Mickey Z

Cool Observer

Friday, September 22, 2006

Fasten yer seat belts: Two articles in one day

Posted by Mickey Z on 09/22 at 05:17 AM

Good morning all. I hope both articles get wide coverage. Both have very important information for the general public. Many things about the car culture have bothered me for a long time. The low value placed on safety standards is just one. Also, it is not fully the fault of those who drive cars. Too many areas, because of zoning and lack of public transportation, make a car necessary for survival. If the car buyers demanded safety, fuel efficiency, low pollution etc it would help a little bit. Too many are enthralled with the glitz of cars. Think about the NASCAR mentality and those who use a car as a status symbol. I wish that I didn’t need a car where I live, but as I have said here before, without a car I don’t even have access to drinking water.
The pollution in our bodies is outrageous but even more outrageous is the fact that so few seem to object to it. Complacency is deadly. Apathy kills. We have all been Monsantoized.
BTW...There is a lot of bashing of Chavez on msm these days. Jeremey, last night, I think said that the messages of Chavez and Ahmadineajed should be listened to instead of just dismissed by the media. Both made some important points that the msm just refuses to even allow them to be properly aired. For those who must drive, I ask that they try to buy only Citgo gas. That would help send a message. Chavez has once again promised to give the poor a discount on heating oil. That is very important up here. It is cold here today but I will tough it out and not turn on any heat.

Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 09/22 at 07:03 AM

BE PREPARED TO BE BOMBED. BE PREPARED TO BE BOMBED BACK TO THE STONE AGE....that’s what the usa says to its friend. And we wonder why they hate us.

Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 09/22 at 07:10 AM

Part of an e-mail just received from Dennis Kucinich,
“...In the past few months reports have been published in Newsweek, ABC News and GQ Magazine that indicate the US is recruiting members of paramilitary groups to destabilize Iran through violence. The New Yorker magazine and the Guardian have written that US has already
deployed military inside Iran. The latest issue of Time writes of plans for a naval blockade of Iran at the Port of Hormuz, through which 40% of the world’s oil supply passes. Other news reports have claimed that an air strike, using a variety of bombs including bunker busters to be dropped on over 1,000 targets, including nuclear facilities. This could obviously result in a great long term humanitarian and environmental disaster....”

Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 09/22 at 07:19 AM

I saw that in the WP, too, RMJ:
http://tinyurl.com/ksy24

Not too surprising. I told people at the time, only half jokingly, after Pakistan’s 180 degree turn from Taliban chief benefactor to “ally” in “war on terrorism” that the most likely explanation was that the US threatened to bomb them.

Posted by Jeremy on from Taipei 09/22 at 07:52 AM

Hello Expendables. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe threatening to bomb someone is the type of “diplomacy” that creates a “Coalition of the Willing.”

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/22 at 07:58 AM

Hello, all...taking a personal day. I have to give my dogs to some Humane Society (the no-kill shelter folks) by this coming Monday, which means finding one that will take them. Can’t deal with much else. Maybe tomorrow.

Posted by Mudge on from Austin, Texas 09/22 at 08:09 AM

hellos to all expendables. i am back from outer space (well actually from hospital and from work alternatley recently)

great articles mickey. i would also like to point out that the even the environmentla costs of building a road are astronomical, never mind the things that use them

while we are on the subject of oil… i did a piece about it today too..

http://tinyurl.com/plzvo

while u r there u could do worse than chekc this out in order to know what you are up against it (or at least an aspect of it you maybe hadnt considered)

http://tinyurl.com/mfv4f

Posted by michael on from exile 09/22 at 08:33 AM

oops

second link is wrong
it should be this

http://tinyurl.com/lunb2

Posted by michael on from exile 09/22 at 08:34 AM

oh, RMJ

i have been reading some of the things here sporadically. the last month for me has been too tedious/painful/upsetting to go into but i really want to say congratulations and good luck on your candidacy

Posted by michael on from exile 09/22 at 08:48 AM

and since we are talking about oil again i would like to point out the good people at “art not oil”
and give a little sample

http://www.artnotoil.org.uk

Posted by michael on from exile 09/22 at 09:09 AM

Welcome back, michael!

