28 Responses to “Vomit of the Day: ‘Earth Hour’”

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1. jimi Says:
   March 29th, 2008 at 6:02 pm

   Yep. Flushed the toilet a few times, and opened the windows and turned up the heat.

   All for a symbolic “up yours algore”.

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2. Jim Bouman Says:
   March 29th, 2008 at 9:51 pm

   Hey Pheisty,

   Go phurgle yourself.

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3. Wilber Says:
   March 30th, 2008 at 7:05 am

   Actually this sounds like an excellent way to increase people’s awareness of conserving energy…unless of course you believe we have infinite supplies of energy.

   Going around and turning on all your lights is like going for a road cruise in your Hummer and telling your passenger that the US went to war in Iraq to install democracy in a country will WMD and harboring terrorists. At first the Bushies called it Operation Iraqi Liberation…that’s OIL.

   Go ahead and flip on your switches. 14 American soldiers died in Iraqi this week for you to exercise your right to flip switches.

   Remember ignorance is curable; stupidity is permanent.

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4. Joey Says:
   March 30th, 2008 at 8:07 am

   For your information, Wilbur, I don’t drive a Hummer. I drive a deisel VW that gets 50 MPG. Your other assumption – that I am a conservative and therefore am a huge supporter of the war – is also unfrounded, and how that relates to this issue puzzles me.

   Blanket statements about my stupidity (or ignorance) further shows your inability to come up with a valid argument, which only proves your own stupidity and ignorance. (Sort of like the “phurgle” guy above.)

   You’re really beginning to piss me off, and you are teetering on the verge of harassment. Watch yourself, or be banned.

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5. Joey Says:
   March 30th, 2008 at 8:20 am

   And by the way, I’ll let you make any comment your heart desires if you use your real name. It’s easy to leave insulting comments on web sites when no one knows who you are.

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6. Susan Says:
   March 30th, 2008 at 9:30 am

   Since EVERYTHING is connected in our universe and our biosphere, people who turn on the lights and open their windows to get back at the millions who care about the biosphere (the biosphere being the realm of all life on earth), harm ourselves. What is wrong with wanting to preserve life and the things that sustain life, such as pure air, pure water, pure sunlight, etc. Such care-less individuals are fools, but the giant plunderers of natural resources and polluters are predators that we should all fight in every way possible to save the biosphere in which we live. The planet can do without the biosphere, but we can’t do without the biosphere.

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7. Joey Says:
   March 30th, 2008 at 10:19 am

   You frighten me, Susan.

   You’ve identified me as a predator for exercising my freedom of choice, and indicated that you should fight “in every way possible” against my ability use my freedom of choice.

   It sounds to me like you believe that I should be forced by the end of a gun to comply with your agenda. That is tyranny. You are anti-choice and anti-freedom and are arrogant enough to believe that you know what’s best for me and my family. You also believe that I cannot be trusted with the personal decisions that I make in my everyday life since I’m not part of your ‘green cult’. I don’t appreciate that, and your statements are a perfect example of why I despise everything that the green movement is about.

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8. Susan Says:
   March 30th, 2008 at 7:33 pm

   You are misread what I wrote here, Joey, but I may not have written clearly. I am sorry if I made you angrier than you already were. I am not about fighting you, but would prefer rational discussion. If you reread what I wrote you will see that I was not referring to you as a predator, but to “the giant plunderers of natural resources and polluters” who are threatening the integrity of the biosphere. I am referring here to large-scale environmental depredations such as the destruction of the rainforests and clearcutting of old growth forests (forests are the “lungs of the biosphere,” taking in CO2 and putting out oxygen);the mass depletion of world fisheries; the total destruction of eastern Europe’s Aral Sea, for example, formerly one of the largest landlocked freshwater lakes in the world; chemical air pollution that is causing holes in the earth’s ozone layer; climate change caused by wanton CO2 pollution that is heating up the atmosphere and the oceans, destroying coral reefs, melting glaciers, mountain snow caps, and the polar ice caps. There may come a time when all of these gradual atmospheric, oceanic, and terrestrial changes will result in a sudden acceleration of changes and “cascading effects:” as the ocean warms, it speeds up the melting of polar ice, which in turn raises sea levels; less ice cover and warmer seas heats the air causing drought on land and the drying up of fresh water sources; warmer oceans will also kill basic lifeforms such as plankton and krill which are at the bottom of the food change, depriving life forms at higher levels of the food chain of sustenance, etc. etc etc, until we are facing a world so damaged that we cannot recognize it and possibly not survive. We see evidence of all of these types of environmental damage already on the evening news, as you know, with commentators usually observing that the changes are coming faster and earlier than expected.

