Moving in the Wrong Direction

It's really sad to know that the destruction of our world is being caused by greed, ignorance, apathy, and laziness. One of the greatest tools in our arsenal against global warming is nuclear power. It is clean, safe, and efficient. Unfortunately for decades the coal and oil industries as well as the media and entertainment industries have used fear and misinformation to persuade governments and the public to move away from nuclear to technologies that are more polluting or less efficient and has actually sped up global warming rather than slowed it down.

Think about this. The navy's latest aircraft carrier has two nuclear reactors that will power the ship for next 50 years and submarines are powered by reactors that allow them to stay submerged almost indefinitely while emitting no radiation and no CO2. If nuclear were so unsafe how could crew members be able to spend months at a time on these ships without being harmed? Unfortunately many nuclear power stations have been shut down; replaced with burning more coal that releases CO2, heavy metals, arsenic, and toxic sludge. Renewable power generation such as wind and solar is a nice idea, but nuclear generates 100x more electricity than solar per year on 1/5 of the land. Wind produces double solar, but would need 4,000 giant turbines to equal nuclear and is still weather dependent.

I just finished watching Oliver Stone's documentary Nuclear Now. It's well worth watching and reinforces what I've been saying for a number of years. We must build new modern and safe nuclear plants to replace our coal and oil plants as well as old and outdated nuclear plants. While wind and solar are nice, they're too little, too late. Nuclear is a green technology that exists now and is orders of magnitude safer than coal. More people die from coal in a couple of weeks than have ever died from nuclear, which was all from the one accident in Chernobyl, which occurred when technicians attempted a poorly designed experiment where they shut down key safety systems. The Fukushima event, which was caused by a natural disaster on a poorly designed power plant, resulted in no direct deaths or cases of radiation sickness.

Nuclearnowfilm.com

How close are we to the tipping point?

I just watched a very interesting episode of Nova called Artic Sinkholes with shocking revelations. Years ago I posted about how global warming can create a positive feedback loop that can accelerate global warming. This feedback loop is caused by gasses that previously were held in the earth. This episode showed that it's actually much worse. Beneath the permafrost in the artic circle are pockets of ancient methane that due to global warming are forming chimneys through the permafrost that are releasing large amounts of methane gas, a gas that is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

This is very scary stuff

Like most people, we use Cascade dishwashing detergent, it's reasonably priced and works well. I don't think switching to a different brand is a good option because I'm pretty sure other brands use the same chemical as well or maybe even worse. I'm glad there's investigative journalists like ProPublica that uncover stories like this. Rather than have to be discovered by investigative journalists, companies such as BASF should take a proactive approach to reduce harmful emissions ahead of profits to help protect the communities where they operate. Additionally environmental regulations and funding of the EPA need to be strengthened rather than weakened by politicians who would rather take money from corporations and lobbyists who put profits ahead of health and safety. If you have a good product, you don't need to poison the people around you to save a few pennies in order to be successful. Unfortunately there's far too many companies like BASF, Medline, Dow, and hundreds of others you may not even know about that put profits first to make the products you use everyday.

The Dirty Secret of America’s Clean Dishes

The Most Detailed Map of Cancer-Causing Industrial Air Pollution in the U.S.

The Earth is fine, we are not

It's been a long time since I posting something to this blog. Most of my rants now go to Facebook, therefore there wasn't much of a need to post them to my blog. Today, however, I read an article that make me think it was time to post a new entry.
https://www.cnet.com/features/climate-emergency-the-world-is-on-fire-this-is-not-fine/

The Earth is fine. It's been around for billions of years and will be around for billions more. The Earth has seen climate changes from planet wide tropics to ice ages. The Earth has also seen magnetic pole reversals, solar flares, and asteroids. Life on Earth however is not fine. Each of the changes that the planet has gone through have changed the makeup of life on earth. Fossil records show we had a time period were life was made up of only simple organisms and at other periods of time we had extremely large animals (dinosaurs) roaming the planet at a time where temperatures and oxygen levels were significantly higher than today.

