Rainwater and solar panels
Robin Speronis of Cape Coral, Fla., has solved what are major problems for most citizens: she stores rainwater in drums and uses it to wash her clothes and for other purposes and uses solar panels to generate the electricity she consumes. She also uses a portable toilet for her unavoidable physiological needs. Evidently, Mrs. Speronis has found thrifty and sanitary solutions in a world where waste has a different and expensive meaning. But a magistrate ruled that she must hook up to the city’s utilities and threatens to condemn her house if she doesn’t. It seems that our society and its regulators are moving in a direction opposite to the creative and innovative effort that made out country great. What is the logic? Well, her initiative conspires against the logic of the market and could be a “bad example” to follow.
What’s the value of pee?
Due to the predictable shortage of drinking water (which will cause MORE wars), several scientific research centers are studying the possibility of recycling human urine and turning it into drinking water. That would be quite a feat. Ah, but you’d have to pay each citizen for his or her micturition. Even the sanitary-equipment industry is developing urine counters so the citizens may keep track of their liquid output and charge for it, either per cubic centimeter or gallons per month. Ready, aim, urinate.
Apropos the violence in Venezuela
Every hour, 3 people are killed by firearms and 7 are shot. In 2011 there were 32,163 deaths by gunfire, more than twice the deaths recorded worldwide as a result of terrorist attacks — 12,553. The deaths and the violence did not occur in Venezuela but right here in the United States, and the numbers come from GunPolicy.Org and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When are we going to summon the O.A.S.? When will our representatives in Congress demand an effective and real control of firearms? What does Marco Rubio think about all this? When will we apply to our country the policies that we demand other countries to apply? Do we qualify as a secure country? From a serious country we turned into a comic opera some time ago.
David Rivera, Ana Alliegro and a mysterious third party
Speaking of comic (we generously upgraded Rivera, who’s really not even a clown), he seems to be even more mired with the new statements from Sternard and his lawyer.
“For the first time, a convicted congressional candidate has stated in federal records that former U.S. Rep. David Rivera was a part of the conspiracy to funnel illegal contributions to his campaign,” reported El Nuevo Herald on Feb. 26. El Nuevo goes on to say that “in three recent Federal Elections Commission filings, Justin Lamar Sternad declared that a total of $81,486.15 in illegal campaign contributions were coordinated with or tied to ‘Ana Alliegro and/or David Rivera.'”
“‘The contribution was given to me, in cash, by a third party from Ana Alliegro. I later discovered that Ana Alliegro was working with David Rivera,’ Sternad wrote in an amended report that the FEC posted Jan. 30.” Who might the third party be? Some people say they know the name. As the defendants loosen their tongues, there will be a fourth and a fifth and God knows how many more parties. Because the chain is long.
The singular use of a plural
“Russian Spy Ships Dock in Havana,” says the headline over a news item in El Nuevo Herald, Feb. 27. The fact is, however, that there’s only one ship, the Viktor Leonov (CCB-175), as the Associated Press report says. Jesus multiplied the loaves and the fish; El Nuevo multiplies the ship at the dock. Shift the “S” and bingo. El Nuevo also adds to or subtracts from the number of dead in conflict zones, according to political positions, etc. To add detail, it says that the Russian visitor is a “spy ship.” This writer does not know if that assertion is true or not, but the nature of the vessel is immaterial. We live in a world where the C.I.A. spies even that Merkel lady and the U.S. keeps 700 military bases throughout the world.
