If only people showed the kind of political will they show whenever a NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard, for the acronym-impared) arguement comes up. People will cheerfully shaft their good friends from the other side of the city just so long as whatever unpopular facility is up for debate this time is NIMBY.
Bastards. This wouldn't be so much of a problem if people didn't generate so much damn garbage all the time. Or if we burned it (but that would require fighting over where to put the incinerator, of course). I mean, Tallahassee isn't exactly a major metropolitan area. It wouldn't require that much in the way of facilities to torch all this crap we're producing and get rid of it. Pollution? Don't make me laugh out loud. The amount of extra aerial crap produced by todays well-filtered burners is a mere tepid burst of flatulence compared to the vast dust and smoke kicked up by, oh, say, those fucking enormous wild-fires in central Florida we seem to be having every few months now.
But that would require actually thinking about the problem, and the electorate hasn't actually turned on its brains since about 1950. Probably earlier. Individuals are smart. A few individuals. Only a handful of which actually live in Tallahassee. And society as a whole? Complete morons, led by career liars and people who, in a more distant and less civilized time, would be having tea with the Marquis de Sade and chatting amiably about the best techniques for fucking people over in the most vigorous and painful way possible -- and get them to like you for it.
As always when the public are involved, it's not who's the best debater. It's not who has a point, or who can back up their arguement with facts. It's who can get the biggest bunch of damn fools together to go yell and whine and kick and scream the loudest so as to not have to deal with the problems which they were, if not the sole causes, major contributors to.
Nobody wants to deal with problems these days (I occasionally must count myself among this faction). We're such a bunch of damn wimps that nobody's prepared to do anything unless it's so in their face that to ignore it they'd have to be not merely willfully ignorant, but complete and utter morons as well. Which they're not, actually. Many people are *morons* but they're not *complete and utter* morons. You don't run into many *complete* morons, probably because they're all busy wasting hours and hours of tech support time, safely ensconced at home where they can't hurt anyone except the poor tech support people who they slowly, deliberately, drive into a state of insanity. But we digress.
The point being that nobody's prepared to tighten their belts and settle down to kick the crap out of problems these days. Nobody's prepared to hurt anyone else's feelings or create a big fuss. Nobody's willing to violate principles even if some little cretin is bounding around their house hurling bags of fetid vomitus. Nobody's willing to admit that the principles they're terrified of violating are generally complete crap. Years of negative feedback and apathy have turned people into those little lab rats who've been randomly punished, and as a result are incapable of doing anything other than sitting their, wide-eyed and shivering, accepting whatever is dealt to them.
Personally, I blame this on the whole politically correct, express-your-feelings-except-if-they're-negative-ones, touchy-feely generation. I don't want to get in touch with my feelings, and I don't, in general, want anyone else getting in touch with my feelings either. Clearly, the best answer to all this is...
Drugs! Clearly, we need marijuana for everyone. Good ol' Mary Jane. Imagine how much fun we'll all have then? Sure, we'll still be going to hell in a hand-basket, but oh, the sights we'll see along the way.
Wow. See what happens when I don't have anything better to talk about?
Meanwhile, Yaumcha (surly spiky-haired, orange-jumpsuited guy with scar; distinct from Goku who is perky, spiky-haired, orange-jumpsuited guy WITHOUT scar), Chen (three-eyed guy) and Chatsu (little floating ghost boy) take on Piccolo (surly green guy with antennae). King Ki's training has made the three much stronger and faster, even if it was exceedingly stupid, and Piccolo is impressed... but still easily a match for all three of them together. Much clobbering is done, but King Ki calls it off on account of lunch before anyone can get TOO serious...
Meanwhile, Goku is still training, but is so exhausted at the end of a set of ten thousand sit-ups at 50 G's that he can't even move.
Meanwhile, Gohan has reached the Namek village that Vegeta devastated, and located the Dragonball... and a lot of dead Nameks. This week's award for bullshit dubbing goes to the scene where Gohan has clearly just buried all the dead Nameks (even though the bits where it actually shows the bodies were cut) -- and we even see all the graves! -- and his comment is "Gee, I hope they all got away." Uh, no. They're dead, kid, get over it.
Vegeta retrieves and hides the five Dragonballs he stole from Frieza, but suddenly notices Krillan passing by with the Dragonball from Guru the Eldest Namek. "Cool," thinks Vegeta, as he takes off in pursuit. And then Zarbon spots the two, and joins the chase. "Cool," thinks Vegeta. "More butts to kick." Krillan is completely oblivious, but clearly in for a bit of a surprise when he reaches Bulma...
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