Lies

There are so many lies in our culture that it's hard to tell reality from fiction. After a while, some lies become true and take on a life of their own.

Humans use lying and deception as a survival technique. When we deceive ourselves it makes it easier to deceive others.

I know that there isn't much left of truth, but to navigate out of the mess we're in, we need to start facing the TRUTH.

If you ask me a question, I have nothing to hide. You are going to get the TRUTH. To lie is to compromise my dignity and honor, which is about the only things I have.

It is peculiar that religious fanatics run around saying they have the "TRUTH." In their own minds that have turned a collection of fables and Mediterranean mythology into "TRUTH," thanks to the help of some Third Century Roman Catholics. So, suddenly, we have the one and only "TRUTH," which is real nice unless you are gay, a Democrat, or a Hispanic immigrant, or anyone else the holders of the TRUTH do not like.

TRUTH should be based on fact, in the best and most accurate way we know it. TRUTH should be our honesty, not some stupid mind-game. TRUTH should be TRUTH, and to settle for anything less is to compromise one's self.

I'm glad this day has come to an end. I really, really, am. It was a day I'll never, ever forget. And I learned SO MUCH from my experience.

I stood up for the TRUTH today, and my dignity remains intact. It really does.

Stopping Growth

Okay, the Goose steps up on his soapbox, and clears his throat:

The greatest environmental problem is that we are addicted to growth — infinite growth on a finite planet is unsustainable.

Our government, the central banking system, and many other institutions treat growth like a cocaine fix. Until we get the growth addicts into rehab, all we are doing as environmentalists is mitigating impact. In effect, we are acting as enablers for the growth addicts and only exacerbating the problem. For example, if we create a region that is more "livable" that will only draw more people into that area, until it is no longer "livable."

Adopting a simple lifestyle and minimizing family size are the best ways to help the environment.

Of course, we must continue our public policy work, but until we address the "root problems" we will be up against powerful institutional resistance.

Growth in terms of quality and maturity is the direction we need to be going. Growth in terms of population growth and GNP will eventually kill the addict. Even great environmentalists are programmed to believe that growth must always be accommodated. That is a modern myth.

More comments from the Gooster ....

So, you are probably wondering how we are going to stop growth and still live a decent life. Well, there are many factors in play here:

• Most critically, we MUST STOP POPULATION GROWTH. I really see no point in packing billions of people on this Planet just for the fun of it. Before we can stop our ever-growing and all-consuming economy, we must stabilize population. We can still have a comfortable life, but each of us needs to be happy with less.
  
  
• Sorry, but religion is bad. Many religions teach that humans are somehow better than other creatures — this is a total lie and creates an arrogant mindset. We must learn to reconnect and live in harmony with nature. Some religions teach that the Earth is a gift for humans and we are to "reap the bounty." This is another lie and a poor justification for raping the Planet.
  
  
• We need practical solutions. It is a myth that senior citizens must stop working at age 65 — let them keep working to support the economy.
  
  
• We need to start getting our happiness from things other than manufactured crap. This is yet another reason why Christians piss me off. The Gospels clearly depict Jesus as a simple-lifestyle person, who is not hung up on his possessions. But when Christmas comes, Christians and heathens alike engage in a consumer feeding frenzy, and we are told that the economy needs this orgy of materialism. Happiness should come from playing with a puppy or smelling a flower, not from buying crap.

Okay, I could go on, but the point is: I hear all this talk about going to a green economy, but clean growth is still bad — it just takes longer to have the same impact. For instance, I just heard about a family of eight who moved into an eco-house. All those little consumers that the parents created will have a far greater impact than the impact they reduced by going green.

There is no such thing as green growth because you are STILL wiping out habitat as you grow, i.e. you are destroying the homes of other animals that you share the Planet with.

GREEN MUST EQUAL NO GROWTH. Again, there is enough people on the Planet. Do we really need to reduce the quality of life for ourselves and other species, just so that we can accommodate more people? It's nuts.

Todd

The Invisible Empire

Guess what, little junior? You get to light the cross tonight.

Last night I watched a two-hour documentary on the History Channel about the Ku Klux Klan. Let me tell you, these people are seriously screwed up. The whole thing made my stomach churn — I'm still sick this morning.

Founded in 1866, the KKK can be best described as a secret para-military organization that enforces a racial caste system. In many communities they were in total collusion with local law enforcement. Heck, in many cases police and deputies were KKK members!