Mudge, I am very sad to hear that…

Mick, congrats on all of the articles you are publishing.

Chomsky at the top of the charts:

http://tinyurl.com/mjj8j

Posted by JOS on from Chicago 09/22 at 09:12 AM

he seems to be number 1 and 11. i assume that is paperback and hardback

personally i am very happy to see richard dawkins in there at number 18

Posted by michael on from exile 09/22 at 09:29 AM

Guess what? The Pentagon investigated itself again. It found that it did no wrong. I was on the edge of my seat waiting for that result:

http://tinyurl.com/zpo4g

Posted by JOS on from Chicago 09/22 at 09:48 AM

This will really get your testicles glowing, Mick (for those who didn’t read yesterday’s post, please do so and then you will find my comment a little less weird):

http://tinyurl.com/hywy4

Posted by JOS on from Chicago 09/22 at 09:53 AM

At this very moment Bush is stumbling over his words trying to explain the bombing threat. I love C-span. That short 1 minute clip is priceless....hoping for more of the same as the press conference with Musharraf standing along side of him continues.

Micheal...sorry to hear you were in the hospital. With all of the medical errors, I am happy that you are now in a safer place. Also, thanks for the kind words. Also again, I checked out your article. Yes, the Federal Reserve is behind a lot of this...has been for a very long time.

Mudge...I am sorry about your dogs. I know how strong the connection between a person and his animals can be.

JOS...how goes by you today?

Mickey #5...that whole situation reminds me of an “incident” at the other side of the state in Brattleboro a few years back. A man, who was suffering a mental breakdown, went into a church that morning for sanctuary. He held a small knife to his own head. The churchgoers were concerned for HIS safety so they called the authorities. The police arrived and pumped 7 deadly shots into his body killing him immediately. True story. Even Josh Frank has written about how the incumbent Attorney General handled that case. Ain’t no justice.

Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 09/22 at 09:55 AM

How do I make text link to a URL? Does this work (testing)?
<URL=www.mickeyz.net>click here</URL>
And how do I post a picture?

Posted by Jeremy on from Taipei 09/22 at 09:57 AM

JOS #14...we were symultyping. Yes, even my ovaries are glowing.

Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 09/22 at 09:59 AM

Uh-oh...I’m hopelessly behind here.

Mudge: You’ve often managed to handle situations like this. I wish you well.

Michael: Welcome back.

JOS: Thanks...I think.

Hello again RMJ, Jeremy.

Captcha: “cars”

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/22 at 10:29 AM

mickey. RMJ and anyone else who read the thing.

dont stop at reading. download and watch, i only mentioned a few parts - it is a genuinely fantastic piece.
not to be missed

Posted by michael on from exile 09/22 at 10:32 AM

RMJ, things are going fairly well. Thanks for asking…

Posted by JOS on from Chicago 09/22 at 11:27 AM

Hello everyone.

here is a transcript of AHMADI-NEJAD’s speech at the UN http://tinyurl.com/k4xcj

George Monbiot has a new book out and a website to promote it. Monbiot exposes Chris Martin of Coldplay as a Greenwasher. Apparently Martin/Coldplay has a private jet and while on tour in las vegas he made a 35 minute trip in it to Palm Springs. He even flies back home between gigs. Martin also drives a BMW X5 (a 4x4). I don’t listen to this band but Monbiot dubs him a Greenwasher because he has a song on one of his albums encouraging folks to make the right decision about their treatment of the planet. http://tinyurl.com/m3fon

Twisted Logic
Coldplay

Sunlight opened up my eyes
to see for the first time
it opened them up

And tonight rivers will run dry
and not for the first time
rivers will run

Hundreds of years in the future
there could be computers
looking for life on earth

Don’t fight for the wrong side
say what you feel like
say how you feel

You’ll go backwards
but then
you’ll go forwards
again

You’ll go backwards
but then
you’ll go

Created… then drilled and invaded
If somebody made it
Someone will mess it up

And you are not wrong to
Ask who does this belong to
It belongs to one of us

You’ll go backwards
but then
you’ll go forwards
and then
you’ll go backwards
again
you’ll go forwards

You’ll go backwards
but then
you’ll go forwards
again

You’ll go backwards
but then
you’ll go forwards

Ahhhhhhhhhh…

if you read what Martin said about his daughter flying to see him play, Twisted Logic is very appropriate.

