When spacecraft are sent to explore the inner solar system, solar cells are usually the choice to provide power.  However, when venturing out past the orbit of mars, the intensity of sunlight available makes it increasingly difficult to obtain sufficient amounts of power.  Past Jupiter, it’s virtually impossible to power a space probe with solar cells as they would need to be enormous to gather enough sunlight.   Even within the inner solar system, where sunlight is reasonably intense, solar cells provide limited energy for probes that explore the surface of planets, such as the mars exploration rovers.   Sunlight is also problematic for places like the earth’s moon, where spacecraft would sit in complete darkness for days.

The solution to this problem has been the radioisotope thermal generator.   An RTG is a simple device, consisting of a strong particle-emitting isotope that produces heat and a thermoelectric generator which converts that heat into electricity.   The heat can also be used to keep vital components of the probe warm.  Unlike nuclear reactors, radioisotope thermal generators are extremely simple, have no minimum critical mass, produce little gamma and almost no neutron emissions, which could blind scientific instruments, and therefore require little or no shielding.  Modern RTG’s can provide hundreds of watts of reliable electrical power for years on end in a small, durable package.

The choice of isotope for space missions has always been, and continues to be plutonium-238. Plutonium-238 is a powerful alpha emitter which produces enormous amounts of heat energy.  Plutonium-238 produces only a small amount of low energy gamma emissions, making it easy to shield.  It’s easily prepared into ceramic oxide pellets that are chemically stable and have good thermal transfer.   With an 88 year half-life, plutonium-238 is short lived enough to be a good energy producer yet long lived enough to allow for missions of many decades.

All radioisotope thermal generators used for deep space missions have used plutonium-238.   RTG’s were also used to power the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Packages left by astronauts on the moon.    The RTG used for the Mars Science Laboratory provides 110 watts of electricity and uses about 4.5 kilograms of plutonium-238.  Larger RTG’s have been built for deep space probes, which provide up to 300 watts of power and use 7.8 kilograms of plutonium-238.  Some spacecraft have used multiple RTG’s, for example, Cassini was equipped with three RTG’s which provided a total of 900 watts of power to the spacecraft.

There are other isotopes that can also be used to provide power for RTG’s, but none are as desirable as Pu-238.   Strontium-90, a high energy beta emitter, which can be extracted from spent fuel, also produced significant amounts of heat, but would require substantially more shielding and produces less power per gram of material.  Isotopes of Curium have been studied as well, but also provide much less power and require greater shielding.  Americium-241 has also been considered, but at least four times as much material would be needed to produce the same amount of power, and greater shielding would also be required. Still, Am-241 is regarded as being the second most well suited fuel for RTG use.

Worldwide production of Am-241 is only a few kilograms per year, with US production capacity standing at only 500 to 750 milligrams annually.   Most of this material is already used to fill demand for smoke detectors and moisture gauges.  In order for the US to have a viable chance of using Am-241 as an RTG fuel, production would have to be ramped up significantly.

At one time, plutonium-238 was relatively cheap and easily available.  The United States had large stocks of the material and used it for numerous space missions.  Yet since the early 1990’s, that has not been the case.  Since then, only Russia has had the capacity to produce plutonium-238 and the price has skyrocketed.   US missions have been entirely dependent on plutonium-238 purchased from Russia at the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.  Yet now even this limited supply is threatened, as Russia has begun to signal that it will no longer be able to provide the quantities of Pu-238 that the US (or potentially other nations) would require for continued space exploration.

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The item shown bellow is a tritium-containing radiolumonescent key chain.  It’s basically a small glass vial containing radioactive tritium gas and coated with a phosphorescent compound and placed in a clear plastic case.   Tritium is a weak beta emitter with a half life of 12.3 years.  Because the beta particles are very low in energy, they are entirely blocked by the glass and are not detectable on the surface of the key chain.  The beta particles ionize the phosphorescent compound and produce a steady glow, most often in green (the brightest and most visible color) but also available in other colors.  Because of the 12.3 year half life of tritium, these key chains can be used for several years before there’s any noticeable reduction in brightness.

They’re really great little items and the perfect gift for just about any occasion.   For one thing, they’re an interesting conversation piece and a very good example of a practical application of radioactivity.   They demonstrate that you can indeed keep something radioactive in our pocket and be quite safe and they’re very eye-catching.

