Last summer I was in Cottage Grove, Oregon buying gas as I traveled toward Mt. Rainier National Park, Vancouver, Canada, Whistler and Victoria. My wife and I and daughter really enjoy Canada the last few years during the summer.
I spoke with the Gas station attendant since there is no self serve in Oregon(something to remember if you travel there by car). He said that the droughts had reached up as far as Portland, Oregon. I could tell because there were fires as far north as Eugene, Oregon and beyond.
This year in Northern California where I live though we thought we would wash or blow away from all the wind in January and February along the coast, there was little if any significant rain after the beginning of March. This is very unusual(in the last 100 years) because we usually get significant rains into March, April or May and sometimes even in June. So, as a result of this historic lack of rain in March through June and incredible rains in January and February we have incredible fires here this early in June. Lightning this early in June is also very strange because where I live at least lightning is usually(if it comes at all) in August and September and maybe October. However, for most of the Northern California area there is significant lightning in July and August, especially in the Sacramento Valley and in the Sierras and Cascade mountain areas. So more lightning fires even if small are basically inevitable during those later summer storms. I suppose we could see some of the most remote and inaccessible fires now still burning when that occurs then as long as no legal structures are in jeapordy.
However, I think because of the melting northern Ice Cap, we should all prepare for the droughts on the west coast to slowly move northward and eventually all the way up into Canada. Desalinization anyone?
Monday, June 30, 2008
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Prisoners of Smoke and Fire
As if the price of gas in California wasn't enough, then the stock market looks to be going Bear and now we haven't been able to leave our houses for fear of 2 to 10 times the unsafe level of air particulates from Bakersfield and San Luis Obispo to Redding, California, a stretch of about 450 miles at least south to north. I'm here on the Northern California Coast but had to pretty much stay in my house with my family most of the time with all the windows closed just so I and my families lungs would be okay. I would go out to see if the air was breathable every two hours or so and once every 2 or 3 days one could find the air clear enough for an hour or two to turn the fans on and open the windows to get a clean change of air.
I can't remember it being this bad this long along the coast. I have seen it much worse when I was younger in the 1970s and even 1980s in Mt. Shasta during summer fire season, but never have I ever seen the 1400 fires in California at once. This is completely unheard of in the last 100 years or so.
Since I live on the coast there is finally some good news. Tomorrow, the normal coastal fog will push the smoke south and east away from us so we can breathe once again outside. My adult son who is home from medical school this summer and I got into the hot tub for the first time in a couple of weeks outside in the back yard. It was such a relief not to be breathing smoke. The ash has been falling hard for several days now. It covers everything. I was a little concerned tonight because even though the particulate matter will all come to the ground tonight with the heavy dew from the ocean fog it will also make lye from the ash and water combination and lye is very acidic on car paint and plants. So though it will help us all breathe much better it won't help the plants or car paint for any car outside tonight.
I can't remember it being this bad this long along the coast. I have seen it much worse when I was younger in the 1970s and even 1980s in Mt. Shasta during summer fire season, but never have I ever seen the 1400 fires in California at once. This is completely unheard of in the last 100 years or so.
Since I live on the coast there is finally some good news. Tomorrow, the normal coastal fog will push the smoke south and east away from us so we can breathe once again outside. My adult son who is home from medical school this summer and I got into the hot tub for the first time in a couple of weeks outside in the back yard. It was such a relief not to be breathing smoke. The ash has been falling hard for several days now. It covers everything. I was a little concerned tonight because even though the particulate matter will all come to the ground tonight with the heavy dew from the ocean fog it will also make lye from the ash and water combination and lye is very acidic on car paint and plants. So though it will help us all breathe much better it won't help the plants or car paint for any car outside tonight.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Staying Alive
These are pretty tough times we live in worldwide. A lot of people just aren't going to make it in all countries for a variety of reasons. But the one thing I can say is: "Don't Panic!" Even though for some of you this has humorous connotations from Douglas Adams "Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy",it is also a very good idea in almost all situations unless being attacked by a bear or hanging from a rope at 100 feet that is about to break and even then panicking will only hasten the inevitable.
No. Keeping a cool steady head through all this is necessary for ongoing survival. This doesn't mean "Don't get Angry". As long as you are just angry and not going into a rage or something I have found anger has taken me to more good places in my life in the long run than almost anything else. People say, "Love is all you need.!", but if you don't know when to be angry not much will ever happen in your life in regard to money or property or moving to a new place to start over. Mostly, opportunities only come to those capable of feeling anger when things aren't working out. Useful anger can eventually if it doesn't go into rage take one to their next occupation, place to live, place to meet the person potentially of their dreams etc. Without righteous anger we would all be snails living within 25 feet of where they were born.
But first and foremost "Don't Panic!" because panicking is the most likely to temporarily or permanently ruin your life.
No. Keeping a cool steady head through all this is necessary for ongoing survival. This doesn't mean "Don't get Angry". As long as you are just angry and not going into a rage or something I have found anger has taken me to more good places in my life in the long run than almost anything else. People say, "Love is all you need.!", but if you don't know when to be angry not much will ever happen in your life in regard to money or property or moving to a new place to start over. Mostly, opportunities only come to those capable of feeling anger when things aren't working out. Useful anger can eventually if it doesn't go into rage take one to their next occupation, place to live, place to meet the person potentially of their dreams etc. Without righteous anger we would all be snails living within 25 feet of where they were born.
But first and foremost "Don't Panic!" because panicking is the most likely to temporarily or permanently ruin your life.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Institutional oil and food futures Investors killing the future
Because of the falling dollar institutional investors worldwide are looking to keep their jobs anyway they can. Unfortunately, their solution is helping kill the world economy.
In order to get their pensioners or states or counties or whatever the most bang for the buck they are forced to invest in one of the only good deals these days: oil and food futures which are skyrocketing. Though these institutional investors may keep their jobs and not get fired in these troubled times, these investments by driving up the retail cost of food and oil 30% to 50% worldwide are causing more problems for the whole world than they ever could solve for their pensioners portfolios.
This whole thing is backwards and until laws are put in place to protect the now global economy, the whole world economy is going down sort of like the Titanic, Slowly.
It isn't like the great depression. It reminds me more of the stagflation of Japan the last 10 years. What is happening to the largest nations is like Japan's stagflation. What is happening to smaller nations that are less adaptable is slow or fast death depending upon the nation or area.
The global economy has become so complex no one is in charge of it and as long as it stays the way it is we will all suffer. It is my hope that nations can join together to create new rules and enforceable laws so that we are all not just economically strangled right out of existence.
What is happening now doesn't really help anyone long term. Even investors from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Venezuela and even Canada, the United States and Mexico need somewhere to invest their money after they make it from oil. So both in the short run and the long run absolutely everyone is being harmed by what is presently happening on earth.
In order to get their pensioners or states or counties or whatever the most bang for the buck they are forced to invest in one of the only good deals these days: oil and food futures which are skyrocketing. Though these institutional investors may keep their jobs and not get fired in these troubled times, these investments by driving up the retail cost of food and oil 30% to 50% worldwide are causing more problems for the whole world than they ever could solve for their pensioners portfolios.