Some people ask, "why are we making such a big deal over a temperature change of just a few degrees, temperatures have fluctuated before, why are we saying this has to have been human caused?" My answer to this is you must understand what global temperature is, as it is not the daily and seasonal temperature changes, but the average temperature across the globe for a year. This global temperature does not change much and takes an extremely long time to change. The global temperature changing by more than a degree within a few decades is a big deal. Currently the temperature is increasing, and the rate of that increase is increasing. When humans are pouring tons of CO2 and other green house gasses into the environment I find it arrogant to say that it's impossible for humans to be responsible for the climate change.

If your car starts making a funny noise, do you wait until it completely dies or do you have it checked out before it fails? Right now the planet is making noise. There are signs that things are changing and the end result can be catastrophic, not to the planet, but to us. Should we wait until it's too late, or should we start paying attention and try to do something before we reach a catastrophic failure?

I've already started making changes in my life to both reduce the amount that I contribute to green house gases and to prepare for a future where the climate is significantly different. I have eliminated all incandescent bulbs form my house and completely switched over to CFL and LED which has reduced the electricity usage of my house. As CFL bulbs contain hazardous mercury I plan to phase these out as well by replacing them with LED as the burn out. Whenever any of the appliances in my house need to be replaced I always try to replace them with the most energy efficient model that makes sense. I've also replaced the furnace with a more efficient model and use a smart thermostat to try and minimize energy usage while still keeping the house comfortable.

While I traded in my car for a more fuel efficient model, I have not yet switched over to an electric vehicle, but am anxious to do so once it makes sense. The electric vehicles currently available I believe are too expensive and use too much energy and do too much damage to the environment in their manufacture to make sense. https://www.wired.co.uk/article/lithium-batteries-environment-impact  What I want is an electric vehicle that uses a new form of battery that uses something safer than lithium and can get power from a better source such as solar.  I am also anxious to install solar panels on the roof of my house to reduce or eliminate the need for electricity from a power plant, but current cost and life expectancy of solar installations don't make economic sense for me at this time. My house doesn't receive enough solar radiation and the break-even point is non-existent.

To really solve the climate crisis it will take more than just individuals making small changes in their life, but it will also take the power of governments to encourage more people to make changes while helping foster new technologies to reduce and eventually reverse carbon pollution, hopefully before it's too late. I see a future where carbon is pulled out of the air and used to build new things, batteries are cheap and safe, and sunlight can be used to power everything.

What are you doing to help reduce climate change?

Making America Great Again

The fact is America is great, but we can make it even better. With this being an election year there's lot of talk from people of all walks of life, and especially presidential candidates, spewing all kinds of ideas about what's wrong with America and how to fix it. The problem is most people are spewing about the extremes. The right is complaining there's too much regulation and and too big of government, the left is complaining that the country is being taken over by the rich and government needs to take away their money to pay for the poor.

What we really need to make America great is to increase the middle class. There are far too many people at the bottom that are either in poverty or barely scraping by a living wage while the few at the top control far too much of the country's wealth. Taking from the top and giving it to the bottom is not the solution. Most of the people at the top worked hard to earn their money, although sometimes they were able to acquire too much too easily, but it's their innovations that have kept the economy growing. What this country really needs is lots of people buying modest homes, not a few people buying yet another mansion. What this country really needs is lots of people buying modest cars, not a few adding yet another exotic to their collection. What is needed is regulation that keeps a free market society, but puts rules in place to keep people of power from taking unfair advantage for personal gain rather than for the benefit of all.

The American auto industry collapsed because it wasn't listening to its customers. At a time when consumers were looking for smaller, more reliable, fuel efficient cars, American auto makers were making poor quality large gas guzzling cars. What happened is the Japanese auto industry stepped in and filled the needs of consumers who's needs were going unmet and the American auto industry paid the price.

