There is not question that the United States of America is addicted to oil. Our cars use it; our planes, our homes, and our plastics are just a few examples as to how oil has seeped its way into every facet of our daily lives.

Politicians on one side of the argument say “drill here drill now”, while others say, “drill baby drill”. Sure drilling here at home will remove our need of foreign oil, but the addiction to oil itself still remains.

Like my saying above, just because we can produce our own oil here at home does not make us any less dependent on it. So instead of sending some of our money over seas to OPEC, we send it to a bunch of billionaires here at home and turn them into trillionaires. If that makes you feel more comfortable then so be it, but the fact remains we need to get off of oil.

The free markets and our own freedoms give every America the possibility of accomplishing this feat. For instance you can obtain a free federal permit allowing you to make your own ethanol, which is the source of fuel many believe is the future to powering our vehicles. Ethanol is nothing more than alcohol produced from a variety of sources. It is done so by basically boiling what is called a mash and then the steam from that boiling mash is cooled so the steam is turned into alcohol. The downfall of this is it takes a lot of energy to produce that mash, therefore leaving many to wonder is it worth doing.

I say it is. Going back to why I think the free markets and freedoms of America will produce the solution is for this simple reason, when so many people are trying different ways to produce a product you will invariably get lots of ideas which in turn will be the one solution we are looking for.

We have seen it with so many inventions, from the light bulb to the telephone to even the home computer and the way we listen to music. It will be no different with ethanol either.

The work performed on producing ethanol has lead the industry to realize that the left over mash once it has been done boiling to extract the ethanol can then be fed back to the livestock. Many people believed that producing ethanol would leave a deficiency in live stock food, but the opposite is true. In fact live stock now have an even better source of food since a lot of the sugars have been removed.

Also another bi-product of ethanol production is carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide is captured and then resold to make dry ice and carbonate beverages. These are just two examples of the solutions that have come from continuous experiments with ethanol. We must continue with the process if we ever want to get off of oil. The price we will pay later for not getting off of oil far outweighs it the cost it takes today to produce it.

Imagine for a second you live in the backwoods of Mississippi. You don’t get out much. No internet or telephone or newspapers. You’ve written off society a long time ago. After those bastards stole Bush a second election you decided “ah, the hell with it” & stocked up on Pork n Beans, a can opener & some wood for widdlin’. No contact with the outside world. You’re happy as can be. Until one day while widdlin' a nice enough reproduction of FDR you notice you’re all out of pork n beans.

So you finally start the ole truck up n head into town. You’re excited in a Kissin' Cousins kinda way as you haven’t seen or heard from anyone for quite a long time.

When you get to town you realize there’s quite a ruckus going on at Mabel’s Bar & Fish Bait Shop. You walk into find everyone glued to the idiot box watching a man on stage who apparently has been elected President of the United States. You are in shock as well as being dismayed. Mostly bcuz you didn’t realize how much time had passed. But also bcuz you think you recognize the new President standing on stage with his family.

You think you recognize him cuz you used to follow politics somewhat before you retreated into the backwoods but never thought you’d see the day when a politician you actually liked would be elected President of the United states. Someone who was a straight shooter. Who truly represented the voice of the people.

“That’s Joe Biden,” you mutter to no one in particular. You can’t believe it. “They’ve elected Joe Biden as president of the United States !!” You begin to jump up & down for joy as you can barely contain the excitement of seeing a true democrat back in the white house. Not since 1976 & Jimmy carter have you been this excited about the future of this country.

But then you notice something strange.

“Who’s that colored fella on stage with President Biden ?

Is that his driver ?? Are they really that close ? Look he even let the colored fella bring his family out on stage too. Ah, ain’t that sweet … what ? … wait, why is the colored fella gonna give a speech ?? Is he gonna announce Senator Biden to the crowd ?? President Barack Hussein Obama ?? What year is this ? Hot damn !! How long was I gone !!?”

We’ve been colonized !! Run for your lives !!"

The Elephant in the Room

Everyone knows we are up shit creek without a paddle in many regards these days. The Environment, Peak oil (tho know one has the guts to call it by its true name), a failing economy & 2 wars. But isn’t it interesting that no one is mentioning the root cause of all these problems: American Consumerism.

Until we deal with the fact that we have been depleting the earth’s resources at an irreplaceable rate & to the detriment of most of this planet’s inhabitants (U.S. is only 5% of the world’s population but we consume 70% of the world’s resources) the problems we are facing today will never be solved.