   Susan

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9. The Dan Miller Experience Says:
   March 31st, 2008 at 12:14 am

   Susan strikes me as the kind of person that… Well let me say this… If I wore a “Fur is Murder” T shirt and stood outside an abortion clinic with a pro choice button and an “Arbor Day” sticker on my Prious… well, let’s just say I think I could hook up with a chick very similar to Susan without ever saying anything.

   Oh, and in case you’re wondering- no, I don’t represent Joey or her opinions. She’s way too polite and has too much integrity to ever blindly jump to the conclusions that I jump to. I’m just saying… I firmly believe that I am one “You can’t hug your children with nuclear arms” t-shirt away from not being single.

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10. Joey Says:
    March 31st, 2008 at 3:57 am

    I apologize for misunderstanding you, Susan. Thank you for clarifying.

    I do have a question for you, however:

    Do you support legislation that dictates how I heat my home, what sort of car I drive, how many miles I can drive said car, what lightbulbs I can use, how big of a toilet tank I can have, how long of a shower I can take, when I can or cannot use electricity, etc?

    For the record, I’m a huge – HUGE – manmade global warming denier.

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11. Joey Says:
    March 31st, 2008 at 4:00 am

    Dan, I adore you. If I were younger and single, I’d save you the pain of having to wear a “You can’t hug your children with nuclear arms” t-shirt and hook up with you instantly.

    LOL

    I love that shirt, by the way. Is that for real, or did you make it up?

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12. Matt Says:
    March 31st, 2008 at 8:05 am

    Shouldn’t people participating in earth hour have their computers turned off?

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13. Susan Says:
    March 31st, 2008 at 10:25 am

    Joey, As far as I know, no one is proposing such legislation, so it is a moot point. I am not at all against free choice in one’s consumer decisions. But since we are free and open society that encourages education and debate, conservationists are only trying to do education on the wisdom of not contributing to the pollution of the air, water, and food we all consume as a life necessity.

    Some of the anger of non-conservationists may be about their psychological need for such high polluting items, partly because we have all been consumerized by the billions of dollars of ads that have been repetitively bombarded with since early childhood that create a sense of incompleteness and yawning NEED for whatever the advertisers want us to need. These things clutter up our lives. I have too much myself and I’m guessing you do too. We who live in the wealthy world need to be aware of those who have no such consumer choices, because they are basically slowly starving to death from undernutrition or dying from easily preventable diseases because of no access to such consumer items as clean water and health care. (At the moment, I’m reading UNICEF’s “State of the World’s Children 2008″ report).

    Do you care whether much of the world is angry at us for contributing more to the pollution and destruction of the biosphere than are fair share in terms of population? That our excessive consumption and pollution and waste hurts all of humanity and all of life on earth? These are ethical questions at root about our relations with other human beings, and other life forms that we depend on that have no power whatsoever to inhibit our reckless actions. In the end, we destroy our own quality of life. If you believe that our polluted atmosphere, water, and land is not due to wanton human depredation and that climate change is not in any way human-made than you are probably not absorbing all the facts. You may be getting your facts only from those powerful interests that are actually most responsible for the pollution and destruction of everyone’s natural resources. What is regarded as ‘free consumer choice’ often translates into the enormous weath and political influence of powerful commercial interests, the same folks that have bombarded all of us with ads to buy buy buy, bigger and more costly vehicles, etc. I have a masters degree in Educational Technology and the main point of the scientific studies done in this field is that people learn and retain information best by repetition of the message. Advertising works; if it didn’t there wouldn’t be so much of it. We are all victims of it when we buy something we don’t need and can’t really afford except by using credit.

