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Electric vehicles are probably the vehicle of the future, but they are not the vehicle of the present. Let’s look at the numbers. An EV uses about six cents of electricity to go a mile. That’s if you charge it at home with inexpensive residential electricity rates. It’s more if you use a charging station, and it’s more if it’s a large vehicle like a Rivian. And by the way, be prepared to leave it plugged in for several hours to get it charged. Gasoline-powered cars use about thirteen cents of gasoline to go a mile, assuming gas is something over $3/gallon and you get something like 25 mpg.

Predictions are hazardous, especially about the future and especially about politics, but the best prediction right now is that the 2028 Republican nominee for President will be either JD Vance or Marco Rubio, and the Democrat nominee will be either Gavin Newsom or Kamala Harris. The ones not nominated for President will likely be nominated for Vice President. Before we employ these people for these important jobs, let’s do what employers do: Let’s look at their resumes.

The argument against the war with Iran boils down to two points. The first point is that this war was initiated by the hated President Trump, and so it should be opposed. That point cannot be rebutted because it is not a point at all; it’s simply a reactionary expression of hate by people who scarcely bother to conceal their hope that Iran wins. So, let’s move on to the second point.The second point is that we were able to handle Iran’s aggression for many years without going to war, and so we could have continued to handle its aggression for many more years without going to war.

Iran consistently promoted and sponsored terror throughout the Middle East and the world. They’ve been chanting “Death to America” for half a century. They’ve been working on a nuclear bomb for decades. Their radical Islami-fascist theocracy repeatedly vowed to wipe Israel off the map, because they believed Allah willed it. War with Iran was therefore inevitable. The only question was when. We could have waited for Iran to attack us. America’s unspoken policy over the years, after all, has been not to attack an adversary until the adversary attacks us first.

In his quest for the Presidency, Gavin Newsom has a few things to overcome. First, he’s burdened with all that great hair. Second, he’s the Governor of the State of California, which used to be a great-state-to-go-to, but is now a-great-state-to-be-from. Third, he’s a victim of white privilege. I know, I know, white privilege is a privilege, not a liability. The problem, however, is that in order to run for President, he first has to win the Democrat nomination (notwithstanding the Joe Biden 2024 rule). Many of the people who vote in Democrat primaries see whiteness as a liability.

The modern world runs on energy. Petroleum products heat homes and power cars, airplanes and ships. Electricity runs computers and appliances, produces light, and powers an increasing number of cars and a few trains. Electricity is a “high” form of energy which can be used for almost anything. The least efficient use is to simply route it through a resistive wire to generate heat. It does that very well, but it’s a waste of this high form of energy. As a source of heat, electricity is about as effective as rubbing two sticks together.

The latest rationalization from the Left for illegal immigration is that nothing is illegal in America because America itself is illegal because it’s on “stolen land.” That’s a non sequitur. An illegal act does not become legal simply because the victim is a trespasser. If a stranger breaks into your house while you’re on vacation and illegally occupies it, it’s not legal for another stranger to enter the house to shoot the first stranger while he’s sleeping. Besides, all nations are on “stolen land.” All of Europe, for example, is on land “stolen” from Neanderthals that “modern” humans killed or assimilated.

I wrote a piece last year firmly supporting the reintroduction of wolves into Colorado to share the mountain landscape with cattle ranchers. I’ve changed my mind. My reasoning at the time was that wolves are part of the natural landscape here. They help the huge deer and elk herds by taking the old and weak out for dinner. As a lifelong hiker and mountaineer, I also liked the mere idea of having wolves in the Colorado mountains even if I never saw one (and I never have). After all, they’d been here for millions of years until they were eradicated in the 20th century. As for wolves’ occasional predation on cattle,

A reader emailed me recently to say he disagreed with my position on an issue. That’s fine, I get such emails all the time, and I typically respond to them. I’ve had some good discussions that way. The funny thing about this one, however, is that the reader never walked me through the substance of his counterargument. Instead, he told me he usually liked my stuff because it is pretty logical, but in his judgment this particular piece was not. He didn’t say what was illogical about it He implied that he would stop reading my work if I persisted in these unspecified illogicalities. I think he intended that as a threat.

Last year, more people moved out of Colorado to other states than vice versa. Interstate “net migration” was negative. After factoring in births, the state’s overall population increased less than half a percent. That’s the lowest since the oil and gas bust of 1989 nearly a half century ago. These figures put Colorado in the bottom half of population growth. We’re 29th of the 50 states. Neighboring Utah grew at the fifth-highest rate, so Colorado can’t blame it on the demise of the carbon-spewing, environment-wrecking, injury-causing, traffic-jamming ski industry which is mired in a record snow drought.

Both are a little north of one million. Of those, around 400,000 are deaths. (For the Ukrainians, both are a little lower, so far.) Most observers thought the Russians would overrun Kyiv in weeks. But they’ve now have been at war in Ukraine longer – four years – than America was at war in WWII. And there’s no end in sight. Recent Russian advances are measured not in kilometers, but meters. Russian troop morale is as bad as you would expect. Nobody goes to Eastern Europe for outdoor winter camping where your tentmate sleeping next to you sometimes gets blown to bits.

Three-quarters of a million people were killed in the American Civil War, and another half million were wounded – many grievously. That was in a country with a population of less than a tenth of today’s America. The equivalent deaths in today’s America would be about eight million. That’s something like 20x the American deaths in WWII. Much of Atlanta was burned to the ground in the Civil War, as were large sections of Charleston, Vicksburg and Richmond. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by a southern sympathizer near the end of the war, five days after General Robert E. Lee surrendered the main Confederate army.