Denying the Obvious

THE REALITY TV DRAMA of following hurricanes across the ocean and into cities is more spellbinding than ever, with our modern electronic surveillance techniques which permit ua to get millions of accurate images and unlimited data. If you begin by accepting a fairly obvious, verifiable sciencitif fact, the constant injetion of tons of carbon into the Earth's atmosphere by humans burning fossil fuels, and then project the likely impact on the Earth's climate using data applied to the laws of nature, it becomes evident that climate change is inevitable, and real. Then, when many people actually begin to see climate change itself in the world around them, it becomes more real than ever. Climate change in the year two thousand and twenty two is unfolding precisely as has been predicted by science for years, the only surprise to scientists is the rapidity with which it is manifesting, alarmingly. It has always been stupid to refuse to accept the reality of human made climate change, now more than ever. There was a time when questioning or doubting it was fair and reasonable, but that time is gone as well, there is no longer any question about it, hasn't been for years, and anyone who refuses to accept this reality is living in a fantasy world. If climate change becomes severe enough, it can and will destroy human civilization world wide. This is why those who deny its reality are contributing to human destruction, by their inertia and inaction. This is why the so called "liberal" point of view is the correct one, and the modrn American conservative point of view is disastrously wrong. A majority of conservatives still are climate change deniers, incredibly. It can accurately and honestly be said that denial of climate change is the prevelant conservative position. Conservatives are the main reason the United States has been so disastrously slow in responding to climate change, and a large part of why the world is so far behind in this effort. Cimate change deniers are more than merely wrong; they are traitors to humanity, and to America. I was told by a tried and true Trumper, who happens to be a climate change denier, that the hurricane is proof that Biden's climate change will didn't work, and that all that money was wasted, more wasteful liberal Democrat spending. I learned, later than I should have, that there is simply no way to communicate intelligently with these people.

Fabricating, Conservatively

THE STATE I LIVE IN will have a new governor soon, one that I will despise, because I already do, as much as I despised and still despise the likes of George Wallace and Orville Faubus, for example. This one, like most Republicans, blames Joe Biden for inflation, when in fact anyone with rudimentary intelligence understands that the current inflation is a global phenomenon, was caused by the pandemic and the attendant economic slowdown in production, and could not possibly have been caused by any single person, including the president of the United States. Alas, parr for the conservative course. Also, tax reductions all around! Putting more money back in your pocket, highways, bridges, pensions, publc employeees salaries be damned, you're on your own. And here's the real kicker, the real laugher in a laughable, ludicrous agenda, standard right wing stuff. Education reform! "When elected, I will educate your child, not indoctrinate him and her with the radical left agenda"! Precisely what is meant by "the radical far left wing education agenda"? Well, for starters, teaching students that science works, that climate change is real, that it is caused by human activity, and must be dealt with immmediately, with drastic measures, to increase the chances of our descendant's survival. According to the conservative education agenda, climate change is no big deal, is not caused by humans, and even though its a liberal hoax, it doesn't matter anyway, since the Lord Jesus Christ will soon return to the Earth, and rapture the saved into heaven. In other words, lunacy, unadulterated. The far left agenda is to encourage all students to tolerate and accept everyone no matter what the sexual orientation or gender self identification. In the right wing education agenda, students are not to be exposed to gay "culture", or the word "gay" even mentioned. The left wingers teach students that the United States has always been a racist country, and still is, but that we have made progress towards eliminating racism, and must continue the work, and complete it. Conservatives consider this approach "radical", call it "critical race theory", for some reason, and try to banish it, like they try to banish gay people, from the academic curriculum. Precisely whom, to bluntly ask, is telling the truth, and which side, liberal or conservative, is indoctrinating America's kids with an extreme political agenda? Do you really think it is a good idea to indoctrinate the nation's children with a kooky, radical far right agenda, or to merely teach tjhe truth, about climate change, racism, and sexual orientation, for example, which, for some reason, has a liberal slant to it?

