Right about Water

We are all bombarded by screeching about "conserving water". And the ruling classes in DC pass laws mandating devices like toilets that can work poorly for every home in the US. This one size fits all mentality in DC really disturbs me: it's an imperial attitude. They rule, we must obey, even if the 'rule' makes no sense for us. Why push these mandates on so many places that don't need them ? This is the same imperial attitude by DC that screens old, infirm air passengers and children to the same standard as persons having many markers in common with almost every air terrorist since and including 9/11. "They" simply refuse to use the brain as a tool.

Back to water. From my post of November 19, 2009:

Rain falls from the sky for free. This is a true statement. evaporation caused by the Sun creates water vapor that circulates in the atmosphere, eventually condensing out and falling as rain. All free. The Sun provides the external energy and the Earth's gravity and rotation provide the forces for weather circulation.

Water is almost never truly destroyed. It's simply used in physical processes (e., g. washing, cooling, etc.) or chemical processes (e. g. plant photosynthesis). However, even for the chemical processes, when looked at as an entire system, the net gain or loss of water is practically zero. Why ? Water is an exceptionally stable molecule. If broken apart by energy in one process, another process tends to re-form the water molecule, releasing energy.
[End of quotes]

My town here in Massachusetts was forced by the state to impose water restrictions in the summer. The town is rather rural, and draws its water from shallow wells; the entire town uses septic systems, meaning that almost every single molecule of water drawn from the wells and used by the people is returned to the watershed. The water comes from the wells, goes to the homes and is used in their showers and toilets and washing machines and goes into each home's septic system back to the ground. Even water used for sprinkling lawns and plants goes back into the ground, like rain. A complete, renewable cycle.

Sounds soooo green, no ?

It is. But the State doesn't care. A much larger city next door pumps water from upriver to us, and uses the water and then dumps the waste water into the sea. The water is lost from the natural watershed. So you would think it would be forced to treat the water and return it to the watershed. That would be rational.

Nope. They have even fewer water restrictions than us. More votes, I guess.

I wrote some letters to the local newspaper complaining. There's an excerpt [I've changed the name of my town to 'Anytown']:

"The allotment for each 'Anytown' resident is 65 gallons per day of water to be in compliance with the state Department of Environmental [Protection] regulations.” Let’s see what that means for a rural community like 'Anytown'. For a home with a two acre lot and an average year, the rain falling from the sky for free and that recharges the groundwater is approximately 2,378,000 gallons per year. A two person household’s state allotment is 47,450 gallons per year. So the allotment is just 2% of the water the household’s land contributes. Remember, in 'Anytown' our septic systems return almost all that household’s use back into the groundwater. Actual water taken from the watershed is practically zero."

The local officials understand this and agree, but that doesn't matter. We get oppressed by the same mandates from the State regarding watering and toilets and all that other garbage.

Government that doesn't think just doesn't work. It acts stupidly and hurts the people. Government should do the RIGHT THING, and stop being expedient and treating every situation uniformly.

Aside: Some places to have water problems. Los Angeles, for example. All those people living in a natural desert. I wonder what LA does with its waste water ? My guess is that it flows to the sea. Why not treat the water and return it to a watershed somewhere, like the Central Valley ?

Markets

I bought some BHP Friday and added a bit to MT. I'll keep making small moves like these over time and price points. These are trades for a bounce back. I'm not that bullish, but the beefers seems a bit too anxious to dump their stocks and go short. I'm just trying to hit a single or double with these trades. No base stealing.

Word of the Day

"Catachresis" - noun [$10] plural - catachreses.
Catachresis means an incorrect use of words.
Sentence: Many slogans of the environmental movement are catachreses and pure propaganda: "Save the Earth", for example. The earth has suffered such colossal natural disasters that would make anything puny man can do seem like the proverbial molehill compared to Mt. Everest. The next Ice Age will put modern civilization to an test unlike no other perhaps within 1,000 years. Unfortunately, so far governments show no capability to act rationally.