chuck kottke

:operator: the stream of thought gets fuzzy when watching the lunar landing, then this article on soda bottle recycling into car seats!:wacko: I found this interesting - the more we emphasize efficiency and raise emission standards, the stronger our economies get! Making the Case for the Value of Environmental Rules by Gernot Wagner: Yale Environment 360

How is your friend and his grandparents feeling? I would imagine this shook up everyone in the area, from the sounds of it.

I'm sorry to hear this sad news, a bit late in noticing it, but in earnest, my condolences. Power lines are always something to be wary of when flying, sadly somehow the craft veered into them. Did the investigation discover anything regarding the cause of the accident? I would imagine it was some unexpected winds that blew them into the lines.. I was thinking recently about the need for triple safeties & redundancy with things, maybe fire retardant baskets and balloon materials would have helped, an emergency sensor system to warn a pilot when nearing lines, perhaps even a parachute release if the balloon itself catches on fire?

A moment of truly random posting, brought to you by spacebar, the only bar that can go the distance, from Alt to Alt. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Oyhf7CLoIw&feature=related]Moody Blues: Higher And Higher~Eyes of a Child - YouTube[/ame]

Welcome back Diamond! :) ====================

The lyrics are about a lot of things at a lot of different levels! ..... and certainly concerts fit one interpretation!;)

I don't mind doing dishes, aand.. I discovered the lower half of the LEM was named Snoopy! :snoopy: File:LEM-linedrawing.png - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia And I chatted with the Nissan people, and suggested they add some additional battery bank options (a place to put some in the hatch/trunk area), since so many people were interested in that option at the energy fair. :sunny:

Welcome yinnedyx33! :) Nothing too exciting here, just checking out the new LEAF, surfing the web, and chatting with coldplayers! Glad you now can post without peer review! :laugh3: And congratulations on your engagement!;)

So in thinking about how to reassert our rights as citizens over our governments, and set up the right conditions within the governing bodies to act on our behalf to protect our rights and our shared commons, some ideas passed through my mind in adding amendments and laws to restore our democracies: 1.) Declare and define our right to fair candidate contests for office & fair elections as essential for honest government and thus for protection of all rights we hold dear. 2.) Limit campaign contributions from any individual to no more than a level affordable to the broad majority of citizens. 1/4 of 1% of the median income level, for instance. Make clear that only live human beings can be considered citizens - not corporations, nor groups of any sort. 3.) Put a citizen's panel in charge of the debates. Use a random selection of citizens charged with this responsibility to oversee the debates, keep open the questions so a broad spectrum of the voting public's concerns are addressed. 4.) Open up the debates to all qualifying candidates garnering a reasonable level of public interest; 1% of a constituency seems sufficient a level for anyone seeking office to garner for their candidacy to be salient and for the public to see them as potential representatives. 5.) Set reasonable term limits constitutionally. Enough to permit a representative of the people time to become familiar with office to do their duties and become effective, but not so much that the dangers of them becoming entrenched power-brokers becomes a real possibility. 6.) Open up the airwaves to all qualified candidates on an equal basis, for in selecting representation all candidates having ideas and proposals in managing our government should be heard equally well. 7.) Place a citizen's representative between lobbyists and elected officials, to check any potential conflicts of interest and protect our right as citizens to honest government. 8.) State clearly that no outgoing representative of the people be allowed to enter into lobbying or consulting with present representatives; the clear conflicts of interest we see today, with all their negative impacts on our government, must be addressed, and the need to fix this is as urgently as ever. 9.) Create a department of the future, to better prepare for that future, since long-term thinking and planning seems to be lacking.

> Jay, those countries play different roles than the US does, they act as either secure banking hubs (Lichtenstein, Switzerland) and hence a greater standard-of-living, or places of well-managed businesses with government safety-nets for citizens (Denmark). If you're thinking about revisiting the idea of stronger states loosely confederated into a federal system here, I see what you're suggesting, but I think we're better off with a greater role for the Federal Government, since it can help equalize opportunity for all in the form of educational opportunities and access to quality schools, guarantees of protection of our shared commons, and a greater striving for our shared rights as citizens. When we had separate states, there was a great deal of friction and isolationism between the states (each printing and coining their own money, fighting over land claims, very unequal citizen's rights, less unified defensive strength in the world, a hampering of commerce, a drawing inwardly into each, a sort of fort mentality. I'm not sure I find that an attractive option in this day and age, as exciting and creative as those times were during and just after the American revolution. What I am suggesting is to reform what we've got, since the central problems seem to be the unaddressed issues, the ones the framers didn't foresee; they assumed that representatives would naturally be selected by local citizens with no need for campaigns like we see today, and those elected would dutifully represent their constituency, and act as members of an enlightenment, just government. The main reason our central government is dysfunctional, as well as our states' governments, is because of the undue influence of the wealth of a few ultimately controlling the political process, and obtaining great favoritism in return, to the detriment of our democracy. Hence, the need for amendments, and for reform legislation to put teeth into those rights to fair, equal, and honest representation. Then centralized government can serve us well, and improve those things that we need most and are common to us all, like revamping roads, dams and bridges, access to quality education, fair and affordable health care, improved communications infrastructure, a defense department that is in line with what is called for, not excessive nor inappropriately applied. I believe that is possible, simply by stating our rights clearly and by demanding laws be written to ensure that our democracy is representative of our will as citizens, respectful of individual rights, and promotes the common good.

