Belated reflections on Earth Day. How brief the tune...Click word 'crazy' to spin planet

A crazy planet full of crazy people

Is somersaulting all around the sky

And everytime it turns another somersault

Another day goes by...

Earth Day ... Is that like Mother's Day but with gender delicately avoided, implied? One day out of 365 on our calendar when we decide to honor The Mother? Um, is that the Mother without whom none of us would exist – that Mother? Yeah, small potatoes, fellas – one lousy day. And I don't say this as a mother so much as a resident of a planet populated by thankless children, particularly those in the american playpen, who whine about their circumstances (I still don't see many of them turning off the tv and picking up all this trash) while sucking that Tit of Plenty as dry as their greedy little cheeks can manage three hundred pounds per square inch! (or whatever it is, maybe less, I forget.)

Oui..

So!

THIS is my unique contribution to Earth Day. (shoutout to T the photographer)

Here's a dog owner who has their priorities in order... I'm lookin at, including the dog, say four or five hundred dollars worth of crap here. This person was riding a public bus. When I used to do things like this (no not really this bad) to my cat my son used to say "MOM! You're making him gay!" (He was preadolescent and being funny, the kid not the cat. The cat was whoa old, which is why I got away with it.) I dunno, it's cute, but horrifying at the same time.. Something out of Cormac McCarthy.

So I learned on John Stewart last night some guy wrote a book insisting we are not confronting the long feared Malthusian population explosion disaster. Instead it appears that women the world over, even on the Dark Continents (including India there), are choosing to have fewer children (well, way to go, ladies), and as a result, by the year 2040 we will be seeing an actual decline in the world's population. This is good news for us but bad news for the water thieves and GMO seed mongers who want to control these two commodities with a fear based agenda that will have farmers and the rest of us dependent on their doling out, for a fee, the necessities of our very existence because if we don't we will die! (Shades of The Evil Emperor in Star Wars.) But their fear based agenda has holes in it that threaten to reduce their bottom line.

Maude Barlow, (I just luv Maude) as well as dozens of other reputable people, gave Mr. Pearce's book (and he's written other tomes along this line, he's no amateur) a rave, and that's all I need to read to know I should read this book too. As far as I'm concerned Maude should be crowned queen of the Earth today and, sceptre at the ready, be allowed to rule with a free hand, screw democratic capitalism. Maude started out as an anticorporate rabble rouser in Canada years ago and I guess her props are well deserved as she is now head of the UN's, well, Oversight of All Water on the Planet Department or some such. Maude is one of my heroines. Her books, films are great as well, not dry at all, it's what they should be teaching high school kids in science class. Read her and you will be the most informed person at the next party of opinionated "progressives" or "hipsters" you attend. Which will not, I'm sorry to say, necessarily make you the most popular.

So, now that we've averted a population disaster (and it makes total sense, this guy's thesis), what next? Oh yeah, brain cancer. I know it's not your favorite topic, but take a minute to read this rather lengthy piece in the new Harper's about cellphones and brain cancers. It is no bs to postulate that right about the same time the population is declining in 2040, an entire generation will see an explosion in the development of brain cancers as a result of.... you guessed it, improper use of cellphones. If you do nothing else, read the last few paragraphs of this article. And just to be on the safe side, do the following:

*Turn off your WiFi at night or when not in use.

*Do NOT keep cellphone in your pocket (near the family jewels, guys).

*Do NOT sleep with cellphone next to your bed. Get a friggin alarm clock.

*Always use a listening device attachment with your phone (earbuds or such) rather than holding it up to your ear. This is a habit you can easily create for yourself. Just takes a bit of mindfulness, something we can all use more practice with, yes? Blue tooth on ear, NOOOOOOOOO. Leave that to the assholes who will die before you do, but looking cool, like Lando Calrisian's bald (for a reason!) assistant.

So let's all just get over wanting to look cool like James Bond or whomever and get that electromagnetic device off your brain!

Ok, and just give this a quick read if you're tired of credit card companies and banks hosing you. We pay more than 48 billions bucks a year in transaction fees every single time we use a debit or credit card. (You didn't think the banks were just being NICE giving us these convenient cards that make us feel like we have more money than we actually have did you?Mmmmm. doesn't that l'il piece of plastic just make you feel like somebody? ) The progressives in congress, yes there seem to be a few, want to make things better for us, THE ARMY OF Mass CONSUMERISM WE HAVE ALL VOLUNTEERED TO JOIN FOR NO PAY, by limiting this 2% of EVERY transaction fee we NOW pay (that's each and every time you use a debit or credit card) to more like .5%, like they have in Europe. (And by the way, Europeans shop one fourth as often as Americans do. They don't see themselves as consumers so much as people. They seem to have better things to do? Quoi? Maybe why their "lifestyle" seems so much better than ours? Yeah, that and free health care, and nice trains. Oh, but let's not go there..)

I think Obama actually wants to fix this bank hose job, but he and the progressive Dems are gonna need some backup on this Robin Hood raid they're planning on the nation's biggest banks, and that's a good thing! So let's pressure them all to do something. Call, email, whatever, If nothing else, be informed as to the FACTS and tell everyone else what's really goin on here. You want economic stimulus? There is it.

Finally, I had another thought about friendship last night after talking with my wonderful soeur T2. A friend is also someone who always gets your jokes, even the little ones, no matter how quirky is your particular brand of humor. It's a weird kind of unconditional love I think.

So, Ladies, never fall in love with a man who doesn't appreciate your sense of humor. That goes for makin friends as well..

Random thought..

There are, if you are lucky, those rare moments in life when you find yourself struck dumb by the sheer force of your own delusions. "What a fool I am," you declare, staring blankly at the pain of realization. But after that something changes, and the very air you breathe tends to be much appreciated.

con paz

lyrics above courtesy The Sound of Music and Rogers and Hammerstein or whomever.