What Is Everyone So Worried About?
A one-megaton blast would create a firestorm covering a hundred square miles… but the U.S. is about 3.8 million square miles, so by far, most of the country wouldn’t be caught in a deadly firestorm. And let’s say our first worst-case scenario has already happened, and we’re all now forest-dwelling savages. Then our nation could get hit with a nuclear bomb, and most of the country wouldn’t even notice. We’d just go along trying to kill deer with pointy sticks, as usual. So instead of these worst-case scenarios stacking, they kind of cancel each other out.
So there’s a lot out there that people worry about, but it’s not that bad when you really think about it. I’m optimistic for future generations. I mean, I’m not optimistic for our kids, as they’ll directly inherit our mess. Nor for our grandkids, who will get it even worse. And if the country is still around long enough, I’m just glad I’m not our great-grandkids — oh boy, are they going to have crazy lives. But I am optimistic for generations far in the future. Maybe ones not even of the same species — perhaps bird people who arise after the collapse of mankind. For they’ll dig up the remains of our civilization and piece together what happened from fossilized iPods and long-buried “Hope and Change” campaign buttons and hopefully learn a lot from our mistakes so they don’t repeat them. See, this all works out in the long run. But not the long, long run, as eventually the sun will explode and swallow the earth.
The point is, let’s not worry so much. Eventually everything works itself out. So keep your chin up, practice your basic survival skills, and if you have any good wisdom, get it to those who’ll need it by putting it on something that can survive being buried for thousands of years.
If we never get a handle on unemployment and kids get even fatter then the bad thing that will happen is that we never get a handle on unemployment and kids get even fatter. thats bad enough
This has to be one of the stupidest posts on pjmedia since its inception. Intended as black humor or something, it just doesn’t work.
I couldn’t agree more. It’s not really that funny, and lacks any real zing I haven’t seen before. This guy sounds like Mark Steyn loaded up on Prozac and high as a kite. “Sure we are doomed, but people in the future survive! Yay!”
Loved the article. Loved even more the humor of those who pretended to a form of self-righteousness or that they just couldn’t appreciate black humor.
I loved this article. funny as hell. oh. wait…
Agree 100%. Fine black humor, which only works when linked to the truth.
I read through this thing over a minute ago. I was laughing (and wincing) all the way through. I’m still laughing. Mr. Fleming can write!
I liked it too, but mainly because Obama really is so horrendously bad and corrupt (along with some other elements of the dem party, like Pelosi/Reid, and the boobs in CA and Ill) that this outlandish scenario is not completely impossible if Obama stays in charge. And for folks who accuse me and other Obama haters of being crazy partisans, I have been around for other dem presidents, and while I did not generally agree with them, I never had the feeling that I do with Obama now, that if things did not change, our country would be destroyed. And before you dem idiots play the race card yet again, it has zippo to do with Obama being black, if Al Gore was in charge, and doing the exact same stuff, I would be hating on him too.
Wow, congratulations Richard40, you managed to pull your political views into your comment on a non-political post in less than a few words. You remind me of someone who is really insecure about whatever their lifestyle is, and who has to let everyone know in every sentence about it. “Yes, it’s supposed to rain tonight, and let me tell you why Obama is actually at fault for that.” “What’s that? The NBA is going to strike again? This doesn’t surprise me because Obama has done such a horrendously bad job on this country that all black basketball players now feel like they should be getting more money.” And so on. But please, let us all know your political viewpoints even when 1) Nobody cares and 2) They have nothing to do with the topic.
This guy sounds like Mark Steyn loaded up on Prozac and high as a kite.
Did somebody say “book blurb”?
No. At least not here. Or if they did, I didn’t hear it. As they say, “on the internet, no one can hear you say ‘book blurb’, unless you have an embedded video or audio file.”
But I still think that quote would work as a book blurb for Frank.
Egad! are we really getting this humorless?
I think we need to remember that the TEA Party victories have been in large part due to our cheerfulness and pour good-humnored approach to the things the rest of the world gets grim-faced and stuffy about. I mean,who else sets out to save the world with cardboard American-Flag hats and portable barbecues?
