Sturdy Tires

[yogi]

Honest Abe made Illinois, my home state, his home. Like the current president Abe Lincoln was of the Republican Party. It was during Lincoln's watch that we had our little civil war, but all things considered, he did a wonderful job as being president.

[pilvikki]

how did he get called Honest Abe?

[yogi]

Lincoln was both a lawyer and a politician. Hard to believe that anyone in those professions could be honest, eh? There are numerous stories about his acts of honesty and defending those who are abused. This little article will give you some insight to Lincoln's legendary behavior:

http://www.first-school.ws/features/sto ... st-abe.htm

[pilvikki]

no wonder he got shot; that's just a total anomaly, a freak of nature...

ridiculous or what?

[yogi]

Racism was alive and well back then too. He oversaw a whole civil war about it.

[pilvikki]

a truly fine 'civilization' we have...

[yogi]

The theory is that the more people to populate the earth, the more violent they will become. I read what the ideal number is long ago, but I forgot exactly what it was ... something like 100 million, tops, would get along swell on this planet.

[pilvikki]

a truly chilling thought; our mad dash towards oblivion through sheer stupidity...

[yogi]

That 100 million people number will keep everyone sane. I do know that the current thinking is 10 billion is all the earth can sustain. We are less than 3 billion from reaching that number.

[pilvikki]

so... once we hit the 10 million, next week or so... what then?

[yogi]

That would be ten billion people and it will happen in less than ten years. The theory is that there will not be enough resources available to accommodate that many people. Energy and food will start to get scarce. With global warming the exhaustion of life sustaining elements is being accelerated. We are already seeing famines and a lack of drinking water in many places that didn't have a problem when you and I were young. So, if we don't kill off humanity with nuclear bombs, we will all be starving in the not too distant future.

[pilvikki]

oh dur, i was thinking billions.

yeah, it'll be pretty obvious what'll happen as the fertile flat coastal areas get flooded (bye-bye neatherlands), people get more desperate and the wars will start. just as well we'll miss most of the fun...

[yogi]

The doomsday clock seems to be speeding up. Then again, so does technology. Hopefully a solution will arrive before the Apocalypse. The sobering thought is that our grandchildren will be the ones to face the dilemma.

[pilvikki]

indeed. i get pretty sad when i think about it. we seemed to ha dropped into a wars gap, as in no active war happening in our front yard - for now. but how long will it last?

[yogi]

Like everything else, war has changed. For instance, the headlines are full of stories about culture wars. Just yesterday some lunatic killed off a couple policemen in Paris. He was on a jihad apparently. One good thing about nuclear armament is the mutually assured destruction which stops most aggressors from going to nuclear extremes. The are urban wars happening in a city near you - if not in your own city. You know, all those immigrants are coming to wipe us out on our doorsteps. There is the cyber wars made most popular last year by the Russian intervention into our elections. Then there is the traditional race war, and let's not forget the war on terrorism. It may not be a hot war, although that could change at any moment, but World War III is currently in progress.

[pilvikki]

true enough. and to make sure we'll keep it in mind, it's a war on drugs, war on poverty, war on... whatever the latest fad.

which brings me to the latest word usage: notice how everybody is triggered? "eek, i saw a picture of a rat! triggered!" and the word hero! everybody is now a hero! no need for dying, saving lives or losing limbs, just pick up a stray dog and take it to the pound and - instant hero!

[yogi]

I know what you mean. I see it as a need for a missing element in our societies. There seems to be a deficiency of genuine heroes these days, so pretend ones are being made up. I blame it on Facebook.

[pilvikki]

right with you there! before facebook things just went rumbling along, but fb added a note of hysteria to everything that then spread like a nasty rumour. everyone wants to upstage everybody, preferably in an unpleasant way. kittens are probably the only saving grace there.

[yogi]

"I can has cheeseburger" is STILL my most favored cat meme.

About the only good thing I can say about places like Facebook is that anybody who cares to gets to speak up. Heck, just the other day somebody posted a video about how he murdered and old man. Wasn't that lovely?

[pilvikki]

heard about it, as i got all these warnings not to watch it. AS IF! knowing about it is bad enough.

and stuff like this is why i tell the kids stories at night; to offset whatever they might have heard or gotten upset over during the day. today's story was about a penguin and a polar bear obtaining easter eggs for a couple of kids.