Scary Shari, the Uncaring Harridan

AT MY LOCAL SMALL TOWN senior center, in which belief in Darwinian evolution and climate change are accepted heresy, and the human intellect is deemed suitable exclusively for the appreciation of gospel played on a fiddle, there abides Shary harridan the Acidic. osteoporosis and a cholostomy bag conspire to twist her mind, one might speculate, into a configuration of evil worthy of the devilish old testament deity they all worship, the one who slaughtered fifty thousand innocent souls as punishment for someone taking a peek into a forbidden box full of law. I tried to talk to her several times, why not befriend the wicked, foolishly hoping to be spared her biblical wrath. One time I offered: "I recently found out, by listening to a tape, that when we were in high school, President Nixon considered dropping a nuclear bomb on Hanoi. thank the dear lord Henry Kissinger talked him out of it. Its on audio tape." Dismissively the harridan replied: "it wouldn't have bothered me a bit." The harridan, unsurprisingly, is an extreme right winger and an extreme Christian - the two seem to often go hand in hand - who seems to respond to her lack of formal education by disliking anyone who has one, and selecting her friends carefully to avoid befriending anyone as intelligent as she, an imposing task. The ceaselessly negative and abrasive person must truly be miserable. My shock and outrage were ill considered. I said nothing. What are five million dead babies to an untamed shrew? Now, I pray that the infirm be healed.. People are beautiful, and I love them, preferably from a distance, Goethe said: "noble be man, compassionate, and good." And he was right. But hatred is not an inherent side effect of personal health related misfortune. To be of cancerous personality is a choice, and a poor one. May the harridan heal her soul, if not her intellect.

Stealing And Saving Sand

THE ANCIENT ROMANS invented concrete, and they rebuilt wooden Rome with it, much of which remains today in the form of ruins. The ancient Egyptians passed up a great opportunity there in the sandy desert, and instead carved blocks from limestone, and hauled them with slave labor from quarry to unpragmatic monuments, monuments which obviously had great symbolic value. If only they had known of concrete. Concrete is the magical mixture of sand, which is silicon dioxide, and cement, which is fine, feathery gray powder, essentially desiccated dirt. Add water, wait, let harden in desired shape. while hardening, scratch initials or press palm into, leaving lasting legacy. if apprehended, claim momentary lapse of judgment, ignorance of vandalism laws, or urgent necessity of leaving legacy. Offer to use trowel to repair damage. Post bail, Cop plea. Pay fine. Our modern world is made more of concrete than ancient Rome. we use fifty billion tones of it a year, dredging sand from ocean bottoms, river bottoms, luckless beaches. it takes longer for nature to make sand than for humans to steal it, and, in short, we are running out of sand, a fact which might seem surprising. Recycling concrete is possible, but not an option, for three reasons. Most modern concrete is lace with chemicals which impede separation, the amount of energy needed to pound int back into sand and start over in expensively prohibitive, and besides, concrete structures are built to last, and there is a very limited supply of it available for recycling. The encroaching scarcity of sand is such that its becoming expensive, so much so that people steal it from beaches, and from the piles of it which lay in waiting along highways under construction. A black market for sand has emerged, incredibly. In India, there is actually a "sand mafia" which controls the market, darkening the economy with such deadly intent and to such great effect as would make Al Capone proud. Many have died in service to black market sand. Whatever is valuable is illegally transferred, understandably. Concrete and glass are the primary products of sand, which also serves well for sun bathing on towels at beaches, barefoot jogging (beware the submerged glass shard or carelessly discarded beer tab), and the trapping of golf balls in hazards. The day may come when people fight wars over sand, as they long have over land and the minerals which lie beneath, and might someday over water, helium, phosphorous, and water, which are other vanishing resources. Much new land is being built around the world, using huge amounts of sand. the more land, the less remaining sand. The trade off might not be worth the effort. And, in any event, we humans can always find reason to fight, over almost anything.

