Category Archives: Racing

Are 12 Year Olds Adults?

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IMG_6652Can you believe this article that is in the Topeka paper today?  This article says that a judge in Michigan ruled that two 12-year-old girls, “MUST stand trial as adults” for an attempted homicide.

First off, I know nothing about this except what this article says.  But, I don’t need to know anything else.

I can’t think of a situation where a 12-year-old person should be, or in this case, must be, tried as adults.  Both girls?  That is even more insane.

What is the matter with this judge?  Actually, if you read the article, what is the matter with the district/or states attorney that decided to charge these girls with attempted first-degree intentional homicide?  He must have known that they would be tried as adults.

What is the matter with our legal system if we can’t take better care of our children than this? The article says that they could each receive a sentence of 65 years if convicted.  What?  Only 65 year for sacrificing a classmate for a fictional character.  Fuck that.  Let’s just hang them.

There is nothing that a child can do in our society that should mandate that.  Especially they shouldn’t lose their whole lives for trying to kill another 12-year-old  for a game.

Obviously, these children had some issues if they did what they are charged with.  But they didn’t kill anyone, which, in my opinion, doesn’t really matter.  I don’t care if they did kill someone.  They haven’t lived enough to make decisions properly yet.  They need help, but  losing their whole lives isn’t correct.  They get a get out of jail card here.  And that card is-

They are kids.  12 year olds.  In 6th grade, elementary school.

Come on, our society is lost when we legally treat our children as adults.

Water Wars

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I saw this Op-Ed a few days ago from a senior water scientist at the NASA jet Propulsion Lab who says that there is about one year of water left in the water storage system in California right now.

I knew that it has been a slim year for snow there, but didn’t realize January was the least amount of precipitation that has been recorded in California since they started keeping record in 1895.

This is bad.  I know this is also the situation in many areas of Texas.  Last time I rode by Lake Travis, near Austin, the docks were hanging vertical like ladders, not even close to touching any water.

We’ve been pulling water out of the Ogallala Aquifer, here in the midwest, way too fast too.  32% of the depletion of the aquifer during the 20th century happened in 7 recent years.  We’re draining it at record pace, using the water for agriculture, of course, but also for oil and coal extraction.

We’re not in such a dire state as they are in California, but we have our heads as buried in the sand as they do.

It think it is a given that the average citizen, especially in California, is very concerned about having a ample supply of clean water.  We are willing to do just about anything to assure that.

In California, they haven’t even established mandatory water rationing in most of the state. With less than a years worth of stored water available and they aren’t doing this?  It is completely crazy.

This isn’t a political issue.  It is an issue for everyone.  We need to figure out, throughout the United States, how to use our water wisely.  Maybe we should be building a ton more water pipelines instead of fighting about oil pipelines like Keystone.  I don’t know the answer.

I do know that our country can be very resilient  and cooperative when we feel it’s in everyone’s best interest.  We seem to be at odds over a lot of things right now.  This is a pretty simple situation.  We are running out of water where a lot of Americans call home.  There is very little water left, we need to use it more wisely.  And we need to address the problem very soon.

Jay Famiglietti, the author of the LA Times Op-Ed said it in a basic way – We’re not just up a creek without a paddle in California, we’re losing the creek too.

Mono Lake, outside Mammoth Lakes, CA. This is a picture for 2013. I went by this lake, everytime I've been to Mammoth, for years and years. This is so sad.

Mono Lake, outside Mammoth Lakes, CA. This is a picture from 2013. I gone by this lake, everytime I’ve been to Mammoth, for years and years. This is so sad.