On the Gathering Storm

We recently attempted to send Christmas packages to our son in Iraq, and son-in-law in Kuwait. Our son's came back, having been rejected by a postal clerk because he or she didn't like the way the customs form was filled out.

I tried it a second time, and it was rejected again because it contained a sample-size plastic bottle of hand sanitizer gel, which they claimed probably contained alcohol 'with a flash point of ... blah, blah, blah.' (The various military support websites recommend sending hand sanitizer; that's why we included that item.)

Then they required that each and every item in the package would have to be listed on the customs form, complete with its description (precise; not terse), quantity, weight and value. But our gift packages contained a couple dozen or more miscellaneous toys, treats and toiletries ... like a Christmas stocking, as it were. Since the PS Form 2976-A customs form has only five spaces for descriptions, one of which has to be used to certify that the listed items are a bona fide gift, I would have had to fill out five or more of the five page forms for the single small package.

As if that wasn't idiotic enough, the post office had stickered the package "Surface Teansportation Only." So I presume it would have finally arrived in Kirkuk, Iraq after our son was long gone and safely back on his base in the States.

So I just decided to forget the whole thing. We'll divide the stuff up, and give it to our grandchildren instead. (Alex, the four-year old, will love the farting key chain.)

Our son's wife shared that she had tried to send him some brownies she had baked. She simply marked the customs form "cookies." They couldn't accept that, telling her she needed to list what kind of cookies on separate lines. When she told them they were actually all the same, just brownies that she had made herself, they wanted to know, "What kind of brownies?" She didn't know there were different kinds, so wrote down "Brown Brownies." Then she wanted to send him some deodorant (non-aerosol), which is also supposedly on the forbidden list since it probably contains alcohol (but which is also a recommended item on various "support our troops" websites), so she marked that package "Brown Brownies" also.

Americans are expected to risk their young family members' lives to participate in politicians' military misadventures, yet by no means should anyone risk the safety of a cargo plane's crew by including a deodorant stick in a "care package?"

The other package, sent our maybe son-in-law in Kuwait, was identical to the one sent to our son in Iraq, and was sent at the same time with the customs form filled out exactly the same way. That one hasn't come back. Maybe he'll get it.

Or, according to the postal clerk, maybe he won't, since, she claimed, "It'll probably just be confiscated."

Isn't it really just too disgusting that Americans are expected to risk their young family members' lives to participate in politicians' military misadventures, yet by no means should anyone risk the safety of a cargo plane's crew by including a deodorant stick in a "care package" — something that thousands of merchants commonly offer on their shelves in stores all across the country, and millions of passengers commonly carry in their luggage aboard domestic and international flights?

Mr Obama; tear down this wall?

President Reagan challenged the Soviets with words like that some twenty-three years ago. Twenty-nine months later, the Soviet Union — the world's only other "superpower" — began its collapse. Today, that empire is no more. Who would have thought such a thing was possible?

Our country has become so encumbered with the sort of idiocracy described above — bureaucracy having absolutely trumped adhocracy, as it were — and our federal government has become so corrupt, I do think (as recently suggested by Newsweek), that we are rapidly approaching the end of our run. I expect that after the New Year we'll be seeing rioting on the mall in Washington D.C., and I fear that when that is put down with force, it'll be followed by car bombs and suicide bombers there, and elsewhere, during the summer.

It'll be called "domestic terrorism."

Young people in this country are now getting screwed over big time as our corrupted "representatives" in Washington grease the wheels for anyone who is willing to drop some big bucks into their so-called "campaign funds." Bankers and investment swindlers "too big to fail" get bailed out, while the young suffer the futility of job searching in an ever-shrinking market, and the shrinking middle class continue to get boned by credit card interest and fees schemes, in spite of the recent legislation (which gives the bankers plenty of wiggle room and time to figure out where the loopholes are and how to get around the so-called "restrictions." — source: Shailesh Mehta; former chief of Providian).

The pending healthcare legislation also appears to be shaping up as another bone-job for the young, purchased by the health-care industry — insurers, providers, and pharmaceutical power-houses.

