moo-4READERS’ FORUM

Comments under 300 words, please. We cannot engage in correspondence but do appreciate your contribution. We do not publish insults or attacks against other readers. Points should stand on their own merits. You are welcome to express your religious views but not to criticize the views of others. Our mission is to unify our readers, not divide them. Send comments here.

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ARE YOU CIVILLY DEAD?
2016 Dec 15 from Chris
Dear Ed, Regarding your article about the Sopreme Court ruling that the right to own a gun can be denied to those who have been convicted of misdemeanor-level domestic violence, this is legally termed “civil death”. That is one of the methods tyrants use to silence people like me who oppose their tyranny. This is nothing new. It has been used throughout human history. Here is a legal analysis on the subject:

All these news blurbs signal the death of this “republic”. We live in times similar to the days of Christ. The political officials of his time called him “mamzer”, which meant they considered him civilly dead. It’s in the Talmud as well as the New Testement. Because that didn’t silence him, they murdered him, because he was stirring up too much bad press on them.

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WANT TO REDUCE POPULATION?
THEN INCREASE PRODUCTION
2016 Dec 6 from Patrick Moore (Greenpeace-Canada founder)
My only alternative policy suggestion is to advance the mechanization of agriculture in the developing countries which will automatically address both population growth and poverty in a single action. All one needs is to analyze the current situation. Countries with mechanized agriculture employ only 5% or less of the population in food production, have stable or negative population growth and are relatively wealthy. Counties with subsistence agriculture have 60-80% of the population in food production, high population growth, and relative poverty.

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LEAD INTO GOLD
2016 Dec 5 from Paul David Stoneburner
Subject: CANNOT PROVE THERE ARE NO GHOSTS – Need to Know News 2016 December 2
Oops. Sorry, but I think you finally made a mistake! Almost. There is nothing said that is actually false, but it wasn’t a very good example. It is quite possible to make gold from lead and, as I recall, such was done some thirty years ago. Whether in a reactor or cyclotron I don’t just now recall. The isotope created is unstable, but will decay into stable gold. However, the reason we’re not currently emulating Heaven and paving our streets with the stuff is that to manufacture gold costs many times the value of the product created—several trillion dollars per ounce. As a scientific endeavor to increase knowledge, a great idea. As a way to become wealthy, not so much. Love your news. Keep up the good work.

REPLY FROM GEG:
Hello Paul. I believe it was a particle accelerator at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and, as I recall, it was bismuth, not lead. In any event, please note that I was using this as a hypothetical analogy, not a fact of history, and it had to do with proof of a theory, not whether the theory would produce a profit. Either way, however, I don’t see what’s wrong with the example? I welcome your critique, though, because it’s good to know that people actually are reading my stuff. I’m also glad you like our news service. Thanks for writing.