Let's buy everyone on kiddie council bikes and lightrail passes and hold them to using that as their sole means of transportation. Let's see how green they are going to commit to being.... and the metro clowns and the county commishes should have to do this too. Oh and all the wonks who sit on appointed boards overseeing public agencies.

And let's ignore that crazy nutball so called pastor in Florida!
He has gotten WAY too much attention, probably paid for by the Koch brothers!

Ptld Native is right.

The Pres said today he is concerned that others may follow the pastor's lead, in an effort to simply gain attention. Why then, has anyone and everyone in a leadership position responded to the pastor?

Mostly, I say let the guy burn all the books he wants, long as he buys them or has them donated to him.

I used to roll joints out of bible pages.
No one rioted anywhere that I'm aware of.

No, my only caution is that the "pastor's" actions might get American soliders killed.

Don't know who these Koch fellows are, but I think that this arsenical parson is in with that Fred Phelps guy who harasses mourning families of soldiers.

It does seem kind of crazy that so much high-level interest has been generated.
Rather refreshing after the days of "bring it on".

When in NYC this summer, I came across a group of atheist activists in a tent under the sweltering and unforgiving New York sky. I shared with them my recent experience on a bus in Turkey. Arriving in the southern "Mosque belt" city of Konya, I got the feeling we were wandering in to a strange video-game where any direction you looked you would see a new set of minarets that were not there the instant prior. I wondered what Orwell would have had to say.

I wish some crazy attention-seeker would start a new religion.

"The Churchmosquetempleshrinesynagogue of true believers in getting rid of sectarianism and religion-related bloodshed permanently and forever in the name of godallahyahway". Something like that. Maybe even inaugurate it with a bonfire of ALL the holy books, where new members would have to pray over the ashes while fasting for 48 hours, all dressed in every kind of religious garb every invented, chanting endlessly "no more wars over religion."

"...how to burn less of their oil." Yes! Yes! But we've been saying that since at least the 1973-74 oil embargo. Cars get better mileage now and run cleaner too, but we are still car dependent and that cannot be changed without a huge change in our lifestyle. Instead of living one place and working elsewhere you'll need to work near home without a car burning foreign oil. You may not like the work or the pay. And that's just the beginning. We're more dependent than ever. And this is very complicated.

"Our" oil comes from... Canada, Mexico, Venezuela much more than the Middle East. This also is complicated.

As for the real Muslims I follow a young blogger in Jordan (no oil, running out of water). It's http://www.black-iris.com/
Most of it is in English and has great pictures. Current lead topic is the new Cyber Crimes law. Jordan is representative of where the Muslim world seems headed.

No-one says bikes should be the sole means of transportation.

In 2009 the US imported 4.3 million-thousand barrels of crude oil and products, 600,000 thousand barrels came from the Persian Gulf, 1.7 million thousand barrels came from OPEC countries. This represents a vast transfer of wealth from the US to those countries. Reducing one's driving by biking or walking when it's feasible (for many people trips of up to a couple miles or so) could reduce this drain on the US economy, as well as improving physical fitness and reducing pollution. It also reduces congestion for the remaining drivers who need to drive. What about all of this seems so terrible? Is it the fact that the cost per pedestrian/cyclist of facilitating walking/biking is a tiny fraction of the cost per driver of supporting driving?

Oh, Pdx Mark, you've got it. A vaccination would do you no good, now.

PdxMark wrote:

"This [purchasing oil from OPEC nations] represents a vast transfer of wealth from the US to those countries."

PdxMark you are conflating trades for value with transfers of wealth.

I suppose you could say that wealth is transferred when a trade is made for unequal value. (You could certainly transfer wealth by paying for something with no value).

Some examples:

A. If I give PdxMark $100 as a gift - that is a wealth transfer;

B. If I give PdxMark $100 for planting a tree in my yard - that is a trade for value not a wealth transfer (b/c I'm not less wealthy as a result, I may be $100 lighter but I have a new tree in my yard).

C. If I give PdxMark $100 to buy a carbon credit for a tree he planted in his own yard - it is structured as a trade for value, but it is (arguably) one of unequal value and I am less wealthy as a result.

A hearty thank you to Don, where, for the second time in as many days, I cried with laughter over a video (three actually) on the blog Don recommends.
http://www.black-iris.com/

One thought: Nissan Leaf

Oh for gripes sake.

First of all, the whack job in Florida may yet get his blaze on. He threatens and promises to and not to, alternating by waves of hate tides under the influence of the Moon.

Jones asserted that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf had “agreed to move” his Islamic center project near Ground Zero. In a telephone conversation with ThinkProgress tonight, Daisy Khan — the wife of Imam Rauf — said there was no such deal made. She said Imam Masri had called her earlier today to ask whether Imam Rauf would be open to negotiating a relocation with Jones, and she said no. Jones asserted earlier today that he and Masri are “flying up” to New York on Saturday to meet with Rauf. Khan told ThinkProgress that, while she and her husband are prepared to meet with Jones and Masri, she had not agreed to a meeting this Saturday. [ ThinkProgress.ORG/ ]

As for: "... that crazy nutball so called pastor in Florida! He has gotten WAY too much attention, probably paid for by the Koch brothers!" ~ portland native | 8:36 AM

Yes paid by Kochs, but not so much. Nutballs and insurrectionists don't "get" attention -- massmedia gives it. And could taketh it away if Americans rejected the massmedia the same way -- for being as much despicable anti-American nutjobs as, and equal to, the lowlifes media points cameras and microphones at.