Perhaps the only good thing about the growing problem of unemployment is that it discourages high school drop outs. Yet the drop-out rate here in Michigan, the unemployment capital of the U.S., is about 31% (source: Educational Testing Service — ets.org). Many drop-outs do eventually try to better their chances in life by achieving GED certificates, but those are mostly meaningless in today's job market; a buyers' market now rife with education snobbery, and typically requiring at least "some college" even for menial, low paying jobs.

Terrorism or Revolution?

The growing population of unemployed and deprived young people is a formula for trouble. At some point, they will realize that they have become a newly created class of

The growing population of unemployed and deprived young people is a formula for trouble.

"American Poor," with little opportunity to achieve the middle class status of yesterday's generations, much less "the American dream." That hopelessness will lead to rebellion.

And rightfully so.

The powers that be will call it "terrorism." When Americans were being screwed over by the powers that were in 1776, we called it "rebellion." The British called it treason, cowardice, and terrorism.





Of the People, By the People, and For the People

Everyone in American has the right to expect recognition, and a fair shake, from government. It is not the function of government to support the demands of special interests, or to facilitate increasing success for the already rich and powerful. That is not, as they say, 'the reality of modern politics.' That is corruption.

When the moneyed and powerful own the hearts, minds and pocketbooks of those we now elect to be servants of all the people — when the cash and the perks that only the rich and powerful can provide are the only way to get their attention — what's left for the rest of us?

Quick Fix for Unemployment and the Economy

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (September 2009), there are about 154-million people in the U.S. labor force. Of those, about 139-million (90%) have jobs and are receiving a regular paycheck. About 15-million (10%) are officially listed as unemployed. These are people who do not have jobs, but are actively looking for work, whether receiving unemployment compensation or not.


This is the figure often cited as "the unemployment rate." However, there are another 82-million people who are listed as "not in the labor force." These are people who are not receiving unemployment compensation, and would be working if they could find jobs but, for various reasons, are no longer seeking employment opportunities. If these workers were included in the labor force, its numbers would be about 236-million, with 97-million (41%) unemployed. Somewhere between these two figures, lies the real numbers of people who are out of work.


But there's more to the story; these figures do not suggest the number of workers who are now under-employed, having been forced to take jobs paying much less than the ones lost through lay-offs, down-sizing, or shut-downs. Nor do they reflect the extent of earnings being lost as a result of wage and salary cuts and shorter hours.


Against this backdrop, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics also shows that the average rate of job creation in the U.S. over the past forty years has been about 2% per year. That would produce about 3-million jobs at today's employment rate. However, each year about one-million young workers enter the labor force, with fewer older workers now retiring each year. At this rate, it would take over seven years — until 2017 — to get all those who are currently unemployed back to work.


But the bad news doesn't end there; private sector job creation over the past ten years has, in fact, been minimal,

Job creation over the past ten years has been minimal, and is presently zero.

and is presently zero. This suggests a cruel reality for the unemployed, and for young people coming into the labor force. Opportunities will be few and far between, with many never being able to find full-time work.


Even for those who do, it will be a buyer's market. With a large surplus of available workers, employers will be able to freely pick and choose, without having to compete with each other for quality people by offering incentives such as better pay and more generous fringe benefits. This is happening already. Job descriptions are stuffed with all sorts of inflated requirements for prospective candidates, often to the point of being ridiculous. Since it is unlikely that anyone could meet all the requirements in such grocery lists, the hidden purpose of this phenomenon seems more likely to be to provide employers with plenty of wiggle room when it comes to evading federal rules regarding discrimination and fair labor practices. But even in the unlikely event that an applicant would be able to bring all of the stated skills, capabilities and qualifications, the starting pay offered is usually in no way commensurate ... often laughingly inappropriate.


Thus, it seems quite evident that if we insist on business as usual, the decline of the American middle class will continue, with increasing numbers finding their future to be a story of hard times such as people in this country haven't seen for a hundred years, eventually winding up as a struggle between the haves and the have nots. This is not good for anybody. It is a formula for disaster. Nothing promotes economic growth, cultural development, and peace like a middle class that is healthy, vibrant and growing. Wide rich vs. poor disparities in a nation promotes unrest, discord, destructive violence, and ultimately, revolution.