I know you can’t exactly get elected president of the United States on a platform of shop less, be more !! But someone at some point needs to say something & force the American people to face that their way life is simply unsustainable. I know… how about the American media ?!?! Oh, yeah, they are all owned by all the very corporations whose profit margins would suffer if we were to face the facts & consume less & recycle more, saving the planet in the process. It seems silly the argument that we make here in a so called “free” nation against places like Cuba & Venezuela where the most powerful people there supposedly control the media … while all along that is exactly what is going on here. Which begs the question: How free are we ?

Can you say ‘conflict of interest’ ??

So unless you want to see mass storage units built for all our remaining “stuff” right next to parking lots for the planet’s last remaining SUV’s on Mount Kilimanjaro since that is how high the waters will have risen thanks to unchecked Global Warming, it is time for a comprehensive plan to move America & the world into this new century by accepting the limitations of a flawed economic system (capitalism) which requires infinite growth while living in a finite world.

Here are some Consumer facts to ponder:

Americans throw away enough office and writing paper annually to build a wall 12 feet high stretching from Los Angeles to New York.

Every day American businesses generate enough paper to circle the Earth 20 times.

The average American household generates 15 pounds of hazardous waste a year. Most of it goes into landfills, sewage treatment plants and septic tanks.

An estimated 1.6 million tons of household hazardous waste exists in the municipal waste stream right now.

American consumers and industry throw away enough aluminum in a year to rebuild our entire airplane commercial fleet every three months.

Recycling one aluminum can saves enough electricity to power a TV or a 100-watt light bulb for three hours.

Here’s the interesting twist to all of this. It would be good for the economy if we did the right thing & recycled materials:

Recycling waste materials supports about six times as many waste-related jobs as there would be if the same materials were treated as trash.

We will not ever fix the problems we face, the environment & the economy,  until we accept this irrefutable fact: The American Way of Life is unsustainable !!  

Rham Emmanuel: Look What the Cat Dragged In

Rham Emmanuel,  has been selected President Obama’s Chief of Staff. This is scary business how many former Clinton aides are finding a home in Obama’s White House (can we call it The Black House now that we finally got some color in there ? ) It doesn’t bode well with the Latino voters either, those who plunked down for Obama at a rate of 66% as Rahm has been no friend to immigrant reform despite representing a diverse constituency there in Illinois (25% Latino). He advised his fellow Democrats to “move to the right” on the issue of immigrant reform in 2006 prior to the elections. And every single Democrat who took his advice & ran scared lost their elections while the majority of those who ignored Rahm won. And with Nancy Pelosi’s recent comments on the topic: “"Maybe there never is a path to citizenship if you came here illegally," Pelosi said. "I would hope that there could be, but maybe there isn't." We’re going to need all the help we can get in an Obama administration since the candidates stayed away from the topic entirely throughout the 2 year long campaign (seemed longer didn‘t it ?).

With at least 12 million undocumented workers (not illegals !!) in this country fueling the economy or what’s left of it we might want to deal with legalizing their existence. Since it is the United States adoption of NAFTA or what I like to call The Exporting Exploitation Act that has made the economy in Mexico even worse than what it already was (the price of tortillas in Mexico have risen 136% under NAFTA ! ).

Besides, if your name ain’t Red Cloud or Sitting Bull or Jose Luis Garcia Rivera then you are all immigrants here. So step to it Obama. I’ll even volunteer myself as a replacement for Emmanuel should your conscience get the best of you.

Another upside to finally providing a path to citizenship & ending the criminalization of 12 million workers: we can finally get Lou Dobbs off the air since that is all he ever talks about.

Obama’s skeletons

A friend & writer, Saab Lofton, who happens to be one of the few people of color who has not fallen in love with Obama provided a partial list of why in one of his last columns (which you can find here: http://www.trews.org/node/1237) I am including the list here in case it ever turns out to be prophetic. I want my friend Saab to receive all the credit he deserves if he turns out to be right about Obama. Here is his indictment of the new President Elect :

You voted for the 2006 version of the Patriot Act.
You voted for the Secure Fence Act, authorizing the construction of a 700 mile wall along the Mexican/American border.
You stated you won't rule out invading Iran.
You stated that you'd enter Pakistan in order to attack al-Qaeda even without Pakistani approval.
You actually praised Ronald (SIX letters) Wilson (SIX letters) Reagan (SIX letters)!!!

I do agree with that last one. If ever there were a Son of a Bitch in American politics outside of Dubya it was Ronnie Reagan. Bob Avakian has dubbed Reagan “that Vampire Motherfucker” !! If the name fits ….

