dougabaird@earthlink.net

“New Book” – “When everything is great” Bumper sticker

When VCRs first crested popular entertainment; I used to wander through Blockbuster looking for a movie I wanted to watch. It might seem incredible, but movies that I made time for to watch on TV; were unappealing when I could choose my own time. It was the change in context – or maybe just having the power to choose.

I have no interest in fame – but maybe that’s because the context has changed: it’s no longer based on accomplishment; just social media and marketing — just talking the talk.

In a world with no answers and so many explanations; where COVID-19 was the only thing viral that made a lasting impact, what does this bumper sticker mean? You can choose — or move on to the next rack.

“New Book” – “They’re so vain” Bumper sticker

Is too much ever enough? – “that depends” is a reasonable answer; but since when have people been reasonable. In our rococo society; shameless self-promotion has turned into an in-your-face demand for appreciation – and like power; it’s an insatiable appetite. Vanity, vanity, vanity, vanity, vanity.

“New Book” – “Voluntary Guidelines” Bumper sticker

Like the receding rumble of a thunderstorm before the bolt that strikes your house; or the coffee that spills all over you because you tried to stop it from spilling — bumper stickers are back!

Although the White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy [November 2021] report states; “one ton of methane in the atmosphere has about 80 times the warming impact of a ton of CO₂” it removes Agriculture [the biggest contributor of methane] from its pie chart of “2019 U.S. Methane Emissions, By Source” – and breaks its contribution down into non-attributed pie sections — naming all the other sources; and leaving “Natural Gas and Petroleum Systems” as the largest and graphically enhanced culprit.

Agriculture is moved down to Section D, after Coal Mining; even though it releases 5 ½ times the methane – and while stating: “methane is a super-pollutant that disproportionately impacts climate change in the near term” – agricultural regulations are replaced with a request for “Voluntary Partnership” and with “Incentive-based” government funding that is on the same level as stopping your automobile pollution by buying you a new electric car.

Biden’s Global Warming remediation is business as usual with a smokescreen of race and ethnicity: When statistics and corruption come together — it’s a match made in Hell.

Shortening – Poetry Collection

A short selection of little poems that have not crumbled into dust.

Free download on Smashwords.com

“All Roads Lead to Cornithaca” Published

This book creates bumper stickers, road signs, advertisements, billboards, posters and re-imagined console and old school videogame screenshots that deconstruct the impenetrable façade of government and government policy making.

Card and board games help promote thinking through interactive play.

A unique activity book for hungry minds.

240 pages – Color

Available at Amazon.com

“All Roads Lead to Cornithaca” – Rise of the Evil Ones – “Form Based Codes with Tardigrades”

Nothing so exemplifies the modern “greater good” fiction as Form Based Codes. It expresses the “community’s vision” – as decided upon by authorities. It replaces neighborly conversations with authoritarian regulations. And it imposes an all-controlling “New Urbanism” Colonialism on the ignorant and unthankful rural communities. New Urbanism Planners replace debate with declarations and people with projections – turning communities into cages for an ordered future.

Their overarching principles are Efficiency, Authority, and Legality — Humanity has no place in their New Millennium mix. Form Based Codes channel Stalin and Mao in creating an invasive doctrine of order and force. It’s a planning so detailed — not even a Tardigrade could survive Transection.

“All Roads Lead to Cornithaca” – “The Last Tardigrade” Poster

Playing the odds is never a sure thing. When my high school alumni posted a 50^th reunion – I was surprised that so many of my classmates were dead: that’s the reality behind the statistical façade. Human beings can only be fit into statistics as numbers, as units – but their reality is as human beings. The reality of life expectancy is that every last minute is important to someone; and no one is disposable on the altar of averages. For a government that has eschewed the teachings of every respected figure of human worth and equality – numbers don’t just represent people; numbers have replaced people. What’s the best way to beat the odds? Change the rules of the game: and bring back Humanity. What are the odds of that happening? Ask the last Tardigrade.

“All Roads Lead to Cornithaca” – “Cell Phone Deprivation Therapy” Poster

You can prove anything; provided your outlook is narrow enough. You can exclude anything provided your outlook is narrow enough. A limited access information highway leads only to extinction — that narrows down your choices.

“All Roads Lead to Cornithaca” – “Studies-to-Go” Advertisement

It’s an ill wind that doesn’t fill somebody’s sail – and boost the sales of those who take advantage of it. Today’s “replication crisis” landscape is just crying out for enterprising “landscapers” – Studies-to-Go isn’t the first — just the first to go public. It’s all happening in Cornithaca County.

“All Roads Lead to Cornithaca” – “Cornithaca Shop-mart Advertisement”

Buy in; Buy local – advertise it so it sounds good, and looks good, and people will pretend it’s true so they don’t have to do anything. If you can be convinced that cleaning trash off a beach makes any meaningful difference – in the shadow of a tsunami of ecological disaster – then you can buy hard soda and party on.

Our deteriorating earth is stripping away the thin layers of our ‘good intentions’ – like house paint under a sandblaster — and this 5G social media cleaning-the-beach awareness makes sticking your head in the sand seem in-depth.