July 5

Hope you all had a good 4th. Ours was good until the neighbors started the fireworks then it became hell. The cats haven't settled down yet though they are getting a bit calmer. Some of the firecrackers sounded like military ordinance. I looked outside to make sure the crackling and flame colored light that played across our window was not a real fire. Thankfully it wasn't so serious. I hope our neighborhood idiots aren't going to repeat the performance tonight. I suggested that we pack up the cats and check into a motel somewhere quieter between the 4th and the 8th of July. We are both seriously sleep deprived.

Ugo Bardi has an interesting piece discussing the Chinese "one-child policy" including the assessment that it has been a failure and the story circulating on line that the Chinese government used the Club of Rome's LIMITS TO GROWTH. Several points can be drawn from the post. First, you have to check the sources for the story you are reading. Are they credible? What facts, if any, are they presenting? Second, it isn't always easy to tell conjecture from fact especially when the conclusion aligns with your biases. Third, what ever motive governments have for taking the actions they do, people have their own motives for their actions. That is something Bardi doesn't discuss but other commentators have. Fourth, trends are difficult to change especially if people don't want to conform to the changes. China tried to reverse their population policy but people don't necessarily want to have more children for various reasons. Pixie dust can create an desirable illusion but sooner or later reality vanquishes illusion.

Because there wasn't much on TV last night for the hour or so before we tried to go to bed (see the first paragraph to remember why I used "tried"). Though only a few of the district elections were called before we tried to call it a night, the exit polls were indicating a probable humiliating defeat for the Conservative (Tory) government. This morning confirmed what the exit polls were projecting. Rishi Sunak is out and Kier Starmer is in and the Labor party has a huge majority in the House of Commons. A couple of interesting points came out of the commentary. First, some of the numbers indicate that Labor didn't really increase its normal vote totals by much. Instead, the Conservatives lost a lot of support that went to a new "Reform" party or to other smaller parties. Second, the Conservatives will need to rebuild their party going into the future though they are still the second largest party. A lot of disaffected Conservative lawmakers moved over to those third parties. They and those Conservative members who were defeated were very bitter and vociferous in their criticisms. Medhi Hasan hits most of those criticisms in his "good bye and good riddance" post. It reminds me of some of the complaints from former Republicans who are still conservative but have left the party.