Something To Think About Archive

John Kerry is resigning as the President’s so-called “climate envoy,” a post we believe was made-up just for Mr. Kerry. But it’s interesting to note that while he jetted around the world in a private Gulfstream, by some estimates spewing over 700,000 pounds of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the focus of his efforts, China, has increased their emissions by 13% since 2015 while the U.S. decreased ours by some 9%. And yet, we are the ones vilified among the climate change glitterati and are expected to forgo gas appliances and buy only electric vehicles despite not having the capacity to power them.

According to behaviorist B.F. Skinner, “Education is what survives after what has been learned has been forgotten.”

Actor Mickey Rooney once observed that “You always pass failure on the way to success.”

Martin Van Buren said: “It is easier to do a job right than to explain why you didn’t.”

Author Carol Adrienne reminds us that “Each day has its own purpose and fits into the great plan of our life.”

Columnist Peggy Noonan says: “Big things are best said, are almost always said, in small words.”

Instead of wasting time and money, trying to impeach the incompetent Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Republicans in the House should focus on passing legislation, that will have a real impact by stopping the flow of illegal immigrants into the country that is overwhelming the services of many states both on the border and hundreds of miles away.

According to motivational writer William A. Ward “Adversity causes some men to break; others to break records.”

George H. W. Bush, one of the last true Public Servants said: “There is but one just use of power and it is to serve people.”

As Mae West once noted: “You’re never too old to become younger.”

If you think that the Israel-Hamas war is easy to stop and peace attainable with Palestinian self-rule remember that they are a democracy, at least in name, having elected Hamas as the governing party of Gaza. But peace cannot come easily to the region when the Palestinian postal service in the West Bank and Gaza is paying stipends to the families of martyrs, also known as Palestinian terrorists.

According to Publisher Malcom Forbes, “Those who enjoy responsibility usually get it; those who merely enjoy exercising authority usually lose it.”

We’re sure that Gavin Newsom is happy to get another $3.1billion from the Biden Administration to throw at the $100 billion “highspeed train to nowhere.” Originally budgeted at $33 billion to run from San Francisco to LA, and to be completed by 2020, the Bakersfield to Merced leg is still yet to be completed and is being built on existing tracks making the highspeed part of the deal impossible to meet. The rest of the system connecting the Bay Area and LA? Maybe in another 15-20 years according to its Peer Review Committee.

The late Oilman T. Boone Pickens advised us to “Be willing to make decisions. Don’t fall victim to what (he called) the “ready-aim-aim-aim syndrome.” You must be willing to fire.”

Aerospace engineer and businessman Norman R. Augustine says that “Motivation will almost always beat mere talent.”

Coach John Wooden cautions that “For every peak there’s a valley, so don’t get too high.”

Gain of Function biological research is an insane gamble with world health, vis a vis COVID, and the fact that the U.S. funded such research in China, of all places, is beyond belief. Anthony Fauci’s claim in recently surfaced emails that the benefits outweighed the risks is simply incredible and is a classic case of a scientist more excited about what CAN be done rather than what SHOULD be done.

Justice Sandra Day O’Conner believed that “It is the individual who can and does make a difference in this increasingly complex world of ours. The individual can make things happen.”

Richard Lara campaigned to be California Insurance Commissioner warning about the risks of climate change. Is it any wonder that insurance companies took that as a signal to raise rates and then abandon the state when he blocked those increases, leaving many residents with no options? And let’s be clear: There’s nothing “Fair” about California’s Fair Plan that many are left with.

Book critic George Scialabba calls “imagination” “…intelligence having fun.”