Humbling the Proud Boys

THE FUHRER of the Proud Boys goes on trial today, for a variety of serious federal crimes whould ought properly to land him behind bars for a not inconsiderable length of time. These charges include attacking, invading, and ransacking the nation's Capitol building, trying to overthrow the government. The trial is expected to last about five weeks. The traitor should probably be convicted and either executed or incarcerated very long term. Obviously, all this stems from Trump, and his outrageous, horrible lie that he actually won reelection, but that the victory was stolen from him. It is difficult if not impossible to imagine or remember anything more harmful that any president has done or could possibly do to the United States. This is precisely why those who embrace Trump's big lie have done so much harm to the country, that they are truly traitors. Also on trial, suilty by association, is the Proud Boys organization and every member of it, America's far right wing movement, contemporary American conservatism, and the Republican party itself, home of all the above. Since something like two thirds of all registered Republcians stil isist that the election was stolen from Trump, and since about the same percentage still approves of the January 6th insurrection, the Repbulcaian party is arguably a terrorist organization. The Prud Boys engaged in a protracted, well planned project to gather at the Capitol January 6th, 2021, and try to prvent Congress from certifying Joe Biden the winner of the electoral college and election. Violence was very much part of their plan, and they used violence without hesitation. We also now know that Donald Trump and many of his close associates wored closely in cordination with several groups included in the plan to steal teh election from Biden and to keep Trump illegally a president for another term, and possbly for life. Trump was the ultimate leader, the driving force, and thus, the most guilty of thousands of guilty insurrectionists, and tens of millions more guilty of supporting them. Hundreds of insurrectionists have been convicted; now is the time to convict tens of millions of election deniers, the conservative movement, the Republican party, by relegating them to obscure memory.

Striking Preemptively

SIXTY YEARS AGO I would have predicted that by the year twenty twenty two I would either be living on Mars or on tne moon, my choice. Such were my excessively optimistic visions of humanity's future in exploring and developing outer space. My childhood lve of science fiction, rocktes, space flight, and the Apollo moon landing program didn't exactly bring about the exciting future I had imagined, but I have no complaints; here we still are, dreaming, striving. The Earth getting hit by a large asteroid or meteroite large enough to do great damage to or to even destroy the Earth has been the topic of countless sci fi yars, in print, on television, and in cinema, appropriatesly so, since such a catacylsmic event is well within the range of possibility. It could happen at any time. Fortunately, humanity's ability and willingness to constantly scan the skies for newly discovered space debris zooming towards Earth gives ua a very good chance of detecing - and avoiding - such a collission. All we need is a bit of practice, to confirm our ability. That is whay today, Monday, Spetember 26, 2022, a human made rocket payload the size of a small car will, if all goes well, smash into an asteroid seven million miles from Earth, at a speed of fourteen thousand miles per hour, roughly. Assuming that the colission occurs, and the likelihood is overwhelming, scientists will be able to take a very good picture of the impact, and measure how much it changes the direction of the asteroid, which is about the size of a city block. We hope, for the sake of Earth's security, that the asteroid, once struck, will change its velocity and direction exactly as planned and predicted. The project will have cost close to half a billion dollars, but will have been well worth it, if for no other reason than to assure ourselves of our ability to save ourselves from a large, incoming piece of space rock. And, like everyone says; it isn't a matter if "if"; its a mattter of "when". Every day thousands if not millions of rocks, most of them the size of a speck of dust, enter the Earth's atmosphere and "collide" with Earth. Very large, devastating rocks have struck the Earth in the past, and doubtless will again, unless we prevent it. If only we can learn to protect ourselves from a threat and danger far greater than any meteor or asteroid: ourselves.

Extrapolating Nightmares

THE MOST FRIGHTENING THING about the recent horrible monsoon flood which left one third of Pakistan underwater is that it is destined to happen again..and again, just like the monsson season itself. Certainly, every monson season is different, if only slightly. But the one this year which brought unusually large amounts of rain is destined to keep bringing more and more rain, as the Earth's atmosphere keeps warming, and the amount of moisture in the atmosphere increases. There may come a time when most of Pakistan is underwater most of the time. Large parts of it might have to be permanently evacuated. It may be soon. The rate of sea level rise is only going to increase, the waters rising ever more rapidly as more and more of the Earth's huge polar ice caps melt increasingly repidly, dumping billions of tons of water into the ocean. Half the human population lives near an ocean, and it will all have to relocate inland. Droughts are already increasing around the world in number and severity, due to man made climate change, as are horrible, extreme flooding episodes. The same is true of wind and storms, land and sea. More of them, and they're getting bigger. Young people of today, and those newly coming into this world will live to see a world of constantly violent, extreme weather, and, in most places, much, much hotter. People who are now senior citizens or entering into senior citizenship will also live long enough to see some very drastic near term changes, as we already are, but will be fortunate enough to transition to the next state before it gets really bad here on Earth, will desperate economic collapses, mass migration, violence and wars and political turmoil, food shortages, rempant disease, all caused by extreme, nearly unendurable climatic conditions world wide. Temperatures well over one hundred degress for weeks and months at a time. Frequent violent sstorms, tornadoes and hurricanes. Severe droughts lasting months, turning forests into deserts and rivers to dust. We are now reachign the point at which this is going to transpire no matter what we do. Only by taking drastic action now can we and our descendants avert this nightmarish future.

