The Power of Energy

From Frank Herbert’s classic novel DUNE, Baron Harkonnen, former ruler of Arrakis, summarizes the importance of SPICE with the line: ‘He who controls the spice, controls the universe.’ this line is made more significant by a Guild Navigator who states ‘The spice must flow.’ In the world of DUNE, Melange is the drug known as ‘spice’ and when one ingests enough they will be changed enough to the point where they can fold space allowing for travel between star systems. Frank Herbert’s book was published in August 1965

 

The current fuel of the world that facilitates travel is carbon based fuels. Mr. Herbert’s prophetic message from 50+ years ago pointed to the equation that travel facilitates commerce and that the better the travel, the better commerce. In Herbert’s book there is another quote of importance that states: ‘It is by will alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the juice of Sapho that thoughts acquire speed, the lips acquire stains, the stains become a warning. It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.’

 

Once again, respect must be given to Herbert for another observation about carbon based fuel otherwise known as SPICE in the world he created. One of great leaps forward in the acquisition of knowledge and therefore understanding has been the consumption of carbon based fuels. Fire has long been hailed as one of the greatest tools invented by mankind and stands in the realm of the wheel, the inclined plane and a lever coupled with a fulcrum. Fire provides three key significant benefits based on historic evidence and these are: dead germs due to cooking, warmth, and light. As self reliance dropped because social compression increased and as needs surpassed the simple hunter gatherer stage people specialized in the action of making the tools needed to improve that basic acts of hunting and gathering, which we now put under the rubric of animal husbandry and farming.

 

Now the world seemingly regards the use of carbon based fuels and other products as evil. Many country leaders have made pledges to bring their countries to a lower carbon foot print. It is the opinion of this author that this is a fools errand and many of the country leaders know it, because their other policies do not align with the stated goal of ensuing that global temperature rise doesn’t exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius.

 

The problem of climate change is pitched as a global problem and yet the country leaders seem to want to localize or nationalize the solutions. Though they don’t really do that, do they?

 

Canada for example, the housing needs an external energy source to provide heating in the winter and cooling via air conditioning in the summer. Warmth and cooking have been around for 1000s of years while modern A/C has had a life span of about 120 years since the invention in the year 1902. The Canadian government is bringing in people by the droves forcing the creation of new housing that needs Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) units that run on a combination of gas and electricity.

 

Additionally, much of Canada’s consumer goods are imported from places like China and India, two of the most pollution rich counties on the globe. Of course these consumer goods need to be shipped to Canada and that of course requires the use of diesel fuel. Has anyone considered building a nuclear cargo ship yet? 

 

The principle of the economies of scale comes into play here. For readers not in the know, the principle states that a proportionate saving in costs will be gained by an increased level of production. This can be seen in many industries such as the automotive industry, the raising of chickens, the growing of wheat, the making of clothes, and the manufacturing of plastic toys.

 

The idea of economies of scale is a business principle and not an ecological one and as this argument is about addressing the ecology not the economy or so we are told. One problem with economies of scale is that centralization of production is required; this means that transportation to market is also required. So when the ecosystem at risk is the central narrative then perhaps the benefits for any specific business, needs to be set aside.  

 

At the time of this writing, the city of Toronto allows for the raising of chickens in the original 4 wards of the city, much of which has been paved over thus rendering it useless for growing chickens while the outer rim of the centre would be perfect for the raising of small poultry. Yes, chickens are small poultry relative to a turkey. This brings forth the question; why not allow for the raising of chickens across the region to reduce the ecological impact of the transportation of eggs and chicken meat?

 

Of course a man can’t live on chicken and eggs alone, and yes that applies to women as well. Once again when the ecology is at stake the governments of the world should make efforts to reduce the transportation of goods and products. To this end, the COVID situation has shown that many people can work from home. This of course will free-up many square metres of office space that can be converted to hydroponics space for the growth of vegetables near to the grocery store where they are to be sold.

 

NOTE to Reader: The earth is a closed ecosystem and so the amount of water on the planet doesn’t change it just moves from place to place and form to form. One concern for this author is the level of salination of the oceans around the world. The Dead Sea is called the dead for a reason and yet mankind has been working on that problem for years through the sale of Dead Sea salt.

