A GREEN NEW APPLE?

When that apple fell on Sir Isaac Newton's head after he presumably said ouch he asked, "Why?"
WHY!
It's a uniquely human thing to do.
When we lose the drive to ask why something happened we also lose the ability to fix it if it's bad or replicate it if good.
WHY?
What caused that apple to fall?
The 'whys' are usually followed by theories, investigations, conclusions and verifications.
This process has no agenda other than finding the cause and effect and getting at the truth.
It is not political, it's science.
And the people who ploy their talents in that field are called scientists.
Scientists DO have an agenda, getting at the truth!
Sir Isaac finally concluded that the Earth had an inherent property that pulled the apple downward.
Gravity!
Gravity caused the apple to fall and gravity keeps us from flying off into space when we jump.
Did the world immediately give Sir Newton the keys to the kingdom.
Of course not.
Many ridiculed him but in the end his shoulders were the platform upon which other scientists stood to reach higher.

That was then but now is now.
Now we have many problems facing us and one of them is causing disasters across the planet.
Storms!
What causes storms to be strong and get stronger and more frequent?
WHY?
Storms are caused by many factors but their strength increases when they form or travel over oceans.

And simply put, the warmer the water the stronger the storm.

What is causing the waters to be warmer now than they ever were in recorded history?

WHY?

There are many factors that are out of our control.

But we may be able to control some. And if so we owe it to ourselves to find ways to reverse the pattern.

It could be hard and take a long time but if we roll up our sleeves and get to work on that which we can control we can slow down the process perhaps long enough for us to find a permanent cure.

But no problem ever got fixed by doing nothing.

Some of our political leaders are talking about a "Green New Deal."

Is this the solution?

Perhaps yes, perhaps no.

BUT IT'S A START!

Are the proponents of this 'new deal' being ridiculed?

Of course they are.

The reasons for the ridicule include honest skepticism from some and dishonest greed upon the part of the industries that like the status quo.

Their bottom lines will be affected by changes suggested therein.

But even that can be worked out to everyone's satisfaction if we work together intelligently, using science and facts.

Gravity is real, and so is climate change and global warming.

And it doesn't take a sledge hammer to prove it when a simple apple can do the job.

TAX FREEDOM DAY? REALLY??

April 24^th will come and pass without most Americans realizing its significance.

But it happens to be the day known as “Tax Freedom Day.”

You'll believe anything!

That sounds really cool.

This is a day for us to celebrate.

So why does it go unnoticed?

Well for one reason it’s not real.

We don’t stop paying tax on April 24^th and in fact most of us will continue to pay taxes every day for the rest of our lives.

And taxes are taken out of every paycheck and collected on most if not all sales.

So how is April 24^th a day of tax freedom?

Well if workers added up their entire gross salary for every day they worked from the start of the year and gave every penny to the government April 24^th would be the day they have paid their entire tax bill for the year.

April 24th? Hah!

In other words they finally start working for themselves!

Of course if you add all the other costs you must pay then the day gets moved a little further down the calendar.

For example if you add up all the money you pay to insurance companies of all sorts and utility companies who must be fed you might actually be depressed to note that not even the first eight months of the year are yours to keep!

But let’s just talk taxes.

The above scenario only actually affects the middle class.

How can this be you might ask.

Well the poor and homeless among us do not earn enough to survive let alone pay taxes so they are not affected.

And large corporations and the wealthiest among us, or rather above us as they would prefer be called pay little or no taxes to begin with and in some case are even rewarded with subsidies as is the case with that poor indigent corporation Exxon.

For this group Tax Freedom Day actually comes and passes at the one second mark of January the first every year.

So armed with the knowledge that the middle class pays most of the taxes in America one might think that they are the most important group and should be protected.

Surely if they are not around anymore then America will not have enough revenue to operate!

So how come one political party in particular is trying to squeeze them out of existence?

Glaciers? Glacier?
We don't need no stinkin Glaciers!!

Perhaps it is for the same reason they also wish to ignore that Global Climate change is caused by human actions and could eventually ruin the environment so vital to our future.

And that reason is pandering to the wealthy!

Most large corporations and the people who run them make their money by ignoring the environmental consequences of their actions.  Following rules and regulations can cut into your profit margin.

And if you are sued for negligence that causes a death here and there or an oil spill that kills thousands of creatures and pollutes the environment your attorneys can drag things out until the public forgets and a lawmaker is convinced to slap you on the wrist and move on.

You see when you don’t have to worry about money or taxes for that matter you are free to spend as you like.

And what better way to spend your money than to buy and own a government!

Art Pope is not a Pope!