They also have quite a bit of practical value.  Finding your keys in the dark is very easy with one of these key chains.  In fact, it’s so easy that if you happen to misplace your keys, the easiest way to find them is to turn off the lights.  When entering your home or starting your car in complete darkness, the glowing key chain provides just enough light to easily select the correct key and use it without fumbling.   If you happen to drop the keys on the dark floor of your car, you can find them very quickly and without effort.   You can even see the glow of the keys if they are under a seat or somehow otherwise obscured from direct view.  You can get different colors and use them to mark different key chains, making it very easy to grab the correct one, even in complete darkness.

I’ve had these key chains before (and broken a couple by mistake).  I can attest to just how useful they are.   There’s also no other way of getting this same value without using radioactive material.  An electrically illuminated key chain could not provide such continuous periods of glow without the batteries quickly running out.   Standard phosphorescent glowing items are limited to a few hours of illumination and must be exposed to light first in order to glow, making them useless for something like a key chain, which is often kept in one’s pocket.

There’s only one problem with these amazing little glowing key chains:  nobody in the US sells them, at least not directly.   Technically, these are not approved for sale or ownership in the United States, although I’ve never heard of anyone getting in trouble for owning one.  Many people do own them and talk about them openly online and elsewhere.  It might just be one of those things that hasn’t shown up on the radar of a bureaucrat who was asinine enough to bother to do something about it.

Still, there are stories about their thugs stopping sales of these key chains on sites like eBay.  It seems that these days most of those sold on eBay are coming from sellers who are not located within the United States.  Exactly how much trouble you could potentially get in for these remains unclear, but it appears to be a case of selective enforcement.  (So if you have one, don’t ever leave the federal government looking for an excuse to call you a terrorist.)

Yet while the government may tolerate people owning them, you can’t buy them from any major retailer.   They can be purchased on the “grey market,” imported in relatively small batches or sold over the internet.  They can be bought from foreign retailers, like those in the UK, who will generally ship to the US without problem.   The best place to buy them, however, tends to be eBay, where numerous sellers will sell to US customers.

That, however, was not good enough for me.  I know a great product when I see one and these things are inexpensive, extremely useful and very easy to sell.  I had bought one and people were constantly asking me about it and where to get one.   I wanted to sell these, and not just by keeping it on the down-low, selling them on auction websites or to friends.  I wanted to really sell them, importing them wholesale and selling them openly and in quantity.

I also didn’t want even the slight potential to have the NRC knocking at my door, which does occasionally happen when someone tries to sell them in the US.   One would think that the government has better things to do, but of course, they don’t.

I thought it would be easy to do.  After all, these things are very readily available in other countries, and by “other countries,” I don’t mean just Russia, Zimbabwe and Cuba.  They can be bought in the UK.  They are brought into the US all the time.  They’re also perfectly safe.   Of course, I assumed wrong, but this was a few years ago, long before I had gained a full understanding of the bureaucracy that is the NRC.

I e-mailed, called and faxed the NRC several times about this matter.  I cannot even begin to explain how difficult they were.   First, nobody at the agency seemed to understand what I wanted to do or what the devices were for.  They told me that if I wanted to start the process of getting a consumer product containing radioactive material approved, I could get some paperwork to start the ball rolling, but it would be several thousand dollars just to begin and would take more than a year.  I told them I believed the items qualified as being license-exempt, since other items of comparable function and contents, such as illuminated watches are.   They didn’t seem to understand what I was getting at.

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Background:

Shooting down an ICBM has always been an extremely challenging problem.  There is very little time to react to the missile and they travel at extreme speed.   The distances involved are enormous and because an interceptor must also travel at extreme speed, it can easily shoot right past the target.  This is made even more difficult by the fact that modern missiles have penetration aids and decoys that are hard to distinguish from the actual warhead.  Some also have the ability to maneuver and change course, making it difficult to plot an interception point.  The earliest systems addressed this in a simplistic, though likely effective way:  They would try to destroy the incoming warhead with a massive nuclear explosion.  For example, the Spartan missile carried a five megaton radiation-enhanced warhead that could destroy incoming missiles at a distance of 50 kilometers.   Another missile, the Sprint, used a much smaller explosive and was intended as a last line of defense for warheads that were entering their terminal phase.

