Month: February 2025

What’s That Smell? Or, Never Ignore the Smell of Leaking Gas

.

The natural gas that fuels our furnaces, water heaters, and gas stoves is naturally odorless. But it’s also highly flammable and dangerous, so sulfur is added to it to give it a distinctive odor, in case of leaks. My dad taught me early in my life to pay attention and tell an adult if I smelled gas.

When I grew up, I learned the gas company wanted us to report the smell of leaking gas to them immediately, so they could avert a potentially deadly catastrophe. They were confident. I never questioned their authority, especially because they said the same thing my dad did, and he was a trusted source.

I think it’s normal to respect people we trust or people we don’t know who speak with confidence. We’re inclined to believe they know what they’re talking about, and the speaker I was listening to recently was almost stridently confident. But when I heard the insistent Karoline Leavitt say:

Continue reading “What’s That Smell? Or, Never Ignore the Smell of Leaking Gas”

For You, the Thoughtful Reader

Image credit: S.T. Ranscht

I have been absent from here for a long time — a story for the future. I don’t know how many people will see this, much less read it. In a not-so-secret pocket of my heart, I hope at least one thoughtful reader will share it with at least one other thoughtful reader and so on and on and on . . .

Don’t we all? Dream on . . .

 — You, a fellow blogger

I never took a class specifically about Civics. No, not Honda Civics. The study of the rights and duties — the privileges and obligations —  of citizens. I’m not sure I could even define “civics” before I graduated from high school.

Since then, I’ve had many civic experiences. Like, voting — both a right and a duty. Every election is a chance for us (the citizens) to wield our personal, non-violent power to form a majority opinion about how we will be governed. That’s because our government’s authority and legitimacy require the “consent of the governed” That’s us. If we don’t consent, the government can’t last. This also depends on each of us committing to live under the Rule of Law.

The Law of the Land in our land, the USofA, is our Founders’ painstakingly-crafted Constitution, complete with the expandable Bill of Rights. The Constitution’s Prelude defines our Government’s reason for being with a list of our expectations. The Constitution’s body delineates the unique structure of our Government with its three independent branches. It also sets the Government’s boundaries within a system of checks and balances so that none of the three branches can take control of the other two. You know, so we don’t end up with an anarchy or an oligarchy or a monarch or a dictator or a tyrant.

Why would they worry about that?

 — Those optimists who are also naïve

Three reasons:

Continue reading “For You, the Thoughtful Reader”