The KKK reached its height in the mid-1920s, and there were MILLIONS of members. One thing that particularly sickened me is how they had the support of local churches. Yes, the Klan's message has always been about country, protestantism, and, oh yeah, white supremacy. Hey, Christians, you should learn the history of your religion because it's really sick.

Another way to describe the KKK is that it's a reactionary force made up of people who don't like change. It's all about protecting the social order, and the idea that America should always be a white, "Christian" nation. Hallelujah, amen, and God bless America.

Of interest is that there has been four major iterations of the Klan, and each time their hate list slightly changes:

• Blacks, Jews, Yankees
  
• Blacks, Jews, Catholics
• Blacks, Jews, Communists
• Blacks, Jews, Hispanics, Gays

Seriously, all that hating would just wear me out. They showed a modern-day Klan rally in North Carolina and the speakers were mainly talking about all the people they hate. Obviously, the members are made up of some seriously insecure white folks.

Another interesting thing about the KKK is how it markets and spins its message. For the last few decades Klan spokespersons have emphasized that the Klan is simply a "white rights" organization, similar to the organizations of various minority groups. Hmmm, I'm not sure about that.

I do remember seeing KKK road blocks in my community. I would see men, women, and children dressed in Klan military fatigues and passing out their white supremest newspaper. It was scary, and I'm a white guy — I can't imagine how intimidating and terrifying it would be for an African-American to see these freaks.

No one knows how many people the KKK has murdered in their 123-year history, but the estimate on the show was 100,000. They are definitely America's most infamous terrorist organization.

The moral of the story is that many people feel threatened by change to their social order, and they will go to extremes to maintain the status quo. Right now we have the gay movement and the environmental movement, and I am seeing people doing whatever they can to stop these movements. People are not as violent as they once were — they use different tactics like discrediting the information source, deliberately confusing the public with misinformation, going into denial, etc.. But one thing hasn't changed — people will still whip out their Bibles and babble some verse taken out of context to protect their so-called ORDER.

I guess it is human nature to resist change. Somehow, in many people's mind the "old way" is what is moral and good. This sort of reactionary behavior is just another nail in our collective coffin. Really, I think the attitudes of conservative Christian America are actually just dooming us.

My Story

Okay, I'm still in amazement after watching the movie "What A Way To Go: Life At the End of Empire," which was written and directed by Tim Bennett. In the outstanding documentary film, Tim simply tells his personal "story," and it turns out that his story is similar to mine.

So, I want to share my story, but before I start I'll say one thing: The amazing thing about life is that you can read one book or have one chance encounter with a person, or have something happen to you, and it puts your life on a different course forever ... really weird.

And there I was ...

Age 10 was when I first got an awareness of the environment. My family lived in the suburbs of Miami, FL, right on the edge of the Everglades. There was a lot of greenspace, and I spent much of my time playing in the brush and tall grass fields near my house. I always had a fort growing up, and we rode bikes on dirt trails, played "Army" in the woods, and just had a blast being a part of nature. But the good times were changing quickly because the new home construction was vast and relentless, and soon my play area was getting gobbled up. At age 11 I began organizing resistance to the new home construction — yeah, we pulled the surveyor stakes. I've probably pulled a 100 in my life. One day at school I was taking a shortcut through an empty classroom and noticed a brochure on a table. It was a piece of literature from a newly formed organization called Zero Population Growth Inc. On the cover it had an ecology flag and a picture of a couple with children. Little did I know that picking up and reading that brochure would completely change my life.

A couple of years later my family moved to rural central Florida, to a sleepy town called Leesburg. In the community where I lived, there were forests, orange groves, pastures, and lots of dead orange trees that were killed by past frosts. This open space became my play area as a kid. From ages 12-17 I practically lived outdoors. My friends and I camped nearly every weekend, first in my friend's backyard and later in an elaborate tree fort we built.

But the constant rumble of development followed me. From my bedroom window I had a beautiful view of a lake, but that was blocked by a new HOUSE. The orange grove across my street was bulldozed for a SUBDIVISION, and the woods behind my house — where the tree fort was — began filling up with HOUSES. I resisted, with the help of my friends. I pulled up more and more surveyor stakes. Eventually, the surveyors had to put ribbons on spikes and then bury then under leaves. I found them and pulled those up too. My friends and I tried to stop the developers with a little sabotage, vandalism, and even a few pranks (for the record, most of my sabotage was nondestructive — we stole spark plug wires and let the air out of tires).

On one occasion, a neighborhood kid told my dad that I let the air out of some tractor tires. It was one of several times when he told me to drop my pants and eagle-spread against the bed. He then proceeded to zebra stripe me. As a 15-year-old, I thought it was pretty cool to be persecuted for protecting the woods. I did not cry or flinch, I just proudly took the beating.

