Sunshine and Light

Accountability (Updated 3/8)

Ok, love Gore or hate him, this column in the Sun Times points out something that has bothered me since the advent of “carbon offsets”. The basic idea of carbon offsets is that it’s ok for you to drive that H2, as long as you pay for someone somewhere else to use a more environmentally friendly form of energy. It's ok to be a self-centered high energy consuming jerk as long as someone else somewhere else uses low energy.


When we went to Brugge last year, one of the things they were pointing out were little courtyards. Each one had 4 or 6 tiny little "almshouses" surrounding a small chapel. (each little red door in this picture was a separate house) They were very popular around the time that Brugge was booming back in the 1100s and 1200s (I think. Someone can check my dates). The basic idea was the rich were too busy getting rich to actually pray for their souls. So they would get homeless people to live in their little courtyards and pray for the rich person’s soul every day. This way the rich person could be a lying, cheating, self-centered jerk on earth and still go to heaven. Which made a lot of us on the tour laugh derisively.


Anybody else see similarities?

Update: Spanky passed along a couple of really funny related links that should be mentioned. Click Here and Here

posted by MyHusbandRules @ 10:35 AM