Such systems, however, quickly fell from favor for a number of reasons.   For one, the massive blasts associated with them could have some catastrophic effects on the ionosphere and satellites in the area.  While this may have been considered preferable to absorbing an attack with nuclear missiles, it was still a major concern.   The use of high power nuclear explosives was also considered politically impalpable and the prospect of hundreds of nuclear-armed interceptors alarmed the Soviet Union.   The Soviets responded by designing new warheads that were radiation hardened and could withstand blasts up to as close as a few hundred meters.   They also threatened to build up their arsenal of nuclear missiles to include a large enough number to simply overwhelm any defense system

In the end, the US and Soviets both signed treaties to limit such weapons.   The US system, known as Safeguard, was only operational for a few months before being shutdown.   A similar Soviet system was dramatically scaled back and eventually had its nuclear warheads replaced with conventional explosives.

Today there are some interceptor systems that use missiles to intercept ICBM’s, although their effectiveness is somewhat limited.   One of the most notable is the US Aegis anti ballistic missile system. It’s quite effective against single warhead missiles that lack penetration aids and advanced features, but the effectiveness against a barrage of modern ICBM’s is questionable.

A separate approach developed in the 1980’s and focused on the use of directed energy weapons, especially lasers.   These would have a number of advantages over interceptor missiles.  They would be able to engage the target almost instantly and could track a fast moving and maneuvering target in ways that a physical interceptor never could.  The Strategic Defense Initiative was a program initiated by the Regan administration in the early 1980’s.   It studied a number of methods of intercepting missiles and warheads but focused especially on the use of high power lasers.   President Regan would say that one reason for pushing the program was the realization that even a single nuclear missile, perhaps launched by error, could not be stopped and would inevitably trigger a nuclear war.   Therefore, the ability to shoot down a missile quickly and effectively would be an important capability to help preserve world peace.

Whatever the motivation, the Strategic Defense Initiative had decidedly mixed results.  Huge amounts of money were expended and great strides were made in the development of high power lasers and remote sensing systems.   High speed interceptors were developed which eventually were incorporated into THAAD and the Aegis system.   High powered chemical lasers were developed and demonstrated to be capable of blinding satellites and tracking missiles, but showed limited potential against actual missile threats.   A few tests were conducted that showed the lasers could destroy the bodies of missiles, but this was generally limited to fairly thin-walled liquid fueled missiles, which were largely obsolete by the time.

The YAL-1:

After the close of the program in the early 1990’s, some attempts were made to find applications for the technology.   One was the YAL-1.  The YAL-1 is an attempt to make one of the huge chemical lasers developed for SDI into a viable weapon.   The mission of the YAL-1 is to shoot down ballistic missiles during the boost phase. This is a very short period of time during which the missile is just leaving the launch site on course for its target. It would be the ideal time to shoot down a missile, since it would avoid contamination of friendly areas with any materials on the missile and provide the quickest response to the threat.

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An interesting story has recent come out about research at the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory has been making the rounds.   It seems some studies relating to the cellular-level effects of ionizing radiation have found the effect is….. GASP…. not linear and directly proportional to dose level.

Via HealthCanal:

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I really hate to do this, and I realize that it’s a bit unprofessional to openly ask for help with editing a page that is not even officially up.  However, as readers here may know, I’m not the best speller in the world, although I may well be the worst.

I am about to launch a website for my bid for the US Congress.   However, I’m sure it has spelling errors in it and I can’t find them alone.   Paying for editing would be expensive and likely delay things even more.   That’s why I am asking to crowd source it from anyone kind enough to point them out.  I can be e-mailed or you can just point them out in the comments here.

The website (which is still not up as the main page) can be found at http://www.packard2012.org/test/

Once I am pretty sure there are no horribly embarrassing spelling errors I’ll move it to being the main page of the site.

I know that there are also parts of it that are lacking.   It does not have a full photo gallery yet, the donations service is still pending on having the account finalized.  The “policies” section needs a few additional ones added.  I’m aware of that and working to add them.  Right now what I need help with is spelling.

Thanks to anyone who will help out.

I’m not entirely sure what the “occupy” protesters generally want.  They talk a lot about corruption in business and government.  Certainly, we can all agree that’s a bad thing and needs to be eliminated.   Other than that, most have little idea what the “corruption” is or where it needs to be routed out and how to do it.   Some are socialists, a few are anarchists and others just seem to not be sure what they are.