The one thing the devil cannot abide is cheerfulness. Onde of the biggest weapons ibn his arsenal is humorless up-tightness.
Be of good cheer! Even if you don’t like the effort, appreciate it! and be of
good cheer!
If God is for us (and He is), who can stand against us? The only thing that can defeat us is ourselves.
Stupid article. PJ — I won’t click on your website again until I can forget you let this moron “writer” waste my time!
I look forward to not bumping into you here.
Damn you PJ Media for hypnotizing me and forcing me to read this article to the end! You’ve wasted my time!! I couldn’t click off when I decided I didn’t like it! You’re probably forcing me to pay money too…FIENDS! Have you no DECENCY sirs?! None at ALL?
Please excuse me. I need to refresh my tinfoil.
Orion
“W…w…w…Well, go ahead then, Hotlips, RESIGN your damn commission!”
I don’t think “black comedy” means what you think it means…which explains why you don’t find it funny.
You really don’t know who Frank J. Fleming is, do you?
Only recently has my burst hernia healed from laughing while reading his stuff.
I strongly disagree with the nay-sayers to this article. Mr. Flemming is simply giving a perspective which I and perhaps many others see as a distinct possibility for future generations. Like it or not, believe it or not, we may
find the breakdown of the way of life we now know. One hard blow to the computer chips our power source depends on is all it would take. Dream on at your own peril !! I’ve taught my youngster how to survive with nothing but their bare hands and the will to live. Hoping it will never come to that.
Enjoying life as it is does not mean we hide from the danger around us.
Some hope others will provide a safety net for a possible fall, others learn how to craft their own. We should ask ourselves, if I end up living in cardboard box under a bridge would I accept my new reality or work my way out of it? Maybe the best insurance we can have comes from cultivating skills, knowledge and relationships.
Or in a van down by the river. ha
Well, I know I feel much better.
You forgot to mention that obesity won’t matter much if you’re dead. Happy to help.
Nor will obesity even exist if we return to hunting and gathering for a living. People of future generations will be smaller, skinnier, will have fewer children, and won’t live as long. Just like the good old days before the nasty automobile and electricity generating power plants. The upside is that the environmentalist religion will also be pushed aside because of a preponderance of real problems such as dinner and a place to poop.
Hi, Jim. Wrong. People won’t have access to birth control, they won’t have video games as a distraction, probably won’t be able to read (hope this is wrong). They’ll have lots of kids starting around age 17 or 18. They won’t abort them because they’ll need the physical labor. Also, they’ll understand that a large percentage of their offspring won’t make it to adulthood; thus,more kids equal better retirement for Mom and Dad.
Just like those good old days, eh?
I often accuse writers here for not thinking positively.
If joking about losing the greatest country that ever existed, yeah…
the good part is…
sorry I got nothing.
“The point is, let’s not worry so much. Eventually everything works itself out.”
Tell that to the people living in Greece. THAT will be our future. Penniless, unemployed, high inflation, high taxes, and people going hungry and living without electricity. THAT is what most people in Greece are dealing with today. Is it the end of the world? For them it is. As for me, I’m sharpening my pointy sticks, stocking up on food, and brushing up on my hunting skills. Ya never know when they’ll come in handy.
Well, the most likely worst case is the one where Obama is defeated at the ballot box and refuses to relinquish his self appointed role as Emperor for Life, rallies his loyal 45% and we turn into the USSR.
Well, ok, that’s not exactly likely, merely possible, with some low probability.
So the next most likely possibility is President Romney reaches an accommodation with his political opponents and we turn into Greece.
So, as an individual, if you keep your head down, and your mouth shut, and don’t attract any attention, stay in line, you’ll probably survive; have children, and your decedents will have the same life.
So what’s wrong with that? Most of humanity has lived under those conditions for most of recorded history.
too late for you –you wrote to PJM –you’re a marked recluse, dude!