    I SEE the pollution from cars on my window sills.

    I live on a busy street near traffic lights and the interior windows sills of my house constantly accrue a layer of dirty, black, particulate matter from the street — dust and dirt, brake lining particles, the residues from combustion.

    All the best to you —

    Susan

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14. Susan Says:
    March 31st, 2008 at 10:36 am

    Dan — You definitely would not want to hook up with me since I’m a 62-year-old, mostly white-haired woman who came of age when the word “chick” was considered insulting to women. You must be very young. Thats not necessarily a compliment.

    Susan

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15. The Dan Miller Experience Says:
    March 31st, 2008 at 12:20 pm

    Joey- Maybe in another life when we are both cats

    And Susan- No, I wouldn’t want to hook up with you, but it doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that you’re 62. It’s more that you’re the kind of person who annoys people about the environment, and has a fit when someone calls her a “chick”. You must be very simple. That is most definitely not a compliment.

    Hey Joey, would it bother you if I said something like “Hey [random person], there’s this awesome chick who runs this great website.”

    I gotta be honest… even if that does bother you, I’m not going to stop saying it. It’s engrained in my lexicon. I love the word “lexicon”. Almost as much as I love the word “obsequious”.

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16. Joey Says:
    March 31st, 2008 at 2:59 pm

    Susan,

    First off, I don’t retain any self-loathing for having more material possessions than someone else. I don’t have any guilt for having a home when others don’t have one. And I most certainly don’t feel any sort of guilt for living in a free, capitalist country that has allowed me the choice to persue a better life for me and family.

    With that said, I’m not an extravagant individual. I live in a modest home, drive a modest used car, make a modest living, and declutter on a weekly basis. I don’t have a lot of junk that I don’t need simply because I’ve found that it clutters up my life and thus, my mind. I live simply for myself and my family, and for no other reason.

    I’m also a smart consumer. I want the best bang for my buck. I drive a car that gets 50 MPG because I don’t like paying for gas, not because I’m arrogant enough to believe that I can help reduce our “dependence on foreign oil”. I turn off my lights when I leave the house because I don’t like paying for electricity, not because I want to “reduce my carbon footprint”. I eat leftovers because I don’t want to squander my grocery money, not because I feel guilty that children are starving in Africa.

    You can find me selfish if you like, it really doesn’t bother me. I am selfish. I’m not concerned with people I’ve never met, and if I said I were I’d be a liar. The bottom line is that I am motivated by a few simple things: My love for my family, my ability to make a living and provide my family with shelter, food, and clothing, and the freedom to make decisions that directly affect those things that mean the most to me. Anything that comes after that is in the luxury department on my life’s priority list.

    Now, as far as why I’m so bent out of shape about this green business…

    You are sadly, sadly mistaken if you don’t recognize that laws have already been passed in the name of ‘green’ (The CFL lightbulb one, which I mentioned above, was pushed by the big corporations who make lightbulbs. Does that go along with your green plan of going after profiteers?). Hundreds more are being hammered out or proposed as I type this. The state of Minnesota actually recommended higher insurance premiums for people who drive over the specified number of miles per year, in the name of ‘green’. Highway funds are being diverted to light rail boondoggles, in the name of ‘green’. People are being told by governments that they can’t build homes on certain plots of land, in the name of ‘green’.

    Shall I go on?

