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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

We’ve been having this discussion for at least 100 years.  How is it possible that two siblings with essentially the same DNA and the same home environment can be such different people?

In the 18th Century, British philosopher John Locke proposed his theory of tabula rasa, “blank slate,” suggesting that, when we’re born into this world, we bring with us exactly zero in terms of what will later become our unique selves. Few if any of us believe that today.

But what precisely do we believe?

Spiritualists assert that each individual has its own “basic personality,” perhaps deriving from our past lives.

Biologists who specialize in this arena are investigating epigenetics, the concept that we have genetic information that causes elements of our genome to either be expressed or not.

Many questions remain.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

The point being made here is a good one.  Moreover, the 40% (or whatever the exact number is) largely consider themselves the most astute observers within our population.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

The chart below provides letter grades for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia with respect to the physical safety of the LGBTQ community.

Sorry to see my home state (Pennsylvania) with a D.  But, as they say, “Pennsylvania is Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, with Alabama in between.”

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Not sure how impressed Goethe would be with present-day U.S. politics.

We grow ignorance as if it’s corn; we cultivate it like we would a clone of a fabulous pinot noir; we nurture it as if it were a newborn baby.

And the reason is simple.  Big Money doesn’t gain a nickel from the presence of a more sophisticated, more informed, better educated populace.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Aldous Huxley is not the only author/philosopher to warn our society not to avoid dealing with whatever harsh truths we may encounter.

To what does this concept best apply in today’s world?  Well, for one, our educational standards continue to decline, because we’re unwilling to invest in more and better teachers.  In turn, this causes an electorate that is easily fooled by liars, and generations of people who are ill-equipped in the global marketplace.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Newsweek’s article on the low level of ethics within the U.S. Supreme Court begins:

In his upcoming memoir, retired Judge David S. Tatel wrote that he stepped down from his position on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit due to the U.S. Supreme Court‘s “low regard” for judicial principles, according to a Friday report by The Washington Post.

Though it seems that our country’s abandoning its integrity happened entirely in the last 10 years, that can’t possibly be the case.  Clarence Thomas is the oldest and longest standing justice. Do you think he went bad just a few months ago?

Scandals in corporate America, e.g., Wells Fargo’s choice to defraud millions of its clients, Enron, Bernie Madoff, and the dozens of banksters associated with the sub-prime loan collapse, go back many decades.  In fact, the Wikipedia page on the subject lists the collapse of the Medici Bank in the 15th Century as an early example of malfeasance.

All that said, there is no doubt that the Trump phenomenon has brought about an avalanche of dishonesty, just in the last few years, given that the president himself is a convicted felon, and feels precisely zero remorse for his criminal actions.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Many Americans hope that Trump leaves the country forever, or pray that he gets hit by a bus or dies of a heart attack.

The issue that all these folks are missing is this:  Losing the opportunity to prosecute Trump for the myriad crimes he committed against all Americans and the people of the world will prevent us from proving that the former president is a criminal sociopath who sent the United States of America into a period of great darkness.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Is our country bigger than one man?

For almost 250 years, it would have occurred to precisely no one to even ask that question.  Now, it’s front and center.

Love the illustration here.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I’m afraid I have bad news.  If there is a legal mechanism by which we can arrive at the “new rule” discussed here, it will have to pass muster with the supporters of Donald Trump, the world’s most famous convicted felon, and that doesn’t sound too likely.

What seems to have bitten us in the butt here is it never entered into the minds of the framers of the Constitution that Americans would someday be enthusiastic about putting a felon in the White House; otherwise they would have written it into Article 2, Section 1, Clause 5, along with “the President must be at least 35 years of age, be a natural born citizen, and must have lived in the United States for at least 14 years.”

Or maybe it did enter their minds, but they thought, “If future Americans are that ignorant and demented, they’ll get exactly what they deserve.”

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

At left is what I find so amazing (and disgusting) about what the Republican party has become since Trump came to power.  There is not even the vaguest attempt to accomplish something that is “right” and “moral.”

It’s about tax cuts for the wealthiest and most powerful individuals and corporations, kicking millions of people off healthcare, killing women’s rights, and removing environmental regulations so that the fossil fuel industry can bake the planet.

Check out the contrast here to when Ike was president.

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