Seriously, I would rather live as a starving hunter gatherer in the woods in winter than to end up like Greece
Hmmmm….. the whiny, self-centered, mentally limited Occupy types try to start Bolshevik type revolution against us poor benighted rednecks clinging to our guns and religon? I’m looking forward to it since I haven’t had a chance to try out my new .300 WSM target (sniper) rifle.
Tell that to the people who lived (or didn’t live) through WWII.
Note to Author of this drivel;
If you want to make satire, use only the areas where the opposition is Majoring in the Minors.
The obesity part works, because what people conjur up in thier minds when they say Obesity is not the same thing as the “experts” are mesuring. (a slightly chunky person only 5 to 20 lbs overweight are part of the Overall Epidemic) Therfore the consequences are exagerated just as the doom and gloom regarding the Global Warming consequences are.
But the Unemployment issue has already cost a lot of people the home they live in. And too many people have seen one of those signs show up on a house in their very own neighborhood. (Unless you live in a Gated Community in the suburbs of Washington D.C.)
As Humor, this article doesn’t work.
As History this article says we as a society should capitulate to Socialism because it’s inevitable.
Finally, just because Society as a Whole can survive something, Individuals (what America is based on) are suffering big time, losing a home, not sending a child to college, etc. are all Shattered Dreams – and this Jack A$$ makes light of it.
Over a half centurye were forewarned by prophets Orwell (“1984″) and Huxley (“Brave New World”) that we would be where we are today: quite exactly a melange of their two views.
“Mad Max” genre prophesies from all media have told us where we will be shortly. Bank on it.
I don’t think such authors were being prophets or speculating — too many things came true. They were obviously informed somehow. (Aliens?)
Technology only seems to get more dangerous. Forbidden trees of knowledge have less to do with sin than with physics. At this rate, it won’t be long before basement-project nukes will be possible using non-fissile material.
We are doomed.
Something I’ve said for years. The nuclear genie is out of the bottle (like other technology). You could disarm every nation of their nuclear weapons and that isn’t going to make a nuclear detonation any less likely. It is like guns. The knowledge of how to make modern firearms isn’t going to disappear. You could melt down every firearm currently in existence and some enterprising criminal will use that knowledge to build new ones, and then nations will need them again.
Will our quest for a higher and higher technological plateau eventually wipe us out as a species, or take us to another star? Well that all remains to be seen by another generation, probably.
Nukes aren’t anything but really big explosives. The real danger is biological. One of my best friends has a daughters who is a geneticist. She explained to me how somebody with about $300K in cash could buy the used equipment off of fleabay that is good enough to produce a bio-weapon that could wipe a large part of human life from the world just using a simple flu virus. Of course it will be mostly the third world populations without modern technology that will be wiped out.
Wow, you guys really didn’t get it, did you? Black humor is the only appropriate response to the mess we’re in.
Thanks for the (nervous) laughs, Mr. Fleming.
Yeah, we have some people who need to drink more coffee before reading Frank J this morning. Drink it while you can afford it.
Tell you what, check out black humor on someone who has recently lost a loved one sometime and see how well it works.
There are appropriate subjects for Black Humor and Inappropriate subjects.
JD, I will assume that your post (above) is your own attempt at black humor. If it is, thanks–not bad.
In the (unlikely) event that you were being serious, could you please give us a list of appropriate subjects for black humor, and inappropriate subjects?
Here, I’ll get you started:
Appropriate:
1) Conservative women
2) GWB
3) Mitt Romney’s dog
4)
Inappropriate:
1) Liberal women
2) Barack Kardashian
3) Barack Kardashian’s late dog
4)
Oh, I don’t know jd, I think Frank’s on target.
When my father was not yet half an hour dead, I was cracking black-humor jokes while standing over his body, which were well received by my mom and brother (and we loved the man). Later, I even managed to work a robust “zombie” reference into his eulogy. Got a lot of laughs. So Black Humor works if you know how to use it.
Frank knows how to use it. Way better than I do, in fact. Perhaps this “failure to communicate” is on the receiving end?
