Accident of persons

The low-carbon future of building materials and the revival of building with stone led me back to now by going through then. Then is, of course, the firmament of Nietzsche:

The Imperium Romanum which we know, which the history of the Roman province teaches us to know better and better, this most admirable of al works of art in grand style, was a beginning, its structure was calculated to prove itself by millennia – to this day there has never been such building, to build in such a manner sub specie aerterni has never been so much as dreamed of! – This organization was firm enough to endure bad emperors: the accident of persons must have no effect on such things – first principle of all grand architecture. But it was not firm enough to endure the corruptest form of corruption…

To our now, and the beginning of a magnificent awakening for which all must limber for increased heavy lifting. Among those unable and unfit for limbering is the one most rebuked in the voices made heard. He spent the Blue Wednesday leading reporters around the construction site of the monument to his incompetence commitment to the bit:

“Watch the beam go up,” he said as he walked away to another point inside the construction site. He then pointed at the ceiling, and said to no one in particular, “now envision chandeliers.”

I wish one of the credulous would ask him what kind of leaves are represented in the Corinthian columns he so adores. But make no mistake: ignoring the electoral failure as if nothing happened in favor of concern for lighting fixtures and split pediments is straight fash. Complete contempt for reality.

Image: Imperial Forum

Popular Field Mechanics & Stream

I’d prefer to write about these ten new wind turbine designs many of which you could put on your house and one or two you might even be able to fit on your personal person, or not far from it. Power to the people.

But no. It seems that other developments warrant a speculative word or two. It may just be that the Republican/big Pharma/big coal/petro industry best hope for derailing both climate change legislation and major health care reform will be signing onto a special prosecutor for Bush-era war crimes and interrogation practices.

Now imagine that. Obviously an SP is something none of our oligarchical overlords would want, so it introduces a bit of a devil’s bargain. Because the above would seem to welcome the other legislation even less. Or would they? Will they say, “Go ahead and have your Cheney circus but leave our unsustainable profit streams alone? I wonder which it’s going to be. Is this the development of a bargaining chip for one side, or the other? As dastardly cynical as that sounds, what makes it any more inevitable than if we were able to spare the nation a divisive trip back into Cheney-tainted extradition and assassination practices with resounding bi-partisan support for a C02 cap/ universal healthcare double bank shot? Let’s let us make a deal.

Oh the joys of a unstable age.