Nevertheless, all my efforts did NOT SLOW THE DEVELOPMENT DOWN ONE BIT.

Now, here is the previously untold story of how my eco-terrorism career ended. With all the development going on, we knew our tree fort would be discovered, and we felt it was necessary to build a better fort deeper in the woods. On paper, my friend and I designed an underground fort, complete with air ducts and a generator. We actually dug the hole for the thing, but the one thing we needed was building supplies. So, during our weekend camp outs we would go on little raids and grab some lumber from one house project or the other. We kept our stash of lumber well hidden. One day we decided to go on a daylight raid to get some metal duct work and insulation from a nearby construction project. As we were returning to hide our stash we ran into two hunters, and one happened to be an off duty police officer. Well, I got arrested and that was the end of my six years as a radical environmentalist.

The Unenvironmental Years

After that incident I was well into my teen years, and my interests began to focus more on school activities, girls, jobs, etc... Then I went to college and got married the next year. I did the career thing, house thing, kid thing, and religious thing. I tried to play the role that was given to me, to be a good little white, suburban yuppie. During most of the 1980s the environment wasn't on my mind at all. In fact, I once even made fun of some environmentalists and called them "Earth People."

In my career I was a newspaper reporter and then an editor. In the late 1980s I was editor of teen newspaper that was written "for and by teens." One of our advertisers at the time was a public TV station that asked me to help promote an environmental TV series that they were producing for young people. That sort of peaked my interest. In 1989 there was a young girl on my staff who was an environmentalist. She introduced me to the idea of recycling, and for the past 20 years I have faithfully recycled. But that's all I did as an "environmentalist."

The 1990s arrived with the birth of my second child, and I was completely engrossed in my career and family. In response to the pressure of my religiously fanatical parents, I stayed involved with church, but never really liked it.

In 1993 my cousin called me from seminary in Ft. Worth, TX. Ugghh, this was going to be another one of those life-changing events. He told me his next door neighbor was coming to my hometown to start a church. I figured that such a coincidence had to be divine intervention, a concept I still sort of believed in. So, for the next four and a half years I worked my rear off building a new church. I was doing church work sometimes six days a week, everything from grounds work, to construction, to leading various ministries. AND I WAS ABSOLUTELY MISERABLE EVERY SECOND OF IT.

By 1996 I had completed a series of classes and was ordained as a lay leader. For the final part of the course, I had to learn tactics for "saving" people. If I was going to SAVE someone, I at least wanted to ensure that they would have a supernatural experience or hear a voice or SOMETHING, but instead there was NOTHING. I had been lied too, big time. This whole religion thing was a ruse and I asked my pastor more and more difficult questions. Once, he gave me a book to read on "doubt."

In 1997, I continued to become more disgruntled with the church, and more interested in environmental issues, especially overpopulation. I started poking around the Internet and joined a discussion group called KZPG. There I met some individuals that greatly influenced my life, including Richard M. Bowers, the founder of ZPG, and Dr. Alan Kuper, who just passed away a couple of weeks ago. Alan, a lifetime Sierra Club member, told me that the Sierra Club worked on population, and he encouraged me to join my local group. Much to my delight, I immediately met several population activists in my local and state Sierra Club groups. I immediately fell in love with the Sierra Club and began doing volunteer work with an incredible passion. In fact, for years I was typically putting in 20 hours a week of volunteer time on top of my day job.

The following year, I got a vasectomy, I read the Daniel Quinn books, I went to Washington, D.C. to lobby for family planning aid, and I co-founded a statewide population group. The year 1998 was extremely exciting and put my life on a completely new course.

And my involvement continued. I joined more environmental groups, I got onto the Sierra Club's national population committee, I participated in demonstrations, I hosted forums, I tabled at events, I got involved in political campaigns, and my energy and passion went unbridled for six years. But at the same time, I was so busy as an activist that I neglected my family. During this time I also rose to various leadership positions in the Sierra Club, including chair of my local group, chair of my population coalition, and vice chair of the state Sierra Club. In fact, I have won 10 awards with the Sierra Club.

By 2003 I was starting to feel burnout, but I continued on in my work. I went door-to-door to promote environmental causes, I drove around the county delivering yard signs, and I traveled to Ecuador to study population issues in the field. By the end of that year I was really feeling the crash, and I continued to cut back more on my enviornmental volunteer work. But I was increasing my research and reading on "the big problem." I began to study the work of Acharya S., a scholar and author, who specializes in the mythical origins of religion. I had known something was foul about Christianity ever since I was a kid, and Archarya's research finally helped me complete the puzzle. I can now say with 100% certainty that ALL religion is completely made up by people.

