Just a few charts...

To put into pictures just how dumb this whole debate is.

H2O in a bottle

Dramatists will call this one of the biggest scam in social and economic history, and in this case I have a hard time disagreeing. Bottled water.

Really?

Seems to me this is one of those common sense things that people only go along with now because a)it has become ingrained in American society and b) the majority of Americans are too ignorant to really think about it. Consider this:

- The price of bottled water is 10,000 times the price of tap water.
- 40% of this bottled water comes from the very same tap sources that we all have access to.
- Bottled water producers are not required to test for e. coli, provide the source of their water, or even produce quality reports (this is because tap water is regulated by the EPA, while bottled water is regulated by the FDA).
- Enough oil is used in the production of bottled water each year to fuel 1 million cars for a year (17 million barrels of oil, to be precise).
- It takes 3 times the amount of water that is actually in a bottle to produce it.
- 1.1 billion people in the world today do not have access to safe drinking water.

Are there any positives here? Oh yeah, the bottled water industry takes in upwards of $61 Billion/year, and this number is only increasing. In the past decade, the market for bottled water has more than doubled as today three out of every four Americans regularly drink bottled water. This increasing reliance on bottled water is playing perfectly into the hands of the big corporations, as the World Health Organization predicts that by 2025, two-thirds of the population will lack access to enough water (and as a result, have to turn to companies like Coke and Nestle to provide).

Recycling alone is not enough. First of all, most people do not recycle every bottle that they drink. Regardless, even the bottles that are recycled are converted to a lower quality product that requires the additions of chemicals and other plastics. This is not a tough problem to solve. It does not take rocket science, it does not require any sort of monetary investment by the Federal Government or huge sacrifice by you.

Just use a goddamn water fountain.

Oh Perry...

This is from ThinkProgress.com, an interesting insight into Mr. Perry's jobs claims:

During an interview with Glenn Beck just two and a half months ago, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) claimed it’s impossible for the government to create jobs. “Government doesn’t create any jobs. They can actually run jobs away,” Perry said.
Leaving aside the fact that Perry is a government employee himself, he has had to change his tune now that he’s running for president. In fact, Perry bragged during a speech today that, as governor, he’s helped create lots of jobs:

[President Obama] has failed to create jobs by relying on bigger government. I’ve helped create a million jobs during my tenure as Governor of the state of Texas.

Of course, Perry left out the darker side of job creation during his tenure as governor. Texas has the nation’s worst job creation record when adjusted for labor force growth, and between 2008 and 2010, jobs actually grew at a faster pace in Massachusetts than in Texas. In fact, 26 states have lower unemployment rates than Texas, and “Texas has done worse than the rest of the country since the peak of national unemployment in October 2009.”
Perry’s state does, however, lead the nation by having the highest percentage of minimum wage jobs. And when it comes to government jobs, Texas is in no short supply, as between 2007 and 2010, 47 percent of all government jobs were created in Texas. In fact, under Perry’s watchful eye, government jobs grew twice as much as private sector jobs.
But any way its sliced, Perry is now taking credit for creating jobs, when just a few months ago he thought he had no power to create jobs.

Nice! Sad thing is, most people will only hear that he has created x amount of jobs while the US has lost x amount of jobs, and vote based on that.

If I had to make a 36 song playlist...

This is what I'd choose:

1. Is There a Ghost - Band of Horses
2. Perfect Games - Broken West
3. Carry the Zero - Built to Spill
4. Marching Bands of Manhattan - Death Cab for Cutie
5. The Sound of Settling - Death Cab for Cutie
6. Tiny Vessels - Death Cab for Cutie
7. 405 - Death Cab for Cutie
8. Scientist Studies - Death Cab for Cutie
9. Mr. Blue Sky - Electric Light Orchestra
10. Feeling the Moment - Feeder
11. Damaged Goods - Gang of Four
12. Lately - The Helio Sequence
13. Evil - Interpol
14. The World at Large - Modest Mouse
15. Gravity Rides Everything - Modest Mouse
16. Always Love - Nada Surf
17. Moth's Wings - Passion Pit
18. Sleepyhead - Passion Pit
19. Strange Condition - Pete Yorn
20. Lisztomania - Phoenix
21. 1901 - Phoenix
22. High and Dry - Radiohead
23. Bullet Proof - Radiohead
24. Let Down - Radiohead
25. Karma Police - Radiohead
26. Lucky - Radiohead
27. Lake Michigan - Rogue Wave
28. Publish My Love - Rogue Wave
29. Love's Lost Guarantee - Rogue Wave
30. Be Kind-Remind - Rogue Wave
31. Caring is Creepy - The Shins
32. New Slang - The Shins
33. All I Want to Do - Sugarland
34. Modern World - Wolf Parade
35. Forever Young - Youth Group
36. Start Today Tomorrow - Youth Group

Death Cab

Much has changed on my iPod since I first heard Tiny Vessels--on a CD made by Liz Fuller no less--and fell in love with Death Cab. They have come out with 2 new albums, I have graduated from middle school and high school, and my music listening device has improved from my old black and white 8 GB iPod to my new 32 GB iPhone.

Recently, I've fallen in love all over again. At one time in my life I was convinced that Death Cab was the love of my life, but as I grew up and found new music my love for them slowly faded. I guess you could say I take them for granted sometimes. But no matter what happens between us, I inevitably end up listening to them again and remember exactly what drew me to them in the first place. Death Cab is more than just comfortable for me, they know me. They've been with me for years and I think I'm different for having listened to them all these years.

With every album I listen to again, I'm flooded with a new group of memories and emotions that are hard to put into words. I think that is a lot of why I always liked them--their music, as lame as it sounds, just kind of connected with me. When I hear "Coney Island" I can remember exactly how I felt at certain times in my life when I would listen to that song, I just can't remember when that was or what was going on at that point. It's weird.

As long as I've liked Death Cab I've always had an internal debate about which of their albums was my favorite. Transatlanticism is the obvious pick, what with both "The Sound of Settling" and "Tiny Vessels" it seems almost unfair. But there's also We Have the Facts, Plans, Something About Airplanes, The Photo Album...I don't know if it's really possible to choose a favorite at this point. Let the debate rage on I guess, all I know is that I really, really, REALLY like Death Cab for Cutie.

August 20th

Am I really going to have to wait 2 more months for this?

I'm a sucker

for a girl wearing sunglasses