We like to move forwards. Backwards, in reflection, sometimes helps; usually, not. Looking forwards, then…here is some Monday inspiration for you. Coming from, where it is we’re coming from. The pulsing heart of Infinite Love of Gaia, the earth. The true heart.
The story of making the impossible, possible. See it for yourself:
Burners, you don’t need to join our cult, you don’t need to send us money, but we suggest: do this. Permaculture, Nature engineering. Animal communication, hey, why not, human communication? Universal physics. It’s so much better for everyone than “social engineering”, or “profiteering”, or “DJ rules“.
This is how we do it.
There is a spirit here, advancing humanity throughout the Ages. It should be celebrated. These tribes sure knew how to bring it to the desert, for a long, long time. Sustainability is a better goal than any of the Ten Principles of Burning Man.
Oh, was that an #encore I heard? <=> Maybe I just gifted it to myself. Maybe Yothu Yindi gifted it to all of us. Recommend you turn this one up…(Aboriginal people this might contain…you know what I’m saying)
A month or so ago, I let you know that I was cutting guest writer Whatsblem the Pro loose. You can now find him here. I hope it’s clear now, this is my blog. If you read the tag line it says “Me, Burners, and the Man”. It’s for free, I don’t make money from it, I don’t ask you to give me money, it’s entirely up to you if you want to read this. Hey, if you don’t, then don’t – no skin off my nose.
I’m constantly amazed by the criticism I get, from people who think this free blog should suit their needs better. They don’t want to click the links to stories I’ve already spent hours to write, they just want me to make it simple for them by constantly re-writing the content for the sake of simplicity for the casual reader. For free, of course…“gift me this!”
Well, those ignoramus Burners can get fucked. If you’re still with me, I’m going to use this platform to share my opinions, just like I did when I only had 3 Likes on Facebook. And my opinion is, the most important thing in life on this planet is Habitat Preservation. Steve Irwin style. He’s been dead for 8 years now, and no-one has put their hand up to take his place, to lead the youngsters into a world of respecting the environment.
Forget Leave No Trace® – a registered trademark of the BLM who take $2 million/year from Burners, to generously grant us a permit to throw a party in the desert. They spend that money on dogs and night-vision goggles, all the better to bust us with.
We’re talking about the “fight to save the environment”…That’s what we’re leaving for future generations. If we don’t stand up for Mother Nature, who else will? Oh, you care about “Leave No Trace”, but you don’t care about the environment? WTF is wrong with you? If we turn a blind eye, or think that simply by going to Burning Man, we’re somehow making a difference, then the future of this planet is doomed.
Right now, what’s got my goat is Corey and Amber Knowlton. They just paid (well, he just paid…who knows what sort of pre-nup agreement she got…) $350,000 to murder an endangered black Rhino in Africa.
It’s not just Corey: his wife Amber gets in on the mass slaughter too. Check out these murderers conservationists Christmas card!
Yep, these butchers have two daughters. I hope Santa takes a huge dump down their chimney. These people are scum. The world needs to be made aware of them. They need to be shunned. If I ever see them, I’m going to give them a stern talking to (an understatement!) I hope they never show up at Burning Man, or any other Burner event worldwide. Can you believe that they have a spare $350,000, and what they want to do with that money, is slaughter black rhinos, a species with less than 5000 members on earth?
Corey Knowlton leads a “hunting party”. Why do you need camouflage, when you have telescopic and laser sights?
The take for Burning Man of BMOrg’s new, genius invention of a “vehicle tax” that is supposed to help the environment, is $1.4 million. That’s what the Jacked Rabbit told us, anyway – it’s for our own benefit! Surely it must be true, if it was in Jacked Rabbit.
Last year, there were 35,789 cars at Burning Man, and this new tax will keep 789 cars off the road.That’s about 325 tons of CO2 emissions avoided, or the equivalent of the Man Burn plus fire art burn. For $1.4 million! Really saving the world! These numbers are calculated from the site Jacked Rabbit points us to, coolingman.org. This site was developed in 007 when the theme was “The Green Man”. They claim that if 70% of Burners offset 1 ton of carbon emissions, this could be the world’s first carbon neutral city. Now that seems like a worthy goal!
No matter what I say here, the haters are going to accuse me of being a hater, but this seems like a valid, and easy to realize, objective. BMOrg could set a goal for us all to do that, instead of “keep the number of cars the same, and pay us more”. If we achieved this goal, suggested first 7 years ago and totally ignored by BMOrg ever since, we’d be leading the world environmentally – a zero-net carbon city, which Leaves No Trace® – without us even needing to chip in another $1.4 million to their non-profit for “environmental reasons” (P.S., they really need our donations too, because the party just doesn’t cover it, even with this extra take!)
Imagine if they cut a quarter of those cars out, and took even a tenth of their $30 million+ receipts from their main event…to actually try to benefit environmental causes. They could really make a difference to the world. For a mere $350k, about 1% of Burning Man’s revenues…is one endangered rhino worth as much as 437cows? It’s only a quarter of their latest tax on us. Make the new tax $50 instead of 40, our money could save this beautiful black rhino AND BMOrg could still bank all the extra buck$ they need from their new tax.
Here’s what Jacked Rabbit has to say:
Burning Man is under pressure from the Bureau of Land Management and Nevada Department of Transportation to reduce the number of cars entering the event. Highways 447 and 34 are at max capacity during the event and we’re being asked to pay for road damage caused by participant vehicles. Road travel represents 60% of the carbon emissions related to the event...Clearly, it’s critical we address the traffic issue — and we can only solve this problem by working together as a community.