The Iran & Pakistani comments do honestly alarm me mucho. Tho personally, I think Obama knows that in order to get elected in this country he had to talk tough on matters of National Security. Or the Wolves of Deceit would have torn him apart. This also, I hope, explains his policy of support for that Red Headed Step Child of the middle east Israel which anyone who reads or has a conscience must disagree with. But no candidate in his right mind would talk soft on Military might or go against the longstanding U.S. policy of support for Israel. At least when trying to get elected. Now that he is office, maybe Palestine can get some love as it is only the right thing to do. Every activist knows that much. Hopefully Obama as a former Organizer knows it too. (Heavens to Betsie not the dreaded “O” word !!)

Sen. Ted Stevens' election defeat marks the end of an era

I’ve never had any respect for the Republican voter for obvious reasons but if this don’t just say it all. Sen. Ted Stevens from Alaska was the 1^st convicted felon to seek election ... Yet He only lost by 3,000 votes !! What has to happen for that unthinking portion of America to get its head out of its ass ?? Clinton was practically crucified for cheating on his wife which isn’t even illegal & is also none of our business. But Stevens IS convicted of a crime for accepting a bribe & then lying about it & he still almost wins !! Those voters should have their right to vote taken away until they prove they can read & pass a written test. These are the patriotic, sanctity of marriage people. The states’ rights, proud to be an american people who spout their greatest country on earth bullshit to the tune of 40 million dead & "I'll suck your dick for a barrel of oil."

“Hey Mabel , they say Sen. Stevens is a convicted felon who lied to save his ass & keep from reporting $250,000 in gifts from an oil company which probably affected the way he voted .. Should we still vote for him ?

“Sure, why not. We can‘t vote for the other guy. He might be a Socialist.”

A New Day in America

So America has elected the first President of African descent.

Yay for us.

Now what ?

Do we go back to playing video games & watching inordinate amounts of television in order to inebriate ourselves from the gnawing feeling that we know there is still more work to be done ?? And I don’t mean by Obama but by us.  

Or do we continue to participate in this democracy ? Obama will need the will of the people on his side when he goes to enact this change he has promised us in his campaign these past months. He isn’t going to do it all alone. He ain’t no Shaft & this ain’t no Hollywood Movie.

We all need to continue to place pressure on members of Congress to make the change we want to see become a reality. We need to organize at the local level. Think globally & act locally. Hold meetings & protests & sign petitions. Basically light a fire under the asses of our elected officials & get them to represent ‘we the people’ instead of ‘they the millionaires’.

Fellow Americans, our future is in our own hands.

This Broadwater project as it is called, seems to have been well prepared and would convinced any one to the point that the presenters may have thought it could not fail.

The thought of locating this facility 9 miles from the shores of Long Island and 10 miles from the coastline of Connecticut seems ideal, because that kind of a distance is a good enough buffer in case of any kind of accident.

However the presenters did not take into consideration the commercial and recreational fishing activities that was prevalent in the area and how there operation would hurt these events irrevocably.

The area also had great cultural significance to the people for generations and allowing multinationals to enter and environmentally rape the location of its pristine and enduring qualities, was a hard pill to swallow for many.

Operation of this facility would not only change the area for ever but would also set a precedent for other companies to follow.

The New York and Connecticut leaders could have been deceived by the quality and the financial promises in the proposal, but they hired independent third parties to investigate the project so that they could make informed and objective decisions.

Trans Canada and Shell US proposed to supply 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas daily into the region and this gas was the cleanest burning substitute for oil and other more fossil related supplies. However independent research found that other suppliers could do the same without building a storage plant in their harbor.

They investors also promised to ensure that there will be no near off shore or other coastal wetlands disturbances during construction and operations.

However, it would have been foolhardy to accept such argument as there can be no zero risk for operations of that kind and once the solace of the people of the area has been disturbed it will change for ever.

Globally speaking, energysystems.com reported at least18 such LNG companies making offers to operate off the coastline of several cities and countries.

The Quaddy Bay LNG Company had to withdraw its offer when the state of Maine rejected there proposal due to opposition from responsible citizens in October 2008.

In most of these cases there were great oppositions from citizens, watch dog groups and environmental organizations.

Therefore New York and Connecticut are not alone and was correct to reject this selfish and dangerous offer.

The presence of an LNG facility in the middle of the Long Island Sound would do extensive damage to the aquatic life of the area, as the mating and breeding cycles of different species would be disturbed and this would contribute to lower production of seafood for the market.

Allowing the project would also lead to possible severe social invasion of the area by commercial and other related activities, leading to possible severe disruption of normally very quiet neighborhoods.

It seems also that the threat from alternate energy related organizations  like solar, wind, wood biomass, and geothermal ,could be  behind the reason many LNG companies are invading the shoreline of many cities in different countries to set up businesses.

