Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Carnival

Shrove Tuesday, A.K.A Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday), A.K.A Carnival, in exotic places men dress up as women and everyone has a big street party. In Ireland we eat pancakes, some carnival.

Anyway, I decided this year to celebrate Fat Tuesday properly, so I dressed my dog up in his festive green bandana, slicked back my hair with some Dax Short and Neat and we hit the streets.

At this point aliens seem to have hijacked my brain. Next thing I know is I wake up in bed, it's 1:30A.M on Ash Wednesday, I've got a tube of Winsor & Newton Ultramarine Blue oil paint in my pocket and fifteen missed calls on my phone.

Anyway, Ash Wednesday sucks. All the old people go around looking pious with big black crosses on their foreheads like so many elderly, long haired skinheads. They look at you as if your the anti-christ if you so much as smoke a cigarette.

What's with the oil paint? I gave up painting a year ago and gave all my paints and brushes away.

I do like ultramarine blue though...hmm...think I'll get stoned again today, lent or no lent, fuck the begrudgers.

Monday, February 23, 2009

My Long Emergency Starts Today

Re-reading James Howard Kunstler's book The Long Emergency in the light of the current economic meltdown has inspried me to blog on current events. I have been trying to inform people of the dangers of the Global Oil Production Peak for about a year now. When I talk to friends and colleges about it I usually get blank stares.

For those unfamiliar with Kunstler's work, you can check his Weblog at the link below:
http://www.kunstler.com/blog/

I am really let down my how my government in Ireland is dealing with the economic problem. Limited cuts public spending and then splashing out much more taxpayers money than will be saved by the cuts bailing out a few banks(re-capitalising), and nationalizing a complete basket case of a financial institution called Anglo-Irish Bank.

Then there is a lot of waffle about creating a smart, green economy.

There is no effort being made to prepare us for life after the inevitable collapse of our economy. They have actually made cutbacks in public transport to save a few lousy million euro, while throwing billions at the banks.

The Irish economic situation pretty much mirrors the US economy, no credit, banks becoming insolvent, industry hemorrhaging jobs at an alarming rate. Everyone is blaming someone else and scapegoats are being vilified in the media. Nothing imaginative or creative is being tried and the country is borrowing at a rate that is not sustainable for even a few years.