Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
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Jesus what a load of communist crap!
- Tom The Impaler | 05/18/2009 @ 22:03interesting that you posted this with no comment. like a rorschach. heh.
i actually agree with the consumerism portion. she has an argument with the planned and percieved obsolescence. i would say that for the most (99.9%) part consumer demand drives change. if industry thought it could hold market share with the same product she would be driving a car with a handcrank. and id bet dollars to doughnuts she does drive a car. if given the chance i would ask her what she thought about the new hybrid line of vehicles and watch her argument evaporate. *rambling one sided argument follows*
*do you think green vehicle technology innovation should continue?
*should it be allowed to continue if new vehicle innovations necessitating changes in platform or engine design mean a totally different product is fielded?
*would you buy a new vehicle if it produced fewer emissions?
i wish she had posted a cogent plan from start to finish of how she sees this closed loop working. until that happens, its bitching with no plan. my pet peeve.
as far as “externalized cost” goes if those 15 year old laborers get 5 cents from my 4.99, good for them.
love the blog btw.
- ricos3plus3 | 05/18/2009 @ 23:55This woman seems happy to change the existing structure of our capitalist society, and to convince others to join her cause, she (as most do when advocating change) casually omits the downsides to it.
Ask the folks in the countries where 30% of students “drop out of school (DUN DUN DUN!!!) to go work for pennies a day” whether they’d prefer to attend school and graduate into a scoiety that pays zero cents per day. We’re taking all of our jobs back. By the way, I wish my ten-year-old replaced some of his schooling with manual labor – he’d learn a lot more in school (when he realizes how hard it is (pay rate and demands of the body) to work without being paid for your mind).
Ask the minimum wage earners if they’d prefer a country that only allows “green” production, resulting in a $35 radio, instead of a $4.99 one. Sorry – no radio for you. Oh, and your food costs double, and most of it isn’t in season in this part of the country, so you can’t have it.
I will concede that certain corporations do externalize costs by ignoring the long term consequences of their actions (chemicals being sumped in a river). Those corporations deserve to lose money in lawsuits, and most do. However, just because the cause and effect (of bad decisions) is obvious, doesn’t mean that the cause and effect of doing business first and finding fault later is without fantastic benefit. Let’s take PVC production (the Erin Brokovic story). PVC caused home prices to become lower, made disease less frequent, and created jobs. Some folks died when the idiots who ran the company decided to dump PVC raw material waste into rivers in California, but there were lives saved in replacing metal pipes with PVC. Rotting metal will burst where PVC will last longer – municipalities have toxic waste spills every time the metal pipes fail underground. Towns who replace pipes less frequently either made taxes lower or the taxes went to help someone else in need (we hope).
There was a benefit to the net worth of every person who purchased or built a home wth PVC in it. The iron not used for pipes is still a natural resource in the ground (does anyone get credit for that?), and its price dropped significantly (due to decreased demand). PVC uses a petroleum (DUN DUN DUN!!!) by-product, and by using it for PVC we avoid having oil companies cast it off as a cost of producing gasoline. That keeps the cost of gas down too.
Lower costs mean I (as an employee) work less to achieve what I have in life. Make everything more expensive and my kids don’t see Dad until 7:30 every night. Ask them which way is better.
Bottom line: every reader of this blog knows what I’ve stated above. It may be our duty (as capitalists) to convince those in our society who believe the Youtube videos above that there’s more to the story. I am not a lobbyist for the PVC companies (and their message would fall on deaf ears because they’d be tagged as “greedy fatcats”), but since I benefit from the way progress has been made, I really should be lobbying for the status quo. It’s too hard to hear the voices of approval in South Africa and Mexico when there’s no one there to record it and report it back to the states.
P.S. – I love in the end of the last video how she uses the phrase “let’s create something (new).” My guess is she has no intentions of creating anything other than the means to slow down progress and freedom. Ignorance of the costs of her plans is evidence of it. I’d also wager clicking on some link at the end of the videos would get you hooked into a guilt-trip to funding their anti-capitalist propaganda and anti-business lawsuits. How am I not paying for that already? Capitalism rewards the creative – woe to the society that tramples the creative. It’s not immediate, and it can be blameless at first, but the damage is definitive.
- wch | 05/19/2009 @ 08:33“The Way the World Works” puts out some of the best video commentary on the ‘net these days. I subscribed to his YouTube feed some time ago and marvel at his organization and delivery. I also love the witless “responses” he gets to his stuff, and how he simply EVISCERATES 90% of the clue-impaired moonbats who think they can compete with him, either logically or factually.
This series of posts is great. But you knew that.
- bpenni | 05/19/2009 @ 14:08bpenni, thanks for highlighting the “How the World Works” videos. The HTWW guy certainly spent more time on trashing the original content, with more convincing arguments. I feel bad for posting such a long rant on Morgan’s site without googling the videos first.
- wch | 05/20/2009 @ 10:57Actually, Buck blew my sneaky little surprise. The HTWW Guy has promised a four-chapter rebuttal and, as of now, has only delivered on three…had he completed the project we would have presented both sides.
Instead, we’re planning to do a follow-up when the magic moment arrives. And yes, this is why the commie-lady’s videos were “embedded without comment.” Readers who are already practiced in the fine art of debate, may recognize the tactic as giving one’s opponent sufficient rope to hang himself.
I’m hearing a lot of discussion about whether or not Rush Limbaugh is the leader of the Republican party. Maybe we should have some discussion about whether Annie Leonard is the leader of the democrat party.
- mkfreeberg | 05/20/2009 @ 11:22