Monday, July 26, 2010

Goodbye To All That

The United States Senate just failed to pass climate-change legislation.  Thus, unless our "leaders" perform an immediate about-face, the oil and coal interests can sleep soundly at night - as long as they keep their air-conditioners blasting away at full power, of course.

Here are two links from people who are much better at venting frustration than I am:
All I have to say is that the downfall of empires is obvious not only to historians armed with hindsight, but also to contemporaries possessing a minimum of common sense.  (I bet there was not a single Roman above plebeian level who would deny that Caligula or Nero were horrible choices.)

And thus, today's title:  Goodbye To All That was Robert Graves' first novel - the same author who went on to write I Claudius and Claudius The God.

So, dear Senators (what a coincidence that you ladies and gentlemen have the same title as those Roman fools) you just made it a lot easier for the US to go off the cliff.  How do you feel, strapped on to your senatorial chariot (or is it a tricycle?).



32 comments:

  1. Wow. Best news of the day. Good to have something good turn up for once.

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  2. I agree with the sentiments, but the Roman references are a bit out of place. Caligula and Nero were at the beginning of the empire, not at the end, which came several hundred years later.

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  3. One can argue about it, but in my view the pinnacle of Rome's Empire came with Augustus.

    Ave,
    H.

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  4. Hell,

    Most wonderful choice of books (and author)!!! Have read them all!!!

    Brian P

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  5. happy this died. just another transfer payment from the little have to the spend to much;s in CONgress.

    always viewed this as an economic destruction act since other countries would not follow our lead, thus forcing even more jobs offshore.

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  6. Are you frustrated the clmate change meme failed? Wow. In case you are, you are no better than the dirty globalists. Cap and trade in the hands of GS to bring us back to Middle Ages, that is frustration and doom scenario. Have no idea how good you are in science, but you should know that plenty of patents for a better environment have been supressed. Why? Just to make the multinationals richer in today's money!

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  7. Jefferey, I don't think the reference was supposed to mean that Nero was at the end of the Empire, but he had a very sudden fail due to his neglect of Rome, which seems to apply to this topic.

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  8. The liberals are losing and I love it !!

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  9. Global climate change and resource depletion/degradation issues are not (and cannot be) defined along liberal/conservative dividing lines.

    The politicians (and their backers) who are still stuck in the Previous Age are desperately trying to make you believe so, but c'mon...

    It's a whole new ballgame out there.

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  10. yet another commie post by Hell. What's new?

    Can you tell me what was in the legislation that it needed urgent implementation?

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  11. "yet another commie post by Hell. What's new?"

    Off topic, but my curiosity is activated. I want to understand the World According to Greenie.

    1)Communism is always oppressive.
    2)Cooperation in setting rules about the treatment of our common planet is always communism.
    3)Capitalism, the polar opposite of communism, is pure freedom and can never result in harm.
    4)There are only two possible economic systems, capitalism and communism.

    Is this a correct summation of your world vision?

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  12. So, what else is new...?

    I agree with your view re Augustus. It was a long and torturous decline from that point forward. However, we will not have the benefit of the long. And furthermore we are not discussing an empire here, we are talking about civilization, the human species.

    I wonder if "God" finds us as tiresome as I do..? You can't possibly tell me that he finds us amusing in any way because, if that's the case, he's not "God"....

    Best regards,

    Econolicious

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  13. Re: God finding us amusing.

    One of the most amusing films ever made about "God" - and many other subjects including "property" and unfulfilled "needs" - is "The Gods Must Be Crazy".

    It is an excellent allegory.. look it up if you haven't seen it.

    Best,
    H.

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  14. Squidly's real estate predictions for Alberta, mid term: twitter.com/squidly77

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  15. Hell:

    Seen the Gods Must Be.... However, my intended reference was Robert Bolt's play, "A Man For All Seasons".....