The American manufacturing industry however suffered a slightly different fate. While American workers were seeing higher pay, shorter hours, and better working conditions, foreign companies were able to flood the market with poor quality cheaply made merchandise using low paid workers putting in long hours.  While some American companies were able to remain competitive by either reducing costs or creating innovative products, many American companies, especially those manufacturing commodities, couldn't compete on price and American consumers were willing to give up quality in order save a few bucks. Unfortunately this cut consumer demand for American products enough that American companies could no longer stay in business and many skilled factory workers were out of jobs without the skills needed to compete in a new workforce.

Chicago's Union Station: an Assault to the Senses

It's been a long time since my last post, partly because I now rant on Facebook, especially when it's just a little rant, and partly because I've been too busy to blog. These past few weeks though I've found a topic that really pisses me off.
With my recent move to the suburbs I've been commuting via Metra to Chicago's Union Station. While commuting via Metra for the most part is a quick and pleasant experience, the worst part of my commute is to and from Union Station and my office. With my office being north west of Union Station I exit the North side of the station at the Madison Street Entrance. Unfortunately Union Station is old with the tracks located below buildings. The ventilation on the tracks is very poor resulting in having to walk through a cloud of diesel exhaust. On top of that the trains all back in to the station so walking out the north entrance involves walking past the engines which are not only spewing diesel exhaust but are extremely loud. I have a sound meter app on my phone that I tried using, but unfortunately that topped out at 95 decibels so I can only imagine that the actual volume is well over 100. Many people, myself included, stick their fingers in their ears while walking past to block some of the noise. Sometime I try to use ear plugs, but that requires me to remember to put them in before exiting the train or before entering the station. I'm surprised I've never seen anyone with a mask over their face.
The worst part is during the evening commute since there always seems to be an engine parked at the stairway to the tracks. With two trains leaving at almost the same time the stairs are always crowded and slow moving with so many people going down and you walk right past the top part of the locomotive getting a full blast of warm air that I'm sure also contains exhaust. There was an article in the Chicago Tribune about soot particles on the trains, but I don't remember the article mentioning anything about the stations. I wonder how much soot I breath in on a daily basis.
You would think that being outside the station would end the assault, but you would be wrong. With all the cars, buses, and trucks running past you would think that's my complaint, but it's actually not. Instead it's all the smokers I have to walk past. Growing up I remember always seeing public service messages from the American Lung Association to quit smoking and I always thought that by 2000 there would be hardly anyone still smoking. Boy, was I wrong. I can't even recall that last time I saw a public service message about smoking and it seems like packs of smokers like to congregate downtown, especially around train stations.

Update 9/30/2014
I've been using these ear plugs for the past few weeks and they work really well.  They're inexpensive, reusable, can be inserted and removed quickly and easily, and come with a nice little case to keep them clean and ready to use when you need them.  They're certainly a lot more comfortable than sticking your fingers in your ears and just as effective.

The problem with current furniture

It used to be that furniture was made locally by skilled craftsmen.  Then came automation which allowed furniture to be mass produced lowering the cost, but they were still locally produced and designed by skilled craftsmen who used classic woodworking techniques such as dovetails joints, tongue and groove, mortise and tenon, and many others that hold wood furniture together with little more than a few drops of glue if that.  Unfortunately with most furniture being produced in Asian countries such as China, the priority has changed from making quality furniture to making it as cheep as possible.  Therefore rather than using techniques that can sometimes require some skill to assemble, everything must fold flat into a box and be easy to assemble by people with no wood working skills with only screws holding it together.  On top of that as old growth forests are now hard to find or protected so the wood used tends to be from fast growing varieties that are not as solid and easily split and splinter.  Even the finish applied to the wood is poor quality with usually only a single coat which is easily nicked and provides little protection to the wood allowing it to dry out and become even more brittle.

