Maggie's Farm

It is important to fully understand what is going on regarding the fires in California. Three things happen every year: 1.Winter/spring rains with moderate temperatures which produce huge growth of woody shrubs. 2. Long dry Summers which kill these plants and dries them out making them fire hazards. Millions of acres of fire hazards and much of it on steep slopes. 3. Fall Santa Ana winds that are relentless and can reach 90 mph. These wind typically are worse on mountain/hill slopes.

These conditions have nothing to do with climate change, fire suppression or PG&E. In fact, you can look up the historic actual clause of 95% of fires in California's long history of these fires is arson or human incompetence. There is literally nothing that California can do to change or mitigate these factors. Every year these fires happen and every year something is blamed for the fires and/or the extent of damage. We should all remember that a few decades ago the fire authorities blamed cedar shingled roofs. They often blame arsonists. Earlier this year the blame went to PG&E. If by chance the fire occurs or spreads to a heavily forested area vs a heavily shrubby area they blame lack of fire suppression. All of these things are factors but the three underlying causes are cyclical and cannot be prevented or mitigated.

The biggest difference this year from prior years is the blaming of the deep pockets of PG&E which has resulted in the unanticipated side effect of large scale blackouts which unarguably make these disasters a magnitude worse than they would otherwise be.

Part of the problem is the fires create an opportunity for special interests and politicians to mislead the public with the intent of directing money and effort to various boondoggles. This is clearly on display in every press release.

Prof: "Trump mentally impaired"

A few years back I was attending a graduation ceremony where a friend was graduating as a chiropractor. A former co-worker also attended and I got a chance to reconnect with him. He was pleased with the new graduating class and the school and his opinion was that chiropractors had made a long comeback from the days when chiropractors were claiming to cure measles and other diseases. His opinion was that the entire chiropractor community had been badly hurt by those who used quackery in their practice. I feigned sympathy with him as I was not a fan of chiropractors.

But with so many psychiatrists publicly willing to declare that a politician they hate is mentally ill puts the entire mental health community under a shadow with serious doubts about their ability to practice in medicine or mental health. Perhaps, like chiropractic medicine, that psychiatry is just a lot of mumble jumble and casting bones on the ground to read the future. Is this psychiatry professor from Texas and the many others who have made a similar claim serious? Deranged? Or even mentally ill himself?

It appears that Great Britain, the U.S. and Canada are facing such serious political issues that the common folks and the elite are facing off into a possible civil war. A similar situation is true for almost every European country as well. Why? Are the elite that stupid or is there something else going on? Is there a conspiracy to create havoc in the Western world or is all of this coincidental?

In Jr High (this was back in 1957) I had an opportunity to select a curriculum that was designed to prepare boys for the work force. It was unique: five periods a week of drafting, five periods a week of metal shop, five periods a week of wood shop. It was awesome. My parents and my counselors tried to talk me out of it. Because most of the students were older failing students and this was designed to "house" them until they reached the age where the school system could get rid of them. In spite of the older tough guys and low status of the class I enjoyed the classes and fell I made the right decision.

But the real story was our English class. We had a recent teachers college graduate, a nice guy, about 24, big guy so he at least had a chance with this disruptive group of boys/men. But he quickly discovered that there wasn't going to be any "learning" going on and even controlling the class was a toss up. So he made a decision to read to us. He asked the class, explained that one way or another they all had to be there and if they would agree to this new idea we would have no homework and everyone would get a passing grade. It worked. For the entire year he read classics and Greek mythology to the class. For me this was great, what an eye opener. I still enjoy Greek mythology and learned a lot from it. I do wish I could go back and tell this teacher how much I enjoyed his efforts.