Global Warming- It’s the Population Stupid!

We equate human contributions to global warming to the industrial age of carbon consumption. And yes, there is a correlation between increased use of fossil fuels and global warming. But there is also another direct correlation- population growth.  The human population was estimated to be 1.5 billion people around 1880. Today we have 7 billion people.  The forty years from 1960 to 2000 saw a doubling of our population from 3 billion to 6 billion people. This was also the period of greatest global warming. 

 Seven billion people produce 5 trillion watt-hrs of energy. Who hasn’t sat in a crowded auditorium  and felt the heat produced by the people? Our bodies are little furnaces, burning fuel to maintain a constant temperature of 98.6 deg. The energy required to move us, feed us, and keep us warm or cool all seeps into the environment.  

So one conclusion is the planet will continue to warm up if the population continues to increase, despite all attempts to reduce warming.  Another interesting point is a warmer planet will have more land and a longer growing season that is  capable of  producing more food.  More availability of food means happier people. Happier people will grow the population. So we have this positive feedback loop accelerating global warming.

As the population continues to increase there will be more competition for land that will create conflicts of ideology that historically may have sustained a separate, but peaceful existence in the past. There will also be greater competition for natural resources. Both will be catalysts for larger, longer and more deadly  wars. Wars for control of oil have already happened. 

Ultimately, we could face a doomsday war of cataclysmic proportions. This could be a way of curbing population growth, reducing pollution, and reducing the rate of global warming. 

Another more humane, but authoritarian way to curb global warming would be to limit all families to one child. This could be done by sterilization. Over a few generations we would be back to a climate happy population of 1  billion people.  

A third, but less effective way to reduce the global warming could be deliberate negative economic growth over a long period of time.  This is death by a thousand cuts- a deliberate process of consuming less than we are capable of (consumer rationing) would create world famine and wars on a continuous basis. Alas, we will probably continue down this morbid path.

Given these choices  world sterilization doesn't sound too bad.  Wow!  Now tell me global warming isn’t a problem!

Herr Trump- Aufhören so dumm!

As the political theater rolls along toward our NH primary, one must wonder how long Donald Trump and Ben Carson can sustain a campaign fueled by un-Christian behavior, prejudice and disregard for our Constitution. Both Trump and Carson would be happy to the toss the Constitution in the trash. 

Trump would register all Muslims (Is sewing a Green Crescent on their clothing next?). Carson doesn’t think they should be allowed to run for president. Trump would monitor all Islamic Temples. I can not believe that ordinary Americans are not outraged and not speaking out against these outlandish Hilteresk ideas!

In the latest red meat speech Trump went way overboard, saying he saw “...thousands and thousands of people in Jersey City cheering...” when the Twin Towers came down on 911. In this modern age of everything being caught on video, the news media came up empty trying to find the thousands of people Trump said he saw. Trump slithered over to  Fox News for refuge and when asked about it he still would not back down, and even claimed the news media censored it! Carson quietly agreed, then waffled the next day, but never called him out on the big lie. The other Republicans were equally mute on the issue.

At his speech in Alabama one black protester spoke out, and rather than handling the disruption like an adult (or a presidential candidate), Trump encouraged the crowd to a frenzy, where upon the protester was kicked and beaten to the ground by six or seven Trump fans while he egged them on them repeatedly saying “get him out of here, get him out , get him out of here...”. 

I can understand the behavior of the Alabama people. After all, Alabama is one of the most racist, bigoted populations in the country. But for Trump to incite them to violence like some KKK Grand Wizard is not only behavior unworthy of a presidential candidate, it is un-American. If the Republicans persist in sustaining their campaigns based on fear, hatred, and bigotry with total disregard for our Constitution, we have nobody to blame but ourselves if they are successful. 

Who Would Save a Drowning Person- Hillary or Bernie?

Let's pretend a person is drowning in a pond. Bernie Sanders comes along, and seeing the person,  Bernie  makes the difficult decision to jump in to save the drowning man immediately. 

Now let's pretend Hillary encounters the poor soul drowning in the pond. She would likely stand on the shore, ruminate on her chances of success,  look around to see if anybody notices her, finding no one, stands there while the victim struggles close enough to shore for her to lend a hand, only then would she reach out and offer help, and afterward take credit for saving a life. 

Yet if the poor soul drowned she would probably say the time was not  right for her to jump in. She would reassure us that  in the future she is resolved to save a drowning person without hesitation. 

For Bernie, only making the right decision matters, regardless of how politically unpopular it may be. I trust Bernie to make those tough decisions in the future-- the first time-- when it matters, not the second or third time.

McCarthy Wants Fresh Faces, but not Fresh Ideas

As Kevin McCarthy stepped out of the race for Speaker he said the GOP needs a fresh face. Not true. They need fresh ideas. Ideas that make common sense. 

Ignoring gun violence, playing doctor with women, creating jobs overseas, giving money to billionaires, killing unions, denying fair wages, opposing equal rights for all, retrenching  old Jim Crowe tactics in the south to disenfranchise minorities, and voting to repeal Obamacare on a weekly basis isn't working out too well for all but the fringe elements of the party. 

The fact that John Boehner is considered too liberal for these Tea Party wackos speaks volumes about their misguided ideology.

Even  Saint Ronald would be tossed on the street today. He provided amnesty to illegal immigrants and increased government spending more than any of his predecessors. He also brought down the Soviet Union with diplomacy, not war. Yep. Even Reagan was a liberal by today's goofball yardstick. 

NYTImes Update

Buying a Gun Should be as Difficult as Getting an Abortion

We should treat every young man who wants to buy a gun like every woman who wants to get an abortion:  impose a mandatory 48 hr waiting period, require parental permission, obtain a note from his doctor proving he understands what he is about to do, be forced to watch about the effects of gun violence, undergo an embarrassing ultrasound wand in one of his orifices (just because). 

We should close down all but one gun shop in every state and make him travel hundreds of miles, take time off work without pay, and stay overnight in a strange town alone. 

Make him walk through a gauntlet of people holding photos of loved ones who were killed by gun, and have people call him a murderer and beg him to turn around and  go home.

  Both abortion and gun ownership are rights confided to us in the Constitution as interpreted by SCOTUS, yet the obstacles imposed on women are far more severe than buying a gun-  and no woman who ever had an abortion killed a room full of people in seconds. Buying and carrying a gun with the ability to kill someone should be at least as difficult as getting an abortion.

Thoughts and prayers are not enough. We need radical legislation to curb gun murder.