Effective Direct Air Carbon Capture will not be Perfected in Time

   It's like magic: The plant sucks the air from the sky into large containers, where the carbon is removed by passing the air through filters. Then -- presto -- the carbon is turned into a liquid and pumped underground where it is no longer harmful.
   It's a technology that needs to be refined if the world's carbon balance is ever to reach net zero. But currently the technology is removing but a miniscule amount of carbon. Keep polishing the direct air carbon capture plants, but don't quit developing more wind farms, and solar farms, and geothermal plants. Direct air carbon capture isn't going to reach a point where it brings us down to net zero on anywhere near the time frame that is necessary.

(Index -- Climate change info)
   

No Red Flag Law was Needed to Haul Maine Killer off to Jail

    With all the discussion going on about whether Maine should have a Red Flag to stop mass killers such as Robert Card, one thing is going unnoticed: Making a terroristic threat is against Federal law. You don't need a Red Flag law, you just need to enforce the law against making a terroristic threat.
   As soon as reports started coming in warning that Card was threatening the death of others, he should have been hauled straight off to jail.
   A fellow guardsman in the National Guard unit in which Card served warned that Card was going to snap and commit a mass murder. That should have been enough. Haul him off to jail.
   And, Card should have been booted out of the Guard, and his military issue weapons taken away from him.
   Those are two things that should have been done. They weren't. Why not?

When Fisticuffs Become Gun Fights, Broken Noses Become Murders

   Fist fights escalate into mass murders when guns are invited. And, if half of Texas has guns, half of the fist fights are going to become gun fights.
   It's called escalation. And, if you tell everyone to go out and buy a gun, guess what you're going to get?
   At a party Saturday in Texarkana, Texas, three people were killed and three others injured. "Apparently, this all started when a fist fight broke out between two men at a party," the Texarkana Texas Police said. "At some point during this fight, at least two men there pulled out rifles and started shooting." 
  If one man has a gun, another pulls out his. And what should have resulted in no worse than a broken nose ends up in a macabre Halloween scene.
   America allows the proliferation of guns, even encourages it. We aren't too smart. We can't do anything about that, we call as someone is hauled off in a hearse. Guns are a God-given right.
  Are they? One wonders if God is really on the side of the gun advocates.
   

Israel's Plan to Rescue the Hostages is Admirable, but is it Possible?

  Never trust a war to go down the way it is outlined. At least, have reservations this time as Israel plans to rescue the hostages being held by Hamas. There are reportedly as many as 230 of those hostages, although some reports suggest about 50 of them have already been killed by Israeli air attacks as Israel in an effort to soften the enemy in preparation for a ground attack.
   Freeing the hostages is an admirable goal and would be a major achievement. But how do you go in, guns a blazing, to kill Hamas without Hamas using the hostages as human shields?
   Some are suggesting it is wiser to rely on diplomatic efforts. War kills, but diplomacy saves. Egypt and Qatar have been leading efforts to free the hostages and that has resulted in four being released already.
   But never trust a war to go down in line with the way it is drawn up. Just as Israel might not be able to save many of the hostages, So also might those calling for diplomacy be wrong. It could be that Hamas has released but a small sample of the hostages just to persuade the world that they will release all of them.
   Hamas is likely trying to buy time. And, if it could, it probably would try to swing a deal releasing all the hostages in exchange for Israel promising it will drop the land assault altogether. Another suggestion is that Hamas releases the hostages in exchange for the Hamas prisoners held by Israel. Hamas proposed that Saturday, and it is a proposal that should be given the highest consideration.
   War might not always go down as planned, but if you weigh all the possibilities, you are more likely to reap the planned result. 

 

Maine is an Outlier; the Lewiston Shooting was an Anomaly

   Not every state that has permissive gun laws has a lot of mass shootings. Not every state where nearly half the households have guns has a lot of mass shootings. Take Maine, where the latest mass shootings took place; it is an exception.
   You can try to figure it out by noting folks in Maine use their guns for hunting and recreation. You can bring up the fact Maine is a state dominated by Democrats. Still, that doesn't overturn the norm that states with lax gun laws and high gun ownership don't normally escape mass shootings. Yet, there it is, before the Lewiston shootings, there wasn't even a history of mass shootings in Maine. It's a state with a low gun homicide rate. Go figure, as they say. 
 

