Unintended consequences
HAVE you ever noticed a friend or neighbour driving a new hybrid car and felt pressure to trade in your gas guzzler? Or worried about what people might think when you drive up to the office in an SUV?
That’s the question in a New Scientist article on how we could cut down on damage to the environment by making people ‘fess up to what they consume. HotAir ran it under the headline Newest solution to global warming: Shame.
The author studied the way subjects would selfishly abuse shared resources — basically, the tragedy of the commons — but could be persuaded not to if everyone was aware how much everyone else was consuming.
See, this is why the excess of liberals in academia is a problem. You miss subtle data points, like MOST PEOPLE ARE NOT ASHAMED OF HOW MUCH ENERGY THEY USE. We pay for what we get, fair and square. Through the nose, even. What’s to be ashamed?
Energy consumption is a proxy for success. Bigger cars, bigger houses, maybe a boat or motorbike, lots of air travel — the good life is hell on your carbon footprint. Arch warmist and soon-to-be green billionaire Al Gore has a fucking GIGANTIC carbon footprint (I remind you, one of his three mansions uses twenty times the energy of the average American family home). If he’s not ashamed, why would I be?
Only in a leftist’s — or Christian missionary’s — dream world is a thin, dry, gray life of parsimony a status symbol. For the rest of us, we’re pretty proud of our toys. I predict outting the carbon exploiters wouldn’t play out quite the way it did in a university lab.
Say, did you catch yourself thinking, “gosh, I wish there was a range of quality merchandise with this logo or design emblazoned on it?” Well, it’s your lucky day!
November 17, 2009 — 5:04 pm
Comments: 36
Cross the line? Yes we can!
I used to feel kind of bad, poking fun at The One. But the bigger the dose, the badder the taste. There was this Boston Globe article over the weekend:
“I think that I’m a better speechwriter than my speechwriters,’’ he told campaign aides when he was running for the White House. “I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that . . . I’m a better political director than my political director.’’
Ohhhhh…I really don’t like this man. I knew he was stuck on himself, but I didn’t realize he thought he was Barack Obama Sooper Genius. Maybe his staff isn’t letting him down, after all. Maybe he’s overruling them. With his mind.
Oh, and did you catch Kathleen Parker yesterday, pleading for more civility?
Kathleen, honey, we’ve been yelling obscenities at y’all this whole time. It’s just, now you can hear us.
November 16, 2009 — 9:38 am
Comments: 30
Special Saturday bonus news item…
Ed Morrissey reminds us how the New York Times reacted when Bill Clinton kinda, sorta, not-really bowed to Akihito in 1994. “Unthinkable” they called it. “…the ‘thou need not bow’ commandment from the State Department’s protocol office maintained a constancy of more than 200 years.”
Change we can aggrieve in.
November 14, 2009 — 1:52 pm
Comments: 35
And you thought OUR lot were pinko stooges
You know, I try to stay out of British politics. I still own property, pay taxes and vote in the States. I got enough to get wadded up about with the politics I know. Plus, nobody likes a bitchy immigrant. But Uncle B sent me this link and I’m just…stonked.
Just after WWII, Harry Pollitt — leader of the Communist Party in Britain — gave a talk at Cambridge and told a bunch of bright young lefties don’t join our party. Join the establishment and work from within. And they did. The Communist Party withered away in Britain, and the USSR issued a postage a stamp and named a battleship after Pollitt when he died. Because he did Communism such a service.
The handwritten diary of the Soviet’s point man in the West turned up in the US Archives and has recently been translated. The man, Anatoly Chernyaev, is still alive and tickled pink that his life’s work is being recognized. It details how close the relationship was between Labour, trade unions and the Soviets. Right from the start (or almost the start — the Labour Party was founded in 1900).
Some of these guys were paid agents of the Soviet Union, actively working with Moscow to bring down Thatcher. Why that hasn’t resulted in charges can only be because most of the old coots are dead. And Labour is still in power.
It’s a long but a fascinating read, if you’re the sort of person who wakes up in a cold sweat dreaming of Antonio Gramsci.
The UK Spectator broke the story, but the only place you can get it for free is the Daily Mail. In the darker phase of my paranoias, I often think They let the embarrassing stories go out in the Mail because it’s such a trashy, low-rent rag.
