DISQUS

OlderAndWiser · 1 year ago

I've been doing "something" for 40 years. Like most high fliers, Blair has done nothing.

One good side effect of poverty--you use less and therefore pollute less. For instance, I haven't driven anything that doesn't have a 4 cyl engine with good gas mileage for the last 40 years. I conserve energy by curtailing just about every activity I engage in and buy as few products as I can get away with.

My one vice is the Internet--but it leads to knowledge I can use. My life may be boring to some, but oh well...I don't feel I'm missing much.

Bostonian_Queer_in_Dallas · 1 year ago

I am with you "OlderandWiser"...we got rid of our second car and actually moved within a mile of my job. I bike to work daily now. And we've begun planning our errands more carefully so that the car only makes one trip per week and in a circular pattern so we don't waste fuel. We do a lot of shopping on the internet so UPS can deliver stuff and save us the gas. The one bad thing we have to do here is the AC this summer in Dallas. We keep the apartment at 80 which I feel badly about because of the energy needed. But with global warming, Dallas is getting unbearable in summer.

We were watching a film last night in which one of the characters suffered through the last stages of AIDS. I turned to my partner and said that this is a true shame on us as a culture that we have wasted lives and trillions on Dubbya's PR stunt in Iraq and yet we could not find the research monies to cure this disease, or find alternate fuels, or create health care for all, or improve our schools, or fix our highways, or do anything other than poor billions of profits into his white boys club buddies' pockets.

America is truly fucked up if it elects McSame in November. Truly fucked up.

OlderAndWiser · 1 year ago

Good! We keep ours at 80 also...it's cool enough with ceiling fans, and like Dallas, it's hot, humid, muggy and hard to breathe here in NC. See above.

Bostonian_Queer_in_Dallas · 1 year ago

I do admit that at night we drop it down to 76...I should be shot for that.
But my husbear cannot breathe well with it warmer. He used to live in
Anchorage and likes the windows open at night at forty below. I feel ashamed
for admitting that we turn it down so low. I know people here who drop it to
60 and then burn logs in their fireplaces....Nixon used to do this in the WH

OlderAndWiser · 1 year ago

One of the few things I like about Britain...

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=24pVaYxSi38

The second guitar solo is orgasmic. And I hear that David Gilmour and Roger Waters are getting back together for a tour soon.

Õ¿Õ · 1 year ago

My energy bill has gone from about $45 to about $55 now that it's summer. Not bad, if I do say so myself. Can anyone beat that? I don't think so.

OlderAndWiser · 1 year ago

I sure can't...ours was $194 this month (but we're all-electric so don't have any other energy bills, save gasoline for the car), due to 100 degree temps for about 10 days..unusual for early June. We don't get those usually until the middle of July...in NC it's hot and humid and you can't breathe when it's like that.

Bostonian_Queer_in_Dallas · 1 year ago

Here in Dallas we had very hot nineties in early May already. It seems like it's going to be a hot summer here. The good news in our lives here is that our new apartment seems extremely well insulated. Our AC bills are much lower in this place than they were in the downtown warehouse loft we had for three years. The "lofting" of Dallas is still going insane here. They are recycling old buildings downtown into luxury residential...with twenty foot ceilings, 5000 or more square feet, and they are very cool....except for one major thing looking to the future...they are NOT insulating these buildings for energy. They are also way over speculating on this as there are no renters for these places. With gas prices, though, the market may change in that more people are thinking about living nearer to their workplaces. We loved living in an old warehouse loft but the tradeoff was that it was too far to commute by DART light rail and traffic around downtown Dallas is a nightmare. Remarkably, Dallas has a very fine mass transit system in place, it's under expansion, and it gets you everywhere for three bucks a day. It will now become more and more important as oil hits $200 a barrel.

Õ¿Õ · 1 year ago

People in the northeast who depend on fuel oil are going to really suffer this winter but I don't see anyone preparing, much less talking about it in government and media. I would suggest they get space heaters and electric blankets and only heat one room like I do in the winter. Hope the electric grid holds up.