This whole thing is backwards and until laws are put in place to protect the now global economy, the whole world economy is going down sort of like the Titanic, Slowly.
It isn't like the great depression. It reminds me more of the stagflation of Japan the last 10 years. What is happening to the largest nations is like Japan's stagflation. What is happening to smaller nations that are less adaptable is slow or fast death depending upon the nation or area.
The global economy has become so complex no one is in charge of it and as long as it stays the way it is we will all suffer. It is my hope that nations can join together to create new rules and enforceable laws so that we are all not just economically strangled right out of existence.
What is happening now doesn't really help anyone long term. Even investors from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Venezuela and even Canada, the United States and Mexico need somewhere to invest their money after they make it from oil. So both in the short run and the long run absolutely everyone is being harmed by what is presently happening on earth.
If there is an ocean there is potential water to drink
Water is appearing to become more problematic with each passing year. The title I used to denote that even though all oceans are salty they are also potential drinking water. So all one really needs is an ocean even on the edge of a desert and about 12 feet by 4 feet wide of black plastic 4ml to 6 or even 8 ml thick. 6 feet by 4 feet of it one could gather about a gallon of water from the ocean after digging a hole about 1 foot deep in the sand. Then you need a cup or larger container to drip distill the water into. After placing your empty cup or bowl in the center of the water to be solar distilled then place your second 6 foot by 4 foot sheet of black plastic on top of the hole lined with black plastic and your empty cup or bowl to capture drip distilled water. Then place on top of the second plastic sheet a rock exactly where you want the drip distilled water to condense back from water vapor into water into the bowl or cup. Then leave for a few hours to a day and you have water to drink even if you are on the edge of a desert right next to you. Saltwater, sun, a cup or bowl and two sheets of plastic and a rock to weight the plastic are all you need. Also, a little sand to hold the top black plastic in place around the edges so it doesn't blow away in the sea wind and of course a sunny day.
The above is a survival idea I got from Bear Grylls on Man vs. Wild. However, water is becoming more of a problem and because of this in the end many of us might need to solar distill sea water in order to survive the coming years on earth.
Remember this one thing: Even if it never rained again on earth you could still survive by solar distilling sea water. If your plastic distilleries were large enough you could even make enough water to grow food if the soil was okay for that near the ocean. If you are concerned about pollution of sea water where you are then use some driftwood to build a small fire and boil the water you distill before you drink it just for safety.
When I stayed in India in one place more than one week I bought a kerosene cook stove and boiled any water I was going to drink for myself or my family 5 minutes at boil before we drank any. We boiled at least a gallon every night in our hotel room in the Himalayas for the next day. Each of us carried our own bottle for water. This was 1986.
Wind and the lack of rain water or snow melt will likely cause major migrations toward better water sources over the next 20 to 30 years. Those that migrate will survive. Those that don't might not. It's as simple as that worldwide.
Having given all this a lot of thought I have realized that High winds and long term droughts are much more problematic long term than floods, hurricanes or cyclones. At least water events bring water and move sometimes new fertile soil into your area. However, long term droughts combined with high winds just tend to kill everything from plant to animal to human.
Since I live in California and there are presently 1100 fires in the state(mostly lightning caused) I can see first hand what getting a lot of rain in northern California in January and February and almost no rain since does. The weeds grow statewide from all the rain then turn brown early and now for the past two months all the fires in northern California. Drought has plagued Southern California for several years. The 1100 fires mostly in Northern California are from the Driest March through May pretty much in history. So southern Oregon, Nevada and Northern and Southern California are in for it this summer and fall and maybe even next winter (or until the rains come again in earnest).
The above is a survival idea I got from Bear Grylls on Man vs. Wild. However, water is becoming more of a problem and because of this in the end many of us might need to solar distill sea water in order to survive the coming years on earth.
Remember this one thing: Even if it never rained again on earth you could still survive by solar distilling sea water. If your plastic distilleries were large enough you could even make enough water to grow food if the soil was okay for that near the ocean. If you are concerned about pollution of sea water where you are then use some driftwood to build a small fire and boil the water you distill before you drink it just for safety.
When I stayed in India in one place more than one week I bought a kerosene cook stove and boiled any water I was going to drink for myself or my family 5 minutes at boil before we drank any. We boiled at least a gallon every night in our hotel room in the Himalayas for the next day. Each of us carried our own bottle for water. This was 1986.
Wind and the lack of rain water or snow melt will likely cause major migrations toward better water sources over the next 20 to 30 years. Those that migrate will survive. Those that don't might not. It's as simple as that worldwide.
Having given all this a lot of thought I have realized that High winds and long term droughts are much more problematic long term than floods, hurricanes or cyclones. At least water events bring water and move sometimes new fertile soil into your area. However, long term droughts combined with high winds just tend to kill everything from plant to animal to human.
Since I live in California and there are presently 1100 fires in the state(mostly lightning caused) I can see first hand what getting a lot of rain in northern California in January and February and almost no rain since does. The weeds grow statewide from all the rain then turn brown early and now for the past two months all the fires in northern California. Drought has plagued Southern California for several years. The 1100 fires mostly in Northern California are from the Driest March through May pretty much in history. So southern Oregon, Nevada and Northern and Southern California are in for it this summer and fall and maybe even next winter (or until the rains come again in earnest).
Mars can support life
AFter testing the soil the latest robot we sent to Mars sent information back that life either once existed on Mars and/or the soil there would be great for growing asparagus right now, for example.
Ever since the Soviets sent a probe to the asteroid belt in the 1970s and found out that the asteroid belt was likely a planet blown up by a surface thermonuclear war I have suspected that Mars was once an inhabited planet like Earth and the Asteroid belt when it was a planet. I also suspect that a chunk of the Asteroid belt planet hit earth at that time and killed all the big dinosaurs who couldn't seek shelter in caves and cracks or under the ocean when it hit. Maybe humans are part Mars and Asteroid belt planet humanoids. Who knows. I think studying Mars might give us all clues about this.
It is possible that since Mars is nearer the Asteroid belt the explosion of the Asteroid belt planet from nuclear weapons blew off Mars' atmosphere and killed all or most of the people there.
Though the incident about the asteroids being a planet destroyed by thermonuclear war was suppressed in the western press likely by Christians who couldn't cope with this information, this information was published in Pravda and likely in Izvestia at that time as well.
Ever since the Soviets sent a probe to the asteroid belt in the 1970s and found out that the asteroid belt was likely a planet blown up by a surface thermonuclear war I have suspected that Mars was once an inhabited planet like Earth and the Asteroid belt when it was a planet. I also suspect that a chunk of the Asteroid belt planet hit earth at that time and killed all the big dinosaurs who couldn't seek shelter in caves and cracks or under the ocean when it hit. Maybe humans are part Mars and Asteroid belt planet humanoids. Who knows. I think studying Mars might give us all clues about this.