I am actually concerned about real, possible things like “temporary” blackout/brownouts that start messing with the delivery and availability of food, especially now that we are in “Hoodie Nation”. Most people who have children these days do not have the time and energy (and $$) to set aside very much nor to read fora (forums, if you like) like this one. At least that’s what I see on the East Coast, and it worries me greatly. People would have to start eating things like squirrels and geese again (of which we have plenty), but no one knows how to cook those things anymore.
I believe this is why shows like “Falling Skies” and “The Walking Dead” resonate — not that anyone really believes that we will have zombies or aliens trying to get us, but that food and medical supplies could be destroyed very quickly, and then what.
Stuff with shallots and lemon, rub with a little butter, roast at 350 for 8 minutes/pound, serve with locally sourced organic bok choy, quinoa, and hand-whipped truffle-oil aoli…
Wait, what?
well, as to eating squirrels and geese. bloomberg advises, just be sure they are very well done and not too fatty, and if we don’t add salt, it should be okay. calorie counts to follow.
Some of the commenters here are depressingly dull.
LOVED IT!!!
Not many people can do satire as well as Frank J. As Instapundit said, “It’s Frank J.’s world; we just live in it.”
Always look on the bright side of life….*whistles*
Too many people here are HUGELY missing Frank’s humor….
I’ll sing along with West…
“For life is quite absurd
And death’s the final word
You must always face the curtain
With a bow
Forget about your sin – give the
Audience a grin
Enjoy it – it’s your last chance
Anyhow.
So always look on the bright side
Of death
Just before you draw your
Terminal breath
Life’s a piece of shit
When you look at it
Life’s a laugh and death’s a joke
It’s true
You’ll see it’s all a show
Keep ‘em laughing as you go
Just remember that the last laugh
Is on you
And always look on the bright side
Of life…
(Whistle)”
Orion
Stupid waste of time! PJ: I won’t click on your website again until I can forget you wasted my time with this stupid, moronic article.
Which you’ve said twice at 6 minutes or so apart. So I name you liar.
Looks like someone is afraid because they can’t figure out how to sharpen a stick.
Here’s a hint: try a pencil sharpener!
You’re welcome.
Some more helpful advice, from the immortal FZ: Watch out where the Huskies go, and don’t you eat that yellow snow.
Andrew Sullivan, is that you?
17. A.
MenHoleFTFY
Being a reformed Environ-Mental who took everything seriously – piously sneering at folks who drove the wrong car or had the wrong-sized family or bought products housed in the wrong packaging, for instance – I’ve loved the freedom of thought/action the Right provides.
Reading through these insanely humorless comments, I’m going to have to reconsider my position on the matter. Sheesh.
(Mr. Fleming – this was a fine PJ O’Rourke impression. Bravo!)
Hey, just remember all the humourless ‘bore’ons you encountered before you came over to our side. We’ve got our share over here, too.
Reminded me of some good old time black humor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7Y0ekr-3So
Folks,
I don’t give a rat’s ass about the defecit or stuff like that. What really concerns is will this impact my ability to get on the internet and watch You Tube and play games at McDonald’s?
Let’s face it if I can’t gt on the Internet in the future I could care less. I wanna end it by moving away to some place far away.
Fear is a wonderful weapon. It causes men and societies to shrink back from making necessary changes. We see it in the economic doldrums we currently experience. Everyone’s afraid to make an investment or a tough choice.
Warren said when people are fearful, get greedy, and when people are greedy get fearful. I’m not a huge fan of his politics but he’s right on that one. Time to have some stones, people. Or, go quietly in the dark night.
I agree with JD.. As a published writer, you should know that satire only works in certain, specified areas. There are hard and fast rules to this, Frank. Childhood obesity? Hilarious. Global warming? Not a proper subject. There are simply too many variables for which to account. With an obese child–especially a boy–the presence of male breast tissue makes for a quick, effective, and easily discernable path of derision. Man cans, Moobs, Papa Tatas, man-ories–all of these are easy and acceptable ways of making light of the gynecomastia present in many obese boys.
