j allen hayslett

• 2010-05-30

  BP

  If you’re gonna boycott something, at least be consistent.

  Boycott BP? OK. Then park your car and ride your bike. Don’t shop at places that gas up at BP for their deliveries. Don’t buy from places whose owners gas up at BP.

  Don’t pretend that it just stops at not buying gas from BP stations, cause it doesn’t.

  If you want to be serious about it. Go whole hog. Otherwise don’t participate.

  Look at the numbers. BP, in comparison to the other big petro companies, is second to only Sunoco in terms of their ecological ethicality.

  If you have a problem with the way they handled the oil leak, then park your fucking car, hop on your bike, ride to your farmer’s market, and buy your daily sustenance there. Otherwise keep doing what you do, because not buying gas at a BP station means nothing, They get theirs from the residuals you take for granted on a day to day basis.

  If you’re gonna boycott, be conscious about it. Otherwise I will simply lump you in with every other loudmouth who chooses to do something without actually consciously thinking it through to the end.

  Addendum:

  I think what they have done is atrocious. It is inexcusable. However, I choose to read things through and research my decisions through to their end result. So if I find I cannot support a boycott (or a support for that matter) in its completeness, then I will refuse to participate at all.

  Take the time to look up the companies. Figure out which ones are the worst. You might find out that the one you want to boycott, is the one doing the best. if you can’t support any of them, then good on you. I expect to see you on your bike, car parked, dollars spent locally, and petro burned minimally, until this is done.

  If you cant devote to that level of protest, then shut up and continue on as normal.

• 2009-11-21

  Renewability, Responsibility, Selishness, and Stewardship

  Are we completely incapable of reducing the Renewable Energy debate to simply being responsible stewards of what we’ve been given without it devolving into a sesationalist, explosively worded screaming match about how much it will cost.

  Yes we know it will cost something. Anything worth saving will cost something. Consumption of everything we have without regard for the effects it may have on our future will cost something as well.

  Of course, if you believe that what we have was given to us for a limited time and will ultimately expire and we’ll all go flying to a better home in the sky with gold and jewels and blahdiblahdiblah, then maybe you should consider the possibility that any heavenly being with even a scant lick of what we might call common sense would never give us something as grand as a new world if all we did was fuck up, shit on, and tear apart the one we have.

  But that’s ok, because Jesus’ blood covers all sins, stupidity, ignorance, complacency, greed, selfishness, and irresponsibility all the same, right? So, by all means, suck it all up, drink it all down, burn it all to pieces, and kill and maim everyone in the wake of your meaningless, time limited conquests, because you’re an idiot, and you WILL eventually reap what you sow.

  Is that sensationalist enough for you, because it’s all you people seem to respond to these days.

• 2009-11-10

  It Could Have Been Home to Me

  You finally find a place you can call home. A place you love to be. People you’ve come to love like brothers and sisters.

  Suddenly things change and the roof is torn away, the walls ripped off, everyone leaves, the rats all skitter away, and you’re left standing in the rubble trying to piece it all back together.

  What do you do?

• 2009-10-10

  Power to the People? Guess not.

  Looks like those with money and power want to keep it that way. I guess they don’t like social news and media because it gives everyone access to news as it happens.

  It kind of reminds me of the reasons behind why the church so despised the printing press and conducted mass in Latin. Keep the word of God out of the mouths of the poor and uneducated and you can tell them anything you want and they’ll believe it.

  People like this would love to see that the world pay their hard earned dollars for something to which we all should be entitled.

  They already know this though. We don’t have to spell it out to them. There is no evil plot to uncover. It’s already out there. Knowledge is power. Great power. Those with the money and the power know that if they can only allow those with money access to power then they are the only ones with the access. So they do whatever they can to make sure that those who have not, well, have not.

  What they do not realize though is that they are fighting a very old fight. A fight which I feel has seen its day. The day of truly social news, news at our our fingertips, is upon us. No longer do we have to wait days, or even hours to hear about the latest atrocity across the globe, much less across town. We have access to news almost as it happens. That kind of power cannot be stopped. Not without a massive revolt.

  Honestly, at this point, I’d like to see Murdoch and Curley try to monetize the system. My guess is that it’ll backfire and they’ll be left with a failed business model. We’re past paying for news. We’ve turned that corner, we’re not going back.

• 2009-09-30

  Tumblin It Up

  So I decided to move from Squarespace to Tumblr. Since I hadn’t been posting much I didn’t think it was necessary to be paying a monthly fee. So here I am on Tumblr, not posting for free.