World Naked Bike Day

Have you heard about 'World Naked Bike Ride Day'?  It's an odd annual event for those of us who think it's much nice to appear in public in clothes. Too, for some like me, it is leftism taken to an extreme.  According to the Naked Bike Ride organizers, people ride their bikes naked or nearly naked in many cities across the world for the following reasons.

• Save the planet! shifting to a carfree lifestyle is one of the most powerful things a person can do to make a real difference in reducing negative environmental impacts on this planet.
• It's time to put a stop to the indecent exposure of people and the planet to cars and the pollution they create. We face automobile traffic with our naked bodies as the best way of defending our dignity and exposing the vulnerability faced by cyclists and pedestrians on our streets as well as the negative consequences we all face due to dependence on oil, and other forms of non-renewable energy
• Breathe easier. If you stand in a closed garage with a running car, you will die in a matter of minutes. Hundreds of thousands of cars in our cities create dirty, unhealthy air
• Body image/self awareness. Cycling promotes body awareness, the fact that one can achieve a more healthy lifestyle from the exercise we achieve by using self-powered transport
• Self-sufficiency. Cycling makes us non-renewable energy sources, less dependent oil
• Think Globally, Act locally. Cycling promotes local cycling businesses and local cycling organizations.
• Less is more. WNBR strips the complexities from modern transport to a simplified message of cycling. For the vast majority of most peoples' transport needs, cycles are the right vehicle for the right job. "You don't need a wheelbarrow to carry a pea".
• The unabashed vehicle of the revolution. By cycling naked we declare our confidence in the beauty and individuality of our bodies and the bicycle's place as a catalyst for change in the future of sustain ability, transport, community and recreation.
• Community building. Bicycles create public space, enhance street life and build a sense of community
• Peace of mind. People are looking for places where they're not constantly being confronted with cars. It's just like non-smokers seeking smoke free space.

I hope they are only kidding, but I am afraid they are not. But I could add to the list that the World Naked Bike Ride is also about exhibitionists who find solace in group public indecency. That's fine by me, because I am not one who will watch their show anyway. If i want to watch naked I want to see pretty naked.  Must the naked riders pretend they are protesting whatever that mush above said? They might be better received if they just proclaimed they wanted to show their love muscles and jugs. We all can relate better to that. Somehow the ridiculous charade of riding a bike naked as a means of attacking perceived world problems just doesn't inspire very much.

There is a Naked Bike Ride in both my former home of New Orleans and my new one of Portland, but I don't think the naked riders have had any impact on the problems that they think are real. Perhaps the main reason is that the majority of naked riders I have seen in photos don't have the type of bodies I would want to see. Uh, their bodies  look more like my body than they look like that of a Greek God or Goddess. Perhaps there should have some appearance criteria in order to ride nude. The prettiest bodies would get to pedal in the nude and the bodies that make a person upchuck his lunch would have to be bundled heavily in  all available clothing. I think most riders would wind up clothed.

So I am confused about this summer event, and think I'll wait to watch until something more titillating is in the works. Let's see. I have a suggestion. How about the New York City Rockette Dancers holding their first Nude Rock of Knockers event. Now that would be a relevant protest.

Camera Day

Oops! The world had another one off those "days" and as always, I missed it.  June 29 was Camera Day, according to something called 'Your Take's you are supposed to take your best shots and share them on line.  On Your Take's version of Camera Day you are supposed to log in with a Face book or Google account at the your take web site and start uploading your best shots of whatever lifts your spirits (sigh...that might mean a million more cat pictures). Your Take selects the best photos and uses them in the USA newspaper each year. basically, any idiot can push a button and take a photo, so this could be the "art" best suited to my limited abilities.

Your Take is just one of the web sites that promotes the amorphous Camera Day (it's really an unofficial holiday). I looked on line and could find no one who claimed to know how Camera Day started or who founded it, but I acknowledge that despite my ineptitude with cameras (and every other technology known to man) once in a while I do appreciate a good picture. For many people, a camera is a vital tool to record important events in the family and in the world.  It creates the memories that we share and look back upon in our lives and the lives of society. But then, there are the cell phone camera addicts who do none of that. Instead, they just annoy us with selfies showing how stupid humans can be.