Listen: We canNOT vilify FUX-type TV (or CNN, MSNBC, PBS - gasp! NO! ah, but yes indeed PBS - and the ABCCBSNBC dittoheads, BBC even, lowly CSpan as bad), loudly abhor any of them as either too liberal or too rightwing by the beholder's eye, and at the end of the month write a check to the cable company which pays them to stay on the air for us. FUXNews TV gets paid by subscribers (more than by advertisers), no matter whether anyone watches any channel OR NOT, as long as the monthly check is mailed, and other than that ka-ching! no, they don't care what we say about what's on, and they don't listen.

BOYCOTT pay TV, cable or dish 'bundled' channels and buy a la carte like on the internet, otherwise STFU you're contradicting yourself, and your money 'free speech' is saying more than your mouth. Talk the damnation talk and then walk. Later, after FUXNews TV is re-assigned to the pay-per-view tier of channels, out of sight and out of the Basic Bundle bucks, and all the infected copycat channels go back to normal blahblahblah bland, then the cable co. will switch you back For Free! When we want shrill fascist propaganda politics we'll go to the websites, not to the public airwaves where (pre-reading) big-eyed big-eared children are in audience.

As for: "Ptld Native is right. ... Why then, has anyone and everyone in a leadership position responded to the pastor?" ~ Gibby | 8:49 AM

Top officials in the Obama administration, including ... Clinton and ... Holder have denounced Jones’ plans, but leading Republicans are refusing to comment. MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann reported last night [9/7/10] that he asked top GOPers — including Bush ... Boehner (OH) ... McConnell (KY) ... McCain (AZ) ... Graham (SC) ...Sessions (AL) ...Collins (ME) ... Cantor (VA) ... Palin ... Gingrich ... Liz Cheney — if they would condemn Jones’ Quran burning .... But crickets.
[ ThinkProgress.ORG/2010/09/08/republicans-silent-quran-burning/ ]

As for: "... who these Koch fellows are." ~ Larry | 9:28 AM

Oil billionaire sons of the funding founder of the American Enterprise Institute (1943), the John Birch Society (1958), hater of American aspirations since 1933. In their brotherly own rightwinged wickedness and isolated surreal palace, David and Charles Warbucks-4-Inhumanity, the founders and funders of the Heritage Foundation (1973), Cato Institute (1977), all derivative spores and graftings such as PDX's Cascade Policy Institute (times all 50 States), Falwell/Robertson televangelism and their TV-rapt nonMoral nonMajority murderous Bible-fear fool-me-forever's (1975), Limbaugh and talk radio (1988), Murdoch and FUX TV propaganda (1991ish), Newtie and the Contract On America (1994), Lewinsky-lewd lawyering (1998), candidate Dumbcluck and the dumbdowners (2000), Afghanistan war crimes, coveting Iraq oil war crimes, coveting Iran oil war crimes, Israel harboring Zionist fascists, (2000-now), Breitbart bigoted racist gay-bashing xenophobia and every un-Obama anti-American fraudulent grass-roots hirelings ball and Tea-Bagger bombast ... all things hate-filled and humankind blood-sucking. Oh yeah, and the F L A lulu woo-woo with matches and arson in mind. No wonder beginners wanna be a billionaire so freakin' bad. A billion bucks goes a long way, damaging democracy, from 1947 Dulles's CIA until good people's SEC, FCC, FBI & DoJ stop them ... cold.

[ NewYorker.COM/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer ]

As for: "... crazy that so much high-level interest has been generated." ~ gaye harris | 9:30 AM

Maybe got some typing fingers twisted. It's been a generated disinterest in below-level craziness.

From a leftwing p.o.v., the best thing the rightwing has done is loosing the moose-goofy Palin Beck Breitbart totalitarian Tea-Bagger gonzos brigade -- Bachmann, Brewer, Angle, Miller, Tancredo, Boehner, etc., whew, oh my, and duh-Dudley -- scaring the bejeebers out of registered Republican voters by such Improvised Rightwing Extremist bombshelling, so outspoken and obviously objectionable, during this so-called "summer of hate over at FOX."
[ MediaMatters.ORG/mmtv/201009080039 ]

As for: "... conflating trades for value with transfers of wealth." ~ PanchoPDX | 11:41 AM

During 2008, US paid $2.5 Trillion for its imports and received $1.8 Trillion for its exports, mainly militaristic arms and the fearmonger saber rattles that goes with it, overseas, against Americans. I'm not sure what values conflate in the trades but it seems the wealth transferred out ... nigh-on a Trillion bucks upside down, for what it's worth. A Trillion bucks overseas can buy a lot of nightmare fears in Americans sold ... American.

As for: "... still car dependent and that cannot be changed ... this is very complicated." ~ Don | 9:43 AM

Scripture-pyromaniac pimpleheads pop in the squeeze of affairs of world competitiveness. Yesterday (9/9), in a press conference and discussion forum at the National Press Club, in WashDC, scientists showed and announced the news that residues of explosives are found throughout the WTC dust ... so proving explosives blew down the Towers (instead of gravity's pull alone as falsely claimed in the official-version lie), and explosives planted in the Towers is now a known fact. No newspaper printed the news of explosives, yet it remains a fact. That (media lies and omissions) had something to do with millions of casualties by war-crimes invasion to steal Iraq's oil. The Florida nutjob probably thinks some Arabs did it and can't imagine otherwise, never having heard otherwise, only media-attention ego-fuel poured on an inflamed mind. Maybe someone else did it (Nine-Eleven Op explosives) and reporters better investigate and ask questions. Et tu?

Foreseen lifestyle trendlines, in car-dependency and much much more, look very simple, actually: Either change consciously or be changed consequently, of forced necessity ... that ol' mother of inventiveness ... got any?

[ www.oilposter.org/ ]
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