Soon you will be a grownup, LB, and will be able to do grownup things.
LB is only about 18 in lizard years
5: All you other Lizards? LB is finally legal!
The Tuatara is a very unusual lizard-like reptile. The Wiki is pretty garbled.
Aw, thanks. This makes up for feeling all agéd.
Happy lizardbirthday, whippersnapper. (I'm going to be 42 at my next...)
Tuatara, who would definitely regard LB as jailbait. Happy birthday.
14: What are you trying to say, Emerson?
Everyone needs to see a land crab attack. No deeper message is implied or suggested. It was on the same page as the Tuatara.
Happy birthday to you/Happy birthday to you/Happy birthday deeeaaaarrrrrr Liz-ard Breath....happy birthday to yoooouuu!
(Be very glad you are not close enough to have heard that.)
I just picked up the mail. In it was, I kid you not, an offer of life insurance from the AARP. I'm going to start drinking now.
Happy Birthday, Lizard Breath.
It is also my brothers birthday, and the 34th Anniversary of Nixon's Resignation. You must have had a fine 3rd.
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No more masturbating to Bernie Mack.
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I'm going to start drinking now.
Mimosas for the birthday girl!
re: 20
Yikes! I started getting AARP stuff once I turned 50. Getting it at your tender age is tough.
Drinking does seem to be in order.
Cake for LB! Cake!
I recommend the tres leches.
As for the original post: Come to California for hope. Not only do we sue the EPA for not letting us implement our anti-global warming, but our intrepid, unsinkable Attorney General Jerry Brown wanders about the countryside suing whole counties for not having addressing climate change in their general plans. The Bushies' EPA will wrap up business soon, and then the rest of you can so-goes-the-nation.
26: So you're saying you like the phrase "Supply Side Environmentalism"? Me too.
Happy Birthday LB! Someday you'll look back at this birthday and think, "How young I was."
Come to California for hope, LB. And for the cake I would bake you and the bonfire I would throw for you, which I would carefully arrange for maximum LB fun.
our intrepid, unsinkable Attorney General Jerry Brown wanders about the countryside suing whole counties for not having addressing climate change in their general plans
And he works out at the gym Magpie and I belong to!
the bonfire I would throw for you
She's a little young to need a funeral pyre, don't you think?
I have long thought that "individual virtue" solutions to environmental problems are bullshit. Sure, we can recycle individually, but what if the whole manufacturing process was retooled to presuppose recycling? And the list goes on. The only major contribution to environmental degradation that is under the control of individuals is emissions from cars, but again, that's fundamentally a systemic problem (although people shouldn't be so fucking stupid about buying SUVs, etc.).
Sadly, there appears to be some kind of block in the American psyche that prevents the acknowledgment of systemic problems. It looks like we'll be blue-baggin' it all the way to environmental collapse.
I've heard that Jerry Brown does curls with 50 kilos on each arm.
I have long thought that "individual virtue" solutions to environmental problems are bullshit. Sure, we can recycle individually, but what if the whole manufacturing process was retooled to presuppose recycling?
Let's promote Supply Side Environmentalism! It's the newest thing, and everyone's doin' it!
Some kind of block in the American psyche that prevents the acknowledgment of systemic problems.
Individualism -- methodological, ontological, political, and ethical. Rational choice theory. Takings laws. Libertarianism. Neo-classical economics. Sacredness of property rights.
Kotsko, I've always been generally sympathetic to your point of view, but I liked the Pollan argument here, which suggests that acts of "individual virtue" in a democracy constitute a constituency, signalling to leaders that attempts to impose stronger regulations will be well received.
"Supply Side Environmentalism" is henius, geebie.
Sadly, there appears to be some kind of block in the American psyche that prevents the acknowledgment of systemic problems.
Except when acknowledging the systemic problem suffices to ensure that no individual action is necessary. (Tire gauge!)
Happy birthday, LB!
36: "henius"=heinous genius?
Happy birthday, LB. I hope you have a wonderful day today.
38: "My opponent, as Reverend Spooner might say, is a shining wit."
Many happy returns LB. Welcome to your late thirties.
HBLB!
Individual environmentalism gives the evangelist a specific target. And the moralizer a specific victim.
¡Feliz cumpleaños, Aliento de Lagarta!