 

Throughout history mankind has striven to improve the harnessing of energy and then all of a sudden someone(s) decided it was about time to put on the breaks on improving the harnessing of energy and decided to replace the carbon based fuels with alternatives all the while taking down the current active energy production at a rate that is far below a one to one kilowatt/hour or horsepower replacement rate; and within the same breath trying to convince people that their expectations for germ free food, warmth, travel and illumination will remain as constant as in recent years.

 

Carbon based resources have allowed for many of our now common ‘creature comforts’, travel and technologies. Some of the comforts and technology currently being deployed that are based on carbon can be recycled though the original source still has to involve some form of carbon in the form of coal, natural gas and of course crude oil. The binary presentation of yes oil or no oil is not a reasonable solution in the mind of this author.

 

At this point in time the reduction in the use of carbon resources means an increase in labour and an increase in the cost of shipping be it people or goods.

 

Some interesting considerations:

Energy = Power x Time

Power = Work / Elapsed TIME

Work = Force x Displacement (movement)

Force = Mass x Acceleration (Please recall that gravity is a force and to lift anything one has to defeat that acceleration 9.8 m/s²)

 

So: Energy = (Mass x Acceleration) x Movement x TIME

                                    Elapsed Time

   

Considering that the two instances of time basically cancel each other out, one may conclude that Energy results in the movement of stuff. Reducing or removing energy from this our current world may very well remove the access to goods from foreign lands. 

Is this a happy making contemplation?

Fighting the Good Fight

A ‘Culture War’ happens when a society becomes polarized on significant social issues with both sides saying that the other side is philosophically and ideologically wrong. A typical key marker of a ‘Culture War’ is that both sides talk at each other NOT with each other. 

A good friend of this author brought up a great question Friday last, at the time of this writing, by asking - How does one win in a ‘Culture War’ when the other side is so unreasonable? The response in the moment focused on two main topics: non-violence and words. Simply put, politics flows downstream from culture and while politics is important the focus must be on culture, which is where the current problem lays. 

A common line of thinking is that if one person says something, ten people will have thought it and 100 people will agree with what was said. This of course has been skewed in two main ways: the first is social media and the second is main stream media; both of which are housed mainly on the public Internet. 

Continuing on with presenting some simple ideas, war is the last act of diplomacy. Some people of influence and affluence may like the idea and implementation most people hold disdain for the destruction and bloodshed. Low level ideological radicals, otherwise known as useful idiots, can’t be ignored and yet can also not be changed by external forces. The target audience for any culture change must be targeted at those who are just looking for a mostly simply life lacking any significant drama. 

The problem is that some people seek drama and others have drama thrust upon them and the public Internet has allowed, if not promoted, the thrusting of drama. 

There are some people who need to be noticed when one wants to focus on saving, changing or destroying a culture. While there is a plethora of people who have ideas that need to be reviewed when things come to cultural significance, these ones make the top of the list for this author:

• Saul D. Alinsky

• Yuri Bezmenov

• Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli 

• Martin Luther King JR. and by association Martin Luther in part

• John Locke

Now that the author has framed the introduction, an apology must be issued because while an attempt will be made towards brevity; it has already been realized this goal will fail with the utmost enthusiasm. 

The meat of the matter…

One of the practices that came out of Jiu-Jitsu is that once you control the head, then you control the body. The head of every culture is the language, hence why the stereotypical Italian hand gestures came into prominence in Naples post the era of Pax Romana as people of different cultures had to find a common way to communicate. So the winner, for now, of this ‘Culture War’ will be set by whoever controls the language. For some of the older readers they may recall the days now past when gay meant happy and when pride was considered a sin. Of course many people would not be happy if the historical meaning of these two words were dragged from an old dictionary and are placed side by each. 

Saul:

Mr. Alinsky’s most notable book is called Rules for Radicals, which was written in 1971 where he lays down 13 basic action items that would allow for some to effect change within their society. Dear reader, if you think that any of this current social craziness is a recent phenomena – please check your history.  

