at the forefront of environmentalism. Environmental Heatlh Perspectives (EHP) tells us that
That certainly seems above the curve, and I applaud them for that.
I'm just saying I've seen some crazy things over recent years. Crazier even than wanting to take away our TVs (and you don't see an NRA-like group protecting our TVs do you? If they come to take them, are we just going to throw them at them, and wouldn't that be counter-productive?).
I would just like to see common-sense, moderation prevail.
I don't think that's too much to ask, or to expect - from all sides.
We're also all familiar with the need to not leave all our lights on, and vampire-energy and so forth, and the evils of big SUV's and other gas-guzzlers.
But now they're after our TVs. I just read on Saturday that "California assails TV power usage" and that a "one-third cut" has been mandated by 2011.
The problem is that the big new flat-panel TVs, though lighter and easier on my back, suck up more power than the old fashioned cathode-ray tubes of yesteryear. TV's account, they say, for 10% of household electrical use if you include "related devices" like digital recorders and game consoles.
Egads, they'll be after our games next, and my gods' given right to record programming for later viewing. The Consumer Electronics Association, as might be expected as an outfit representing manufacturers, disagrees with the 10% figure and says 3% is more reasonable.
Personally, I'm more worried about my back than the power.
Even so, I wasn't consulted and California has decided that there be limits on TVs over 58 inches wide.
So they're shooting for a one-third reduction by 2011 and a one-half reduction by 2013. Those that can't meet the standards won't be allowed in CA. I wonder if they'll stop you at the border when you're moving into the state and make you throw your TV into the desert if it's too big.
And that's not all. Washington, Oregon, and Massachusetts, along with Canada and Australia, are considering similar measures.
My biggest TV is 42 inches. Just upgraded from 27. So I'm set even in California, but it's not about me.
Well, okay, it's about me, but it's about a lot of other things as well - where do we draw the line, for instance, between consumer rights and the needs of the environment? What becomes necessary? And how much can we justify in the way of government interference?
The environment is a precious thing. We only have one. I'm a Heathen - a Pagan if you will - and Pagan religions are nature religions, as all original religions were. We have a good healthy respect for the environment. That's perhaps natural when you understand that we live in a world filled with the divine.
As such, I try to be careful. I try not to drive when I don't have to. I don't leave unnecessary lights on. In short, I follow Solon's advice: Nothing in excess. Or, as it is put in the Icelandic Sagas, "A wise man does all things in moderation" (Thorkel in Gisli Sursson's Saga).
If everybody lived according to these rules, we could go a long way towards voluntarily resolving some of the problems we are now seeing legislated against. As we go on, we may see more extreme measures taken to protect the environment.
And they will likely be necessary. The problem is, most of the burden falls on the individual in this country. Very little in the way of regulations control what industry does to our environment. They have power lobbyists in Washington. They practically own members of Congress.
So industry pollutes and we lose our big TVs.
Now being a moderate guy, I can probably live without a TV bigger than 58 inches. Honestly, I don't have the wall space for more than that unless I finish my basement.
Will that be next? You can't finish basements because the construction process pollutes? Or will it harm some heretofore unknown microbe that dwells in the cracks of the concrete.
Excess, you see, can go many ways, not only in individuals who might be careless environmentally, or in businesses which remain unregulated, but in governments - even environmentalists, who resort to extreme solutions where moderation might suffice.
I'm not trying to discourage California. After all, they've always been at the forefront of environmentalism. Environmental Heatlh Perspectives (EHP) tells us that
According to a 2006 survey conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), a San Francisco–based research organization, 65% of Californians don't think the federal government is doing enough to combat global warming.
That certainly seems above the curve, and I applaud them for that.
I'm just saying I've seen some crazy things over recent years. Crazier even than wanting to take away our TVs (and you don't see an NRA-like group protecting our TVs do you? If they come to take them, are we just going to throw them at them, and wouldn't that be counter-productive?).
I would just like to see common-sense, moderation prevail.
I don't think that's too much to ask, or to expect - from all sides.
Liberals: The Children of Liberty
Here is my new article, published in ProgressiveNation today: Liberals: The Children of Liberty.
First Page on Digg
I thought I'd have a little self-approbation party by linking a piece I did for Sarah Palin's GOP. Just a brief rant about Sarah Palin inspired the most recent news of ethics violations in her administration. It's not high journalism, but it seems to have struck a chord.
Sarah Palin’s general attitude seems to be that their shit don’t stink up there in Alaska.
read more | digg story
Sarah Palin’s general attitude seems to be that their shit don’t stink up there in Alaska.
read more | digg story
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