Posted by TM on from 09/22 at 11:31 AM

Unfortunately I cannot stay around today but just want to say to MZ that the car article is fantastic. I live in a country where there are rumored to be one million more bicycles than people and since moving here the fact that other places in the world don’t have bike lanes just seems stupid.

Also, I’m very to hear about Mudge’s dog woes. . .that sucks.

Posted by Keir on from The Hague (Jackowski election hdqts) 09/22 at 11:42 AM

Hey everyone.
Old News but still depressing as hell.
And a good interview/backgrounder on our mate Hugo.

And Go Noam! First Blum gets an endorsement from Osama, then Chomsky from that other unspeakably evil character (seem to remember Chavez pimping Noam in The Revolution Will Not Be Televised). It works! I suppose the hope is that the amazonians buying Hegemony are people who haven’t previously been exposed, the same guys who bought the Koran in droves after 9/11. Probably not though.
Question is Mickey, which odious (to MSM nostrils) individual would you have wave your books around?

Posted by Mew on from where Uncle Joe would be if he wasn't all familial 09/22 at 12:58 PM

an amendment to my earlier post: Monbiot did not dub Chris Martin a greenwasher he doesn’t even use that term but he does expose Martin’s greenwash. I just wanted to make that clear.

Posted by TM on from 09/22 at 02:00 PM

chris martin is a twat
he described live 8 as “the best thing ever”

Posted by michael on from exile 09/22 at 02:05 PM

Michael...I cannot download anything. I am on slow dial-up and also having computer woes. I ABSOLUTELY NEED my computer now. It has problems loading itself in the morning so I am letting it on all the time and not shutting it down. That makes it work better but am I hurting it????? I just disconnect from the internet but let it on.

TM...thanks for the link to the speech. I wanted that.

Mew...Everytime I hear the name of “Chavez” it makes me smile. I have seen “The Rev Will Not Be TV’d” many times. I pestered them here to keep rerunning it.

With apologies, here is a link to an old one of mine. Sorry folks but I like it and so does Keir. If you gotta get gas, Don’t forget to buy only CITGO. Let’s help our Comrade Hugo.
http://tinyurl.com/otbgw

Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 09/22 at 03:04 PM

It’s great to have michael back (see #25).

Posted by JOS on from Chicago 09/22 at 03:21 PM

There is no problem with leaving your computer on all of the time, RMJ.

Posted by JOS on from Chicago 09/22 at 03:22 PM

Thanks, JOS. Pray that we don’t have any more lightening storms. I will leave it on all the time unless that happens. I know that surge protectors don’t work. When I get some money I will buy the kind that allow a slow and proper shutdown.

Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 09/22 at 03:34 PM

Hello Expendables. Michele and I were out and about...enjoying yet another beautiful day.

Today is further proof you sure don’t need me around to have a lively conversation. Michael, we’ve missed you. Hasn’t been enough use of the word twat here lately.

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/22 at 04:48 PM

‘Guess who is not happy about this?’ The Bush Administration for starters, Mickey?

Only calling in briefly but wanted to have a look at the ‘Cool Observer’ before I wander off to entertain our guests.

And ‘hi’ to all my fellow expendables. Have a great weekend, all of you!

Bye,
Helga

Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 09/22 at 05:04 PM

Interesting link:
http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/103159

To answer Mew’s question as to what villain I want to read one of my books and raise my profile a bit: I’d have to go with Fidel.

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/22 at 06:06 PM

Me again. My friend, Joe from Maine, just sent me this e-mail relating to today’s post:

Motorized vehicles, Prozac pollution, a society of flesh covered cash registers, picking up junk along the way through life, tell the person not to be afraid, relatedness is what we want, he panics, turns and runs, many people accepting lies because the thought of being manipulated since far before leaving the womb...never once considering who they really are before the spinning toys on the wire captured their attention.