The following year, in 2004, I was invited by a Sierra Club leader to a meeting of the local Ishmael group. These are people who study the visionary writings of Daniel Quinn, plus related authors. I immediately got involved in this group, called the Atlanta Leavers, and met some amazing individuals who have had a major influence on my life.

So, what have I been doing for the past five years? I've mostly been in a holding pattern, and sort of waiting for my next calling. I've been doing a tremendous amount of reading, just trying to figure everything out. I've also watched a lot of great documentaries, including Zeitgeist and What A Way To Go.

Now, it's the start of 2009 and I'm considering my next step. I'm split between either writing a book or learning how to produce environmental movies.

I am a member of several Sierra Club discussion lists and the Atlanta Leavers discussion list. These lists have helped me to make friends and stay connected with like minded individuals around the world. And through these lists and my network of friends, I have met yet other friends via email and ListServs. I am grateful for meeting some very remarkable and interesting people who share my world view.

What I learned is that there are small but passionate activist communities around the world. These are people who are driven to be an activists. While I have ups and downs and suffer from burnout, these individuals just keep going and going. They amaze me. One of my callings, I think, is to encourage and mentor young activists. I'm simply too bipolar and get too depressed to be steadfast in my work, but there are special individuals who can weather all storms, and these are the folks who need support. Well, at least this is where my thinking is today. It may change a little tomorrow.

To all my environmental friends and fellow activists, I want to say "THANK YOU" for giving me clarity, perspective, and inspiration. I am honored to have known each of you. And to my two dear friends who died last year — Ed Arnold and Alan Kuper — I want to thank both of you for the great example you set for me, and for your inspiration. I will continue on, in your memory and honor.

Sincerely,

The Goose

What A Way To Go

Okay, I know I've plugged "What A Way To Go" before, but I finally saw it all the way through today. It is a fantastic movie that sends a basic message: The way we are living now is unsustainable and we are destroying the Planet and ourselves (both physically and mentally).

The movie is written and directed by Tim Bennett, who is an average, middle-aged, balding guy, a lot like me. Like myself, he sensed something was wrong all the way back in the 1980s, but he didn't "wake up" until later in life, just like me.

The two-hour flick really tells Tim's personal story, and examines the many serious problems facing our world, including climate change, population overshoot, and biological and economic collapse.

Like in my favorite book Ishmael, Tim challenges what he calls the Culture of Empire. He talks about some bitter realities about climate change and addresses some uncomfortable issues that Al Gore has chosen to avoid.

I loved the interviews, which included some superstar authors like Daniel Quinn and Derrick Jensen. He also interviews some of his family members and friends, who all have intelligent things to day.

The last section of the movie, called "Walkabout," doesn't really provide a happy ending, but it does tell viewers that there is a "choice" to be made by all of us. The author then invites everyone to join him to "tell my truth."

The Goose's Thoughts:

While viewing this film a thought kept popping into my head: As an environmentalist I am likely doing more harm than good. That is because when I help to save the environment I'm also helping to save people. I may be doing a better service to the Planet by simply doing nothing, and then waiting for human extinction. Once humans are gone, the Earth will likely be completely restored in a few million years.



A quote from Producer Sally Erickson's Blog (it really sums things up):

You have to understand what it has been like for us to be essentially unfunded, virgin, documentary filmmakers who embarked on making a movie that takes on the biggest questions facing human beings; a movie that takes apart the very core assumptions of the American lifestyle; a movie that forecasts the immanent dissolution of all that Americans have come to expect as their birthright: endless economic growth, material comfort, and growing prosperity, from now on and until forever.

Pope Destroys Earth

OH NO, GOOSE ... YOU CAN'T SAY THAT. The Pope is a sensitive issue. You are not supposed to talk about the Pope. Now, you're going to get people mad at you.

And the Goose replies ...

Nothing personal, man. I think all religion is inherently destructive. The whole idea of forcing highly intelligent monkeys to believe non-provable facts (called faith) is flawed.

But, in regards to the Pope ....

I applaud him for the good things he has said and done, and I think Pope Benedict XVI is an outstanding human with a good heart.

BUT ....

