The Pros and the Cons

Here's an article about how ethanol can reduce our addiction to fossil fuels. It basically says that within 5 years, the technology will exist that will allow us to derive up to 30% of our energy needs from biofuels.

Although production capacity has doubled in the last two years, we aren't producing a fraction of what we are burning as fossil fuels. As a nation, we consume roughly 170 billion gallons of gasoline, whereas we only have the capacity, right now, to produce roughly 5 billion gallons of ethanol a year.

Anyway, here's the article.

You don't hear people use the term "Going postal" that much anymore. My belief is that the Post Office has a really good PR firm...or really good lawyers.

My brother is a letter carrier. I must admit, sometimes I'm jealous. He flunked out of a party college, and now he makes more money than I do. I have a Purdue degree for crying out loud. All he has to do is get the right letters into the right boxes. And not get bit by a dog or run over by a car.

Once I was at his house and I noticed his magazine rack. I said to him, "Did you ever notice that mailmen always have the best magazines?"

I guess I do owe a debt of gratitude to my mailman. Without him, I'd never get those advertisements for a free windshield replacement or breast enlargement surgery. And I'd have to get my magazines all wet by myself.

"Honk if voted for John Smith. It's the big round button in the middle of your steering wheel."

I love that bumper sticker. However, I would never put a bumper sticker on my vehicle. For one thing, I notice that those who seem to love bumper stickers don't agree with me politically. Two, I guess I just don't think its polite to force politics down other people's throats. Also I'd be afraid of getting my vehicle vandalized.

Having said that, here's some more:

"Your stupid!"

"4 out of 3 people have trouble with fractions."

"I bet Jesus would have used his turn signal"

"Horn broke, watch for finger"

"It is better to have loved and lost than to have to live with that psycho"

You should never steal.

Even if you go to a huge big-box store where they make billions of dollars by gouging people, you should never steal.

They'll never miss it, you might think to yourself. That's probably true. Even if they watched you do it, they probably wouldn't approach you about it. They'd be afraid of a lawsuit.

Maybe you need it. Maybe you need it really badly. Maybe you might suffer harm if you don't get it soon.

Doesn't matter. It's a sin to steal.

If you still haven't figured it out, just think: what if someone stole it from me? Which comes back to the golden rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

The other day my wife and I were in Lafayette, the city where we met.

It was strange going back to Lafayette, Indiana. It's kind of a crummy city. Living here in Indianapolis, I guess I got used to never being more than 20 minutes from a TGI Friday's. Now that's what I call civilization. Also, Lafayette stinks. I mean that it smells badly.

It was strange returning to Lafayette because, after 12 years away, I ran into a woman that I knew when I was a student at Purdue. I felt like I had to apologize or explain myself. I didn't want her to think that I had never gotten away from Lafayette. I've seen penguins, for crying out loud. I've been sea kayaking with baby seals. I didn't want her to think that I had never accomplished anything in my life, that I hadn't even made it out of town.

Then she told me she still worked in a cafeteria. Suddenly my feelings of inadequacy disappeared.