UNWISE ENERGY CHOICES

NUCLEAR ENERGY

We are storing spent nuclear fuel rods at the nuclear power plants. In many countries there is NO OTHER ALTERNATIVE to accumulating more and more spent fuel rods, which are stored at the plant. This is because no one can agree on what to do with the spent nuclear fuel rods which are both highly radioactive and generate heat.

Initially, the fuel rods are stored in water that has to be kept cool. If the water is not carefully watched, it may split into hydrogen and oxygen, which is a fire and/or explosion waiting to happen.

Sweden, Finland, and New Mexico in the US are the only places where deep underground storage of spent nuclear fuel is actually being done. Almost everywhere else, the spent fuel rods are kept at the power plant, getting more and more dangerous as the number of spent fuel rods increases over time.

There is no way we can be certain that the underground facilities will be effective for thousands of years until the fuel is no longer radioactive. However, we can be certain that keeping the older spent fuel rods on the surface, next to the plant, is immediately dangerous, if there is a huge earthquake or other natural disaster.

OFFSHORE OIL DRILLING

The US treats an offshore oil rig as if it were a ship. Such treatment means that the rig can chose which country's flag to fly. A ship is regulated by the country who's flag it flies.

THIS IS REALLY STUPID. A rig is permanently attached to the seabed, and should be regulated by the country where the rig is located.

For instance, the BP oil rig that blew up in the Gulf of Mexico, was flying the flag of the Marshal Islands, which means that the safety regulations that the rig followed were the safety regulations from the Marshal Islands.

Do you think perhaps the US has stronger safety regulations than the Marshal Islands?

FEAR OF GLOBAL FINANCIAL FAILURE -- NOT NECESSARY

Many of you are feeling fear of global financial failure.

Honestly, the fear you are feeling is about something that already happened.

The financial mess was a mess caused by the sudden drop in the money supply. The money supply problem then triggered a one to two year financial crises, which is now over.

Those of you who ignored the carefully worded warnings about "getting rich quick means the possibility of getting poor quick" have to start over. You may have to sell your real estate short, losing the down payment(s) that you made. You may have to find a lower paying job because your job was funded by the fake real estate boom. If you sold your mutual funds during the crises, you may never recover the loss.

But the rest of the world is moving on. You also will have to move on.

Many of us have lost everything at least once in our lifetimes. We know that is it possible to start over. Actually, things are often easier the second time around as one did hopefully learn something from the first failure.

This is the US. We believe in second chances.

I will guarantee you that if you dwell on the past, you will miss your future.

PUTTING THE GENIE BACK IN THE BOTTLE -- LIMITING THE NUMBER OF MARIJUANA CLINICS

Why is San Jose trying to close medical marijuana clinics? (Please note that the vote has been carefully scheduled during Easter Vacation.)

Rather than actually believe in the science behind the numerous US Presidential Commissions on marijuana, the San Jose City Council would rather go with the "gut" of its mayor, who thinks marijuana is an "evil" that attracts the "wrong crowd". (I find that defining sick people as evil is both sick and evil.)

I think the pharmaceutical industry is quietly putting pressure on politicians to keep medical marijuana from patients. If patients are using marijuana instead of expensive, addictive, often dangerous, modern drugs, the pharmaceutical industry does not make as much money.

San Jose wants to be the center of the bio-chemistry industry (the people who make designer drugs that doctors prescribe).

Is there a connection?

Does anyone care about the millions of patients that marijuana has and is helping?

THEATER WHEELCHAIR ACCESS

Theaters are set up so that people sit in seats above the person in front of them, so that the view is not blocked. In order to get the maximum number of seats into a theater, the seats are close together and all seats are the same size.

There are several problems with getting a wheelchair into the theater's seating.

1. Wheelchairs vary in height, so that a wheelchair in front of a normal seat may block the view of the person sitting behind the wheelchair.

2. Most theaters use stairs as the way that people get to their seats. This means that wheelchair seating is only possible where there are no stairs.

3. Theater seats are very close together, leaving very little room to walk between the seats. A wheelchair almost always takes up more space than a row of seating.

Personally, I think that putting wheelchair people in the first row, transferring the person from the chair to the seat, and removing the wheelchair until the performance is over, can be the best alternative. I know of NO THEATER who does this.

I have been seated at the goal post on ground level at football games which I attended only to watch the marching band. It is difficult to watch the patterns of the band from ground level. It is difficult to see the band from 50 yards away.

Many times, I have been seated on the edge of the theater seating. Generally, when sitting on the edge, the performance is somewhat lopsided.