The Vatican's staunch position against artificial birth control has done massive damage to the Planet and has brought incredible suffering to humans around the world. In fact, a case could be made that the Holy Fathers that head the Roman Catholic Church are perhaps the greatest criminals who have ever lived, and who have harmed humanity far worse than Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Pol Pot combined. Of course, it wouldn't be nice to say that, so I won't say it.

While the Roman Catholic Church and the many other Christian denominations around the world are feeding the hungry, sheltering orphans, and doing other good deeds, the ban on contraception is encouraging massive and unsustainable population growth throughout the developing world. Mothers suffer from exhaustion, diseases spread, and villages explode in size to the point where resources are stretched thin. While good deeds may help some immediate suffering, the next generation only grows larger and more desperate.

From The Catholic Faith website:

Contraception is wrong because it’s a deliberate violation of the design God built into the human race, often referred to as "natural law." The natural law purpose of sex is procreation. The pleasure that sexual intercourse provides is an additional blessing from God, intended to offer the possibility of new life while strengthening the bond of intimacy, respect, and love between husband and wife. The loving environment this bond creates is the perfect setting for nurturing children.

But sexual pleasure within marriage becomes unnatural, and even harmful to the spouses, when it is used in a way that deliberately excludes the basic purpose of sex, which is procreation. God’s gift of the sex act, along with its pleasure and intimacy, must not be abused by deliberately frustrating its natural end—procreation.

HOGWASH, the Goose says ...

First, there is no law that says humans must procreate until extinction. Part of understanding nature is recognizing its limits. Every habitat has a carrying capacity, and Earth is a giant habitat for people. What the Catholic Church is saying is that we must follow "nature." Try this simple test — allow a handful of rats to multiply in a cage and see what happens. Keep the rat's food and water at the same level, and then see what happens. It's nature, man, so don't be afraid to look after a few months.

Secondly, we are supposed to be really smart monkeys, so we should be able to recognize the inevitable consequences of overbreeding without diseases and predators to maintain balance. What will happen is that humans will breed to the extent of our food supply, and then there will come an unpleasant adjustment. Maybe we can prevent this disaster by using our brains and making contraceptives easily accessible. We can voluntarily avert disaster.

Thirdly, nature ALSO includes millions of other animal species that we share the Planet with. Shouldn't we honor and respect our fellow creatures, or should we push them all to extinction by adding endless billions of people?

Fourth, the Roman Catholic Church is courting a global disaster. Doesn't anyone in the Vatican know that rapid population growth causes environmental damage and social disruption? How about wars over resources? How about malnutrition? How about a woman having the right to just have a rest from child bearing if she wants one? We are adding 80+ million people to the Planet each year. No ecosystem or species can handle such massive and rapid change without major impacts and consequences. What the hell are you thinking, your Holiness?

Fifth, let's not play games or look the other way. Climate change, war, terrorism, water and food shortages, fished out oceans, and destoyed habitats are just SOME of the side effects of rapid population growth. Every person with a moral conscious has an obligation to pressure the Vatican for a change in this policy.

There is an excellent organization that is working to bring positive reform to the irrational and archiac thinking of the Roman Catholic leadership. It's called Catholics for Choice. I used to always display their literature at tabling events, and in fact, I still have a supply of brochures. Whether or not you are Catholic, I encourage you to support this excellent organization.

ACTION ITEM: Ask Pope Benedict XVI to Lift the Ridiculus Ban on Condoms and please support the Condoms4Life campaign!!!


Supporting Source: International Debate Education Association (IDEA) - Catholic Chruch's Contraception Policy

Two True Heroes

The key conspirators who plotted against Hitler.

Yesterday was a day of double inspiration. First, I saw the new movie Valkyrie, starring Tom Cruise. This movie is about the July 20, 1944 assassination attempt on Adolph Hitler's life. In the movie, Cruise plays the role of the key conspirator, Col. Claus Von Stauffenberg. I have read articles and watched documentaries on this plot before, and it has always inspired me.

A few observations:

• There were military officers and politicians committed to removing Hitler, but they did not seem to have the wherewithal or courage to do the job.
• Staffenberg learned that if you want something done in life, you have to do it yourself, and that's exactly what he did.

What Stauffenberg and his colleagues did was incredibly brave. They likely knew their plan was a big gamble, and they knew for certain that failure would mean certain death. Sure enough, the key conspirators were executed that very night, and many others were killed in the following months.

Stauffenberg sacrificed his life on a long-shot coup against Hitler. If anything, it showed the world that not every German agreed with Hitler, and maybe that alone was a good enough reason to die.

