350 Is The Upper Limit "If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted... CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm." Jim Hansen, NASA
Those of us who’ve been around for more than 8 years remember when we, as a nation, believed in our voting system. When I voted for Carter I knew Carter got my vote. When I voted for Reagan, he got it. When I voted for the elder Bush, I knew he got my vote. He didn’t win the second time around, but then again, I switched up and voted Clinton that time. At least I knew who got my vote.
Since 2000, elections have seemed, shall we say, squirrely. After all votes were counted in 2000 and 2004, we found out that Bush didn’t actually win either. In fact, in 2004, we found that in Ohio, many votes counted for Bush were actually cast for the other guy.
Hopefully that won’t happen again. The neoconservatives can only make that kind of theft work if it’s a close race. Don’t let it be a close race. Make sure nothing, and I mean NOTHING stops you from getting there and casting your vote on election day. Make sure those guys who ushered in the New World Order hear your voice.
If you’re not registered and you want to vote for Obama, for crying out loud GET REGISTERED TODAY. You are running out of time!
I am the Republican, Jon. Let’s be careful out there this year. We cannot afford to let the neocons steal this one.
I received this question from a regular reader of Wordout through the Ask-a-Blogr network. Ask-a-blogr allows you to ask a question and direct it at a specific blogger, or just throw a question out to the web and see if any blogger can answer it. You’ll find a link to Ask-a-Blogr in the sidebar down below.Image by Muffet via Flickr
Q: when, in your learned opinion, do the greedy have enough wealth, the power-hungry have enough leverage and the self-absorbed have their egos stroked enough? is there a limit? i feel lucky to have a job, a roof over my head and food in my belly. what do these people want? i, obviously, do not understand greed. love wordout. read it whenever work and life allows. hope u r well, cindy
Asked by cindy
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A: Thanks for asking, Cindy. These are some questions that deserve full length books for answers, but I will give it a shot in just a couple of paragraphs. Keep in mind that these thoughts are mine, on the spur of the moment, and most certainly incomplete.
Greed and Power
From their own perspective, the greedy will never have enough wealth. Greed is a self reinforcing addiction, the more you have you more you want. Whether it’s money, stuff, friends or whatever, greed says you never have enough.
The power hungry only have enough leverage if they perceive that they are already the strongest. If they don’t believe that, then they continue to try to leverage their power through intimidation of others, spreading fear among their allies, and purchasing mercenaries both private and from other governments. Look at the USA: We spend more on DEFENSE than ALL the other countries on this planet added together. Yet, our leaders still leverage their actions because they see us as weak and vulnerable. And guess what? That view actually does make us vulnerable.
Greed and hunger for power many times go hand in hand. One is simply a form of the other. Both probably have at their root a deep seated fear of not being ‘enough’. From what I have seen, the fear has good reason to be in them, as usually they are not the smartest, or the nicest, or any of the other generally ‘good’ terms we assign to people. They are, however, usually the most thoughtless, careless, ungiving folks you’ll ever meet. So yeah, they should be paranoid about being such lousy specimens of humanity. There is no limit to what that paranoia will drive you to do.
What do these people want? They want the same as the rest of us, just more of it. So much more that you and I may not get our share. But above all that, I think they want security. They want to know they are as good as the folks they look down on. They will never attain that though, because no matter what they do, their fears rule them to the grave. They will always be afraid.
It is never wrong to recognize the truth.
Self absorbed folks really don’t need their egos stroked at all, though. They are down in there somewhere and the subtle or obvious stroking of their egos is forgotten as soon as you’re done with it. They are like cats. Stroke them only when they sit in your lap or rub your leg. Otherwise you’re just wasting time.
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