But Frank, what can be funny about global warming? First of all, you have to determine whether to refer to it as “climate change” or “global warming”… or even “global cooling”, if that is still on the table. Add to that the fact that we don’t know what is causing globoclimawarmcooling and your attempts at comedy are scattershot, at best. It’s not as simple as pointing a finger at Little Debbie; it’s basically String Theory, and no one thinks String Theory is funny.
Man do you have this satire thing down! You completely sound like those self-important liberal twits who try to impress everyone with their intelligence by simply giving a litany of talking points and buzzwords. Hilarious! Bravo Zulu dude!
Michael, FormerHostage is right: you NAILED it. I was reading along, thinking you were serious, then it hits me: Satire! Geez, was I pwned.
“Global warming? Not a proper subject. There are simply too many variables for which to account.”
Really? ManBearPig?
Oh wait… OK, you got me! Good one!
There’s a reason that the Boy Scouts teaches this stuff!
But…but…the Boy Scouts are Nazi homophobes!!!
“Childhood obesity problem”. What problem? I prefer to use the term “childhood obesity solution”.
Childhood obesity and the overall level of American obesity, is probably the only thing preventing total economic collapse at this point. Just look at Europe for example, they are skinny and broke. This is because obese people consume more. I am not only talking about the extra cheese doodles, chocolate covered oreos and Happy Meals consumed all of which keep people employed from the farm down through the food service industry. There are spinoff benefits as well.
Check out any suburban neighborhood. What are the thin children doing? They are outside playing, running, whatever they are doing there is no economic benefit in it. The kids you dont see are inside playing expensive video games on flat screen TVs and drinking giant 32 oz sodas.
So go ahead and have that bacon double cheesburger. Feel pride knowing that each bite is helping to keep America strong.
And always remember: Fat in the belly is like money in the bank.*
(*remembered from a fake ad in National Lampoon 30+ years ago)
Big Mistake! When you have run out of “Other Peoples Money” you don’t go into decline, you get angry and go in search of weaker people to take the place of “The Others”. This Greece thing is a replay of the 1930s in Europe. One of these nations is going to get angry and rather than cutting back on government is going to build an army to go in search of “others”.
Whatever its merits as satire, this piece is useful reading for the sort of pundits and posters who are always predicting the end of the country, or “America cannot survive X.”
They always seem to be working with a vague mental image of an America-shaped crater in the earth. But it’s intellectually lazy not to tease out what one means by “the end of America.” Do we mean a U.S.A. with markedly different cultural norms or political structures? Fragmentation into successor states? Amphibious conquest by Afghanistan? Too often, what casual doomsayers mean by “the end of America” seems to translate into “a future America with something about it that would anger or irritate me.”
The U.S. isn’t the first government to occupy its current borders; though it’s the first nation-state to do so, it’s unlikely to be the last–maybe not even the best. When one is weighing large issues, a dash of perspective “sub specie aeternitatis” is only healthy.
I close my eyes and can imagine this article as a conversation Obama’s staff having over $15 gourmet muffins and cups of $40 per pound organic Hawaiian Kona coffee. Or, I can also imagine this conversation happening at Sarah “Carrie Bradshaw” Jessica Parker’s swanky, Manhattan Obama fundraiser soiree…Oh yes, the Fly-Over country people will revert to their roots and become hunter-gatherers blah blah blah…..
Not factual, not amusing
ha ha
If this is humor, I do not get the joke. I spent decades in engineering, a score of nukes, two score fossil power plants, and decades assessing advanced technologies, e.g. superconductivity, nanotechnology, etc. I make a poor prophet but I understand numbers. The US grids (basically three) are of an age, which was considered scrap iron when I left grad school. The US ceased to build new plants generations ago (an inaccurate statement. We once brought a big new plant on line every month or so. Now we do it once a decade.) I foresee a grid black out, perhaps in a sub zero New England blizzard that will last two to five years. Our entire electronic culture will cease to work: no toilets, potable water, heat, or lights, in perhaps Boston. Our primary source for engineering, and advance heavy fabrication now is China. Once you fry an 800 ton main transformer, you have serious lead time problems. If we install the smart grid, one electronic signal will shut off millions of homes. Just the politically connected will have juice.