Now there has been a turn toward trying to blockade ports.   I’m not sure what the reasoning is.  Perhaps it’s a hatred of imports or a belief that blocking trade will somehow undermine the big businesses.  Regardless of their goals, it seems that some of the tactics have gone far beyond just getting in the way to the point of absolutely astounding danger.

Here is an amazing example of how bad it has gotten.

Faith in humanity? Okay, that’s fine. I really don’t think that any train driver wants to blow through a crowd or run over a toddler. I’ll even go so far as to say that the majority of the evil corporate executives at a railroad or transportation company would be horrified by the idea of a young child being torn apart under the wheels of a massive locomotive. I’m sure that the train driver, upon realizing that there is a child in the track will do everything possible to avoid running them over, which, unfortunately, is not much.

Perhaps this is just evidence that the educational system is failing, because in addition to humanity, there are some things you should always count on because they always work.

Inertia – It’s the property of an object to resist any change in its motion. It’s directly proportional to mass. In other words, heavy objects are more difficult to get moving that light objects. Makes sense, right? Well, conversely, once you get them moving, they’re also hard to stop.

Ever try pushing a car because it wouldn’t start? It’s hard to get it going but once you do it’s also hard to stop, which is why you need someone inside it to push the brake when it needs to. A two ton car has too much inertia for a human to easily stop it, even when it’s moving quite slow.

Trains have a lot more. A locomotive can weigh over one hundred tons. Fully loaded, each of the additional cars weighs anywhere from fifty to one hundred or more tons. So even a small freight train weighs thousands of tons. The ones that are used for transporting containers to and from ports are not small, however, and weigh a real real lot. They have a lot of inertia. When they get going, even at slow speed, it’s not easy to stop them.

Friction – It’s the property of two solid surfaces to resist motion against each other.  With wheels, it’s often considered to be synonymous with traction, the ability of the wheels to “grip” a surface and provide control and acceleration or stopping ability.   When you hit the brakes in a car, it’s the friction of a surface that keeps the car from just sliding away forever.

Not all surfaces have the same friction.  You will notice this if you are driving in different conditions.   Dry asphalt against rubber has quite a lot of friction, so if you hit the brakes on an asphalt road, you’ll stop pretty fast.   You may skid a bit, but it won’t be that much because the road provides plenty of friction against your wheels.   Now if you do the same on a wet road, which has less friction, you’re going to skid a lot farther.  Do it on an icy road and you’ll skid further still.  If you hit your brakes on a patch of smooth ice you will keep going almost like you didn’t hit them at all, although your car may also spin out.   One thing that will not happen on ice is a nice sudden stop, because there’s not enough friction.

You know what else doesn’t have a lot of friction?   Smooth steel rails against steel wheels.

And this is why, regardless of the humanity of a train driver, the train is not going to stop unless it has a good mile or so of warning that you’ve put your kid on the track.  It will keep going and kill you and your child.

For those interested in what actually happened: The original story can be read here. While it’s pretty clear from the video that the idiots were in the track right in front of a train, there are no reports of any deaths. Either the train was already coming to a stop and was light enough to not kill them all, or they realized it was not going to stop before it ran them over. Note that they are on the tracks but not chained to the tracks.

Just the same, this is one of the worst parents I have ever seen. It makes not vaccinating your children seem rather mild.

I realize I have been rather quiet about the run for the US Congress.  It turns out that it has taken a lot more time and effort just to do the basics and get things setup.  I just got the website hosting account setup a few days ago.  I hope to have the full website up soon, probably by the end of the week if things go according to plan.

In the meantime, I have a temporary page up that has little more than a logo, but just the same, if you’d like to bookmark it and admire the logo you can do so at:

packard2012.org

When astronauts first walked on the moon, NASA was recording the raw video on data tapes.  These tapes could have been used to provide better images of the event after the fact, even using technology of the day, and at the very least, fill in a few dead spots in the final recordings, caused by video source changes and problems in the converter settings.   Nasa took great pains to make sure the tapes were properly cataloged and stored and then, some time in the early 1980’s, like a complete idiot, lost them and presumably ended up erasing the tapes for reuse.

If that sounds stupid, you have not heard anything yet.