Hard times and calamity can easily be avoided if we have the courage to face reality and implement some major paradigm shifts.


Changing the Shift Paradigm


First, the nation needs to shift from an eight-hour workday to a six-hour schedule ... from a forty-hour to a thirty-hour week. Businesses that presently operate around the clock will run four shifts,

The nation needs to shift from an eight-hour workday to a six-hour schedule.

instead of three, increasing their employment by 33%. Businesses that presently run eight-hour days, from nine to five, would then be open from seven to seven, increasing their employment by 100%. All by itself, this puts everyone back to work.


Second, we must shift to a universal health care system. This can be as simple as expanding Medicare to cover everyone. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average U.S. wage is presently $18.67 per hour, which amounts to about $37,340 per year. For a 24-hour operation to control employment costs while increasing employment by one third, wages would need to be reduced to $14 per hour. However, the average per employee health insurance cost for family coverage is currently $13,000, which amounts to about $6.50 per hour. Retired persons pay about $1,000 a year for Medicare. Assuming a family of four, a $4,000 contribution should be more than adequate, given that medical expenses for younger people, and especially children, are surely much less than those of the elderly. That leaves $9,000 available to wages which, if added back, brings average pay rates back up to $18.50 per hour.


Besides the obvious improvement in the general economy and the quality of our lives, full employment will go a long way towards solving Social Security financing problems and State tax revenue shortages.


Taking Control of Health care Costs


Third, health care expenses need to be more sensibly managed.


Over the past several years, wage increases have been diminished as the cost of government-mandated employer-provided health insurance has escalated. The same has been true for Social Security recipients, whose cost-of-living increases have been eaten up by higher assessments for Medicare coverage. No worker is going to embrace a six-hour work day at the expense of a quarter of their regular earnings. And, as shown above, that does not have to be the case. Pay will remain about the same, the difference being made up for by reducing the cost of health care coverage. But in order to permit that, the cost of health care itself must be reduced. Significant reductions are immediately possible through the implementation of a few sensible changes, mostly affecting things that are already widely recognized as wasteful nonsense.


• Misdiagnosis and treatment error is a significant burden on the present system. While it is obvious to any practical person that perfection can never be achieved, and while exact figures are difficult to come by, it would appear that the error rates are presently upwards of 40%. In spite of all the technological advances, this rate hasn't change much over the past 100-years. Health care presently costs the U.S. about $2.5-trillion per year. Reducing the error rate by half would potentially save a fifth of that — $500-billion — while at the same time actually improving the quality of care.


• Medical care during the final few months at the end of life presently accounts for about a tenth — $250-billion — of total U.S. health care expenditures, $110-billion of which is paid for by Medicare. Much of this cost arises from extraordinary treatment efforts on patients known to be terminally ill. Much of it is understandable, since when the decision is left up to them, it's difficult for anyone to decide the fate of older family members, and it's easy to put off the inevitable decision by hoping for a miracle. In other cases, it often appears that hospitals are quite willing to turn terminally ill patients into "cash cows," knowingly providing expensive treatments they know to be unnecessary or useless. Extra-ordinary efforts to prolong life often only prolong misery for patients who would not have approved such choices, but are no longer capable of speaking for themselves. Much of this misery and expense can be saved by developing a common practice of counseling and decision-making before the end-of-life crises' present themselves, much as people now commonly make arrangements for the settlement of their estates and other affairs.


• Elective surgical treatments, such as coronary bypass and joint replacement operations have long been known to be favored revenue generators for hospitals, with prices varying widely between different hospitals. Hospitals now host upwards of 500,000 coronary bypass operations per year, with an average price of $75,000. That's $37.5-billion worth of procedures which many consider unnecessary, and useless so far as prolonging life is concerned. Joint replacement procedures vary, but presently average about $45,000. According to American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, hospitals are doing over 700,000 knee and hip replacements each year. That comes to another $32-billion, and again, the advisability of such procedures is often arguable. According to the same source, surgeons perform about 23,000 shoulder replacements. In his book The Healing of America, author T. R. Reid compared various approaches for dealing with an old shoulder injury by visiting other countries. In the United States, he found orthopedists most apt to recommend joint-replacement surgery, costing tens of thousands of dollars. In France and Germany, doctors were more apt to advise a regime of physical therapy, while in Britain, his complaint was summarily dismissed. In India, he was finally treated very effectively and inexpensively with herbs, massage, and meditation. With the numbers and prices of these dubious procedures drastically escalating — the present total $100-billion cost expected to soar beyond $500-billion within the next 20-years — it's obviously time for a serious value analysis.