Õ¿Õ · 1 year ago

I have a welder's cap that's white. It's like a regular baseball cap but it's totally cloth and you wear the welding hood on top of it. It cushions the head. (I'm not a welder, just think they're cool. Have a ton of them including floral ones.) Anyway, when you flip the brim up, it looks a lot like a white muslim skull cap. Well, I was running errands, tooling around yesterday, I passed by this cop in his cruiser and he looked like he was terrified of me and wanted me to know he was watching, or something like that. I'm light skinned but I have a thick growth of beard for not having shaved in a week. Just a strange experience many muslims face, I guess. It was interesting.

Õ¿Õ · 1 year ago

I've seen alot of comments online about Bobby Jindal and creationism, and the people of my state. It's been saddening but it's true. I gave up on the people here after his election. Tried talking to them but they intended to dumbly vote for him because they were dumbly intending, or something. So, say all you want. I'll probably join you. But it's sad about Louisiana. We were actually the first so-called melting pot of cultures. Religion destroyed the people.

Õ¿Õ · 1 year ago

Jindal is a pure oportunistic dirtbag. People here deserve him. I voted for Boasso. Big old fun-loving cajun guy and I got good vibes from him.

But praise jayzus, the dirtbag won.

OlderAndWiser · 1 year ago

Did you see where the father of an Indian guy who married a black woman had her whacked? Evidently, the father thought he brought shame on the family for marrying a black woman...do we really want to encourage that mentality in the US?

Õ¿Õ · 1 year ago

They're like that with the caste system. And they carry it on in this country. You think Americans are racist, sheesh. They INSIST on having another group to look down upon. They're fine with white Americans, though. I guess they consider them the highest caste, in general. But not if you're gay. Look out. You are totally dismissed as subhuman and not worth even a consideration. That's beeen his attitude. It's odd how he and other Indians are about it. That casual dismissiveness and disregard.

OlderAndWiser · 1 year ago

Yes, they don't mind marrying whites...as in the case of Dinesh D'Souza, another rightwing opportunist. Guess the British India Company's "superior" colonialist mentality took great hold in India, hey? And hey, it's not like the US isn't developing a caste system itself.

Õ¿Õ · 1 year ago

Hell, even Tony Perkins and others don't dismiss us like the caste people do.

Õ¿Õ · 1 year ago

Has McShrub catagorically refused donations from the American people yet?

Õ¿Õ · 1 year ago

It's been odd weather here. Rained all night, a good steady soaker. Really nice but this is headed into July and August. Our dry season. It was more like a fall rain where it's not violent like Spring but steady like that. And it's been cooler. We're further south than you but it hasn't even broke 95 yet this summer.

Õ¿Õ · 1 year ago

And that nice rain is headed your way, O&W. Enjoy.

OlderAndWiser · 1 year ago

We're getting your heat, GG. And the last thunderstorms have been carried by wind gusts of up to 50 mph, followed by a gulley-washer of a storm. We in NC are already getting warnings from the State that even with rain, we're still in a drought situation. I dread it.

Õ¿Õ · 1 year ago

For the first time in my life, we had 11 inches of rain in 24 hours last month. Set all time records. Had water up to my doorstep. Really strange to come home to that and begin to wonder how I was going to start stacking furniture on my bed and then what.

Õ¿Õ · 1 year ago

I never had to worry about flooding before until that day. Alot goes through your mind. You start quickly thinking what to do. You're on your own. I wouldn't have lost a home, like the people in the midwest but much of my stuff would have been destroyed.

jr · 1 year ago

our military is the biggest consumer of fossil fuels. All these fake bitches like Blair and Tom Friedman cheerleader for an invasion that has consumed more oil than any in history

lynchie · 1 year ago

Blair is another opportunist. He enabled our Furher Bush and now expects that we all do something. Hey, bitch, you put us into an illegal war, you lied to the British people, you had young British men and women killed and for what--so BP could get a piece of the no bid contracts to extract the oil. Go away, go sit with your corporate handlers and ponder your filthy existence. You think you are now some kind of Messiah, you are going to lead a coalition of the needy and poor. Shame on you, you have no credibility and no ethics.

Õ¿Õ · 1 year ago

Now tell us how you really feel.

Rab · 1 year ago

The poodle needs to shut up.

Indigo · 1 year ago

Blair's presence in the discussion trivializes the discussion. With Blair on watch, I can't say that I'm picking up a concern or even an urgency vibe. If the Arctic ice cap melts entirely this summer, blame Blair.

jimfromthefoothills · 1 year ago

Blair and Clinton are the missing links. Neo-Liberal = Neo Conservative.