The action items:

"Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have."	2.    "Never go outside the expertise of your people."
3.   "Whenever possible go outside the expertise of the enemy."	4.       "Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules."
"Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. There is no defense. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage."	6.       "A good tactic is one your people enjoy."
7.    "A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag."	8.       "Keep the pressure on."
"The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself."	10.   "The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition."
11.   "If you push a negative hard and deep enough it will break through into its counter-side; this is based on the principle that every positive has its negative."	12.   "The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative."
13.   "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it."

 

Yuri:

Mr. Bezmenov was a KGB agent who defected from the USSR back in the 1970’s and laid bare the basic strategy of the Communist party for advancing the spread of communism. This strategy while long and drawn out is pretty simple and comes in four steps: Demoralization, Destabilization, Crisis, and Normalization. 

The KGB and the CIA through association by competition both played the game described by Mr. Bezmenov. Any successful endeavor starts with the understanding that the conservation of energy is the most paramount of virtues. While the good espionage agent may be handed a target, the better espionage agent sees the opportunity to exploit.

The feminists of the 1960s and 1970s took a page from the KGB/CIA playbook when they realized that women, in the post WWII era had lost husbands and sons to war and that many of these women were forced to become the bread winner for the family. With demoralization and destabilization (DD) in the bag as it were, the next step of crisis, needed to be presented and it was by a plea to empathy for all of those poor single moms. The normalization phase has come to fruition in that women were made part of the regular workforce or put on welfare benefits, and by the way any single mom would be eligible. The next double D phase has also already kicked in by the way – when one considers that women are now complaining about pay inequality all the while denying the their lack towards an equal investment in time and effort, all the while still demanding parity in income. 

Author’s NOTE: Never let a good a crisis go to waste, and if you can’t find one – make one, provide the solution by restricting freedom and the people will be thanking you for the solution.  

Machiavelli:

Machiavelli is for this author a difficult persona to wrestle with because while he is often described as someone with a level of villainy this author sees Machiavelli as the other side of the same coin. Comedy, tragedy and love were all on display on the public stage, though sarcasm may not have stepped out of the shadows at the time of his writing. 

Machiavelli’s The Prince can be taken many ways; while often vexed Machiavelli can be held in vision as either victor or villain. Did Machiavelli write the Prince as an instruction manual to the rich few or was Machiavelli raising a flag of warning to the masses about the rich few who cared not for the masses in their charge? 

ML+K:

Both Martin Luther and Martin Luther King Jr. were both protestors. On a scale of one-to-ten; which of the two was more influential with their argument due to the colour of their skin? 

John:

Mr. Locke (1632–1704) is purported to be a key figure of The Enlightenment that happened in Europe during his life time and this author feels that, that assertion is justified. Mr. Locke brought forth the idea that while a man may own property made of dirt, the ultimate expression of ownership is over there own body. 

Now before the feminists get their boxer-briefs in a knot, two items have to be raised: a) back in the time of John Lock the term ‘man’ meant everyone with an opposable thumb and b) women could vote in England if they owned land, just like it was at the time; the rule was that only men could vote if they owned land. 

 

The Major Battles of Today:

Hill-101:

The first major hill for one side or the other to die on must be the children.  No culture can survive if the children are subverted away from the beliefs of the parents. This battle- ground is mainly focused within the educational system. Excuse the pun, by baby stepping change across many generations this process has been going on for years culminating in what we are looking at today. 

Many people don’t realize just how far this subversion has diverged away from the moral landscape of the child’s parents has gone so far. Many a parent has come to understand just how far things have gone during the school closures due to COVID. During the closures many parents got to see first hand how much the schools have changed since their own attendance. 

NOTE: The platforms Reddit and Twitter have banned the word ‘groomer’ as it is purported to be an anti-LGB+ slur. FYI - a ‘groomer’ is someone who builds a relationship, trust and emotional connection with a child or young person so they can manipulate, exploit and abuse them. Work this out on your own dear reader…

Hill-102:

The second hill to die on is the quality within ART; as many cultures are often defined by the arts and artifacts involved. Art is the diverse application of human creativity and comes in many forms such as: pictures (stills or in motion), sculpture, words, music, dance, and architecture.

