scandal in the Czech Republic

They say the government is going to be replaced......by another government with the same policies.

Well, no that's not exactly what they say.  I haven't noticed anyone saying the second half of that sentence.

Here's what I heard Nečas say on Czech TV in the past month or so:  We can't have green technology because we would lose 'competitiveness'..

when he further explained, that meant the USA wasn't going for green technology, so the CR didn't need to......

There is a substantive point here:  the calculations of profit and loss (which I assume PN has in mind) simply ignore the actual costs, the actual consequences of these activities, the social costs --sometimes referred to as "externalities".  But "externalities" are very real. 

Hmmmmmm. Floods, and now extreme heat.  What is going on in Europe?  Might it be (dare I say it)  anthropogenic global warming?

Hmmmmm, an economy largely based upon climate-destroying vehicles?  Ahh, but that is "competitive".

Hmmmm

Another favorite saying of the victim of scandal:  In Afghanistan they recognize the high quality of Czech technology.  (This is not an exact quote).  So, they will purchase Czech weapons....

(Did I get that right?  weapons?)

So, PN thinks it wise to base an economy on tools of murder and machines that contribute to global warming......

But the leading candidate (last I heard) for his replacement is another man who uses  the word "competitiveness" like a weapon to beat down any reasonable thoughts.

Change?  Ha Ha Ha!  What?  Are you imitating Obama?

I hate travelling.  I hate the Internet.  And I hate this computer.

This computer is ungainly.  It has an overactive mouse that just purchased a ticket I didn't want.

Every webpage---EVERY--is over-crowded, not elegantly arranged---with too many pointless possibilities, and too many distractions.

There's nothing like the elegance of an old-fashioned page of text----with broad margins and not single-spaced (as is still popular in the ever austere heart of Europe).

Worst of all, with the internet, you can click on something and not know exactly what it means---because the language used is just not transparently clear.

F*** the internet and F**** its designers----but mostly would that those who currently manage it were consigned to a new level in Dante's hell...............

Note:  Some readers may not realize it, but prior to the existence of the Internet, there were movies, books, periodicals, journals, and magazines.  True enough, to obtain one, you'd have to make a trip outside of your home.  I don't know that I've gained so much by ease of access.  Yes, sometimes I am saved a trip.  But, to be honest, I usually go outside, and when I do, it would not be so much trouble to get hold of a magazine or book or journal.

The time savings is not astronomical.

And, I think there's a mental and physical health price to be paid for sitting at home in front of a screen.....

It's somewhat like the fact that people still enjoy going to concerts, and not merely listening to music through their computers.............There are things which computers cannot give you even when they give you stuff to read or listen to---something social............

the new dark ages..............

My attention was drawn to two young men were vigorously expressing their amazement.
They had stopped, dead in their tracks to stare and emit appreciative noises..........

I thought it must be a new Marilyn or Bardot.

I turned to look, eager to experience beauty,
but I was disappointed.

It was only a car...........

Turkey

What's going on in Turkey?

 http://occupygezipics.tumblr.com/

Link courtesy of Brian Leiter.

recommended viewing

Whistleblower Edward Snowden interviewed  by Glenn
Greenwald....

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=767&Itemid=74&jumival=10293

He talks as though he lives in a democracy................

happiness

Re-writing and revising would be the key to happiness--if only we could re-write our lives.

Unfortunately, there's all this garbage called "the past" and its consequences that keeps cropping up.

thoughts during the flood season in Central Europe

I heard a Czech TV commentator ask:  but  [Here insert the name of a neo-liberal economist and locally influential politician] says that it is dangerous to talk of Anthropocentric Global Warming..........

And the responsible scientist being interviewed did not respond directly (or so I thought).... or not as directly as he might have..

He did not say, e.g., that those who deny anthropocentric global warming are either fools or knaves..........

And noticing the floods, I find myself thinking:  maybe it is dangerous to ignore the fact that human activity has caused climate change............

And the Yankee Gringo also thinks that if someone is supposed to be a scientist---even a social scientist, or economist---but is incapable of understanding the evidence for anthropogenic global warming.....well, maybe they're no scientist at all, and maybe that must goes to show that their kind of economics itself doesn't amount to real science...........