• Malpractice litigation, in itself, may not be a highly significant cost item, with insurance costing the medical industry about $10-billion per year, and awards amounting to another $5.8-billion, according to the University of Michigan. What isn't accounted for however, are two other factors ... doctors and hospitals practicing defensive medicine by requiring extensive and usually unnecessary consultations and lab tests ... and their reluctance to recognize and admit error, and promptly engage in remedial procedures and treatments. The cost of these realities can never be known, but it is obviously not insignificant. It can be greatly reduced simply by requiring courts to limit awards to reasonably expected remedial costs, and by limiting attorney fees to fair amounts according to a published schedule.


The Courage to Adapt to New Realities


It should be clear that we are presently on the cusp of some major paradigm shifts. At the dawn of the twentieth century our American culture changed from agrarian to industrial. Now, a century later, we find ourselves at a similar moment, where what has worked well for the past few generations is clearly no longer serving us well. Insisting on business as usual and waving the flag is either lazy thinking, or succumbing to the fear of change. Worse yet, many of those whom we have entrusted with the

America is presently on the cusp of some major paradigm shifts.

responsibilities of leadership have fallen victim to the insidious lure of corruption that has become institutionalized in our political system, and are concerned first with protecting the interests of the those who are filling campaign coffers and supporting their regal lifestyles.


It always takes time for people to embrace new ideas and adapt to big changes. Government can lead by phasing in the six-hour workday in the military, for civilian government workers, and in newly created work programs similar to the WPA and CCC programs of the 1930's. There is plenty of work to do in America; eliminating the maintenance backlog in our national parks, cleaning up urban blight, serving as mentors and teaching assistants in school classrooms, and more. Temporary public works programs will provide immediate employment for idle hands, boost self-esteem, and teach skills that individuals can ultimately take into the private workplace, while also creating a body of experience with the six-hour workday paradigm.


Our choices are clear. We can muster the courage needed to try new ideas and work towards their successful implementation, or we can continue to accept defeat at the hands of lethargy, wishful thinking, fear and special-interest politics.


The time is ripe for some newly creative and uncommonly courageous leadership in America. Perhaps some of those presently serving will find themselves able to rise to this occasion. Otherwise our fortunes will depend solely upon the Grace of God.

Climate Change - It's A Good Thing!

o they teach kids folk tales like "Chicken Little" any more? Or fables like Hans Christian Andersen's "The Emperor's New Clothes?" In the pursuit of status and titles, basic life skills have been denigrated in favor of higher education and academic degrees.


Pundits, like Chicken Little, catastrophize, reciting all the prospective terrors of global warming, and blame mankind ... namely mankind in the developed countries ... and mainly the United States ... for causing the terrible cataclysm to come. Governments around the world have been worried into throwing billions of dollars into the urgent task of halting the spew of "greenhouse gases" into the atmosphere ... namely carbon dioxide. Meanwhile, anyone who has the bad manners to question the "science" driving this hysteria is dismissed with a vehemence and viciousness similar to that heaped upon "Holocaust deniers."


Folk tales like Chicken Little and fables like The Emperor's New Clothes were traditionally passed on to yesteryear's children as a learning exercise; not merely as entertainment. Kids soon learned to expect the question, "Now, what's the moral of this story?" And, indeed, such stories always made a point. They were a practical and highly successful way of teaching children some fundamental life skills … the stuff we call common sense and emotional intelligence.


Unfortunately, in today's educationally snobbish culture, nothing counts but the utterances of a "professional." Common sense is disrespected. Understandably so, perhaps. After having paid big bucks for a college degree, it's difficult to accept that a high school dropout well grounded in basic life skills might actually have a better handle on life.


And so on to the new holocaust … "Global Warming."