The Italian word ‘storia’ (pronounced ‘stOrEa’) means both story and history in English. Art in its practice and execution typically tells a story and the stories being told are the passing down of history and by extension the culture. As the stories die so dies the culture. How many cultures have gone the way of the Dodo Bird because their ‘storia’ had been wiped out? 

Hill-103:

Consider the statement – ‘At the end of the day everyone pays for sex.’ Sex, as in the act, is a complex subject; typically because the sex acts themselves are just a fraction of the elements involved between parties. Under different situations and with different moods by those involved the expectations typically vary quite a bit. 

Adults bereft of mental defect are assumed to make typically reasoned judgments. What do children, whom are without agency, autonomy and no job, have as payment/collateral outside of their innocence? 

Hill-104:

Fourthly is the Law, for once one side looses the Law that one side looses the culture because the balance of power will have taken a drastic shift in what was purported to be a self balancing system. The intent of a representative republic is to normalize the political centre and hold the extremists from either political side at bay. 

Once the Law is ignored or leveraged by one or both sides in this war with great significance and Lady Justice is rendered no longer blind and encouraged to be neither blind nor balanced than it’s time to admit that Culture War crimes are being committed at some level by some people. When – ‘rules for they but not for me’ is allowed to run rampant trouble is afoot. 

Hill-105:

Comedy is a corner stone of any society. Much like the historic intent of the NEWS media, comedy lends a level of critic at a society and especially those who do or try to control the society. When you want to understand who does or is trying to control you as an individual or a society; just bear witness to those who don’t tolerate criticism. Take note of the ‘anti’ prefix and the ‘phobia’ suffix.

 Historically, good comedians have pushed the ‘discomfort’ button for many people. The question that comedy brings to the table is – ‘why are you as an individual being made uncomfortable by words?’ or ‘why is a whole society made uncomfortable by words?’ Do the offended not have the ability or confidence to defend their position and if not why not? The answer to the seemingly rhetorical question just now is it that words have meaning and by managing the meaning some can manage people. 

Hill-106:

Finally, the last hill to die on for either side is, the WORDS used for day to day common communication. Ideas are best transferred from one person to another by WORDS as the rest of the arts all too easily are made subjective. 

Joseph Stalin once said something along the line of - ‘it doesn’t matter who votes as much as who counts the votes.’ Consider each word to be a vote, and the successful narratives, else known as the adoption of a word’s meaning to be the counting of votes - for he who controls the controls, controls the culture. 

The Path to Peace:

All wars are a matter of attrition and only end when one side or both have taken such heavy losses that they can’t continue. A number of treaties have been signed ending wars or lesser conflicts and some of those treaties were successful and others not. 

The Treaty of Versailles is a clear example of one of the ‘not’ good treaties. The Treaty of Versailles put the designation between WWI and WWII in doubt as it was more of an agreement to stall hostilities while everyone regrouped, refueled and rearmed. 

Battles are won in the field while wars are won at home. Once the peoples of the USA saw the men with torn off limbs returning home they effectively cancelled the war in Vietnam. One now has to wonder how many body parts will have to be removed from children, along with how many people will need to be ‘socially cancelled/gulaged’ out of society will it take before the normal people, the non-combatants as it were, get sick and tired of this current war and put an end to it?

This author understands that this article is a plea to empathy and wants to point out that if people are discussing the health and welfare of children within their society without any empathy for those children, that society is already doomed.

A Statement on Missions

The United Nations is supposed to be an intergovernmental organization and not for profit entity that claims in its mission statement ‘The maintenance of international peace and security.’ Adding in; ‘Eradicating conflicts across the globe is the pivotal duty of this organization.’ How is that going so far considering the totality in time that the United Nations has been around?

In October of 1945 the United Nations was formed within the national boundaries of the United States of America following the actions taken by parties on both sides of that conflict known as World War II. The First World War, originally called The Great War, because at the time most people could not perceive nor imagine a greater and more devastating conflict and well obviously they were wrong, as history has proven.

 

So now this author must demand the question ‘how well has the United Nations met its self proclaimed mission?’ In addition, have the countries which have invested resources towards the United Nations reaped the benefit of those investments? There seems to be twelve current United Nations peace keeping missions that are still on-going. The longest peacekeeping mission began in the Middle East dating back to 1948(1). This of course, begs the question of where is the return on investment for the United Nations?