It is possible that since Mars is nearer the Asteroid belt the explosion of the Asteroid belt planet from nuclear weapons blew off Mars' atmosphere and killed all or most of the people there.
Though the incident about the asteroids being a planet destroyed by thermonuclear war was suppressed in the western press likely by Christians who couldn't cope with this information, this information was published in Pravda and likely in Izvestia at that time as well.
The Last Mimzy
I had seen this movie in the theater with my family. Recently, I rented it from Netflix. At the time I wondered why I was renting it. Tonight, my family and I watched a DVD of it and I realized why. The future I envision as a precognitive psychic reminds me a lot of what happens in this movie. Not the scientist making the Intel core processor doll, though Intel may still be around then.
What I remember about the future is the mountains, the flowers and the Alps or the Himalayas as a seat of world power at that time. Some children have developed way beyond the present and can actually levitate and stuff like that and adults too.
Perception of these folks since they tend to reinforce each others realities in some ways like enthusiastic college students reinforce each others dreams and ideas too, moves the civilization forward in ways that people would think impossible now.
In the end we are only as limited as we think. As more people learn to be unlimited or better to say less limited in their thinking almost anything is possible as long as infinite kindness and genius and being in the right place at the right time are all intertwined together in a large group of children, adults and wise elders. This group enthusiasm creates a future we all want to live in.
What I remember about the future is the mountains, the flowers and the Alps or the Himalayas as a seat of world power at that time. Some children have developed way beyond the present and can actually levitate and stuff like that and adults too.
Perception of these folks since they tend to reinforce each others realities in some ways like enthusiastic college students reinforce each others dreams and ideas too, moves the civilization forward in ways that people would think impossible now.
In the end we are only as limited as we think. As more people learn to be unlimited or better to say less limited in their thinking almost anything is possible as long as infinite kindness and genius and being in the right place at the right time are all intertwined together in a large group of children, adults and wise elders. This group enthusiasm creates a future we all want to live in.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Fourteen generations of American Survivors
In case you thought this was going to be about something else, let me say up front I want to speak about 14 generations of people since 1720 in America who used guns as a tool to survive, to hunt and as local pest control.
Since my Ancestors sailed up the river to Philadelphia in something probably resembling the Mayflower in 1720, guns have been a necessary survival tool for 14 generations. Since I didn't have anyone to talk to that remembered back as far even as the Civil War even though my grandfather's father fought in the civil war as a captain for the north and my Grandmother's uncle I believe was General Bullard for the South.
So outside of my Great Grandfather establishing a Drug store with remedies he got from a local indian tribe in Kansas around 1875 or so. I do know my Great Grandfather's drugstore was still around in 1925 or thereabouts when he sold it and retired to his ranch.
So, beginning with my Grandpa Mel I can speak about what I know about their sort of cowboy culture. My Grandfather was an electrical Contractor, so he wasn't a cowboy in that sense. However, in regard to guns, boots, hunting dogs and hunting Bear, elk, Deer and anything else one ate then he was the most like a cowboy than anything else I can compare him to today. My Grandpa after growing up on a ranch in Kansas had a nickname when he played baseball. They called him "Pinkie" because he had red hair. They say he was an excellent pitcher. However, since there really wasn't any money in baseball back in 1900 to 1905 or thereabouts when he played so he became an electrical contractor instead. Since red hair tends to go gray before any other color of hair I never saw my grand Dad's red hair as it was gray long before I was born in 1948. I lived my first four years on my grand ad's 2 1/2 acres of apples, Black cherries, raspberries and boysenberries. Raspberries and Black cherries were then and are now my favorites.
The stories I heard from my Dad and other relatives in regard to guns seem completely out of time now. But remember both my grand Dad and my Dad are now from a completely different era now. My Grand Dad was born during the 1880s and my Dad was born in 1916.
The stories I want to tell say a lot about how things were done during the 1800s and early 1900s in the western United States. I'm telling them to show what law abiding people were like in regard to their guns in those times.
The first useful story would be during World War II in regard to my Grand Dad. People were encouraged to grow Victory Gardens because most farmers(men) were off fighting the war. So the older, infirm and retired and left behind grew private gardens to sell to other people so people had enough food to eat during the war in America. I think Grand Dad was growing strawberries and Tomatoes on some rented land in Eastern Washington. So he went to get his gas coupons so he could bring his crop to the market to sell. They told him that the tomato and strawberry season was over. So Grand Dad went to his truck and got his double barreled shotgun. He walked back into the office and set his gun on the counter and said, "I want my gas coupons." They gave them to him no questions asked. This was how things were done in the west. You would go to jail now for this behavior but then people completely understood this behavior from Grand Dad's generation of "Cowboys". It was just how the west was in the old days. You often had to stand up for your own rights during the 1800s and early 1900s because the law might be 25 to 50 miles away. You might be dead before you got any help. This was just the way things were done.
The next story tells you two things: first Grand Dad like most of his generation felt that "the only reason to go to a hospital outside of a broken arm or leg was to die" and second, dying with his boots on was a necessity not an option to his generation.
Grand Dad had a D-9 Caterpillar tractor on his 2000 acre mining claim near Elk City, Idaho. One day he decided that he was going to pull a stump out with a drag line off his D-9 tractor. So he connected a large wire mesh line to a boulder and the drag line to the stump. He did not want to blow up the stump because he was getting older and his neighbors might complain. My father and his brother blew up stumps with dynamite when they were teenagers to make extra money. Grandpa taught them how.
Anyway, Grandpa pulled and pulled the line so taut that the bulldozer lifted up off the ground from the line tension and turned over on top of Grandpa. Since he was alone on his 2000 acres when this all happened hot radiator water, hot engine oil and diesel came down onto him and around him while he was pinned alone like the for several days.
Finally, a neighbor found him and dug him out. He had one collapsed lung so they took him to the hospital. However, remember grandpa hated hospitals so he somehow smuggled in a gun and with the gun he forced the nurses to get him cigarettes. He re-inflated his collapsed lung with Camels and Marlborough cigarettes, put his boots on and if anyone tried to stop him he simply showed them his gun as he walked out of the hospital. He was a force to be reckoned with. People usually left people like this alone who were both larger than life but also law abiding citizens. I don't think Grandpa ever went to a hospital again except to die.
The next story is also true and likely happened around the time of the previous incident. The first story took place during World War II regarding the Victory garden. The last story took place sometime between 1956 when I visited Grandma in Seattle and Grandpa in Idaho. He spent late fall to spring with Grandma and the late spring to early fall in Idaho alone on his 2000 acre mining claim. They stayed married this way.
Grandpa liked this arrangement but I don't think Grandma liked it at all. But she wouldn't leave her home in Seattle to go to the boonies in Idaho to live with Grandpa in his cabin there during the summers so that was the way it was from world War II until Grandpa passed away in the Fall of 1970 when I was 22. I saw him last in September 1970. I wasn't very happy then. I had just broken up with someone I wanted to marry so I was at loose ends. A month or two later Grandpa a wheel bearing froze in one of Grandpa's panel trucks(now they are called vans) and he went down a 100 foot embankment into a river. He passed away about 5 days later in a hospital in I think Grangeville, Idaho, the nearest hospital then to Elk City, Idaho. So, since Grandpa was born in the middle to late 1880s, then he would have been in his 80s when this happened in 1970.