November 12, 2009 — 8:15 pm
Comments: 20
Mmmm mmmm mmmm. Thanks, Nancy!
220-215. No Congress has ever tried to ram through such a huge change with so little public support by such a narrow margin. Not since the run-up to the Civil War, anyhow. And so I don’t actually believe this healthcare shit sandwich will ever make it to law. It has a long, long way to go and it barely cleared the first hurdle.
It may be that the only outcome of Obamacare will be to ignite fifty percent of the country with incandescent antigovernment rage. You know, that nice fifty percent in flyover country who coach Little League, make Frito pie for their new neighbors and go to church more than once a week.
We may really and truly owe Nancy thanks for this turdburger.
Still, I thought some of y’all might like to write your congresswanker with some less amiable sentiments, so I made up a few handy postcards. They’re in the new section. Problem is, the one I think most appropriate — the Shit Sammich, above — is invisible unless you’ve gone into your Zazzle settings and upped them to at least PG-13. On account of the word “shit” being in there. But you can reach it from this direct link.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “jesus christ, you oily crapweasel, is there no end to this attempted picking of pockets?” Well, this time you’re wrong. This time. A postcard is a buck; my markup is nuffink. I’m just trying to help you express yourselfs with my beautiful arts, m’kay?
If you’ve got any bright postcard ideas, sing out in the comments.
November 9, 2009 — 3:38 pm
Comments: 24
Now, let’s not jump to any hasty conclusions
Keep fucking that chicken, mainstream media!
November 6, 2009 — 3:31 pm
Comments: 35
Anybody seen that damn donkey?
Yeah, I was hoping for a Republican blow-out. I’m disappointed the Hoffman race wasn’t a win, but it was a squeaker. Reading around the web this morning, it seems everyone — right, left and gooey caramel center — is claiming NY-23 just goes to show everything I’ve been saying all along was dead right.
Me, I’m not sure you can draw much of a conclusion from an endgame that tight. Casper Milquetoast went from single digits to within two points of the win in a month. With the DNC clamped around one ankle and the GOP clamped around the other.
Anyhow, let’s take a moment and appreciate Virginia and New Jersey. Not for the wins, for the turning of the tide
November 4, 2009 — 2:50 pm
Comments: 32
Long tails and ears for hats…
Oh, right. I was going to let this go. I’m not made of stone, you know.
OH, and — listen to the original J and the Ps theme (or the whole damn album. You knew there was an album, didn’t you?) here.
God, childhood sucked, didn’t it?
November 2, 2009 — 6:21 pm
Comments: 42
Mourning in America
Thanks to AliceH from D-Pud for kicking my tail, I’ve finally got a production version of Zombie Reagan up on the Zazzle site. Two Reagan shirt/mug variants and a bumper sticker. More to come.
Sadly, the product AliceH particularly wanted — Zombie Reagan postage stamps for mailing those critical government forms — is not to be. Violation of the postal guidelines:
• Result: Not Approved
• Policy Violations:o Design incorporates the name or likeness of a current or former world leader or politician, or a local, regional, national or international leader, religious figurehead, or politician.
I was hoping the undead version wouldn’t count.
Anyhoo, thanks to Alice (and Ace!) I’m well on my way to a cool twenty bucks!
October 28, 2009 — 6:54 pm
Comments: 27
But…dude…
He’s loving himself some mop metaphors this week. Here’s one incarnation:
I’m busy and Nancy is busy with our mop cleaning up somebody else’s mess — we don’t want somebody sitting back saying, ‘you’re not holding the mop the right way,”’ Obama had said last week. “Why don’t you grab a mop, why don’t you help clean up… ‘You’re not mopping fast enough… That’s a socialist mop,’ He told the crowd: Grab a mop — let’s get to work.
You know, if I had come up with the idea of our president wielding that mop, I’m pretty sure that would actually, for reals be straight-up racist. Or race stereotyping, anyhow, which is much the same thing. I’m guessing the idea didn’t hit a nerve with him because he hasn’t touched a whole lot of mops in his privileged life.
Which reminds me…dude was raised by an elderly white couple in Hawaii. When he starts dropping his g’s and saying “y’all” and “folks” and sech, you know you’re listening to Reverend Wright.
October 26, 2009 — 9:15 am
Comments: 21