When billionaire right winger Art Pope bought the elections in North Carolina he populated the legislature with his cronies and placed himself as the States’ Budget Director.

In that role he decided to stop funding the States education system.  He also fired the head of the State’s education system for no apparent reason and then blocked certain courses from their medical school on what might appear to be religious grounds!

Former head of NC School system
Tom Ross never saw what hit him.
He was too intelligent to think
anyone could be so stupid!

The school, University of North Carolina, UNC was once considered the bright spot in the State and one of the top medical schools in the nation.  It is now in danger of losing its accreditation as a medical school.

What a tremendous blow not only to education in North Carolina but to the State as a whole.

But megalomaniac Art Pope is not alone in his dream of total control.  The Koch brothers are scheming to steal National elections and are currently working to place their favorite son, Scott Walker in the White House. (Please click the links for more information!)

Vote for me
AND MY FAMILY!

In a plot straight out of “The Omen” if this happens look out America, or rather look out American Middle Class!

When and if these men and others like them realize their dreams the American Dream will devolve into a nightmare.

And if that comes to pass Tax Freedom Day for those of us still around will most likely be pushed back to late December.

AND THEY KNOW IT!

One of the phrases that always bothered me when opposites of the political stage debated was, “And as you know…”

It says to the audience that what is about to be said by the speaker is a well known fact and his opponent is quite aware of it!

It is an annoying tactic that works because the public is basically uneducated, at least in whatever the basis for the debate is, and the speaker knows it!

I have a friend who loves to provoke by always saying the opposite of what I am putting forth.  Sometimes he deliberately takes a silly stance that goes off on a tangent from what we were discussing thus deflecting the conversation completely.

He does it for fun and while it irks me I know it does neither of us any harm.

And this brings me to the current year in politics or rather last decade or so and certainly since President Obama was elected the first time.

Other than personal monetary gain from their wealthy owners harm is the only thing on the minds of the Republican Party.

They have been saying and doing such a multitude of outrageous things that it is almost impossible to recall all of them let alone write them down in this post.

And even if I could write every one of them down I doubt anyone in today’s sound bite twitter mentality would have the patience to read it or even understand it before nodding off.

The world does not need another War and Peace novel, although this would be non-fiction, and they know it!

So let’s get down to some of the most glaring bits of right wing bull cocky that they know are downright lies.

BIRTHERISM: Obama is not an American and his Presidency should be nullified.

President Obama was not only born of an American woman the birth took place in Hawaii.  Counter to popular belief among the members of the vastly under-educated T-Party Hawaii is and, at the time of the blessed event, was an American State. AND THEY KNOW IT!

GLOBAL WARMING IS A HOAX: Many Republicans in Congress have gone so far as to say that claims of global warming is the greatest hoax ever played on citizens of this country.

One must assume the Congressman, one James Inhofe (R-OK) is forgetting his own party making believe they are governing!

This one will affect every living organism, human or otherwise which possibly excludes some politicians on the right.

The scientific community has shown over and over again that the major cause of our current rise in worldwide temperatures is increased CO2 in the atmosphere and that is the result of man-made machinery and the burning of fossil fuels.  And yet almost to a man (woman) in the Republican Party they deny it.  But do they believe their own denials?  Global warming IS real! AND THEY KNOW IT!

SHARIA LAW MUST NOT BE ALLOWED IN AMERICA!

Seriously?  Are they truly worried we will adopt it here?

Religion is for personal comfort and not to be used in Government.  The so-called Party of Family Values values neither family nor really any religion! The right wing members with several wives, not all at the same time perhaps and a multitude of mistresses would rather pander to the deluded public who believe in the talking snake rather than admit there is no such thing and never has been.  AND THEY KNOW IT!

PRESIDENT OBAMA CAUSED THE DEFICIT TO RISE. Under his leadership we now owe more than ever before and we are headed for a fiscal cliff.

Uh, no, and in fact the deficit has gone down under his guidance.  And the Democratic Party has tried to do even more but has been blocked at every turn. (I apologize to all the RWNJs out there for using the word ‘fact.’ They seem to consider it a four letter word.)  Under Bush and most Republican Presidents the deficit has gone up while under most Democratic Presidents it goes down!  AND THEY KNOW IT!

VOTER FRAUD IS RAMPANT AND NEEDS TO BE STOPPED!

We cannot allow outsiders from other States to vote in our elections. Their radical ideas will harm our way of life!

In every State where Republicans hold the majority such as North Carolina voting restrictions are being placed on any group of voters shown to lean toward Democratic candidates.