Putting I.C.E. On Ice

THE IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT AGENCY (I.C.E.) was founded in 2003 in the wake of the Great American Terrified of Terrorism (GATT) epidemic. This fear of an almost non existent threat precipitated the various Wars of Oil and American Aggression (WOAA), and presaged Trumpian Republican Authoritarian Mob Psychology (TRAMP). I.C.E., in its current behavior, fits in perfectly with America's xenophobic right wing racist Hitleresque agenda. Conservatives, who normally stridently espouse limited government, especially when government seeks to assist the working poor and various minorities, miraculously transubstantiates, like wafers and wine into bod and blood, into big government expellers of refugees, refugees from poverty, who are seeking opportunity and hope. All immigrants are ultimately refugees, refugees from poverty, seeking aforementioned opportunity and hope. Conservative Republican American Christian Klansmen Encouraging Refugee Removal (CRACKERR), seem quite concerned with legalities, but not with opportunity, hope, nor with welcoming the proverbial stranger. A growing movement among bleeding heart liberal limited government types seek to put I.C.E. on ice, just as surely as the refugee dies parched in the Arizona desert, just as surely as the African-american teenaged boy lies chilled in the morgue, his body riddled with official law enforcement bullets. The agency is redundant, its functions already being implemented by other organizations, and, under Trump and his mob,= is neo-NAZI-like, but could be reformed, rather than abandoned, which might placate big government republican conservative types. Eisenhower gave the jack boot to one million Mexicans, Obama chipped in with two point five million deportees this credit, and who knows the lofty numbers to which don the don can spire, with or without I.C.E.? Only Ronald Reagan had the good sense to grant immunity to the illegal downtrodden, in a rare fit of inexplicable compassion. sometimes the old blind squirrel finds an acorn, as the country folk say.One rare but good G.O.P. deed deserves another; may the great prevaricator find it within his toupee the uncharacteristic impulse to emulate the rare republican fit of compassion of the great communicator.

Seeking Scientific Sense

WHEN I WAS ELEVEN OR TWELVE years old, in 1966 or 1967, I read "The Interrupted Journey", one of the seminal UFO abduction tales to emerge after the Roswell incident. The monograph details the 1961 alleged abduction of Berry and Barney Hill, a New Hampshire couple who, under hypnosis, presented a fascinating account of being abducted, examined, and released by extraterrestrials, and suffering psychological after effects. The book was quite a sensation in the mid sixties, and it thoroughly entranced me. It would probably do the same today. Born was my lifelong interest in UFOs and the question of life on other planets, a question which remains unanswered, although progress is being made, in the form of numerous planets recently found orbiting other stars. My interest expanded to include other areas of research in what is commonly termed "the paranormal": mental telepathy, reincarnation, ghosts, among others. I coupled this with a love of science fiction. Asimov, Clarke, Bradbury, Heinlein, Silverberg were, and are, my favorite authors. Since the passing of those literary greats science fiction has regrettably devolved into pseudo science fantasy. Clark's dictum that the known laws of nature should never be violated in writing has long since been consigned to the dry eraser. To quote Goethe, it is the limitations which make the master. In Clarke's novels, nobody never traveled faster than the speed of light, and nobody ever fought multi-dimensional dragons with magic wands enchanted by spell casting sorcerers. Much the same has happened in the paranormal, realm, which has devolved from potential research science into imaginative fantasy. It has become an industry, a highly lucrative one, in which the shareholder devotees are shielded from, and do not seek accountability. The money is too good. Radio talk show hosts, podcasters, and writers serve it up, and it is lapped up, without serious scrutiny or skepticism. UFO research, abnormal psychology, past life regression, telepathy, ghosts of the deceased are all topics worthy of sustained scientific scrutiny. To a degree, they have all been given and are still getting attention from credentialed scholars. The results thus far are inconclusive. We have only anecdotal evidence, which is insufficient until repeatedly verified independently. Tragically, science has been drowned out by fantastic speculative imaginings; science has been popularly supplanted by sorcery which, unfortunately, sells better than science. Money mongering entertainers advertisers, and charlatans prey on the hopeful gullibility of those who dream without restraint. The ministers of alternative realities minister to their legions of votaries. Extraterrestrial emerge from unemotional unsatisfying scientific research, and dwell on the ocean floor, in earth's hollow interior, and insinuated within human power structures, disguised as human. They dwell within our imaginative longing for unfounded intellectual inquiry. it plays well, it sells well. it assumes the characteristics of a religion; devotion without evidence. Opportunists like Alex Jones , the promulgator of innumerable incredible conspiracy fantasies, "pushes the envelope", to quote Tom wolf. The Sandyhook massacre was no hoax. Twenty seven souls were murdered. Because of Jones' absurd, pernicious claim that it was, surviving family members have received death threats. Alex Jones belongs in jail, or an institution for the intellectually and socially malign. We do not yet know whether there exists a galactic federation, whether the Federal reserve is controlled by a secretive cabal of alien beings and European trillionaires, or whether advanced lifeforms dwell beneath the earth's surface. In each case, perhaps not. but unless we approach such questions with skepticism, critical thinking, and intellectual honesty, we never will. Our only hope is science, which, when studied closely, reveals itself to be far more interesting than sorcerers wielding magic wands.