The World Health Organization is a branch of the United Nations and it states that the goal of this body is: ‘the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health’.

The last two years plus, starting in 2019, must not be forgotten due to the social and financial impact inflicted upon the attainment by peoples across the globe to better their own lives. The reader should also reflect upon the impact that the World Health Organization has had on the people of this planet.

Current estimates state that 811 million people regularly go to bed hungry. Nutrition, the core of any health regiment seems to have been offloaded to the successful countries. The World Health Organization also appeared somewhat inconsistent on how it reacted to a global pandemic.

The reader might assume that many of the people who work for the World Health Organization have medical backgrounds though this just might not be the case. This author likes to push a pencil as much as the next bloke, yet at some point it must be recognized that a wheelbarrow full of architects and engineers are completely useless if the world is bereft of stonemasons, carpenters, pipefitters, glaziers and yes electricians.

During the years of COVID-19 much of the world looked to the World Health Organization for advice, at it seemed so far beyond the pale it didn’t seem to be anywhere near the horizon on the matter at hand. Once again the reader should consider what is the return on investment reaped from the World Health Organization?

 

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, strives to promote ‘world peace and security through international cooperation.’ Compare that to the previously mention United Nations mission statement of ‘The maintenance of international peace and security’, which begs the following two questions:

• Why does an organization dedicated to world peace need a sub-organization committed to world peace?
• Additionally, if the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization pins its hope and mission on international cooperation, then what was the United Nations pinning its hope and mission on when it was started?

This author would like to propose a situation just to see what happens. First world nations pay a premium to the United Nations and its subsidiaries, for privileges, along with providing food to third world countries. What does the reader feel would be the result of first world nations saying to the United Nations, ‘we donated food to a third world country and that value is going be withheld from the United Nations.’ How fast does the reader feel the United Nations and its subsidiaries would put a halt to that practice?

 

This author would like to thank the reader for making this far into the article. The use of the full name of each of the organization was both arduous to write and read, though it was done with purpose. By maintaining the full name of each organization, which was done to remind the reader why these organizations were created and named to do.

One must remember what an acronym stands for in order to understand the purpose of the item the acronym stands for, when the name aligns with the purpose. So, here is the collection of acronyms that could have been used in this article in place of the full name: UN, WHO, UNESCO, and ROI. Return on Investment (ROI) was left as the last acronym to cause the reader to beg the question of where is the ROI when it comes to the UN, WHO and UNESCO, which has a budget that exceeds $6,370,000,000.00 USD for the fiscal year of 2021 to 2022.

 

By the reducing of the full name to an acronym the intent within that name becomes lost. The comedian George Carlin pointed this out in the transition of purpose with the shift from Shell Shock to PTSD in reference to the mental health of solders since The Great War.

1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_Nations_peacekeeping_missions#Current_missions_(12)

Some Shady Cunning Plans - an opinion piece.

Baldric was a character in the British TV series Black Adder. Baldric was the idiot to Edmund Blackadder's seemingly witty schemes and efforts. While Edmund typically failed in his strategic moves Baldric always failed more so. This article is going highlight some recent social and political moves with a sarcastic/sardonic tone where applicable. Let's get started...

Degeneracy:

Back in the days of the KGB, the spies would do their research and find politicians, typically men in that time, who liked to wear dresses, was a homosexual or pursued sexual relationships with minors. This was a big problem for a number many a politicization over time. 

So here is the cunning plan directed mostly from the political left, turn all of the gotcha items into being normal so no-one has to worry about being embarrassed by the FSB or any other county's spy services and thus the politicians are no longer able to be threatened. 

Next to no consequence:

In Canada political ethics is taken seriously. There is a special department of the government, which is implied to be non partisan and is supposed to be beyond the reach of the sitting Government, which has not been born out to be true. 

So here is the cunning plan and this one comes from both sides of the aisle. No politician seems to want to step forward and change the ethics penalty to above $500.00 CAD. An actual ethical person would have no trouble with raising the roof on the penalty if it would never apply. The reader must not align this point with the idea that an innocent person would not mind being under surveillance because they are innocent; the difference here is that the innocent person did NOT thrust themselves into the public domain and therefore don't deserve scrutiny. 

