Suspension of Disbelief

US monthly propane Residential price (per gallon): January 2004: $1.496 January 2007: $1.992 January 2011: $2.782 Increase from January 2004-January 2011: 86% US monthly heating oil Residential price (per gallon): January 2004: $1.566 January 2007: $2.369 January 2011: $3.431 Last month: $3.913 Increase from January 2004-January 2011: 119% (Until present: 150%) US monthly natural gas Residential price (per thousand cubic feet): January 2004: $9.71 January 2007: $12.17 January 2011: $9.76 Increase from January 2004-January 2011: 0.2% US monthly electric Residential price (per kWh): January 2004: $8.24 January 2007: $10.06 January 2011: $10.99 Increase from January 2004-January 2011: 33.4% http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly/query/mer_data.asp?table=T09.09 -------------------------- Percent of LIHEAP Households Using Major Types of Heating Fuels, United States, April 2005 Natural gas 60.0% Electricity 19...

I bet that I am the last person to realize the format change for blogger.  Well, as I mentioned years ago, all hail our google overlords.  At any rate at least they haven't deleted my blog, to their credit.  Although I suppose they never actually delete anyone's.  Regardless and such and another forty dozen phrases people use to mean something they should just say or omit instead of saying unclearly. Let's not beat a dead horse.  I've been gone for quite a while.  At least the good news is that I am more apt to be back than ever before.  We'll see how well that goes, but here's hoping I suppose.  As I was saying, or at least as I am intending on saying, I had tried too hard to tackle big issues or to wrap things up in neat little packages.  I realized this evening that this isn't my style.  It isn't what is effective for me.  Writing is a tool that helps me relax and it should not be restrained by what others may think, by rule...

You know, at first the idea of a balanced budget amendment to the US Constitution seems like a good idea, maybe even a cure all great idea that will end our debt issues for good. This is what small government Republicans want you to think. And, consequently, it is completely FALSE. As near as I can tell, the purpose of this amendment would be to be a budgetary safety net during bad economic times. It would keep spending at or below revenue in times of low revenue. Those words are key "in times of low revenue". It also needs to be stated that constitutional amendments supersede all laws . So let us apply it to our federal budget today. We are in a place where revenue is much lower than expenditures. It seems that this kind of amendment would be helpful now right? Wrong. In balancing the budget currently, it is clear that cuts need to be made and/or revenue needs to be found. It is a mathematical certainty that to balance...

We have two scientific theories...  The Law of the Conservation of Energy, which states that the amount of net energy in a closed system remains constant (nothing spontaneously creates or disappears) and the Law of the Conservation of Mass, which states the same but for mass.  Essentially, both state that in a closed system, things do not appear or disappear.  The amount of mass and energy in the universe is the same as it was at the dawn of man and will be the same at its demise, granted that energy and mass will take on different forms, but the quantity of energy and mass remain constant.  I would add that mass can become energy (such as gasoline combustion) and energy can become mass (such as weather).  They are interchangeable if the correct conditions are present--in the case of weather that condition would be sunlight; in the case of gasoline combustion that would be fuel, oxygen, and ignition. When you die your body decomposes and the electrical impulses...

This one's been bugging me for a while now.  What is the purpose of life?  Not the meaning of life.  There is no MEANING of life.  The word meaning is ambiguous.  But what is the purpose or end goal.  And not of your life or my life but of all life everywhere.  I'm convinced there is a single, simple purpose for all life that everything is driving towards or against a goal in either....... And that's about as far as I got before realizing the answer.  First, the goal isn't an end point.  The universe is cyclical and self-contained.  So the purpose for life has to be life itself.  The goal is life, in all forms.  The purpose of the universe and everything in it is to exist.  Many would say that this isn't a reason, but it is because they're focusing on a human-centered understanding of the universe.  A linear model.  But the universe is cyclical.  It is one giant cycle from matter to energy to matter. ...

That is to say there is a reason why there are no politicians with genuine interests at heart. Genuine interests can be defined as points of view on which you are inflexible to opposition. For instance, you are either for human rights or you're not for human rights. You don't have to be AGAINST human rights necessarily to not be for them. Politicians are not political activists. A political activist's interest is the success of a point of view. A politician's is not. There comes a point where a political activist, which I believe all worthwhile politicians begin as, cease to be an activist for an issue and begin to be a politician whose focus is politicking. There are of course politicians from different lines of work, particularly corporate America, but that plague is best left for discussion at a different time. The crux of the difference between an activist and a politician is flexibility. Activists are inflexible on their positions. Politicians are born o...

So, do you remember 1997?