Famine and Pestilence - Wars and Rumors of Wars


I was brought up in a God-fearing family, and was therefore well indoctrinated with the idea that humankind is so fundamentally sinful that God gets sufficiently angered now and then to decide to just erase everything and start over. Last time around, as the legend goes, he flooded the whole earth, drowning everyone and everything, except for what Noah saved in his ark. I also learned that rainbows appear as a sign of God's promise that he'll never again vent His rage in that way. Sweet! ... Except our Sunday school teachers hinted that the next time around it would be fire, instead of flood. Being thus indoctrinated, we God-fearing persons, who constitute the majority of the human population, are therefore predisposed to believe in the global warming doomsday hype … that our wanton material gluttony will prove our undoing, and we will die in the heat of the planet we destroyed.


We seem to like doomsday-speak. During my life it's been one doomsday scare after another.


First it was World War II, where civilization as we knew it was at risk of being taken over and destroyed by those hatefully atheistic Nazi Huns, sexually insane gooks, and nutty Fascist wops. As kids in Traverse City, Michigan, we were frightened almost to death by air raid sirens and black-outs. "In Traverse City, Michigan?" you ask. Yes; it was ridiculous. In the early 1940's, enemy bombers were not that range capable, and even if they were, why would they waste expensive ordnance on a backwater place like Traverse? The propagandists claimed that they would be using city lights as landmarks, and commercial radio stations as navigation aids along the way to the strategically important Soo Locks. The propaganda also claimed righteous indignation; that the allies were totally innocent and the axis powers were totally evil. And so, the world chose up sides, ganging up on each other in an adventure that ultimately killed some 72-million people as we kids walked along sidewalks chanting, "Step on a crack; break Hitler's back." or singing, "Whistle while you work, Hitler is a jerk, Mussolini bent his weenie - now it doesn't work!"


"The Russians Are Coming!"


Having not-so-neatly dispatched that calamity, next came the Communist hysteria. These wicked and subversive nut jobs, zombie-like disciples of a creepy Vladimir Lenin and the evil Joseph Stalin, were bent on infiltrating every aspect of American life, and eventually taking over the whole world.


That reached a crescendo with Senator Joe McCarthy's infamous "investigations." Many influential institutions and personalities were sucked into the vortex McCarthy created, including the FBI, the House Un-American Activities Committee, the Catholic Church, the American Legion, the Kennedy family, and a young upcoming Richard Nixon.


A widely popular weekly television program during the mid-1950's called I Led Three Lives, which provided weekly, high-fictionalized episodes in the exciting, dangerous, and heroic life of Herbert Philbrick, an advertising executive who infiltrated the Communist Party as an undercover agent for the FBI, did much to promote McCarthy's cause with the general public. Eventually, anyone who dared doubt McCarty or question his witch-hunt was a risk of being fingered as a Communist sympathizer, "fellow traveler", or an outright Communist. After having destroyed the careers of many notables, McCarthy's rants about Communist infiltration in the highest offices of the government and the military … even accusing the Democratic Party of "twenty years of treason" … it became clear that the Senator's uncontrolled appetite for alcohol had evidently finally pickled his brain, and his colleagues finally voted to clip his wings.


But, not to worry … the next crisis was already at hand.


Mutually-Assured Destruction


Those damned Rosenberg's and their in-laws and friends had stolen our nuclear secrets and passed them on to "Uncle Joe" (Stalin). Those arch-evil Communists in the Soviet Union popped their first mushroom cloud, code-named "Joe 1," in late 1949, and the Cold War was on. As the McCarthy thing died, we began building bomb shelters in earnest, and us kids became unofficial members of the "Civil Air Patrol," constantly searching the skies for "Reds" (Russians in bombers). We just knew those evil, prisyka dancing vodka drinkers in the USSR were bent on taking over the whole world and converting it all to Communism.


The Cold War turned into an Arms Race, with each side scurrying to develop and manufacture ever more powerful nuclear devices. The A-bomb turned into the H-bomb, and even a Q-bomb was rumored … a small, but much more powerful device which somehow killed all the people without destroying their property. After twenty years of this madness, the doom sayers were ranting that we had developed enough nuclear explosive devices to destroy the planet, and were on the verge of doing so.