Poison for profits...back to Ten reasons to let my baby drive my
bike...well, perhaps one of the greatest exhibitions of american
stupidity was the 1959 Cadillac...as long as a aircraft carrier with
tailwings as high as the roof. If people took 5 minutes and looked at this ridiculous vehicle, they would have a much clearer perspective of this current disaster we live with! A society of lies, pretense, living with images that are not connected to anything worthy of mention...behaving insanely within insanity!

Well, anyway...I ordered a new bicycle...A Dutch made bicycle...People in Holland have a more sensible view of bicycling. Now I’m considering one of two things...quit smoking or buy a titanium, handlebar mounted ashtray for my new bike?

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/22 at 07:04 PM

Hello again! Thanks for the many kind wishes about the doggie situation.

Michael, glad you’re on the mend.

Keir, envying your Dutch-therefore-sensible life. Once upon a time, I wrote a novel in which the Dutch gave up Run Island and its nutmeg for Manhattan, instead of the other way around. By 1750, a canal connected Lake Champlain and the Hudson; by 1800 the Erie Canal completed the Prosperity Triangle. Earlier, stronger industrialization, so ewww. Bad, nasty effects. Rhode Island became a Dutch Reformed Church colony, instead of a Baptist one. New York State was New Zeeland State, and dominated the nascent colonial rebellion in place of Virginia. Can I go live in that parallel world, please? Pretty please? It would be Bush-less because Poppy’s family wouldn’t have come to Connecticut...Dutch territory! (Of course they might have metastasized from a different state, but let me have my dream.) I’d like to think that it would’ve been a better world, but of course...well...earlier industrialization doesn’t bode too well. But no Bushes! Whooppee!

MZ, Joe from Maine’s prose poem was wonderful. And thanks for the confidence in my luck. I hope it’s well placed. I send love and hugs to you and Michele.

RMJ, I love you. No special reason, just do.

Big Country, you’re a treasure.

Jeremy, Helga, all the Expendables...y’all’re irreplaceable.

Posted by Mudge on from Austin, Texas 09/22 at 09:02 PM

I work in the diesel engine repair business and most of our work revolves around diesel powered pickups. Most of these guy’s world view revolves around their trucks. Their trucks are their most prized possesion. They buy stuff to make their trucks faster than the next guy’s truck. They talk about their trucks as if they are married to them. I have to stand there and pretend to be interested in what they are saying. The question “What do you drive?” always comes up and when I tell them (99 Mitsubishi Mirage) I always get funny looks or some off hand comment about how I’m hurting America by driving that Japanese piece of sh*t. My Piece of sh*t gets about 30-35 mpg but they don’t care about that. I guess some people are just ignorant.

Posted by David on from Louisville KY 09/22 at 09:56 PM

Evening Every Expendable,

I was only lurking a little today because it’s all time would allow.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I wish could trade in my car for a horse.
Sadly there was none to be found for me, despite it being ‘Car Free day’ although I did hear that there was a group of pedestrians and cyclists who plugged coins into parking meters in downtown Toronto so that they could claim the space for having a picnic and other such non-car activities.

Mudge I’m really disturbed to hear this news about your canine companions. I wish you and the two of them well (do tell them, won’t you?).

Captcha says “tell” all Vermonters to vote for Rosemarie!

Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 09/22 at 10:39 PM

Will try again; maybe you got it but didn’t think it worth printing. What do I know? But, in the category of idle curiosity, here it comes again: Did you ever read Eduardo Galeano’s book “Upside Down?” There is a chapter on the auto which is pure dynamite. In the 80’s I ran for Congress on two primary planks: No Nukes and No Cars. Thought you might like to know. Comrade Bernardo

Posted by Bernie Berg on from Easton, Pa. 18042 09/24 at 09:56 AM

Sorry, Bernie but it’s hard for me to keep conversations going on so many threads. In general, we move them up to the current day’s comment board so please feel free to jump in there.

To answer you question, no I have not read that book but will now seek it out.

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/24 at 10:11 AM