These companies should also be rejected using all available resources especially from the environmental organizations, and focus groups. Many lives has been lost in the past because of the selfish pursuits of organizations and it is time to send the correct signals regarding the preservation of the environment and by extension the lives of present and future generations.

The future generations of these two states will honor these present leaders for their socially responsible behavior in rejecting the Broadwater proposal.

Motorists first filled up with unleaded fuel twenty years ago. But it nearly didn't happen.

In spite of a "clean air" push by Britain's Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, with 900 tonnes of lead polluting the atmosphere every year, most of the twenty million vehicle drivers of the day argued that unleaded would destroy their engines.

Finally, in 1988 the government gave way to pressure from environmental groups. Drivers, who refused to switch, faced heavy fines. At the same time Chancellor Nigel Lawson agreed to demands from oil chiefs to raise the tax on four-star by 10p.

Motorists were quick to see the benefit of filling up with cheaper fuel.

Twenty years ago unleaded petrol in the UK cost 165p a gallon. Four-star averaged 171p.

Today's fill-up has already hit £5 a gallon.

Other, more dramatic benefits, such as reduced levels of violence, are being reported since the banning of lead additives in petrol.

Among adults and children, blood levels have fallen in the last twenty years by seventy to eighty per cent. This could halt damage to mental and physical health, and is already justifying clean air campaigns to remove lead from petrol.

Now not even the community dump is adequate and landfill space is filling up so we are being forced to consider alternatives for disposing the leftovers of our extravagant lifestyles

We don't have a single way to dispose of trash, garbage and junk the way our grandfathers did. We have different definitions for dumps or different types, reflecting the menu of castoffs each type will prepare for digestion. There are solid waste dumps, hazardous waste dumps, sludge dump farms from sewage treatment facilities, and construction debris dumps.

The community where I once worked, New Haven, Indiana, has just about every type dump known plus a whole slew of closed landfills with “only God knows what's there” contents. New Haven happens to be located about six miles east of downtown Fort Wayne. Over the years the lowlands along the Maumee River between the two cities became a kind of "no mans land" where most of the metropolitan area's garbage and other stuff, including industrial waste, was dumped without a care for the future or where the stuff might leak and end up. One dump spot was an EPA "Super Fund" clean-up site; there are others yet unclaimed.

Not in my backyard? What if every household had to take care of its own wastes? I submit to you we have been too easy on ourselves. We allow costs of waste and pollution to be externalized and pretend they don't exist. We do the same with our federal budget by taking significant costs off the books. We pretend these costs don't exist. How can we balance a budget without including all the costs? How can we continue practicing an economic theory that fails to account for all the costs pollution and waste represent?

The rise of civilization brought with it a general degrading of our environment. Thus far we have been able to avoid solving the environmental problem and keep moving on to a new place. We are comfortable eating three spoons full of dirt a day (the amount each of us inhales from the air we breathe).

I come from an old school of thought that says you are responsible for the problems you create and solving them is your job. The time has come to rethink how we dispose of waste. It's time your backyard and mine should become the next landfill. No, I have not taken leave of my senses. “Not in my backyard” is an often heard phrase when pollution of one kind or another is heard, but “Not in my backyard” does not accomplish anything more than moving the pollution problem under consideration from one place to another. We don't care where pollution and waste problems go so long as we can convince ourselves we are safely removed from them. The attitude is selfish, nearsighted, does not solve the problem and is no better than the polluters who create the wastes.

I submit to you it would be far wiser for each household to be required to take care of the disposal, storage and recycling of its own waste, but not in the same manner our grandfathers and grandmothers did.

The only way we will ever get a handle on the waste and pollution problems our “civilized” society generates is to return responsibility and control to the people. We need to give everybody part of the problem. We need a landfill in every backyard, able to correctly handle and store not just the usual household waste, but also the household hazardous wastes now blindly tossed in the regular garbage pick up.

Under the present system of waste management, very little is recycled and a lot of ugly things turn up in sanitary landfills that belong in more secure holding systems (lead, mercury, other heavy metals, paint, cleaners, gasoline, etc.). We Americans make it easy for costs associated with waste and pollution or the health problems generated by waste and pollution to be ignored as a part of our economic view. We pretend these problems don't exist. The costs of pollution and waste are said to be "externalized" (that means paid for by you and me and our children).

There is nothing new to this attitude. Eight thousand years ago our ancestors gave up their "hunter/gatherer" lifestyle and began building more permanent communities based on agriculture, more personalized forms of ownership and war. The new agriculture was based on the “slash and burn” technique of using fire to clear land for planting. Soil used in this way soon lost its fertility so it was necessary to keep moving plantings to new locations. Employing this method man did not have to worry about what happened to worn out ground, he merely moved to a new parcel. The Earth's resources, in his way of seeing, were unlimited.