Overvaluing, Undervaluing

SUPPOSE YOU own a house with an appraised value of one hundred thousand dollars. Then suppose that for purposes of property taxation you report the value of your home at, say, ten grand. Your property tax bill is calculated on that basis, and you pay it. Thus you have drastically underpaid what you should owe. Then, for purposes of securing a loan on favorable terms, you report to the lender the value of your home at one million dollars. On that basis you receive the loan. Because of the inflated reported home value, you receive more favorable terms on the loan than you atually should. You have committed financial fraud, a criminal offense. If a local prosecutor charges you with a civil offense, he or she does so only because it is only necessary, in a civil law suit, to prove a probability of fifty one percent that a civil violation has been committed. In fact, a crime has been committed. This is the circumstance in which Donald Trump is involved, and he has perpetrated this kind of fraud over..and over...and over again. Trump is facing a civil law suit, and should and probably will be indicted with a criminal charge. A good friend of mine, who is eighty four and has an eighth grade education, said: "They sure are going after Trump". Wary, I replied: "That's because he's a criminal". then I waited for the dung to hit the fan, in some way, shape, or fashion, as I knew it inevitably would. Trumpers are now left, and have long been left, with only gibberish and nonsense for justification. I wasn't disappointed. "No more of a criminal than any of the other presidents", was his rejoinder. I said nothing, tactfully. I was tempted to ask him exactly how much he knows about all the other presidents, but since I already know the answer, I refrained. Also, I know by now how utterly futile facts and reason are with cult members. Then too, my friend with the eighth grade education thinks he knows quite a bit more than he really knows, about most things, inclulding American history and presidents, about which he knows zilch. Alas, our great arrogant American tradition wherein we all think we know everything, or at least more than we actually do, but in reality, know very little, most of the time. Watch the interview of Trump with Sean Hannity, which happened just the ohter day. You can easily google it, or whatever. Everything Trump says is blitheringly incoherent. He looked frightened, red faced, and sounded schizophrenic, delusional. "Actually, I built the wall. I finished it. If I had been in office another term, it would have been completed. They wouldn't let me finish it. I declassified the top secret documents in my mind, by thinking about it."....So oblivious that he speaks two contradictory lies in rapid succession, making both lies obvious, making them sound delusional and pathetic. At some point, I hope sooner rather than later, those who still supprot this monstrous, mentally ill maniac are going to have to come clean, stop their support of Trump, and, trying to stand as tall as they can, simply admit that they made a big mistake. We'll be waiting.

Nickle and Diming To Death

BARBARA EHRENREICH died last week, a great loss to America's working class, although America's working class will never know it. She was the author of several seminal seminal monographic studies of American culture, focusing mainly on the ordeals of the workng class. Her best known work, "Nicled and Dimed", is a detailed examination of minimum wage labor in America, from her first hand experience. IN her researdh, she obtained employoment variously at Wal mart in the ladies apparel department, at a fast food restaurant, as a server in a "mom and pop" restaurant, and in severl factories, and wrote about her experiences. Her basic conclusion is that there is virtually no way to make a decent living working at minimun wage in America. This was of course somewhat before the recent rise in pay for low wage workers, a phenomenon born of the pandemic and the resulting labor shortage. Since her book was published two decades ago, the situation has improved somewhat, but not significantly. She found it amazing and daunting the amount of knowledge and memorization required to work at Wal Mart, wokers being required to keep track of a vast inventory, to spend enormous amounts of time on their feet, and the physical labor required in moving stock from shelf to shelf, rack to rack, as teh store tends to constantly relocate its merchandise within the building. The sameappies to beinga server in a diner. A hectic routine, constant whilrwind motion, low wages, low tips, much mental calisthenics. She ended up swearing that never again would she use the term "unskilled" to describe minimum wage employment; there truly are no low skill jobs. After the Civle War in the United States the industrial revolution began, and the factory system replaced cottages industries. The hourlly wage system came into being. It was immediately seen by most workers and social critics as wage slavery, and the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were an era of labor organizing and violent labor disputes and strikes. The past one hundred years has been a slow but steady struggle for worker's rights, and continues to this day. The greatest service rendered by Barbara Ehrenreich was in her articulate elucidation of the unfinshed business with which the blue collar community must and hopefully will contend and complete.