Last time I went to the Shark Tank, many years ago, the only wheelchair seating available was in the most expensive seating area. Unless you were willing to pay premium prices, you could not attend using a wheelchair.

Often, the wheelchairs are put at the top of the seating, so that no one else is bothered by the wheelchair. This means that wheelchair people get the worst seats in the house.

Some local movie theaters have wheelchair seating right before a balcony. Sometimes this seating is in the center of the seating. These theaters are the ones I attend when using my wheelchair. However, I know that the seating in the center of the theaters was only achieved by disabled people suing the theaters.

Please understand that I am ALWAYS early for the theater, so that I can get whatever wheelchair seating is available, and so that if there are difficulties, they can be worked out. Even so, I dread going to a new theater, because I am never certain of the difficulties I will encounter.

FELONIES YOU MAY BE COMMITTING

I hear that there is a LOT of office bragging from immigrants who are making money in foreign stock exchanges and keeping the money overseas so they do not pay taxes. They seem to think that they can fool the IRS.

The IRS NEVER lets a US taxpayer get away with NOT REPORTING INCOME. The latest effort is called Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts. US taxpayers, both individuals and corporations, MUST report all of their financial interests in bank accounts in foreign countries. The report is due June 30 of each year.

Have you done your FBAR report? Not doing your FBAR report is a felony. Also, generally the IRS can start seizing your money and your homes to pay the steep fines you will have to pay when you are again free to pay fines.

Recently, the US forced Swiss banks to reveal bank account information. Believe me, if they can get a Swiss bank to give them information, whatever bank you are using will also give the IRS information. Who knew terrorism laws could be so useful against tax evaders?

BTW, it is also a felony in California to pay someone cash for full time work, because you are then not correctly paying your worker's compensation insurance.

The IRS has a FBAR amnesty program where you can confess, pay the taxes, and move on with your life. May I recommend that you hire a tax attorney BEFORE confessing?

OUR BLUE CALIFORNIA SKIES

Yesterday, the sky over Silicon Valley was a rich cobalt blue. I congratulated myself and all other Californians.

WE TURNED THE YELLOW SKY BLUE!

We did this by passing strong air control laws and enforcing those laws. More importantly for the city skies, we test all cars for smog emissions, to ensure that the cars on the road are not polluting.

But we are from California, so we do this our way.

Any time someone has to get their car smogged, they are allowed to complain long and loudly about the hassle. Everyone makes sympathetic noises while empathizing with the complainer. We complain about the cost, the hassle, the fines for being late, about everything to do with the smog program.

But WE GET OUR CARS SMOGGED.

Then, each of us smiles at our blue sky, knowing that we did our little bit to keep it blue.

TAKE FROM THE POOR, GIVE TO THE RICH. REALLY?

I really do not understand why anyone making less than $500,000 a year would vote for the Republican Party.

An analysis of the current Republican US budget shows that the Republicans are going to give MORE tax breaks to the rich. The Republicans will pay for these tax breaks by taking money that is used to provide food to the poor, and from Medicare.

Of course, they tell you that this is to balance the budget.

If my memory is correct, and it usually is, the only time since WWII that the deficit got smaller was during the Clinton administration. The "take from the poor to give to the rich", has been a Republican policy of all the Republican administrations except the Eisenhower administration. (It is interesting to note that the deficit usually gets MUCH bigger during a Republican administration.)

And yet, many of you fall for this Republican con game.

Exactly how does giving tax breaks to the rich help you pay for shoes for your child? Exactly how does giving tax breaks to the rich pay for your child's college education? Exactly how does giving tax breaks to the rich help you buy a house?

Personally, I think "trickle down" should be "tinkle down".

EVIL OR IGNORANT?

Is it evil or ignorance that causes people to burn religious texts from other religions?

Is it evil or ignorance that causes people to cut off the heads of people who are tying to help them?

When you get down to the basics of how people should deal with each other, you come to the Golden Rule, "Deal with other people in the way that you want other people to deal with you."

NO ONE wants to watch a book that they believe tells essential truths to be burned. NO ONE wants their head cut off.

It is NOT a religious act to punish a person trying to help you for something done by one stupid, ignorant person who lives half a world away.

There will NEVER be peace in your country or in the world, unless we all realize that each of us has a slightly different point of view regarding religion. This is why democracy is not just the rule of the majority. Democracy is also the protection of the rights of the minority.

Those who exercise power through intimidation are WRONG. The real truth is that if you have to exercise intimidation in order to have power, you are essentially weak.