Hammer Mill Days

Please turn that thing off. No... I really do not want to be video'd right now, damn it. No! I'm washing my socks, for chrissake! Who the hell would want to see me doing this, man? Put the freaking camera away! Whoops. Didn't know anyone was browsing this side of the Web. Hope you're doing well. Bit embarrassing, this, actually. Marvin (my personal robot assistant) recently got his prehensile claws on one of those super-shmeensy video cameras. He says he had to go broke to get it.... he had to go broke the department store window , that is. (Cue laugh track. I said cue it, Marvin! Do I have to do everything ?) Anyhow... now Marvin has to video everything, committing our sullen, sordid lives to Quicktime day in and day out. What he's doing with it all I can only guess. Posting it to YouTube? Burying it in a hole in the yard? Feeding it to Big Zamboola? Lawd knows. While Marvin's been capturing the fascinating sight of me washing socks in a time-honored fashion (...

These are indeed remarkable days. I can think of few times in recent history when the most fundamental problems of our civilization have been more obviously placed on display. This oil gusher in the Gulf - practically a non-story when it began - has captivated the nation, providing a gross illustration of the true costs of our current energy regime. Who can deny that this disaster was caused by a headlong rush for short-term profit, an obsession with minimizing costs, and a total disregard for human and environmental consequences? That is the model for oil development in the United States and elsewhere. And with this oil-cano spewing endlessly into an extremely sensitive biosystem, the actual costs of this enterprise simply cannot be concealed. There are spills and toxic contamination all the time, but you rarely see it or hear about it. This time is different. This time, the sludge is coming to us. What, objectively, can our government do? Well, a lot more, it seems. Our regulatory me...