Shrinking Thanksgiving

A little over five years ago I ranted about stores being open for thanksgiving.  Unfortunately since then things have only gotten worse.  Not only are stores like K-mart open today, but Black Friday, which has started earlier and earlier every year is now starting at midnight for most stores.  This means that the employees of these stores, instead of being able to enjoy a brief Thanksgiving diner with their family, now don't even get that.  Many employees have been complaining in order to work the midnight shift they must go to sleep around 2pm and completely miss out on Thanksgiving dinner.  With on-line shopping available 24/7 is it really necessary to have the stores open at midnight?  Are stores really going to make huge profits from those customers that are at the store at 1am to buy that one item on sale?  Are they really going to spend time in the store buying things that they could buy at a normal time for the same price?  It's time to let people enjoy a truly American holiday with their families and not force them to miss out just because they're not fortunate enough to have a job that allows them to sleep in.  If you must go shopping on Black Friday, do it from the comfort of your own home on-line and skip the stores.  If enough people avoid this ridiculousness maybe the stores will open later next year and let their staff enjoy the holiday the way it was meant to be enjoyed.

Are you a reporter or a doer?

I don't know about you, but I found this article about Bill Nye collapsing during a presentation at the University of Southern California a little disturbing.  Bill passes out and the only action by his audience is to tweet about it?  Sounds to me like he was lecturing to a bunch of twits.  If I were in the audience, I know posting something about it would be the last thing on my mind.  The first thing I would want to do is find out if he was OK and call for help.  What would you do if you were in this situation?  Do you want to be making news or reporting news?  If the behavior of these students doesn't change the last thing you may hear is, "You're choking?  I'll give you the Heimlich just as soon as I finish this tweet."

Has the future arrived yet?

I was reading an article in today's Chicago Tribune about two scientists who developed a roach motel type of compound for capturing and trapping nuclear waste. They developed a sulfide that traps cesium ions allowing for safe removal of radioactive cesium. Neat stuff. According to the article this new compound still needs further development as it currently uses gallium, a very expensive metallic element, but they think they can have a workable product in three or four years. This made me start thinking. What happened to all of those great scientific breakthroughs we've read about through the years that were supposed to change the world as we know it?

When I was in high school, the big scientific breakthrough of the time was superconductors. Everyone was playing around with these ceramic disks that became superconductive when placed in liquid nitrogen. You could then place a small magnet above the disk and it would float above the disk regardless of which pole was facing the superconductor. If you gave the magnet a little spin, it would spin almost indefinitely, or at least until the liquid nitrogen dissipated allowing the ceramic disk to heat up and loose its superconductive properties.

At that time the scientific community was a buzz with the future of superconductors and the promise of room temperature superconductors that would change the world as we know it. There was talk about how this breakthrough would revolutionize power transmission, allow for supper powerful computers, make electric cars a reality, and popularize maglev trains; and all this technology was only five to ten years away. Well, here it is, twenty years later and none of those things are a reality. The only places I hear about superconductors are in MRI machines and super colliders such as the ones at CERN and Fermilab.

What other amazing breakthroughs can you think of that we have yet to see? How about fuel cells that would allow you to power your laptop or cell phone for days off a small vial of alcohol? What about optical computers so powerful that today's super computers seem like something from the 1950's, or holographic storage that will allow you to store a near infinite amount of data on a tiny piece of holographic film? The reality is that most breakthroughs take years or decades before they become a reality in our everyday life. Most of the inventions that change our lives come in small evolutionary steps, rather than a big revolutionary change. We don't realize how much our lives have changed until you look back and try to remember when a portable computer weighed 20 pounds, when cell phones could only make phone calls, you listened to music on cassette players that could hold at most only two hours of low quality audio, or you needed a camera and film to take a picture and you had to wait an hour to sometimes months (depending on when you dropped off the film for processing) before seeing the photo.