"I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
              - A. Einstein

However, most practical people realized that the Soviet Union already had a full plate and was probably not really interested in taking over the world any more, and perhaps never were. Furthermore, by this time both the US and USSR had settled in to a defense strategy called "MAD" … Mutually Assured Destruction … both having far more than enough firepower to wipe out the other on a moment's notice, making any "first strike" highly improbable, even with lunatics in charge of the buttons. Meanwhile, some scientists began to point out that the power of the world's combined nuclear arsenals were puny in comparison to nature's potential fury, which is occasionally unleashed as earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions … catastrophes that do happen from time to time, yet life goes on.


In a characteristic display of bad judgment, the American people, in 1980, decided to replace a sitting President with a movie actor. As luck would have it, that turned out to be a good thing, since Ronald Reagan, in a refreshing display of common sense, decided to fight fire with fire in dealing with the Soviets. Taking the arms race to the next level, which became know as the Star Wars initiative … intercepting and blowing up Soviet missiles in space well before they could reach their targets … he essentially drove the USSR into bankruptcy in their frantic effort to keep up. By the end of his Presidency in 1989, the Soviet Union was crumbling, and the Cold War was over.


Ozone Depletion - NASA's Folly


What next? Oh, my God there's a gaping hole in the ozone layer! We're all going to go blind and die of skin cancer! Those mad scientists and greed-crazed corporate magnates at Frigidaire, DuPont, and General Motors, the inventors, makers and distributors of Freon … chlorofluorocarbons or CFC's; the stuff used in air conditioners and aerosol cans … were the primary villains here.


The real culprit turned out to be NASA. Struggling to preserve its budget as interest in space exploration waned and interest in environmental science waxed, NASA mistakenly interpreted some unexpected findings of its TOMS (Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer) program and exuberantly published the bogus results.


This new crisis came just in time. Environmentalists were giddy, and the doomsayers had something new to ring their hands over. All the hype led to the famous Montreal Protocol in 1987, an international agreement restricting the production and use of ozone-depleting chemicals, mainly CFC's.


But eventually more rational thinking in NASA evidently began to surface, with the space agency having the bad manners to begin hedging its bets … reporting that the hole in the ozone layer was,

"As usual, once the cat was out of the bag, the experts and doomsayers quietly crawled back into the woodwork."

on average, more or less constant and predictable, varying with the seasons. But they continued to defensively assert that it was a new phenomenon, and caused by hydrogen fluoride released into the stratosphere through the use of man-made CFC's. Other scientists found it curious that the hole appeared over the South Pole, whereas most emissions of man-made gases occur in the Northern Hemisphere. Worse yet, other climatologists pointed out Antarctica's Mt. Erebus spews some 150,000 tons of hydrogen fluoride directly into the Antarctican stratosphere each year, whereas the breakdown of man-made gases world-wide would theoretically account for only about 2,500 tons at most.


And so, the multi-billion dollar direct and indirect cost imposed upon world economies by bureaucrats who became believers in bad science and who bowed to zealous environmentalism, amounts to nothing less than a silly, wildly impulsive intention to play God … to take control of a natural planetary phenomenon far beyond our poor powers to do anything about. As usual, once the cat was out of the bag, the experts and doomsayers quietly crawled back into the woodwork. Isn't it funny … we don't hear much about the ozone hole anymore.


"C-yo-tu" and Kyoto


But wait … there's an all-new crisis, and just in time.


It's Climate Change (a.k.a. "Global Warming"). There will be terrible droughts, wildly inclement and destructive weather, the glaciers will all melt, flooding coastal regions and destroying places like New York, Los Angeles, the Netherlands, and what not.


This "silly science" dates back to French mathematician Joseph Fourier who, about 185-years ago, was able to calculate that the planet's average temperature seemed to be slowly increasing. He thought the temperature rise was probably due to the earth's atmosphere trapping solar radiation and reflecting it back to the earth. About seventy years later, Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius theorized that this phenomenon was mainly the result of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and he coined the phrase "greenhouse gas." In the 1950's, English amateur scientist G..S. Callendar took an interest in the field, resurrecting the carbon dioxide theory and insisting that the greenhouse effect was dramatically impacting the atmosphere of the Earth. For his efforts, he won a place in science with global warming now being known in scientific circles as the Callendar Effect.