…Our community has always policed itself — and changed its behavior when necessary — through awareness. That’s how we became the largest Leave No Trace event in the world, against seemingly impossible odds
Errr, impossible? It’s not impossible to ask the local tribes to collect trash from the Exodus line, or during the event. Odds are, this would be a win/win/win for everyone if they introduced it.
If you ask me, pollution is the problem, not people using motorized vehicles to get to a remote location. Does $1.4 million in”bonus” vehicle tax to BMOrg, help Planet Earth – in terms of pollution, senseless waste, rainforest degradation, habitat preservation, saving endangered species? Does it help the environment in any way – seriously, do you think it does? Please share if you can see how it does. Is it even going to get any cars off the road at Burning Man? Surely, our non-profit Burner funds could be spent in a better way to help the environment. $1.4 million for 857 cars? Really? They couldn’t just ask, and get 1000+ cars off the road for free?
Like coolingman says, we could become an exemplar city for the environment, without any new tax, just with some encouragement from BMOrg to Respect The Environment. I know, I know, the Sacred Principle is “Leave No Trace”, which we took from the BLM …but, really? “Respect the Environment” is evil?
I would rather see 1% of Burning Man’s budget – or even merely 1% of the new vehicle tax- going to the crowdsourced BitCoin assassination market, to send a message to these hunters that Black Rock City respects environmental values, and we are against the murder of endangered species. If the Chairman of the Federal Reserve is only worth $90,000, what should the price be on Mr and Mrs Knowlton, and their $350,000 murder prize?
[Update 1/17/2014]
The Endangered Species Assassin is such a Big Dick Man, he’s alerted the FBI and the Las Vegas SWAT team to complaints against his intended murder. According to CNN anyway. He claims that assassinating Endangered Species is in the name of “science”. 5000 black rhino left on earth is a “surplus”, says Corey. He tries to relate his slaughter to “The Price is Wrong Bitch”, and British Agent Piers Morgan’s moves to attack the Second Amendment. I guess it’s all a big joke to him. How come Adam Sandler and co aren’t out there murdering endangered species? The dick acts all “surprised” that now his wife and kids are threatened by snipers. Ummm….duh! Give the rhino a fighting chance, don’t shoot it with a high-powered laser scope. That’s fair, right? Texas rednecks ain’t no endangered species, last time I checked! It’s just like shooting cows…it’s cool as long as you eat them! You gonna eat that Rhino boy? You and your wife gonna take that rhino horn?
This breaks my heart. If we are going to use Burner culture for good in the world, it should be to combat people like this. Yes, Second Amendment. And all the other Amendments. Yes, Constitution of the United States of America. Yes, Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Yes, Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace (thanks Burner Barlow!)
But, seriously? She shot a frikkin lion? Come on Burning Man Project, take your tens of millions, take your biggest Regional being Afrika Burn, take your social engineering and PR blitzes, and do something useful and meaningful. Take the Playa to the Planet. Stop this. Not just this one fool, but everyone everywhere who would even entertain the thought of doing this.
TV presenter causes outrage after posing with lion she killed
An American television presenter has prompted outrage by boasting online that she had killed a lion in South Africa
Melissa Bachman after her “Incredible day in South Africa” Photo: TWITTER
Melissa Bachman, a keen hunter who makes programmes on the American outdoors, posted a photograph on Facebook and Twitter of her holding a rifle and smiling beside the corpse of a male lion.
“Incredible day in South Africa,” the self-styled “hardcore huntress” said of her pursuits at the Maroi Conservancy, adding: “Stalked inside 60-yards on this beautiful male lion … what a hunt!”
A furious online reaction led Bachman to deactivate her Facebook and Twitter pages within hours. It also prompted an online petition asking the South African government to bar her from returning.
“She is an absolute contradiction to the culture of conservation this country prides itself on,” said Elan Burman of Cape Town, the author of the petition, which quickly gathered 3,000 signatures.
“You, lady, are what is wrong with the world,” said Richard Robinson of Maryland, who was among the signatories. “Take with no consequences. Shoot, kill, consume, destroy.
“You didn’t kill a lion, you stood behind a machine and pulled a little trigger, you pathetic, sad excuse of a human.”
While the African lion is rated “vulnerable” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List, it is not officially an endangered species. “The main threats to lions are indiscriminate killing,” said the organisation.
The photograph was in keeping with Ms Bachman’s past activities. Her official website displays pictures of her posing beside dead alligators, turkeys and bears among other quarry.
She was axed as a contestant on the National Geographic programme Ultimate Survival Alaska last year after 13,000 people signed a petition protesting against the inclusion of a “heartless trophy hunter”. Ms Bachman could not be contacted for comment on Friday.
Ricky Gervais, the British comedian, shared Ms Bachman’s comment “what a hunt!” on his own Twitter feed, adding: “Spot the typo”.
I don’t even need to spot the fucken typo. A cunt’s a cunt, and this is one of the worst possible cunts I’ve ever come across in my life. I hope for her sake that our paths never cross, I don’t care how many guns she has.
If there’s anything Burners can do against this, let’s do it. Forget Leave No Trace, a better principle is THE EARTH AND ALL HER CHILDREN ARE SACRED.
Call me a Pagan tree hugging Gaia worshipper if thou wilt.
I’ll leave you with a photo my brother took today in Australia. Happy Steve Irwin Day. This planet needs our love and our support and our help.
Crocodile cloud on Crocodile Hunter day. Photo by Muzza/the Universe