Photo IDs such as gun licenses are okay but student IDs are not.  If a college student wishes to vote in NC the parents must pay a fee.  This is called a poll tax. It's absurd, unnecessary and basically against the Constitution of  the United States of America.  But the kicker is that statistics show the number of possible yet unconfirmed fraudulent attempts to vote is 0.0002 percent. AND THEY KNOW IT!

WHERE ARE THE JOBS Mr. PRESIDENT?

Unemployment, which rose so drastically while the war mongering pair of Cheney & Bush sat on the throne, has consistently gone down while President Obama has been in the White House.  And these numbers have continued their downward trend to the utter dismay of the Republicans.  The blatant opposition by the Republicans and their hypocritical leader Boehner to any jobs bill proposal is awe inspiring in it's evil intent.  AND THEY KNOW IT!

TAXES ARE KILLING BUSINESS IN AMERICA!

It's time for the takers to start contributing to the country's economy!

This absurd notion while blocking any attempt to raise the minimum wage on those who really need the money is perhaps one of the most insidious of their odious demands.  The real takers of America are the members of Congress who take a paycheck and do absolutely nothing but stir the fires of hate and promote fear while accepting bribes from the very business leaders they claim are going broke! AND THEY KNOW IT!

OBAMA KEEPS TWEAKING THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT or ACA SHOWING IT IS WEAK AND NO GOOD!

This is one is actually easy, at least on the premise they put forth.  Tweaking it before full implementation is not only NOT a sign of weakness but the American way!  Every bill ever talked about or enacted into law has been tweaked including our Constitution which as I recall has a whole bunch of, what are they called again? Oh yeah, AMENDMENTS!! AND THEY KNOW IT!

Could it be they have nothing else and once again have to resort to lies?

In a word, and as always, YES!

But while calling them liars may not be nice do you think they know they are lying?

OF COURSE!

If not then they would be truly stupid and their dumb utterances would necessitate their ouster from office.  Their out and out intended lies are well thought out and are able to fool uneducated voters into electing them over and over again!

If every member of the Republican Party and right wingers were told that if caught in a political lie they’d face the death penalty we might never hear another word out of their mouths and conservative talk radio would finally be off the air for good!

And that is the main problem with politics today.

Politicians, especially on the radical right side of every aisle in the country pander and say things that are so ridiculous as to elicit dumbfounded looks from anyone with half a brain.

But so far they have faced no political consequence.

AND THAT THEY SURELY KNOW!

My Letter to Newsday

Dear Newsday,
I am a 28 year subscriber to Newsday.
I have had many letters published and seen one of my "Expressway" op eds appear in the paper.
I was part of the 1969 remembrance issues and was proud to see my ugly puss in the paper talking about the Amazins of '69.
That is what makes the following so hard to say and do.
I HEREBY CANCEL MY SUBSCRIPTION TO NEWSDAY!
I would never tell others who to support or vote for but I expect the same in return.  I cannot support Willard Mitt Romney or anyone in the party that ruined America for the middle class and threatens to take us back to the dark ages before science proved awful things such as evolution and global warming - Not just climate change!
Anyone sitting in the dark after yet another record breaking storm waiting for FEMA to help get their ives back knows what a disaster Romney's 'privatize FEMA' stance will be should he get control of our government.
My current salary is half what I was earning before the Bush debacle ruined the World economy and must be frugal with what I have left.
So for this and many other reasons I cannot support the Republican Party of 'NO' and refuse to spend money on a subscription knowing that some of that money is going toward his campaign.
I will miss Newsday but I would miss my freedom more.
Sincerely,

I cannot understand how the Republican candidate is within 30 points of a real, caring President but then many in the country are deluded and terrible misinformed.  The man's policies will take us back to the awful days of the Bush era.

You remember that time, right?  The time when corporations were allowed to run rampant and ruin the world?

But the ill-informed people who sit in front of their televisions or listen to the radio and only hear Fox or Rush are one thing.  How can a supposedly well-informed newspaper be so ffoled as to believe any of Mitt's lies?

And that is why I can no longer read that rag.  I never called it that before but they have shown me the error of my ways.

I'm done with them and I hope all caring intelligent people will join me in dropping them.

Getting High More Often!

The debate over "Global Climate Change" nee Global Warming goes on with science and scientists on one side and energy companies of all kinds and their followers on the other side.

No matter how many times we are shown photos of lost glaciers or given actual data showing the rise of the World's oceans there will always be groups of deniers who stand to gain monetarily by their ostrich-like stance.

The fact of the matter is the harm we are doing to the environment may not adversely affect them in their lifetime so they could not care less.  It's all about greed wrapped up neatly in a demand for 'smaller government' and more personal freedom.I won't get into the total stupidity of their arguments because even they know how self evident the errors of their ways are.

