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.
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.
From Rutherford B. Hayes, President of the United States (1877-1881):
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
If Barr said this (at left) at one point, I wouldn’t be surprised, but his current view is the precise opposite.
You may be wondering about the latest propaganda coming out of the American Petroleum Institute, one of the major lobbying groups for Big Oil.
Well, it’s this attempt to convince us that government is forcing us away from fossil fuels, making our lives more unpleasant and out of our own control than ever before.
A few years ago I attended a symposium on alternative fuels, and noted to my shock that the keynote address was delivered by a spokesperson of the American Petroleum Institute. She argued that, as a soccer mom, she needed a reliable way to get her kids to practices and games. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one in the audience who thought: Well, there are dozens of different electric vehicles on the road, and they do seem to be performing admirably.
It was at that moment that I realized not only how powerful and ruthless these people are, but how they hold our intelligence in such incredibly low regard.