I am always at least a decade behind others in adapting to a technology, if I adapt at all (most times I don't want to adapt).  In fact, the camera I own today is one of those point and shoot for idiot varieties I bought in 2007 and rarely use it. The world should thank me for that.  I don't want complications with my technology. For me the more involved, the more features on a camera the less likely I will ever use it. But with digital technology, using a camera has never been easier. Unfortunately though, cameras are built into cell phones and this makes the cell addict twice as annoying as pre camera phone days of so long ago.

Those cell cameras are proof that too much of anything can become bad, because we now are assaulted with an endless array of photos, quickly forgotten and discarded.  Remember the old days of print photography images? We snapped pictures sparingly,  treasured them, and put only the special ones in photo albums that were used as historical recording. But now, with some many pictures so easily taken dumped on a hard drive, we no longer separate the important from the inconsequential. And most of what we shoot with our cameras today is inconsequential mush. Today's easy photo image recorder is like the cook who serves us steak for dinner every night. The steak soon becomes ordinary and then tiring to eat.  With so many pictures snapped the value of the good ones is debased to some degree. hence, every five minutes someone will shout to us, "Hey! Look at my cute cat photos." There should be a particularly painful place in hell for the cat cameraman.

But my complaints are a bit overstated. The camera is an irreplaceable tool used to record and replicate memories, events and people/places. Before the invention of the camera, the only resource to document a vision was a painting (the reason for all those old portrait paintings). As bad as those cat pictures are to take today, I sure don't want to be forced to endure an assault of cat paintings. May all your cat pictures be directed toward others.

EB-5

Portland, Oregon is one of those small, big cities. It's somewhat isolated from other bigger cites and is quite provincial in it's outlook. Economically, Portland is not a force to be reckoned with.  Many of the best educated young from the city leave for greater economic opportunity, sort of like my former home, New Orleans. Portland, uh, needs investment help if it wants to become a vibrant economic city. But it's getting a little of it recently in the form of a federal immigration program that I had no idea existed. According to a law passed in 1990 by the U.S.

Congress started the program to fund foreigners help fund big commercial real estate projects when offered a U.S. Green Card fast and for the whole family (Several Portland buildings have had such foreign investment).  The EB-5 program lets them get U.S. residency simply because they have money they are willing to invest in a U.S. construction project.  Hmmmm Seems to be a contradiction to what our politicians say about equality in immigration.

The EB-5 program has backed most of those projects in cities that are bigger than Portland,  including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle, because that's where most foreigners want to live. To get into the program one needs to have $500,000 to invest into a building project in a high unemployment area, or $1 million in a location with normal employment rates. Almost no one chooses the $1 million option because the people using this program are not multi millionaires.  They are often young, upper middle class types who borrow from family members to accrue the $500,000 needed.

The investment  they make must create at least 10 full time, permanent jobs. That's the justification for the program. Congress says it's worth letting some people jump to the head of the immigration line if they create jobs for Americans when they come. Once they plunk down the $500,000 investment in the (usually it's to build expensive high-rise buildings that require a huge financial investment from many investors)  the investor receives a Green Card for themselves, their spouse and any children under the age of 21. The process is quicker and easier than the traditional Green Card application process, and most people can move to the U.S. a couple years after the investment is made.

There are 10,000 Green Cards available through the program each year and around 85 percent of the investments come from China. The Chinese like it because, even though most of the people who participate in the program and are not wealthy,  they do it to get the citizenship and also to benefit their children. The U.S. still has the best colleges in the world and if one wants to succeed in the global economy, it's an advantage for the kids to go to U.S. universities.