    My entire point is that if this were simply a voluntary effort, I wouldn’t take issue with it. The fact is that your green cause is being used as a vehicle to take away my freedoms and my ability to make decisions for my family…by the end of a gun. It’s also being used to line the pockets of greedy thugs who would like nothing better than for the government to legislate regulations that favor their products under the name of everything ‘green’. (Which is exactly what you’re against, I’m assuming.) Where will all of these ‘green jobs’ that Obama speaks of come from? The free market? Hell, no. They will come from government funding, and opportunists with their hands outstretched for more subsidies. This makes government pleased, because then they can grow themselves and tax the living jeepers out of common Americans like me.

    So yes, I have every right and every reason to be angry about green.

    **UPDATE**

    Actually, Susan, I do care about people I’ve never met. I care about their freedom, which enables them to take care of themselves. Taking care of yourself and your own family is the best thing any person can do for society.

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17. Joey Says:
    March 31st, 2008 at 3:12 pm

    Experience,

    So long as I’m a cheetah or something like that. I don’t like cats, and would be very disappointed if I came back as one.

    And to answer your question, no, I don’t mind being called a chick…or a broad…or a dame…and it lights up my day when the term ‘hottie’ is used in a similar manner.

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18. The Dan Miller Experience Says:
    March 31st, 2008 at 7:06 pm

    I vote for lions… lions are awesome.I definitely didn’t mean house cats, house cats are pretentious and aloof.

    And I gotta be honest, I really like the slang term “bird” for women (I have a fascination with British slang). So I’m going to refer to you as a “bird” from now on. Except on certain days where I either think you need cheered up, or I’m feeling exceptionally “Experiency”. On those days I’m going to call you “hottie”.

    Talk to you later hottie
    (I think the wink smiley is becoming the new DHEPR)

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19. Joey Says:
    April 1st, 2008 at 4:06 am

    Yeah, lions are awesome. Housecats are the perfect symbol of socialists. The stray ones come to your doorstep looking for handouts, and they don’t go away. You just have to keep feeding them more often. Then, they bring their stray friends so they can have some free food, too. The ones who live in your house don’t listen to you, and they get their nasty socialist cat hair all over your furniture (which you have to clean up). They also jump up on the counter and lick the butter, which is gross and unhygenic. Oh yeah, and they go out whoring around, making their little baby socialist kittens, with the assumption that you’ll take care of them, too. And they’re aloof, like you said.

    Sorry. Got a little carried away.

    Thanks for the hottie holla. (<—DHEPR)

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20. The Dan Miller Experience Says:
    April 1st, 2008 at 6:59 am

    “They also jump up on the counter and lick the butter, which is gross and unhygenic. ”

    I can’t even tell you how much that sentence made me laugh.

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21. Wilber Says:
    April 1st, 2008 at 11:18 am

    Joey, when you wrote “you are teetering on the verge of harassment,” I had to chuckle. Your statement is so in line with the “human resource” people of the work place world of today.

    If the strong good looking guy is paying rapt attention to some gal at work, that is just fine. If the pimply faced nerd says something out of line, the same woman is turning the guy in for harassment.

    May statement above was an analogy and I didn’t mean to infer that you had a Hummer.

    To better understand you conservative views, are you in favor of the eight-hour work day, unemployment insurance, public funded education and flood control?

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22. Joey Says:
    April 1st, 2008 at 3:22 pm

    Wilber (or shall I say, Curt?),

    The English language does not contain the words to tell you how much you annoy me. You reason like a child and you’re about as persistent as one.

    You also seem to have some sort of personal issue with me, which I find to be harassing. I didn’t say that I was going to call the police and report you, I simply stated that I wouldn’t allow your posts to continue if you insist on being a complete jerk. There’s a huge difference. You obviously have no other goal here than to be a jerk.

    If you would occasionally offer something worthwhile and less offensive, I would be fair-minded enough to point that out. But you don’t, so I have come to the conclusion that since you offer no dialogue that I wish to engage in, I really don’t want to talk to you anymore. And more importantly, I really don’t want you on my blog.

    This is not the ‘free press’ here on Pheistyblog. If you’re interested in spouting off about things, please get your own blog and bother me from there. You can complain about me all you want, then.