How marketing and greed created a wasteful lazy society

I was just watching a commercial for the Swiffer Wet Jet which made me think about a topic that's been festering for quite some time. That topic is how wasteful and lazy the average American has become. As an example, the Swiffer Wet Jet advertises how instead of using a sponge that can get filled with germs you start with a clean pad every time. Isn't this wasteful? Every time you mop the floor you throw a pad in the garbage instead of using a sponge which can be used many times, all because of a fear of germs. If you look around your home you'll find many products that are now disposable that used to be reusable. Are all these disposable products really needed, or will a non-disposable product work just as well?

Regarding laziness, have you noticed how many things we have today that use engines and motors that used to be human powered? Push mowers have been replaced by gas and electric powered lawn mowers, snow shovels have been replaced by snow blowers, hand drills, screwdrivers, saws, and even hammers have been replaced by battery powered tools, and the list goes on and on. Granted all of these "modern conveniences" allow us to do much more with a lot less work and in a shorter amount of time with fewer people, but all of these devices allow us to avoid hard work by polluting the environment, whether in the form of emissions from small gasoline powered engines or pollution from electricity generation and batteries that contain heavy metals. At the same time the weight of the average American has gone up and unemployment has become a major problem. If we really care about the environment and ourselves, maybe we should go back to doing things the way we used to do them before all these modern conveniences.

Mother Nature gets big boost from EPA

The Chicago Tribune reported today that The Environmental Protection Agency will spend $2.2 Billion over five years to clean up polluted water and beaches, restore wetlands, and fight invasive species in the Great Lakes. The push is being called The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Action Plan. Developed by 16 federal agencies, the plan seeks to heal the Great Lakes ecosystem from 150 years of abuse. Included in its goals are to prevent the release of 45 million pounds of electronic waste, 45 million pills of unwanted medicine and 4.5 million pounds of household waste from the Great Lakes basin by 2014.

Do you know where your food comes from?

I finally watched the movie Food, Inc. Great film that everyone should watch. A large part of the beginning of the movie, which is on meat production, I already knew about. What was really eye opening was the second half of the film which was on agriculture and politics. It's really amazing that nearly the entire soybean industry is controlled by a single company who forces farmers to raise their genetically engineered soybeans or puts them out of business. The other shocking thing was people in government positions that are supposed to help protect the average American from unsafe food practices were lobbyists for the exact companies they are supposed to protect us from. I guess P. J. O'Rourke was right, "When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators."

This is a great film that I encourage everyone to watch. You can even download it as I did strait from Amazon. My basic take on the film is that fast food and factory produced foods, everything from soda pop and ketchup to hamburgers and french fries to chicken and beef you buy at the supermarket, is kept at artificially low prices due to a farm bill that subsidizes products such as corn and soybean and greatly benefits big business. Because of this these products are pumped full of corn syrup that lead to poor diets and obesity. Chickens are pumped full of antibiotics and raised in crowded unsanitary conditions where they grow so fast they can't even carry their own weight for more than a few seconds. Cattle, who evolved to eat grass, instead are fed corn, which is unhealthy for the cattle and has a poor environmental impact since feed and manure from corn fed cattle have to be shipped great distances.

If you really want to make an impact try to buy organic or sustainable locally grown foods. Do as I do and cut soda out of your diet and replace it with water. Drink pure juices that aren't pumped up with corn syrup. And finally, take a stand and get involved. Push for healthy lunches in schools, tell congress that food safety is important to you, and finally, learn where your food really comes from.

No bats in the belfry

There was an article in today's Chicago Tribune that there has been a record die-off of bats. Is this yet another sign that mother nature has taken ill?

Across the Northeastern states bats are experiencing mortality rates over 90 percent. The cause is a fungus that causes white-nose syndrome. The fungus covers the heads, legs, and wings of hibernating bats. The bats wake up out of hibernation in an attempt to scratch off the fungus which depletes their fat reserves. The hungry bats then leave the cave in search of insects which haven't hatched, causing the bats to die in large numbers in fields and snow covered lawns. The fungus itself can also lead to skin loss and ulcers that can be fatal. How bad is this loss? In Connecticut's largest hibernation site the population of little brown bats has dropped from 2,320 bats in 2007 to only 108 this winter. Northern long-eared bats in the same cave declined from 527 in 2007 to 70 this year and tiny pipistrelle bats fell from 396 to 98.