I wonder if this program is common elsewhere. I have heard that a number of capitalist countries use similar lures for foreign money, so maybe it is. The fact is though, EB-5  has evolved into primarily a real estate funding source for big projects. But it's unfair to those who want to reside here, may have more or unique talents to contribute to the U.S., but don't have $500,000 to pay to do so. It's also somewhat secretive, maybe putting national security at greater risk and it makes some of those who choose the EB-5 vulnerable to fraud.  No doubt many of them will lose some or much of their $500,000 investment.

But we live in a world driven by economics. I guess it's "buyer beware" for both the investors and for the United States. So be it.

French Rudeness

Call this a case of a stereotype coming true, well sort of. France's foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, hears about that French are rude thing often, about "acting French". In a tongue in cheek answer to the famous French rudeness to foreigners, he has just announced a new tourism goal and a new tourism investment fund for France that will come with a humorous ad campaign and with the simple suggestion that maybe French citizens could start being a little less, well, French to tourists.

Hmmmm Many who have visited France have experienced a rudeness, particularly in Paris. But I suspect it isn't really rudeness. It's more smugness with self or just a feeling that "We French are superior" to outsiders.  Nothing bad there. Every culture has a personality. Americans can be condescending, for example. But Rude Minister...err..I mean Minister Fabius understands that France is as legendary for its rudeness as it is for its wines and cheeses, and he’d like everyone to do their part to downplay that stereotype.

In his announcement Fabrius said, Tourism is a treasure that needs to be protected, nurtured and developed. We have room for improvement here. When we come up against a foreign tourist, we are all ambassadors for France."  Further he added, "And if those stinking foreigners don't like it they can ---- off!" No, no, that last line I added just to see if you were paying attention. He didn't say that. (But he was probably thinking it)

Under this initiative France will start doing what almost every other nation does for tourists.  Money will be spent to improve some of the French “tourist hot spots,” like the Gare du Nord station in central Paris, and to tell those surly border guards to say “Hello” and “Good bye” when they're stamping visitors’ passports. Oh my, that might cause a few heart attacks in the guard troops.  Money will also be spent to increase the amount of sign age in popular locations, and to translate those signs into languages other than French. Since most French actually believe their language is better than others (French delusionment), that one is going to be a painful change.

The goal is to increase an already huge tourist trade in France. But I wonder if France will be worth visiting if it loses that rude approach. We tourists expect the French to be obnoxious and too ignore us in time of need.  We Americans already tried to kill their culture by exporting Jerry Lewis, who the French singularly believe is an artist the parallel of Shakespeare. Viva Le France!

Shame On You

There is trouble in La La Land (California) again these days beyond just the crazies that live and thrive there. The trouble concerns a precious resource that is essential for all life, water. With California in the fourth year of a drought with no end in sight, the governor (who things the world will soon end anyway because of that nebulous "global warming" theory) has ordered everyone to use 25 percent less water than normal. It's difficult to know who is meeting the goal (the state and local governments have mandated simple water reductions per residence, not non use of water sources) and who is not, since it is largely voluntary. Neighbors have divided into water and mo water camps and it's a "slippery" slope that could lead to big trouble.

So the age old concept of shame is taking over in California. "Shame on you if you don't stop using your sprinklers or hoses on your lawn", they say. That mentality itself is greatly effective in instituting voluntary rationing of water, since humans do not like to stand out as the cause of society destruction.  But now there is another way of motivating water usage in California. It's the drought shamer. Those are people, armed with cameras, and internet connection and shame web sites, who prowl the neighborhoods of Southern California and post pictures or videos of those who are not curtailing the use of water on their lawns. Drought shamers say the easiest way to accomplish that is to quit watering your yard altogether or at least be careful about it and not let water spill into the street.

I wonder if that tactic is just old fashioned bullying, the bullying of the same kind on the internet that adults complain their children are subjected to. Drought shamers post the names and addresses of the "offenders" they catch. The good news is they seem to have found the biggest offenders are in Hollywood and in other super wealthy neighborhoods. Beverly Hills, for example,  has new limits on watering lawns, washing cars and refilling pools. A $1,000 fine is in place water wasters there .Nothing like knocking the biggest off their thrones, I guess.

