A Lot of Hot Air

I recently read a diatribe from a well-known author likening the scientific and social acceptance of Global Warming to the Eugenics movement of the early 20th Century. My instinct upon reading that, was to dismiss the notion outright as preposterous. However, in the interest of open-mindedness I thought I’d give it another look. For those of you that don’t know, I’ve touched on the eugenics topic before with my post inspired by the film Idiocracy. Which in actuality, is a pro-eugenics film; the underlying principle being that we are breeding ourselves into stupidity. Something that, as a species, we should probably try to avoid. Of course, in practice, the eugenics movement inexorably led to the Holocaust perpetrated by Nazi Germany. Which, as it turns out, is something we should probably try to avoid even more.

The point is, this is an example of a reasonable-sounding idea gone terribly awry. It all seems innocent enough if you just take the term at face value: “Eugenics is the study and practice of selective breeding applied to humans, with the aim of improving the species by improving human genetic qualities to counter dysgenic dynamics within the human gene pool, specifically in regard to congenital disorders and factors relating to the heritability of IQ.” Like the eugenics movement, the Global Warming movement offers a similarly sensible theory: “The Earth as an ecosystem is changing, attributable in great part to the effects of globalization and man. More carbon dioxide is now in the atmosphere than has been in the past 650,000 years. This carbon stays in the atmosphere, acts like a warm blanket, and holds in the heat — hence the term ‘global warming’.” Sounds reasonable enough. Makes sense to me anyway. In fact, it makes sense to a lot of people. Just like eugenics did almost 100 years ago. So much sense, that the scientific community rallied around the concept of eugenics and received research funding to study their claim. The problem is, that unless the theory holds true, the funding stops and the researchers have to find a new job. So, it comes as no surprise that the more research grants are given to study the validity of a theory, the more “science” points to its validity. Go figure.

I’m not saying these two issues are identical—not at all. However, I am saying that there is a certain similarity. They both have taken an issue with an almost infinitely complex set of variables, boiled it down to a simple concept we can all understand, funded science to support and validate the theory and then attempted to institute sweeping sociological changes that impact the lives of millions of people based on their findings. I’m not an expert on Global Climate Change. I first studied the notion in 1992 and frankly have heard little new on the subject since then. But I do know this much. When people start trying to scare the hell out of me, I am immediately suspicious. My first instinct is to safeguard my loved-ones and my wallet. I find the notion that the Earth is going to devour our civilization with catastrophic weather changes equally credible to the arguments that claim there is no Global Warming at all because it’s cold outside today. For some reason, I get the sense that both sides are lying to me.

There’s some intellectual dishonesty going on here from both sides that I find disturbing and ideologically paralyzing. I mean, I want to understand the issue. It’s important to me, and I’ve no doubt there is merit to the claims of scientists all over the globe who present climate change as a very real threat to human beings. But that belief I have is just that. A belief. I don’t know that for certain. And I am skeptical of anyone else who claims to have a complete understanding of the planet’s ecosphere and temperature fluctuations, our impact on them and the almost infinite number of other variables that contribute to the livability of our species on this wildly diverse planet. We know so damn little about the whole thing. Let me re-phrase that… I know so damn little about the whole thing. So little in fact that I am begging both sides of this issue to come together and present their ideas with some sense of credibility. I’m a big believer in science—I’m generally a fan of, you know, facts. But I’ve got to warn you, if your scientific conclusions can be picked apart by the likes of me, you’re on shaky ground. Like I said, I am not an expert, but even I have been able to find the double-speak and missing pieces of critical data on many of these studies (on both sides).

Claiming that the ocean level will rise and engulf the State of Florida within 10 years is equally unhelpful to your cause as claiming that because some scientist buried a set of data means that there is no threat at all. It’s childish, reactionary posturing from self-righteous partisans who care more about scoring political points than they do about addressing the important issues of the day. Frankly, it’s just plain stupid. Almost as stupid as claiming that I am comparing environmentalists to Nazis.

Insomniac's Requiem

I’m tired.

I’m tired of struggling to pay the bills.

I’m tired of going to sleep stressed out and waking up with a headache.

I’m tired of self-important know-it-alls who act on ignorance.

I’m tired of watching my home fall into disrepair without the money to stop it.

I’m tired of watching good people get bullied and shamed by the greedy and the selfish.

I’m tired of bureaucracy that is designed to kick us when we’re down.

I’m tired of a world that rewards the belligerent and punishes the patient.

I’m tired of the fear and uncertainty I never had when I was young.

I’m tired of watching my life pass me by.

I’m tired of defending justice and common decency against stubbornness and apathy.

I’m tired of the pretending that I’m not tired.

I’m tired of the status quo.

I’m tired of starting over.

I’m tired of it all—and if I weren’t so tired all the time, I’d do something about it.

But I’m just too damned tired.

Hating on Haiti

The events in Haiti over this past week have been occupying a fair part of my thoughts. Basically those thoughts range from: “What an unimaginably horrific, shitty fucking mess of a tragedy.” All the way to: “Holy shit, what a nightmarish, soul-crushing human catastrophe.” Perhaps it’s because I’ve been looking at options on where I might be able to live in the Caribbean someday, or perhaps it’s just my famously empathetic nature. Regardless of which, it only stands to reason that I have become increasingly pissed off at those who would politicize this for their own agenda.

