Pawprints From Space

I was in the bank the other day and the next window over is a well-known area doctor. He was dressed very casual, apparently it was his day off. This was not the least bit odd or anything. But the story he was relating to the teller just made me angry. This gentleman is from India so he is fairly dark skinned and has a thick accent. It is quite cultured and very musical and you can tell from his speech that is he a well educate person. You can also tell from the accent that he isn't any other race than what he is, the tones are very distinct. Oh yeah, he drives a silver Jaguar. Got all that? Well here's what made me angry (on his behalf). He had been driving on a state route a few miles north of our area (and south of Detroit). He admits that he was speeding so when the state trooper pulled him over he figured he deserved a ticket. But that's when it went wrong. The trooper did not just give him a ticket for speeding. Oh no! The trooper did not believe our good doctor that ...

Did you catch the Discover Channel via NBC report on global warming on Sunday? Makes you think, assuming that you can think and don't have ears full of sand from sticking your head in it. So of course I spent time online looking up more info. I have recently come across a Cornell University news release from 2001 that says it takes more energy to produce ethanol from grain that the process yields ( http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Aug01/corn-basedethanol.hrs.html ). Not only does the process eat up energy (something we are short on to begin with) but get this: "Corn production in the U.S. erodes soil about 12 times faster than the soil can be reformed, and irrigating corn mines groundwater 25 percent faster than the natural recharge rate of ground water. The environmental system in which corn is being produced is being rapidly degraded. Corn should not be considered a renewable resource for ethanol energy production, especially when human food is being converted into ethan...

I wish I could go on and on about the space shuttle and how great it has been to have a successful mission thus far. But I can't. The hoo-ha in the Middle East is really pissing me off so I have to go on about that. Okay I understand that Israel is upset over the abduction of two of their guys. But really this happens all the time and they ought to have a coping system in place. A system that does not include bombing the Palestinian Ministry and beating the heck outta Lebanon. This whole mine's bigger than yours so I'm going to kick your ass across the desert thing has got to stop. I know that Hezbollah long ago declared it their mission to wipe Israel off the planet but guys... people have been trying to do that for centuries, millennia even, it ain't happening. And really, since members of Hamas (which a lot of folks put in the same basket as Hezbollah) have been elected to the leadership in Palestine we really need to find a way to work together for peace. And I do n...

So I found an old issue of Vanity Fair (from May which in magazine age is pretty old) they were billing as "The Green Issue" so I bought it. Just a sucker for environmental slants I guess. Well in case you missed it Al Gore is back. Not as a candidate (yet and he shouldn't go that far in my opinion) but as a powerful voice for the environment. The man has been on talk shows, was the darling of Sundance with the documentary An Inconvenient Truth by David Guggenheim and I don't think he's finished just yet. Way back in 1992 he wrote this book called Earth In The Balance which did read a bit like a PhD dissertation but nonetheless sounded a mass marketed call about the future of the environment (or the lack thereof). Republicans jumped all over him calling him an extremist and so forth. Current Prez Bush even went so far as to ridicule Al in the 200 campaign over hybrids. Guess who is laughing now Mr-tax-cut-for-buying-a-hybrid-we've-got-to-end-the-US-dependenc...