It reminds me today of the journalists and activists who stand up against Muslim extremists, Russian mobsters, corporate plunderers, and other destructive forces, even if it means giving up one's own life. There are people like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King who bravely stood up against an entrenched system and put themselves and families at great personal risk. These individuals are the greatest of the great.

We only have one life to live and maybe sometimes it is best to give up our existence to oppose an incredible injustice, so that others may have a better life. Stauffenberg, it appears, simply wanted to stop the killing, dying, and mass destruction of Europe. Had things gone just a little differently with his bomb plot, he might have succeeded. May Stuaffenberg always be remembered, and may we never forget his courage and example.

The Sea Shepherds

Then, last night I watched a documentary on the Sea Shepherds, a wonderful organization that works to protect

whales. One of their noble causes is to disrupt and harrass a Japanese whaling fleet, which goes to the South Antarctic each year to slaughter hundreds of whales. The Sea Shepherds actually follow the fleet in a ship and use a variety of tactics to disrupt the Japanese murder expedition.

I greatly applaud the group's leader, Capt. Paul Watson. A former director of the Sierra Club, I've exchanged emails with him before, and I've met members of his organization. He is very direct and consistent with his message, and he does not compromise. I really admire the guy.

In a world where there is little courage and conviction, both of these men set a great example for all of us. If nothing is done, nothing happens. If no risks are taken, nothing is accomplished.

Human Nature v. Going Green

I'm tired, but I will ramble out a few thoughts ...

It is human nature to follow the path of least resistance. Going green typically takes extra effort and more expense. Most people are in the mindset of doing things in the most expedient way, without regard to how it impacts other people, nature, or the future of their children. And thus, for the most part humans are little selfish rats.

When the economy sinks it's a mixed blessing for the environment. There is less greenspace getting slaughtered in the name of holy growth. But when money is tight, individuals, government, and companies are less likely or unable to "do the right thing," and focus, instead, on survival. It's like the extremely poor people of Haiti who move into the national parks of the neighboring Dominican Republic, and they damage the parks so that they can have firewood and farmland. While the individuals survive in the short term, the environment is knocked another notch down.

What can we do, oh great Goose?

All of us need to redirect our values and live a more simple life. We need to stop using "stuff" to fill the voids in our empty lives. We need to kick our addiction to materialism. We need to live a simple life, buy a small home, and eat low on the food chain (i.e. mostly vegetarian). We need to all just chill out, relax, and stopped being so obsessed with junk.

Let's tackle a few myths ...

• If something is old it is bad and needs to be replaced. Wrong, wrong, wrong! There is nothing wrong with having an older car or appliance. There is still great beauty in a 1998 Honda Civic. When your possessions break, repair them and keep on going. Don't bother trying to impress people because there is no one to impress and no one really cares.
  
  
• Don't buy into this prosperity religion, where they tell you that God wants you to be rich. Why would God want you to be rich when over half the world is desperately poor?
  
  
• You must have a big house. NO YOU DON'T. You don't need your bonus room and atrium ceiling. Just be happy with the home you have.

The myth of infinite growth ....

Our entire economy is based on the lie that our economy can grow forever. When the economy is growing, everyone is doing well, except for nature, which gets screwed. We have to switch our economy from an eternal growth model to a sustainability model. To make this work, every individual and company must do their part.

Yeah, yeah, I know. This is all really boring and no one really cares. I guess we'll keep doing what we are doing and slowly resign ourselves to the fact that the decades of rapid growth are over. We'll just have to learn to be poor, at least when the government can't give any more bailouts, and all our taxes are going to pay interest on debt. And, oh, the foreign countries bought all the treasury bonds to provide assistance to our national suicide. Yeah, yeah, right.

Freedom

My friend says the ideal form of government would be an enlightened dictatorship. Nosiree, I don't buy into that because who is going to define the term "enlightened?" Wasn't Hitler and Stalin supposed to be enlightened? At first, maybe? And wasn't that dictator in Tanzania supposed to be enlightened, and now he's sorta mad?

I digress ...

The point being is that democracy is a beautiful thing, and it we can't have a democratic planet, then maybe the human species should just call it quits. For democracy means freedom, and this is a great gift that most people don't have. Around the world, people are shackled by their religions, governments, employers, and cultural traditions. So what's the point? I say shed all that and be free!

In Iran they overthrew the Shah and created a religious state — they just swapped one form of control for another. Come one, the great Persian Empire has a long and great history — is all that CONTROL necessary?

The more free we are, the more human we are. When we are free, we can be happy, inspired, and carefree. We can can explore every dimension of this life, and we can form our own opinions.

