Irreplaceable

Life imitated Easter last weekend.  But up to now there has been no resurrection.  My life is lonelier because of it.  

We were away and a dear friend was looking after our house.  One might be tempted to say looking after the cats as well but in many ways they look after us.  But they would be pissed if they didn't get their food in time.  On Saturday, Buddy, our special cat, went out for the day as he has been since the days became less cold.  He never came back.  

Our friend discovered very large coyote tracks near our house (a little too close).  This is actually a desperate time for those unlucky to not have human benefactors.  Winter is ending sure but it's been a hard one.  I'm sure the creatures that inhabit the wild places groan in their own ways with minus 20 windchill.  When it's so cold you need to eat to keep yourself warm enough.  Even if spring is on the horizon you have to chance a trip close to the unnatural animals.  

 

I imagine that Bud acted as he always did when he met a dog many times his size.  He probably walked right up to that coyote and tried to claw his or her eyes out for daring to set foot on his territory.  We weren't there to interfere like we normally are.  I wonder if the coyote lost an eye or has a big scar to remember our ferocious (never to us, never) Bud.

I keep imagining the scene.  He has inspired me to write again actually.  Maybe the coyote just came to recruit him for the fight against clearcutting and other human crimes.  Maybe Bud saw the suffering of this coyote and realized he should give himself up so another might live.  I suppose that last one is more appropriate for Easter.  I wouldn't put it past him he was so wise.



All our days are numbered I guess.  Even the most wonderful of us.  One of the first blog pieces I wrote was about Buddy.  I'll miss you Buddy.  Thank you for sharing your life with me.  I'd give anything to have you sleep next to my head just one more time. 

Close Shave

A month or so ago we got Albert Nobbs out of the library.  A good movie, sad, but good.  I dread movies where someone works hard only to have their money (and sometimes their life) taken away from them by someone with more power or muscle.  Ever since the first scene where Nobbs opens the secret compartment where he has hidden his earnings over the years I knew what was coming.  I was so weary I actually couldn't watch. 

But this shit happens all the time.

So I was somewhat surprised to see the banksters and their politicians trying to fleece the people of Cyprus.  They wanted to go into everyone's account and take a percentage of the contents to fund, get this, a bailout of the banks.  So they'll take people's money and give it to the bank that was previously holding it for them?!  This economist stated it pretty plainly and clearly:



Now not only are they planning on cutting important social programs and handing tax cuts to corps and various rich folks but now they want to take money out of our accounts.  I say our accounts because the dumbass Dutch finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem says fleecing people will be the order of the day from now on when bailing out banks.  It won't be long before it's policy in Italy and then Spain and maybe one day the UK and even Canadia (after 2015 of course).  

Now I know that not everyone worked hard squirreling away their earnings.  Some folks who would be fleeced would be the crooks who usually steal from the hardworking.  But to steal from everyone is a bad idea.  But it's also a great idea if you get my meaning. . . 

Anyway they're only getting people's money over 100,000 euros but that's still a bad precedent.  I wonder what the price of gold will be tomorrow morning.  Maybe it's a good time to get our money out of our accounts?

BitCoin?

Deptford Goth

His name makes me think of grade 12 and Fifth Business.

Rational Pagans

There's a fellow who lives nearby (well nearby for around here).  He's very concerned about climate change.  And of course if we were rational and had any intelligence we would all feel the same way.  He writes lengthy letters to the editor on the subject warning us all of our imminent demise.  No one responds.  He calls up and yells at people who try and work for small change while mostly ignoring the big issue of climate change.  It's very uncomfortable for those of us who are yelled at.  He probably shouldn't waste his breath anymore and just start blowing up power lines and the other conveniences that ultimately won't be so convenient to our children and our children's children (provided we get that far).  But he can't and that's fine.  Life and climate change go on.  

His problem I think is that he assumes that we make thoughtful and rational decisions and don't act just based on our own habits and pleasure.  I recently read Heat by George Monbiot and there was a line from it that I can't shake.  He said, and I paraphrase, that he's worried that we'll all demand that our dear leaders do something about climate change while knowing and expecting that states will do nothing.  It's not probably conscious.  We all want to be good or more precisely to be seen to be good.  

Which brings me to a Christmas card I received last year.  More precisely it was a Solstice card.  Now a Christmas card is completely irrational.  Here's a card to celebrate the birth of some guy who lived 2,000 years ago thousands of kilometres away from here.  He said some good things so we need to remember him.  If we forgot about him the world would still spin, the grass would still grow, the snow would still fall. 

But the Winter Solstice is an essential point in time that should have a lot of meaning for us.  The days get longer from that point.  The sun returns to lengthen the day and (in the case of where I live) allows us to harvest and prepare for the next winter.  It's completely rational to celebrate the Solstice.  

But instead we wait until a couple of days after and talk about baby Jesus (or more commonly open presents). 

That card has helped me to realize that humans just may be becoming less rational as time goes on.  The good old Pagans had it right.  The sun is the centre of the world.  Everything depends on it.  So it makes sense to study and, yes, worship it's cyclical relationship with the earth.  Similarly if having kids and continuing on the species was central to us then we might like to consider whether those coal-fired power plants are really good for our species in the long run.  

I wonder what the Pagans would have thought.  Oh yeah, they would have never gotten into this mess in the first place.

Are you sure you want to delete?

Just spent some minutes deleting old contacts in my primary 'friends' email.  I've been meaning to do it for some time.  It's a pain when you are thinking of sending an invite out and you have so many contacts.  I sound like I'm bragging but I'm not.  These aren't really friends anymore.  We might have been friends once and if I saw them again I'd be very happy to embrace but really we aren't in touch.  Some people I haven't heard from in a decade.  And maybe that's partly my fault.  

Though I have tried though.  I write to people now and then on email but I have no way of knowing if they even received them.  I think email is almost done as a means of keeping in touch.  I think I'm the only person who isn't on facebook.  It's okay--I wonder how much those 'friends' are really friends.  I guess you can spy on them much more easily (and so can the cops).

It was an interesting exercise though deciding who to keep on and who to drop.  Some were old lovers.  Some were various school friends.  Some were people I only had in my email to invite them to rooftop hockey or other regular events. Some made it and some didn't.  Some people had a picture associated with their contact and it was nice to see their faces again though many were presumably out of date. 

So now I have a more manageable list.  Still realistically I only keep in regular touch with maybe ten people.  And that's wonderful.  Thank you!

PS - This is my 300th post on Museum Fremen.  How times flies . . .

Sick

Been following this story for a while. I might have written about it. Anyway in the UK, the cops have been infiltrating peaceful organizations for decades. Not really news as this happens a lot. But the story of this pig (in this case I feel it's appropriate) is one for the ages. Infiltration is one thing, one could expect it from the neurotic and maniacal state, but this pig 'fell in love' and fathered a child with one of his activist buddies. Then he ditched her and the baby and disappeared; he said the cops were after him--for a promotion maybe. I think his son is now about 20 years old. No support, no word, no nothing--all that time. And he had another family the whole time. Of course the pig has been climbing the ladder ever since. But he must be totally psychotic to have done this. I guess ultimately the police system (and state) is psychotic but someone has to sign up with the right(?) credentials.

And, to boot, I keep hearing about Muslims in the US who the cops find and encourage them to blow something up, then provide them with all the equipment and training and then the bomb fails to go off and the sucker goes away forever as an evil terrorist.  But this guy without that police support, wouldn't have blown out a candle let alone leveled a building.  I guess their crime was a thought crime which they conflated to a real crime.

The world is so fucked.  Hard to know what's real.  I guess climate change is real . . . or is it?  Ha ha.