While scientists aren't sure what's causing the fungus one thing for sure is those areas affected will probably see a huge increase in insect populations. Bats consume 1/3 of their body weight each night. This means that a group of 1,000 bats could eat four tons of insects each year. With a die off of over 2,000 bats in one area, that's over 8 tons of insects flying around that otherwise would have been bat food.

Is this fungus caused by global warming? Is it an invasive species brought from somewhere else? We don't know. One thing we do know is with fewer bats things will get downright buggy.

The truth comes out

The Bush administration was long known to doctor or hide documents of scientific finding that didn't align with what they wanted to hear. For years they denied that global warming was a reality. After all, a report like that would be bad for their friends in the oil and power industries.

Now a 2007 EPA report that was kept under wraps by Bush has finally been released. The document shows that even in 2007 it was clearly known that greenhouse gases pose a serious risks and need to be regulated.

In even worse news it is now predicted that in 20 to 30 years the arctic ice cap will completely disappear in summer months. As I wrote a few years ago, this will greatly disrupt the global conveyor belt and cause global weather disruption. Unfortunately we are most likely too late to be able to prevent global weather disruptions due to global warming. The most we can do is to slow down global warming, but that will take a great deal of effort from all the nations of the world, especially first world nations like the United States.

Can you live plastic free?

There was an interesting article in today's Chicago Tribune titled "A Life Without Plastics?" The author tried to live one week without plastic. Not an easy task, but it is possible.

After reading the article I looked around my home to assess how much plastic I use on a daily basis. My life, like most Americans, is surrounded by plastic. Plastic is an amazing product. It can be made in any color or no color, any shape or size, can be made strong and sturdy, or light and flexible. It's air tight keeping moisture, air, and germs in or out. It keeps food from spoiling quickly, it makes easy to carry bags, it's shatter resistant, lightweight, sanitary, and inexpensive. It's no wonder that plastic is everywhere.

Unfortunately due to our disposable lifestyle, disposed plastic is harming the environment and it's time that we learn to cut back on it's use. Based on the article, although it is difficult to avoid all plastic, it is possible to greatly reduce that amount of plastic we use and throw out. Instead of liquid shampoo in a plastic bottle you can use a shampoo bar. Plastic water bottles can be replaced with stainless steel bottles. Household cleaning solutions can be replaced with vinegar, baking soda, and water which clean just as well and at a fraction of the cost. Reusable grocery bags can be used instead of plastic bags and fruits and vegetables can use the packaging nature provided them.

We may not be able to eliminate all use of plastic, but at least we can make a significant impact. Are you willing to give it a try?

Swimming in an ocean of plastic

ABC News aired a disturbing segment tonight on a gigantic trash dump known as the Pacific Ocean. The segment followed Charles Moore, captain of the private research vessel Alguita, part of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, who pursues the Pacific’s floating plastic. It turns out that large amounts of plastic that we dispose of every day, from bags, to food wrappers, to packaging, and much much more make its way into the ocean where it stirs breaking down into finer and finer particles. These particles of plastic are at every level of the ocean from the surface to the bottom. Animals get entangled in this plastic and ingest the plastic mistaking it as food. Plastic is now making its way up the food chain. Small plastic beads are mistaken as fish eggs and ingested by fish and jellyfish which in turn are eaten by sea turtles and larger fish including many of the popular fish we dine on. Not only do these plastic pellets not have any nutritional value, but they also act like sponges for toxic chemicals and killing off much of the sea life we depend on. Plastic is now even making up a large percentage of the sand in the area. Instead of ground up pieces of shell and coral the sand is now make up of ground up pieces of plastic.

