Romney for President?

So, Mitt Romney was attacked by an angry passenger before his flight from Vancouver to LA (Michelle Ruiz, AOL News, 16 Feb 2010). But that is not the most amazing part of the story. This is:

Romney, 62, and his wife, Ann, who were returning from the Olympics, were reportedly sitting in the economy section before
takeoff when Romney's routine request enraged the passenger sitting in front of
his wife.

Mitt Romney sitting in the economy section? Damn! I figured he had a G5. He must really be a man of the people. Romney for President!

Photo: Amy Sancetta, AP

When in Vegas do Like the Vegans

Finally, Obama says something I agree with (AOL News, 2 Feb 2010):

"When times are tough, you tighten your belts. You don't go buying a boat when you can barely pay your mortgage. You don't blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you're trying to save for college. You prioritize. You make tough choices. It's time your government did the same."

Obama seems to have a thing about Vegas. This is the second time he has insulted that great city. Harry Reid must be seething, but Harry, this time Obama is right. You should not blow your child's college fund at a casino; and that goes for Atlantic City, too, and eastern Connecticut, and New Orleans. The funny thing is, they are all squirming, trying to apologize without losing face.

But the Vegas remark is not the the real scandal in the President's comments.

The scandal is in the last sentence: "Its time your government did the same." He has the gall to brag about making "tough choices" after proposing a $3,800,000,000,000.00 budget, of which $1,400,000,000,000.00 is borrowed???? If I were to follow his government's example, I would be scheduling a flight to Vegas now, and requesting a withdrawal of my entire IRA thinking that I am likely to double or triple it at the slots, and submitting a couple of credit card applications, since the two I have is not nearly enough. That is what I call prioritizing.

It is great having a president who is a role model.

P.s. Liberals, FYI: $3,800,000,000,000. = $3.8 trillion

Environmental Update

I have heard it said that our most precious and dwindling resource is fresh water.  But let’s not put the environmentalists to work on that one, PLEASE.  They ALWAYS get it wrong.  Here is my sad-but-true story about the fight to save fresh water.

                         

About 2 years ago we renovated our kitchen.   Part of the job was a new dishwasher.  We had a 20 year old model that did a great job of cleaning, but it was ugly and noisy, so we bought a new Bosch, a brand that we had used before and our past experience with that brand was very positive.   But the new one—it just did not do a good job:  water spots on the glasses, dirt left on the plates and utensils. After about a year of cajoling the vendor, we finally had an “expert” come in to check it out.   The diagnosis?  Hard water.  But, we asked, why did the ugly, noisy, obsolete 20 year old dishwasher do a good job.

He answered that older dishwashers used 13-15 gallons of water, but the newer ones, in the interest of SAVING WATER, only use about 4 gallons.  Well, it seems if you use more water, the hardness (calcium and magnesium salts) gets washed away, but if you use less, the hardness does not get washed away.  Furthermore, the hardness build up in the circulation of the newer models, eventually restricting the flow of water so that the problem gets progressively worse.   If the water is  soft, as in our previous home, NO PROBLEM.  But, if the water is hard, as it is in most of the U.S., you have to get a water softener!

So, we installed a water softener, to the tune of $1850.00, and that’s cheap.  Here is the catch:   every third night or so, sometimes more, the water softener has to regenerate, a process that CONSUMES MORE THAN 25 GALLONS OF WATER.

For the sake of this discussion, I will overlook the cost of municipal water, which I have to pay for.  Lets just focus on the enviromental aspect:

Let’s say we run our dishwasher once a day.  That means we save 10 gallons of water per day compared with the old fashioned model.  If we regenerate the softener every 3 days (that’s the bare minimum) thats 25 gallons every three days (also the bare minimum).

So, every 9 days we save 90 gallons with the dishwasher and spend 75 gallons (minimum) with the water softener.   That is a best case scenario.   The reality is, the softener has to be regenerated more often that every 3 days and uses more than 25 gallons per cycle.

Hardly seems like much of a boon to the water supply.  It was a boon to my plumber, and to Blake Water Systems, who made the softener.

Do the geniuses, i.e., Congress,  who make environmental regulations ever bother to think these things through? 

 

Technorati Tags: Environment,water softener,water,fresh water,dishwasher,Congress

Copenhagen: Failure is Not an Option!

Super-Earth GJ1214b, seen at right in this illustration, has an estimated temperature of about 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

The above illustration and caption were reported today in Sphere by John D. Sutter. Apparently, there is a planet circling a star about 40 light years from here, and this planet may have WATER on it! Sounds like fertile soil for life: DNA, viruses, bacteria, paramecia, hydras, worms, brachiopods, crustaceans, reptiles, birds, dinosaurs, mammals, civilization! But judging from the caption, the natives (can't use the word aliens, politically incorrect) failed to address global warming.

Anybody wanna bet the atmosphere is chock full of CO2?

Does Al Gore know about this?