China is Killing Itself
China is killing itself, for profit, for pride, for reasons that we may not understand today, but wrestled with in the past. The US created agencies like the EPA, and it has worked. A City like Los Angeles, our Beijing of the 1970s, is livable today. The irony is that in the 1970s the citizens of Beijing were riding Bicycles instead of driving cars, but as wealth came to China they started driving cars, and created a slow nightmare ever since.
The Gun Lobby and Rotary Phones
The NRA is not a defender of your freedom, and they don’t care about maintaining a well-regulated militia. The NRA is a lobbyist that promotes a product designed to last a lifetime and just happens to kill as many Americans as automobiles. The NRA is the best marketing team ever assembled.
Evolution and Salt
“There is nothing down here that will create a fire hazard. In fifty years this mine has never had a fire,” the tram driver replied.The next stop on the tour was a display of two wooden toilets. The mine did not have plumbing until it was opened to the public. The wooden toilets provided some comfort for the miners while doing their business over a hole. I asked my wife if she thought those wooden toilets would burn, she said, “Yea, those and the piles of trash we saw earlier.” I thought about the large rubber tractor tires on Voyager, held my emergency breathing device a little closer, and thanked the Hutchinson City Fire Marshal for doing his job.