If the Gun is to Blame, Blame the Gun

   Of course you don't want mass shootings, but don't try too hard to narrow the cause to just one thing.
For there is one thing -- the gun, itself,  that is the prime cause, albeit it isn't the only factor.
   This meme takes the opposite approach:
   "Uvalde shooter: Mentally ill
   "El Paso shooter: Mentally ill
   "Parkland shooter: Mentally ill
   "Lewiston shooter: Mentally ill
   "Nashville shooter: Mentally ill
   "Ft. Hood shooter: Mentally ill
   "Sandy Hook shooter: Mentally ill
   "Virginia Tech shooter: Mentally ill
   "Tyrants: America has a gun problem"
   Take that meme to heart and you will conclude mental illness is the problem, and anyone who tells you it is the gun is a tyrant.
    Just the same, it is the gun. The gun is the one thing ALL shootings have in common. You can break it down and note what a high percentage of the shooters are mentally ill, or are current or past members of the military. You can point out that five of the most deadly mass shootings in the last ten years were in gun-loving Texas, and you can let it known that there are a high abundance of shootings in gun-toting Florida. You might even want to point out how few mass murders there are in California, which just happens to have tight gun control laws.
   But, one thing ties them all together: the gun. The gun is available to the mentally ill. When they go crazy, it is the gun that is ready for them to use. Military men are trained to kill, and it is the gun that they are trained to kill with. Gun-happy folks in Texas and Florida have guns waiting in their closets, and in their bedrooms, and in their pickup trucks. And it is the gun they turn to when they get overly angry.
  Horror writer Stephen King posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, in the aftermath of the Maine shootings: " This is madness in the name of freedom. Stop electing apologists for murder." King, who lives not far from where the Maine shootings took place, is right. The politicians insist owning guns is part of their freedom. There comes a point, though, when there are too many guns out there, and there comes a point when the right of some people to own a gun should be curtailed.

Does Mike Johnson's Election Show how Far America has Fallen?

  He played a role in promoting Trump's effort to turn over the 2020 election. He is for Big Oil. He is a climate change denier. He once was against military assistance for Ukraine and still isn't fully onboard helping Ukraine. What more could you want in a speaker of the House? He is a member of the Freedom Caucus. It is no wonder Republicans unanimously endorsed him.
   Mike Johnson is one of the more extreme members of Congress. It is no wonder Trump spoke highly of him. That he was unanimously voted for by Republicans shows one of two things, and maybe both: 1) They were anxious to get the House functioning again and embarrassed that it was shut down so long. 2) House Republicans are all such dogmatic extremists that it reflects how far our nation has given way to the far right.

The Rise and Fall of the Electric Car

    In the early days of the automobile, the electric car was massively popular. Then came Henry Ford’s Model T, which was introduced in 1908. It was it that dealt the initial blow to the poor electric car. Since it was mass-produced, the T became became widely available -- and affordable. By 1912, the gasoline car cost only $650, while an electric roadster sold for $1,750. Then came the electric starter, introduced by Charles Kettering, it made the gas car more convenient by eliminating the need for the hand crank.

   The onslaught was on. Other developments followed. By the 1920s, the U.S. had a better system of roads connecting cities, and Americans wanted to get out and explore -- and that  meant going further than the electric car could hope to go. Then, with the discovery of Texas crude oil, gas became cheap and readily available for rural Americans, and filling stations popped up across the country. In comparison, very few Americans outside of cities had electricity.

  Alas, with so many blows raining down on it, by 1935 the electric vehicle had all but disappeared.

(Index -- Climate change info)

Remember the Largest Volcanic Explosion in Recorded History

 Remember the eruption of the Hunga Tonga Hunga-Ha'apai Volcano in January, 2022. It was far more powerful than the largest nuclear bomb test in history. It was 500 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The plume from the volcano reached 36 miles into the sky. Shockwaves were reported as going around the Earth four times in Japan and Utah. It sparked intense lightning activity. It sent tsunami waves around the world that killed at least four people in distant spots. Its ashes contaminated 21 beaches in Peru. Gases from the explosion reduced the Ozone by 5 percent.

(Index -- Climate change info)

Almost 2,500 Papers Show that Fracking Should be Abandoned

  You would expect that if a process used about 1,000 chemicals, some of them would be carcinogens and the process would be dangerous.
  That process is fracking, and it is harmful to human health. Fracking is used to push natural gas out of the ground. Unfortunately, it contaminates the water it seeps into.
   The ninth edition of a compendium of research released today documents almost 2,500 papers providing evidence that fracking has a wide range of negative impacts on human health.
   If we were operating with concern for such a report, we would shut down all fracking operations. Unfortunately, that is not going to happen. Natural gas companies are making too much money to let go of fracking. 

