I’ve been reading about Iraq after American combat troops were withdrawn in December 2011, and it isn’t a pleasant story. Almost 1,000 people have been killed in September 2013 in Iraq “…as car bombs have become a near daily occurrence in a country seeing its worst surge of violence in five years.” Iraqi civilians have been “…caught in a resurgence of al-Qaeda terrorism that has been growing since the United States pulled out forces two years ago.” Continue reading
Category Archives: Commentary
Department of Energy Study of Fracking
Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is used to enhance oil and gas production, and the recent news has been positive for the process and unwelcome for those opposing the practice. A Denver Post editorial says, “Fracking has been conducted for decades and is now a routine procedure in the vast majority of drilling operations and yet federal and state regulators have not identified one confirmed instance in which fracking chemicals have migrated through layers of shale to groundwater.”
Citizens of cities along the Colorado Front Range have passed referendums that prohibit fracking within their city limits. There are many people who oppose any process that produces hydrocarbons for energy, and they consider hydraulic fracturing negatively because of the success of that process. Colorado Governor Hickenlooper has angered them by taking the position that the cities do not have the right to prohibit the activity, which is controlled by state law. Continue reading
Sugar and Obesity
There is an extensive article about sugar in the August 2013 National Geographic magazine titled “Sugar Love (A not so sweet story).” It refers to “…a colossal American health crisis. High rates of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease: the legacy, some experts say, of sugar…” The article describes how the domestication of sugarcane 10,000 years ago in New Guinea began a deadly series of events. Columbus planted the New World’s first sugar cane in Hispaniola and millions of Africans were enslaved and shipped to the New World to work on sugar plantations. The slave trade has ended, but the addiction to sugar continues. The article describes how a time of famine led to evolution of humans who can get by on very little sugar but are addicted to the rush it gives while sapping their energy and “…beaching them on the couch.” Continue reading
Arctic Ice Increases
NASA-funded National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) image taken from dailymail.co.uk
National Geographic has an extensive article titled “Rising Seas” in the September 2013 magazine. The first several pages are about the massive destruction caused by Superstorm Sandy. The article then turns to making dire predictions. “By releasing carbon dioxide and other heat trapping gases into the atmosphere, we have warmed the Earth by more than a full degree Fahrenheit over the past century and raised sea level by about eight inches. Even if we stopped burning all fossil fuels tomorrow, the existing greenhouse gases will continue to warm the Earth for centuries. That report is countered by an article by David Rose that the Arctic ice cap grew by almost a million square miles and increased coverage by 60% in 2012. Continue reading
Charter Schools Vs Public Schools
We have a friend who teaches at a charter school and is quite proud of the school and how well she thinks her students are performing. I open with that statement, because that undoubtedly has an influence on what I think of charter versus public schools. Reinforcing that is a Colorado report that documents charter schools generally outperform public schools at a significantly reduced cost for both teachers and administrators. Read on if you are interested in specific data. Continue reading
9/11 Anniversary
There are two terrorist attack anniversaries today, and the second is the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi where four Americans were killed one year ago. Several mysteries remain about that attack. One question I have had since I first heard of the attack is “Where are the pictures of the Situation Room while Consulate was being attacked by terrorists?” The picture of the Situation Room with President Obama, Vice President Biden, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with a room full of other officials was spread throughout the world the night bin Laden was killed. What would a photo of the room look like the night of the several-hour terrorist attack on the Consulate? Who would have been present to hear the intelligence information and make decisions about what military assets were available to help the people under attack? Was the Situation Room even activated? If not, where was the Commander-In-Chief and what actions did he take to help the people under attack? Did he take any actions? Why weren’t we better prepared for the possibility of an attack? Continue reading