Storming

BANNED FROM MAINSTREAM SOCIAL MEDIA due to behavior unacceptable among civilized people, Donald Trup took his football and went home. He created his own media platform, laughably called "Truth". From there he has spewed forth his usual assortment of lies and idiocy. His latest message? "The storm is coming". "The storm" is a term much abused among the freakish members of "Q-Anon", the pro Trump website and movement which invents, distributes and supports the most idiotic conspiracy theories in the genre. Accordingly, there will coe a great "storm", meaning that Trump will miraculously be swept back into power, presumably violently, as per the proclivities of those who comprise his cult following. Indeed, teh insurrection of January 6, 2021, seems to have been but a dress rehearsal. Just as the "saved" shall be rapturred into heaven, Trump shall be raptured back into the White House. Of note is that those who believe in the former foolish superstition tend to be the ones who believe in the latter. Trump recently asserted that if he is indicted, a "whole lotta folks are gonna be upset". Let them be upset. The "rapture", which according to Christian mythology will occur any day now when one hundred forty four thousand, (one gross times one thousand) of the saved elect will be transported into heaven, and everyone else will be left behind on Earth to suffer the slings and arrows of the end times, was originally invented by an English theologan, who claimed that it is scriptural, and popularized by American minister William Miller in the eighteen forties. Miller, whose movement became the basis of the new Seventh Day Adventist church, had his followers standing atop hilltops in October of 1843 and again in 1844, but nothing happened. Regrettably, they had all sold their possessions, and were left possessionless and penniless. Thus began yet another made-in-America cult religion. There are doubtless more to come. Donald Trump, the Christ of the contemporary conservative movement, savior of right wing extremism. The Trump movement has the psychological and sociological structure of a cult movement; thousands of adherents, enchanted by the personality of their leader and founder, entranced by false promises of future glory. Now Trump is calling for "The Storm", his version of the rapture. It is to be hoped that his promise is a false as the one still believed by gullible, hopeful Christian cultists.

Busing

LIKE REAL SMART ASSES, Republican governors in Florida, Texas, and Arizona have invented a method of abregating and delegating their responsibilities to other states. When undocumented, illegal immigrants enter the United States illegally, they simply herd them aboard buses and send them rolling up north, to places like Massachusetts and New York. Upon their arrival, the desperate Latin Americans are invariably exhausted, thirsty and hungry. They are usually dead broke, having been provided nothing, not even a few dollars, bottled water, or food, to sustain them. When they arrive in northern "liberal democratic" states, they receive these things, plus temporary housing. Obviously, the Republican governed states could merely deport the refugees, return them to the border, remove them from the country. But where would be the fun in that? How would deportation attract attention, or rub progressive noses in their onw ideology of inclusion and welcoming? Decent people do not use human beings a political pawns. Intelligent people understand that human beings are the greatst source of prosperity, and that the children and grand children of immigrants, whether their parents arrived legally or not, become productive, tax paying citizens. Verifiably, the governors of these "red" states are self proclaimed Christians. Welcome the stranger. Do unto others. Sell whatsoever thou hast, and give unto the poor. What is lacking on the United States-Mexican border is organization. One simple solution would be to repeal the law of 1877 which prohibits using the U.S. military as a police force, and station the U.S. military all along the border, with the stipulation that it be used only as a force for national defense and as a means of immigrant organization. A military organization can be a welcoming and assistance giving entity. The Republican party has become an extremist, fascist, terrorist organization, shockingly, especially regarding the issue of illegal immigration. If in doubt, consider that more than seventy percent of registered Republicans approve of the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection as having been justified by circumstances. The idiotic "replacement theory" has engulfed the party, according to which a deliberate, systematic attempt is ongoing by progressive America to bring in dark skinned people, and to replace white, conservative Christian America with them. Any possible motive for this alleged conspiracy has never been articulated. This conspiracy theory is, of cousre, like all conspiracy theories emanating from the far right, is sheer lunacy. The right wing, like Donald Trump, would prefer that people immigrate to America from, oh, say, Norway, as Trump explicitly stated. Trump characterized black African nations as "shit hole countries". More than eighty percent of conservative evangelical Christians Americans support Trump, despite Trump's attempt to steal his reelection and overthrow the government, and the same number support the cruel, perverted actions of Governors Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott. Our best hope is that somehow, some way evangelical America abandons its barbaric, cruel religious beliefs, and chooses to follow the teachings of Jesus.