We all must DIE:

Diversity Inclusion Equity (DIE) has long been touted as a social strength, or to quote the now classic phrase, 'diversity is our strength.' Inclusion is a quota based system based on immutable characteristics and equity is the outcome of any effort over an equality of opportunity.  

So the cunning plan here has been to dehumanize the individual and only measure the worth of people based on skin colour, gender/sex or sexual preference. Any talent or merit of the individual has been wiped away in favour of the immutable previously mentioned. This cunning plan also included institutions of  higher education by demanding that universities and colleges build a push/pull grading systems for students based on both race and gender. The system as implemented, means that when the student is black and or female they get bonus points on their entrance exams. 

This bigotry of low expectations has two knock-on effects; the first effect is that some students are entered into programs where they are bound to fail and drop out of, and the second impact is going to be that many of the students will take note of the first effect and then stereo-type the people who fail-out.  This sort of problem is not limited to just education, when there is a diversity hire program in the corporate world one doesn't know if someone was hired on their merit or because of the skin colour. Simply put - why are there no white midgets in the NBA? 

Familial Ties:

It has long been understood that a good and happy family makes for good and happy people and that the inverse is also true. Post WWII brought many challenges to countries and families alike. The men were sent off to war, where many of them died or seriously injured. For the most part many of the women stayed behind and help with the war effort and raising the children on their own. Ad campaigns like 'Rosie the Riveter' brought many women into the work force and after the war many had to stay there in the working world because their man simply didn't come home. 

This cunning plan while born out of a short term need created a law to solve the problem, but these laws lacked the one thing that all government programs seem to lack - a sunset clause. For those who got lost with the term, a sunset clause is like an expiry date, in that an act of Parliament unless voted to continue will expire on a specific date. The most notorious Canadian enactment of this sort of thing was the Business Profits War Tax Act of 1916, which was a tax levied on the businesses to pay for WWI, and is  now known today as income tax. 

So what happened, many governments handed out cash to those then single mothers.This author does not think that this activity as a short term solution to minimize or eleviate a potentially bigger problem. During the early years of this program, while still a struggle, life for single mothers could have been worse. Of course once the governmental mechanics were put in place, like every government entity things could only grow and couple that with what is now referred to as second wave feminism and the door to disaster was left unlocked and ajar. 

As with all things on this planet the welfare state, also known as the nanny state, is a work in progress and what a piece of work it is. Three things happened almost simultaneously: in no particular order, there was a realization by some men that they could abandon their families as the government picked up the yoke of financial responsibility, secondly some women sorted out that they could have a steady income by being a breeder and the final piece is that the feminists of the day encouraged women into the works place by convincing them that 'work sets one free' (Arbeit macht frei) and so far all the feminist efforts achieved was to make women taxable. 

Education:

Education along with fire coupled with the ability to produce and convert energy have long been heralded as the advancement of a society. The fire and power conversion topics will be addressed in the next section of this article. It is important to define terms in a discussion so everyone is working from the same dictionary and so it must be asked; what is education? A dictionary will tell the reader that Education is - 'the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university.'

This author disagrees with whatever dictionary the quote directly above comes from and will now offer up a more personalized definition: 'Education is - the act of telling and the receiving of stories coupled with experience.' Over the history of mankind the complexity of the stories has both risen and fallen. Currently it feels that the length and complexity of the stories have dropped when compared to previous generations. 

Yet another cunning plan was put forward for this topic matter by making the declaration that the more people who are educated the better the society is. The proof is being presented via paperwork showing that the numbers of graduates has increased per capita rather than showing the value of the pedigree of said claimed educational value. This has resulted in an education system that has been dumbed-down across the board. Couple the explosion of next to useless degrees, the erosion of some well established degrees and an ever upward spiraling of costs means that the education v. salary relationship now suffers from one of the simplest rules of the capitalistic system these participants seemingly despise - the basic rule of supply and demand. 