I have kept track of the number of record highs vs record lows for New York City and charted them against my lifetime.  I also noted the number of highs and lows in the same area since the year 2000.

The chart merely notes whether or not the record high or low for a particular date took place before or after I was born.  Therefore the maximum number of record highs or lows on the chart is 366.

This totally non-scientific charting method is nevertheless very accurate in it's numbers.
The facts are simple:
Since I was born (1949) there have been 226 new highs or nearly 62% of the year but there have only been 96 new lows or 26%.

Furthermore since 2000 New York has recorded 42 dates that can boast new highs while only 4 dates with low record temperatures.

One other interesting piece of data is the differences between the years that recorded their respective records.  For example the record high for January 1st in New York is 62º recorded in 1966.  The low for that date of -4º was hit in 1918.  The difference in years between those two events is 48.

Even more telling is the average number of years since new records were hit.  For new highs the average per January day is 51.4 years.  For new lows that average is 81.4!

And that makes January a fairly normal month for this type of useless yet intriguing grouping of facts.  That is because for the entire year counting backwards from 2010 the average number of years since we have recorded record highs is 52 but for lows it jumps to 86.6.

This data shows that there are not only many more record highs being hit per year but also that it is taking far less time for us to break the existing records for highs versus lows.

I can already hear the arguments against this post:
The data is skewed - It's only for NYC so who cares - It only goes back 140 years - It's Obama's fault.


Behold the charts!
Click them to enlarge for proper viewing.

Mother Knows Best

With apologies to Robert Young and his 1950 TV cast members mother does actually know best.

Mother Nature that is.

At times she is the strong silent type but when she is upset she can take it out on her children with a swiftness and fury unsurpassed by father.

Of course Father Time does come into the picture but only after his bride has changed the playing field.  And don't we often say that 'time heals all wounds?'  So daddy tends to soften the blows after a while.

But occasionally we forget who's in control and think we know better than mom.  She is forgiving for she realizes we are flawed.  We are given many chances to fix our mistakes and as long as they are not disastrous all will be well.

We are currently in a struggle with ourselves on the subject of 'Global Climate Change' nee Global Warming' (from here on to be called 'GW.')  Although scientists around the world know GW to be true a handful of politically motivated ostriches are trying to muddy the waters.

Pundits (aptly pronounced PUN-DITZ) point to studies based on shaky short-sighted studies such as snowstorms and unusually cold weather in the North East this past winter as proof that there is no GW.  The studies are generally funded and backed by organizations that would lose money if they had to stop polluting the Earth.

Mother Nature quietly sits in judgment of these sad sacks and silently sends soft signals that they are wrong.

For example, the coral reefs around the globe are disappearing due to higher water temperatures and increased pollution in the oceans.  Some are even postulating that the current increase in earthquake activity could be related to GW as well.

But another more visible signal has been taking place over a rather short period of time. By comparing photographs of glaciers around the globe we can see the diminution thereof.  What once was is no more.

Some politicians love to throw around numbers and statistics to phony up conclusions or rile up their base in an effort to gain support.  These half-truths become talking points such as the current one about health care being "one sixth of our economy!"  Well if they are so worried about one sixth of our economy then why not be worried about NINETY to NINETY FIVE PERCENT of the world's glaciers?

According to even skeptical scientists that is the number of glaciers succumbing to the increased heat of the planet, aka GW.

But even this is not enough for the leaders of our country to sit up and take notice.

We all know it's not nice to fool Mother Nature but it's also not wise.

So trust mom to come up with another subtle hint.  In her infinite wisdom she has settled a dispute between two Asian nations just as surely as any mother would and she did it in a King Solomon way.

When children fight over a toy if it cannot be cut in half then the toy is removed and no one gets to play with it.

India and Bangladesh have been fighting, literally over a tiny speck of land in the Bay of Bengal since the 1980s.  Each side claims the land as its own.

The island that once boasted only 1.5 square miles and was called New Moore Island by India or South Talpatti by the Bangladeshis has ceased to exist!  Mother Nature has reclaimed it.

You see those glaciers that are not melting due to the not increasing temperatures of the Earth may just have sent enough water into the oceans to cause a global rise in the sea level.
And thus New Moore is no more and South Talpatti has gone way south!

It is now father time's turn to heal the military tensions of the two combatant countries while the rest of us are left to ponder, What's Next?

Personally I hope it's not Long Island or Manhattan.
We've suffered enough.
Okay mom?
Please?
Pretty please?