Tehachapi News

Even if it is only a “ten year cycle” America would be hard-pressed to survive a climate change of such duration threatening our food supply. Maybe this had something to do with Time Magazine’s choice of Vladimir Putin?

Many of us view the present political situation and presidential contenders as lunacy and lunatics gone amok against America; and one can only wonder how the rest of the world is going to react to this. For example, some are asking what possessed those responsible for Time Magazine naming Vladimir Putin as “Person of the Year.” We listen to the “justification” for this decision, but are still left wondering whether it was really justified? Whether or not, it does seem to add somewhat to the uneasy feeling not all is right with such thinking to honor a KGB hardliner. And no matter how it is spun by those at Time, the word “honor” remains. But it may be, in my opinion, the leadership at Time recognize the value of someone like Putin so very dissimilar to our politicians that has a no-nonsense approach to dealing with the realities of the real world and isn’t talking shameless if not lunatic trash about their “faith” while pandering for votes.

In a way, I can’t help but believe there was some wishful thinking by those at Time Magazine in their choice of Putin, perhaps even a broad hint to the present crop of presidential contenders here in America. As I wrote some time ago, we want a strong man, not a woman, to take over in the White House; and shedding tears, wrapping “Christmas Presents” hardly helped Ms. Clinton’s case; it won’t help any man running for the office to show tears or anything that would be construed as weakness or feminine sensitivity. The MSM may convey the false impression we want someone who is “sensitive” in the White House, but honesty demands the truth, and the truth is we want someone that can be as “practical” as Vladimir Putin, even though that translates as “ruthless.”

The era we live in demands a leader who is “practical;” and by my definition of this, anyone claiming “godliness” is counted out of the running. I don’t want anyone of “faith” so much as I want someone that will make the hard choices in favor of America rather than corporate greed and the other nations of the world. In the harshest but most truthfulness of the matter, I want someone like a Truman who could make that decision to drop the bombs on Japan, someone that knows the buck stops with them and takes personal responsibility and is accountable for their decisions rather than the weasels America has been cursed with of late. Whoever takes the position of being the anti-weasel will get my vote.

And what if famine overtakes the world food supply? I find it more than a little curious that none of our present “choices” have mentioned the coming “Food Fight.” In fact, it isn’t a subject world leaders are willing to discuss openly; but world leaders know food supplies are running dangerously low worldwide. When this is mentioned in the MSM, it is almost as an afterthought, not deserving of real attention being given it.

Whatever the causes of climate change, it is a reality. America is currently being hammered by fires, floods, drought, ice storms and other kinds of violent weather that have greatly diminished our own food production. Vital forests and fresh water sources are being depleted at an alarming rate worldwide while valuable farm lands are being converted to cities causing increased air pollution and even our oceans are becoming polluted and fish populations are threatened and depleted by this as well as expanding commercial fishing.

Famine in time past has decimated entire civilizations, and was the given cause of Jacob and his sons moving to Egypt where Joseph is credited for saving Egypt during a time of famine. The following history of the Hebrews had its beginning with famine, but also includes the story of mothers eating their own children:

II Kings 6:25-30: And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass’s head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove’s dung for five pieces of silver. And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king. And he said, If the LORD do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress? And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to day, and we will eat my son to morrow. So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son. And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes; and he passed by upon the wall, and the people looked, and, behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh.

If people are depending on science to come to the rescue, this is not going to be possible in a world nearing seven-billion people, the greatest number of which are doomed to continue breeding with no thought of how to provide for the resulting children but still demanding bread, and entire nations so rooted in corruption throughout the leadership there is no possible way for the achievements of science to reach those most in need.

As if astronomy and quantum physics were not enough to dazzle the imagination, the biological sciences certainly offer up a milieu of fantastic ideas for the SciFi writer. It boggles the mind to consider what Mary Shelley might have done after a sit down session with J. Craig Venter, for example.

In an interview by Alan Boyle with J. Craig Venter about his book “A Life Decoded” at one point he says to Venter, “It’s interesting that you mention gene therapy and stem cells. The recent advance with induced pluripotent cells appears to have relied on some of the techniques that have been used in gene therapy. Do you think that hints at a convergence of all these different technologies, rather than seeing this as genetics vs. cell-based therapies? Venter answers, “Well, it wasn’t gene therapy, it was just transferring genes into those cells. I think gene therapy is one of those simplistic notions that sounded really good to everybody, because if something was broken, and you knew what it was, you could go in and fix it. I think the real issue is that we have 100 trillion cells, and it’s hard to get the right genes under the right regulation into the right cells for the effects we’re looking for. Gene therapy would be great if you’re dealing with individual cells outside the body - so-called ex vivo gene therapy. Or if we were a giant amoeba with only one cell, it would probably be pretty effective. But that’s not the case. The scientific community is as capable as the rest of the world of coming up with naïve ideas. I think that was clearly one of them.”

That last statement by Venter about naiveté is something those that believe science will come to the rescue of humankind had better heed. The SciFi stories and films are all there about an earth unable to supply enough food for the population, but most have their basis in the truth of the story in II Kings of what famine does to people. There is no rosy scenario on the horizon for our species, and people are smarter here in America than politicians; people are going to want a President who will be as “practical” as Vladimir Putin given the growing crises America is facing, especially in view of the coming “Food Fight.”