The multi-billion dollar Apollo Program brought back about 382 kilograms of lunar material (rock and soil samples).   Soviet unamanned sample-return missions brought back less than a third of a kilogram of material. There are also lunar meteorites, which are composed of material blasted off the moons surface by impact events, which eventually made their way to earth.  Although these meteorite samples do have scientific value, they events that brought them to earth combined with contamination and weathering means they do not have the same value as rocks collected on the actual surface of the moon.

The scientific value of moon rocks is enormous.  Analysis can help determine the composition of the moon, the age of the moon, the formation of the earth-moon system, the composition of the solar system and the levels and types of particles emitted by the sun.   The study of moon rocks is also critical to determining how future lunar missions might be carried out and to what extent the moon might be able to provide some of the resources necessary for such missions.  Analysis of moon rocks resulted in the giant impact hypothesis becoming the most accepted scenario for the formation of the moon.

While the material brought back from the moon has been subject to analysis and experimentation for more than forty years, there’s still much to learn.   Since the samples and the areas they were gathered from is relatively limited, many of the rocks are very unique in composition.   For example, the “Genesis Rock,” which was recovered during Apollo-15 appears to be the oldest rock of its type ever recovered.  At more than 4.5 billion years old, the rock dates to the very early days of the solar system.  It is possible that other samples may contain tiny fragments of the moon’s primordial crust, which would be even older.

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This blog post is to serve as the official public notice that I will be running in the race for the United States Congress for the 3rd District of the State of Connecticut.  It is my intent to run as a Republican and will be running in the primary.

At this point my campaign and committee has not yet been recognized as an official campaign by the Federal Election Commission or that of the State, but that is pending and should happen very shortly.  As I finalize the paperwork, I will need to find others who will be part of the campaign committee.  If you happen to live in the state of Connecticut and would like to be part of the committee, please contact me, but hurry because the committee may be finalized shortly.  After that, adding members will require amending the paperwork, and I can’t promise when that could happen.

The first tentative committee meeting will be held this coming Saturday.   It will be in the New Haven area, although the venue for the meeting has not yet been finalized.

In the next week, a website as well as social media pages on Facebook, Youtube and Twitter will come online.   The first campaign statements will also be released on the website.

The biggest thing I need right now are donations.   US citizens can donate up to $2500.

Please send a check or money order to:

Packard 2012
939 Dixwell Avenue – Unit 9
Hamden, CT 06437

Please make checks out to “Stephen Packard” and write “US Congress Campaign” in the memo field of the check.  In the near future I will be able to accept checks made out to the campaign, which should happen very shortly, once all the official paperwork for the committee has been completed and accepted by the appropriate agencies.  In the mean time, please make the checks out to me but use the memo field to indicate that it is for the congressional campaign.

I realize that most would prefer to make donations via credit card or some other means, and that will be coming shortly, but the first $5000 donated requires some specific documentation, and the easiest way to do this is to accept it in a paper form and copy the checks for submission as documentation of the donations.   Alternate means of donating are coming soon.

There is one other thing I need help with.   I need a motto.   Here are some ideas, but please feel free to add your own if you can think of one.

• Increase America’s Ability To Do Work
• Energize America
• Energize the Economy, Empower the People
• Reverse the Political Entropy
• Energy For a Bright Future
• Push it to the Limit, the Carnot Limit
• Energy Should Be Dense, Politicians Shouldn’t Be
• Energy is Wealth
• Over Time, Energy Is Power
• The Pro-Thermodynamics Candidate
• My Platform Is Thermodynamics
• The Energy To Work For You

And I need to figure out the logo.   Here are some ideas.

• The name with an orbiting ball (electron) or two, implying the Bohr model of the atom.
• A logo incorporating a lightning bolt
• A logo incorporating gears, possibly with some reference to American industry and fortitude
• A logo incorporating a light bulb

Here is a simple breakdown on where I stand on a broad range of issues.   There are certainly some that have not been included, and I plan on making some further posts to include more.   This should be considered a basic platform outline, which may omit some of the finer details, which will need to be fleshed out later.

Central Issues:

Energy - A very central issue to me.   My take is far from what has become the mainstream.  I am pro-energy production, usage and development.  Energy is like wealth, you can’t have enough of it and the more you have the better off you are.   We should develop domestic energy sources to the maximum and transition to an energy strategy that uses nuclear fission as our primary foundational energy source.  Other important areas for energy development include greater use of electricity for heating, industrial processes and transportation and the use of synthetic fuels.   Ultimately this is the future of prosperous, bountiful energy.