Other drought shamers use tweets to put out addresses and photos of those naughty water users,  Still others are snapping cell phone pictures photos of them and sending them directly to authorities. I guess that's one way for the public to become involved with the police. You can't water your lawn every day in Los Angeles, for example. Sprinklers can't last so long the water runs down to the street. And you can't wash your car with a hose that doesn't have a shut-off nozzle. Fines for violating these rules can run as high as $500.

I say, hose the doubt shamers down when they lecture you or take your water usage photo.  Water their drought shaming apps! Let them know the glories of H2O first hand. But will more compliance with reasonable water reduction guidelines instead of public shaming during a shortage bring about better results in conserving water?  I guess we will never know, given the way so many of us are enamored with our communication gadgets, and how willing we are to use them to push our agenda.  It might be the act of shaming, not the conservation of water that the drought shamers most like. That a person's name address and photo is posted on line for public shaming today is a sad testimony of the abuse of our technology, and of the fact that for some public bullying is just another way one can have fun with their electronic communication toys.

On Father's day

Another Father's Day has come and gone. And most people did not even know it passed.  Such is life for dad, the parent who is often ignored, overlooked, scorned and pitied.  So unimportant is dad that in the U.S. it was not until 1972 that Father's Day was officially made a holiday. And though some nations do celebrate Father's Day, compared to Mother's Day it is a non event. I wonder why dad is so little recognized in so many places on earth.

Perhaps because it is mom who conceives, carries and delivers a child that the world tends to think of a child as "mom's baby" and dad as.....well the guy who rents a room in mom's house, I guess. Hmmm Science should try to find a way for males to be the pregnant partner (oh my, guys with breasts that give milk) so the domestic favoritism for the female can be put to rest. Uh, I think I'll pass on being one of those pregnant dads, but surely there are a whole flock of Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner types that will relish the new arrangement. Thank of how the world population bomb could be defused if women were impregnating the men and smiling as the male suffered through nine months of agony. I suspect many women might not dislike the role switch and we would have far fewer babies birthed each year.

Forget the popular notion that women are treated as the inferior sex! We men know that women rule the home and the world. Is it not the job of the dad to make mom happy, and will she not make his life miserable if he does not?  But sometimes she makes his life miserable anyway. Gee, I have to admit that women are talented. And from birth the female is regarded as the superior sex. 

As babies, girls are seen as "sugar and spice and everything nice". Boys are "little monsters" (as opposed to the big monsters we are as adults).  For little girls there is 'Take Your Daughter To Work Day' every year. But they leave the boys at home, which implies they are inferior creatures. Are not male grade school students lectured on the evils of the male and forced (sometimes the ladies tie us to chairs to make us listen) while schools propagandize the class with lessons highlighting "female contributions to the world" (It's where I learned  from my teacher, Old Lady Jones, that a woman invented the airplane, the automobile and even that device implanted in male brains that makes us say "Yes, Dear" to all female commands). Why even TV shows display the mom as a renaissance woman who handles every matter, big and small, with aplomb while retarded dad can barely tie his shoelaces or find his way to the rest room (I am working on mastering the tying thing).

This discrimination against males also continues after high school. Those college brochures are filled with pictures of women, almost ignoring the existence of the inferior male. This reinforces the commonly held notion that women are not only much smarter than men, but they are so smart they make the male think otherwise. If a male is ever accepted to a university (I hear a few have been admitted) they are quick to notice the endless numbers and varieties of organizations on campus that are only for women. Most are anti male in orientation. And the scholarships the colleges give to students always favor the ladies. Why have you ever heard of a man who was offered to "lay for an A" like female students have done for decades?

After graduation and before enslavement as a woman's property in the marriage thing, a man quickly finds that the workplace is female oriented too. Instead of the male approach in which the man says "let's do this", the boss (always a woman) will quickly demand that the inferior male adapt to the collaborative, touchy-feely, team oriented decision making process that women prefer. And who gets promoted faster on the job?  It's those sexy female interns who seem to spend a whole lot of extra time with the female boss' male associate. I wonder what they are doing alone with that guy?