Curbing Violence In Football, And Society

THE NFL (National Football League, USA) has a new rule prohibiting the use of the helmet when blocking or tackling, newly required restraint which once upon less violent times was assumed, not mandated. A current player with the Minnesota Vikings, doubtless a Trump supporter, sported a ball cap which read: "make football violent again". The message is as misleading as Trump's campaign slogan. Both football and America have been great, and violent, for a very long time. The two cultural icons are going in opposite directions. The United States has always been violent, but over the recent few decades has become somewhat less so, domestically, according to statistics, although it doesn't often seem so. Violent crime rates are way down, compared to the nineteen seventies, although vicarious violence in mainstream entertainment is way, way up. Football has also always been violent, but much more so in recent years, with bigger, stronger, faster players, and an enhanced appreciation for the sport's inherent violence among its fans. The popularity of violence in sports may be viewed in concert with our appetite for vicarious violence, apart from America's long history of military aggression. NFL players now feign confusion about the new rule, which really isn't new, because it was already against the law, and called "spearing". Head first. its that simple. why the feigned confusion? well, maybe to impugn the validity of requiring football players to play the game with original, gentlemanly intent. What they mean is that they do not like the rule. Or, they have already sustained a few too many concussions. keep the head up, and out of the way. Simple. If they, and we the people do not like the curbing of violence, we'll all have to adjust, just like we might some day have to adjust, one can hope, to a decrease in America violence, foreign, domestic, and vicarious.

Being Honest About american Racism Past and Present

IT IS PERFECTLY OBVIOUS to anyone conversant with American history and willing to be honest about today's American culture that the United States always has been, but remains, a surpassingly racist nation, arguably the most racist nation in history. Racism is neither inherent in human thought nor ancient in origins. There are no references to it in any work of literature or written document before the year fourteen fifty, when it appeared a biography of Prince Henry the Navigator, a fact which many might find surprising. It was invented in the fifteenth century as justification for the Portuguese conquest of Africa, and in the sixteenth century European North and south America refined, elevated, and institutionalized skin pigmentation discrimination, where it remains today. The federal government, under intense, sustained pressure from liberal interests, has only within the past half century begun trying to force racial equality down the American throat. President LBJ alienated his entire southern constituency by forcing the Civil rights Act through congress, over the strenuous objections of conservatives in both parties. The considerable yet obviously insufficient progress we have made is entirely the product of legislation, prodding by meddling liberals, and penalties for non compliance. At no point during the late twentieth century has there existed a majority of Americans willing to take the necessary steps to eradicate the scourge of race based hatred. And yet, the very promulgators of racist ideology incessantly claim that, since slavery and Jim Crow are no more, neither is racism. They are deceiving nobody, including themselves. America's founding "fathers" were all racist, and so is our current president, who was indicted by the federal government in 1974 for housing discrimination, refusing to rent to African-Americans his father's properties. They settled out of court. The recent manifestations of Trump's racist attitudes are well documented. The United States will never be free of the racist curse as long as there exists a conservative white plurality which believes that social engineering is unacceptable, because without social engineering, we have no hope of attaining true equality.