Getting Back Into Christianity

THE YOUNG MAN spoke to me as I walked up the stairs to the library. He said something like: "How's it going?". "Just fine", was my stock response (I hate meaningless amenities). "How about you?", I replied. That was his opening. "I'm just trying to get back into being a Christian" said he. To me he appeared to be standing on the steps of a library, doing nothing. I vaguely wondered why he had left the faith in the first place, and since he had, why he was now wanting to give it another try, and why was he telling me about it? Wisely, I stifled my vague curiosity. I noticed a Bible and two bottles of soda pop at his feet, and wondered how much caffeine he had ingested, and whether he had actually read the book. I sensed he was seeking validation, and decided to give him what I could. "I have faith that you will succeed in this endeavor" was my response. I also sensed that he was looking for someone to talk to, so I smiled and kept walking. I had research to tend to. My faith in his gregarious nature was so secure that I was convinced that he would find as many people to talk to as he pleased. What would we have talked about? In retrospect, I almost wish I had said: "Just do it". Hd I lingered, he might have asked me about my religious views. Had he, I would have answered as I always do, with a quote from Einstein. "My religiosity consists in humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit which reveals itself in what little we, with our weak and transitory understanding, can comprehend of reality. I cannot conceive of a personal God who would sit in judgment over creatures of his own creation. Morality is of the highest importance, for mankind, but not for God". What would most likely have happened was what nearly always happens; he would have been confused by the first sentence, because of its length and structure, but would have bristled at the two ensusing sentences, disagreed with me, and started an argument. I wouldn't have argued much. I would have used the term "anthropomorphic", and suggested that to a horse God is a super horse, and that to an extraterrestrial God is most likely an extraterrestrial on steroids, so to speak, and that any religion which conceives of God as anthropomprphic is inherently primitive, and of limited relation to reality. No, young man, I am not a Christian. But I consider Christian values well intentioned for the most part, having been borrowed from earlier religions, such as Hinduism and Confucianism. I might have suggested that he read "Why I Am Not A Christian", by Bertrand Russell, and "The Age of Reason" by Thomas Paine, and assurd him that indeed I have read the Bible, and I find that it, as Mark Twain said: "contains some noble poetry, clever fables, a great amount of obscenity, and no fewer than one thousand outright lies." I hope I would have congratulated him on his noble intent, and told him that the Christian faith is much in need of his support, for verily it is in decline, and seems to be evolving out of existence. He might lot have liked hearing this, but it is true.

Caring For Cats, Properly

I HAVE A LOVE AFFAIR with the feline family. I have had the pleasure and honor of a baby black panther sitting on my lap. I have rubbed the belly of a three hundred pound Bengal tiger, albeit a bit nervously. MY sister, a true saint, was once sprayed by a tiger, and standing near her several other tourists were likewise sprayed. They recoiled in disgust. She said she considered it an honor, and was reluctant to wash her clothing. Maybe it runs in the family. Especially housecats, several of which I serve while they generously allow me to live in their home. All seven of my cats were strays, who entered my yard, thus receiving my love and attention. Mark Twain said it best: "Any man who loves cats is automatically my comrad, without further introduction". Among Trump associates, the only one I can abide is billionaire hedge fund manager Robert Mercer, who says that he prefers the company of cats to people. At least twenty five percent of the American people claim to prefer dogs and cats to humans. This number is doubtless an underestimate, since we Americans are not well known for liking one another. A friend of mine came to America from Shanghai, China, and made the observation: "You Americans are the loneliest people in the world. You like your dogs and cats more than you like each other." Guilty as charged. But we are not alone. Islamic culture reveres cats, because the prophet Muhammed loved them. Acccording to legend, a poisonous snake was on the verge of biting the prophet, when a cat intervened, and killed the snake. The prophet appreciatively, gently stroked the cat's back, and there ever after all cat's became beautiful. Soon thereafter Muhammed prepared to attend prayer, and noticed a cat asleep on his prayer garment. In order to avoid awakening the cat, he cut off the sleeve. In Islamic culture, cats are considered to be clean animals, and it is required that all good Muslims treat all cats well. Failure to do this will land a votary in deep trouble. Cats may enter one's home, dogs, which are not considered clean, may not. I remember praising the Islamic societies for their reverence for cats at my local senior center, and sure enough, the very next day, I found on my table a pamphlet titled: "Converting from Islam to the true faith: Christianity". Talk about missing the point..No ma'am, I wasn't attempting to make any comments or express any opinions about the validity of any particular religion, I was merely speaking of the treatment of stray cats, in a cultural context. No sir, I am not advocating that anyone convert to the Islamic faith, nor telling anyone that I have or that I intend to so convert to Islam. I honestly have no intention of waging jihadi holy war, nor of joining the Taliban. I just happen to love cats, and to love people ho care for them compassionately and properly, no matter their cultural or religious context. The only issue here, in my remarks, is the treatment of stray cats..cat-wise, and maybe only with regard to stray cats, the true faith, among the world's great religions, is Islam. In northern Turkey there is a cat sanctuary of several acres set aside for the benefit of stray cats. May the dear lord bless and keep the people who established this. I am told by people who have been there that in Islamic cities, stray cats are well cared for by the general population. The very moment my American-Christian brothers and sisters begin to treat cats in this manner, I will begin to respect them.

