Sorry to hear of your loss - walk with her memory every day! Lost my mom to colon cancer, even though she had good treatment at Vanderbilt. Hers was the aggressive kind unfortunately, that kept coming back.

We agree with you totally that there's no excuse for lack of proper care, as folks have in other civilized nations. We have a portion of our populace that don't give a damn about their fellow man - yet claim to be Christian. The best things we can do in your sister's memory is to donate to the Cancer Society and fight like hell to win back Congress.

One (of many) things that hurts very deeply for me is that Republican policies most often hurt those having the least-heard voices - the sick, the poor, the disabled, and our minorities. These simply are not good people in the GOP.

At least not one that would make any sense to you and I.

They are also very good at planning very complex, evil crimes without remorse.

if that show was his first preference for some reason (maybe Obama).

I also wonder how he planned on transporting all those guns to Chicago. Maybe he get scared of getting caught on the way and scrapped that plan.

We may never know.

I like your phrase "a place for the identity hungry to fall into". Letters to the editor are a great way to keep our progressive candle burning bright.

Keep up the good work!

The UN is already spread thin just trying to keep millions from starvation. Plus, wealthy Western right-wing governments are balking at increased funding. Instead, they want all of the world's social ills such as famine and disease outbreaks to be paid for by charities, not by governments.

I feel the public needs to be more aware of the UN's work and financial needs so they might pitch in. That's difficult in the US because of the Republican and RW media's constant demonizing of the UN for many years. There's a number of good charities around the globe that address this need, but many of those are struggling, too. IMO, governments around the world need to back away from wars and step up to the plate on basic social needs.

Who needs schools, roads and food + healthcare for children when we can have golf, sound-proof booths and guns?

1. Refuse to rent homes to people of color.
2. Skim money off the top of charity events.
3. Insult women in beauty pageants (or almost anywhere, for that matter).
4. Insult people with disabilities.
5. Insult non-Christian religious folks.
6. Throw paper towels to people in desperate need for food and water.
7. Refuse to pay small construction contractors for work completed.
8. Cut funding for food stamps and women's health.

The list could go on forever.

suicides and early deaths, emergency healthcare, and on and on.

But, don't bother the GOP with facts.

I see from the generation table that there's also seven private or corporate operators as well, perhaps some in isolated zones. Looks like around 20% of the total capacity.

This is a huge physical, political, and financial train wreck - currently and historically!

I can't see any possibility of the current political structure in Washington having the ability or will-power to get-er-done.

In a perfect world, that would require 56 sq.-mi. of solar panels. However, for 100% solar, if we were to look at solar generation throughout the day with typical sun exposure and using battery systems to store energy for night use, I would say the capacity might have to be several times that number.

I'm speaking out of school a bit, I don't think it's wise to be totally dependent on a single type of generation. One has to study each location's sunshine availability (worst case), wind availability, fossil fuel cost and availability, peak and average demand data, and many other factors to design an optimum large-scale system. That expertise is widely available, but could take considerable time and money to execute.

The location's ability to maintain these hybrid systems is a huge factor, as well.