 

Climate Change:

A plethora of people have their five minutes of fame though it may last a year or two or even more. Others seek a glimmer of fame just to capture that five minutes of fame by reading their name in the  paper. The climate change advocates have maintained a penultimate themed messaging strategy for decades now. For how long can these climate change advocates hold the people in fear before that fear becomes normal and no-one continues to care. 

Throughout history mankind has refined the ability to make and control an ever hotter flame and has invented ever efficient ways of converting energy into force; the combination of these two while entwined and entangled has reaped different benefits for mankind. Of course all benefits come at a cost and it is the cost benefit analysis that needs to be weighed and measured. 

Fire, a hallmark of mankind's achievement allows for warmth, cooks food and allows for the better refinement of metals and this of course led to the ability to convert energy into force which eventually led to better and better modes of travel.

This cunning plan may be the most cunning even when placed up against organized religion. Organized religion holds the benefit that no-one can come back and complain, while the climate change advocates  must continuously move the goal posts. 

When religion started to decline in the Western world around the beginning of the 1970s the Rapture was quickly abandoned in preference of  a new ice-age which at the time was presented as the end of days. The temperature drop was then quickly followed by the threat of temperature rise coupled with a rise in sea and ocean levels. Eventually the climate advocates dropped their absolute predictions and made all of their talking points fuzzy and vague by shifting to 'climate change'.  

These talking points, of some sort of climate change, were picked up by the political class and that is where and when the wheels fell of the train, as it were. The rapidness that was applied to moving to 'green energy' was done as a result of a moral panic generated by the climate change advocates. At this time the following items should be noted by the reader:

1. Some electric car chargers are being powered by carbon driven generators,
2. In most locations, if 50% of the neighbourhood all had electric cars their local electrical grid would fail,
3. Germany has fired up coal plants as the slightly greener solution from Russia has failed them,
4. Windmills kill birds and only work on windy days,
5. Solar panels only work when the sun shines upon them,
6. Windmills and solar panels have non recyclable parts and rely on fossil fuels for manufacturing, transportation and installation. 
7. The price of gas was on the rise during COVID and definitely before the invasion of Ukraine,
8. Some COVID restrictions are still in place in Canada along with a handful of places in the USA and are based on a lack of vaccination status, all the while the most infected per capita are the vaccinated. 

While item number eight does not have a direct environmental connection it does set the stage for the those are with the narrative and the 'other', showing the majority that there is now an opponent other than the government which must be closely scrutinized. This sort of agenda setting has happened before, most notably in Cambodia and before that in a Germany that was being run by a short failed artist from Austria. 

What does this tell us:

Politics ruins everything or at least many politicians seem to, as do the leaders of global Non-Government Organizations (NGOs). It is the opinion of this author that the main cause of the problems above is the distance between those at the top of the social political tower and those at the bottom standing outside in the mud and the filth of a not-so-privileged life. 

We have been told for many years, 'Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.'* Yet, when so many people so many times look to a political character and repeatedly say - 'that policy was really stupid'; where does the stupidity stop and the malice start?

To give the political class a bit of break, deserving or otherwise, that if the people don't hold their political leaders to task then why should the politicians divert any effort or energy to making the voters happy when the majority of voters simply go along with the narrative and don't complain?

* Hanlon's razor 

Riddle You This...

One of the longest standing and most popular riddles in history is the 'Riddle of the Sphinx'. Tackling a riddle, especially a good one, requires both intense scrutiny, imagination and and and understanding of the language being used. Conjunctions and descriptive language are key aspects of a good riddle. This article will address these key points in an effort to help the reader be a better riddle sleuth. 

A good and proper riddle is, in its most simplest form, the application of Boolean Logic. A conjunction is a word that is used to connect words, phrases, clauses and functions. Boolean Logic is a form of Algebra mainly focused on the relationship of three words, and those being  known as Boolean Operators: “Or,” “And,” and “Not”. Another important aspect of Boolean Logic is being able to separate the objects within the problem, which are the same or different. 

NOTE: This author has only a glimmer of knowledge of Boolean Logic and recommends that if the reader finds this subject interesting, that the reader seeks a higher level of knowledge and understanding beyond the level found in this writing. 

