More people, whatcha gonna do?

Today in the Register Guard there was an article on Page 1 highlighting some population and income data from the early 2019 mini census. But it is not until the page 8 continuation that a reduced birth rate was bemoaned as a threat to our economy.

On page 4 was an AP article on the greatest threat to our economy (and also life on earth): climate change progressing faster than previously anticipated.

I am sending this to the Guard's mailbag today. I have scant hope it will be published, but if so, I expect it will be followed by published opinion pieces wherein the fact of human impact on the earth is in no way linked to our ever increasing numbers and/or an argument for how capitalism (meaning economic growth) is the only solution to climate change.

Polar bear arrested in Paris in 2015. Sad.

"Again I read in a Gatehouse sourced article that a declining birth rate is a problem. If the earth needs more people to thrive, I have yet to read a single science based assertion of that fact. The earth is suffering from our fecundity, and our economies (as currently structured and narrowly defined as people buying stuff) benefit from population growth. I am reminded of the most cogent protest sign at the 2015 Global Climate March: "You can't have a [expletive deleted here] economy without a planet."

I so wish I had kept a copy of the sign. Here is one I did keep.

Yeah, it's Fall and I come alive. Deal with it.

I have been sleeping more normally, in other words, getting up no earlier than 4 am and falling asleep after 9 pm. I am slapping "normal" on this improvement and calling it good. Also, with mornings both lit and cool, I have been weeding my yard. Those who know me well should struggle back into your chair and hear me out. I still hate hate hate dirt under my fingernails, but stupid gloves help. Also, my psychic as well as physical energy levels are very high (psychic:fear and aggravation at all time record levels, including when my Mom was doing her worst at me and physical: duh, fall). Also I crafted a way to make weeding personally rewarding: I growl while pulling out noxious elements in our government (yard) and chortle while binning (impeachment, seat taking, firing, even battering (McConnell)). Most neighbors have already left for work, and I must conclude the rest are cowering behind their curtains. Fall, glorious fall.

The dumpster fire that is the legal process of attempting to exact proportional harm to the Opioid Pushers reminds me of my all time favorite Gahan Wilson cartoon. It has really stuck with me due to it's dark humor which I encountered reading Playboy magazine in high school (courtesy of Dad*).  In case you cannot read the sale signs: (Left) Iced Drink 5¢ and (Right) Iced Drink Antidote $1.00  ---or is it $100 ? I can't tell.

Here is why I sought it out, and actually paid $11 for a one-post license on my blog: the structure of the proposed settlement with Purdue Pharma includes the creation of a "public beneficiary trust" which would continue to sell Oxycontin and give away opioid treatment-related drugs that it's developing. The treatment drugs are still experimental and are not available. See the evil echo in the cartoon? Of course, the antidote will be "cheaper" to buy - excluding life altering costs.

*This is the back story on me, Dad, and Playboy.
While I never asked him why he gave me access, I think I know: he did not trust Mom to report that a woman's sexual pleasure is natural and to be enjoyed. Certainly Playboy was an imperfect view of women, but so was my Mom's living version.

As a side note I did have one uncomfortable Playboy interaction with Dad (Mom was in the room too) when I was telling him how funny I found Bill Cosby's piece on desperately seeking pussy as a youth. [I KNOW, I KNOW, yuck]. As I had never encountered this "euphemism" for a vagina  in my reading or peer interactions (I sussed out the meaning from context), I assumed this was his personal funny substitute word.  [In retrospect, using an actual slang word is MUCH less funny] Dad interrupted my enthusiastic gush with: "you DO know that is an actual term, don't you?" Oops. I did not lose my access, in fact, he was probably even more convinced I needed some schooling about the wider world. I did and still do.

More wit and wisdom from A.Word.A.Day

This week's theme is Shakespearean insults and includes the use of a famous one in our time and in the wild:

My  hero, Ruth Davidson

“Time was, everyone mauled Mr Trump. Boris Johnson, now the foreign secretary [now the prime minister], said he betrayed a ‘stupefying ignorance’ and branded him ‘unfit’ to lead America. Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, turned to Shakespeare: ‘Trump’s a clay-brained guts⤋, knotty-pated ⏬ fool, whoreson⧬ obscene greasy tallow-catch⧭, right?’”
 A Difficult Hole; The Economist (London, UK); Jan 28, 2017

⤋    Doltish; stupid
⏬   Blockheaded or thickheaded
⧬    An unpleasant or greatly disliked person
⧭    A very fat person

I hope you enjoyed my use of insert-able special characters each of which has the so subtle as to perhaps be missed implication that this F**king Moron must be taken DOWN.

I would absolutely KILL (not naming who) to be able to wield Shakespearean insults in real time and from memory. I deeply admire obtuse, dry, inventive insults. Here is one my dad (Elton) coined that has always amused me: "His wit is as sharp as the jagged edge of wet Kleenex". I however must ply my snarky "wit" on my obscure blog for the uncertain amusement of my reader(s) and the life saving "creative" outlet it provides me during these devolving times.

