Monday, September 23, 2013

Summary of these days

This is the horrible summary of what's going on so far.
  • Evolution makes inroads against human species
    • Anti-bacterial agents are killing off the weaker bacteria, making room for the survival of more resilient strains that will soon be unconquerable. This is happening in hospitals and the food supply.
    • Pesticides are inadvertently destroying species that are necessary for a balanced eco-system.
      • Bees that pollinate our crops.
      • Bats that feed on disease carrying insects
    • Genetic modifications in crops that eliminate certain infesting species are likewise making room for more resilient pests.
  • Human behavior has been altered to self-destruct by short-term profiteers.
    • Competition for consumers motivated producers to add ever-increasing volumes of sodium, fat, sugar and other addictive substances with severe long-term consequences to processed food, to such a degree that it crowded-out and priced-out more healthy choices.
    • Government social service programs subsidize resources to the needy, artificially accelerating the surplus population, creating a strain on indigenous food and energy resources, requiring imperial conquest for outside resources to sustain the vicious cycle of population growth to available resources. The false perception of unlimited resources and added public benefits of having extra children contribute to the eminent collapse of western civilization. Birth must be centrally managed to ensure the survival of our civilization.
  • Melting ice is changing the environment
    • The volumes of ice previously trapped in glaciers and the polar ice caps is not only melting into oceans to change ocean currents, raise the water level and accelerate acidification due to lower salinity, but is also evaporating into the atmosphere creating huge concentrations of static and heat energy in water vapor for more severe weather.
      • Mile-wide tornadoes, super-typhoons and hurricanes.
      • Changing Jet-stream and ocean currents diverting needed rains away, causing severe drought and heat waves.
    • The disappearance of glaciers supplying fresh water to billions of people on whole continents.
  • Economy
    • The next financial bubble to burst will be student loans.
    • The conditions that caused the housing bubble remain unchanged.
    • People will stop paying taxes because there is no longer room in prison for them and they won't care.
    • The rate of suicides, burglaries, domestic violence, DUIs, is exploding because life in the west has become a dead-end for most people.
    • Recent high school graduates face a bleak future, along with orphans who are aging out of the public support system.
    • Domestic manufacturing will be done mostly by prisoners working for less than $5 per day.
  • On the Brighter Side
    • Pot is now legal in a couple of states
    • Gay Marriage is now legal in a few states
    • Video Poker and other forms of gambling are gradually being legalized in some states.
    • Solar power is finally being recognized in the main-stream media as beneficial for cutting energy costs.
I guess that's progress.

Friday, September 20, 2013

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Business

I wish I started a business a long time ago, I'm really falling in love with cotton. I hate polyester and wool makes me itch like crazy. I also hate skimpy little bath towels. I want huge bath towels that actually still have some dry spots left on them after use. I also want an oversized bathrobe with a hood made of one hundred percent cotton. I want  one hundred percent cotton blankets and linens, and I want extra-long cotton shirts with at least one pocket.

I want a start a specialty retail outlet for cotton goods. Of course I would oversee its management for a while but the point of the business would be to quickly delegate the day-to-day tasks to managers, supervisors, clerks, etc.

Of course I'm interested in profit, but I want good employees, not desperate employees. Is it so wrong to see payroll as an investment in community stability? Would a more cooperative model be appropriate with employees as owners? Maybe not at first.

I may still have the option of a V.A. small business loan, even though I my service dates back to the early 1990s. Unfortunately I served during peacetime (1986-1994) and nobody gives a shit unless you were in a war. Not even if you're looking for work.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

The Camp

Occasionally I think of a story idea and take it along for about a paragraph before I discover it's ridiculous and cliche. A typical stream of thought a few minutes ago led me to what amounts to nothing more than a prelude to John Carpenter's film Escape from New York. I'm bombarded by shared news stories on social media. Instead of watching television I get my news from the Internet. I seem to have inadvertently surrounded myself with a motley band of the most dour pessimists on the Web.

The rich are getting richer, food is being genetically manipulated, bees that pollinate our food supply are dying from pesticides or pesticide resistant parasites, The glaciers that supply China and India with fresh water are disappearing, radiation is leaking all over, governments are defaulting or trying to start wars, the oceans are filling with plastic, groundwater in the United States is contaminated with fracking chemicals. Coal burning power plants are being overtaxed by the rapid growth of charging electric cars. There are fewer customers because they don't get paid enough to have a spending allowance. The unemployed who are about to lose their benefits are going to go berserk.

I have yet to see any jobs posted on career websites for FEMA Camp Counselors. Hey, you know what? It just occurred to me to look up barbed wire fencing material sales. Maybe I could buy stock in it? It's also a good idea to stock up on little things like disposable lighters that you can barter for food. This is about as far as my motivation takes me right now.