April 8

It looks like we might have a sunny and dry day again. I will see if I can get a couple of containers on the patio cleared today. But before I do that I have a ham to get divided into meal sized portions. We went to our local dairy for our usual milk, cream, butter, and coffee. And we stopped at a grocery store on the way home for a few items we were either out of or low on. It wasn't worth a trip to the other store several miles further. That will be next week when we need some things we can only get there. However, the grocery store had hams on sale and the price was too good to pass up even though we didn't really need more ham. I have a couple of other things to do in the kitchen today so I will be busy.

Going through the blogs and other sites I found this piece by Ugo Bardi on THE SENECA EFFECT which describes how scientist experts are viewed when trying to warn the general population of a looming disaster. I remember when I first read about Bill McKibben's 350.org which tried to persuade people that our societies had to keep CO2  in the atmosphere below 350 ppm. Being a curious soul I looked up what the concentration of CO2 was at that time. OMG--it already exceeded the 350ppm advocated and had since 1985. I remember when the oil companies were trying to get the Federal Government to open up the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve because dire consequences would follow not doing so. I looked up two facts: how much oil was estimated to be under that patch of permafrost and how much oil our economy used. I found out that, if we completely drained the reserves (unlikely), we would get enough to fuel our economy for a whole...three months.

From Infidel753 a discussion of the conundrum of "free speech." I could be more tolerant of the speech of those I disagree with if they didn't try to force me to live by their ideas. Unfortunately, to quote Lord Peter Wimsey in GAUDY NIGHT (by Dorothy Sayers), "the first thing a principle does is kill someone."