Why Is This Such A Surprise?

President Bush acknowledged using provisions within the Patriot Act to authorize wire taps on American citizens suspected of having links with terrorist groups. Now, Democratic lawmakers are all in a tizzy, calling for hearings, investigations and more. Can anyone explain this to me? Bush asked for these special provisions following September 11, and congress approved them. Why is anyone surprised that he actually usedthem as intended? I can only think of a few reasons why they are so upset:

1: They never expected him to use them, in which case they are stupid.

2: They never wanted him to use them, in which case they don't care about national security.

3: They planned for him to use them just so they could criticize him later.

Any of these three would be consistent with the current Democratic Party policy machine. More's the pity...

Morgan Freeman Talks Straight on Racism

I have always had deep respect for Morgan Freeman. As an actor, I think he stands out from the crowd with few equals. As a human being, he always impressed me as an intelligent, thoughtful person with a deeply held sense of personal integrity. I have never known much about his politics, and I'm sure that just as with most people. he and I wouldn't agree on everything. But he is one celebrity who I always thought it would be an honor to meet because he is a true gentleman. When I heard what he said on 60 Minutes, my respect went up even more, if that's possible. Way to go, Morgan!

Back in the late 1970s, I would watch the news with my parents on the weekends. On Saturdays, the 10:00 news on WNEW (Channel 5) was only 1/2-hour and at 10:30PM, the station presented another 1/2-hour show called "Black News." One Saturday night, I remember calling the station (I was only about 12 at the time) at about 10:35PM and asked them why they had that show? The producer said it was to highlight news in the black community. I said, "Oh, so that means the first half hour was White News?" I heard a long silence on the other end of the phonefollowed finally by "Um, no...but..." I thought it was a fair question.

The only way to end racism IS to stop talking about it. It's takes practice to look across a crowded room and not point someone out as "the white/black/oriental guy next to so and so," but it's important to try. If the our differences aren't important enough to be criteria for how we treat each other, then they aren't important enough to keep talking about! It's true that we shouldn't be as overly sensitive to labels (I AM white, after all), but it's really our similarities that are more important to brag about. I had an article published about this in a local Op-ed page two years ago. If you're interested, you can read it here.
Cheers to Morgan Freeman for so beautifully standing up for his rights as an American sans hyphen!

I'm In The Wrong Business

For the last several nights, I've received phone solicitations from my undergraduate university looking for donations. Most of these calls have been during the dinner hour. For most of the calls, I had not been home, but two nights ago, I was. And I was eating. And it was 6:30PM. I took the call. Someone, presumably an undergraduate student, Identified himself and asked for me by name. I told this kid that yes, I am so-and-so and asked if he was aware that this was most people's dinner time and told him that I wasn't interested. I then hung up and went back to my meal. I was rude, yes. But I had had enough.

Look, let's say I go to some major department store near my home and buy a refrigerator. I finance it and pay it off after a few years. Since that time, I have moved, and even though the first refrigerator was immensely useful to me, having stored my meals and enabled me, in part, to get where I am now...I bought another, more advanced refrigerator from another major store.

Years later...the first fridge is paid for, the old store closed its branch near my old home, and doesn't even sell refrigerators anymore. But I still get these calls asking me to help the store expand its headquarters or help other people buy other appliances. Now, to be fair, I am allowed to come back and watch other people shopping for those appliances free of cost (called auditing)...which could be cool. And I receive mailings updating me on other former customers and am occasionally invited to dinners. On the downside many of the sales reps are politically liberal...but...I digress.

Alright, enough analogies. The point is that I graduated 18 years ago and paid off my student loans. My campus was bulldozed and made part of an expanding mall and my degree program was canceled. For all intent and purposes, the school I graduated from doesn't even exist any more. And yet, the calls keep coming. Give it up already. What other business...and yes...colleges and universities ARE businesses...tries to get away with this? Surely, not one I would be lucky enough to own. A nice job if you can get it, though, I guess.

Pragmatism

"The pessimist sees a glass that's half empty. The optimist sees a glass that's half full. I see a glass that's twice as big as it has to be." George Carlin

See that third option? That's me. I'm a proud pragmatist - with a touch of cynicism and a dash of sarcasm thrown in for good measure. When I look at a subject, I'm guided less often by emotion and more often by a desire to seek out a root cause or to ask a question thathasn't been asked. A perfect example is the assault on Christmas.

It's been in the news more this year than any other. From "Holiday Trees" to "Season's Greetings" it's all so hypocritical and stupid. The way I see it, it's not as much anti-Christian or pro-secular as it is poor marketing. I mean...if you own a business and go so far as putting up decorations and offering goods which are obviously associated with the modern celebration of Christmas, then you obviously want my money.That's one reason I hate malls at this time of year. The greed is so blatant.

Maybe at one time there was some element of good will and spirit to it. Now, the decorating is all clearly done to empty my wallet. And it used to be confined to after Thanksgiving. When I was growing up, I wouldn't see decorations in stores until after you cracked the wishbone. Now...they're up BEFORE Halloween. That's right, ghosts and goblinsright beside Santa and Nativity scenes. It's disheartening.

Look...it's all about sucking up, right? Remember that shopping scene in Pretty Woman where Richard Gere tells that annoyingly insincere salesman that "I think we need some major sucking up here." That's my point. Do you really expect to get my money by luring me into your store with Christmas decorations then trying to wash the meaning rightout of the season? WRONG.

