Italy and Paraguay in the rain on the big screen in HD on the Spanish-language channel. Gooooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaoooollllll!
June 14th, 2010
Censoring Science
Last Thursday, the Senate voted 53-47 to block the passage of Senate Joint Resolution 26, which read as follows: “A joint resolution disapproving a rule submitted by the Environmental Protection Agency relating to the endangerment finding and the cause or contribute findings for greenhouse gases under section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act.”
This resolution was meant to overturn the EPA’s endangerment finding of December 7, 2009, which found that “the current and projected concentrations of the six key well-mixed greenhouse gases–carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6)–in the atmosphere threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations.” This finding was a response to the 2007 Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, in which the Court had ruled that greenhouse gases are air pollutants covered by the Clean Air Act.
The bill introduced by Senator Murkowski (R-AK) sought to bar the EPA from regulating the emission of greenhouse gases on the argument that the Clean Air Act was never meant to regulate “carbon” (by which they mean greenhouse gases). To me, this would seem to run counter to the Supreme Court’s decision in 2007, but that’s not the issue I wish to address here.
The Clean Air Act is clear: the EPA can set emissions standards for “air pollution which may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare.” At question is whether greenhouse gases are pollutants and, if so, whether they are a danger to the public’s health or welfare. The answer to both questions is clearly yes.
That should have been the end of the matter; scientists had found clear evidence that greenhouse gases are pollutants and pose a risk both to the health of American citizens and, through climate change, a threat to the economic wellbeing of the country. This is not a controversial position in the scientific community; it is the broadly accepted consensus. Yet 47 members of the Senate (including Senator Brown) sought to overturn it.
In other words, 47 Senators sought to censor scientific findings.
This is something I find to be very troubling. The United States Senate is not a scientific body. It is not comprised of scientists. It is not an institution for peer reviewing research. Voting to censor a scientific finding is simply unacceptable. During the floor debate, Senator Lautenberg (D-NJ) perhaps said it best: “I say leave the science to the scientists, not the politicians.”
It is a good thing that this resolution did not pass. Not only would it have been a major setback in confronting climate change, its passage would have also set a dangerous precedent for allowing the government to censor politically inconvenient scientific findings. And that is a road we do not want to take.
June 14th, 2010
Please take Lowell Police Community Survey
The Lowell Police Department has an online survey that asks residents to rate the Department’s performance and to assess the levels of crime in your neighborhood. The survey takes less than five minutes to complete and is not the least bit intrusive. I think it’s great that the LPD is performing this kind of self-evaluation (no doubt just one of a variety of tools used to measure the Department’s own performance). It’s easy to rate yourself but it takes a lot of self-discipline to invite others to rate you. Since the LPD has taken that step, we should all do our part and provide our input. So please take the survey by visiting the Lowell Police website and clicking the “Community Survey” box.
June 14th, 2010
‘Smokestack Lightning: Stories” by Steve O’Connor
Smokestack Lightning
Steve O'Connor
June 14th, 2010
Mercury, RIP
Mercury Sable
We bought our first Mercury Sable back in the 1990s and now have our fourth and fifth versions of that car sitting in the driveway. The recent news that Ford is putting an end to its 71-year old Mercury line provokes mixed feelings in me: I have some affection for the vehicle, otherwise I wouldn’t keep buying them; but the cars weren’t without their flaws so maybe a change will be good. As my own era of Mercury car ownership is nearing its endpoint, I’ve thought back to how we ended up as Mercury customers in the first place.
My initial attraction wasn’t to the car but the dealership – Gervais Lincoln Mercury. I actually bought my first car from the Gervais family back when they sold Buicks on East Merrimack Street. It was a family-owned business with deep roots in Lowell and its location was convenient for service appointments. When Gervais moved to Industrial Ave and switched to Lincoln Mercury, I followed. When the time came for a new car, the Sable seemed perfect: big enough to be safe but not so big as to break the bank or seem ostentatious. The sturdiness of the Sable was proven to me one day about ten years ago. As I passed through the intersection of Chapel Street while driving on Elm, I noticed a flash of red to my left. It was another car running the stop sign on Chapel. It plowed into my driver’s side door, just inches from where I sat, belted into the driver’s seat. The impact was violent and the car spun around, but within seconds I was able to slide out the passenger’s side door with only a couple of minor bumps. The car was totaled.
The Sable was not without its flaws. Our first two had blown engines, but the company fixed them at no charge. Every one of the cars has suffered from chronic air leaks in random tires, an annoyance that has made me an expert at using gas station air pumps in all weather and temperatures. Sometimes it took a while to get problems corrected but in the end, the Gervais family and staff always made sure they were corrected.
In some ways, I see the passing of Mercury as the passing of an era. We’re in the age of the internet and to me, it’s easier to buy things online than in person. But cars have never been in that category. The close proximity of the dealership – I can walk there from my home – and the multi-generational family connections always trumped the convenience of the internet. But with Mercury’s demise, my next car purchase could be a vastly different experience.
