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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I’ve mentioned my fondness for A Word a Day, presented by the noted linguist Anu Garg. Not only is it good for the vocabulary, it includes a “thought for the day” which is generally quite interesting.

Here’s today’s from -Ivo Andric, novelist, Nobel laureate (9 Oct 1892-1975)

From everything that man erects and builds in his urge for living, nothing in my eyes is better and more valuable than bridges. They are more important than houses, more sacred than shrines. Belonging to everyone and being equal to everyone, useful, always built with a sense, on the spot where most human needs are crossing, they are more durable than other buildings and they do not serve for anything secret or bad. 

I thought this was particularly meaningful, given the range of hostilities present around the world.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Anywhere there is a buck to be made, regardless of how morally debased one has to be in order to participate in it, there will be people stooping to it.

Some sell heroin; others traffic little kids into sexual slavery.

Does it come as a surprise that this guy profits off the fear of our nation’s most ignorant people?

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Carl Sagan left us in 1996.

If this is what he thought while he was still on this planet, it’s hard to imagine the pity and contempt with which he would regard this nation in its current mentally defective condition.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I ran into a plumber just now, who, when the subject of environmental sustainability came up, explained that his pet peeve is our society’s lack of concern about the use of potable water for applications in which “gray water” would do just fine.  Examples include flushing toilets and lawn irrigation.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business
From Rutherford B. Hayes, President of the United States (1877-1881):
“In church it occurred to me that it is time for the public to hear that the giant evil and danger in this country, the danger which transcends all others, is the vast wealth owned or controlled by a few persons. Money is power. In Congress, in state legislatures, in city councils, in the courts, in the political conventions, in the press, in the pulpit, in the circles of the educated and the talented, its influence is growing greater and greater. Excessive wealth in the hands of the few means extreme poverty, ignorance, vice, and wretchedness as the lot of the many.”
Here we have the rationale for overturning the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision “Citizens United,” which grants corporations the right to spend as much money as they wish to control the outcome of our elections and insure total control over our lawmaking processes.
Will such a measure be sufficient to right the ship? Of course not, but it’s a great first step, to be taken along with restoring the taxation of the rich and corporations that we had before the “trickle-down economics” hoax of the Reagan era.
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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Silver and gold are “God’s Money?”

Think about that for a second.  God prefers precious metals, and uses them in all His financial transactions?

In particular, does He need us to have and use money of any kind?

Seems to be be a great number of asinine assumptions here.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Could this be, oh, I don’t know, a LIE??

I wonder if this is a ploy to dissuade civil litigation against him for defamation. His baseless claims that election workers rigged the voting in 2020 would be worth tens of millions of dollars in compensatory and punitive damages.

Along with Trump himself, he’s one of the scummiest people ever to have walked the Earth.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

2GreenEnergy supporter Gary Tulie writes from his home in Buckinghamshire (near London), England:

I remember a while ago speaking to an auditor whilst on a hike, and they were saying how to preserve their reputation for impartiality, and guard against any perception of bias, or coming under influence, they would refuse anything beyond basic water, tea, and coffee (instant not Costa) whilst carrying out their work. For them, receiving so much as a cookie or a company biro (ballpoint pen) open the door to reputational risk. If only senior politicians and judges would abide by similar ethical standards, the world would be a very different place!

Yes. What we have here in the States is an embarrassing mess.

FWIW, I still don’t understand why we need special rules to govern the conduct of our justices.  We already have laws against corruption and bribery that apply to every U.S. citizen.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

In this video, Tucker Carlson asks why Trump’s detractors hate him so deeply.

He says, in summary, that it’s because Trump says what he thinks, that he will not be controlled, and things change as a result.

This is a blend of pabulum and pure excrement.

My answer, and I think I speak for most Americans, is that:

a) Like all citizens, Trump has the right to say whatever he wants as long as the act of speaking itself doesn’t constitute crime, which it often does, e.g., incitement to commit violence, obstructing justice, etc.

b) More to the point, we deeply resent that U.S. politics is largely driven by a pathological liar and sociopathic criminal. We simply need to bring him to trial under the four indictments that have been handed up, convict him, and remove him from civil society.

Will this restore our nation to where it was 10 years ago?  Of course not.  But it’s the first step.

We mustn’t normalize criminal behavior, just because it appeals to a group of hateful idiots.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Part of the frustration associated with life in the 21st Century U.S. is the feeble understanding most Americans have of the socio-economic systems of the world.

In particular, neither pure capitalism nor pure communism exists anywhere on the face of the globe.

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