As IF Times

link Our own extinction is forecast, but he’s going by dead reckoning | Herald Sun.

For the benefit of those 3 people hanging on to every pronouncement from this Professor Frank Fenner guy, the forecast of imminent extinction of homo sapiens is actually great news.  I can’t even begin to enumerate the useless industries that will go to zero and the corresponding businesses that will emerge as a result.

Firstly and foremost, the whole bustling business of global warming will collapse.  Since the end is only a hundred or so years out, there’s no need to preserve the planet, man won’t be around anyway.  Of course the immediate impact will be to thrust thousands upon thousands of lawyers and politicians out of work since we won’t need laws to protect the environment.  Sadly, protest sign makers and people who make a living transporting protesters back and forth will see their businesses go extinct as well.

The entire tax system can be revamped since no longer will we have to ding people to pay for infrastructure.  Existing bridges and roads will probably last most of the way to the next hundred years and if not, it won’t matter.  The real estate market may suffer a bit since no one will bother to buy something that will have no demand in a finite time.  The exception of course is waterfront property.  Even with the clock ticking, people still want the ocean view.  The banking business will go to zero, since no one’s going to bother to repay any loans.  The smart guys will try to get 110 year no interest mortgages with a balloon payment at the end.

While the first thought is that society will become more hedonistic and violent since a finite end is in place, the opposite may be true.  The religion racket will be huge since with everyone rushing to get to the next place, they’ll all want to get as good a spot as possible.  Naturally, all kinds of programs will be sold to allow people to get those coveted positions.  Living a benign life will probably score you some good spots in the next one.   Of course, there will always be those that won’t comply with the civility expected by society, but rather than having to waste time and  money incarcerating them, they’ll just all be shot.  Who has time to look after miscreants when the end is just over the horizon?

The popular obsessions  of navel gazing and celebrity worship will end along with the inane TV shows dedicated to them.  We won’t care about Tiger’s 24th love child or Kim Kardashian’s new diet. No more Ryan Seacrest. Everyone will be more focused on self amusement, not just in the prurient way, but in pursuits that really matter to themselves.  Golf will never be more popular.  Liquor sales will skyrocket.

History books and all manner of scholarly archives can be ignored since they will all be irrelevant.  Think of all the libraries and museums that can be emptied out and converted to low income housing.  The professions of archaeologists and historians will become effete pastimes like macrame or flower pressing since there is no need to discover where we came from.  Fortune telling may suffer a bit as well since “you have a bright future” is off the table.

The best thing that will happen is that we will not have to listen to the bleatings of professional doomsayers and handwringers anymore like this Fenner guy and of course Al, buy a waterfront home because water levels will rise, Gore.  Ok they were right, shut up already.

link AFP: Health experts rap World Cup fast food sponsorship.

Do gooders are scourges.  You can try to escape by enjoying some harmless entertainment such as watching a sporting event or concert, but still they come at you like ants at a picnic.  All you ask for is a simple break from the rigors of life and not have to deal with all the rules and restrictions that society places upon us.

In this article, ‘experts’ are attacking the sponsorship by Budweiser, Coca Cola and McDonald’s of the World Cup soccer tournament because they represent unhealthy food choices. Why don’t they just attack eating?

Those that think that spectator sports in general but soccer in particular should be venues associated with “healthy” eating are social nerwins whose idea of fun and excitement is to own the most recent game app for their Ipod.   Like most big scale sporting events, soccer is a stylized game of war in which fans express their tribal convictions fueled by alcohol and hedonistic fast foods.  That’s the way it is.  It is not the opera. It is not a spelling bee. It is not meant to be healthy.   The enthusiasm of any crowd would be seriously impeded if all they had to consume or throw at the players in disgust was iced tea and granola bars.  Besides, those kinds of products don’t have the ring of normal sports sponsors.  Can you imagine the ad guys trying to make, “The World Cup of Soccer, brought to you by Kellogg’s Bran Flakes” into a jingle?

A cynical person would think that all of this tsk tsking of these sponsors is really about not letting men have any enjoyment since most sports fans are men.  However, the story includes some statistics regarding, how shall we say, zaftig women as well.  In fact, the article states that:

“…A recent report by the national Heart Foundation found that 29 percent of South African men and 56 percent of women are overweight…”

If we accept that most sports fans are men and they would be the sponsors’ targets, what do tubby women  have to do with these food sponsors at a soccer game?  Clearly, the women are getting their bad food influences from somewhere else.  Perhaps from watching Oprah.  Therefore, all this sanctimonious babble is really anti-West or more particularly anti-American.  Are there any more iconic names in American consumer foods than Budweiser, Coca Cola or McDonald’s? Underlying the facade of urging people to eat “healthier” is a current of antipathy towards these representatives of American influence. 

Another line from the health gestapo is also amusing:

“…But it would be a great boost for public health around the world if FIFA could show real leadership on this issue by announcing it will not consider companies that promote unhealthy products as sponsors or partners in future…”

Really?  FIFA is regarded as a world trend setter and leader in social issues?  Like the NFL or NHL, or NBA, have these organizations been masquerading as sports organizations all this time?   Well if so, they must all be chastised for not paying enough attention to teen pregnancy, gay rights and global warming.  It must be galling to many that despite all efforts, the impact of America through their cultural influences, affect the world in so many far reaching ways, even in the most non American sports event, soccer.  I think it’s time for these companies to tell these modern day Gladys Crabbits’ to mind their own business and let people have some unfettered enjoyment in their lives.  Tell them to take their thinly veiled anti Americanism to France or Iran where they willingly accept that kind of propaganda. 

Or, they can drum up groups to sponsor their own PC events.  I suspect that the only sponsors interested would be wienie makers.