Spring

...Coltsfoot and a few crocus and daffodils and the first spring peepers have announced the arrival of spring, and the temperatures are finally beginning to moderate. The east coast has endured a cold winter while the west has set records of warmth..."Certain areas, like Allentown,PA and Atlantic City,NJ recorded their coldest first 9 days of February since 1934... it was actually the 2nd warmest winter nationwide, with massive heat records broken in the western U.S..." So, contrary to climate change deniers, the atmosphere and oceans Are absorbing more carbon dioxide and other human related gases and these extremes of weather have been predicted by scientists for decades. The argument is not about the reality of climate change but the consequences and whether humanity will do anything to change their present course. It does not appear that we will. So, as has happened in the planets history, the ice will eventually melt and Florida and Manhatten and other low lying coasts around the world will be inundated, and planetary species-including us- will either be able to adapt or we won't, and new extinctions will occur. There is nowhere to hide and moving to Mars is a delusion favored by those who want to live in caves again,and then only if all the problems of radiation and resources can be solved. The next 100 years are critical-not for natures survival, for Creation will find a way- but for human civilization as we know it...I am now 70 years old and I have passed many years observing nature, where I have witnessed large depletions of fish and insects and habitats in my hometown. That trend is being replicated worldwide. Perhaps I am being overly pessimistic, but do we really want to be the cause of the next extinction?

Broken Down Cars 2026

Whenever Beth and I take a road trip, we record the makes of the cars we see broken down beside the highway. We update after every trip and will continue to do so as we travel...As of the date in the title the totals were : Chevrolet/GMC -174 Ford- 105 Dodge/Jeep- 90 Honda/Acura-46 Toyota/Lexus-36 Nissan/Infiniti-33 Kia/Hyundai-25 VW-12 Subaru-10 Mazda- 10 BMW-6 Mitsubishi-5 Suzuki-3 Volvo-1 Also 10 unidentified vehicles of which we could not determine the manufacturer. This is by no means a scientifically accurate indication of the reliability of these brands, because we do not know the age and maintenance records of the broken cars and other important information. But generally speaking, foreign cars have a much better reliability record than domestic vehicles, and that pattern shows up in our informal observations.

A long time ago I heard people ask, "should the U.S.A. be the policeman of the world?", and along the way that question has defined wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and many others. Claims that we needed to save the world from communism, authoritarianism, socialism, hunger, or to preserve the flow of oil or some other commodity have been used to keep Americas 'military industrial complex' financed for decades. In this modern age the justification is fighting 'terrorism', and so the United States, or a few men anyway, declared war on Iran, and so it continues...Anyone who has read about Iran knows that it is run by brutal men who, in their lust for power, have suppressed women, free speech, and other human 'rights' that most Americans take for granted. Their ideology has been the spread of Islamic influenced ideas in opposition to notions of democracy-to the point that, according to ideology expert Hannah Arendt, "'orthodoxy' becomes a kind of logical certainty—a fixation on a pseudo-scientific conception of reality as an ultimate, unquestionable truth. It is at this point that ideology “ruins all relationship with reality.” So, like a fundamental Christian who is unable or unwilling to consider any possible description of reality other than the bible inspired depiction of God, Jesus or Creation, there is little argumentative reasoning with such a one minded person, religion,or government...Unfortunately, there is no changing human nature either, and no international fight against "terrorism" will succeed any longer than temporarily, in any more than a few places; all of the policemen in all of our American cities and all the laws of civilization have not stopped crime. The people in power here and in Iran-or anyone who wants to challenge 'authority'- simply make up their own rules if what they want to do is not sanctioned by normal rules of behavior....So I have no solutions for human nature, and simply killing everyone eventually becomes 'whack-a-mole' unless some fundamental evolution of the human psyche is attained. I do not imagine anyone alive today will witness that. But I am not hopeless, and to behave well in your own life and resist those who would oppress you is honorable. It is too early to tell what the "excursion" in Iran will solve, or not solve, except perhaps to make the violence and destruction so complete that everyone grows tired of it, or is unable to wage it for awhile, and peace is achieved until next time.