As civilizations developed and soil fertility near urban centers declined, the loss was easily covered by shipping more food and other needed materials from the periphery. As growth continued, what began as a local problem of soil infertility and erosion became, through deforestation and reckless land use, a change in climate over large regions. Still, as some lands died new areas were available to be exploited and men moved on to take advantage of “new opportunities.”

Today our civilization and culture has become what late historian Christopher Lasch characterized as a "culture of addiction." Our addiction is our need and desire to consume. Like any addict we are not concerned "what" or "whom" must be paid tomorrow as long as we can get our "fix" today. So we consume materials, energy and resources disguised as Whopper's, gas-guzzling, pollution belching SUVs and other trucks, and Las Vegas glitter and pleasure without regard to the terrible hangover and withdrawal pangs we must face later.

We have the same attitude toward the creation of an annual budget for the federal government where a large chunk of the money we must spend does not appear on the books. If we ever get a balanced budget amendment, how will we know if we are being told the truth if a third or a half the money to be spent does not appear?

If we have learned any lesson by now from previous centuries it is we cannot solve any problem by simply abdicating responsibility for it to a higher authority, whether it is the federal government in Washington, our state governments or to a big trash hauler promising to take away the inconveniences of our unhealthy lifestyles.

The slogan on one Earth Day poster hanging in the local library read “Think Globally, Act Locally,” It's time to open the landfill in the backyard and start taking care of the messes we individually create. I have a feeling if we do; we are going to see a lot of converts to recycling and more reusable products and containers. I think we may also see dramatic decrease in the number of household hazardous materials sold or consumed.

Ok, you fucked everything up for everyone. Here’s $700 billion.

Makes me want to go out & fuck something up.

Could we at least force them to put away their luxury SUV’s & drive used Pintos or force them to marry their mistresses or something ??

Anyhow, eventually the Politicos will approve some kind of package. Which will be like placing a band aid on a gun shot wound. That wound being greed itself which is 100% legal under Capitalism & has been bleeding the souls of the little people since the dawn of this experiment we call America. The only problem with that band aid we call a bailout package is that it isn’t going to fix anything.

Here’s why :

The financial crisis we are in was predicted a long time ago. By a bunch of smart guys no one listens to bcuz for one, they’re smarter than everyone else & no one likes a know-it-all & two, no one liked what they had to say. Who wants to hear that the party is over ??

These very men whose job it is to compile & analyze the data have been saying for years that America was doomed for failure, a disaster waiting to happen. That’s bcuz this country was predicated upon a lie. That lie was that there would always be an unlimited supply of cheap oil.

Back in the 40’s & 50’s when Americans left the cities to move into the suburbs & railroads were destroyed by the car manufacturers in favor of 3 lane highways (which we somehow ended up paying for as taxpayers - thanks GM !) a disastrous chain of events was set in place that we are finally seeing play out on the national stage.

You see when America moved out into the suburbs they gave away their only shot at a sustainable way of life & a future for their children. The energy required to sustain a country at that level of waste & foolhardiness where we were commuting 20 -50 miles each way to get to work was simply beyond the means of the world’s supply of oil & the planet in general.

If we had worked harder on improving living conditions for ourselves in the city when we wanted to move to the suburbs to get away from it all ( & there were capitalist wolves only too happy to oblige us) we could have averted this disaster or at least postponed it long enough to find a solution. But as it is we are coming off of oil hard & fast & the withdrawals as we can see, aren’t going to be pretty.

For one, there’ll be soaring food costs & the leisure & entertainment sector of the economy taking a nose dive on par with Tom Cruise’s career trajectory bcuz people aren’t going to be spending their dead presidents on extras as they won’t have any extra cuz it will all be going into the gas tank & to the power bill. No more dinner & a movie & certainly no more vacations (bye bye Las Vegas).

Even if we switch over to Solar & Wind power immediately (which isn’t going to happen) we still don’t have the capacity to power all the cars & all the homes we have built at their present level of consumption not to mention all the homes we are set to build due to our growing population & their power & transportation needs.

The housing mortgage crisis in case you were wondering is just a distraction to draw attention away from the real cause of this mess & that is: Illegal Immigrants. ( Oops, sorry .. I‘ve gotta stop watching Lou Dobbs. ) No the real cause is our reliance on oil & our unsustainable way of living. It had to end sometime & that time is .. well, 15 minutes ago.

