Sacred Rite Of Trash Disposal

Click image to enlarge.

I believe it's from the United Kingdom.

Only a mindless, lunatic eco-pagan would abide by all those disposal regulations!

Elevating Craigslist

I am moving 30 miles east to the South Shore at the end of this month. Unlike my last two moves, my wife's employer is not paying for this one. So I am currently scrounging for boxes and will likely rent a truck to move myself.

One can easily spend a few hundred bucks on boxes, that is if you are a Luddite. On Craigslist, there are plenty of ads stating, "Free Moving Boxes". Why is that? Well, if you haven't lived in a decent sized place you might not realize how many boxes a small family can fill up when it moves. Probably the guestimate would be anywhere from 50-100 large boxes. Once you move in, unpacking them is a chore in its own right. You'll be swimming in packing paper and you'll desperately want those cumbersome boxes out of your way.

The thing is, free moving boxes don't last very long - especially not in Boston where everyone is cheap and always on the move. The first few ads I responded to too late. But last night, someone posted an ad for their boxes that "weren't broken down" and here was my response.

Hi—we are close by, on the other side of route 9. I can come take them all—doesn’t matter that they are not broken down. I can come any time that is convenient for you. Call or email anytime. Thanks so much!!!

They contacted me early this morning, I put my two kids in the car, and ran over. The guy told me he had tons of responses and he obviously drafted me because I was nearby and because I implied that I would break them down. When I arrived, there it was, a veritable mountain of boxes piled throughout his three car garage. Utility knife in hand, it still took me a good 45 minutes of frenzied work to remove all the packing paper and flatten the boxes out for transport.

I said to the guy, this is what you call a "intersection of mutual needs". In other words, he needed the boxes removed and I was in the market for low cost moving supplies.

In the pre-Craigslist days, this is a transaction that likely would have never taken place. He'd have thrown out his boxes, I'd have wasted money on new ones, and all sorts of time and energy would have been squandered on unproductive activity.

It almost goes without saying that this is the profound beauty of the internet. The web hasn't just lubricated transactions, it's created whole new markets and efficiencies on everything from buying a stock to finding a date to recycling moving boxes.

The bulls yammer these days about "productivity" and how businesses are increasingly getting more done with less. I never liked how academically nebulous that sounded. I firmly believe that the massive economic expansion since 9/11 is due almost entirely to the internet and the enhanced telecommunication it has facilitated. The way I see it, the internet bubble never really popped; it's still expanding and it never really was a "bubble". It's more a phenomenon, a juggernaut, or an elixir whose point of diminishing return is still nowhere in sight.

The gentleman with the free boxes asked where and why I was moving. In a momentary lapse of tact, I left out the part about my hating his new hometown of Newton - after all, the poor guy just paid probably $1.5 million bones for the house he just moved into.

He and his wife were tangibly ecstatic that I had just cleaned out their garage of that massive mess. The guy also bragged that he sold his Brookline condo on Craigslist in three days back in March, sans broker of course. Understandably, he kept singing the praises of Craigslist.

Guy - The other great part about this (i.e. me taking his boxes) is that we get to save some trees.

I rolled my eyes and said to myself,

"This is precisely why he is moving into Newton and we are running far from it."

Happy Earth Day, You Heathen Socialists! What About Your Externalities?

Yesterday was Earth Day and I almost didn't notice because of the unqualified success of my Big Media withdrawal program (which I can't recommend highly enough).

Here's what keeps reminding me of the modern Earth-fetishists - my blog gets near 100 hits per day, just from losers downloading this Day After Tomorrow pic from my blog.



Even worse, I can see that these kids (presumably) are finding my pic under "wallpaper" searches. So they want to plaster their computer screens with images of a climate change apocalypse.

Me? My wallpaper is a magnificent family picture from my daughter's baptism.

I really feel sorry for the millions of young people drunk on Greenism. I see them all over the blogosphere. What kind of loser 20 year-old is sitting around worrying about penguins and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels - not to mention getting the facts all wrong anyway. I was occasionally seen as a nerd growing up (an accusation hard to avoid for most of us toting a 300 IQ), but my introversion never rivaled the pathetic alarmism of today's young "environmentalists". I urge them to go have a beer, stalk some members of the opposite sex, or dare I say "go get a job and make some money". (I worked near forty hours a week when I was in college).

I pity these kids, first because many of them are have been innocently brainwashed by depraved socialist adults. But more so, I pity them because they are traveling a road toward lifetime disillusionment. They are the analogues of 60s hippies who thought everlasting happiness was a simple recipe of narcotics, nudity, Hendrix, and "peace". 60s radicals are cranky today precisely because of all the bankrupt ideas they inhaled in their youth.

Here's what will happen to today's green hippies. In twenty years, when the "climate" is the same and perhaps their trust funds dry up, they will look around and realize that while they were bracing for the end-of-the-world, many of their peers will have developed their careers, bred families, and found contentment. They'll be just as bitter, crusty, and alone as most of today's college professors and newspaper writers.



Look at this toy I espied in a catalog my son was perusing.

Sixty bucks for a "recycling center"? Tell me that price doesn't include a Moron Markup...as well it should.

On one level they are absolutely correct.

It really is all garbage.

Here's what I say to Morons now if I detect the green infection (and y'all can use this line without expressed written consent).

I inquire, "Do you worship the sun, moon, and stars as well? How about the wind or forest nymphs?"