Witnessing Poor Stweardship

ACROSS THE STREET from me lives a family of Jehovah's witnesses, which is one of those made in America varieties of Christianity, along with, let's see...Mormonism, Christian Science, Scientology, among others. are the Witnesses the ones who do not celebrate secular holidays, and do not stand for the national anthem? If they indeed do not stand, they not only should not be allowed to play football, their entire faith should be impugned for lacking respect for flag, anthem, and country. for, as GHW Bush once said: "this is the greatest nation in the entire country". They're nice people, if a bit weird. A mother, late fifties, who works in a nursing home, and three grown, big, strong, strapping sones, all in their twenties, all of whom wear overalls daily, none of whom ever seem to leave the house, nor have employment. Another feature, perhaps, of their faith: the female brings home the bacon. they don't have to bring home much of it; I get so much throw away food at the senior center that I can't possibly use it, so I give it to them. In appreciation, they ply me with boxes of Little Debbie delights, which I try to transport to the senior center as soon as possible, before they go to my waistline and hasten me towards diabetes. IN a wooded area in their backyard lives a colony of feral cats, some of whom sometimes venture across the street, where I feed them. among these is a female who recently gave birth, in Jehovah's yard, beneath one of their innumerable knick knack lawn decorations. She brought the litter across the street, adorably ,and I increased the mother kitten's food supply; she looked underweight, and I was afraid the litter was going to suck the life out of her. when the babes were fully weaned, the momma kitty ushered them back across the street, out of my garage, and back into the wooded area, possibly preferring the better protective cover. I explained to the Witnesses that it was incumbent them, to try to find homes for all the feral cats, particularly the kittens, with all the spaying, neutering, and vaccinating associated. I said I would help. What I got in return was a flat denial of any and all responsibility, and the implication that since the litter had spent two weeks on my property, I would have to take charge. Then a "No Trespassing sign went up on their door, which I thought a bit unfriendly, and a bit incredible? I think I'll start giving the leftover meatloaf and mashed potatoes to the feral cats, and I don't think I'll risk knocking the Witnesses front door. we live in precarious, contentious times. meanwhile, presumably the colony in the backyard woods will grow, and a day or reckoning will ensue. Is that part of Jehovah's plan?

Transforming Ourselves Nationally

THE UNITED STATES is transforming itself from a white Christian culture into a multi ethnic culture of religious diversity, partly through immigration, and conservatives, who by definition embrace traditional values and resist sweeping change, don't like it. You can bet your bank account that there is neither a conservative nor a trump supporter within the confines of freedom's land who believes that the change is happening, nor that if it is, that they oppose it. To them, American remains a white majority Christian nation, and likely always will, regardless of facts. The republican party, which is the white Christian conservative party, considers itself open, available, inclusive, and without fear or prejudice towards ethnic minorities, and can't seem to understand why the minorities and the poor flock in overwhelming numbers to the Democratic party To them its a total mystery. Don't republicans offer them everything, far more than the democrats, don't republicans offer everyone the freedom to and the golden opportunity to fend for themselves and to succeed on their own merits by their own hard work without interference from meddling government regulations or the crippling dependency of government economic assistance? The democrats reduce the poor to virtual helplessness by sending them money; republicans would set them free of the debilitating effects of handouts. Why can't the poor see that the help the democrats offer does nothing for them but stymie their upward mobility? The millennials are rejecting the christian faith and embracing socialism in large numbers. there are five million Muslims in America, potential terrorists all. Homosexuality is no longer illegal, and gays and transgenders flaunt their lifestyles as if they had a right to. The sooner the Lord returns, the better the outcome for the enraptured republican party, unless, of course, blacks, gays, lesbians, and immigrant Latin Americans wake up and begin to realize the bountiful fruits of prosperity to be gained by embracing republican values of the free market and less government, where people can advance through competing with the rest of us for jobs and upward mobility, with the same chance to win as everyone else.

