odd couple

More millennian madness: twin prophets of doom and gloom do the song and dance routine and try to keep relevant and recycle their programs. In times of social and economic stress, major transformations such as the technological unemployment cloud overhanging the social net knitted system of the West, prophets like Jeff Rubin and David Suzuki are there to meet and greet; welcoming the faithful and feckless into the fold. No more different than Ghost Dancing, Code of Handsome Lake or other snake oil salesmen of an earthly paradise. Cargo Cult economics and doses of junk science we should build rammed earth homes, throw the rich into yurts and tie rocks to our feet and jump into a fjord with martin Heidegger’s collected works. Environmental apocalypse and $200 a barrel oil. Halloween is coming…

(see link at end)…Environmentalist David Suzuki and former bank economist Jeff Rubin have kicked off a cross-country speaking tour calling for a fusion of ecology with economics.

The pair, authors of recently published books, appeared Sunday at the Word on the Street book festival in Toronto.
They called for the environment to stop taking a back seat to economic concerns such as jobs and growth.

—Today, the Middle East is in the news daily — we hear of strife in Syria, in Iran, in Israel and Palestine. Ten or 20 years from now, conflicts in the Middle East will count for less in the world’s scheme of things, just as the daily conflicts that now occur in Africa get short shrift, despite Africa’s far greater loss of life. Twenty years from now, the Middle East could be about as important as it was at the turn of the previous century — before its oil was discovered — which was not very important at all.
The Middle East will attract scant attention in future, not because the region will have run out of oil — it will have found much more — but because the rest of the world will also be awash in oil. As supplies increase, oil depreciates in price, as does the political value of its purveyors.—Read More:http://www.republicofmining.com/2012/03/31/a-world-awash-in-oil-by-lawrence-solomon-national-post-march-31-2012/

Suzuki says economists and decision-makers in finance and politics should start thinking about ecological principles — concern for the rules that let species survive — and ensure their decisions incorporate environmental sustainability.

Rubin, former chief economist for CIBC, argues that the first step is to realize endless growth is short-sighted, given the finite supply of easily accessible resources and the environmental toll of consumption and industry.

The tour includes eight more talks in six provinces and ends Nov. 8 in Victoria.

Jeff Rubin has also been critical of Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline, which proposes to take Alberta oil sands to Asia via the ecological sensitive regions of British Columbia. The economist believes Canada should stop exporting raw bitumen and build refinery capacity in Canada to export higher value-added petroleum products like gasoline and diesel.

—One night, at a late hour, an elderly couple arrived at the shelter, each carrying a bundle on their shoulders. The other guests were already sleeping. The man took out a candle, lit it, and sat down to study. The wife took out some potatoes and put them in the still hot oven to bake. After they had eaten, the woman lay down to sleep, but her husband continued learning. Several of the residents complained that the new arrival was disturbing their sleep. One of them angrily blew out the candle. The man said nothing, but took his book to the window where he sat down and continued studying by the light of the full moon.
As dawn was breaking, the man suddenly jumped up and began dancing with joy. He had solved a knotty Talmudic problem and, in the excitement, apparently forgot where he was. His wife woke up and began to clap her hands. The noise woke up others in the house, and the manager came in, asking: “What’s going on here?!”
The protests flew at him from all sides: “A couple of crazy people arrived here late last night and didn’t let us sleep!”—Image:http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/112502/jewish/Shaagas-Aryeh.htm

“The export of raw bitumen is simply not in Canada’s long-term economic interests,” Mr. Rubin said in a blog post on his website. “And regardless of the economics, the Great Bear is no place for oil pipelines, oil refineries, or oil tanker traffic. That’s why I’m supporting Coastal First Nations and WWF as they say ‘No’ to the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline and I will be supporting their efforts to secure a more sustainable future for the Great Bear region.” Read More:http://business.financialpost.com/2012/0

ADDENDUM:

(see link at end)…One of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century, foundational to the academic left and deep ecology of the greens, was committed to Nazism….

…The idea that Heidegger temporarily strayed into Nazism only to recover himself later with a much more mature philosophy is simply untenable. According to Faye, it is far more likely that Heidegger managed to infiltrate much of the post-modern world with a more developed Nazi political ‘philosophy.’ Although Faye does not discuss in detail the environmental leanings of Martin Heidegger, his brand of green existentialism is much more at the heart of the issue than most people realize. Heidegger has certainly hidden some of his Nazism in the modern green movement….

—The horses pulling the wagon were trudging through the heavy snow with great difficulty. Suddenly, one of the horses collapsed and died, and the second horse was not strong enough to pull the wagon alone. The wagon driver, having no other choice, starting walking to the nearest village to obtain an additional horse. The two venerated passengers waited in the wagon.
Eventually, the wagon driver returned, leading a…..donkey. When Rav Nosson saw the donkey, he descended from the wagon, and began to dance happily in the snow. “Rebbi,” asked the Chasam Sofer, “Why are you so happy?”
“Don’t you see?” asked Rav Nosson. “The wagon driver brought a donkey instead of a horse. Who would have ever thought that I would merit fulfilling the mitzva of, “Do not plow with an ox and donkey together”—Image:http://www.sfgate.com/raiders/article/Raiders-players-coaches-recall-Al-Davis-loyalty-2328326.php

Existentialism is fertile ground from which to develop a deep ecological worldview. Existentialism often uses natural existence or ‘being’ to trump idealistic or religious thought that heightens itself above the natural world. Nature and its holistic interrelatedness is used to neutralize both philosophy and religious faith as incongruent to the existential realities of the real world. This also allegedly leads to a false, dominating view over nature, which has become especially superficial and unsustainable in the modern mechanized world. Truth is not a matter of abstract doctrinal statements that unnaturally detaches people from the real world, but is self-defined according to one’s own natural existence rooted in his particular environment.

…That modern environmentalism has swept in behind the collapse of classic western philosophy and the fading of the Judeo-Christian worldview is thus no accident. It is part and parcel of the whole post-modern outlook that denies any transcendental truth or God that exists independent and outside of the natural world. Without such transcendental truths, all that is left is an amoral nature and its factual existence, and Martin Heidegger has been leading this particular charge since his early days in the camp of National Socialism.

Although Heidegger did not join the Nazi Party until 1933, he was very supportive of the movement from its inception. Heidegger’s wife, Elfride, was a Nazi enthusiast going back as far as the early 1920’s. She was very involved in the naturist Nazi youth groups of the time. With inheritance money, she also purchased Heidegger’s chalet in the upper reaches of the Black Forest called Todtnauberg. The chalet had beautiful nearby valley views topped off by the Alps in the distance. From this very chalet would come the inspiration for much of Heidegger’s green existentialism.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/07/the_green_nazi_deep_ecology_of_martin_heidegger.html#ixzz27UeHtUCW