    Thomas More to the Duke of Norfolk:

    "God created the plants for their simplicity, the animals for their innocence and man to amuse him..."

    or something to that effect....

    Of course, we must consider, as we must consider in the case of the decline of Rome, that Nintendo Wii was an option for amusement's sake.

    Best regards,

    Econolicious

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  16. was "not" an option...

    Eco

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  17. "One of the most amusing films ever made about "God" - and many other subjects including "property" and unfulfilled "needs" - is "The Gods Must Be Crazy"."

    My favorite movie.....watched it many times.

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  18. 'Cmon Hell, if you are in bed with Gore, green nazis and climate alarmists, you better get out soon, because that bed is falling off a cliff!
    Gore is totally compromised as a person and the CO2 theory is almost as compromised as a credible scientific view. And in case you haven't noticed, BIG BAD OIL is in fact supporting this green nonsense.
    So NO - no sacrifices in the name of good 'CO2 footprint', no one child policies, no unscientific bullshit to wash the brains of small children and absolutely no carbon taxes, taxes to fund a new global government etc. A line in the sand, if you will, and I hope you'll see it one day - I find your blog pretty interesting to follow, and it's a pitty you are mixing up real environmental problems - like GMO ticking time bomb - with this non-issue.
    How can anyone really support socialism, seeing how corrupt and wasteful modern governments just seem to be almost everywhere - unless we do some cleaning, much better you keep what you earn and plan accordingly, not fall for the rosy pictures of commie paradise.

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  19. My pal squidly77 has a new theory on why the canadian housing bubble may not burst: twitter.com/squidly77

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  20. Climate Specific:

    We've heard your narrative on many occasions and it still sounds like the cliched talking points of a bygone era. Invoking labels, has all but lost it's effect.

    We understand your frustration and anxiety as it relates to an uncertain future.

    ".....How can anyone really support socialism, seeing how corrupt and wasteful modern governments just seem to be almost everywhere - unless we do some cleaning, much better you keep what you earn and plan accordingly, not fall for the rosy pictures of commie paradise....."

    Really...? I find that in most cases, those who have little to contribute to society, reap few of the rewards under any system of government. However, if one's contribution to society is one of battering and destroying an ecosystem that sustains all life on this planet, in order that one may profit, then one will have to face the consequences of their actions, either in this life or the next.

    Best regards,

    Econolicious

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  21. You are a funny, econolicious, however I'm kinda man of a bygone era of sorts indeed, and I'm never gonna cheerlead madness, no matter what the dumb crowd does. See, it takes certain amount of guts to speak ones mind and I'm pretty busy developing myself a track record of doing just so in life and online as well. As for you, I don't know you and therefore can only hope you have good backing for your beliefs besides just being 'trendy' and 'up to date'.

    Curious how it's the GREEN movement that's the one usually calling people names, comparing sceptics to luddites etc. How it's 'liberals' calling Obamas'.. whoops, Barrack Sotorros' critics 'racists' and people calling for secure borders 'nazis' - now that's what I call 'invoking labels' that really don't have to do much with reality. And then the 'real' nazis turn out to be government's agents-provocateurs on payroll in more than one occasion.

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  22. Isn't peak oil/peak coal going to eliminate this problem?

    I was under the impression that permagrowth required increasing supplies of "free" energy.

    Nero was Emperor while Rome was still basically going strong and expanding.

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  23. "Green" is neither Red nor Pink.

    A simple example: a highly distributed renewable energy grid, like millions of solar panels and wind turbines, is BY DEFINITION less centrally-planned and more individualistic than a few dozen massive fossil-fuel stations, or the supply of crude from a half dozen sovereigns.

    Think of green energy systems as the equivalent of the Internet, which completely destroyed the press cartels.

    Best,
    H.

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  24. Climate Sceptic:

    It is easy to be distracted by the pettiness of partisanship driven by the pride of the label that we may identify with. I am for equal protection under the law. Does that make me a liberal or a conservative?