I judge this is far more likely to occur than the fears about climate change, and I think we are nearing a massive grid collapse. The wheels fell off two decades ago. I am amazed that things still work. Looking forward, I agree with my President, electricity costs are going to sky rocket. America abandoned cost effective policies long ago.
I leave to others how our society will react. But I doubt if people will be laughing. I pray for my nation.
You really, really need to get a life. The article is hilarious.
To persons who have not experienced the disaster that is Obama, I’m sure it is.
Boy, I guess no one know Frank J. if you don’t like his stuff, why click?
I know, PJ will put up an alert “Caution, black humor ahead”, jeez, get off it already,
Bob
Nuke the Moon!!!!
Well, as most readers of dystopian literature will tell you, the initial meltdown is met with riots, mayhem and mass die off. There is no way to get out of the cities and life gets rather…bleak. And then you die. Or become a cannibal. And that is just the Emberverse series where gun powder, electricity, and Boyle’s Law all stop working (at least on a technological level). That alone results in 90%+ of the population dying.
But to those of us close to the country, who can handle themselves, life will be bleak but will probably go on. Provided you are smart. And prepared.
So go get the entire Emberverse series via Amazaon (and use the Instapundit portal to do so)! Start preparing now!
After spending the last two years being a panic stricted survivalist-doomsdayer, who one day woke up and realized that I could actually participate in society and make things better and have a little fun before my kids grow up…I find this article very funny.
I’m thinking that civilization, or whatever you chose to call what we’re experiencing now, has very little to recommend it. I have several grown children and while I wouldn’t trade any of them. I’m pretty sure if I was starting out today, I’d find a rock to climb under, a spaceship heading to “anywhere else,” an island to occupy and call it a day. There is so little virtuous, lovely, of good report or praiseworthy out there so being involved is generally not even worth the price of Tylenol. When I consider what we (that’s the collective we) have screwed up, it makes me want to sit down and weep. How we have managed to make a complete hash of what we’ve been given astonishes me. Makes me want to start busting caps and splitting wigs. Too bad we can’t blame the idiocy on aliens.
Seanmahair,
“When I consider what we (that’s the collective we) have screwed up, it makes me want to sit down and weep. How we have managed to make a complete hash of what we’ve been given astonishes me.”
Seanmahair
So true,did you ever hit the nail right on the head!
Arnold
I am so sorry for you. I experience each day as a gift and consider myself to be a fortunate man, living in a wonderful time.
A bit disappointing.
I could see where the author was going pretty quickly, but it just isn’t funny enough.
Of course humor is all a matter of taste. Speaking of taste, in the scenario described, before Americans take to the woods and gather twigs the majority will have to find their way out of large cities with no food. It is at that point that the obesity problem will be solved. Because most obese people are slower than the non-obese, the obese will be run down and eaten. This will solve the food problem long enough for the survivors to get to the woods and hunt for berries.
O.K., I guess I’m not as funny as I should be either.
The unemployment rate for teenagers is 50%+ and many of them have weapons. If you want to see the future of the country just check the body count every week in Chicago or other major cities.
Last weekend alone 6 shot to death at least 30 wounded.
oh yeah. well, when you see an old person, crossover to the other side of the street.
we don’t have any jobs either. or, any money for that matter. or, dr. death. how angry are we?
Bath salts. It’s always about the bath salts.
two rules about cannibalism
1. don’t eat ‘em unless you made ‘em dead
2. make ‘em dead while they still have some fat on them. otherwise you won’t be able to digest anything
jeeez, zombies would starve around here.
Nature, or nature’s God, if you prefer, has no intention of everything working out for everyone, that’s just our little pipedream.