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23. Joey Says:
    April 1st, 2008 at 7:08 pm

    Experience,

    You were imagining a dirty hippie jumping up on the counter and licking the butter, weren’t you?

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24. Peter Says:
    April 2nd, 2008 at 9:22 am

    Actually, we are being mandated by the eco-Nazis to do all sorts of things. We have the mandated Algore toilet with its girlie man flush. Now the federal government is mandating we use screwy light blubs they can’t give away, that offer less light, cost more and pose a hazard when disposing of them. How about the crappy biofuel ethanol, the one that is driving our food and fuel costs through the roof?

    The goal of this crowd is exactly that: to take away your freedom of choice to use products of which they — the elitists, the holier- and smarter-than-thou crowd — disapprove.

    By the way, while we’re either living like the Unabomber or in some UN-approved set of efficiency apartments over a organic grocery and taking light rail to get anywhere, those who forced this on us will still have their Algore</em-style mansions, private jets and SUVs. They never require themselves to live by the rules they set for others.

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25. Jim Says:
    April 22nd, 2008 at 11:29 am

    Eco-Nazi…. funny that you guys use terms like that to describe environmentalists.

    The Nazis killed people and invaded countries strictly for their own nationalistic gain.

    Environmentalists seek ways to sustain the entire world we live in for the benefit of all humans and creatures of the earth. Environmentalists are more self-less than anything. Speaking out against industries that only have their own interests at heart is hardly a “Nazi” type action.

    And, if you think maintaining clean water and a liveable environment is “against your freedoms”, how about the rights and freedoms of everyone else’s families to live on this earth?

    Another thing, you talk about your freedom to live in a capitalist society. What is wrong with someone creating a viable business that provides ways to help protect the world we live in? Don’t you appreciate the fact that you and your family can drink clean water? And isn’t is good when someone creates a business that helps protect your right to drink clean water?

    You guys say that the economy will die if we use environmental methods. It just doesn’t make sense to me.
    I have seen many “green” businesses pop up. And I’ve seen many large corporations adopt green practices because it stops a huge amount of waste. Avoiding waste (whether that be using different light bulbs or efficient heating/cooling system) only SAVES money and HELPS the economy that you value so much.

    Whether or not your “turn on all your light bulbs” fiasco was facetious or not, it seems like a very ignorant and arrogant comment to me.

    By the way… I agree with Susan’s comments whole heartedly. Thank you Susan for some intelligent words. Too bad I can’t say the same for Dan’s ridiculous comments. Hey Dan, stereotyping of environmentalists have done absolutely nothing for help the discussion.

    If every person and corporation used 20% less energy, I think the economy would have 20% more energy to use for a greater good (economic or otherwise) – how would that be a bad thing? And why would you persecute Susan for pointing out the obvious?

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26. keervevernerb Says:
    December 26th, 2008 at 10:11 pm

    How r u? your website is cute
    I have a new band and we just had a live gig you can see here:
    http://tinyurl.com/75993v

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27. Alex Says:
    March 6th, 2009 at 5:05 am

    u two or whoever it was want to come back as cats? but insist on not going along wit the whole save the planet thing-how long do u think u have to “come back” as some other being if its all gonna be gone soon. I’ll always be a tree hugger and i’ll never change that.. it makes me sad how u guys can pretend to be so civilised wen you’re savagely destroying our planet. you’re probably the kind of people who support animal cruelty. blah, it makes me sick! hahaha, GREENPEACE!!!

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28. Joey Says:
    March 6th, 2009 at 8:39 am

    Thank you, Alex, for that profound statement. I’ve often pondered the ethical foundation of my global warming denying based upon the principles of reincarnation, but hadn’t taken it seriously until now.

    Obviously you’re right, I’m not civilized. You’ve made it apparent that since I don’t recall my past life as a Siamese cat and therefore don’t empathize with feline rights, I’m obviously hell-bent on the destruction of planet earth.

    Please come back and enlighten us more often.

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