Cleaning up this mess is a gargatuan task that no one can afford. But there is something that each of us can do to help reduce the amount of plastic making it's way into the oceans. For starters we can insist that manufacturers reduce the amount of plastic in their packaging by avoiding purchasing products wrapped in plastic. We can also contact manufactuers and insist that if they must use plastic packaging they use plastic made of celulose which breaks down quickly and is biodegradable. Additionally we should contact our govornmental representatives and insist they create stronger laws to punish companies and shippers for dumping waste in the oceans and hold those companies accountable for accidents and spills.

How safe are your fruits and vegetables? The government doesn't want you do know.

Today's Chicago Tribune reported that the Bush administration abruptly halted a government program that tests the levels of pesticides in fruits, vegetables, and field crops. Their argument is that the $8 million a year program is too expensive. The article also states that the data generated from this program is used by numerous other public programs from the EPA to the Integrated Pest Management Center at the University of Illinois. These programs now must purchase unreliable data from private companies at a cost of $500,000 to $700,000 a year.

In other words, by killing an $8 million a year program because it's too expensive, other government agencies are now spending money that together approaches the $8 million but provides less actuate results thereby not really saving any money at all and putting consumers at greater risk by preventing regulatory agencies from really knowing how much pesticides are on our fruits and vegetables. Meanwhile we're talking about a $700 billion bailout of banks that made bad decisions while their executives will probably walk away with golden parachutes that will make $8 million look like peanuts.

So the next time you bite into an apple or have a slice of tomato or cucumber, just remember, the government doesn't care about your health, it only cares about protecting rich people who make stupid decisions from loosing their ability to make large donations to political campaigns.

A step in the right, albeit painful direction

An article on Yahoo's Green web site today said that due to record high gas prices more people are taking the bus. Although paying more at the pump may be painful to the pocketbook, it's actually a good thing for the environment. As prices climb past $4 a gallon people are starting to reevaluate their transportation decisions. Some are deciding to give up their gas guzzling SUVs for smaller more fuel efficient vehicle's, others are moving toward even more fuel efficient hybrid vehicle's. As an even better choice people are starting to get out of their cars and learn the benefits of public transportation. Now we just have to hope that the public transportation systems can handle the increased demand without collapsing and hope the federal government will realize we need to invest more in developing nonpolluting means of transportation.

None of the above

How did we get to this position again? We are down to three potential presidential candidates, none of whom, in my opinion, are good for the people of this country. The two Democrat candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, both have health care plans that if enacted I feel could bankrupt the country. On the Republican side is John McCain, who today's Chicago Tribune printed that he would repeal the alternative minimum tax saving tax payers $60 billion in one year, make President Bush's tax cuts, which are set to expire in 2011, permanent, make it harder to raise taxes by requiring a 3/5th majority in Congress to pass any tax hike, cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 25%, ban Internet taxes and new cell phone taxes, and create a permanent tax credit to spur research and development.

Now I don't like taxes any more than the next guy, but what I do like is what taxes provide. Taxes pay for roads and bridges, fire protection, police protection, environmental protection, grants for research and development, education, museums, libraries, public transportation, and many many more things. The current administration has cut taxes and local spending (they're spending more than we can afford on a war that will never end) and as a result all of our public works are falling apart. Bridges are collapsing, roads are in the worst shape I've seen in years, we're falling even further behind in education to other countries, environmental issues are falling by the wayside, and the list goes on and on.

I agree that our current health care system has problems. There are far too many people who can't afford health care including those who work full time jobs, and those that can afford health care are paying far too much money for mediocre service. What this country needs is a leader that can bring these two extremes together. Someone who will not cut taxes (especially to those who can most afford it) to the point where our public works collapse yet at the same time reduce wasteful spending and provide services for the public good that the country needs and can afford. Unfortunately such a person is nowhere to be found and I'm sorry to say the looser of the next presidential election will once again be the American people. Oh well, let's hope we have better choices in 2012, if this country can last that long.