Politics and Religion


I talked about these taboo topics with brother Lou and daughter Karen today and I don’t think anyone came away resentful of the talk.


Karen was watching the debates and we discussed some of the candidates. She tracks that stuff more closely than I and I’d like to chat some more with her about them


Lou and I always talk about religion, but I made a comment today to the effect that it doesn’t matter who gets elected they all play the same game. Promises are made to fix problems but no problems are fixed. We still have poverty, drug problems, immigration issues, an education system that dumbs-down the electorate, an unpopular war, leaky borders, health insurance issues… and the list goes on. Legislation gets passed if it appears to be good for children or the new buzz - fights global warming.

I had to get on my global warming soapbox. It’s a great example of how the process works. There is no dispute that warming is occurring. It’s just that we don’t know that we are the cause or that cutting back our co2 output would do anything. Al Gore’s wonderful chart showing the correlation of global warming and co2 looks good but falls apart on close examination. There are periods where warming preceded the rise in co2 by hundreds of years. Regardless of the facts the media and a majority of the voters assume our co2 is the problem and that opens the door for lots of power games. Things that make people feel good and make them think that they are doing good.


Example 1; Ban those energy sucking incandescent bulbs. We can save a bunch of energy (translates into less co2) if all our lights were energy saving fluorescent bulbs. Oh, by the way, the bulb manufacturers (Westinghouse and G.E….) make more money on the bulbs. All fluoresscent lamps, contain small amounts of mercury and it is a concern for landfills and waste incinerators where the mercury from lamps may be released and contribute to air and water pollution. (and the quality of light is crappy).


On the other hand the government is mandating the change to digital television broadcasts in a little over a year. This benefits the electronics industry because it opens up more frequencies and better bandwidths widening their potential product base. That’s more profit for them. Oh, by the way an LCD TV uses 75% more power than a conventional one and a plasma TV uses a whopping 300% more. If you’ve ever stood in front of one in an electronics store (can’t afford to buy one or operate one) it’s like standing in front of a fireplace. So change to fluorescent but don’t miss out on HD.


Example 2: Burn ethanol in your car to rid us of dependence on foreign oil. Oh, by the way, it is inefficient and creates more co2 because of the transportation required. Corn prices are rising all over the world causing basic food items to drain the poor even more. Grain stores are the lowest ever and world population is not shrinking.


We can better spend our money adapting rather than wasting it on non-solutions. The beauty of global warming is that we can believe we are doing good and commit resources but we won’t be around to know if it did any good. Be ready for loosing more of your precious resources to the global warming political footprint.


OK, I’ll get off my soapbox.


Today we did our normal Saturday visit to Waffle House and then to Lowe’s. We found a great deal at Lowe’s. They were having a 50% off sale and we found a 27’ 6-drawer rolling tool cart which listed for $287- was marked down to $258 and sold for $129. It’s a heavy sucker and Penny and I struggled a little to get it in the CRV. Just as we finnishe I looked up and a guy was coming over to help us. We thanked him, but we didn’t need him. It’s just good to know that there are those people out there.


I finally finished cleaning out the shed. I filled 5 large trash bags full of stuff. It took me about 2 days longer to get to this point than I expected. Tomorrow I start putting stuff back in. I hope that process goes faster. It should, but I know better than to make estimates. Rain is supposed to hold off for 2 more days so that’s when I must have things covered up.

Kitty Update- The feeder continues to work. This design has proved to be reliable. I do need to clean it up and lubricate the motor every 3-4 weeks, but I think we can leave for up to 3 weeks and have it feed reliably. On the downside we haven’t seen Bianca in 2 days. She is usually around all morning and then in the evening for feeding time. She also is the only cat I’ve seen in the front yard and across the street in the neighborhood. Hopefully she will show up again. I almost got to where she would let me pet her. – Well, I just looked outside and there was Bianca (and Velcro, Meredith and Buzz) so all is normal in the kitty world.