That really got the ball rolling. As average temperatures continued to slowly increase, other scientists got involved, and with new and improved high-tech instrumentation and hardware, they discovered lucrative new fields for research. As usual, this also came as good news to environmentalists and bureaucrats. It wasn't long before a coalition of scientists, environmentalists and bureaucrats decided that a United Nations Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) would be a great idea. That led to yet another big environmental powwow, and another international agreement similar to the Montreal Protocol, this time called the Kyoto Protocol.


After all the hubbub, it turns out that CO₂ is a relatively minor member of the greenhouse gas family. The big Kahuna … the elephant in the room, as it were … is H₂O. That's right; water vapor. The air is full of it, as any practical person knows. Greenhouse gases actually comprise only a small part of the atmosphere, and of this small part, over three-quarters is usually water vapor.

"Scientists who pay attention to history understand that global temperatures have fluctuated rather cyclically over the eons, and to much more extreme levels that what’s being worried about today."

It now appears that Fourier's original conjecture was wrong. Scientists who pay attention to history understand that global temperatures have fluctuated cyclically over the eons, and to much more extreme levels that what's being worried about today. It further appears that these fluctuations coincide perfectly with solar activity … sun spots, in other words. One explanation is that the earth is continually showered with cosmic rays which promote cloud formation through ionization of the atmosphere. This shower is modulated by the solar wind and is significantly attenuated during periods of intense solar activity, The result is fewer, and less dense clouds, which permits more of the sun's energy to reach Earth's surface, and hence periods of greater warmth. This theory is rabidly refuted, of course, and others suggest different ways to explain the relationship between solar activity and the Earth's temperature. But, regardless of the mechanism, these facts seem clear: (1) global temperatures have varied rather widely for as far back as researchers can measure (millions of years), and (2) the variations are cyclical and correspond rather precisely with the activity of the four primary solar cycles.


These should be facts enough for anyone with a little common sense to conclude that the current hysteria is the outgrowth of hype generated by bad science and science aficionados in the environmentalist community. Yet, here again we have governments around the world squandering the fruits of our labor … billions of tax dollars … in a senseless and futile effort to control Mother Nature. The situation spirals far beyond reason as researches begin to chase after those dollars, mindful of the reality that the spigot will likely be turned off if they fail to deliver what bureaucrats are paying for … evidence that corroborates their bad judgment.


What makes this particular saga pathetically ironic is the knowledge that, as far back as recorded history goes, human progress, in terms of intellectual and economic advancement … "Good Times," in other words … have coincided with epochs of increasing global temperatures. As a matter of fact, Callendar's attitude was positive, thinking that this slight warming process would be a good thing. So, not only is there no valid reason to fear these natural warming cycles, there is legitimate historic reason for the human race to look forward to them … much like those of us in the non-tropical latitudes greet springtime's dispatch of a long, cold winter!


Goodbye Warming - Hello Meltdown!

As luck would have it, something did indeed melt down, but it wasn't the polar ice caps. It was the worldwide economy. Thank goodness! Now we have a new reason to wring our hands and rent our garments … and just in time! This crisis should be good for at least another two years, and some say ten. Kiss climate change goodbye.


As usual, government is charging ahead, hell bent on pointing fingers and solving the wrong problems. The current economic flame-out is not really the result of banking and mortgage misbehavior, but rather the legacy wrought by the past several decades of government's micromanagement and misadventure. That has arisen from the silly philosophy that government is responsible for solving all our problems, and that any problem can be resolved by passing a law. In 1854, Abraham Lincoln ... then a lawyer in Springfield, Illinois ... wrote this:

"The legitimate object of government is to do for the people what needs to be done, but which they can not, by individual effort, do at all, or do so well, by themselves."

Perhaps the culprits have really been us. When I was a teenager in the 1950's, when bad things happened people often muttered, "There ought'a be a law!" Proving yet again the truism, "be careful what you wish for," we now have laws and government regulations for just about everything. Not only has that become very costly, it has destroyed American manufacturing, the only sector of our economy that actually creates value.