Leaving Unsaid

THE LADY CAME FROM MEXICO twenty years ago, illegally. She married a naturalized American citizen, also from Mexico, and stayed home to raise a family of two daughters, while her husband pursued a career in the U.S. Marine Corps. he did three tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Her illegal entry preclude, she feared, any hope of obtaining legal status. Then came a traffic stop, exposure, and summary Trumpian deportation, and a broken, bereaved family. She chose to accept rather than fight deportation, thus sparing her family a useless, stressful struggle. The children, ages eight and sixteen, are or course naturally American citizens, fully assimilated into American Floridian culture. A thorough canvass of the American public would doubtless produce not a single supporter of Donald trump who finds these circumstances repugnant. According to our president, children torn from their parents at the border "are not innocent", and "aren't people", but rather, are "animals". They are therefore locked in cages in abandoned Wal Mart buildings in southern Texas, while a federal judge in San Diego admonishes the government go get about the business of reuniting families. Left unsaid is that poverty and political chaos in Mexico and Central America is largely the by product of several decades of American foreign policy, the central component of which is enforced economic neo-liberalism, coupled with a policy of 'facilitating" the overthrow of duly elected governments which seek to redistribute national wealth and which reject American corporate exploitation. One of many examples is the collaboration of the CIA and the American Fruit company in the overthrow of the left wing Arbenz government if Guatemala in 1954, which, like all other American interventions in Latin America during the past two centuries, produced thousands of dislocated peasants, poverty, violence, and chaos. Left unsaid is that Texas, California, new Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado were stolen from Mexico in President's Polk's great imperialistic adventure, the Mexican War of 1846-1848. Traditionally, this region has been referred to in Mexico as "the occupied territories". In the United States of America, much is left unsaid.

Making Trouble On Twitter

ONNA COUNTA having twitter tweeted bigly that Attorney Generah Jeff Davis sessions immediately cease and desist in all witch hunting activities, president Donald "witch" Trump has either committed obstruction of justice, attempted obstruction of justice, or plain ole down home rudeness, which will not bother him one iota. Sessions, calling off the dogs? Ainta gonna happen. Sessions, Der Trumpmeister might not recall, has long since recused himself of the whole affair, washing his hands, removing from the realm of possibility any interference in the ongoing and increasingly interesting Mueller investigation. And yes, twitter tweets are, it turns out, admissible under a wide range of legal circumstances, contrary to what Rudy Giuliani mistakenly asserts. Then too, in another acrimonious event, the mafia don-like chief executive has angered the Koch brothers, Charles and David, who purchase political office for free market anti regulatory republicans and purchase the forgiveness of trailer park residents whose families members have died from cancer precipitated by chemical runoffs from nearby Koch owned oil refineries. It is not wise to anger the big boys, but Trump himself is a big boy, a billionaire whose passion is the elevation of the working poor, somehow or other. So Charles and David are clowns, former FBI director James Comey is in the pocket of Hillary Clinton, and Putin is a man whose word is to be taken at face value, in the presumably deluded universe of the great narcissist. Under normal circumstances, an innocent citizens welcomes the opportunity to clear her name by being duly investigated. So why all the wailing and gnashing? we all know why, and the only question remaining is how long is takes for the Nixonian drama to play itself out, and for the nation to heal itslef,, difficult though it is to imagine Mr. Pence playing the role he might have to play, that of Gerald r. Ford the reconciler.

Showing Patriotism, Voluntarily

AMERICAN FOOTBALL is a more violent form of English rugby, which is properly called rugby football, as opposed to association football, which the English once upon a time called "soccer", but no longer do. The fact that Americans still call association football "soccer" seems to rankle the Brits a bit. The fact that American call American football football rankles them with equal ardor. The English are not alone in generating rancorous responses where rancor hardly seems necessary. We Americans, able to tolerate an epidemic of head and helmet-tackling concussions which lead to dementia and early death, able to tolerate widespread domestic violence among American football players leading to battered women and broken families, are unable to tolerate the kneeling during the national anthem which at times is done by African-Americans. My, what a patriotic lot we are! Everyone knows that when players kneel while others stand during the national anthem, they are not disrespecting flag, anthem, country, or anything else. Everyone knows that the kneeling is a protest against a cultural characteristic of America; racism and violence. Since protesting in private is ineffective, people who protest injustice prefer doing it in public, thus calling as much attention as possible to the cause of justice. The fact that the votaries of several religions do not stand during the anthem nor celebrate holidays escapes censure, since this is done in service to the lord, rather than social justice. Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys American football team, is especially patriotic. So much so that not only does he use threats of unemployment to compel his employees to stand during the anthem, he goes so far as to have a recording of the national anthem played before each Dallas Cowboy's preseason practice. You can never have too much of a good patriotic display, it would seem. Jones stood on the field before a recent practice while the anthem was issuing forth, and conversed with his son, while his hat remained atop his patriotic head. Reminded by his son that the hat should be doffed in patriotic respect, Jones ignored the admonition, and left it perched. Jones has not yet fired himself. Patriotism is required for the masses, but optional for the elite, it would seem.

