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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Here’s a piece on the present-day controversy forwarded by the Republican vice presidential hopeful JD Vance to the effect that all women should have children.

I commented: Not to like kids? I wouldn’t say that’s natural.

… to which a reader replied: Kids can be super irritating.

LOL! Sorry to laugh, but I couldn’t help myself. Yes, I’ve had that experience, as a father, sports coach, and tutor. Yet kids need our assistance and compassion if they are to grow into mentally healthy adults and function well in our society. I urge everyone to make an effort to like and help children.

Let me add, for those too young to remember, that there was an extremely popular comedian in the early-mid 20th Century by the name of W. C. Fields, whose “schtick” as a performer was being as offensive and misanthropic as possible.  I.e., he meant this to be funny.
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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

The author of the meme here poses an excellent question.

I believe it will ultimately be shown that Putin had a great deal to do with this.  Russia benefits from a United States that is depleted morally, diplomatically, and economically.  An insane and autocratic leader who actively tried to overthrow the U.S. government is the biggest gift to Russia imaginable.

At the same time, the less controversial theories have weight as well, e.g., the devastated American educational system.  The whole concept of a Trump supporter, i.e., a voter who is incapable of seeing that the former is a pathological liar and conman, couldn’t have existed in any meaningful quantities until very recently.   Now we have people casting ballots who couldn’t find Ukraine on a map, or tell you what a virus is, or believe that the government controls the weather.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Americans’ human rights are under fierce attack from the far-right-wing.  At left is a warning concerning the right of women to make their own choices regarding their reproductive systems, but it just as well could have dealt with LGBTQs, Muslims, people of color, or immigrants.

We’re only a few weeks away from seeing how voters weigh in on these subjects.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

Right now, we are seeing a slow but steady increase in the recognition that our climate is warming due primarily to the consumption of fossil fuels.

However, as 81-year-old climate scientist James Hansen said recently, it’s possible that, in his own lifetime, we’ll experience a climate-related event so terrible that virtually no climate deniers will remain.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

An important part of the Republican party’s strategy going into the 2024 elections is to convince Americans that their country lies in ruins due to the incompetence of the Democrats in power. Unfortunately, this means amplifying every piece of bad news, and, in particular, telling bald-faced lies about important things like hurricane response.

Now, we have Republican leaders who are begging their team to drop this practice, because it’s damaging our government’s capacity to help its citizens in this time of emergency.

At left we see the governor of South Carolina; below is a senator of North Carolina.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Saptadip Pramanik submits this question and asserts that the answer is Aristotle.

Yes, he wrote “De Motu Animalia,” or, in English: “On the Motion of Animals.” But most of what he put forward there turned out to be simply incorrect. I love Aristotle as much as the next guy, but it’s hard to say that he was the “father of zoology.”

He was certainly the father of logic.  For that, he will be regarded, until the end of organized human civilization, as the man. Imagine codifying a field of study in ancient Greece, and having seen no corrections and very few improvements 2300 years later.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

How much misery can be created by inventing stories about Haitians’ eating Ohioans’ pet dogs and cats?  I don’t know, but it’s limited.

Trying to convince folks that climate change is a hoax, on the other hand, is deliberately creating a situation in which the resultant sufferings is virtually boundless.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

It’s very difficult to feel sympathy for those who get stung by Donald Trump and his well recognized habit of stiffing vendors.

Imagine that you’re the mayor of Minneapolis, MN and the Trump team wants you to open up a facility at which the former president can rally his base.

My response would be, “Of course.  You owe us $530K plus interest, and, for obvious reasons, we’ll want a 100% deposit for the next event.

“You might want to consider, however, that Trump is reviled here.  The reason he lost Minnesota by a whopping 7.1% in 2020 is that this isn’t Alabama or Oklahoma; it’s a state of well educated fair-minded people.  Why don’t you just send us the $530K and forget about going forward?  I’ll waive the interest, and you can take your business somewhere a bit more receptive to Trump’s message of hatred and ignorance.”

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

The author of the meme here has nailed something very important.

It’s the reason people sound so selfish and stupid when they say something like, “Oh, I’m not interested in politics.”  It’s just another way of of saying, “I don’t really care about my own welfare, and I certainly don’t care about my children’s.”

Moreover, it applies to any of dozens of types of evil.  Take “drill baby drill” as an example.  Big Oil would love to have every American in support of the extraction and consumption of fossil fuels.  And, as shown in the video below, they couldn’t care less about the consequences.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Perhaps the single strangest aspect to American political life today is that an entire party, one that not too long ago defined itself in terms of a strong military, now pays no attention to the observations of our top generals and admirals.

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