Archive: May, 2007
Early reports have it that he received a set of petitions at the county board meeting tonight with over 1,100 signatures and he didn’t give a rip.
Now, Teddy has seemed a bit heavy-handed at times, but I passed it off as biased reporting or maybe me just disagreeing with his decisions. Also, it is beginning to appear that he “has it in” for the local sheriff and/or the department.
How can he (if early reports are correct, I wasn’t present) pass off the will of 1100 people? Is he so full of himself that he plans to commit political suicide and ignore those who elected him?
Some people had told me he is an ass, but I had been holding my tongue for the most part since I don’t know him personally. Depending on how much truth there is to the news from the county board meeting, this will make or break him in my mind.
There was a lot of buzz recently in the main stream media about CFB’s and how they are the answer to a large portion of pollution related to electricity production.
Whether or not they are a better choice than conventional bulbs in the short run, I can’t say. I have yet to find conclusive evidence that I trust enough to sway me one way or the other. On one side, CFL/B’s do use way less electricity to produce roughly the same amount of light. On the converse side, they do contain small amounts of mercury that could cause problems for future generations.
What I can say from my own experience is that they do have a noticeable impact on electrical consumption. I have only one normal bulb in my house. That one is over the mirror where my wife applies makeup, does her hair, etc. (the older CFL’s didn’t produce real-enough light to show details)
Personally, I have noticed at least a $30/month drop in my electricity bill. Maybe we use lights more than most, but I found that pretty impressive.
The only negatives I have about CFL’s are:
- Older/cheaper ones produce poor light
- They don’t fit into all lamp sockets
- 75 watt CFL’s don’t really equal 75 watt incandescents (get a 100 watt CFL, it still only uses ~24 watts really)
- Small amounts of mercury may cause disposal issues in the future.
For the energy savings and benefit to the reduction of pollution, I advise everyone I can to go get some. At least pick some up the next time you have to buy bulbs anyway.
The Quad-Cities Online news site printed an article about another wasteful spending of money by Illinois’ governor Blagojevich and company. He scraped money from any government service or department that hadn’t used up their budget yet in this frivolous defense.
This time around, he was blowing money to defend a law that was blatantly un-Constitutional. Similar legislation had been found to violate free speech in other states, but he would just not give up.
Not only did the initial case fail, but so did appeal.
What made this twit think that his law would be special and be allowed to stand? Perhaps it is the God-like mentality that he seems to emanate in everything he does in office. From trying to bring in drugs from other countries to trying to ban any form of weapon, the man is out to make the world in his image.
I pray we do not elect another twit like this in the coming gubernatorial election. Perhaps we can get someone fiscally responsible and less drunk with power.
I came across this article at CNN.com about a bookstore owner who could not even give away his overstock of books. Even libraries, which are repositories of books, would not take the books. That is sad.
While I don’t 100% agree that the unwillingness of a library or thrift store indicates the death of thought, I do agree that thinking by people has been on the decline for years. My most recent example: Anna Nicole Smith. She died, that is sad. Her child had to be placed in good custody. Okay, that should be the end of the story fiasco. NOPE.
Despite the fact that Maury Povich can get paternity results in an hour (not really, but his show is only an hour), why did it take so long to decide the resting place of Anna and who her child’s father is? Because the media served it to us on a silver platter and our feeble minds ate it up like candy.
War in Iraq? Government illegally tapping phone lines and internet data? Nope. We did not give a damn. Just feed us more celebrity gossip and load us up on every important detail at the fastest speed possible.
When was the last time you actually sat down and had a discussion, even with yourself, about how the battle in Iraq is going and when/how we should pull out? Have you even thought recently about how in debt the United States is today? Have you watched any conspiracy-theory videos and actually deeply thought if they might be right?
I’m willing to wager that the answer to any of the above questions for most people will be never, or at least a long time ago.
We will eventually have to pull out of Iraq and leave the country in control of its people. The politicians don’t seem to be in any hurry. Probably because the people are not holding them responsible.
The United States is broke. We are in debt so far that it would take many, many years of budget surpluses to even begin to make a difference. When was the last time you wrote your congressmen to demand a balanced budget at least?
Yeah, those conspiracy nuts are a little out there, but have you ever stretched your mind enough to prove in your mind that they’re wrong?
The point I’m trying to make with all of this is that we need to think. It helps us grow in our mental capacities. It may even help fend off the effects of Alzheimer’s disease and/or dementia. That’s a worthwhile reason to exercise your mind, is it not?
Put down the “People Weekly” and read the newspaper (a real newspaper, not one that prints pre-written press releases). Maybe pick up Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War”. Do something other than let your brain turn to mush.
