Part of the beauty of the societies of Scandinavia and most of the rest of the developed world is their understanding of the fact that a well educated populace tends to commit very few crimes.  Sweden, for example, is closing some of its prisons because they don’t have a sufficient number of inmates to justify keeping them open.

We here in the United States understand this principle as well, but we just don’t seem to care.  The building and running of prisons is a huge industry, and, at the same time, we’re hellbent on destroying public education.

Incarceration rates per 100,000 people:

United States: 716

Sweden: 96

 

 

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Many of us can remember the early days of renewable energy, and our concern that resources like solar and wind were intermittent.  Could such energy sources offer value even though they are not “baseload?”

Well, thirty years later grid operators have long since figured out how to integrate large amounts of solar and wind energy into the mix with no issues associated with reliability.

Moreover, homeowners with PV on their rooftops either have batteries for energy storage, or a grid connection, enabling them to have power 24/7.

One would have to think that this guy on Fox Business understands this, and that his reporting is counterfactual.

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As the physician points out at left, changing the ingredients in Coca Cola may not be the boon for Americans’ health it’s represented to be.

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Anyone who thinks that an ExxonMobil franchisee actually posted this sign is a fool. Big Oil’s only hope for extending its corrupt stream of wealth is via Trump’s policies, and his deceit, e.g., “Gas is under $2 / gallon.”

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I’m what’s called a democratic socialist, or social democrat — two synonymous phrases.  This means, in essence, that I hope the United States can join the rest of the developed world in extending certain benefits, like healthcare and education, to all our citizens, in the manner of most of Europe, Israel, Japan, and the rest.

Yet, to be honest, the meme here isn’t fair. Capitalism does have a real direction.  It’s making rich people richer and poor people poorer, and it occurs at the expense of human welfare and ecology, along with complete indifference to the world’s burning around us.

 

 

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There are lots of theories, some more plausible that others, that attempt to explain why  humankind has failed to make contact with extraterrestrial intelligence.

I’ve heard something similar to the cartoon here: that when ETs fly past Earth they lock their doors.

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I have to admit that if I walked into a store and saw someone not in uniform with an assault rifle strapped across his back, I would turn around and leave.

Our lives are in enough danger from ultra-right-wing stupidity without shopping with people who are carrying the types of weapons of war that are used in mass shootings on virtually a daily basis.

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There are some American actor/entertainers who support Trump, but, as suggested here, there aren’t too many of them.

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In a recent post, I wrote that the opinion of the woman at left has troubled me since I was three years old.

It’s worth noting that the history of religion and the study of theology take a completely different tack.  For example, it was the life’s work of Thomas Aquinas to prove the existence of God using Aristotle’s logic alone.

A few centuries later, Rene Descartes came along and laid down five different proofs that God exists.

An old professor of mine, a Jesuit priest, taught a class at Georgetown University that’s required for incoming freshmen.  It’s call “The Problem of God.”

I’ve always liked that, insofar as God does in fact pose a problem that all thinking people must solve for themselves.

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There are people who promise investors 10% per annum with no risk. They’re called “liars.”

These people will be in prison soon, but not before they take in fabulous amounts of money from total idiots.

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