(Index -- Environment)

To Counter the Lies of Their Muslim Leaders

   The battle of public opinion looms as large as the battle on the battlefield. If you win this battle, the war will be over. So, one wonders what the U.S. is doing to win the hearts of the Muslim world. You might suggest there is nothing than can be done. They are too dogmatic, too indoctrinated, too stooped in lies. But it is a war we must face, anyway. If you refuse to go to war, the enemy wins. U.S. and Israel should activate efforts on social media to tell the truth and to sell the truth.
   And counter the lies of the adversary.

Here is Mike Lee, a Man Who Should Never have been Elected

Here is Mike Lee, the man who suggested the best way to fight global warming would be to have everyone have more babies, the man who declared the way to save the Great Salt Lake would be to build more dams, thus preventing water from reaching that endangered and disappearing lake. Good logic, there, Mike.

Here is Mike Lee, the man who called Donald Trump a modern-day Moroni (Moroni is a figure in the Book of Mormon, a scripture of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). Here is Mike Lee, the man who sought to overthrow a U.S. election by setting up alternative electors in various states. "If a very small handful of voters were to have their legislators appoint alternative slates of delegates, there could be a path (to overturning the election)" he said.

It is amazing that Utah's voters continue to send him to Washington as their senator. It is appalling that he has become one of the leading people in the senate.

If there were a hall of infamy for current American leaders, he would surely be in it.

It Would Take 54 Countries to Move the Polar Bear

 There never have been polar bears at the South Pole. The polar bear evolved from the brown bear, and went north to the North Pole, but not to the South. Since the Arctic is melting much faster than is Antarctica, there is talk of saving the polar bear by relocating it to the South Pole. Unfortunately, that won't work. The penguins at the South Pole would be eaten up. Plus, Antarctica is governed by a treaty between 54 countries. All 54 would have to sign off on accepting the polar bear.

(Index -- Climate change info)

Next Election, Voters Should Toss Those Representatives Out of Office

  When you elect someone to office -- any office, but in this case, speaker of the House -- it should be because they are the best person for the position. You should pick the best person for the job, not base your vote on intimidation backroom deals extending favors in order to get you vote.
   And the vote for speaker of the House waits while vital votes are needed now to fund the U.S. and to provide assistance to Israel. The House of Representatives should not be holding up the needs of the nation with their squabbling and infighting. They are derelict of their duty.     When you shame the nation this way, next election the voters should toss you out of office.

U.S. or UN Airlifts Could Save the Gazans

   If the Gazans can be rescued, they should be. Could an airlift bring in power generators to serve the hospitals, saving newborns and other suffering patients? Could the displaced Gazans be airlifted out, not to be returned until the conflict is over?
   It could be the U.S. or it could the UN that conducts the airlifts. How many hundreds or thousands of people could be saved if such an effort were undertaken.

Free the Gazans

   Gazans should be granted self-determination. They should be allowed to vote for whether they want to remain under Hamas control, become an independent state, or become part of the state of Israel.

Is Israel's goal to make Gaza a democratic part of the state of Israel? If so, Israel should be doing all it can to win the hearts of the Gazans. Such things as starving them do not fall in that category. Cutting off electricity, thus turning hospitals into morgues, does not fall into that category. Bombing the civilians who have went south does not fall into that category. If Israel does not curry the favor of the Gazans, they won't vote to become part of Israel.

Democatic states such as the U.S. commonly seek to free the people of other nations. Israel should follow suit.

  The Israeli-Hamas war is a complex affair, with many different things going on. We must isolate each thing and look at it on its own merits as we try to determine which side is commiting more war crimes. Can the northern-most Gazans move southward? Is Israel starving the populace? Is Israel justified in preventing electricity to the hospitals, in essense turning them into morgues? Should the populace be allowed to escape into Egypt and wouldn't that allow Hamas to also escape? What of today's report that U.S. Intel did receive warnings? Did it pass them on to Israel? What of the surprise (to me) announcement that Israel is conducting a drone attack on Hezbollah locations? Has the U.S. (through President Biden and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin) warned Israel against commiting its own atrocities? Has Israel responded to those pleas? Were the wounded babies targeted or were the wounds inflicted from shrapnel? Some things, though, are not in question. Most nations recognize Gaza as the legitimate government, but was the 2006 election that made it so meant to be permanent. Were the Gazans dupped into supporting Hamas? Israel is to be commended for the leaflet drops warning the Gazans. Hamas is using the Gazans as a human shield. Hamas targeted civilians, including those at the music festival, and it hunted down the survivors.