Looking For Life, Part II

FRANK DRAKE and Carl Sagan were good friends. they both had a love affair with science, and said so. Drake, Sagan, and Sagan's wife Ann Druyan collaborated in designing the contents of a golden phonograph recored with a diamond stylus which was later sent into deep space in 1977, and has by now long since left the solar system. Maybe some intelligent entity will find it, figure out the easy instructions for how to build and use a record player, and discern that long ago, on a far distant planet orbiting a very ordinary star, there lived life. Frank Drake, who died last week at age ninety two, was a hero, because he exemplified the highest aspirations of the human species; to seek truth, and to learn. It may be that there exists no other life in the universe, difficult as that is to even imagine, than here on Earth. Or it may be that the universe is replete with life, but that there will never be any knowledge of it by humans. And maybe no other intelligent species will ever know that we even existed. What mattters about people like Frank Drake and Carl Sagan is that they, feet firmly planted on the ground but minds reaching out to the universe, acknowledge reality, live within it, and try to honestly contribute to the advance of human knowledge. They, Drake and Sgan and others like them, understood their limitations, the limitations of human discovery and knowledge, and never tried to pad their resumes with the sort of idiotic, outlandish speculative claims which are in such great vogue today. Beware anyone who claims to have established contact with beings from other worlds; they are charlatans. Pursuing new knowledge by using the scientfic method is among the most sublime and fulfilling of all endeavors. Pitiable are those who waste their time and other's time trying to persuade people that they have special knowledge of extraterrestrial life, or other "dimensions", knowledge which only they seem to have, none of which can be proven, for which there is no evidence. People who find science, good old fashoned mainstream empircal science inadequate are intellectually and emotionaly bereft, and are seeking to enhance thier low self esteem by passing themselves off as possessing special knowledge, as having information, and a vision of reality which others cannot share without instruction from the possessor. These fraudulant folks are a drain on humanity, a burden to future progress. They distract from what is important, in service to their need for attention and personal acclaim. They are the disease; people like Frank Drake and Carl Sagan are the cure. Or, as Bertrand Russell said, religion is the disease, Voltaire is the cure. May we never exhaust our supply of intellectual medicine.

Looking For Life, Part I

FRANK DRAKE, astronomer famous for spending his life searching for signs of intelligent life in the universe, died last week, one of those deaths which rekindles poignant childhood memories among those with similar imterests. In the nineteen fifties radio telescopes were all the rage, and the first really big ones went into operation. Almost immediately they provided a plethora of information about the nature of nature. Drake, then a young scientist, began popularizing the notion that humanity might be able to verify the existence of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations by using the telescopes to search for organized electromagnetic signals incoming from space, an ideaa which took hold, but only on a limited basis. Valuable telescope time is too precious to allot too much of it to quizotic searches destined to failure, after all. When people suggested that it might be more profitable to simply send signals into outer space from Earth, and await any resposes, Drake dismissed the idea as unnecessary; he pointed out that every year episodes of "I Love Lucy" were already "rocketing" ever deeper into the cosmos, and that any extraterrestrial species worth its weight in Barney Fife's shirt pocket bullet would indisputably be able to recognize television reruns as being the product of intelligent beings, if not beings with good taste in entertainment. Drake was famous for his equation predicting the probable number of planets in the universe harboring life; even under the least prolific scenarios, (and Drake always usesd the most conservative estimates), the number was, and remains, staggeringly huge. The equation, for those wishing to continue Drake's searh, is: R x Fp x Ne x Fl x Fi x Fc x L = N . All the little exes simply refer to multiplication, as always. The "R" stands for "rate at which stars are formed", "Fp" means the fraction of stars with planets orbiting them, "Ne" means number or stars with Earth-like planets, "Fl" means fraction of planets with life, then "Fi" stands for fraction of planets with intelligent life, followed by planets with communicative life, able and willing to reach out to talk to other species, "L" stands for length of time a given species is able to communicate, and "N", is the final answer, the likely number of planets harboring intellligent, talkative, life. It runs out that, with the known number of galaxies, stars and planets in the universe, that if you simply "do the math" as we like to say, there should be billions of talkative people in the cosmos, even assuming the most conservative, life-barren circumstances. Its fun to plug in any numbers you choose, then have at it.

