My Fame Grows

So Marduk, the anti-Idiotarian (suggest his editors DELE the "anti") over at Babylonian Musings had this to say about my post yesterday re: my lawnmower:

A certain anti-war tool by the name of Todd rapturiously blogs about his new "Healthy Lawn" enviromentally-correct lawn-mower:

"Mowed the lawn with my new Neuton cordless electric lawnmower this afternoon. It's sweet."

Fascinating. I didn't know saying "sweet" was waxing rapturous, but whatever. He then ridicules my "wimpy" mower and shows pics of "solid, manly" mowers. Funny, but mine did do the trick. And here's the lone comment he got from his Idiotarian fan club:

I am always amazed at the greenies gullibilty...where the fuck does this asshat think the electricity to charge his "environmentally friendy" POS comes from? Oil and coal burning generation plants...Jeebus.

Shouldn't Todd be pushing a manual mower or grazing a goat? Not charging a "cordless" model.

Stupis is forever.

Just as the fuckwits in their overpriced Prius slogmobiles don't think about the production of batteries, one of the nastiest chemical soups-in -a-brick on the face of the planet...or battery disposal.

P.T.Barnum was right.

My response:

Actually, I know exactly where the electricity comes from, given my wife used to work for GreenMountain.com. The "green" issue is whether I use an inefficient 2-cycle mower, which is part of a distributed pollution problem, versus using power from generating plants that are single-point polluters and thus easier to make "clean". I also do use a manual mower. Further, I've chosen to only mow about 1/4 of my 2 acre plot.

From a more "form over function" POV, I actually like the fact that it's incredibly lightweight, whisper quiet, has mulcher and trimmer attachments, and I don't ever need to go get gas or oil.

In other words, Barnum's maxim doesn't enter into it. You might've learned that had you bothered to investigate my motivations instead of making assumptions about me. But perhaps that's unfair of me, because I've certainly made some about you based on your comment.

Anyway, thanks for the traffic. Lemme know if you ever want to borrow the Neuton, or a DR Field and Brush mower. Can't help you with the goat.

It's so nice to be noticed, even by a silly person. Guess I struck a chord (heh, bad pun intended). Anyway, he was so nice to send traffic my way, I can only return the favor.

ntodd

PS--He also takes Vaara over at Silt to task. I'm in good company!

[Update, 6:31PM: Ed over at Marduk's correctly called me on my comment about a two-stroke mower. My response:

Actually Ed, that was a brain fart on my part. My gas trimmer is 2-stroke, my gas mower is 4. There are still 2-fers out there, but I think they are generally older models (like the one my folks used to have). Serves me right for typing in a fit of pique...

See, we on the Left do admit to mistakes.

BTW, I'm blogging while eating a gardenburger (Stef's in town after her VPR on-air shift, so Cairo and I are on our own). It's a really tasty savory herb chicken flavored soy patty thingy. My wife has been buying this stuff forever, and I've always made fun of her for it--turns out, they're yummy! Bet that annoys Marduk's Idiotarian fanclub.]

['nother update: when my wife was cleaning out the garage this Fall, she found my old 2-stroke mower buried under some detritus in the corner. That'll be going to goodwill...]  ¶ 5:29 PM