BREAKING NEWS (well, sorta - to me anyway)

Air Taxes???

I'm sure everyone else has heard about this, but the government...in fact, many governments around the world have begun taxing CO2 emissions or may have been doing so for awhile. It seems they may go as far as making taxpayers pay for breathing it out.

The questions this raises obviously being shouldn't air be considered free?

It's kind of an inborn right, the whole ability to breathe it and everything, and it's not like you can safely breathe less. Should we be taxed for turning oxygen into CO2 through a process we can neither control nor change? It makes sense to tax major chemical plants or other manufacturers if they have high emissions of anything toxic...but to tax individual people? Sounds like a get rich quick scheme. Air is free moving. The air I breathe out may be in Timbuktu two seconds after I exhale. How am I to know? Does that mean I have to pay the Timbuktu government people just in case?

Will our pets face the consquences as well? Who pays for all the strays or those packs of wild horses that are in movies? What will become of paintball guns and CO2 cartridge car races?

And how are Al Gore and the Meteorologists dealing with this?

And why can't we/why aren't we doing something more reasonable to counteract our debt? Have all the reasonable options been taken by terrorists?

Lastly, for this sort of tax, what would be a protest equivalent to the Boston Tea party? Filling up balloons and then letting them fly?

Most likely, I am simply misunderstanding whatever this tax is supposed to be about. But if it is like I think it is then I think I raised some pretty good questions...sort of.

The Dichotomous Nature of Air pt.2

As this was never meant to be a serious blog (mostly because I doubt my ability to remain focused and severe) and using the previous post as an example of how skew my 'serious' thoughts are, I've determined to retreat to my original endeavour. So air shall be shown in all lights (or darks as it were), and I will refrain from the temptation of masking opinion with philosophical babble. Putting on airs is not for me, I find.

I will take this time though to discuss air a bit more...this post is technically supposed to be the second and final part to my explanation of air's dichotomy.

We find in all things an opposite. A monkey here, a not-monkey there (here a monkey there a monkey everywhere a monkey). And maybe that's the thing. If one can exist, so must the other and we must live with both. Air and not-Air. The confusing thing, the frustrating thing, is that one object or person may embody both opposites. Air is the hero, but Air is the villain. The most important thing I think, and I believe it makes up for inconsistency, is that by being both, Air sets itself up as the perfect scapegoat, because unlike most people or animals or plants it cannot defend itself. Basically, I can make all the Yo Mama jokes I want and Air won't be able to do a thing about it. Except possibly cause a mini-tornado or a real tornado or...mmh, maybe I'll refrain from the jokes for now.

The Dichotomous Nature of Air pt.1

This post should address recent comments about how I've both exalted and faulted air and hopefully explain my reasoning, logical and not.

Although technically composed of numerous elements (see definition 1), Air is a lesson in dichotomy. That's at least half the reason that I've chosen to personify it...the other half being that personification is a device used to get an audience to relate to an object, for if you cannot empathize you cannot realize (or some other such rhyming notion).

The other half, of course, being that it already possesses character traits similar to humans, i.e. dichotomy. In air, as in humanity, there is both evil and good, good and evil. Many people will argue that there is also a grey area, things cannot be simply black and white. There appears to be a murky area where evil bleeds into good or vice-versa, causing a major dilemma: the crisis of conscience. I will restrain myself from digressing further. The point is not what people think, but what we deem to be true; good and evil exist. The inbetween is debatable and grey, which makes it frustrating to talk about.

I'm not saying that Air is cognizant of its own doings (or that it's not). That would be immensely presumptuous, as well as preposterous (and other such '-ous'es). What I am saying is that we find it in both the good in our own lives as well as the bad; that it seems evil one moment and good the next. These characteristics of air can most easily be felt by going outside, although having a tempermental ceiling fan may cause a similar experience. A breeze can be relief on a hot summer's day or the first sign of an impending natural disaster. If something changes like the wind, it changes often and swiftly. That expression is also used to argue the weight of a changing or changed opinion as a symptom of a false character or poor moral fiber. But a steady opinion or a steady wind is not always good as it may be strong enough to lead off course and set you in the wrong direction.

More to the point (but not really), Air may be the breath of life, but it also carries disease, plague, and toxins.

Walking on Air

This is really cool! One of the best things about air is its transportation uses...For instance as a person with the ability to walk, I am constantly walking on air and you might be too! Yes, yes, I am aware that 'walking on air' is used as an expression for feelings of lightness brought on by some sort of happy event or occurrence HOWEVER technically, whether you are happy or not you are (whenever walking) walking on air BECAUSE your feet never actually touch the ground!

What?!

No, it's true, although you may choose NOT to believe. Reality is that you never actually touch the ground; your electrons and the surface's electrons play a magnetic field game of Pong so that you are in a constant hovering state. So what are you walking on? You guessed it: Air!