The laws changed in the late 1950s to early 1960 that one could no longer have these large mining claims unless a certain amount of money per acre was being made from the claim. Since Grandpa after having this claim for probably 40 years at this point, he likely saw the land as his and wasn't going to let some young whippersnapper take it from him. So when the ranger came to notify Grandpa Mel he was going to have to leave his claim, Grandpa just took out his World War I 30 odd 6 army rifle and shot off the rangers hat. I am surprised he got away with this but they decided to leave him alone since he was so old and let him die on his claim which was within 10 years of this incident.
My father's experiences were a lot different that Grandad's since my Dad wasn't born until 1916. His experiences make a lot more sense to todays people born since World War II. My father was given his 22 rifle when he was 6, his 4 year old brother was given a 22 pistol when he was 4 and the older brother who was then 9 years old was given a low gauge shotgun for shooting doves and quail for dinner. They went hunting alone in Coos Bay, Oregon probably in 1922. Since they were all so young they brought back robins instead of doves or quail because they didn't really know the difference. My Dad who was the 6 year old said they had to pull the pellets out of the robins and there wasn't much meat on them. This was his first hunting experience in 1922.
Later, Grandpa ran up a tree when Dad was about 10 or 12 because he wanted the pelts off a family of raccoons. He took one baseball bat and gave my Dad another and told Dad to knock them in the head when they fell one by one. I heard this story recently from my Aunt before she died and it reminded me the kind of scary kinds of things my father had to do as a matter of course growing up. If you have ever seen what a raccoon can do to a person or a dog you would rather face most dogs than a raccoon because of their lightning fasts claws and razor sharp teeth. We lost our Jack Russel terrier-Corgi mix to a raccoon about 5 years ago near our trash can area in our back yard. She gave as good as she got but it wasn't enough. We were gone and someone else forgot to let her in after dark so one month later she passed on from her injuries.
I have also hand fed raccoons through a sliding glass door at my ex mother in laws house and they can be very cute when they bring their own families. But in my fathers and grandfathers generation they were not anything but food and pelts to those generations.
My father spoke of his father purchasing a German Luger. I have seen it and even fired it when I was 8. Unfortunately, the kick bloodied my forehead as I was young and inexperienced at the time with high caliber weapons. I stuck with .22 rifles and pistols after that in my childhood. I believe a German Luger is an automatic clip loaded pistol that is a 9mm which might be comparable to a .40 to .45 Colt automatic pistol in the U.S. at that time. I'm not certain on the caliber comparisons between milimeters and a U.S. caliber comparison so this is just an approximation on my part.
Anyway, since my Dad was a teenager, he and his brother snuck out the German Luger to try it out since they lived in an area where people hunted. They fired the gun many times into the dense forest thinking it would likely hit a tree. However, one bullet made it through the trees and through 3 or four walls and embedded on the front inside door of a house where a lady was playing the piano. It was so close that if she had stood up she would have been hit by the bullet. But by then they had returned the gun to its hiding place and their father nor anyone else but them realized what had happened.
When Dad was 18, he was hired by his Aunt Beulah in Prescott, Arizona to help operate her gold mine along with an older cowboy in his later 40s. This would have been 1934 in the Gila Bend area of Arizona. The problem was that the Native American that sold
the gold mine to Aunt Beulah tried to sell it again to another client. However, when he brought the new clients to see the mine, Dad had to shoot over the Native Americans head and he got upset. The new clients understood the problem immediately and restrained the Native American realizing that he didn't fully understand property ownership and that one could not sell the same thing twice.
The last story I want to tell about my father and guns was in the 1980s after Dad had retired out to his 2 1/2 acres and the house he and I and Mom had built there for them to retire to. It was about midnight to 2 am one Saturday night and two drunk guys drove up to their property and demanded their girlfriend come out. They obviously, were very drunk and when my Dad told them to leave and that their girlfriend didn't live there they didn't leave. First, he said if they didn't leave he was going to call the Sheriff. When the still didn't leave he got a .22 revolver and shot over there heads about 5 times. This time they left and got part of Dad's fencing caught under their car on the way backing out fast. The Sheriff later called Dad from Yucca Valley and said he caught them trying to get the wire fencing out from under their car there.
There are other stories about Dad shooting a cougar at his desert house because he didn't want it to eat his German Shepard or him shooting green mojave rattlesnakes because they are 9 times more deadly than a diamondback and cannot be tolerated around where people are living in their house. This was a problem then because most people treated for green mojave rattlesnake bites died back at that time because the anti-venom hospitals gave wasn't powerful enough. It would cure Diamondback rattlesnake bites but most green mojave bites killed people as a result. So Dad religiously shot any green mojave sidewinder rattlesnakes that came onto his property to keep himself, his german shepard, King, and his wife and anyone visiting alive.
Though I didn't cover much before 1875 and my ancestors first coming here to Philadelphia Harbor around 1720, I was mostly trying to give you a feel for what people who lived multi-generationally in the countryside of the western United States were like when I grew up. Though at times it could be very severe the way things were when I grew up. Still, I always knew exactly where I stood with them. They were all straightforward and honest to a fault. They were very cowboylike in an idealized sort of way. They all had the integrity of people who would survive anything and they raised people who would survive anything. This is the true legacy of frontier America.
Since my Ancestors sailed up the river to Philadelphia in something probably resembling the Mayflower in 1720, guns have been a necessary survival tool for 14 generations. Since I didn't have anyone to talk to that remembered back as far even as the Civil War even though my grandfather's father fought in the civil war as a captain for the north and my Grandmother's uncle I believe was General Bullard for the South.
So outside of my Great Grandfather establishing a Drug store with remedies he got from a local indian tribe in Kansas around 1875 or so. I do know my Great Grandfather's drugstore was still around in 1925 or thereabouts when he sold it and retired to his ranch.
So, beginning with my Grandpa Mel I can speak about what I know about their sort of cowboy culture. My Grandfather was an electrical Contractor, so he wasn't a cowboy in that sense. However, in regard to guns, boots, hunting dogs and hunting Bear, elk, Deer and anything else one ate then he was the most like a cowboy than anything else I can compare him to today. My Grandpa after growing up on a ranch in Kansas had a nickname when he played baseball. They called him "Pinkie" because he had red hair. They say he was an excellent pitcher. However, since there really wasn't any money in baseball back in 1900 to 1905 or thereabouts when he played so he became an electrical contractor instead. Since red hair tends to go gray before any other color of hair I never saw my grand Dad's red hair as it was gray long before I was born in 1948. I lived my first four years on my grand ad's 2 1/2 acres of apples, Black cherries, raspberries and boysenberries. Raspberries and Black cherries were then and are now my favorites.
The stories I heard from my Dad and other relatives in regard to guns seem completely out of time now. But remember both my grand Dad and my Dad are now from a completely different era now. My Grand Dad was born during the 1880s and my Dad was born in 1916.
