Monday, December 21, 2009

The Precious Gift Of Sanctimony



One of my wife's *train acquaintances* asked her if she had any ideas on what he could get his wife for Christmas.

From the seat of her pants, Mrs. C-Nut's suggested a digital picture frame...

Dude - I could never do that because our daughter would give us too much flak for constantly using electricity.

Of course it's easy to mock this feeble-minded, Moronic young lady (and even perhaps her invertebrate father!)...

But really we should pity her!

This anecdote reminded me of a couple others.

One, of my buddy whose neighbor is *against* gas-powered lawnmowers. (Can't find my previous post on it.) Instead, I believe he uses one of those old-fangled *push mowers*.

And two, those knuckleheads that worry about how much electricity cell phone chargers burn.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

this is becoming comedy. since when are human-beings sensitive to any kind of consumption.

a psychological allergy maybe? a disease? "aversion to energy syndrome" ?

Anonymous said...

A digital picture frame? Nothing says romance quite like that...I mean, my last boss gave me one. Unless he gives it as a gift 'from the kids'. Husband to wife though? Boooooring. Why doesn't he gift her some carbon offset credits in that pious daughters name?

CaptiousNut said...

Hah!

I love the carbon-offsets perhaps even better than a donation in her name to the Seinfeldian *human fund*.

Justin Nick O'Time said...

First off, photo frames are stupid for so many different reasons beyond the energy they consume.

From their hideous, tacky plastic frames to their low-quality LCD screen and overall cheap construction, they are a real distraction from the actual photography you are attempting to display...

And guess what, CVS will print pictures for 10 cents a piece, and you don't have to plug them in.

But back to the subject at hand... People who advocate the practice energy conservation are morons? Please explain, because regardless of your stance on "climate change", I don't understand your logic on this one.

After all, if all of you SUV-driving, cell phone charging, digital picture frame using energy wasters were to cut back on your over-consumption a little, demand would go down and so would the price I have to pay.

So, at Christmas time, maybe you could take a few minutes to stop acting so selfishly and think a little more about how your actions affect everyone else around you.

Anonymous said...

Justin, It's not about being selfish and nobody wants to hurt the humanity. Its about freedom. doing whatever you want, responsibly, without feeling guilt.

This is the kind of thinking that will take humans 100s of years back. Why cant people consume what ever the energy they want, and let human's(free market?) figure out solutions for it ? Some company will soon enough invent some cheap renewable energy (cheap fusion?).

Its not like you are going to stop or reduce energy consumption in any significant way.

Lets humans be. We dont want no stinking .gov(or other "good humans") regulating us (or our energy usage). Infact, you will be slowing the "energy tech & usage evolution".

CaptiousNut said...

Justin,

How much electricity do digital picture frames consume?

By my estimate, it they were left on ALL MONTH, in a high cost state, a very inefficient one would consume maybe, MAYBE $2.60 worth of electricity. Turn it off at night...and it halves...consider a cheaper state, the cost whittles down to nothing.

Also, just because electicity demand diminshishes in one area, that doesn't mean it won't be replaced by a new gadget or a new population (growing China).

There are just so many things more inefficient, more unnecessary then the items of discussion. For example, extended bachelorhood and divorce are NOT GREEN at all; nor are government schools; the post office; newspapers; etc.

Merry Christmas to you!

JN O'Time said...

Let's see...

Justin, It's not about being selfish and nobody wants to hurt the humanity. Its about freedom. doing whatever you want, responsibly, without feeling guilt.

Anonymous, I'm not sure you understand the definitions of either "selfish" or "responsible".

Doing whatever the hell you want without feeling guilt might actually be the Webster's definition of selfish.

Why cant people consume what ever the energy they want...

Ohhh... this sounds responsible...

JNOTime said...

CaptiousNut,

Open a window and call the furnace guy. I think carbon monoxide must be getting to your brain.

So, there are items that are more unnecessary than digital picture frame? Bachelorhood? Divorce? C'mon...please give me some real examples...

And because there are things that equally unnecessary that may use more power, this is a valid excuse to waste? Because China now uses more power, I now have an excuse not to conserve when possible.

Your example suggests that it might cost $2.60/month to run the frame. But you neglect to multiply this out times 12 months time infinite years. (Or more accurately, times the 3 months before the cheap POS frame breaks...)

Finally, back to the whole self-centered theme, your example assumes you are the only one using one. So, multiply the above figure by the millions of dolts who own one of these pieces of garbage.

I find myself agreeing with many of your rants, but this one is way off base.

It seems that you just want to make yourself feel better about your current consumption habits by marginalizing people who attempt to conserve without a valid argument to back it up.

Convince me otherwise...

Justin said...

*** crickets ***

Anonymous said...

gasoline/energy consumption by humans 200 years back = 0; in 2009 = ?

who defines selfish and responsibility ? Its all relative and time based. Think Big picture.

I am sure you will be surprised how much energy each human (i am talking average chinese here) will use in 50 years.

Let the market figure out energy solutions. energy-consumption-evolution will happen no matter. All you will be doing is delay it a little.

CaptiousNut said...

Man...

I'm about the only blogger on planet Earth that responds directly to 90+% of comments. Generally speaking, I figure if someone takes the time to read my post and the time to compose a comment, it's only courteous to write back.

Why in the last two weeks have people TWICE extrapolated from my *response time*?

Am I supposed to stop pulling my kids in their sleds, up a hill, to respond to a comment from this recreational blog on my Droid?

Settle down there Justin, and stick with one moniker, will ya?

BTW, I haven't quite figured how to send comments via email (though I know it's easy to do). I've always preferred to reply more thoughtfully from my PC, after the kids are in bed.