We Need Our Lipstick, We need Our Crayons

 Make the shift, America. Quit importing oil altogether and switch to green energy. But, don't get out of the oil industry altogether. Utilize your own oil, but not for energy.
   Waxes, plastic, synthetic rubber, lipstick, perfume, makeup, eyeglasses, contact lenses, crayons, heart valves, car tires, and would you believe even aspirin. Those are among the items derived from petroleum. We need them.
   But, instead of importing petroleum from these products, stick to using American oil. There is a war in the Middle East, in Israel to be exact, and it has revealed the danger of relying on petroleum from our enemies.

(Index -- Climate change info)

War Crimes are War Crimes, Even When It is Israel Committing Them

    There are grave concerns that Isreal is responding to Hamas's atrocities with atrocities of its own. We should be just as concerned. We should condemn Israel's atrocities as quickly as we condemn those of Hamas.
   Israel has ordered the starvation of those in Gaza. Reportedly, food, water and essentials necessary for survival are not to be allowed in. Starvation of civilians is a war crime. It also violates Israeli Defense Forces' code of conduct, which says Israel's soldiers shall "above all, preserve human life." Israel is using the logic that since Hamas are "savages" all restraints against them must be removed.
   Israel's harsh and inhumane tactics are reminiscent of the beliefs of Donald Trump. When it comes to terrorists, he said while president, "you have to take out their families."
   President Joe Biden has countered such conduct, telling Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that democracies "are stronger when we act according to rule of law. Terrorists purposely target civilians, and kill them. We uphold the rule of law. It matters. There's a difference."
   Biden's is the voice of reason. We should listen to it.

It Doesn't Need to be the Speaker of the House

   Since Kevin McCarthy was removed from the speakership, the House of Representatives has become disfunctional, inoperative.
   It need not be that way.
  The Constitution says the speaker shall be chosen by the House members, but it does not say it is he who must call the House to order, allow members to deliver remarks, decide if there's a quorum so business can be conducted, decide which bills shall be voted on, and appoint the parliamentarian and historian.
  Yet we are acting as if the House speaker must be tthe conductor all those duties.
  It just isn't so.
  To return the House from its disfunctional, inoperative form, simply have the temporary speaker, the vice president or someone else conduct the duties. The Constitution doesn't say who can fill in, so just select someone to do it.

Tell Bill Gates and Nuclear, No, No, No

 I'd nix nuclear energy. I'd take Bill Gates and the others who want to build nuclear plants and tell them, no, no, no.
  1.) Too expensive.
  2.) The mining causes lung cancer in a high share of the miners.
  3.) Too high of emissions in the mining and emissions. 
  4.) It takes too long to put them up, 10-19 years compared to only 2-5 for wind and solar.
  I could change my mind. But it would require some of these things to turn out to be inaccurate. I'm not expecting that.

(Index -- Climate change info)

No, You Never Realized the Ice was Melting this Fast

You already knew ice at our South Pole was melting fast, but you never realized it was going this fast. Through mid June, the melt for 2023 amounted to an area the size of Alaska.

Nor is the North Pole doing well. The rate of melting indicates it might not even have any ice when 2040 arrives.

Blame what forces might be. Is it warm waters from the north mixing in with Antarctic waters, causing them to melt faster?

About 30 percent of the sun's heat is reflected back into space by our ice cover. Take that away and global warming will only increase.

Mankind has little time to act. If we are to save such grave amounts of ice from melting away, we must move on it now. You thought we had another 25 years to respond to climate change.

You were wrong.

(Index -- Climate change info)

This Meme Attacking Wind Farms is Inaccurate

I spotted this meme attacking wind farms on social media today: "Ponder this for a moment. The wind farm in Mt. Pulaski has been running for 3 1/2 years. They have been replacing the generators in all the wind towers. There are 100 of them in this wind farm. So evidently the life span on the generators on these things is about 3 to 4 years. It takes 12 semi trucks and trailers, a 9 axle 50,000 pound crane and 12 pickup trucks to change each generator. That is a huge amount of deisel fuel being used to maintain these wind towers. And the "Green groups" would like You to believe they are all fueled by magic fairy dust." 
To set the record straight:
1) Wind turbines last 20 to 25 years, not 3 to 4 years as the meme indicates.
2) Zero generators had needed to be replaced on the Mt. Pulaski wind farm in its 3 and 1/2 years of operation. Zero. Instead 17 gearboxes were switched out due to defects.
3) Maintenance is required about twice a year, with all important mechanical and electrical assemblies being checked. The oil does, indeed, need to be changed.
4) Wind farms do not release any emissions, and since it is emissions that are causing climate change, wind turbines are not contributing to that. If we want to fight climate change, wind farms are one of our best power alternatives.