Living Long

AMAZINGLY, THE QUEEN wore the crown when Winston Churchill, who was born in 1875, was prime minister, and still wore it when the new prime minister, Liz Truss, who was born one hundred and one years later in 1975, assumed the prime ministry two days before her majesty's death. Extended, comprehensive, enduring regality. Several yeras ago Elizabeth II surpassed Queen Victoria as the longest serving monarch in British history. As is always the case when the famous and powerful pass away, the eulogies were a bit exagerrated. I recaal that when the funeral for former president Richard Nixon was held in 1994, the eulogizers gushed with praise for the disgraced ex president. A friend of mine voiced aggravation that none of them so much as mentioned Nixon's "darker" impusles and moments, but only his achievements. "When are they going to come clean"? asked he. My reponse, which which I am still content, was: "There'll be plenty of time for that later, for the entire future. A person's funeral is not the proper time to enumerate the vices of the deceased." And I believe that. The problem doesn't actually exist regardin Queen Elizabeth; if she had any vices or shortcomings, which surely she did, I am unaware of them. The new PM, Madam Truss, called the late queen "the rock upon which the United Kingdom stood firm." So far, so good. Then she went on to describe her majesty as having presided over a period of British history during which the kingdom "grew and prospered". With that, those who prefer truth must beg to differ. Quite the opposite, actually. During the reign of Elizabeth, from 1952 to 2022, Brittania did quite the opposite; it shrank and spent decades mired in economic stagnation, through no fault, needless to say, of her royal highness. During the nineteen seventies, Great Britian endured such financial collapse that the whole financial system was threatened with complete collapse, but, somehow, through a bit of book keeping, endured. At about the same time, bushels of pound notes were spent paying for a trip the queen took, to her Canadian possession. Arguably, her dignified, proud presence in British public life inspired her subjects to endure and persevere. It has been hundreds of years since the ruling monarch of England has had any real power. The monarchy, alas, has long since been reduced to symbolic status, in keeping with modernity. Arguably, the institution is an anachronism, a relic of a past which bears no longer any true relevance to the present or the future, and an expensive one at that. I recall in 1976, Elizabeth decided to atend the summer olympica in Canada, Canada remaining then and to this day as one of the last vestiges of British imperialism. She sailed across the pond in a yacht which displaced enough water to cause a rise in sea level, which was in itself attended by a flotilla of various sea craft; a brazen demonstration of British naval power, which the empire maintains to this day. Millions of pounds of expense for a single person, albeit a most important one. Progressive sorts pointed this out, and it was controversial. Royalty, like religion, provides people emotional stability, comfort, and inspiration. And although I could understand the complaints, failure to understand the subjective value of royalty is to run the risk of not being empathetic to human nature. We are, after all, frail little creatures, needing any cofort and stability we can get. That, the lady gave us, in abundance.

Healing the Planet

PEOPLE READ for all sorts of reasons, escape and education foremost among them. Then sometimes we need hope, comfort, and inspiration, not necessarily in that order. Recommended reading: "Guardians of the Trees: A Journey of Hope Through Healing the Planet", by Kinari Webb. As a college student, the author visited Borneo when she was twenty one, and fell in love with the natural beauty and with orangutans. She paid close attention, to two kinds of primitive primate culture; orangutan, and human. She noticed the interconnectedness of them. She noticed that extensive logging by both corporations and small farmers was destroying teh orangutan habitat, without providing any discernible prosperity for the people. It occurred to ther that small farmers engaged in killing trees because and only because they were desperate for some of the basic necessities of life; including health care. This realization inpsired her to complete her education at Yale with a double major approach; conservation, and medicine. She returned to Boerneo with diplomas in hand and some loan money, and opened a low cost and free medical climinc for the poor locals. The idea spread. Simultaneously, she spearheaded organizations and movements intended to reduce the extent and impact of deforestation, preaching the message, the very simple and profoundly true message, that forested wilderness habitat is necessary for not only the survival of nature, but also is necessary for humans as part of nature, that we are currently abusing this wonderful gift of nature, but that we can change direction, can reform our behaivor, and can actually heal the damage we have already done. Her book is her personal account of her trials and tribulations in these enterprises, and reads like a good suspense novel, a page turner, keeping the reader engrossed with solving the author's problems by finding out how the author solves them. Among those tribulations was a severe bite from a poisonous jellyfish which forced Kinari Webb to fight for her life in recovery for four years. Her theme, as the title implies, is not "saving" the planet, as we often melodramatically express it. (I am guilty of this). "Healing" is a better word for what we need to do to mother Earth than "saving", which is too self aggrandizing. The theme of the book is "healing the planet", the planet being a living, breathing being, delicately posistioned within nature, whose life can be and is greatly affected by what we humans do. By the time you finish this extraordiantry true, ongoing story, you will likely feel inspired to pesonally contribute to environmental protection, because you will have been persuaded convinincingly that not only can the planet be healed, but that it must be, and that we humans can become good doctors, nurses, caregivers, for each other, and for the Earth.

Paying Attention

MY FRIEND the forever Trumper, steadfastly becoming my former friend, as he was walking away to avoid hearing my response, told me to "start paying attention". To what, he said not. We had just engaged in another of our unpelasant political discussions, in which he had once again convinced me that he is, like all Trump supproters, mentally ill, so I actually had a pretty idea what he wanted me to pay attention to. In his warped perspectie, the one and only reason why I or anybody else would possibly not agree with his MAGA point of view is, quite simply, failure to pay attention to what's going on in the U.S. and the world. He was suggesting that I pay greater attention to his correct point of view, including presumably his belief that climate change is not caused by human activity, that the election was stolen, and that racism in America would not exist if people like Obama would stop talking about it. To tell my friend that he is the one not paying atention, and that I pay much more attention to reality than he would be useless. He suggested the documentary movie "Two Thousand Mules", which allegedly proves massive election fraud, but in fact proves nothing. I told my friend that I had sn the flim, and asked him whether he had. Just some sound bytes and brief scenes, he said. Maybe you should pay more attention, I said. I remind myself that I must always question my own opinions and beliefs, and be willing to consider the possibility that those of others are valid. therefore I must question my belief that climate change is real, caused by humans, and a dire threat to our future. I must question my firm belief that Joe Biden was elected president fairly and squarely. I must question my belief that Donald Trump is a criminal, and is mentally ill. In many situations, it seems highly probable that I will merely confrim my beliefs when I question them; but I must carefully avoid assuming this in advance. Long live critical thinking skills! I would never suggest that an antire class of people is mentally ill, unless a large number of people displays the same bahavior, behavior which from an unbiased perspective clearly seems to indicate mental dysfunction, behavior like living in a false reality and refusing to accept what is clearly, demonstrably real. These days, there is certainly plenty of that going around.