Examining America's Christian Racist Roots

OF THE FIRST FIFTEEN AMERICAN PRESIDENTS, ten were slave owners. Of the first thirty five Supreme Court justices, nineteen owned slaves. Slavery first reared its ugly head at Jamestown, Virginia, a mere twelve years after Europeans founded the town. At one time all thirteen original colonies permitted slavery. The northern colonies prohibited it first for purely economic reasons; it was insufficiently profitable in an economy without large agricultural plantations, and manufacturing could get labor abundantly, cheaply, from among the free white population. Slavery is condoned in the Christian bible, a fact which provided a convenient justification for American Christian plantation owners. Enslavement, the reasoning went, inherently improved the lives of the enslaved by bringing them into the Christian faith. Jefferson wanted to include in the Declaration a passage condemning the peculiar institution and promising to eradicate it; he was outvoted, and settled for a provision blaming it all on the English king. In the creation of the federal constitution, slavery presented the most prickly problem. The southern slave owning states would not join the union without guarantees that it would be allowed to endure, and ocne they joined, if anyone or anything threatened their right to own people, they would not remain joined. Thus did the enslaved become, according to federal law, three fifths of a human being, which they remain today, though no longer enslaved. The framers were as unwilling to use the word 'slave" in their masterpiece as they were to use the word "God". Hamilton later said that God was excluded from the constitution because its framers forgot to include it. More seriously, the authors were keenly aware of the schizophrenic relationship between slavery and the minded principles of democratically based liberty. Jefferson, who did not believe in the Christian God, was fearful that god would punish the nation, sooner, or later, for slavery, and he often wrote that all must eventually be free, but preferably after being shipped back to Africa. When one of Madison's slaves ran away and was recaptured, the constitution's principle author wrote: "I cannot punish him...for merely coveting the liberty...we have so often and so loudly proclaimed to be the right...of every human being." Instead, he sold the man. Washington freed his slaves in his will, Jefferson did not, other than a select few, but he treated them well. Madison told people he wanted to avoid depending on slave labor for his personal profit, but never did. That is our inheritance, our legacy, our burden of history. It perhaps becomes apparent why we today debate whether the United States is a racist country, and a christian country. The answers would seem to be "yes", and "no".

Looking Forward With Hope

WE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE have much to which to look forward. The investigation results, the midterm elections, and all that. It turns out that, according to recent polls, if Bernie Sanders were to run against Trump in 2020, he would win, even at age seventy eight. Age discrimination seems to be dead, and considering that every day approximately ten thousand Americans turn sixty five, that isn't a bad idea. The retirement age will continue to be pushed upward, and retirement itself, a post World War Two invention, might well fade into history, as people are forced to depend upon themselves and their immediate labor, with the apparent decline of the social security system and our seeming unwillingness to do the simple math required to repair it. A highly recommended endeavor is the googling of the "republican Party platform of 1956." Its nearly to the left of Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders would be compatible with the policies of the Eisenhower administration. We have moved much to the right since the nineteen seventies, since grandfatherly Ronald W. Reagan made us forget the stagnation of the Carter administration.We we are in the era of the ultra right strongman, reincarnation of the nineteen twenties, of Mussolini and Hitler. We cleaned up the devastation back then with a liberal resurgence; the coming midterm, polls indicate, might be a cleansing with millennials, half of whom are not religious and many of whom espouse socialism, entering the ranks of the leaders. When times are tough, people turn to Caesar, and away from the republic. When they are good, we expand our hearts and minds and return to progressive intentions. We have much to which to look forward.