The stories I want to tell say a lot about how things were done during the 1800s and early 1900s in the western United States. I'm telling them to show what law abiding people were like in regard to their guns in those times.
The first useful story would be during World War II in regard to my Grand Dad. People were encouraged to grow Victory Gardens because most farmers(men) were off fighting the war. So the older, infirm and retired and left behind grew private gardens to sell to other people so people had enough food to eat during the war in America. I think Grand Dad was growing strawberries and Tomatoes on some rented land in Eastern Washington. So he went to get his gas coupons so he could bring his crop to the market to sell. They told him that the tomato and strawberry season was over. So Grand Dad went to his truck and got his double barreled shotgun. He walked back into the office and set his gun on the counter and said, "I want my gas coupons." They gave them to him no questions asked. This was how things were done in the west. You would go to jail now for this behavior but then people completely understood this behavior from Grand Dad's generation of "Cowboys". It was just how the west was in the old days. You often had to stand up for your own rights during the 1800s and early 1900s because the law might be 25 to 50 miles away. You might be dead before you got any help. This was just the way things were done.
The next story tells you two things: first Grand Dad like most of his generation felt that "the only reason to go to a hospital outside of a broken arm or leg was to die" and second, dying with his boots on was a necessity not an option to his generation.
Grand Dad had a D-9 Caterpillar tractor on his 2000 acre mining claim near Elk City, Idaho. One day he decided that he was going to pull a stump out with a drag line off his D-9 tractor. So he connected a large wire mesh line to a boulder and the drag line to the stump. He did not want to blow up the stump because he was getting older and his neighbors might complain. My father and his brother blew up stumps with dynamite when they were teenagers to make extra money. Grandpa taught them how.
Anyway, Grandpa pulled and pulled the line so taut that the bulldozer lifted up off the ground from the line tension and turned over on top of Grandpa. Since he was alone on his 2000 acres when this all happened hot radiator water, hot engine oil and diesel came down onto him and around him while he was pinned alone like the for several days.
Finally, a neighbor found him and dug him out. He had one collapsed lung so they took him to the hospital. However, remember grandpa hated hospitals so he somehow smuggled in a gun and with the gun he forced the nurses to get him cigarettes. He re-inflated his collapsed lung with Camels and Marlborough cigarettes, put his boots on and if anyone tried to stop him he simply showed them his gun as he walked out of the hospital. He was a force to be reckoned with. People usually left people like this alone who were both larger than life but also law abiding citizens. I don't think Grandpa ever went to a hospital again except to die.
The next story is also true and likely happened around the time of the previous incident. The first story took place during World War II regarding the Victory garden. The last story took place sometime between 1956 when I visited Grandma in Seattle and Grandpa in Idaho. He spent late fall to spring with Grandma and the late spring to early fall in Idaho alone on his 2000 acre mining claim. They stayed married this way.
Grandpa liked this arrangement but I don't think Grandma liked it at all. But she wouldn't leave her home in Seattle to go to the boonies in Idaho to live with Grandpa in his cabin there during the summers so that was the way it was from world War II until Grandpa passed away in the Fall of 1970 when I was 22. I saw him last in September 1970. I wasn't very happy then. I had just broken up with someone I wanted to marry so I was at loose ends. A month or two later Grandpa a wheel bearing froze in one of Grandpa's panel trucks(now they are called vans) and he went down a 100 foot embankment into a river. He passed away about 5 days later in a hospital in I think Grangeville, Idaho, the nearest hospital then to Elk City, Idaho. So, since Grandpa was born in the middle to late 1880s, then he would have been in his 80s when this happened in 1970.
The laws changed in the late 1950s to early 1960 that one could no longer have these large mining claims unless a certain amount of money per acre was being made from the claim. Since Grandpa after having this claim for probably 40 years at this point, he likely saw the land as his and wasn't going to let some young whippersnapper take it from him. So when the ranger came to notify Grandpa Mel he was going to have to leave his claim, Grandpa just took out his World War I 30 odd 6 army rifle and shot off the rangers hat. I am surprised he got away with this but they decided to leave him alone since he was so old and let him die on his claim which was within 10 years of this incident.
My father's experiences were a lot different that Grandad's since my Dad wasn't born until 1916. His experiences make a lot more sense to todays people born since World War II. My father was given his 22 rifle when he was 6, his 4 year old brother was given a 22 pistol when he was 4 and the older brother who was then 9 years old was given a low gauge shotgun for shooting doves and quail for dinner. They went hunting alone in Coos Bay, Oregon probably in 1922. Since they were all so young they brought back robins instead of doves or quail because they didn't really know the difference. My Dad who was the 6 year old said they had to pull the pellets out of the robins and there wasn't much meat on them. This was his first hunting experience in 1922.
Later, Grandpa ran up a tree when Dad was about 10 or 12 because he wanted the pelts off a family of raccoons. He took one baseball bat and gave my Dad another and told Dad to knock them in the head when they fell one by one. I heard this story recently from my Aunt before she died and it reminded me the kind of scary kinds of things my father had to do as a matter of course growing up. If you have ever seen what a raccoon can do to a person or a dog you would rather face most dogs than a raccoon because of their lightning fasts claws and razor sharp teeth. We lost our Jack Russel terrier-Corgi mix to a raccoon about 5 years ago near our trash can area in our back yard. She gave as good as she got but it wasn't enough. We were gone and someone else forgot to let her in after dark so one month later she passed on from her injuries.
I have also hand fed raccoons through a sliding glass door at my ex mother in laws house and they can be very cute when they bring their own families. But in my fathers and grandfathers generation they were not anything but food and pelts to those generations.
My father spoke of his father purchasing a German Luger. I have seen it and even fired it when I was 8. Unfortunately, the kick bloodied my forehead as I was young and inexperienced at the time with high caliber weapons. I stuck with .22 rifles and pistols after that in my childhood. I believe a German Luger is an automatic clip loaded pistol that is a 9mm which might be comparable to a .40 to .45 Colt automatic pistol in the U.S. at that time. I'm not certain on the caliber comparisons between milimeters and a U.S. caliber comparison so this is just an approximation on my part.
Anyway, since my Dad was a teenager, he and his brother snuck out the German Luger to try it out since they lived in an area where people hunted. They fired the gun many times into the dense forest thinking it would likely hit a tree. However, one bullet made it through the trees and through 3 or four walls and embedded on the front inside door of a house where a lady was playing the piano. It was so close that if she had stood up she would have been hit by the bullet. But by then they had returned the gun to its hiding place and their father nor anyone else but them realized what had happened.
When Dad was 18, he was hired by his Aunt Beulah in Prescott, Arizona to help operate her gold mine along with an older cowboy in his later 40s. This would have been 1934 in the Gila Bend area of Arizona. The problem was that the Native American that sold
the gold mine to Aunt Beulah tried to sell it again to another client. However, when he brought the new clients to see the mine, Dad had to shoot over the Native Americans head and he got upset. The new clients understood the problem immediately and restrained the Native American realizing that he didn't fully understand property ownership and that one could not sell the same thing twice.
