This is what a collapse looks like

I've been paying a lot of attention recently to what most people are referring to as The Great Recession. An enormous amount of attention, maybe even obsessive attention. Looking at it from an historian’s point of view, I've come to believe that this isn't a mere recession, or even a Depression. This is "It". If one wished to be polite and speak in terms that won’t scare the kiddies, the current situation might be described as "a consolidation of society down into a much more compact, sustainable size." I'm not a polite person, and I do have a flair for the hyperbolic, so I think I'll use the simple and quite accurate word "collapse."

I noticed the first signs of the collapse out on the margins, out in the exurban areas where I live. In every rural county within driving distance of my home, there are a couple of "zombie" subdivisions and a couple of "zombie" strip malls, along with several others that are one anchor-store away from dying and becoming zombified. Out on the perimeter, where I live, in the places where the last four decades really didn’t happen (except for the ubiquitous satellite dishes), it's easy to see how it’s all rolling back now. One strip mall, abandoned early in the collapse, is already well on the way to being reclaimed: the parking lot is dotted with small, new pine trees. Give them five years, and they’ll grow higher than a man, hiding the ruins from the road and giving nature the privacy it prefers when it does its work. I think of Stephen King’s “langoliers” when I pass this place, and the others like it.

But another place where the collapse will become more and more obvious is deep down in the crumbling, dessicated urban core. Case in point: Detroit. Expect to see more of this …


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/13/detroit-budget-woes_n_795806.html

… city officials will be faced with the tough decision whether to repurpose or outright abandon certain sections of the city, as the population has dwindled by half since 1950.

Mayor Dave Bing also recently announced that the city will offer incentives to residents to move to certain less blighted areas of town.

No plastic pigs. Might "offend."

Amazing. I'm not a fan of the Brits, but they were a courageous people once upon a time. Something odd happened to them (and most of the rest of Europe, for that matter) in recent decades, and they've devolved into a low, craven, cringing people. I thought allowing Sharia law in majority-Muslim neighborhoods was ridiculous, but now they won't even ship plastic pigs in the little toy sets for fear of "offending"? Breathtaking. And let's be clear: this has nothing to do with "sensitivity" or "celebrating diversity," and everything to do with kowtowing and cowardice. But then, Europe has a history of rolling over on its back and submitting to dangerous religions out of the Middle East. They did it 1500 years ago when a loopy little fringe death-cult showed up on the scene. It was called "Christianity."


http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/plastic-pig-banned-from-uk-toy-set-for-fear-of-offending-jewish-muslims/story-e6frf7lf-1225954697030

Plastic pig banned from UK toy set for fear of offending Jews, Muslims

TOY shop bosses removed a plastic pig from a children's toy farm set because they feared it would upset Muslim and Jewish parents.

A mother who complained to toy store Early Learning Centre (ELC) when she found the pig missing was told it had been removed for "religious reasons," British newspaper The Sun reported.

The mother, named only as Caroline, found there was no pig with the cow, sheep, chicken, horse and dog in the store's HappyLand Goosefeather Farm.

Caroline, who bought the toy for her daughter's first birthday, said the farm set still contained an empty sty and a button that made an oinking noise when pressed.

But after writing to ELC's customer services she got an email reply admitting the pig was removed in case it upset Muslim or Jewish parents.

some days I feel sorry for young Georgie Bush

I was horrified when I read that Pappy and Bar went golfing the day young George's sister died, but this??? Christ almighty, is Barbara Bush the most toxic parent since Joan Crawford, or is it me??? Poor little Dubya never had a chance in hell to grow up to be a normal adult.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/08/bush-abortion-fetus-jar_n_780675.html

Former president George W. Bush explained recently that a formative event in his staunch pro-life stance came when his mother, Barbara Bush, showed him the remains of a human fetus in a jar when he was a teenager, the result of an earlier miscarriage by the elder Bush.

Interviewed by the Durham Herald for the PlaySlam

http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/10165664/article-Frenetic-and-fun-PlaySlam-at-the-ArtsCenter?instance=main_article

The Nameless Urge

Every year on the last Sunday of July, many thousands of pilgrims climb "Croagh Patrick". They think they're climbing to pay their respects to "Saint Patrick", but they're really driven by the nameless urge that drove their pre-Christian Celtic ancestors up the same mountain to pay homage to Lugh on Lughnasa, and that drove their pre-Celtic ancestors up there to bring offerings to the shadowy figure of Crom Dubh. Some things in human nature never change, among them the need to climb to the high places of the world to be with one's gods.

http://article.wn.com/view/2010/07/26/Thousands_join_Croagh_Patrick_holy_mountain_climb/

Vatican: ordination of women a "grave crime"

Apparently, Dino von Crazypuss (aka His Holiness The Pope, Bishop of Rome and Holy Father of the Roman Catholic Church) has issued a clarification so that everyone understands that the ordination of women is classified in the same category of "grave crime" as the rape of children by priests. The mind reels at trying to conceive of the moral and theological gymnastics they had to go through to reach THAT particular conclusion.

Voltaire was right: "Ecrassiez l'infame!"


Vatican: ordination of woman a "grave crime"

Happy Bastille Day

‎"Une bonne fete" to French (and Francophile) people everywhere. To celebrate Bastille Day, a short scene from "Casablanca". The best scene in the movie. Possibly the best scene in any movie.

Casablanca: The Marseillaise