A bit of Eugene in the glory season

Let's insert a photo and fun but unrelated video here. Clever segue, yes? The video is from our friends at the Canadian Weather Network. My reaction was a mixture of WOW! and hmmmmm. Good minds are working on non-carbon based power generation. However these two little steps forward are matched by no small amount of backward leaps by controlling powers in our beleaguered country. BUT! we are but one country (with an outsized impact).

https://www.theweathernetwork.com/us/videos/gallery/this-futuristic-panel--can-generate-electricity-in-the-dark/sharevideo/6087524273001/most_popular

New word (to me) intersects one of my political protestations!

New word: dysphemism from the link:

https://wordsmith.org/words/today.html. Note: this only works as today's word, well, today!

MEANING:

noun: The substitution of a harsher, deprecating, or offensive term in place of a relatively neutral term.

Republicans are masters at this "skill". The first example that sprang to mind was the replacement (in reference to a tax) of Death for Estate in order to gin up unfounded hysteria in the minds of the 99.8% of those who will never pay this tax. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=what+percent+of+taxpayers+are+at+risk+of+owing+estate+taxes%3F
My goodness, that substitution actually works on the hue level too: the red font is so much more threatening than the blue font even though they are on the same font color chart intensity level in this app. (Or is Blogger part of the deep state cabal?)

Other footprints that come to mind are illegal and alien for UNDOCUMENTED. My god! it even works when the neutral word is in all caps, versus lower case demonizing terms.

And in some cases, an identical term wielded by a Pacydermically aligned speaker such as "poor"
carries the weight of approbation that doesn't weigh down the message following "poor"
when being referenced the donkey defenders. I looked for a clear example of what I mean on line, but was stumped by this fact: it is not usually the actual words following a Republican description for how to "help" the poor, so much as the actual proposed solutions. Here is one:

Principles for Poverty Alleviation
Four principles summarize the approach:
• Solve the right problem. The problem is not poverty.
The problem is that too many Americans are not
self-sufficient.

(from "Reducing Poverty the Republican Way" via the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality)

So, these benighted folks are not actually poor (which some might pity), just not self sufficient which I guess means that they could escape poverty if only they could do so without help.  yeeeeesss....... Oh! Right! Highly achieving drug purveyors have shown the self-sufficiency to escape poverty without asking for a handout. We need more of that of outside-the-ghetto thinking among the poverty stricken. 

There, I think this screed exemplifies perfectly the state of my political protestations to the pickle Republicans manage to ensure is on the value menu for America.

 

FALL ! ! (In case you missed yesterday's blog)

This morning I performed my second favorite holiday ritual: the replacement of Summer with FALL in my living room niche.  (Note for the future: my first favorite holiday ritual is simply noting that it is Arbor Day, nationally recognized on the last Friday of April.)

I am in awe of folks who decorate up the yin yang (wazoo) a for favorite or any holiday (extreme awe). I use the word awe here as described on Wikipedia:

      The term awe stems from the Old English word ege, meaning “terror, dread, awe,” which may have arisen from the Greek word áchos, meaning “pain^".

Being an extreme minimalist (except when trying for humor in a blog, obviously), I experience holiday decorating awe as about 95% Old English and 5% regular awe (i.e. as a positive emotion). Here is my solution to wanting to recognize seasons (I have 5.5 of them) without breaking my budget, a sweat, or a small storage footprint. Except for two large door wreaths and a stock of votive candles, I have the entirety of seasonal variation stored in one (72" tall, 30" wide and 19" deep) cupboard in the garage for less than a cubic yard.

 

And here is my exuberant visual homage to Autumn as experienced by fortunate Eugeneans. I have spent approximately 8 lifetime autumns outside Oregon, all on the front range of Denver. As I lived in Houston (not by choice, best forgotten, and horrific beyond the telling) from a Feb. thru a bit of Aug., I can only assume the fall there also sucked. 

Hence I have enjoyed nearly 60 amazing seasons. Yes, I am counting my first few years alive which not actually recalled can be interpolated. While Colorado's two best seasons (spring and fall) were lovely, they failed to rise to amazing as they flashed by in a great hurry to get either to cold or too hot while remaining relentlessly sunny.

 

 ^{--- Please excuse the wacky font selections and sizes as I experienced interface technicalities which I have tired of trying to overcome. There is some fall outside waiting for me to participate.}

Ma Nature is PISSED

I follow tropical storms on the Weather Underground site:
https://www.wunderground.com/hurricane.

This video is available on their Dorian update today. Click to get a link to this awesome sight:

https://twitter.com/i/status/1167997827743567872


For more evidence that we humans are puny in the face of Ma I will share the most dramatic photo I have depicting a storm cloud going biblical. I find extreme weather fascinating, but prefer to experience it with no interruption to my creature comforts: lots of awe and no oh crap. (see Note Below)

Do you imagine that Republican politicians in Florida and up along the east coast will have a climactic "come to Jesus" moment?

We can only offer our prayers and hopes (which show little effect on Ma's moods).

By the way: "FALL !!" sung out in my joyous welcome to coming cool, color, and guilt reduced cocooning while binge watching some fool thing. I will be doing this everywhere I go (and whenever anyone comes to me) for a few weeks so consider this a TRIGGER WARNING.

Note Below: Extreme weather is fascinating; climate change however is an existential threat which evokes some awe and a butt load of oh crap.