The last story I want to tell about my father and guns was in the 1980s after Dad had retired out to his 2 1/2 acres and the house he and I and Mom had built there for them to retire to. It was about midnight to 2 am one Saturday night and two drunk guys drove up to their property and demanded their girlfriend come out. They obviously, were very drunk and when my Dad told them to leave and that their girlfriend didn't live there they didn't leave. First, he said if they didn't leave he was going to call the Sheriff. When the still didn't leave he got a .22 revolver and shot over there heads about 5 times. This time they left and got part of Dad's fencing caught under their car on the way backing out fast. The Sheriff later called Dad from Yucca Valley and said he caught them trying to get the wire fencing out from under their car there.
There are other stories about Dad shooting a cougar at his desert house because he didn't want it to eat his German Shepard or him shooting green mojave rattlesnakes because they are 9 times more deadly than a diamondback and cannot be tolerated around where people are living in their house. This was a problem then because most people treated for green mojave rattlesnake bites died back at that time because the anti-venom hospitals gave wasn't powerful enough. It would cure Diamondback rattlesnake bites but most green mojave bites killed people as a result. So Dad religiously shot any green mojave sidewinder rattlesnakes that came onto his property to keep himself, his german shepard, King, and his wife and anyone visiting alive.
Though I didn't cover much before 1875 and my ancestors first coming here to Philadelphia Harbor around 1720, I was mostly trying to give you a feel for what people who lived multi-generationally in the countryside of the western United States were like when I grew up. Though at times it could be very severe the way things were when I grew up. Still, I always knew exactly where I stood with them. They were all straightforward and honest to a fault. They were very cowboylike in an idealized sort of way. They all had the integrity of people who would survive anything and they raised people who would survive anything. This is the true legacy of frontier America.
Guns for Self Defense
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080626/ap_on_go_su_co/scotus_guns;
The Supreme Court has ruled that hand guns can't be outlawed for Washington D.C. residents. In so doing it has affirmed the right of all Americans to own hand guns and rifles.
I believe that the only real reason that the United States hasn't been completely overun and our government overthrown formally from within or without is the fact that American citizens can arm themselves. You don't have to share my belief. However, I believe that the world is as free as it is mainly because all Americans can be armed if they want to. I believe the arming of Americans is the mainstay of a free world. Even when european nations take away most of the guns of their citizens, it only makes me think of Hitler first registering, then taking away the guns of everyone especially jewish people. Do you think the Holocaust could have taken place if Jewish and all people were allowed to keep their weapons in Germany and in Europe in general?
My family have owned guns since they first came here in 1720 from Switzerland and Germany. We needed them to settle the land from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kansas and on to parts West in Washington and California and Texas. We still need them to prevent overthrow of our country from without or within. People who don't understand this haven't been outside this country to know just how difficult the rest of the world is. People obey our laws here in the U.S. because citizens have guns to enforce them if necessary. Both our military and police understand this too.
I was given my first rifle by my grandmother when I was 8 in 1954. I learned to be a an excellent marksman by the time I was 9 or 10. Even though the last time I had need to shoot a gun it was at a green Mojave sidewinder rattlesnake(which is 9 times more lethal than a diamond back rattler venom wise) as it tried to go into my father's desert house. This was probably in the early 1980s.
To me, a gun is a tool just like a hammer or a shovel. It is something you need only need when you need it. It is not a toy. I'm not even interested in target practice since I grew up and haven't even had need to shoot a gun for over 20 years. But when you need one you need one. It's a tool and I believe if you live in the country you should train your children young the rules of using a gun. To me, it is as useful as a bicycle or driving a car. It is about the survival of your nation, and your family. It is a useful tool when you need it. That's all.
The Supreme Court has ruled that hand guns can't be outlawed for Washington D.C. residents. In so doing it has affirmed the right of all Americans to own hand guns and rifles.
I believe that the only real reason that the United States hasn't been completely overun and our government overthrown formally from within or without is the fact that American citizens can arm themselves. You don't have to share my belief. However, I believe that the world is as free as it is mainly because all Americans can be armed if they want to. I believe the arming of Americans is the mainstay of a free world. Even when european nations take away most of the guns of their citizens, it only makes me think of Hitler first registering, then taking away the guns of everyone especially jewish people. Do you think the Holocaust could have taken place if Jewish and all people were allowed to keep their weapons in Germany and in Europe in general?
My family have owned guns since they first came here in 1720 from Switzerland and Germany. We needed them to settle the land from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kansas and on to parts West in Washington and California and Texas. We still need them to prevent overthrow of our country from without or within. People who don't understand this haven't been outside this country to know just how difficult the rest of the world is. People obey our laws here in the U.S. because citizens have guns to enforce them if necessary. Both our military and police understand this too.
I was given my first rifle by my grandmother when I was 8 in 1954. I learned to be a an excellent marksman by the time I was 9 or 10. Even though the last time I had need to shoot a gun it was at a green Mojave sidewinder rattlesnake(which is 9 times more lethal than a diamond back rattler venom wise) as it tried to go into my father's desert house. This was probably in the early 1980s.
To me, a gun is a tool just like a hammer or a shovel. It is something you need only need when you need it. It is not a toy. I'm not even interested in target practice since I grew up and haven't even had need to shoot a gun for over 20 years. But when you need one you need one. It's a tool and I believe if you live in the country you should train your children young the rules of using a gun. To me, it is as useful as a bicycle or driving a car. It is about the survival of your nation, and your family. It is a useful tool when you need it. That's all.
Price of Regular Gas Worldwide
I thought that knowing some of the prices people are paying for regular gas around the world might bring a better perspective for all of us in these times.
The price I'm paying for regular gas is going up but it is usually:
$4.50 to$4.75 here in Northern California.
China was paying around $2.50 per gallon 2 weeks ago but the government decided to increase their price to around $2.95 to $3.00 a gallon by upping the price 18%.
http://europe.theoildrum.com/node/2653
As of June 15th 2008 theoildrum internet address is the source of the following gasoline statistics.
I'll do the top ten prices in Europe and then the lowest 10 on earth which are mostly oil producing nations.
All are per Gallon prices:
$7.76 Norway
$7.52 Netherlands
$7.32 Belgium
$7.15 United Kingdom
$6.99 Turkey
$6.98 Germany
$6.98 Denmark
$6.93 Finland
$6.65 Portugal
$6.50 Sweden
The 12 lowest prices in the world are:
$.19 Venezuela
$.29 Turkmenistan
$.33 Iran
$.45 Saudi Arabia
$.78 Kuwait
$1.92 Nigeria
$2.38 Mexico
$2.44 China Now raised to $2.95 as of June 20th
$2.61 Thailand
$2.68 Russia
$2.75 Kazakhstan
$3.10 United States as of June 15th
As you can see, the United States is not suffering the most from these prices, The top ten to twenty nations are. If it's this bad here, imagine how bad it is other places?