Finally comes marriage (voluntary enslavement of the male) and fatherhood. I can't even begin to describe the degradation of the dad during this stage, but he goes to his grave willingly like a cancer patient acknowledges he has lost! He surrenders. It's better that I just wish all  fathers a 'Happy Father's Day' and warn them that there is no escape for them. Oh, just in case I wasn't clear in my exposition on dad, I WAS JUST KIDDING ABOUT ALL THIS.

If a white male gets hired, he’ll likely quickly learn that women’s approaches to work-- collaborative, team-oriented, exploratory of feelings--is viewed as superior to men’s competitive goal-orientedness. If a man dare says, “Enough of this processing of feelings, let’s just get on with it,” he’ll usually be viewed as Neanderthal if not fired for “not fitting in” or for not being “a team player. - See more at: http://www.martynemko.com/articles/saving-our-young-men_id1557#sthash.Z87jVnmP.dpuf

When boys start to look into college, the very first thing they see are the colleges’ brochures and websites, with far more pictures of women - See more at: http://www.martynemko.com/articles/saving-our-young-men_id1557#sthash.Z87jVnmP.dpuf

Starting in elementary school, boys are made to feel inferior. Take Your Daughter to Work Day implied to boys that they count less. Endless lessons highlighting the contributions of women (from Pocahontas to Rosa Parks to Hillary Clinton) and the evils of men (from Hannibal to Hitler to McCarthy) make boys feel inferior. That inferiority is reinforced when they come home from school and see TV shows and movies with Doofus Dads or Scuzzball Sams being put in their place by Wise Women. In the effort to boost girls’ self-esteem, boys’ are destroyed. - See more at: http://www.martynemko.com/articles/saving-our-young-men_id1557#sthash.Z87jVnmP.dpuf

Mass Migration Of The Poor

The world is in chaos. Ok, I know you already knew that. It has long been chaos in so many ways, but a more recent one is the migrant chaos. Millions of mostly poor and  uneducated people are leaving overpopulated and impoverished third world countries for richer developed areas. And they are doing it without permission.  The reasons for the migration out, the illegal immigration,  include corrupt governments at home, broken economies, religious or ethnic conflicts, wars etc. But at the root of the movement is overpopulation. The overpopulated third world is exporting its surplus of poor to the developed world.

When hundreds of millions of poor, illiterate in their own language, and unskilled people pour into a developed world it creates problems for everyone there. The new nation must care for them with expensive social and economic programs that are a burden to the working, taxpaying of the developed nation. Schools in the developed nations, for example, are flooded with students who can not speak the language of the new country, and this causes teaching to be directed at the newcomers who "are behind' the rest. The native student population suffers as a result.

Problem is, none of the developed nations can  nor has the will to regulate the illegal immigration. The current political tone in the developed nations is that anyone should be allowed to live wherever he or she wishes.  The two wealthiest areas of the globe have already been severely damaged by the influx of too many illegals. The U.S has tried to absorb almost 50 million of them, largely central American poor, who "can't even make it in their own countries" The social disruption of so many low functioning newcomers coming at the same time can be seen all over America.

In Western Europe the story is similar, except that there are other unique elements injected by the (mostly Mid eastern and African immigrants) that make it even a worse situation for European economies that are already in debt. The rise of Muslim fanaticism in Europe is a good example of this extra problem, for the Muslim immigrants in Europe have been far more militant and in opposition to traditional European culture and habit.


Even barely developed nations like Greece see a huge number of desperate illegal migrants, further straining the economy and social structure. Once when in China I remember being shown a section of Shenyang, China that contains almost 1 million illegal North Korean migrants. The Chinese state allows them to stay because they, like the other recipient areas, don't know how to contain the influx.

All of these movements will continue and grow in number as the underdeveloped countries are so bad off, so overpopulated,  and so abject economically that there is little to lose in making a dangerous and difficult journey for what the migrant perceives as a better life. And sadly,  those who leave their homes are the greatest victims of  mess we call planet Earth.