Time to Think

The Gun Culture                          #224 By Hank Silverberg  Whatever I write on this subject there is going to be someone who will yell at me.  America's gun culture is out of control.  First, let me say I don't own a gun. I never thought of getting one because frankly, I don't need one. I have no use for it.  There are 393.3 million firearms in CIVILIAN hands in the United States. That's about 120 guns for every one hundred residents.  We are the only country in the world that has more guns than people. Again, that's civilian owned guns. That does not count the military or law enforcement. No one else comes close. Yemen, in the midst of a nasty civil war, has 52.8 guns per 100 residents. Canada, 34.7. These figures come from a pre-pandemic 2018 survey. The numbers are likely higher now.   If you want the startling numbers on gun violence in the United States, read The Washington Po...

The Heat Is On, And It May Never Go Off.            #223 By Hank Silverberg  This past weekend was very hot. Temperatures were in the 90's in a good part of the United States. It was more like July than May. And this may become the norm instead of the exception.  So, we should ask the question that I always asked as a reporter covering almost anything. What does this have to do with the price of bread?  Well, actually, A LOT.  A report published last week in the U.K. by the government's Meteorological  Office says climate change has increased the chance of oppressive heat waves hitting the Indian subcontinent to once every 3.1 years. And by the end of the century, that could be once every 1.15 years compared to an average 31 years between heat waves in the past.    It's been really hot there for several weeks with highest temperatures up around 120 degrees Fahrenheit every day.  India and Pakistan have been scorc...

Ghosts of the #DFP                    #222 by Hank Silverberg  The defeated former president has been out of office for over a year, but many of the things he did, or didn't do, continue to haunt us. First and foremost is his love relationship with Vladimir Putin and the weakening of NATO, which is now playing out with deadly consequences in Ukraine. That's been well documented over the last few months, so I won't repeat it now.   But here are just a few other examples of the mess Trump left for Biden to clean up.  The shortage of infant formula has become the latest side effect in the supply chain problems created by the Covid-19 pandemic. But there is more to it than that. An article in The Atlantic points out that there was a great deal of stockpiling of the baby formula during the pandemic, making production estimates difficult. Then came an uptick in births combined with a very large decline in the rate of breast...

  W arning Signs                                  #221 By Hank Silverberg  The world may have been ignoring too many warning signs over the last couple of decades, and now they are all coming to roost.  Warning 1:  Perhaps the biggest one here in the United States comes from the west coast where experts say the multi-year drought is going to get worse. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is calling it a "megadrought." NOAA says 60% of the continental U.S. is experiencing drought conditions, the largest area in the U.S. since 2013. And a study published in  Nature Science Change  indicates that the period between 2000 and 2021 was the driest in 1,200 years.  Just one example comes from Utah, where 99% of the state has severe drought conditions and 43% is in extreme drought.  (Courtesty USGS) The drought presents several problems. Drinking water...

The Fourth Estate by Hank Silverberg Freedom of the Press. We take it for granted here in the United States. Our Founding Fathers were wise enough to understand that an unchecked government can easily become an oppressor of free will. We have three branches of government, so the press has often been labeled the "fourth estate" because of its watchdog role in our democracy.   The press, and by extension, broadcast news, is the only profession actually protected in the U.S. Constitution. The First Amendment strictly forbids Congress, or ANY other branch of government, from censoring the press or restricting it in anyway.  That extends to the president, the courts, state legislatures, city hall, local school boards, county governments, or even local planning or zoning boards. So, it was with a great deal of pleasure that I watched President Biden highlight the news media's role in our country when he spoke at the White House Correspondents Association din...