Neil Diamond's People Are Headed Our Way

 Neil Diamond praised them, these immigrants.

"Only want to be free
"We huddle close
"Hang on to a dream
"On the boats and on the planes
"They're coming to America"

Was he speaking of the ones who come with their paperwork all in order, or did he include those who show up unannounced at the border, just seeking asylum? Surely, Diamond had those who said they don't mind immigrants coming, they just want them to come legally.

It is immigrant season, now -- migrant season, the season of the migrant caravans.

"Home
"Don't it seem so far away
"Oh, we're traveling light today
"In the eye of the storm
"In the eye of the storm"

News two days ago says a caravan of hundreds of migrants left the city of Tapachula in southern Mexico, heading for America. They were to join up with a larger caravan that left six days earlier. When the season is well underway, will we have caravans that number in the thousands, as we do in many years? They are "traveling light today" and "only want to be free." 

"To a new and a shiny place
"Make our bed and we'll say our grace
"Freedom's light burning warm
"Freedom's Light burning warm"

A Brain Can Atrophy as Fast as a Body

 An idle mind is the coroner's workshop, if you don't mind me saying so. A brain can atrophy as fast as a body. Muscles body or muscles brain, they both exist, so exercising the brain is as important as exercising the body.
   This is not a new thought, of course. And, a corollary has always been that television is the wasteland that wastes the mind. Careful there, though. That which stimulates is that which exercises. TV is sometimes a stimulant, and sometimes not. Sometimes you laugh and laugh at the creativity. Other times, you are nonplused. Sometimes TV inspires us to be creative, ourselves, and sometimes it provides nothing but a story that requires no thought or reflection of our own -- no real thinking, for the TV is doing it all for us. Laughing can be good when ist is a stimulant, but not when it just lets us disengage from our own thinking.
    I wonder at our rehabilitation centers. Too often, patients do little other than watch TV. Their life in their old age becomes as their life in their young age. Just as we often sit our kids out of our way by sitting them in front of the TV, so it is with residents in a care center. 
   Not that care centers do not provide some things for residents to do. Bingo and book readings come to mind. And, there are concerts and such. One of the best activities is physical therapy.  I just think rehab centers could expand on their offerings. Woodwork and origami, chess and coin collecting. Teach, teach, teach; let them learn foreign languages and let them learn astronomy.
   An education is not just for the young; it is for those who would to remain young.

If You've Invested the Time and Money, Build Them

 There were no deaths in Three Mile Island. There were none at Fukushima. Nuclear waste can, indeed, be recycled. The reactors are safe from meltdown. Nuclear, along with wind, has the lowest carbon footprint. 

All that said, I would still be cautious about new nuclear.

1.) It is too expensive in terms of federal spending. The federal R&D budget for nuclear energy was about $1.65 billion for 2022.

2.) The mining causes lung cancer in a high share of the miners.

3.) It takes too long to put them up, 10-19 years compared to only 2-5 for wind and solar.

However, inasmuch as many of the existing projects have already went through the R&D process, much of the federal money has already been spent. Don't waste it. Finish the projects. Nuke plants do take a long time from from the start of planning, but many of the plants have already invested that time. It is behind them. If Bill Gates (who is leading the new nuke movement) and his buddies are willing to finance the projects from here, go for it. Build them.

(Index -- Climate change info)

Slow Down, Israel, Slow Down

    Slow down, Israel, slow down. You are going at the war as if you need to win it now and the only way to do that is murder all the civilians. You don't need to murder all the civilians. You shouldn't want to. You should be willing to say, If it will save lives, we will ease up, we will show some restraint.
   So, take the foot off the pedal.
   You have surrounded the city. Now, cautiously enter, cautiously searching out the enemy, and cautiously avoiding the civilians. Shoot and shoot to kill when you see the enemy; hold your fire when it is only a civilian. If it takes months to do it this way, do it. If it takes years, do it.
   Take the lead roll in getting food and essentials into the Gazans. Put it directly in their hands. Curry favor with the Gazans; curry friendship. It will reach a stage where they are pointing Hamas out to you, helping you ferret them out. 
   The Gazans aren't your enemies in this war; make them your allies.
   

Pull the Plug on Israel

 Pull the plug. Do not send them any money, after all. They want $14.3 billion. Don't send them a penny. This is not a time the Israelis deserve money. They've shown they would only abuse it. Killing civilians is not something that is acceptable. It is not something that should be rewarded.

Read this, from an NBC article: "The mounting Palestinian civilian death toll is more than apparent. Israel blames Hamas for using people as human shields, but international organizations and even the United States are becoming increasing alarmed at the civilian cost of Israel's intensifying operation in the densely populated enclave."

The Biden administration has spoken out against Israel's massacre of civilians. Now it is time for both the administration and Congress to follow up by saying, We've changed our mind, Israel. Either you find a way to go after Hamas without killing so many civilians, or we won't help you -- can't help you.

Killing civilians is not acceptable. We must not hide behind the justification that we are an ally, that we've always stood with Israel and always will.

Not this time.

Gazans Are not Cattle

 Give them a new place to live, but do not force them to live there. And, if you send them to the uninhabitable Sinai Peninsula, make it inhabitable. The Gazans and Palestinians are not cattle to be herded; They are humans who have been suffering from poor living conditions all along, and don't need you to make it worse for them.
   But -- there it is -- Israel's answer to the Gaza Strip is forced displacement. Take the 2.3 million people and force them to go live in the cold desert. That will get them out of your hair. Many of the Gazans are ancestors of Palestinians who were forced out of Israel about 1948 as Israel was becoming a nation. Don't do this to them, again. 
   If you are going to get Palestinians to move to the Sinai Peninsula, make it an attractive place, a place where they will want to live as an alternative to Gaza, a place where they will want to live of their own free will and choice in order to upgrade from Gaza.
   Ethnic cleansing, that is the description of what is happening in the Gaza Strip. It doesn't need to be that way; we can take care of these people.

 

From the Vantage of the Wicked, Their Wars Are Righteousness

    From a distance, war might seem right. But, when it invades your home, it is the death of your wife and the massacre of your children. Revenge and anger light a war. Settling a score is the scourge of humanity, and getting even spills the blood of the innocent. Tanks and bombs are the prophets of doom. 
   Soldiers pray in their foxholes, but the instigators of battle know no God.