Even if the entire state of Kansas decides to take one for the team & move to Bulgaria where they got like 15 camels for every camel & we throw in Rhode Island for good measure houses in suburbia will still end up sitting cold, dark & vacant. And our landfills will still contain more than a few SUV’s. Yet no one seems to want to be the one to say that the American way of life is an unsustainable one & that Americans need to move back into the cities, stop driving small-apartments-on-wheels & simply stop consuming all this useless stuff.

A man by the name of Dr. M. King Hubbard predicted that U.S. oil would peak in the 70’s & it did. Of course he was a laughing stock until then even though he was the preeminent expert in his field when he made the prediction in 1956. Well, he also predicted Global oil would peak in the 1990’s. The gas crisis which drove up prices & drove down demand in the 1970’s may have delayed that imminent reality but look, here we are.

It is obvious that if we had remained on the train & in the city & not converted to the ultra inefficient automobile & moved to the ‘Burbs that we’d be facing an entirely different scenario. A passenger train uses far less fuel per passenger, requires far fewer government subsidies, causes fewer deaths & also pollutes less than a comparable amount of automobiles. And moving someone 5-10 miles instead of 20-50 would’ve also helped.

Based on these numbers if we hadn’t adopted the automobile in the first place we wouldn’t be facing this crisis.

Which may end up saving us in the end.

One of the most overlooked upsides to this energy crisis is it is forcing us to rethink our way of life & that is having a positive effect. Pollution, obesity, accident fatalities & healthcare costs are all down since we are all driving less. Not to mention our being forced to walk, carpool & use more mass transit will only increase our familiarity with our neighbors & thereby increase our sense of community which is what we’ll need to find solutions for the coming crisis.

Ordinary Americans are going to have to take matters into their own hands & learn to rely on one another whether that means combining households/incomes once blackouts increase or establishing a community task force to find sustainable ways to supply electricity to their homes once we go completely off-grid or simply pitching in to start their own community bus system to get around.

Gone are the days of peering over our neatly manicured hedges or over the steering wheels of our SUV’s to gaze upon neighbors we call strangers. This energy crisis is going to force us to get to know one another. To meet as equals who are no longer divided along tax brackets & levels of affluence. But who are going to need each other if we are going to survive & even thrive in this the New America.

This is the End of the World as we know it. Goodbye 4-lane highways & suburban sprawl. Goodbye pollution, separatism & isolation.

Hello brand new world.

Why I'm upset with this is over the past decade more than 4000 radioactive sources have been lost or stolen. There are not enough precautions taken to avoid this waste from falling into the hands of terrorist and winding up in dirty bombs.

Although some measures are taken to insure the disposal of such waste it is not enough and we need a watchdog. Over a period of time, the medical waste can simply be stored until its radioactivity subsides within a few years and thrown away with the trash. Close exposure can cause permanent injury within a few minutes and death. But who watches and checks out this storage waste until it is no longer harmful?

More steps must be taken to ensure that labs universities hospitals and manufacturers dispose of the material properly.

The problem I find with all of this is that most of us are unaware of this among other health hazards

that comes to our attention sometimes a little late. We must all do what we can to help save the earth.

Almost every supermarket is offering canvas tote bags at a reasonable price to pack our purchases in place of taking plastic bags since the plastic bags contribute to pollution of the worse kind. They do not disintegrate for more than one hundred years. Perhaps I may be wrong however I feel no matter how small my contribution is I want to help save the earth. Sadly I see people who are selfish and only care for their own comfort. I was appalled when a car driving past and suddenly a package came flying out the window with the wrappers from the hamburger fast food place on Main Street. How much of a problem would it have been to carry it to a dispose of it properly?

Well enough for today. I have a problem with fire ants and I have been avoiding the u se of chemicals .I wont use anything on my lawn that may seep into the water. Everyday I go out and use a little salt and hot water on the hills. I hope it works soon they are beating me.

In a song Johnny Cash asked the question, "What is truth?" One thing I am sure of, it is the scientist benefits from what he claims to be reporting, we need to have someone check!

So how does the scientist benefit? Grants for research. Publishing papers that draw fame and attention to the scientist. Honors that bring promotion and pay raises in academia.