Doing As We Say, Not As We Do

BEFORE THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION against their British overlords, many prominent colonists, among them Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, opined that the London government was trying to reduce the colonies to a condition of enslavement. Jefferson and Washington were certainly in a position to have an expert opinion on slavery. Slave masters themselves, albeit lenient ones, fretting about the unlikely possibility of themselves being reduced to bondage by someone four thousand miles away. That's rich. That's paranoid. And its an example of how people see the world, and the threats it harbors, according to their own behavior and experiences in treating others. Thomas Jefferson was nothing if not a hypocrite but, you gotta love a man who catalogued ever insect which landed on his Madeira. In point of fact, the British imperialists administered its colonies quite leniently by the standards of the day, and by historical standards. Even more humorously, in the long list of grievances enumerated by Jefferson in the original draft of the Declaration of Independence, is that the king of England allowed the slave trade to flourish in the colonies; essentially, that his majesty, in so doing, allowed or even required Jefferson and Washington and their social class to own slaves, thus burdening them with an immoral lifestyle. Rich indeed. They had the good sense to strike it, but the "all men are created eaual' part stands testiment to this day of the power of compartmentalization. We fast forward to present day politics, and we see Trump, tweeting in all caps, threatening to unleash hell itself upon Iran if they ever threaten the United States again. A threat to retaliate against a threat. American hypocrisy springs eternal. Then, there was something known as the "Monroe Doctrine", a bold American threat to Europe to remain aloof from western hemispheric affairs, emboldened by the revolt of Spain's colonies south of the Rio Grande. now, we seen China, insinuating itself into central America, dealing to build its own competitor to the Panama Canal. We haven't heard Trump tweeting anything about that enterprise. America threats are hollow. The American president is a real bad ass seated in the back seat of a limo, smart phone in hand, far from the middle east. Iran knows, we know, the world knows, that the Iranian government can do all the blustery threatening it likes, and there aint a damned thing Trump is going to do about it. he hasn't the support, and we haven't the political will to fight the mother of all wars. Trump has more urgent concerns, in particular , involving the apparent willingness of his former attorney to stop taking bullets for the don, and to start some serious talk with the feds, concerning arrangements with foreign powers.

Using Up Phosphorous

FIRST, THE BAD NEWS. It is estimated that, at the current rate of consumption, the world's supply of the chemical element phosphorous will be exhausted within fifty years. Estimates vary, anywhere from thirty to a hundred years, pick your scientist. The good news is that we might be able to do something about it, assuming that long term weather patters permit our existence, let alone phosphorous reclamation. The chemical is known as "phosphate" in its usable form, number fifteen on ye olde periodic table of the elements, designated by the letter "P", appropriately. Deeply embedded in and integral to all DNA, it is essential for the proper functioning of DNA, hence, life itself. We use it primarily for fertilizer, in which the chemical is absorbed by plants, and transmitted to animals. Seventy five percent of the world's supply is mined in Morocco, whose government, understandably, is very secretive about and very protective of its valuable resource. Fertilizer is overused, resulting in ninety percent of all phosphorous ending up in the ocean, unreclaimable. therein lies the rub. In the seventeenth century alchemists busily sought ways of turning lead into gold, and anything else into phosphorous. One clever gent collected an vast vat filled abundance of human urine, boiled it down, and the remaining waxy material turned out to be...phosphorous. Modern chemists are no less enterprising. There is a lady in Vermont who has her yard filled with large containers of human urine, wherein she gets her supply. Yes, you are thinking what scientists are thinking: recycle our liquid waste, and its off to the races, phosphorously. Why let all that good yellow pee go down the drain, uselessly? Save the pee! urine is remarkably free of pathogens, unlike poop, so, never the twain shall meet, and, with a little luck and good solid chemistry, we'll be forever drinking water, taking vitamins, and letting our yellow streams do our work. Happy planting.