At the most basic level, Boolean Logic may be explained in the following Algebraic expressions:

When A=B, then it must be understood that, or therefore, B=A

When A=B=C therefore A=C and C=B and B=A

When A equals B and B does NOT equal C therefore A can NOT equal C 

 

After the overly simple expressions above, Boolean Logic become a little bit trickier when one adds in the concepts of "if/else". Couple that added twist with the move towards symbolic representation and by turning everything into an object bereft any subjective considerations, thus leaving only the objective logic in the calculation meaning that every bit of humanity has been discarded and that only two answers are feasible - Yes or No.

∨  - is the symbol for 'if/or' as in - If A or B are true then the conclusion is true, contrasted with neither A nor B are true then the conclusion is false, yet when A and B are both true the conclusion is still true.

∧  - is the symbol for 'and' as in - If A and B are true then the conclusion MUST be true, contrasted with the idea of if A is false or B is false then the conclusion is still false

⊻ - is the symbol for 'xor' meaning, that the conclusion is true if A is true OR(∨) B is true, but if both A is true AND(∧) B is true then the conclusion is false.  

 

¬ - is the symbol for 'not' and usually proceeds a variable.

 

∴ - is the symbol for 'therefore' or the logically conclusion, otherwise known as 'ergo'.

Much like mathematics, there is consideration for order of operations and grouping. The explanations above are not provided to teach Boolean Logic symbols, though that doesn't hurt, the explanations themselves are the intended lesson.

What is this all for, the reader should be asking ask?

In a United States that is now post Roe v. Wade and post Dobbs v. Jackson, there have been two arguments put forth for abortion, which though similar are not the same at all. 

Abortion must be allowed when: the woman's life in danger, rape AND incest.

Abortion must be allowed when: the woman's life in danger, rape OR incest.

Step-1 Assigning variables:

A - Abortion

W - Woman's life*

R - Rape

I - Incest

* Some people name 'ectopic pregnancy' as an important talking point towards the mother's life case, for those not in the know: An ectopic pregnancy occurs when a fertilized egg implants and grows outside the main cavity of the uterus. As far as this author can tell this is not a point of contention by either side, so why bring it up?

Step-2 Sentence#1: The first sentence is to be expressed as where (W and R and I) must all be true to have A as the outcome. This situation would go well beyond Bill Clinton's 'Safe, Legal and Rare' speech from 1992

Step-3 Sentence#2 The second sentence is to be expressed as where one of (W or R or I) is true to have A as the outcome. This situation may imply that the incestuous act was consensual and while this sort of situation is both genetically and social abhorrent, it is a possibility. 

Step-4 Re-injecting the humanity. 

This author now wants to address an item of honesty for the self-assigned name adopted by each side of the topic at hand. It is the opinion of this author that the pro-life side of the argument have named themselves accurately, the pro-choice people also have also named themselves accurately for they want the ability to choose life or to abort and there in lies the problem

Many people on the pro-choice side claim that the people on the pro-life side are speaking through the lens of their theology, which is true to a degree. Atheists abound on both sides of this battle While the pro-choice lobby is majority atheistic that doesn't mean they are not without its own religion, only in their case it is a secular religion , for the fervor and nearly unshakable adherence to their cause equal to  any Bible thumping Evangelical.

This level of polarized thinking virtually eliminates any grey space or chance for finding common ground between the two sides. The public Internet, specifically Social Media, only exasperates the problem as the majority of those who would accept some portion of consideration and compromise by both sides only get exposed to the most drastic of talking points. The Main Stream Media, by its very nature, is not helping in this discourse for much like Social Media, the end goal is to gain public support for their cause, which at the end of the day results in more money for the MSM.

As with any war, this 'culture war', will only be halted when both sides agree to sit down and talk. Of course each side wants to talk from a position of power when the talks kick-off. Much like all wars, the longer this war goes on, the greater the carnage and the stronger the anger all around. 

It is the opinion of this author, that those who wish a middle ground seek that ground, for dying on the hill or in the valley must not be the goal for what does the eventual win or loss count when you are the dead one. For those who prefer to hate your neighbours the outstanding question is this; is the subject matter really significant for the hate you feel and if so, take a pill and chill as the youngsters used to say. 

What has changed in society that people now only talk at each other and no longer with each other?

The Riddle:

'What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon and three in evening?'