Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends – hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism – these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history.
Americans are prone to be generous and forgiving -- inclined to pull for the underdog. We see this now as George W. Bush leaves office. There are those who object to the criticisms leveled at the former president, and defend his record despite clear evidence of malfeasance and his historically low public approval ratings. Others contend that we should cease rehashing the past and move on to confront the daunting challenges that lay before us.
The Tri-City Herald (McClatchy), allowing the former president to speak for himself, published the full text of his farewell address to the nation without editorial comment (Sunday, January 18, 2009). The former president in outlining what he sees as his accomplishments and in defending his record told us, “I’ve always acted with the best interests of our country in mind… and followed my conscious.” Perhaps we can take him at his word, but it would be an egregious mistake to sugar coat, excuse, or pass over his record in office over the last eight years, whatever his motivation.
One of our nation’s great historians, Pulitzer Prize winning author, David C. McCullough, tells us that, “History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.”
Whether or not we, as a nation, hold Bush and others in his administration legally accountable for abuses, misconduct, and criminality as some demand, surely we must as a people ensure that history hold him morally accountable. We must learn from our mistakes, for without doubt these are perilous times, and we must reaffirm who we are to ourselves and to the world.
The online news organization ProPublica has been tracking last-minute rules and regulations that George W. Bush has been pushing through the rulemaking process in the Administration's waning days. Termed "Midnight Regulations," these are typically changes that if allowed to proceed through a normal rule-making process with time for public comment, would raise significant concern, if not outright revolt.
The rule changes range from weakening the Endangered Species Act to amending procedures for releasing documents under the Freedom of Information Act. A new National Parks rule allowing loaded guns and concealed weapons into some national parks went into effect January 9th. Another rule out of Health and Human Services establishes that federally funded health institutions will allow employees to refuse to provide services that they find "morally reprehensible or "at odds with their religious principles." The rule could well limit a woman's access to federally funded reproductive health services.
The Administration has so far submitted 60 rules and hopes to see them finalized before President-elect Obama takes office.
Total world consumption of marketed energy is projected to increase by 50 percent from 2005 to 2030.
Coal will continue to dominate as the fuel of choice for electricity generation over the next two decades.
The recent increase in concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the result of human activities, mainly the burning of fossil fuels. As the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has increased, so has the average surface temperature of the earth.
A new report led by the U.S. Geological Survey, indicates that the United States faces the potential for abrupt climate change in the 21st century that could pose clear risks to society in terms of our ability to adapt. "Abrupt" changes can occur over decades or less, persist for decades more, and cause substantial disruptions to human and natural systems. Among its findings, the report concludes that:
• rapid and sustained arctic sea ice loss is likely
• an abrupt change in sea level is possible
• the SW United States may be beginning an abrupt period of increased drought
• the pace of methane emissions, a very powerful greenhouse gas, will increase, further hastening warming
The snow crunches underfoot
as we make our way
Finding footing by memory
along a path we visualize
Winding through trees
hung with frozen berries the birds
will harvest in late winter
We’ll watch waxwings dart about
Slightly drunk on the fermented fruit
Giddy with the thought of coming spring
Half blinded by bright sun
and sparkling snow
Our eyes are grateful
for the soothing colors that
Nature sets about the landscape
Yellow ochre, umber, burnt sienna, sepia
Like the waxwings
We anticipate the spring’s pale green
fronds and bulbs
Morphing into summer’s dazzling
panoply of colors
And then fall, where we marvel at
Nature’s ingenuity
As her seeds fall, and float, and fly
And scattered about, await rebirth
Nature takes nothing away
but only changes
And even now, watching
our breath fog the air
We see shimmering in our mind’s eye
All the things we love so much
And pointing to dry reeds along
The frozen pond, call out
Come, see how beautiful.
Back in May, President Trump abruptly dismissed "dozens national security advisors from US National Security Council (NSC). NPR reporte...