Today I heard some famous blow-hard who shall remain nameless, make a comparison between the earthquake in Haiti and Hurricane Katrina. The claim was that all those critical of the Bush administration’s handling of the latter are now silent about all the failings of the current administration’s handling of the former. As if the two events were somehow mirror images of each other. There are some differences as it turns out. Like the little known fact that Haiti is not part of the U.S. I know that may come as a surprise to some folks who believe that every nation-state within 1,000 miles of our border is somehow a U.S. Territory, but it’s not. Do I really need to mention the relative logistical differences between getting relief supplies to an American city of several million along our southern coast to getting relief to a small island nation with almost no infrastructure to begin with? I do? Well I won’t.

It’s not that I am an apologist for all things the Obama administration does, but the reaction seems to be pretty swift and comprehensive in relative terms. But you know what? It doesn’t matter. I’m not going to argue the point. The situation down there doesn’t deserve further politicizing. There comes a point when I become so frustrated and angry that I no longer wish to give these people the benefit of my considered debate. It is no longer worth it to me to try to educate them. I simply stop caring enough about them to try to persuade them or those who believe them. There comes a point where, even I, throw my arms up and declare: “Fuck you! Fuck you and your ignorant, insensitive, semi-illiterate idiot followers. Fuck you, Rush Limbaugh, for implying that the WhiteHouse.gov website asking for donations to help is somehow a political conspiracy. Fuck you, Pat Robertson, for implying that Haitians were in cahoots with the devil and they had it coming to them. Fuck you, Hugo Chavez, for implying that U.S. troops have been sent there to occupy the country rather than provide support. Fuck you, Danny Glover, for implying that this had anything whatsoever to do with global warming. Fuck the lot of you!”

Look, this shit doesn’t happen overnight. It took a couple hundred years of slavery, occupation and internal corruption to create the cluster-fuck of a country that is now Haiti. What Western powers and the subsequent corrupt military leaders of the country didn’t manage to destroy, this earthquake finished off. This is a massive, complex situation involving command and control requirements similar to a war. This is, quite literally, nation-building. Not only do we need to get food and water there, we need to get it to the right places at the right times via air, land and sea (without airports, roads or ports mind you). Then we have the little job of keeping people from killing each other over the food and water we are delivering. I understand that donations from people all over the world are pouring in. The people of the U.S. (in spite of some loud-mouthed assholes) are a good and generous lot for the most part. I hope our actions serve to silence the critics at home and abroad who would try to portray diligence as incompetence and compassion as villainy.

The Nothing

The new decade has fallen upon us. I don’t know about you, but it snuck up on me. Almost like a predator jumping out from the darkness of the thick jungle canapé above. I simply didn’t expect the last decade to end so... abruptly. But here we are, staring straight into the face of 2010. What are we calling this new decade? The tens? The Teens? The Tweens? I am unsure. Appropriately however, it feels like the world is just entering puberty. Everyone seems uncertain of their future, naively optimistic about their prospects for happiness and utterly confused about what the hell is going to happen next. It feels as if the world is about to enter middle school and all that rubbish that occurred during grade school was completely pointless and is now relegated to an increasingly small part of our fading memory. Did we really make popsicle-stick sculptures in class a few years ago? Why? What was the name of that little girl I thought was so cute? I can’t recall. It all seems so long-ago and irrelevant. Remember that time we played kick-ball in gym class and Ronny broke his arm? Or how about the time we invaded Iraq to get WMD’s? No? Me neither. Did we really elect G. W. Bush twice? You're joking.

But rather than look forward and try to predict what’s going to happen as we enter puberty I thought I’d take a stab at classifying the time we’ve spent together these last ten years. We need to have a catch-phrase for... The Aughts? The Naughts? The Zeroes? I am unsure. But it needs to be called: “The ________ Decade". I’m not really sure if anything in particular stands out. I mean, really is there anything we can hang our collective hats on as the overriding social order of the last ten years? Not really. Which is just about perfect for a ten year period commonly known as “The Naughts”. Because I’d say that “naught” a God Damned good thing happened over the last ten years. Nothing of any real positive importance anyway.

Future generations will look back at this first decade of the 21st century as a time when we lost our way. When things really, really started to get markedly worse in the world. They will see the dawn of this new century as the beginning of the end of prosperity, culture and integrity. We didn’t really invent anything, cure anything or create anything of lasting value for future generations. No real progress (of any type) was made… not scientifically, spiritually, economically or politically. The human genome project perhaps qualifies as something of an achievement. That may be the only thing of substance to come out of the last ten years, but even that was a 13-year long project that ended in 2003, which really makes it an accomplishment of the 90’s that just sort of wrapped itself up in this decade. It seems that all we've accomplished as a society in the last ten years is a significant improvement in the creation and advertising of drugs that prolong erections. Well thank God for that!

No… the last ten years may as well not even have happened. In fact, judging by the way things ended up at the end, we’d have all been much better off if it hadn’t. What a complete fucking waste of ten years. So join me in saying good riddance to the last ten years… “The Nothing Decade”.