46942

I had a brush with fame once, and I had a brush with red barn paint on it, and it did prove useful once! :P Lever pullers vs. root strikers. I wish I could say which is catchier, one is more direct and related to voting power (or how we used to vote.. so it's outdated) but also to machines and control, the other describes getting to the "root" of a problem, which is still in the lexicon, perhaps more today one might envision pulling weeds than chopping out tree stumps.. Mouse clicker vs. root striker, well that just sounds.. silly!:laugh3: keyboard tapper vs. root striker? still not much oomph. Protest marcher vs. root striker? a little better. but not equivalent.. hm.. anyone got an idea to modernize this saying?

AutoblogGreen has some interesting articles on the latest in available electric autos. AutoblogGreen -- We Obsessively Cover the Green Scene & soda bottle seats!;) (one small sip for man, one giant burp for mankind!:P)

Creeping on this site?:stunned: Are you a kitty cat, stalking us all?:laugh3: Sneaky cats! :hat: Welcome Maren to Coldplaying, the beehive is buzzing with activity here! ;):sunny:

It's the 100th birthday of Gomez today, and I know one or two or three of his relatives!!:laugh3:

I recommend... moving to Alaska!:laugh3: Seriously though, it sounds like she's just a butterfly, going with whomever she is attracted to at the moment, which probably won't change. Find someone normal and stable who you like and who likes you.;)

I can't stop the madmen here from disseminating their lies, but we could all get more honest governments that put into motion rapid measures to reduce and eventually reverse the trends in greenhouse gas emissions. I agree - we all should welcome in climate immigrants, those who's lands have gone underwater from all that we have set forth in this modern world. I know it was suggested by a Bangladeshi on TV that the US ought to do this, I think he mentioned that Wisconsin should take in those displaced by rising waters, I haven't a clue why we got singled out in this!:laugh3: I think they would be more comfortable in Louisiana and Mississippi. Maybe they could be relocated to Palm Beach, Florida, where Rush Limbaugh lives! ;) Or how about Salt Lake City - after all, they took in some Hurricane Katrina victims from New Orleans, why not some Maldivians and some Bangladeshis? It's time to open the door to those most affected by climate change, I agree.

oh morning come bursting the cloud amen, lift off this blindfold this and sea again, and bring back the water that your ships roll in, the tightrope I'm walking just sways & ties, the devil as he's talking with those angel's eyes, I just wanna be there when the lightning strikes and the saints go marching in, sing slow, oh oh ohh, oh oh ohh, oh sloww it down, through chaos as it swirls, it's just us against the whirled.

The music's soul is in a blended dreamscape of imagination and emotion, like a dream unfurling itself in the listener's mind; the collective imagination of a vast beehive of us all. I'm sure it has many meaning at many different levels, though the one you refer to is perhaps one of those. The question is: how do we de-empire? Is the US really an empire, or just the place where global corporate empires moor their flagships and forge their hammers? I'm beginning to wonder.. Anyhow, fantastic song, raises the spirits of this woodsman of Oz.

Positive chi, that's where it's at. :daisy: Rosehip tea and plum jam on bread sounds good right about now.

All things are possible! ;)

He had an interesting life (from theater actor to game show host, imagine that!), and did a great deal of good it sounds cheering people up! Good men will always be missed by many for the joy they bring to the audiences who tuned in. just curious, was he more like Trebek, Dawson, or Barker?

Gleetings and Salutations! :laugh3: Welcome to the one-and-only, the one-of-a-kind, the Coldplaying experience!!:sunny::mudkip::sunny: See the evolution of a band that started out as a starfish! Paradise promo sounds wonderful, will check it out right after this break :escaping::escaping2: from our sponsors: :elf::flutterby::woodstock::elephant:

Someone had a great time!!:rolleyes::) hm, a Coldplay book or two? Are they getting to be something like the Beatles?? :stunned: How about a movie then?;)

Happy to see you join! :) I support fair trade as Coldplay does as well, and I hope all gets better in our world!