Snakes and Ladders

[pan]

“Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it, you'd have good people doing good things and evil people doing bad things, but for good people to do bad things, it takes religion.”
Steven Weinberg

[BO]

And you could pull your boat with one of these. God bless them germans.

[BO]

Actually, looking at one of these. So, damn cute.

[pan]

Finding a big enough parking space would be a lot easier....

In Umbria, Italy the biggest cars I saw were Rav-4 subcompacts (like we own, which is dwarfed by the majority of vehicles when we park in WinCo or Freddy Meyers).  I didn't see any Smart Cars but a lot of Fiat 500s.   The older Fiats were really tiny, this new retro-version is huge in comparison.  We took a picture of me standing next to one, towering over it like a giant.  People would park anywhere there was an empty space they could squeeze into.  In Pisa mopeds were really popular.

[BO]

I've always loved small cars, especially old MG's -- of which I've owned several. Even owned an old Porsche 356 once (favorite car in the world) that you can't buy now for less than 60k. Small, lightweight cars with manual transmissions are the most fun to drive. Europeans get it. Americans don't. There are so many euro cars I wish they sold here. 

The gas-powered Smarts had lousy transmissions which destroyed the car's reputation. Electric drive seems to have transformed it into the car it should have always been. 

Like Waldo, I'm intrigued by electric drive technology. Starting to see charging stations around town. Pretty cool. And yeah, it would be even cooler if one could keep his car charged via solar panels, but it would probably take a couple of weeks in sunny weather. And this is Seattle. I s'pose one could buy some property with a stream on it and put in their own mini hydro electric dam. Or live on a river and have the current turn a turbine like an old mill house. If only I were rich.

Been thinking lately that it'd be nice to have an old sports car again. But I just can't warm up to the idea of owning another gas-sucking device. But an electric toy car could be kind of fun.

An old man needs to tinker.

[BO]

Back to the subject at hand: An update in the life of Rob Ford.

Ya gotta love this guy.

Rob Ford Is Too Busy Eating His Wife's Pussy to Eat Staffer Pussy

(I've got to stay away from Gawker. It's eating my brain.)

[pan]

I've become known for my morning rants in my Ballet class - "the Morning Paul Show".  J is constantly warning me to be more careful about what I say.  Ford makes me look like the most close-lipped, self-censuring person in the room.  Boy Howdy!  He is a one man reality show.

[pan]

What would Jesus hunt?

[BO]

"We now live in a nation where doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy
justice, universities destroy freedom, the press destroys
information, religion destroys morals, and our banks destroy the
economy."~Chris Hedges

[waldopaper]

"The slaves, resenting their bondage more than ever, became the internal enemy of their masters’ nightmares." 

Quitting your job...  Green Shadow Cabinet. 

"Cognition is a delusion and noncognition is senseless."  --Nansen 

Everyday life is the path. 

[BO]

Seems Jill Stein agrees with my pesimissic outlook,

"Civilization, as currently constituted, will not exist as we know it in 2050."

But then adds, "So we have a decade maybe to get this together."

In summary: Even though the fight is undoubtably futile, we keep going in order to give our lives meaning -- which as you all know by now, is the third rail of absurdism, 

Acceptance of the Absurd: a solution in which one accepts the Absurd and continues to live in spite of it. Camus endorsed this solution, believing that by accepting the Absurd, one can achieve absolute freedom, and that by recognizing no religious or other moral constraints and by revolting against the Absurd while simultaneously accepting it as unstoppable, one could possibly be content from the personal meaning constructed in the process.

Glad to see you're OK, Waldo.

[pan]

Ah shit Stoney....perhaps this is why J and I don't stay in one place for more than a few years. Academia seems to be a scam no matter where you go. 

We are getting ready for 5 months in Latvia.  J's Fulbright is paying her to teach at the Latvian Culture Academy - seems they are rather poor on resources even by Eastern Europe standards.  I've got a couple online classes at the Idaho Uni and an "offer" to teach at the Lativian Culture College - but I suspect that it is all volunteer - I gotta do it, I applied for another Fulbright to come back the next year and I'm on a 5 month audition.  

We're sending out applications like crazy - it is clear that the lazy fucks here can't do anything but fuck other people's careers if they have talent and drive, all of the people we respect here have left, two just quit without any prospects - J has one nibble, a SKYPE interview for a small college in Mass.......would be a good gig - until we find out what is wrong with it......sigh!

[BO]

Great piece, Stoney. It would seem there's no where any american can now go to stretch their dollars. The fed has killed the dollar with it's QE. I don't think it's gonna be long before only the very rich can afford to travel.

It still amazes me how easy it is for the PTB to oppress a people. Guess when you're just scrapping buy, you don't have the time or inclination to see the big picture. The result…welcome to Wallmartistan.

Hey Pan…wow, five months in Latvia. That's cool. Looking forward to hearing about it.