Wednesday, June 1, 2016

SAR #16153


After You: Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant, who thinks Christians have a sacred duty to discriminate against gays, claims that Christians “will endure crucifixion for [the] right to discriminate against gay people.”Step right up, governor.
Where There's A Won't. There's A Way: As Republicans make it ever more difficult for women to obtain safe, legal abortions – as is their constitutional right - American women are more and more frequently turning to DIY abortion concoctions of questionable efficacy and safety. Serves the sluts right, eh Mrs. Blackburn?
The Price Is Rights: A US District Judge has ordered Sheriff Joe Arpaio to pay people who were detained by his deputies solely because the supposedly looked like illegal immigrants $1,000 for the first hour of detention and $200 for every 20 minutes thereafter.
Being Prepared: Paul Krugman says that if Hillary does not win the White House it will be Bernie Sanders' fault for refusing to concede now and distracting her from more important things.
Unicorns: If we – we being everybody alive on this planet – are to keep global warming to the magical 2°C target, we need to reduce the carbon intensity of the energy system by 100% within 50 years. For the mathematically challenged that means that by 2060 at the very latest we must stop burning fossil fuels. No more coal burning. No more natural gas, either. And most assuredly, no more petroleum-based transportation. Anybody who tells you we are going to make a serious attempt at reaching such a goal is lying. If they start to tell you about “carbon capture”, run away, run away.
Pyrrhic Victory: Former Attorney General Eric Holder says that Edward Snowden is a hero who did us all a public service and should go to jail for doing so.
Good Intentions: Facebook acknowledges that it is using your cellphone to listen in to what you are saying, all the time - but it's only doing so to help you out, to serve you better. If they overhear you talking about a new car, then they can put new car ads on your Facebook page. If you are talking about having an affair, they can suggest good hotels and discrete jewelers. Besides, you can eventually figure out how to turn the damned thing off.
A Parting Shot:

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awhile back I was shooting the breeze with some guy from Calgary who retired from working on the supply chain for the oil fields up north. His money was made, his vested interests severed; so I was trying to politely get his opinion on the environmental state of play, when he interrupted, politely, as only Canadian's can, and said "The fact is that we are going to burn every last drop of oil on this planet." This was years ago. I've never read or heard anything more convincing than that one sentence since.

Gegner said...

Tis true. Besides the dependency on 'cheap and abundant' fuel, (our entire social model was built on this central premise) whole swaths of the planet are uninhabitable for months out of the year without an artificial source of heat and light.

Since there is no way to track it, the number of people that die of 'exposure' each year remain unknown because the capitalists are good at ignoring anything that makes them look bad.

People who can't get in out of the cold are said to have died of stupidity when pride might be closer to the mark. When there is no place to go, swallowing one's pride isn't much of an option.

Charles Kingsley Michaelson, III said...

Ah, yes. Cold and dark. But you can put on extra layers etc. etc. The coming problem will be heat - and to face that once we are naked we need air conditioning. And that requires fossil fuels, too.

Gegner said...

[Nods like a bobble-head]