June 14th, 2010
President Obama’s 2010 Flag Day Proclamation
FLAG DAY AND NATIONAL FLAG WEEK, 2010
_____________________
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
When the Second Continental Congress adopted the American flag on June 14, 1777, the thirteen stripes alternating red and white, and thirteen white stars in a blue field, represented “a new constellation.” On Flag Day, and throughout National Flag Week, we celebrate its lasting luminosity, and the enduring American story that it represents.
Although the configuration of stars and stripes has changed over the years it has been flown, its significance and symbolism have not wavered. The flag that once helped unite a new Nation to confront tyranny and oppression still flies today as an unequivocal emblem of freedom and liberty. The same flag that has been raised on beaches and battlefields still adorns the uniforms of our heroic sons and daughters serving in America’s Armed Forces, including our troops serving in harm’s way in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This past year, that same flag has continued to soar. When our American Olympic and Paralympics athletes were positioned triumphantly on the podiums of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, our majestic flag flew high above them. From homes to classrooms, civic gatherings to private memorials, we gathered to salute our flag, and in doing so, renewed the eternal promise of this glorious Nation.
More than 220 years after Old Glory was first embraced by our Founders, the Stars and Stripes remain the symbol of our Nation’s pride. On Flag Day and during National Flag Week we recognize the American flag as a symbol of hope and inspiration to people at home and around the world — as a constellation which grows brighter with every achievement earned and sacrifice borne by one of our citizens.
To commemorate the adoption of our flag, the Congress, by joint resolution approved August 3, 1949, as amended (63 Stat. 492), designated June 14 of each year as “Flag Day” and requested that the President issue an annual proclamation calling for its observance and for the display of the flag of the United States on all Federal Government buildings. The Congress also requested, by joint resolution approved June 9, 1966, as amended (80 Stat. 194), that the President annually issue a proclamation designating the week in which June 14 occurs as “National Flag Week” and call upon citizens of the United States to display the flag during that week.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim June 14, 2010, as Flag Day and the week beginning June 13, 2010, as National Flag Week. I direct the appropriate officials to display the flag on all Federal Government buildings during that week, and I urge all Americans to observe Flag Day and National Flag Week by displaying the flag. I also call upon the people of the United States to observe with pride and all due ceremony those days from Flag Day through Independence Day, also set aside by the Congress (89 Stat. 211), as a time to honor America, to celebrate our heritage in public gatherings and activities, and to publicly recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this eleventh day of June, in the year of our Lord two thousand ten, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fourth.
BARACK OBAMA
June 14th, 2010
Today June 14th is Flag Day
Across the United States June 14th is celebrated as Flag Day to honor the nation’s flag and reflect on the flag as a symbol of the nation’s ideals. Although Flag Day is a nationwide observance, it is not a nationally recognized legal public holiday.
Some history: On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress replaced the British symbols of the Grand Union flag with a new design featuring 13 white stars in a circle on a field of blue and 13 red and white stripes – one for each state. Although it is not certain, this flag may have been made by the Philadelphia seamstress Betty Ross, who was an official flag maker for the Pennsylvania Navy. Over the years, the number of stars increased as the new states entered the Union, but the number of stripes stopped at 15 and was later returned to 13.
With calls for celebrating this day harkening back to 1886 and school teacher Bernard Cigrand, it was President Woodrow Wilson who issued a proclamation calling for a nationwide observance of the event on June 14, 1916. However, Flag Day did not become official until August 1949, when President Harry Truman signed the legislation and proclaimed June 14 as Flag Day. In 1966, Congress also requested that the President annually issue a proclamation designating the week in which June 14 occurs as National Flag Week. The President was futher requested annually to issue proclamation to call on government officials in the USA to display the flag of the United States on all government buildings on Flag Day; and to urge US residents to observe Flag Day as the anniversary of the adoption on June 14, 1777, by the Continental Congress of the Stars and Stripes as the official flag of the United States.
Words about the flag:
“The flag of the United States has not been created by rhetorical sentences in declarations of independence and in bills of rights. It has been created by the experience of a great people, and nothing is written upon it that has not been written by their life. It is the embodiment, not of a sentiment, but of a history.” ~ Woodrow Wilson
Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro’ the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave!
- Francis Scott Key, The Star-Spangled Banner, September 14, 1814.
And this poem that I remember learning in my school days:
Your flag and my flag,
And how it flies today
In your land and my land
And half a world away!
Rose-red and blood-red
The stripes for ever gleam;
Snow-white and soul-white–
The good forefathers’ dream;
Sky-blue and true-blue, with stars to gleam aright–
The gloried guidon of the day; a shelter through the night
- Wilbur D. Nesbit, “A Song for Flag Day.”!
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