My Kids’ Family

or: We interrupt this blog for a small rant

Early this morning at about 4 am, Avi came into our room and crawled into our bed. This does not happen too often anymore and usually we wither don’t even know because we stay asleep, or we just let him come in the bed, roll over and go back to sleep. This morning was one of those times when I woke up. It seems that around this time there were some major thunderclaps in our area.

Thunder in winter? Say it ain’t so! Whats going on here? Until this winter I cannot recall any thunder in the winter. Apparently, thunder needs a warm area in order to form. The cold ground and snow usually make it almost impossible. According to wikipedia, there are approximately three reported instances of thunder snowstorms each year and they usually are around the Great Lakes.

So what is up?

The powers that be in the united states seem to want to, at best, ignore climate change, and at worse deny its existence. I think that the evidence is quite hard to ignore or deny, but our politicians (with some exception) seem to do just that. I realize that “An Inconvenient Truth” is alarmist and shows worse case scenarios, but even with more conservative estimates, our planet is warming and if we do not make major changes right here, right now, there will be terrible consequences in the future.

Obviously we all can do our part. Change to fluorescent bulbs, recycle better, stop using petroleum products in our home etc. Did you know that most dish detergents are petroleum based? Clearly it is impossible to stop all petroleum use, but we can slow it down. If every American family switched to cfl bulbs, we could reduce carbon dioxide by more than 90 billion pounds.

Unfortunately, while this helps, and will push the inevitable farther into the future, it is up to us as responsible people to make sure our government is doing the right thing. We all know that science has eradicated smallpox and people generally do not get polio anymore. Why not fix global warming? I have no doubt in my mind, that science can do almost anything, given the proper time and funding. What we need is leaders who understand that what they do today will truly impact the future. When it is time to vote in November, I hope that most Americans will keep this in mind.

This has been a short rant. We now return you to regularly scheduled blog.

So today our fellow Americans in Texas and Ohio may very well decide who will be the next Democratic candidate to run for President. I must admit that when I did vote last month I was unsure who I was going to vote for right up until I went into the booth.I am a democrat. I vote democrat and I shudder to think of four more years of republicans in the white house. Looking at Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, it seems to me that they are basically the same thing. Their platforms are similar and their voting record is similar. Either one would probably be a fine president. What I think we should look at, then, is which one of them will be better suited to beat McCain in November.

I am not sure what the answer to that question is. Clinton certainly plays the experience card a lot, and she certainly has more than Obama. Will that allow her to win? Maybe. But one thing that I think is interesting. Clinton was trailing in the polls in New Hampshire back in January but when the voting was over, she won. Through the use of exit polling it was shown that she got more votes from women than had been anticipated. I think this is significant in that when people enter the voting booths in November, many women will pull the lever on her name because she is a woman. Will that be enough to get her elected? I don’t know. But it is probable that the presidential election will be as close as the last two presidential elections. Just a few thousand votes can easily make the difference.

I don’t know what today’s outcome will be, but either way, I hope that we will be able to bring another democrat to the white house next year.