Global Warming

I don't know if I can, but (I'm going to anyway) I blame air for Global Warming. At first, I didn't want to believe it was capable of such a horrendous thing...At first, I most definitely blamed Al Gore and the secret association of meteorologists that need an excuse for not getting the forecast correct. Since then I've learned that not only did Al Gore invent the Internet, he actually won the presidential election...if you use imaginary numbers. Also meteorologists have to deal with a lot of stuff in their lives. It's not just pointing at a blue/green screen and smiling to the camera and wearing funny outfits. The stress actually causes many to lose their hair (or actually rip it out) and become a 'weather person' whose whole life revolves around their barometer and their 'pet rock' (aka weather rock); which is why if you are looking to be a meteorologist, remember to put BALD in bold type - it's one of the things news stations look for to save their cleaning crews the hassle.

Right, so as I was saying before I so rudely ranted my own opinion like I was writing on a blog or something, it's Air's fault that the World is getting overly warm. I've noticed especially recently a drastic increase in temperature which can ONLY be blamed on Air. It's Air's fault for trapping all those chlorofluorocarbons and for not creating enough ozone...I mean, we're doing our jobs: driving to work in SUVs, buying only processed and singularly packaged foods, cutting down trees to make way for bridges to nowhere, recycling a portion of the plastic that we use, spraying hairspray only in bathrooms where it cannot get to the atmosphere; and what is Air doing? You got it: causing Global Warming.

I, for one, am appalled.

Air

Since this is the first post I think I'll just go with the definition...and this is from Dictionary.com because I'm too lazy to use an actual dictionary:

AIR

–noun
1. a mixture of nitrogen, oxygen, and minute amounts of other gases that surrounds the earth and forms its atmosphere.
2. a stir in the atmosphere; a light breeze.
3. overhead space; sky: The planes filled the air.
4. circulation; publication; publicity: to give air to one's theories.
5. the general character or complexion of anything; appearance: His early work had an air of freshness and originality.
6. the peculiar look, appearance, and bearing of a person: There is an air of mystery about him.
7. airs, affected or unnatural manner; manifestation of pride or vanity; assumed haughtiness: He acquired airs that were insufferable to his friends.
8. Music.
a. a tune; melody.
b. the soprano or treble part.
c. an aria.
d. Also, ayre. an Elizabethan art song.
9. aircraft as a means of transportation: to arrive by air; to ship goods by air.
10. Informal. air conditioning or an air-conditioning system: The price includes tires, radio, and air.
11. Radio. the medium through which radio waves are transmitted.
12. Archaic. breath.

–verb (used with object)
13. to expose to the air; give access to the open air; ventilate (often fol. by out): We air the bedrooms every day.
14. to expose ostentatiously; bring to public notice; display: to air one's opinions; to air one's theories.
15. to broadcast or televise.

–verb (used without object)
16. to be exposed to the open air (often fol. by out): Open the window and let the room air out.
17. to be broadcast or televised.

–adjective
18. operating by means of air pressure or by acting upon air: an air drill; an air pump.
19. of or pertaining to aircraft or to aviation: air industry.
20. taking place in the air; aerial: air war.

—Idioms
21. clear the air, to eliminate dissension, ambiguity, or tension from a discussion, situation, etc.: The staff meeting was intended to help clear the air.
22. get the air, Informal.
a. to be rejected, as by a lover.
b. to be dismissed, as by an employer: He had worked only a few days when he got the air.
23. give (someone) the air, Informal.
a. to reject, as a lover: He was bitter because she gave him the air.
b. to dismiss, as an employee.
24. in the air, in circulation; current: There's a rumor in the air that we're moving to a new location.
25. into thin air, completely out of sight or reach: He vanished into thin air.
26. off the air,
a. not broadcasting: The station goes off the air at midnight.
b. not broadcast; out of operation as a broadcast: The program went off the air years ago.
c. (of a computer) not in operation.
27. on the air,
a. in the act of broadcasting; being broadcast: The program will be going on the air in a few seconds.
b. (of a computer) in operation.
28. put on airs, to assume an affected or haughty manner: As their fortune increased, they began to put on airs.
29. take the air,
a. to go out-of-doors; take a short walk or ride.
b. Slang. to leave, esp. hurriedly.
c. to begin broadcasting.
30. up in the air,
a. Also, in the air. undecided or unsettled: The contract is still up in the air.
b. Informal. angry; perturbed: There is no need to get up in the air over a simple mistake.
31. walk or tread on air, to feel very happy; be elated.

Origin:
1150–1200; ME eir < OF air < L āēr- (acc. āerem) < Gk āer- (s. of ār) the lower atmosphere; conflated with (especially for defs. 4 and 5) F air, OF aire nature, character < L ager field (cf. acre ) and ārea threshing floor, clearing, area; and with (for def. 7) F air < It aria aria

Related forms:
airlike, adjective

Synonyms:
2. See wind 1 . 5, 6. impression, aspect. 6. aura, demeanor, attitude. See manner 1 .



So now that you're nearly bored to death... Air is really important (which is why I decided to start this blog) and I think it provides a multitude of topics, least of which its many definitions.