All this talk about global warming, gun control and balanced budgets got me going. No excuse, sometimes it happens and my keyboard pays the price.
If you think that lighting candles, condolences and prayer vigils will get rid of guns, think again. Like it or not, people don’t want to get rid of guns, or apparently even the way we buy guns. They might go for getting rid of psychos, or fruit cakes, or even total losers, but guns are safe. Same goes for wishing, even demanding, we all agree that climate change is for real. And say we did, then what? There’s two hundred gas driven electricity generating power plants coming online this year, in this country alone. Another 3000 plus (combined gas, fuel oil, and coal) slated to come online soon, around the world. We need more power, it’s as simple as that: wind, solar and hot air are not up to the task, at least not yet. Plus, nobody is going to tell people they can’t have electricity or, in this country, guns ‒ not and stay in office. Same goes for India, China, Puerto Rico, or any other country. Oops, I forgot one of those is not a real country. Mind you, I’m not saying good or bad either way: there’s no point. I’ve been wishing we would get our deficit under control since kinder and it was a waste of time. I think everyone, even kids, want a balanced budget, but we can’t do it. And the reason is simple: wish as we might, the fix is too painful and someone will have to go without, maybe even Puerto Rico. So, we opt for the sensible option, really the only one we know: we kick the can down the road, all the way to the next congress, into next week, next year, to the next general election, or generation, whatever, all the time shouting and screaming, promising to change, to be good, to spend less and to act different, perhaps even responsible.
Obviously, it’s nothing but hot air. Balm to soothe the conscience, plus lots of wasted time. Or maybe it’s not wasted time. Maybe that’s the way it has to be, the only way it works. After all, we’ve managed nearly 250 years of can kicking, successfully I might add, since we are still here. And that’s something. So, maybe we ought to own up to not being able to control ourselves, or our budgets, or even our psychos, or our need for a carbon based economy. I know it hurts to say so, but like Walter used to say, “And that’s the way it is.”
In the future, if the oceans rise, they rise ‒ so be it. And if we have to move Miami do Denver, among other things, we do. Less we forget, we’re a can-do nation. Well, can-do some things, not so can-do others. Still, if we’re lucky and the oceans rise enough, we won’t have to worry a fig about Puerto Rico: it might be a scuba diver’s paradise by then, and a real money maker for once.
The reason I’m not worried is because at the end of it all, if we get in a pinch, we have an ace up our sleeves. We really do. And we can do what we always do in a pinch. Remember, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. In other words, we print more money. We’re lucky, after all, no other country, except North Korea, can print dollars as fast as we can. The fact is the world, for now, runs on dollars and the Chinese haven’t bought our Federal Reserve yet. Thank God, we still own that.