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In recent years there has been discussion regarding the funding of police. Some people seem to want to eliminate police, while others want them retained. My opinion is a little different. I want the police to enforce the laws, and I think that more police will be necessary for that. As it is, the police enforce those laws that they feel like enforcing for people they feel like working for. I have complained to the police several times over the past several years, but neither arrest nor prosecution ...

'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less.'. From Alice in Wonderland by Charles Dodson, AKA Lewis Carroll

One fundamental element of language is that the words have the same meanings for everyone using that language. On the other hand, metaphorical and ironic uses of words are common and are meaningful, and languages evolve, in part, by people using words in different ways. Some people use words ...

I don't meet everyone, but the people that I do run into seem to be less intelligent than people used to be, and they seem to be less willing to accept correction. I fear that Donald Trump is responsible for part of that. When people who have IQ's in the 80's and low 90's saw one of their own as president of the U.S.A., they seem to have gotten the idea that if he can do that, then I should do whatever I want to do, and no one can condemn me. Part of this thinking is that I have been among the lowest ...

Humans often ask the wrong questions, then are disappointed when the answers do not work, or work as they would have liked. A realm where that is blinding clear is in regard to the drugs that people use for amusement. Many people ask or wonder about the reasons for drug use, but the answers that they see often related to family, upbringing, environment, socialization, etc., but there is little said about neurotransmitters and hormones. Much drug use is an attempt to get the level of something back ...

A few days ago, I wrote a post extolling the virtues of thermal depolymerization for the disposal of the bodies of the dead, and that is a good idea, but since then I noticed many places that had multiple bins for the disposal of trash. It bothered me that there were so many bins, and that people were expected to sort their trash, because it could all go into a thermal depolymerization unit and the organic matter can be reduced to short chain hydrocarbon oil.
The process converts long hydrocarbon ...