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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability
Here’s a discussion between two people from my boyhood, whom I won’t identify by name, and whose comments I did not edit.
Old acquaintance 1: Guns, aren’t the problem, cars, alcohol, drugs, kill way many more people. Let’s talk the truth here it’s people that are the problem. How they are brought up , their mentality what they’re saying on the TV which in many cases is nothing but hatred you can call it like it is and this is the fact.
Old acquaintance 2:  If an individual goes crazy, wants to hurt someone and has a rock, he might hurt someone badly. If he has a gun, people will die. Yes the problem is people, let’s not allow them the weapons to deal with their sick solution.
The discussion makes me wonder how people in France or Japan or Croatia frame this discussion.  I’m thinking that perhaps we in the U.S. have too many (barely literate) people like old acquaintance #1 to be able to deal with our problems intelligently, and that perhaps we’re doomed to remain stuck in neutral when it comes to issues like public safety.
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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

This from right-wing TV anchor Candace Owens:

‘Listen. I’m not a flat-earther. I’m not a round-earther.’ Actually, what I am is, I am somebody who has left the cult of science. I have left the megachurch of science because what I have now realized is that science—what it is actually, if you think about it—is a pagan faith.”

Fortunately, very few people perceive science in this way, but I guess if you’re going to hold yourself out as one of the most prominent members of the U.S. right-wing political spokespeople, you’re essentially forced to go in this direction.  Accepting science as the best way of gaining an understanding of the world around us is not an option; it’s for woke liberals.  Moreover, calling science a “pagan faith” is not going to cost you one red cent in terms of your following of American idiots.

A few hundred years ago, some poor guy suggested that the stars in the sky might be other suns around which planets like ours orbited; he was promptly burned at the stake.  And going to that level of stupidity and cruelty may very well lie in our collective futures.

Whether or not this becomes a reality lies in precisely one thing: how seriously we as a civilization accept the viewpoints of morons like Candace Owens.  Our future lies exactly here.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

The reason that I’m happy that Trump survived the assassination attempt is that America cannot and will not survive this period of darkness and shame if Trump is for whatever reason buried and, by a huge number of hateful and ignorant voters, martyred.

As a country, we either inspect and come to understand what has happened over the last decade or will be stuck in this stupidity in perpetuity.

“In perpetuity” more actually means “until we’ve become irrelevant on the world stage.”  When and if it becomes clear that the U.S. has permanently lost whatever moral character it once possessed, when we’ve become an admitted ally of Russia, when we’ve become inextricably linked to the other most murderous regimes of the world, we will have no more authority on this planet than Chad or Paraguay.

This is precisely where we deserve to be.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

As shown at left, Republicans generally believe that their country either is failing, or has already failed, in many essential ways.

This may have begun with the Big Lie, i.e., the groundless assertion that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against Trump, which ended tens of millions of voters’ confidence in the integrity of U.S. democracy after 240 years of success.  It’s kind of ironic that confidence in election integrity was considered to be stronger before the information age, when massive cheating actually could have happened undetected.

In any case, the supposed failure of the United States is now emblazoned into Republicans’ minds with concepts like:

• Biden has opened our borders, giving away our jobs and killing our kids with overdoses of fentanyl.

• The U.S. economy is in freefall decline.

• Our military is now so woke that it’s no longer capable of defending our country.

• Crime rates are on the rise, and immigrants are the cause.

Part of the human condition is that we find ways to believe what make us feel good inside.  But never before has the world’s most powerful democracy fallen prey to such a huge and calculated profusion of lies.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

What do we get with Trump as our president? Liberty and freedom? That’s what these people believe, as unsupportable as it may appear to you and me.

I would say we get leadership by a man who tried to overthrow the U.S. government, and has shown us nothing but lawlessness and loyalty to his wealthy donors.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

This gentleman makes a great point about the relative unimportance of Biden’s debate skills.

An astonishingly large number of Americans fail to realize how close we are to the collapse of everything this country once stood for.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

From a reader: This is a planet-friendly, heavy-duty, microplastic-free, 100% compostable trash bag. Breaks down in weeks, not centuries.

Sorry, but if it’s going to be in a landfill with 99.999999% of other standard plastic bags, I don’t see the point.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Since the emergence of Donald Trump onto the U.S. political scene, political pundits have been wondering how the former president has been able to capture the loyalty of so many working-class American voters, especially given that he has done essentially nothing for them.

Many speculate that it’s their frustration with their stagnant wages, and their struggle to get ahead in a world dominated by the super rich and the most powerful corporations.  Their anger and poor education has them in a place where they are unable to reason well, and eagerly accept the claim of a man who says, baselessly, “Only I can fix it.”

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

A reader asks: How does one gently correct someone’s poor grammar? I usually let it slide but I want to help them to sound better educated.

I have a few basic rules:

I feel I have an obligation to correct the grammar of my wife or my kids, though I try not to do this in public.

If you’re a friend and you make a mistake that is bound to be seen or heard repeatedly, e.g., a mistake in a business presentation, you’ll receive an email from me on the subject.

There have been people in my life who have asked me directly to correct their mistakes when I come across them.  This doesn’t happen frequently, but I eagerly accept the invitation when it comes up.

I try not to be pedantic.  There are grammatical errors that we learned not to make in second or third grade, e.g., “My parents sent my brother and I to a nice school,” or “I should have went to the store.”  I’m much more likely to address something like this than I am minor issues that few people care about, e.g., “Their mission was to boldly go.” (split infinitive), or “I appreciated him coming to me and apologizing.” (failure to modify a gerund with a possessive).

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

The life expectancy of Japanese people exceeds that of Americans by seven full years (84 vs. 77).  Seven months would have been statistically significant, but seven years?  How is this even remotely possible?

We don’t know, and in truth, we probably never will, since all we have are data that speak to correlation, rather than causation.  They eat better.  They have fewer toxins in their environment.  They have very few guns, and therefore almost no gun-related deaths. They’re not monotheistic, and thus they don’t live in fear of eternal punishment. They live honest lives with very little corruption.

Contrast this with the United States, where all these features are completely different.  Take corruption.  We don’t dabble in it; we bathe ourselves in it.  Might not be good for the soul.

All this said, one thing that should most certainly be kept in mind is the set of life attitudes shown at left.  It seems completely plausible that a harmonious approach to life in general creates less stress and greater spiritual, emotion, and perhaps physical health.

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