    What I find difficult to comprehend, is the insecurity that has manifested it's self in the modern American conservative movement. It's not skepticism by any stretch of the imagination. It's almost a delusional persecution complex. It's the "I hate what I fear and I fear what I don't understand." syndrome.

    I've got to tell you, that recently published research indicates that the conservative movement is dominated by white Protestant males that suffer from chronic symptoms of sexual inadequacy disfunction. Perhaps that is the reason why the movement is dedicated to spending such a disproportionate amount of time and energy on the race issue (we've noticed), specifically as it relates to African American males. I suspect that the border issue has more to do with the inbreeding in the conservative movement than with the application of the law...

    Ciao,

    Econnolicious

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  26. "Global climate change and resource depletion/degradation issues are not (and cannot be) defined along liberal/conservative dividing lines"
    Because for mankind to significantly affect earth's climate or otherwise merely shows how mistakenly self-important he thinks he is!
    The earth will keep on spinning come Jurassic or 'snowball' earth and whether we are here or not is insignificant.

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  28. Hellasious says:

    "One can argue about it, but in my view the pinnacle of Rome's Empire came with Augustus."

    You should probably say, instead, the pinnacle of Rome's culture came with Augustus.

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  29. Econ guy says:

    "I've got to tell you, that recently published research indicates that the conservative movement is dominated by white Protestant males that suffer from chronic symptoms of sexual inadequacy disfunction. Perhaps that is the reason why the movement is dedicated to spending such a disproportionate amount of time and energy on the race issue (we've noticed), specifically as it relates to African American males."

    Or it could be that the older Southern Baptists who are a major component of the conservative movement are from (cough) the South.

    And in any event, the lines of this Fourth Turning (k-cycle Winter) appear to have been drawn.

    It's going to be "The Countryside" vs. "The Bureaucratic Elite". The only thing to watch going forward is where the "Tea Party" ends up.

    Peak Oil (really, "peak free energy") is going to make this entire renewable energy argument obselete.

    Renewable energy is coming whether we want it or not.

    Hellasious conception of linking money to renenwable energy is simply a throwback to the mideveal times where the source of wealth was land.

    You need to spend more time watching what's going on and less time worrying about throwbacks to the 1980s culture wars.

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  30. For some of the commenters here...
    Will, in "The Merchant of Venice" has Arragon say :
    "...'who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.' You shall look fairer ere I give or hazard. What says the golden chest ? Ha, let me see ! 'Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire'...that 'many' may be meant by the FOOL MULTITUDE that choose by show, not learning more than the fond eye doth teach... I WILL NOT CHOOSE WHAT MANY MEN DESIRE BECAUSE I WILL NOT JUMP WITH THE common SPIRITS AND RANK ME WITH THE barbarous multitudes. Why then, to thee, thou silver treasure house ! Tell me once more what title thou dost bear. 'Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves'. And well said too, for who shall go about to cozen fortune, and be honourable without the stamp of MERIT ? Let none presume to wear an undeserved dignity. O that estates, degrees, and offices were not derived corruptly, and that clear honor were PURCHASED by the merit of the wearer !... How many then be commanded tht command..I will ASSUME DESERT...
    What's here ? The portrait of a blinking idiot presenting me a schedule ! ...Did I deserve no more than a fool's head ? Is that my prize ? Are my deserts no better ?...
    Seven times tried that judgment is that did never choose amiss.
    Some there be that shadows kiss, such have but a shadow's bliss..there be fools alive iwis, silvered o'er, and so was this. Take what wife you will to bed, I will ever be your head." II,ix,52-71, with cuts, unfortunately.
    I wish the French government would go forward and TAKE THE RISKS that the Portugese government has...
    But then... when you're POOR to start with, you have LESS TO LOSE, don't you ??
    Something along the lines of the proverbial camel and the eye of a needle.

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  31. Very knowledgeable blog thank for this news.
    MCSE

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