To all you upstanding citizens who think Frank J’s black humor is mean, cruel etc I would advise you take an advanced course in black humor. First join the Army/Marines and pick an infantry type speciality then get sent to some third world Disneyland where the locals are either shooting at you or trying to blow you up and your platoon is losing people on a regular basis. After about six months I promise you’ll be completely familiar with humor that is blacker than five down a mineshaft and you’ll be telling jokes that would gag a maggot. So either grow up and get over it or join the butt-weasel wing Democrap party.
This fellow is catching a lot of static for this article. I liked it though. It can’t be roses and sunshine all the time: that’s how we got in this mess. The worst alternatives have to be considered.
Virtually ALL countries that have ever been have seen economic collapse at one point or another. Leaving aside crop failures and the like, many, many nations debased their currency as we have been doing. That was harder to when it was gold coins, but they just made them smaller or added base metals to them to lower the gold content, the practice from which we get “Debasement.” Its always been the same: hyperinflation and economic collapse. The US has gotten away with it for decades simply because we had a roaring economy and most other nations were worse run than ours, so the dollar remained strong.
Not so much anymore. The inflation is starting to bite again and this time we won’t shake it off without meaningful reform of government. Also, the ratio of city dwellers to rural farmers has reversed since the old empire collapsed, meaning 90% to 10%. That’s a lot of people who can’t supply their own food now. Take way electricity, water/sewer, and police to protect them from the vast feral population modern society has given rise to and modern society will take failure worse than the ancients did.
I know everyone’s off this article by now but I need to say I was encouraged by the author’s optimism- To think that a race of Bird people may learn from our last presidetial election almost makes the darn thing worthwhile. He did kinda ruin it in the end with the sun exploding. I guess there’s very little silver lining to the final mushroom cloud (and no one left to view it) unless of course the Bird people make it safely into space. Let us all begin to pray for their safety!!!
The saddest thing about our horrific future is that the humor of which Mr. Fleming is a master will be outlawed by the fierce government the people in their extremis will beg to “Save us, save us, we’ll gladly give up freedom of speech and all our other freedoms if you will just save us!”
You guys make jokes, but it’s true. We could all end up dead someday! Think about that for a second… Every single living creature that is currently alive on Planet Gaia, could end up dying at some time or another in their lives. If our economy collapses, and there aren’t enough taxes to maintain the current level of Liberal politicians and govt beaurocrats to monitor our activities and regulate our health and safety, every single one of us could end up dead someday. Is your precious “Freedom” worth risking a thing like that? Look at your beloved Founders and all those “Freedom-Loving” Revolutionaries and Pioneers… Where are they now? Not a single one of them is still alive. And yet you Tea Party types think we should all look to them as the model for how to govern a nation!
Of course you don’t like dark humor, especially when all you have for preparations is a slice of pizza and an open beer in the fridge.
Why, you’ll be bearing the very brunt of the dark joke which civilization is becoming before your very eyes as you keep your eye on the next ridiculous gratuity this entertaining civilization delivers.
You feel uneasy knowing it’s coming and you won’t face it! Face it!
Who will want to inhabit Gaia without Ol’ Sol’s benevolent rays to warm her? The Founding Fathers? Frank J. Fleming? The Green Weenies of PETA? I say NO to all of these suggestions and tell you now that the Birdmen are right (and not just politically)- This tired orb must lay another egg and return to it’s Just Reward. The Birth of the Birdmen will become the song of the Kosmos. Roll over Carl Sagan. Time for the Birdmen to get their wings and spread the truth that Obama was right all along when he said- “Why can’t I just eat my waffle?”
True that!
If nothing else I have to complain about the “sun will explode” nonsense. Astrophysicists would insist it’s not massive enough to go supernova, though they forecast its swelling up into the red-giant phase in maybe five billion years (which is at least as long as our solar system seems to have been around already). A star’s apparent tendency to gradually brighten over its lifetime, however, may render this presumed ultimate catastrophe moot, since the solar experts are now claiming it’ll make the earth too hot for life in only *one* billion. Yet we can already envision crude methods for moving our orbit farther out & so extending our planet’s biological potential. What any successors might be capable of in the far future I wouldn’t try to guess, so why worry?