Lincoln also said ...

"I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts."

Indeed, like all the other crises mentioned above, the present economic "crisis" will pass ... not because of what the government does, but in spite of it.


Don't Worry - Be Happy!


This review of doomsdays that never came to pass should teach us to think for ourselves and respect our own common sense. Titles like "professional," "scientist," and phrases like "government report," do on lend information a godlike status of credibility. Human beings, regardless of educational or vocational achievement, always remain fallible, our works and utterances always subject to review and amendment. A knowledge of this is the beginning of wisdom.


The next time someone tries to worry you about the dire consequences of climate change, the economic melt-down, or whatever pseudo-crisis comes next, remember the tale of Chicken Little. The world is a complex place. Human minds are fallible and easily jump to conclusions based upon the evidence at hand. Beyond that point, they tend to interpret new evidence as needed to support what they already believe to be true. Thus is flawed thinking easily expanded and perpetuated


Human minds are also emotional machines. When you are criticised for not being a believer, remember the saga of The Emperor's New Clothes. Passions frequently overwhelm reason. Understanding this, and being capable of, and willing to, set facts apart from emotion, is the mark of emotional intelligence, and the hallmark of real leadership.


In the final analysis, all things do indeed seem to work together for good. Not only did none of these situations deliver the worst-case consequences projected, they rather quickly melted into history, with life going on, eventually bigger and better than ever before. History shows that over the long term, optimism is always appropriate.

More Idiocracy - Michigan to Ban Pier Jumping?

Michigan has lots of lakes, rivers and streams for people to enjoy on hot summer days. Anyone who was ever a kid understands why kids like to jump off things into the water. Here in Grand Haven, kids have been "cannonballing" into Lake Michigan off the local pier probably ever since the pier was built. But a bill recently passed in Michigan's Senate would make such jumps illegal, at least from public piers and structures along the Great Lakes and connecting waters.

Senate Bill 629, which supposedly arose as a result of meetings among officials in communities along Lake Michigan in the wake of recent drownings, would "prohibit a person from jumping, diving, or swimming from a pier, jetty, breakwater or other similar structure, or a buoy or other navigational device, that was located in the Great Lakes or their connecting waters." The bill passed the Senate on October 17, 2007 by a 35-2 vote, and was then sent to the House. If it becomes law, those jumps and dives will be punished by a fine of as much as $500.

Here is a hot flash for Lansing - Michigan has some big problems, and this is not one of them. Have you checked the unemployment figures lately? Have you driven on our rickety roads and streets lately? How about the drop-out rates from our crummy schools? Have you given any thought to the opportunities available for our maturing children, or how they'll be able to make ends meet when married with children?

I'm tired of our lazy-minded Legislature passing lame, unnecessary laws. How did you find time to debate this issue in the midst of your "budget crisis"? The Senate's vote, 35-2, is a clear indication of how much thought anyone put into this before deciding the issue. Moreover, who is doing the deciding anyway? Does anyone in the Senate have any idea what "pier jumping" really is? Have any of you ever done that, or even been out on a pier to watch what's going on?

I have. I have lived on the lakeshore all my life (67 years). Pier jumping is great fun and a wholesome activity for kids, who usually appear to be in the twelve to sixteen year age range. I suppose it happens, but I have never heard on anyone being injured or drowning while doing that. On the other hand, people do drown off the pier, but they're usually older, and either fall off or are washed over the edge in bad weather.

As for kids drowning, we loose an average of one kid a month during the summer season, usually a ten to fourteen-year-old boy from the interior or from out of state, at our bathing beaches. I don't suppose Grand Haven is unique in that respect, so given all the beaches around the state, that's a lot of dead boys and sad families. I would guess that is a much more significant problem. So why not pass a law forbidding swimming and bathing off publicly owned beaches?

Better yet, how about just passing a law against drowning. That would cover the whole gamut. It would also be typical of the depth of thinking that we have come to expect out of Lansing.

Lansing needs to understand that government does not need to address every piddling little problem found in society. You are there to work on the big problems. I suspect that the delving into these piddling little issues is really just a form of escapism practiced by a legislature that is not capable of addressing big problems effectively.