Posted on 08/29/2010 6:24:01 AM PDT by jfd1776
Growing up a century ago in sunny Calabria, on the shore of the Tyrrhenian Sea, my grandfather would never have dreamed that the common shrimp and calamari he had to eat every day would ever be considered a luxury; but for his grandson, growing up in Chicagoland sixty years later, a thousand miles from any coast, they certainly were. A luxury, a rare treat.
These little extravagances -- not the major ones like Rolls-Royces and Ferraris -- are important to one's enjoyment of life, and they represent, as much as anything else, the great opportunities of America. For here, even the broke, even the unemployed can indulge in a little luxury now and then. It can help us get through the day, help us endure life's little problems.
For one, it's the appetizer of fried calamari before the meal; for another, it's the dessert afterward. For one, it's splurging on a collectible to display in an étagère; for another, it's the solid brass door handle to install on the front door. Some might call one a waste of money; others might ask why something they think a necessity is on this list at all.
No matter; in a free country, we each have the right to our little extravagances. Perhaps that's one aspect of what the Founders meant by "the pursuit of happiness": our government was to be one that would let its citizens enjoy their lives, in their own way, without standing athwart such little personal desires.
...Unless, that is, your personal little extravagance happens to be a soothing shower at the end of the day -- using a showerhead that consumes more than 2.5 gallons of water per minute. Then the modern American nanny state steps in and declares, "You're wasting water, you sinner!"
Continue reading at http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/08/destroying_jobs_at_25_gallons.html
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Obama’s policies are destroying jobs for the young and blacks at an alarming rate.
Companies are moving overseas to avoid paying taxes, being overregulated and subsidizing Obamacare and other entitlement programs for our commie president and commie leadership in Congress.
This situation will not stop until we start electing conservatives and republicans in huge numbers.
Send a clear message to our bloated arrogant government by not voting for a single democrat in the next election.
Environmentalists are nuts.
Instead of using the available water from the Mississippi River, ExxonMobil and Georgia Pacific have pumped billions of gallons of water a month for over sixty years from the Baton Rouge Aquifer.
This has caused such a depletion in the city’s water supply, that we will soon be forced to drink from the Mississippi!
Don’t tell me about water being returned to the natural cycle, that’s a gigantic tangent.
The water that is thousands of feet down take hundreds or thousands of years to seep down and make their way to this aquifer. Once it is gone, it is gone.
You can remove most contaminants from river water, but you can’t remove drugs. That’s right, you’ll be drinking trace amounts of hormones, viagra etc.
There should be two waste water cycles, One that takes shower and sink water to one source and one that takes sewage to another.
It would be cleaned and re-injected into the earth.
Putting all of this back in the river and into the oceans does nothing for the water table in Nebraska. These water tables have dropped hundreds of feet and the wars of this century will be over fuel and water.
Water may not be destroyed, but as far as having it usable for man’s ingestion, it surely is.
ExxonMobil and Georgia Pacific are only now looking at taking their water from the river. It’s too late.
By the way Baton Rouge water is artesian well based. It only needs a slight addition of salts and flourides and nothing else. It is the best water in the US. Thanks Exxon, GP.
We’ll be drinking America’s wastewater in years to come.
I boil all water before I use or drink it.
It is possible to deplete water sources such a lakes, aquifers and to use more than rivers can reliably supply.
That is a great argument for septic tanks over sewer systems. As a matter of fact, municipal sewer systems would be better served if they built large drain fields to filter the waste water. It is only govt that decided to screw things up by taking all waste to one place, along with making people live on 1/8 acre or less with growth management acts.
The only water one can truly count on is rain water.
There is too much chance that ground water can be easily polluted.
Also, many cities even large ones do not have adequate sewer systems everywhere to get rid of massive torrents of rain that causes flash floods. Some cities do not have ANY sewer systems to store or get rid of the water during torrential downpours.
EPA
Everything the government touches it destroys.
Most cities already drink the wastewater of upstream cities. It's a testament to capitalism that the water is a pure as 'fresh' water.
This is just one example of the stupidity of the left. It is with the means of the US to never have to worry about fresh water if we would simply place small nukes(the type used on Subs and Aircraft carriers)in the ocean making fresh water by the 10s of thousands of galleons a day for each nuke(example: a Carrier can provide 90,000 galleons a day of fresh water). The coastal states would benefit the most but in reality we could supply the whole country with enough water if we built enough nukes. Going without water is just another example of unintended consequences of the green movement and show cases the sheer stupidity of the left wing.
Oops, Galleons should be gallons:)
I don’t think we have the means to nuclear crank out pieces of 8.
The ethanol boondoggle is also depleting the Ogallala Aquifer which is under most of the northern plains. In addition to tapping this resource for irrigating corn, the production of ethanol requires large amounts of water.
I grew up in Baton Rouge and go home a couple of times a year. It always amazes me how soft the water is there. Some people complain that it takes forever to get the soap off after a shower but I like it. I live in Alaska now and have a well. The water tastes excellent but I have to run it through a filter and water softener to get the iron and minerals out. Never thought about BR running out of artesian water, sad.
“The water that is thousands of feet down take hundreds or thousands of years to seep down and make their way to this aquifer.”
You that how? Seems like junk science you have been told and now repeat as truth.
You that how? = You KNOW that how?
“The ethanol boondoggle is also depleting the Ogallala Aquifer which is under most of the northern plains.”
It also extends Southward and covers the Texas Panhandle.
Billions a month is a bit of hyperbola but who's counting? Instead you might ask why they went for well water instead of the Mississippi. I guarantee that the environmentalists had a heavy hand in there. Exxon/Mobile and Georgia Pacific are easy to demonize (evil corporations).
Baton Rouge water is artesian well based. It only needs a slight addition of salts and flourides and nothing else.
That's not what artesian means.
Depends on the time frame you are working with. Mother Nature doesn't notice, only humans.
NOT JUNK SCIENCE
I was a part of a plan to pipe water to GP from a site on the MS RIver. The water usage by GP is 6 billion gallons a month.
Done because it costs less to treat for use than the water in the river.
no junk science. It is capitalism at work. I’d rather pay ten cents more for toilet paper than have the potable water for citizens used for making toilet paper.
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