With the air in many major cities unfit to breathe, wood products in short supply,
and municipalities bidding for disposal rights in neighboring counties to relieve
overflowing landfills, the question remains, What are we going do with this crap?

With many previously 3rd world countries entering the 'modern society' pact, due to an influx
of moneys from manufacturing the crappy, disposable products that we purchase and dump
into landfills by the ton here in 'civilized society', there will be an exponential increase in the
amount of global damage done to the environment as they, too, begin to face the problems
of housing, transportation, air, water, and other natural resources. These are serious issues
which demand worldwide consideration, but especially so here in the wasteful USA.

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Deforestation

Over the past 10 years, I have witnessed the TOTAL deforestation of the lands that I grew up on.
Additional travels around the US have revealed a once grand continent to be an environment in
distress. Greed and overzealous developers have reduced the once great hardwood forests, rivers,
and neighborhoods into miles of poorly constructed, high profit, McMansions© filled with SUV
driving idiots - cell phones glued to one ear and completely oblivious to everything around them.
It has become the trend with local developers to remove all good heartwood, which may be sold
for profit, and leave diseased and dying trees behind for the new McMansion© homeowners to
contend with. A river of profit seeking human invaders has poured into my homeland, turning it into
nothing more than a shocking replica of Compton, CA. Crime, drugs, traffic, and hordes of rude,
opportunistic, garbage tossing humans have invaded my home. And they are NOT welcomed.

When Ryland Homes (as well as many other similarly bottom-line oriented developers) shows up
in your neighborhood, you can say good-bye to any hope of unrestrained free use of your home
and outdoor living areas. Songbirds, trees, flowers, and rolling hills of sparse density housing will
be soon replaced by rolling blankets of heat generated by miles of barren earth, tar and concrete.
Huge flocks of noisy, cackling black crows will descend to prey upon the tidal wave of fleeing
native wildlife, who perish due to competition and adverse conditions, leaving behind a legacy of skeletons which litter the landscape. The topsoil and trees will be removed and sold, leaving
behind a barren landscape of clay which resembles nothing more than the alien landscape of Mars.
The original topography of the land will be adversely modified, leaving erosion and rainwater run-off
difficulties. When the laborers complete their affairs and are shuttled back to "another part of town",
American Flags and colorful sales brochures will magically appear, followed by droves of invading
humans fleeing the polluted, depleted, burned-out industrial cities of yesteryear - and who are
totally resigned to complete this vicious destructive cycle in this new "land of plenty".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aerial Photographs of new development demonstrating the total deforestation and resulting blighted landscape.

Funny, how none of the native craftsmen in this area were employed to construct these
crackerbox houses they tout as representing their avaricious interpretation of
"our commitment to building quality and value into each of our homes".

This company utilizes illegal immigrant laborers to construct low quality homes after they have
raped the countryside by removing the trees and topsoil, and then has the unmitigated gall to
wave an American flag over their shoddy housing projects. I have personally watched as crews
of illegal Mexican workers roofed homes in one of their projects in the rain on Christmas Day.

Shady land and zoning "deals" with local governments hungering for increased tax revenues
coupled with ravenous development practices have left most of the areas they develop unfit for
habitation. Their continued exploitation of the land they develop and the use of non-native
home-building labor forces have earned them all a top position on my "better off dead" list.

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"Sport Utility Vehicles"

No trend in society occurring within the last 10 years has been near as overwhelming as the
proliferation of those ugly, inefficient, and deadly urban transportation models known as SUV's.
With even the finest major European luxury car manufacturers succumbing to the simple-minded
trends in American buying habits, no auto dealer's showroom is a safe haven from these poorly
designed, bastardized examples of faulty engineering and American wastefulness. During Easter
weekend of 2001, for example, there were no less than 6 deaths occurring locally which were attributable to mindless SUV drivers on cell phones and the inherent instability of SUV vehicles.
While I have begun to regard these deaths as Darwin in Action, the laws of natural selection have
extracted a cost in innocent lives which is unacceptable. As one "gentleman" swerved to avoid an
accident on I-285 and rolled his SUV across 8 lanes of traffic, another SUV driver lost control and
crossed the centerline - entering oncoming traffic, killing himself instantly and leaving the startled
driver of the Lumina he struck head-on in the ICU ward of the local hospital. While these vehicles
are frequently cited by their owners as "being safer than a car", the raw data has proven this
perception to be a complete fallacy. Additionally, defensive driving and accident avoidance is
a normal part of daily driving in any metropolitan area, and these vehicles should be banned from
the roads based upon their complete and inherent inability to perform satisfactorily in this regard.
When coupled with extremely poor gas mileage and high emission levels, they beg to be banned
from the overcrowded roadways of most metropolitan cities. I would hazard a guess that if these
beasts, generally carrying only ONE occupant, (frequently dizzy blondes on cell phones) were to
be banned nationally and replaced with more efficient vehicles, gas would drop to less than
$1.00/gal and air quality would rapidly increase significantly. I can do nothing but laugh as I pull
into the gas station and listen to these morons complain about the rising costs of gas needed to
fill and operate these living-room sized bricks. And of course, these vehicles are generally
operated at speeds which far exceed design safety factors and aerodynamic considerations.

The recent press coverage of the Ford Explorer rollover affair has been a whitewash of finger
pointing and public ignorance. The facts of the matter are as follows: A poorly designed vehicle
with a predisposed tendency to roll, coupled with cheaply made OEM "lowest bidder" tires,
improperly inflated, overloaded, and driven too fast by an ignorant public are the three major
contributors to these incidents. A comedy of errors and misconceptions that boggles the mind.

More to come...