Even if democracy stays in a gridlock and moves at a tortise pace, well, again, democracy means FREEDOM, and that is a precious, sacred gift. In the course of history, most people have NOT been free, so we should really be thankful for this RIGHT.

Now, in addition to promoting global democracy, I support free movement and total free trade. Yes, that means I support OPEN BORDERS and have zero interest in immigration restrictions. "But, Goose, won't the United States fill up with people?" Maybe it will, but anyone should have the right to live anywhere they want. The real issue is about the total numbers of people, not their movement. Eventually, as people move around economic homeostatis will be achieved. Maybe all the world's poor people will come here and make us poor too. Maybe that's only fair. All people are equal and nation's that attempt to fortify their borders are only, well, buying time.

I also support total, unrestricted trade. The free trade would actually raise the global standard of living, prompting more people to stay put in their towns and villages. Or, will it?

In the natural world, as well as the free enterprise system, there is a trend towards simplification. In econonimics, this achieved as companies merge, absorb other companies, and grow into massive worldwide congolomerates. For the consumer, this is a good thing because the improved efficiency mean lower prices and usually better service. For the small farmer or shop, global simplification means disaster because the small producer cannot compete with the giants. This phenonomen forces the villagers and small town people into the large cities where the large manufacturing plants are. There, they work long hours with typically poor pay and conditions. Life would have been so much better out in the country, and on the family farm. But now, around the world, MORE PEOPLE LIVE IN CITIES THAN IN RURAL AREAS.

For the environment, this is a win because humans are concentrating, and thus rural habitat is allowed to recover and thrive. Small farms become forests again, well at least until some massive factory farm takes it over.

So, there is a lot to balance here but I do believe that even though freedom may take us down some scary paths, ultimately it is a win for humanity.

In conclusion, I must say that with freedom comes responsibility. We all have the responsibility to not hurt one another and the Planet we live on. Yeah, that's the whole point of my blog. If we can't handle the responsibility that goes with freedom, then maybe we deserve to be herded like goats and kept under the grip of some theocratic, corporatist, fascist state. Yet to understand and to have the moral compass that freedom requires, then we must have an educated and enlighened populace. So, we must educate our children, and we must provide an open educational environment where they can debate and play with new ideas — you know, like an incabator.

Let freedom ring, for without it, I believe that life is quite meaningless. I am thankful to live in a nation that values freedom, although I don't buy into the myth that people have to die for it — usually not. For freedom comes from the heart, and not from the muzzle of a cannon.

Okay, enough.

Zeitgeist: Addendum

I am a huge fan of the Zeitgeist movies, and finally got around to watching the second one last weekend, titled "Zeitgeist: Addendum."

I must say that I'm becoming a huge fan of producer Peter Joseph, and I believe the premise of his movie is right on the money. In fact, MONEY is exactly what this two-hour movie is all about. Zeitgeist: Addendum primarily focuses on the corrupt Federal Reserve Bank and the International Monetary Fund. While the monetary system remains a central theme throughout the movie, Joseph does take some side ventures to take swings at his favorite targets — religion, government, and corporations. His underlying point is that these institutions are CORRUPT!

Unlike the last movie, this time Joseph focuses on positive solutions and he devotes a lot of footage to an organization called "The Venus Project." Admittedly, The Venus Project is a little way out there. These folks want to get rid of money and just provide for everyone's needs using technology. My first impression is that they are just replacing one god with another god, but then I started thinking — maybe we are underestimating the good that technology can do for us. Of course, we've sure as hell seen the bad.

My overall take on the movie is that Joseph is dead on with his assessments of the Big Three — corporations, religion, and corporations. Indeed, I agree that our institutions are corrupt to the core and attempt to control and enslave us in many ways. I think the greatest benefit that the Zeitgeist movies provide is that they will hopefully encourage people to QUESTION their institutions and challenge the status quo.

In both movies Joseph does a superb of putting extremely complex topics into very simple and easy-to-understand terms. I strongly recommend that EVERYONE in the world watch this movie. I think the discussions it spawns will help pave the way for change.

Enjoy the movie!

Pain

The pain is so intense. I try to transfer the pain on my beloved Planet, which is being systematically and thoroughly annihilated by the savage monkeys.

There is the pain of having what you can't have, of being unable to change what you can never change. There is the pain of the little ones that I love so deeply, who are destined for destruction, yet I am powerless to save them. There is the pain of reality — you want it to be a dream, but it's really reality.

I grieve, I go into a deep depression, and I am perplexed on how the pain can be so incredibly brutal, and how it doesn't go away.