One of my number one issues with regards to moving the US forward in energy policy will be the disbandment of the NRC and the creation of pro-energy nuclear regulatory bodies within the US Department of Energy.

The Environment – Environmental policy is another central issue and one that every government should keep front and center.   While there are many aspects to environmental policy, there is one problem which stands out as the biggest environmental issue of our time:  The use of coal as a fuel for power generation.   Coal is devastating at every level.  Mining it destroys vast areas of pristine land.  The exhaust from coal burners kills tens of thousands per year and is the single largest contributor to US greenhouse emissions.   Coal ash is a toxic product which is not being properly regulated for storage and disposal.    Our number one environmental goal should be to reduce coal usage, while at the same time being wary of becoming dependent on gas, which has high price volatility and limited domestic supplies.

Government Scientific Research – While there is a need to cut Federal spending, this is not the place to do it.  Our science programs, such as national laboratories, the space program and government research institutes took decades and billions of dollars to develop.  They are national treasures and the cost of their upkeep is miniscule compared to the benefits they offer.

I strongly support expansion of domestic science capacity, including construction of more research and isotope reactors, establishment of a long-term manned space strategy and providing secure long term funding to government science institutions.

At the same time we must stop wasting money on things like the National Institutes For Complimentary and Alternative Medicine, which is a national embarrassment.

Spending and Taxation – Spending within the US government must be reduced dramatically.   This can be achieved by cutting questionable infrastructure programs, such as commuter rail in areas that are unlikely to utilize it and through the consolidation of social programs, reducing waste and redundancy.   We must also spend more carefully on homeland security, ending ineffective programs.  Mushrooming social spending must be addressed.   Cuts should be focused on mandatory spending programs and reducing debt accumulation.

Increasing taxes is never desirable, but increasing taxation on upper brackets to pre-2000 levels will be necessary to pay off the enormous burden of debt that the US has acquired.  We are also losing enormous amounts of money by making mortgage interest tax-deductable.   This program was intended to help small time homebuyers but has been used extensively by the highest economic classes.   At this point it is likely necessary to the viability of the American realestate system.  Therefore, I would not suggest repealing it completely, but rather capping the write-off.

Homeland Security – I strongly support comprehensive and robust homeland security programs that can protect the US from a wide variety of threats.  These include both early intervention and last line of defense measures.  Programs need to involve both military and civilian agencies.   I strongly support a comprehensive and effective national airspace defense program to assure that any threat from aircraft or missiles can be neutralized.   I also support increasing the focus on the survivability and response capacity of government functions.

In contrast, ineffective programs and agencies such as the Transportation Security Agency and the use of radiation scanners at ports must be terminated.  These are expensive and useless or worse.

Foreign Policy – The US must regain a leadership role in the world and take measures to improve its international presence.  While strengthening ties with allies, we must not kowtow to any and never cave to apologetic or shame for our ideals.  I am a supporter of “big stick diplomacy.”  While military engagements should only be used as a last resort, we cannot show a lack of willingness to use whatever means are necessary to defend the interests of the United States.   With certain regimes we must be more forceful.

At the same time, conflicts we are engaged in like Afghanistan need to be reassessed.   It is pointless to be in such an engagement unless we have a clear idea what the objective is.  We must show greater restraint in becoming involved in conflicts that do not directly impact US interests.

Financial Regulations – We don’t need more financial regulations, we need better financial regulations, and if you don’t understand the difference, you’re probably a politician.   Better enforcement can be achieved through focusing on the most important and fundamental regulations and closing loopholes.

We also really need to stop all subsidies to sub-prime lending.  While that may make it easier for low income first time buyers to own a home, it also is largely what got us into the mess we are currently in.

Intellectual Property Law - It needs to be completely overhauled.  Current trends threaten expression and freedom of information.   At the same time, new legislation must be enacted to address new areas of intellectual property such as genetic engineering.   The laws need to be revamped and done in a manner that does not have a chilling effect on free speech and information exchange.  As a general rule I believe we need less restrictive IP law that grants greater “fair use” rights.  Above all else, such laws must not be crafted primarily by special interests.

