Fiddling while we burn

I have some pretty dark thoughts about our earth's future.

But mostly, I keep them to myself.

They sound too apocalyptic -- and frankly, too paranoid.

I keep reminding myself, however, that I'm not generally regarded as a crazy person.

Nor am I prone to fantasy -- though I am bent to wasting time.

Precious time.

Time that might be usefully done manning the gates as the barbarians storm them.

I thought I was alone, or nearly alone, in my fantasies, until I heard the beginning of an interview with a nature writer, and novelist named Peter Heller.

Heller, who generally writes about real-world travel, decided to imagine a world in which most of the population had been wiped out by a pandemic.

He said that he thinks a lot about extinction -- and, in the process, alluded to the sixth great extinction.

Wow.  When it came to the first five, I'd missed the memo!

Was this a theory by a bunch of wackos?

Indeed not.

Some scientists argue that within 300 years, seventy-five percent of species could be gone -- because of human behavior. (Of course, they could also be saved, many of them, by changing the manner in which we live).

I'm not alone in my grim thoughts, my "Hunger Games" nightmares.

Some comfort.

Today, (thanks so much, NPR),  "Fresh Air" featured Michael Lemonick, a science writer from Climate Central, who basically says that we may have passed the point of no return.

But life goes on, doesn't it?

What I find incredible is how many of us have become seduced (myself included), by the pseudo-community of the Internet, focused not on action but on our tweets and our status updates.

Political debates become reduced to dueling pictures taken from some aggregator's Facebook page -- or harsh words exchanged in virtual time.

Cute animal pictures vie with news about the kids and the grands.

It's not that any of this is bad -- it's that it is all so stunningly irrelevant to the size of the threat we face.

Already the drought, for example, has raised prices for corn and soybeans -- how will that affect the food supply, not solely for the world's poor, but for those of us who live in relative comfort?

What are our moral obligations?

How does this speak to our faith -- or lack of faith?

I realize that this isn't a popular point of view -- so I rarely share it, except with people I know are similarly inclined.

And I also understand that many of us feel powerless, so we focus on what we can, or believe we can, affect.

Yet it seems to me that there is power in community, in shared goals, in aspirations that connect us to something greater.

In many ways, virtual communities in democratic countries seem to have made us less, not more free.

I am not so ignorant as to think myself more impassioned about the future of our planet, and our children, than you.

Perhaps I am unduly pessimistic.

Possibly I am too convinced, too self-righteous.

But I wrestle with whether I am, in some way, supporting a denial that may prove, frankly, harmful, or ultimately fatal to our species.

And I'm not sure, not at all sure, what to do to salve my conscience, if not make a true difference.

Perhaps these small decisions have an effect.

Those of us who are alarmists have an obligation, at the least, to find out.

Climate change -- watch those evangelicals

American opinions on whether climate change is occurring seem to vary, as fickle as the weather.

If you want to see the future of climate change "deciders," watch evangelicals.  That's where the debate is the hottest, as it were.

In deciding not to spotlight "deniers," I made a deliberate decision to step outside the "he said, he said" perspective journalists often take when analyzing a complex issue.  To me, climate change is a fact -- hurling insults over the great divide doesn't move the ball forward.

Go ahead. Debate me (grin).

http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/710799_Column--Evangelicals-face-climatic-challenges.html

 

Do you have a "right" to be happy?

And the corollary -- do other people "deserve" to be unhappy?

http://open.salon.com/blog/nocheapshots/2012/08/01/the_unchosen_school_of_suffering

What would Jesus shoot?

I've never quite figured out how the Prince of Peace and a Glock go together...

http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/696751_Freedom--guns-and-the-Gospel.html

Counting down with the crazies

Have I tipped over the line into fogeydom?

Am I the real life equivalent of that brown station wagon with the white trim doing 35 miles ahead of you in a 45-miles-an-hour zone?

I thought I might be -- until I spoke to a professor at a well-known university in another part of the country, and shared my opinion of the behavior of the two men aspiring to be President of the United States.

He told me that some of the rhetoric reminded him of that of the rise of fascism. 

That got my attention.

Appalled. Disgusted. Amazed.

I can't quite find the words to describe my emotions.

Mainly, incredibly frustrated -- because, mostly, you aren't talking about the things that matter to me. 

When Obama's surrogate describes his opponent, Romney, as a potential "felon" that seems a bridge too far.

And this is still July.

Out of the playground, guys.

In fact, the whole controversy over outsourcing seems to have been ginned up as a distraction from the main issues dogging us as a country.

That said, there's no reason why Romney's record at Bain shouldn't be subject to scrutiny.

But it didn't take long before one of Romney's surrogates suggested that, in fact, Obama was a cocaine-sniffing foreigner.

Notice how Romney savors the word "foreign"?

I have multiple reasons to be disappointed with Obama -- the potential abuse of Presidential power being just one of them. In my opinion,  he hasn't made the case for the kind of change that is needed to help us step back from the environmental cliff, if that's possible.  

I also have no clue as to what his immigration policy is -- or isn't. Mostly, it seems impurely pragmatic.

But there is something about Mitt Romney that I find disturbing.

And if I had to put my finger on it, I would say that it's his secrecy -- coupled with a hint of arrogance.

Just today, Ann Romney, the candidate's wife, was quoted in Politico saying:  “We’ve given all you people need to know and understand about our financial situation and how we live our life."

(http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0712/78711.html#ixzz2159gRoER)

Are you serious, Mrs. Romney?  If you get upset with this level of scrutiny, try living in the White House.

As for Marie Antoinette, "let them eat cake" pose, it doesn't suit you.  It doesn't even seem as though it is who you really are.

And who are "you people?"   Yes, she might be talking about the press (the usual rabble), but it sure seems as though she might also be speaking of the rest of us.

So we have (according to the partisans) a potential felon running against a drug-sniffing foreigner with Muslim tendencies (and don't tell me there's no racial subtext here).

I'm frankly more distressed about Obama -- because, after the Republican primaries, I had come to expect bad behavior from the Romney camp.

No wonder both candidates have such high unfavorability ratings.

The fact is that neither man is that awful a man (though I am not sure about their pals and colleagues).

Take Michele Bachmann and her allegations about Clinton aide Huma Abedin. 

What McCarthyite time/space continuum did Ms. Bachmann crawl out of?

Historians contend that there have been moments during past presidential races when it's become this ugly.

I say -- so what?

Why don't we hold our candidates to the most basic rules of polite behavior?

We are being poisoned, slowly but surely, by the immature behavior,. and the "gotta win, whatever it takes,"

please the base behavior of our elected officials -- and those who want to put their boots on their necks.

After all, there's a reason that group voters is called "the base."

We are all debased.

If these are the people who are supposed to call us to a higher standard, then I truly am afraid -- for what that says about us.

Right here.

Right now.

One "goodbye" at a time

Sometimes it seems as though motherhood is an endless process of letting go...

http://open.salon.com/blog/nocheapshots/2012/07/16/learning_to_let_your_children_grow_--_one_goodbye_at_a_time

The top...or the bottom?

A random list of what I've discovered in my online dating adventures...dedicated to my friends who may be considering it, or have had to listen to me rant.

 Encouragement, warning, or simply amusement -- take your pick.

http://open.salon.com/blog/nocheapshots/2012/07/05/ten_things_ive_learned_from_online_dating