What is wrong with people? Archive

I just finished watching Frontline's documentary about the current state of the global climate crises, Heat°. As always, Frontline is able to frame the problems we are facing in a very stark and dramatic fashion.

This movie really highlights some of the structural road blocks to making meaningful change in the United States of America and the world. Entrenched interests are so deep and have so much money and influence that they are able to thwart any efforts to head the USA in the right direction. I'm specifically referring to Detroit automakers who are recalcitrant about fuel economy, corn growers who demand ethanol subsidies, coal states like West Virginia and Wyoming, and most importantly, oil companies like Exxon, Chevron, BP & Shell who steadfastly refuse to invest in alternative energy.

If we can't shift the current paradigm where the economic interests of the few greatly outweigh the environmental needs of many, we're in a lot of trouble. Sadly, It's going to take a disaster of a massive scale to release politicians from the perceived obligations and allow them to opportunity to make the right decisions. That's the regressive, backwards history of this country. Whether they allow themselves to make the right decisions is still up for open debate.

If you don't have access to PBS, you can watch the movie online.

Why is it that some people blab away on cell phones on the bus (and other public places) as if they're in their own living room? Why do I have to hear everything they say? What is wrong with these people? It drives me nuts. It's just so fucking rude. Do they not realize how annoying it is? Do they not care? Are they just completely ignorant of common etiquette that would demand that they lower their voices? What is it? What is wrong with these people?

***UPDATE** And to think I complain about people talking too loudly.

Man Decapitated on Canadian Bus

A man on a Greyhound bus travelling across the Canadian Prairies has killed and decapitated a fellow passenger.

An eyewitness said the victim was stabbed 50 or 60 times by the man sitting next to him, who then severed his head with a large knife.

The bus made an emergency stop to allow passengers to escape and the driver barred the door from the outside while waiting for the police to arrive.

The bus was travelling from Edmonton, Alberta, to Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Greyhound Canada said there were 37 passengers and a driver aboard the bus.

"All of a sudden, we all heard this scream, this bloodcurdling scream," passenger Garnet Caton told CBC television.

...

"He calmly walks up to the front [of the bus] with the head in his hand and the knife and just calmly stares at us and drops the head right in front of us," Mr Caton said.

Holy shit.