Rio, Chicago, Obama and Living Forever....

Well, quite a week. First criticism is heaped on President Obama for trying to assist in delivering the 2016 Olympics to Chicago. Then, when the Olympic Committee rejected Chicago in the first round and eventually selected Rio it becomes Obamas fault. Now, I don't know whether it was a good idea or a bad idea to have the Olympics in Chicago....Some very persuasive arguments on both sides. but, at least he tried. Good on him.

This all segues nicely into Thomas Friedmans New York Times commentary, "Where Did 'We' Go?".

The American political system was, as the saying goes, “designed by geniuses so it could be run by idiots.” But a cocktail of political and technological trends have converged in the last decade that are making it possible for the idiots of all political stripes to overwhelm and paralyze the genius of our system.

Those factors are: the wild excess of money in politics; the gerrymandering of political districts, making them permanently Republican or Democratic and erasing the political middle; a 24/7 cable news cycle that makes all politics a daily battle of tactics that overwhelm strategic thinking; and a blogosphere that at its best enriches our debates, adding new checks on the establishment, and at its worst coarsens our debates to a whole new level, giving a new power to anonymous slanderers to send lies around the world. Finally, on top of it all, we now have a permanent presidential campaign that encourages all partisanship, all the time among our leading politicians.

We will never get around to solving the serious stuff until "we" grasp the fact that we are all in the same boat and quit trying to punch holes in the "other guys" part of the hull. If not, we're all going to sink together.

And finally, two worrisome articles, highlighted on the right in "Headlines of Note , Half of babies born in rich world will live to 100 and Scientists find path to fountain of youth, point out that we are getting a lot closer to the 500 year life spans I keep projecting. What are "we" going to do when that happens. All the looming devils of Climate Change, true or not, pale when compared to the problems of 400 year old adults having their 30th child.

All this talk of Climate Change and the proposed solutions of Carbon controls, emission controls are starting to bother me. Now, personally, I think there is serious doubt as to both the degree of Climate Change we can expect and the part that "we" humans play in it. Personally, I think Change is coming, it is not quite as dramatic as Al Gore is making his millions preaching about, it is inevitable, there is nothing we can do to reverse it and "we" are only minimal contributing factors. Our time and money will be much better spent preparing for it than trying to prevent the inevitable.

But, having stated my position, why are "we" not taking a serious look at two of the more zany solutions that have been proposed. One article I read said that 40% of all pregnancies are unwanted. So, why aren't we encouraging the development of solutions that would prevent pregnancy unless "turned off' by those who actually want to have children? A 40% reduction in birth rates would eliminate a very very large portion of the carbon footprint.

Another suggestion has been that if we painted all the rooftops and highways white this would more than offset the temperature rising impact of CO2 emissions, if any. These are just a couple of the ideas that are out there. My apologies to the authors, but I can't recall their names at the moment.

So call me crazy, but it has been that sort of week.