Looking lower on the page at the oildrum site I listed above I would like to quote the ten highest nations and 10 lowest nations in Gross Domestic product which then gives an average idea of the income of the average person in those countries. In this way we can better see how the price of gas in each of those countries affects the common man and woman there.
top ten Gross domestic product per capita(on referenced chart)
80.47 Luxembourg
44.09 Ireland
43.57 Norway
43.44 United States
37.37 Switzerland
36.55 Denmark
36.03 Austria
35.49 Canada
35.08 Netherlands
35.05 United Kingdom
Bottom 10 Gross domestic product per capita (on referenced chart)
1.21 Nigeria
7.17 Venezuela
7.60 China
8.55 Turkmenistan
8.62 Iran
9.08 Thailand
9.11 Turkey
9.11 Brasil
9.29 Kazakhstan
11.25 Mexico
By using these two charts one gets a better perspective of how those prices affect the average person. However, in many countries, especially in the bottom half of the GDP chart there really is no middle class within those nations, there is literally only rich and poor for the most part so this should be considered as well.
I have to seriously question the accuracy of my source material because as of June 15th I happen to know that the average price for gasoline in the U.S. was between $4.00 to $4.07 per gallon for regular nationwide. However, I still think that these references are valuable in showing a comparison in prices between countries. Also, the Gross domestic product per capita doesn't change that much year to year except in countries like China and India where they are growing by leaps and bounds. So the gross domestic product is likely valuable too on the charts.
It is obvious to everyone we have entered a Brave New World where nothing is as it was or likely will ever be the same again because of the end of cheap oil and Global Climate change. The biggest change likely will be a downward mobility of wealth in general because of high oil prices and more and more extreme weather changes which likely will cause the death of millions directly and indirectly. It is time for all of us to prepare in order to save our families and friends wherever possible from extinction.
The price I'm paying for regular gas is going up but it is usually:
$4.50 to$4.75 here in Northern California.
China was paying around $2.50 per gallon 2 weeks ago but the government decided to increase their price to around $2.95 to $3.00 a gallon by upping the price 18%.
http://europe.theoildrum.com/node/2653
As of June 15th 2008 theoildrum internet address is the source of the following gasoline statistics.
I'll do the top ten prices in Europe and then the lowest 10 on earth which are mostly oil producing nations.
All are per Gallon prices:
$7.76 Norway
$7.52 Netherlands
$7.32 Belgium
$7.15 United Kingdom
$6.99 Turkey
$6.98 Germany
$6.98 Denmark
$6.93 Finland
$6.65 Portugal
$6.50 Sweden
The 12 lowest prices in the world are:
$.19 Venezuela
$.29 Turkmenistan
$.33 Iran
$.45 Saudi Arabia
$.78 Kuwait
$1.92 Nigeria
$2.38 Mexico
$2.44 China Now raised to $2.95 as of June 20th
$2.61 Thailand
$2.68 Russia
$2.75 Kazakhstan
$3.10 United States as of June 15th
As you can see, the United States is not suffering the most from these prices, The top ten to twenty nations are. If it's this bad here, imagine how bad it is other places?
Looking lower on the page at the oildrum site I listed above I would like to quote the ten highest nations and 10 lowest nations in Gross Domestic product which then gives an average idea of the income of the average person in those countries. In this way we can better see how the price of gas in each of those countries affects the common man and woman there.
top ten Gross domestic product per capita(on referenced chart)
80.47 Luxembourg
44.09 Ireland
43.57 Norway
43.44 United States
37.37 Switzerland
36.55 Denmark
36.03 Austria
35.49 Canada
35.08 Netherlands
35.05 United Kingdom
Bottom 10 Gross domestic product per capita (on referenced chart)
1.21 Nigeria
7.17 Venezuela
7.60 China
8.55 Turkmenistan
8.62 Iran
9.08 Thailand
9.11 Turkey
9.11 Brasil
9.29 Kazakhstan
11.25 Mexico
By using these two charts one gets a better perspective of how those prices affect the average person. However, in many countries, especially in the bottom half of the GDP chart there really is no middle class within those nations, there is literally only rich and poor for the most part so this should be considered as well.
I have to seriously question the accuracy of my source material because as of June 15th I happen to know that the average price for gasoline in the U.S. was between $4.00 to $4.07 per gallon for regular nationwide. However, I still think that these references are valuable in showing a comparison in prices between countries. Also, the Gross domestic product per capita doesn't change that much year to year except in countries like China and India where they are growing by leaps and bounds. So the gross domestic product is likely valuable too on the charts.
It is obvious to everyone we have entered a Brave New World where nothing is as it was or likely will ever be the same again because of the end of cheap oil and Global Climate change. The biggest change likely will be a downward mobility of wealth in general because of high oil prices and more and more extreme weather changes which likely will cause the death of millions directly and indirectly. It is time for all of us to prepare in order to save our families and friends wherever possible from extinction.
Hundreds of Fires in Northern California
I live on the Northern California Coast. Even when there are fires what this usually means is that since most winds come off the ocean and go inland I usually have fairly fresh air where I live since it comes off 5000 miles or more of ocean and an upwelling ocean current in the ocean.
Not today. Today I walked outside my front door only to be met with smoke. I realized how important to prevent coughing from smoke keeping doors and windows closed today would be. The hundreds of fires, mostly started by lightning range from San Luis Obispo and Bakersfield north mostly. The go all the way up into Oregon and into Nevada.
There have never before in recorded history, as far as I know,been this many fires in Northern California at once, ever. The other day the number was up to 800+ fires. Most of these fires have no firefighters as there are just too many. Fires in Wilderness areas without structures nearby have been just left to burn because we have run out of firefighters to fight the fires.
We had the driest March through May this year in history, after having a very wet January and February. This made a lot of underbrush grow up and then quickly get dry like wild oats and the like which is a perfect combination for fires. Fires year around have started to be common in southern California. This year it is common in Northern California, Nevada and Southern Oregon as well.
I knew we were in for it last night when coming out of a restaurant with friends the sun was orange from the smoke. But by the time I was almost home I almost couldn't see the sun at all, so deep was the smoke. It's a different surrealistic world with the fires this summer.
Not today. Today I walked outside my front door only to be met with smoke. I realized how important to prevent coughing from smoke keeping doors and windows closed today would be. The hundreds of fires, mostly started by lightning range from San Luis Obispo and Bakersfield north mostly. The go all the way up into Oregon and into Nevada.
There have never before in recorded history, as far as I know,been this many fires in Northern California at once, ever. The other day the number was up to 800+ fires. Most of these fires have no firefighters as there are just too many. Fires in Wilderness areas without structures nearby have been just left to burn because we have run out of firefighters to fight the fires.
We had the driest March through May this year in history, after having a very wet January and February. This made a lot of underbrush grow up and then quickly get dry like wild oats and the like which is a perfect combination for fires. Fires year around have started to be common in southern California. This year it is common in Northern California, Nevada and Southern Oregon as well.