I give up on love. It is arrogant of us humans to believe we possess some special emotion, that makes us different from our fellow animals. There is no love on this Planet — only a careful selection process, choosing what benefits us most. We, the selfish monkeys, jockey for position, and try to get the very best of everything that we can, AND WE CALL THIS LOVE!

I am perplexed by my total inability to change what I can't change. If I just shut my eyes and think hard enough about what I want, it will happen, but yet it does not.

I cry, I get angry, I take walks, I grieve, ever so deeply. But that changes nothing, because what is, is. And what is not, is not.

It is intensely cold tonight, and I stare into the moon. Maybe that which I love is staring at that same moon at the same time, and maybe that is my connection. I look at the white, bright moon, and I feel that surely in this insane Universe there must be sanity. I don't really know.

And I grieve, and I grieve, and I let the pain pour out. I want to change things, but I can't. I want my dreams to come true, but they don't always do. I want to be with the magic and passion, but they are elusive, and slip again into the night.

The pain, the pain. Please make it go away. It is painful to fail. It is painful to acknowledge the biological realities of this Planet. There are a million things that we can have in this life, and there are a million things we can NEVER have in this life. But yet we still want, for what we long for is our completion and fulfillment. And to never have that really, really hurts, incredibly deeply.

It hurts. Really, man, it does.

Death Wish

Okay, I've had this bumper sticker on my computer desktop for a month and finally decided to use it. I hope no one is offended.

So, I went to a dinner event at my former church last night, which is very CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIAN. After playing some Christmas songs they put on this strange comedy show that featured a series of skits. One of the skits was about the church "going green" and they proceeded to satirize and make a mockery of the Green Movement.

Now, I have a thick skin and always appreciate a little fun-poking, but there is an irony here — the church and its members likely do NOT CARE LESS about going green. To them, GOING GREEN is the pointless folly of left-wing wackos. If you are a conservative Christian, GOING GREEN is the furthest thing from your mind because you are too busy "finding God." Just as the Hebrews mocked and made fun of Jesus as he was led to his execution, so do the religions conservatives make fun of the environmental movement -- as it is led to ITS execution. As I left the building last night I noticed the parking lot was full of SUVs. No doubt they are holy SUVs given by God to his children, as a gift for their loyalty to the GOP.

So, really, not that I'm pissed or anything. But I do want to bring up something else that's been gnawing me all week — THE WHALES!!! Over the past week I saw a movie and read some articles about whales — THEY ARE BEING PUSHED TO THE BRINK OF EXTINCTION! Personally, I think driving other species to extinction is a serious crime against nature, and those responsible should be held accountable. I think species extinction is a LOT more serious than drinking an occasional beer or saying the word "FUCK" when you smash your thumb with a hammer. Really, I do.

This leads me to think about ABORTION, the favorite push-button issue of the Religious Right. Now, I totally agree that abortions are BAD. But let's weigh the gravity of the wrongdoings. Humans are multiplying like rabbits and have hit 6.5 billion people (500 million added in the last 9 years). At the same time, whale populations are already small, and several species are rapidly shrinking. So, when some desperate, low-income female wants to abort a baby she does not want, she is considered a criminal by religious conservatives. But when a Japanese whaling fleet steams to the Antarctic and murders 1,000 whales, the conservative Christians simply say, "Oh, they are reaping God's bounty." So, I'm just saying that there is something really unjust here.

Now, again, I concede that abortions are BAD, but I can assure you that there is NO SHORTAGE of humans. In fact, multiplying is about the only things humans appear good at. Oh, and if there was comprehensive sex education in the U.S., and if there was better access to contraception and emergency contraception, and if American males showed a little decency, respect, and intelligence, then abortions could be practically ELIMINATED!

So, getting back to the bumper sticker .... see I guess conservative Christians want to turn the Earth into Mars or maybe Venus. I'm not sure why, but they just seem to want to. According to their interpretation of their ancient stories, once they help to really, and I mean REALLY, screw the Earth up, then their God will come and whisk them into the clouds.

The moral of the story is that, sure, I'll rot in hell, but when the Christians are gone, I'll get their cars — and I mean a LOT OF REALLY NICE cars. I'll have hundreds of cars. Each heathen, Muslim, Hindu, and other non-compliant person will each be assigned CARS! And then we will get to drive the cars all over rocky Mars. And better YET, we'll all get their shoes, and I mean a LOT of shoes. So, make fun of the environmental movement all you want to because I'm gonna have a lot of cars and shoes. Wow, man.