Charm me. Woo me. At least try to make me believe that you actually give a darn about what I think is important. If you want our money at this time of year, call it Christmas.

A "Perspective" On Global Warming

Beware of Junk Science. Let me take you through a thought experiment...

Imagine you are driving up a steep hill and find yourself behind someone pushing a stalled car up that hill. You see it's a pretty good size SUV, and yet one man is pushing it not much slower than he can walk unencumbered on level ground. You think to yourself "That man is pretty strong!" You may also conclude that pushing an SUV up a hill isn't as tough as you might have expected, if only one man can do it - regardlessof his individual strength.

Since you've got some time, you run a few numbers in your head and determine that each of his steps moves the car three feet and burns so many calories of energy. You conclude that given his probable weight, and the distance to go, he will arrive at the top of the hill in 25 minutes about 3 pounds lighter. All this is from your vantage point of being behind the man pushing the SUV. But what if you look at itdifferently?

Well, if you were to look at it from the side, you would also see his three equally burly friends PULLING the car by a rope attached to the front bumper. From this perspective, the impact of the man in the back drops significantly. While he is still contributing to the effort, he is only doing 1/4 or less of the actual work. This little scenario demonstrates the importance of understanding all the variables contributing to a problem, and one of the reasons why I don't subscribeto the current hysteria of global warming.

The problem with the global warming fad is that I don't believe the "scientists" really understand the phenomenon they are studying. I also don't believe they are looking at all the contributing factors, nor are they properly weighting the ones they are counting. If they were, then the correlation between CO2 emissions and global temperature rise would be closer. In actuality, I have seen reports that global temperature rise more closely matches the fluctuations of solar activity and its interactions with the Earth's magnetic field - factors most of the"scientists" ignore or underestimate.

Also, many temperature readings used by the "scientists" are taken in or around population centers or at airports. Large numbers of people and large areas of concrete are going to produce local temperature spikes. But, temperature readings taken by satellite over the Earth's
oceans...4/5 of the planet's area, do not support the panic. The average global temperature may be rising, but not as fast as the fear-mongers would have us believe.

As an engineer, I understand the difficulty of making computer simulations of complex, multi-variable systems. The atmosphere is a very complicated system...so complicated, in fact, that the best models we can make of it still do not predict the weather with any significantly higher accuracy than 50 years ago - before computers and satellites. We've only begun to scratch the surface. We don't yet evenknow what we don't know about it.

CO2 emissions, ozone levels, solar radiation and the planet's magnetic field are all contributing factors. But we don't yet know what all the variables are. And I resist the political agenda that wants to push the idea of "bad humans...bad humans." While I have no problem with the
idea of working to reduce emissions and look for alternate, clean fuel sources, there are significant hurdles. The two largest being cost and efficiency.

What ever new energy system is introduced, people need to buy into it by buying it. So, they need to be able to afford it. If it's wonderfully efficient, but too expensive...then it will be relegated to a precious few and companies won't waste their time working on it too fast. Similarly, if it's cheap but inefficient, the same problem occurs...no one will buy it. Fuel cells have been around since the 1960's, but are too expensive for significant private use. Solar power has been aroundquite a while also...but it is still too inefficient.

Replacing oil will take time, and as that happens...slowly...the pollution of the atmosphere will go down. When that happens, if we still see the global temperature rising, what do we blame it on then if not our cars and factories? Maybe ourselves. After all there are 6billion of us...exhaling CO2 24/7. Hmm...let's see...

If I assume an average person's lungs holds 2 liters of CO2 per breath...

And an average person might breath 15 times a minute, or 900 times an hour or 21600 times a day...

That's 43200 liters or 43.2 cubic meters of CO2 per day, per person.

Multiply that by 6 billion, and that's 259.2 billion cubic meters of CO2 per day or ~107 trillion cubic meters per year.

Now, factor in population growth, and all the other mammals on the planet pumping out CO2 (and more mammals as well) and the numbers sound down right daunting. How soon before we fill up the atmosphere with CO2? We need to do something about all this rampant exhaling!!!!!!!!!

BREATH RATIONING!!!!!!!

Pretty stupid, huh? This is the stuff of junk science and media hype....not serious research and responsible journalism. Back in the early 1970's, many scientists believed the Earth was actually cooling and we were headed towards another ice age. I admit I need to read more on exactly what the Bush Administration's position on this is, but based on what I have heard, I don't think it is too far askew from reality. They don't entirely dismiss the problem...but they do want to make sure the science is sound, and they don't want to buy into the hysteria.

Worrying about the economy is also part of the President's job - if he didn't, the press would nail him for that, instead. Besides, our country is hardly the greatest offender...just look at China, Africa and what the locals are doing to the rain forests.

The Earth is 4.5 billion years old and has gone through repeated cycles of global heating and cooling - even within recorded history. This may be just another which, from our our limited perspective in time, we may never understand fully. In many ways, the planet doesn't even know we are here and will do as it darn well pleases. So, do your part as best as you can; slow down, turn off unneeded lights, support research into fuel economy and alternative fuels...but breath easy and relax. We'll get away from oil soon enough for the planet, if not the environmentalists. Until then, we need it and should not be afraid of it.