I knew we were in for it last night when coming out of a restaurant with friends the sun was orange from the smoke. But by the time I was almost home I almost couldn't see the sun at all, so deep was the smoke. It's a different surrealistic world with the fires this summer.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Supreme Court Says No execution for Rape
Despite any point of view you might have regarding this, all of us must admit one thing. Less people now will be killed after being raped. If a rapist knows they won't be executed for the rape there is less motivation for them to kill after raping. Females rapes of both females and males are also becoming more prevalent, this also brings new problems for society. There is also an increase of female assault and battery against both females and males as well. This is a logical reaction to equal rights for both sexes. It creates more equal problems and more equal solutions for all and a different kind of society worldwide than has ever existed before in recent world history.
I think the Supreme Court is moving down a path similar to most of Europe where it is considered uncivilized to execute anyone. This seems to be the direction of the way things are presently going.
I think the Supreme Court is moving down a path similar to most of Europe where it is considered uncivilized to execute anyone. This seems to be the direction of the way things are presently going.
Oil is the Enemy of all Democracies
I was watching Charlie Rose on PBS. He was interviewing a gentleman who was talking about democracy in the world in the last 100 years or so and had written a book about it.
One of the points he made was that oil was the enemy of all democracies because it gathers wealth to non-democratic nations like Saudi Arabia and Venezuela and also helps destroys democracies in Russia, Europe, and the United States. As power in the form of money flows to non-democratic regimes,especially now, power grows in the form of money in fewer and fewer hands worldwide. As oil creates worse and worse monopolies of nepotism all democracies and therefore most people in the world are harmed either directly or indirectly by this situation.
Here is one of the most powerful of arguments why alternative fuels and energy must be developed. For if alternative energies aren't now quickly and efficiently developed it could very well be the beginning of the death of all democracies on earth and an emerging of an extreme form of Corporate Warlordism based on Nepotism starting in non-democratic countries and slowly or quickly spreading to all countries which have oil or coal or both like the United States.(Coal can be converted to oil)
This is not difficult to imagine if one foresees $10 to $20 a gallon for gas and oil in the next 10 years or so.
I have heard rumors of regular gas at $11 a gallon or more in places like the Netherlands and possibly in Israel. If these rumors are true then $10 a gallon gas is already here some places.
One of the points he made was that oil was the enemy of all democracies because it gathers wealth to non-democratic nations like Saudi Arabia and Venezuela and also helps destroys democracies in Russia, Europe, and the United States. As power in the form of money flows to non-democratic regimes,especially now, power grows in the form of money in fewer and fewer hands worldwide. As oil creates worse and worse monopolies of nepotism all democracies and therefore most people in the world are harmed either directly or indirectly by this situation.
Here is one of the most powerful of arguments why alternative fuels and energy must be developed. For if alternative energies aren't now quickly and efficiently developed it could very well be the beginning of the death of all democracies on earth and an emerging of an extreme form of Corporate Warlordism based on Nepotism starting in non-democratic countries and slowly or quickly spreading to all countries which have oil or coal or both like the United States.(Coal can be converted to oil)
This is not difficult to imagine if one foresees $10 to $20 a gallon for gas and oil in the next 10 years or so.
I have heard rumors of regular gas at $11 a gallon or more in places like the Netherlands and possibly in Israel. If these rumors are true then $10 a gallon gas is already here some places.
Our Amazing Lives
It is said if one lives in the western world if one lives to 30 one can reasonably expect to live to 90. Though this is true one also has to watch anyone that one loves over 20 years older than one die, or go crazy or die as well. It also means that one has lost at least one good friend or relative to disease, or accident by age 30. It also means that one might meet the love of ones life, only to watch them go crazy or die or go off with someone else.
However, it also means that one gets to see all the amazing things that can happen in life. One can potentially experience all the joys that one can potentially experience(which is a lot). Life can be as amazing as we personally allow it to be, spiritually, physically, emotionally, mentally, in every way. The sky is literally the limit to all our dreams and actions in any given moment. If you are strong enough, mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually, there is no limit to just how amazingly great your life can be. That is not to say the first paragraph isn't going to happen to you as well. It's just to say that life really is amazing as long as you can handle the difficult parts as well. Almost anyone can handle the good parts but to experience the good one must also experience the difficult parts as well. It's life after all. C'est la vie!
However, it also means that one gets to see all the amazing things that can happen in life. One can potentially experience all the joys that one can potentially experience(which is a lot). Life can be as amazing as we personally allow it to be, spiritually, physically, emotionally, mentally, in every way. The sky is literally the limit to all our dreams and actions in any given moment. If you are strong enough, mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually, there is no limit to just how amazingly great your life can be. That is not to say the first paragraph isn't going to happen to you as well. It's just to say that life really is amazing as long as you can handle the difficult parts as well. Almost anyone can handle the good parts but to experience the good one must also experience the difficult parts as well. It's life after all. C'est la vie!
Belief Creates Reality II
I would now like to talk about apocalyptic thinking in regard to belief creating reality. The problem with apocalyptic thinking is what if you are wrong? What if you decided to create the apocalypse because all your relatives believed it needed to happen and you were all wrong? So you go out and get your one megaton to 20 megaton nuclear weapons and blow up a city. Then you are angry when people don't surrender immediately so you blow up another city. The Soviet Union and the United States and even Europe and China have already played this game with computers and all know that no one ever wins but also know that no one can afford to give up or surrender. So after one after another of all the big cities on earth are gone, what then? Earth?
The problem with all this is like when someone owns a football when they are a kid and unless that kid gets to be quarterback he takes his football home so no one can play. It is really kind of like this. Only in this case all life on earth is gone. What if what you believe turns out to be a fairy tale and you just drove all life on earth extinct? So just because what you believe wasn't true you ended it for everyone.
Now, one with this kind of belief system might say, "It has to be real because all my relatives and friends believe it." No. It doesn't. Look how many people believed the earth was flat or believed that the earth rode on the back of a turtle for thousands of years. Millions of people believed those things too but it didn't make them true either.
All humans need to believe in something so parents thousands of years ago made up stuff so kids could sleep at night. Slowly, over thousands of years those things got codified into what we believe now. However, how much of what people believe is actually true and what just makes people feel good so they don't kill themselves.
The answer is no one really knows. Only Time will tell.
The problem with all this is like when someone owns a football when they are a kid and unless that kid gets to be quarterback he takes his football home so no one can play. It is really kind of like this. Only in this case all life on earth is gone. What if what you believe turns out to be a fairy tale and you just drove all life on earth extinct? So just because what you believe wasn't true you ended it for everyone.
Now, one with this kind of belief system might say, "It has to be real because all my relatives and friends believe it." No. It doesn't. Look how many people believed the earth was flat or believed that the earth rode on the back of a turtle for thousands of years. Millions of people believed those things too but it didn't make them true either.
All humans need to believe in something so parents thousands of years ago made up stuff so kids could sleep at night. Slowly, over thousands of years those things got codified into what we believe now. However, how much of what people believe is actually true and what just makes people feel good so they don't kill themselves.
The answer is no one really knows. Only Time will tell.
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