Happy Birthday, Lizard Baby! You are scarcely a hatchling! You have many many birthdays to come before the Ancient and Exalted Society of Crones even takes notice of your impending eligibility.
I suspect that AARP is getting in touch with people ASAP, what with that hadron collider going online in a month. Oh noes! Hadrons!
Thirty seven? Scarcely a hatchling indeed. Happy birthday.
While there are far, far too many people in the world, I make an exception for LB. I'm glad she was born. Or sprang fully formed from the brow of a flight attendant, whichever the case may be. Happy birthday.
5: LB is only about 18 in lizard years
Hmmm, and 37x18= 666!!
What are you saying Emerson? Can she not just shuffle off to the AARP in peace?
LB, crones don't need teeth. You'll save 300+ hours a year of useless brushing, plus dental bills, plus toothpaste.
Happy Birthday, LB.
On a related topic, I have somewhere between a cup and a pint of fresh red currants. Any ideas? Are the pips edible?
OK, not strictly related, except that, were LB here, I would surely make her a red currant-studded dessert.
the bonfire I would throw for you
She's a little young to need a funeral pyre, don't you think?
So LB turns 37, and now she's Dido?! So very, very sexist...
(Happy Birthday, LB.)
LB, happy birthday. Listen not to those who suggest you're old; you know it's ridiculous.
To the topic of the post:
Wrongshore at 36: I liked the Pollan argument here, which suggests that acts of "individual virtue" in a democracy constitute a constituency, signalling to leaders that attempts to impose stronger regulations will be well received.
Interesting, and well-noted*. We all know that the US political system was set up as it is -- checks and balances -- in part in support of conservatism (read: inertia) with respect to change. That doesn't excuse corporate-controlled administration steps to hamstring the EPA, of course.
With regard to the desires of constituents being made known to lawmakers, it's not exactly a secret at this point that we vote with our pocketbooks. We don't have a robust enough means to communicate with our legislators (sans measures many find too onerous, e.g. phoning or emailing them) to let them know what we support. We can and do, however, go about our daily business and let statistics do the talking.
Do I have to say that the fact that many people are financially strapped means that they don't have the freedom to register dissent from the existing system? A plunder-and-control game has been in place for some time now. Control the food (and energy), control the people. Etc.
*Oddly, I read that Pollan article a while back, and didn't cast its argument in that way, though I see it there now.
57: (sans measures many find too oneroususeless, e.g. phoning or emailing them)
Just a friendly amendment.
I've participated in phonezaps and sent emails and written letters and all that jazz. I don't see where any of it has done a lick of good. Those "Citizenletters" that Working Assets gulls people into paying for? They get delivered to the wrong place and sit in a pile in an empty cubicle.
Five minutes with a lobbyist who controls $50,000 in bundled donations is going to sway a politician more than 5,000 impassioned phone calls to his or her secretary.
Representative democracy just doesn't work.
What was the Nuyorkerisch experience of the car-free zones today? The state in all its plutocratic majesty does something that anarchists have been doing for years and suddenly it's not "dangerous" or "chaotic", it's just fun. Hmph. They take away your freedom and sell you past-due rights as compensation.
Without anarchy we wouldn't have birthdays.
Minneapolitan, I am trying not to be all bitter and hand-wringy about this. You know perfectly well that there are good reasons for representative democracy. The fact that it's gone wildly astray doesn't yet constitute an argument for its abolition.
Those "Citizenletters" that Working Assets gulls people into paying for? They get delivered to the wrong place and sit in a pile in an empty cubicle.
Is this true?
What was the Nuyorkerisch experience of the car-free zones today?
What's that, now?
Without anarchy we wouldn't have birthdays.
When I was a kid, I only got presents from the U.S. government. Fucking anarchists never gave me a thing.
chuckle, gswift.
Happy Birthday Ms. Breath!
Happy birthday! Glasses are raised here in your honor.
Have the best of birthdays, L.B. Congratulations!
I am proud to be the first Unfogged commenter to wish you a happy birthday, Lizardbreath. And yes, you can put that on your resume. In fact, I insist that you do. Chop chop.
I baked you a spice cake, LB! With chocolate-lime frosting.
If you don't get here before tomorrow morning, though, I'll need to take it into work to share out.
I'm late with it, but Happy Birthday! Awesome!