Wasting our energy

First, we dig up a lot of rock and crush it.  This takes time, effort, and very heavy equipment that consumes a lot of fuel, which is burned in the engines.  That consumes a lot of oxygen that living things like ourselves need to breathe, but we never worry about that.

Then the rock is transported to a factory, often far away, sometimes across the ocean.  More time, effort, and fuel is consumed.

At the factory, a very hot (200 degrees C) mixture of water and lye is mixed with the crushed rock.  The particulates are filtered out and thrown away.  Lots of energy is used to heat the liquid initially and dispose of the particulate matter.  The caustic liquid is then allowed to cool, causing a solid precipitate to settle out of the liquid.  The precipitate is collected and dried, then it's heated to 1000 degrees C to melt it (lots more energy consumed here).

While melted in this hot liquid state, a strong electric current, using millions of amps factory-wide, is passed through the liquid (lots more energy required for that).  A pure, molten metal is produced.  By the way, the required electrical energy is so great, you need to have your own hydroelectric dam nearby.  I won't even try to explain how much time, effort, and energy was needed to create that hydroelectric dam.  Needless to say, it's HUGE.

The metal is cooled and rolled into sheets.  The sheets are transported (more energy) to another factory where they are formed into containers (more energy), filled with filtered water (more energy to obtain and transport that) and corn syrup (lots more energy to produce, grow, transport, and process that), and then shipped all over the world (OMG, still more energy).

We're almost done.

Individuals, using machinery called SUVs (weighing tons that took enormous amounts of time, effort, and energy to manufacture), purchase and consume lots of fuel (itself produced at enormous energy and transportation costs) to travel to distribution points and purchase the metal containers full of syrup water.  All of these purchases require money, which itself required vast amounts of time, effort, and energy to obtain.  All of these smiling individuals return to their home areas, where they store the containers until they are transported to other locations, opened, and eight ounces of syrup water, known to be disruptive to the proper biochemistry of the body, is ingested.

Then, get this, the flawless container made of highly refined, nearly pure elemental aluminum metal, is THROWN AWAY, after only a single use!  It is often crushed and returned to the earth in a landfill!

If that isn't collective insanity, then I don't know what is.

Surprise, there is also an energy crisis.  And an environmental crisis.  And a health crisis.  And an economic crisis.  And non-stop war, which is a behavioral crisis that greatly contributes to all the other crises.

Geez-us Crises!

We do it for this.

Change is coming

Obama gets to work

The new president is promising the same thing as all the old presidents -- change.  Just like before, too many people fell for it.  Just like before, they are going to get it.

I've seen a lot of change already, and I'm not too happy about any of it.  I used to start off every morning with a refreshing glass of real orange juice.  It got too expensive, so now I drink tea, just like everyone else in Afghanistan.  I used to have a couple eggs and a strip of bacon with that orange juice, but excessive price increases put an end to that, too.  I remember when every lunch and dinner included meat.  Steak and fish disappeared first, then chicken, then pork, then sausage.  Now I eat beans.

I used to take trips to see the beauty of my country.  National, state, and regional parks, all supported by my tax dollars, started charging me admission.  They added additional fees for a spot to sleep on the cold, hard ground.  They raised those fees continually, even as my taxes increased.  I was angry, because it seemed very wrong.

I used to go wherever I wanted, whenever I wanted - to the stores, to the movies, to the ski areas.  Prices kept rising much faster than my income, so I quit going.

I used to be proud to be an American, but then I began to see through the propaganda and the lies used to whitewash the truth.  Now I am ashamed of my country, and I am especially ashamed of the American people who still beat their chests with pride as they pledge allegiance and support the crimes ordered by their leaders.

Today, a new president will swear to protect and defend the Constitution.  Didn't the last president promise that as well?  Now we have surveillance, militarized police, cages to stand in if we want to speak publicly, and pre-emptive arrests of anyone protesting the new changes.  The courts, rather than dispensing justice, have become government instruments of retribution.  $170 million will be wasted on the pomp of this presidential ceremony while the national economy crumbles.  Would a true president acting in the best interest of the people play the fiddle while Rome burns?