(Index -- Climate change info)

This Morning's Attack on Israel Sends Shivers Through the World

 

No less than 22 people have died. Another 500 plus have been injured. This morning's Hamas attack on Israel is the deadliest, most brutal in years.

And, it might only get worse.

The attack was unleashed on the 50th anniversary of the start of the Yom Kipper War.

Rocket after rocket showered upon the Israeli people, more than 2,200 missiles by one count and more than 5,000 by another.

And, as we said, it might get worse. A chief Hamas officer, Mohammed Deif, called on "the resistance fighters in the West Bank" as well as "our Arab and Islamic nations" to join in the assault. "This is the greatest battle to end the last occupation on Earth," Deif said.

"Everyone who has a gun should take it out," Deif said. "The time has come."

"We've decided enough is enough," Deif said. Another Hamas spokesperson said "the international community" has inflicted atrocities on the citizens of Gaza for decades.

In June, Amnesty International suggested Israel committed war crimes in fighting the month before in the Gaza Strip.

Another group, the Human Rights Watch, says there have been more than 50 years of abuses by the Israelis.

If the international community -- specifically the United Nations -- has not ruled on the alleged atrocities in the past, it should hurry to a conclusion. In the meantime, the two sides should cease fire and restrain themselves from warring against each other.

Nor is it justified that war should resume. The verdict of the international court should be accompanied by appropriate punishments. Those penalties -- not war -- should be the result.

What If Our Leaders Never Considered Anything Without Praying

 What if our leaders were praying leaders? What if they approached every vote with a prayer to God, asking what God would have us do? 

These prayers need not be in the meetings. They do not need to take place in the halls of Congress. Prayers in secret and in their homes would be every bit as effective. 

 And, let them pray to whatever God they believed in. Not everyone of our nation's leaders believes in the Christian God. 

   If  there is a God, his power is supreme. His ability to change outcomes for our world is supreme. Yes, we came to earth to learn, and that includes making mistakes. Not everything our leaders decided would lead to positive outscomes.

  But, we would be much ahead of what we are. 

With Trump, No New Sirens, No New Alarms

 No new sirens, no new alarms.

There was that time in 2019, an Armed Services Welcome Ceremony. Disabled Army Captain Luis Avila was invited to sing, to participate. A video shows Trump going over  to Avila to congratulate and embrace Avila after the song. But that was but a public display. The two-faced president then returned to his seat aside Gen. Mark A. Milley and asked,  "Why do you bring people like that here? No one wants to see that, the wounded." Trump then instructed Milley to never let  Avila make a public appearance again. 

This story about Trump was just revealed this week. We are no longer astonished at such revelations -- at least, no longer surprised. We continue to be aghast. We feel abhorance, certainly, but not surprise.  

The Tree Must Remain Tall in Our Fight Against Climate Change

 To the voices springing up to suggest more trees will only hinder the fight against climate change, I ask, How so? To spin the topic in opposition to truth is a damaging thing at a moment climate change imperils our world.

Part of the argument is that when trees fall to the ground, they emit carbon into the atmosphere as they decompose. True, but as they lie on the ground, they also shed seeds that result in seedlings sprouting up in abundance. immediantly sucking more carbon out of the air than is being emitted by the dead logs.

Trees remain vital in the fight against climate change. There are those who would say they are not. There are those who would suggest we need to harvest the Amazon and other forests to fill the world's need for wood and to open up land for mining and agriculture. Don't leave the trees to decompose on the ground, they say, but haul the lumber away where it can do some good.

Such a sly and designing twist of the truth is dangerous in this moment of peril. We must reject the falsehood for what it is. Divers suggestions should not be allowed to parade as truth.

(Index -- Climate change info)

Only One Way to Solve the Gambling Problem

 

   Gambling, the social problem that would be nice to be solved.

   Personal financial loss, family financial loss, bankrupcy, loss of job, homelessness, mental health problems, divorce  -- all are among the negative outcomes of gambling.

  But, how do you end it without changing society? You don't. If you want to solve the gambling problem, you must reach into the hearts of the people.

  And change them.