Dropping the F Bomb

JOE BIDEN SEEMS to have removed the kid gloves, as they say. He's swinging from the heels, as it were. But at least he didn't call anybody a "fascist". That might have been construed as rude. Rather, he called a whole bunch of people, namely Trump supporters, "semi-fascists", if I'm not mistaken. And so of course they're all (all seventy five million of 'em, or however many there still are) quite upset, in fact livid, in what should be but really isn't an uncharacteristicalyy snowflakish posture on their (the MAGA mob) part. Poor darlings, with their injured feelings. snif snif. All they need do for revenge is to call American liberals "communists", if they haven't already, which they have, quite often. That oughta make 'em feel better... I'll double down, as we say nowadays. Fascism is a political movement in which a charismatic demagogue acquires a political cult following primarily among the working and middle classes, a following which as it grows entrusts more power to their leader, allowing him to become authoritarian, using as justification supposed enemies of the state, or enemies of the people, and the dire necessity of eliminationg them, which only the leader can do, but must have enough power. Our current demagogue is Donald Trump. When he fabricated his lie about winning the election instead of Biden he was behaving fascistically, inventing a false narrative which servers the interests of himself, his movement, and his followers, and his (Trump's) lie was embraced by nearly all his followers, a fascist movement was born, if it didn't already exist, which it did. To this day roughly seventy percent of registered Republicans believe Trump's election lie, believe that the Capitol insurrection was justified, and believe that political violence is sometimes necessary and justified, and may break out in America, if Trump is ever indicated for any alleged crimes. All this is fascism, pure and simple. It brings to mind the burning of the Reichstag, Kristallnacht, and the whole sordid NAZI experience. The current conservative attempt to remove all mention of gay culture or historical racism from school curricula, the censoring of books, all fascist. There are strong fascist overtones and undertones to not only the Trump MAGA mob, but, indeed, throughout the Republican party and its agenda, and, indeed, throughout conservative and evangelical conservative America. May the American right return to conservative values, and abandon its current fling with fascism.

Engaging

THE FACT THAT my friend, whom I have kown for forty years to be itelligent, still supports tTrumptells me that most probably most of Trump's supporters are still with him. and, most likely, like my friend, they are dismissing the FBI raid on Trump's mansion as merely more hatred against Trump, deeply, deeply imbedded within the government, the government which, my friend is convinced, is in collussion with the media to promote the progressive point of view, and engaged in all manner of nefarious plots to damage or destroty their beloved Trump. The more I listened, the more shocked an horrified I was, and at one point, I remarked to him: "sometimes I think you and I are living in different universes". And indeed I think that about the American right wing generally. How anyone could possible twist Trump's latest criminal behavior and law enforcement's perfect reposne to it into a sordid tale of not only a corrupt FBI, but an even more corrupt federal governemnt being used by Democrats to harm Trump alone - is quite beyond me. My friend the Trump lover quite naturally and predictably changed the subject, and started talking about Joe and Hunter Biden and a laptop computer and the BFI's cover up to help the Biden's - oh yes, and when Hillary Clinton left the White House, she took with her many valuables which belonged to the White House - why was she never prosecuted!? Deny, obfuscate, change the subject. There is one thing my friend, and all of Trump's supporters are certain about - there must be more to this story than the former president simply making off with government documents as he left office, and his doing that being illegal and criminal, indictable. There has got to mt be more, no matter how uncertain of what it is. The former president must have had a perfectly good reason to have done that, whatever it may be. There are a few cracks in my buddy's armor. He acknowledges as how the former president has said some pretty crazy things. That's a start, if nothing else. One thing I know for sure; if teh Justice Department indicts Trump over this Top Secret document thing - and its hard to see how they could avoid indicting him - then the right wing MAGA crazies are gonna go off like a bundle of bottle rockets too close to the grill. If that happens, It'll be awhile before I go visit my old friend again - he'll he hopping mad, and, hell, he's a pretty big dude...