When I was in grade school I learned that science was to be about truth, not popularity. Two plus two are four, no matter how many liberals or conservatives say it isn't or how many scientific papers say otherwise. And papers no longer get the independent peer review they once got. The scientific community has become so much like the Borg Collective with individuals not having independent thoughts that any paper that is blessed by those in power is not even questioned. The scientific community has become like the Catholic Church of Luther's day with no questioning allowed. Although I disagree with some points in both Luther's ninety nine theses and Ben Stine's "No Intelligence Allowed", I am sure that at least Ben would give me the right to independently review the movie and comment. I am also convinced that the character of both men would cause either of them to recant any position that was proven to be wrong. This is how it should be in the scientific community. But if you question global warming or if you indicate there may be some truth in intelligent design, the scientific community will step on you with greater force than the Catholic Church attacked Luther. It is a holy war to stamp out the dissidents. But it has been those very dissidents that forged ahead science in the past. It was the ones who said the earth was not flat (the accepted religious and scientific view of the day) who pushed ahead. It was those who thought the atom was made up of smaller particles and could be split (contrary to the accepted view of the atom being un-splittable) who forged ahead there. Most advances have been impeded by the current establishment!

Over the last several weeks I have seen dozens of programs on future disasters like global warming, massive earthquakes, volcano eruptions, asteroids, massive storms, tsunamis, mud slides, and the like. And all of those programs featured scientists who predicted the doom. I wonder how much each of them was paid for their appearance. I wonder how much that money clouded their judgment and how it much consideration was given to making it more salable, that is sensational. Another way of saying that is to ask, "How far did it stray from truth?"

Last night I encountered another program, "The Big Chill, the mini-Ice Age." This ice age, a significant change in climate occurred from about 1350 to 1850. It caused famine, disease, wars, and political upheaval. It is believed to have figured in the defeats of Napoleon in Russia and the Spanish Armada in the English Channel. And the conclusion was this, "Could this happen again?" Of course, the scientists say, "possibly." Heck, nearly anything is possible but it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a man to tell the truth when coloring it brings him money. If he says, "no", there will be no grant money to study it.

I have no doubt the little ice age occurred. There is too much evidence that it did to ignore it. But HOW it happened is up for grabs. And now there is a market for the global cooling crowd and a possible stream of money from government to study it and determine if we are going into an ice age! There is gold in them thar glaciers!

Let's look at the inconsistencies, not including the one that is obvious about all of this, if the Hollywood ilk, the environazis and the Gore Party Politicos believed there was global warming they would shut down their oversized air conditioned homes, fly commercial or take a train, and live like they want he rest of us to live. These people don't believe in global warming. They talk a talk but they don't walk the walk. In the church we call them hypocrites.

The first inconsistency is the noted causes of global warming and the mini ice age. Listen to the above rabble and you will learn that global warming is caused by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney who have over the last 80 years encouraged us to use more fossil fuel. The first lie is obvious. Neither Bush nor Cheney could have had anything to do with that up till the last twenty or so years so the eighty is a lie. And if they are willing to tell one lie, will they tell another and another?

Secondly, the proof of global warming is based on the weather observations over the years. Two factors here blow that one away totally but because there is money in global warming these are not mentioned by the scientific community that knows the contrary evidence exists. They just burry their head in the sand with their collective fannies in the air. First, the method of reading the old alcohol and mercury thermometers guaranteed a reading of .49 degrees low. Before digitals the thermometer was read to the degree at or below the mercury or alcohol. This meant that a reading of 32.9 got recorded as 32, just the same as 32.0. Ask a mathematician about this, just don't tell him it was about global warming and he will tell you the average will be .49 degrees off. Just the shift to digital thermometers caused a .49 increase! This would have happened over a twenty or so year period as digitals replaced the older thermometers. In addition, fifty years ago many of the weather stations were properly sited. They had a 100 meter ring of low vegetation around them. They were away from heat sources. They were shielded properly from the sun. But over the years this has eroded. Asphalt has been laid near them and in some cases right under them. Buildings were built near them and in some cases they have been moved to the top of the building! Some are sitting within ten feet of an air conditioning unit. Some have been painted colors that increase temperature. It is almost as if someone had said, "Let's prove the earth is getting warmer. Let's compromise the weather reporting stations to make them give high readings." One station here in the York area, the one at the Thomasville Airport is continually maligned by the weather reporters that it always has a lower temperature than the other stations. I never realized till a few weeks ago. The station is almost perfectly sited while others would be in the plus two to plus 5 categories. We have one station in the area that is properly sited and I am not sure it is one of the official ones that is used for the climate studies. If it is, the area is reported high on four of five stations. If not, it is reported two or more degrees high on four of four.

There is an organization that is auditing these stations. With several hundred of them surveyed one quarter of them have been found to be improper enough to read two to five degrees high! If one quarter of the stations read two degrees high and all the others read perfect, the result is an average that is .5 degrees high. In addition another half of them will read just about 2 degrees high. That makes a full degree of offset. Some of the others will contribute a degree but with the number of them being in the ten percent range the offset is about .1 degree.

If I add the reading error of .5 degrees and the offset from the stations of 2.6 degrees, I find that the readings are 3.1 degrees high. Since they are about .9 degrees Fahrenheit higher according to the global warming gurus, this means the real temperature is 2.2 degrees lower. According to the mini ice age group it only took a four degree drop to create the mini-ice age! We are over half way there.

Thirdly the global warming guru's say it is caused by carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuel. The mini ice age gurus say it was caused sulfur dioxide belched out by volcano eruptions. They mention that the volcanoes also belched out water vapor and, you will not believe it, carbon dioxide! If they produced carbon dioxide and it is the cause of global warming, why did it get colder rather than warmer? In our business we have vendor meets when a site has problems and we get finger pointing on what is wrong. We joke that we get all the liars in the same room and let them sort it out. Maybe it is time to get all the liars about global warming in the same room and let them sort it out. If someone wants to help set this up, I will moderate!

Fourth, we have for the last fifty years been reducing the sulfur dioxide output of power plants. If I believe the mini-ice age gurus we have been creating global warming by reducing this pollutant! If we allowed the power plants to produce both sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide, maybe they would offset! Taking one out of the mix is a problem.

Finally the ice age people are claiming that the global warming, the melting of the ice cap, the warm flow from the south are all coming together to produce the next ice age. Please understand, the last one was caused by sulfur dioxide producing sulfuric acid clouds. This one is caused by man polluting. Why wasn't it caused by Mt. St. Helens and the other volcanoes?" I don't know and they don't know. And they just don't care as long as the money comes in.

The work that the prisoners undertake includes building bird and bat boxes, constructing ponds and monitoring bird species from cell windows.

Thousands of prisoners are transforming jails into some highly important wildlife habitats, with some threatened species such as barn owls, kingfishers, adders and slow worms taking up residence within the prison grounds. One prison which houses prisoners whose crimes are as diverse as theft and murder, last year made more than 700 bird boxes from scrap wood. These were used within the prison grounds as well as supplying sites managed by the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds). They're currently working on an order for 250 more. In turn, the prisoners are being paid "pocket money". The project costs practically nothing as mainly recycled materials are used.

Obviously in the higher security prisons, the inmates can't wander through the tranquil landscapes they've helped to create but hopefully it gives them some feeling of self-worth knowing that they've produced a haven for such diverse fauna and flora as the bee orchid (an endangered wild flower), nightingales and brown hairstreak butterflies (which are a threatened species).

In one of these "convict conservation zones", the prisoners constructed beehives to provide pollinators for a wildlife meadow outside the grounds. These hives have successfully produced honey which, whilst enjoyed by the prisoners, is proving a huge success in the outside world too.

At an open prison, where prisoners tend have a little more freedom, two ponds have been constructed outside the prison walls which have encouraged kingfishers and newts, and a pair of breeding barn owls have settled in a nesting box mounted on a disused fence post.

Although this may not be an ideal solution and is hardly the "bread and water" environment that many would wish to see for those behind bars, it is nonetheless helping wildlife which desperately needs a lift, and if this type of work encourages just a few inmates to stick to the straight and narrow when they leave the confines of the tall stone walls and barbed wire, perhaps by pursuing training in some of our traditional crafts, then surely it must be worthwhile. So often we're told that prisoners sit in their cells watching telly and playing on games consoles, all of which are paid for by the tax payer, but at least these guys are actually working. Good on "em, I say!

It"s long been my belief that prisoners should be "encouraged" to work for a living rather than be fed and watered at the expense of the tax payer and this project seems to fit the bill.

When WWII was raging the automotive industry was given an ultimatum- convert all of your production to tanks or be closed down, most of them chose the 1st.  If we can do that again except with wind turbines instead of tanks we can  have a big part of our energy converted to wind instead of oil, that would be a tremendous leap. 

Once that is done we can give another ultimatum, again to the automative industry.  this time it would be change your production to ethanol or get shut down.  of course we would need ethanol to fuel these cars so we could instead of importing our spare corn we can put the spare corn to ethanol companies and let them go crazy.   Of course many gas cars will still be in circulation so we can use the gas we saved from the windmills to ween the country of oil in cars. 

The last major use of oil is in making plastics and synthetic fibers.  This will be hard to get rid of since this industry is gaining momentum.  To combat regular plastics we can use alternatives you already see on the market to make smaller items like cups, and we can just inflate that industry.  Many alternatives to synthetic fibers are already avalable so we can also give money and advertisment to that industry.

Of course there are many uses for oil that aren't mentioned here so to provide for those we can either drill for oild in Alaska or just continue to buy that bit from the middle east.  All in all, if we follow this plan more or less, our country's dependance on oil will be much reduced, putting us in a much better situation all around.