Crime and Punishment – I am appalled by the fact that someone can commit murder and often get paroled within a few years.  In general, I believe the punishments for violent crime are both inconsistent and far too lenient.  I draw a huge line between property crime and violent crime.  Causing harm to another human being directly crosses a line and it is something that can’t be undone.  Murder takes a life and therefore  is a debt that can never be repaid.  Nobody who commits murder should ever see the light of freedom again.  Anyone who assaults and causes severe harm to another should be punished very severely with many many years in prison.  Violent sexual predators should be locked away for life with no exception.  It’s ridiculous to let these people out and then require tracking and registration.  If we know they are that dangerous to the community why let them out at all?

Of course, the prisons are not big enough to do this.  They would be, though, if we didn’t prosecute minor drug offenses the way we do, which is likewise ridiculous.  We don’t have enough room for murderers because too many inmates are only there because they had a little cocaine or even marijuana.

I am sure I will be asked what to do with the white-collar schemers who may not be violent but who stole billions.  Of course, they should be prosecuted aggressively too, as should anyone whose negligence in overseeing safety willfully resulted in conditions that cost life or limb.  However, this would be less of a problem if regulations were better enforced.  In a more open market with simpler, more easily enforced regulations, we’d catch them when they stole thousands, long before they could steal millions or billions.

Immigration – Our current immigration policy is absurd and is an affront to the legitimacy of the justice system.  Basically, we have made it a felony to enter and stay in the US without documentation, but we refuse to enforce that law, at least most of the time.   We have neither the political will to change it nor to enforce it.   It’s a situation that is intolerable because it erodes confidence in the law and results in millions entering the country illegally and without documentation.  The vast majority are perfectly honest and hard working, but amongst them are criminals, and since they all come in with no oversight, we can’t tell who is who nor can we provide basic protection to those undocumented entries.   Many industries also rely on this population for labor.

The solution must be two pronged.  First, we need to enforce the law.  Those who enter illegally must be deported.  If we know where they are, we can’t turn a blind eye.   This includes local law enforcement.   However, at the same time we must provide legal, reasonable methods of entering the country officially in order to pursue work.   Guest worker visas would allow for those outside the US to enter for the purpose of working and assure they are documented and that they are also protected from predatory hiring processes.

As for those already here, we may have to consider some sort of amnesty, since it’s not their fault that the system is so ridiculously broken.  However, it should also involve screening and documentation.

Illegal Drugs - Philosophically, I believe that a person can put anything they want into their body.  However, I’m not sure our society can really deal with such a way of life, especially given that it has had so many substances controlled for so long.   It is probably necessary to keep the strongest and most problematic drugs illegal as well as those that must be controlled for the greater good, such as antibiotics, which if completely self-administered would cause great problems such as increased resistance.   So while I accept that some drugs must be controlled, it makes no sense at all to expend so many resources in the failing effort to stop those of the least consequence and greatest prevalence, such as marijuana.  Those which are illegal should be policed by going primarily after the distributors and not the end users.

Abortion – (this will upset the more conservative types) – It has to be legal for practical reasons and it should be legal.   Not all pregnancies result in birth, many result in miscarriage and when they do, we don’t go blaming the woman for not taking perfect care of her health.   That’s because it’s her personal responsibility to decide how to deal with the pregnancy and that includes taking action to end it should she so choose.

Gun Control – (this will anger many conservatives and libertarians) – I have no fear of guns in general and I don’t believe they are inherently evil, but the fact of the matter is that guns make it very easy to kill and are extremely dangerous when handled irresponsibly.  Certainly more gun owners are responsible, but all illegal guns out there were generally legal guns that someone illegally sold, had stolen or otherwise ended up in the hands of criminals.  If greater responsibility were exercised, this would not be a problem.

The problem I have is that it requires much greater training, verification and licensing to own and operate a forklift than a firearm and more still to own and operate an automobile.  I’m only allowed to drive my car because I have a license and I had a test and vision exam, I have insurance and I had the car inspected and registered.   Regulations should require at least the same for firearms and should be difficult enough to dissuade casual users who don’t know what they’re doing and don’t care from obtaining them.

However, such regulations do not need to be imposed on all guns equally.   Full-sized bolt-action rifles are rarely used in crimes and rarely stolen.  They are too unwieldy to be used in most violent acts and are generally less prone to accidental firing.   However handguns should be difficult enough to obtain to stop those who don’t have a legitimate reason to get one from doing so.

Same-Sex Marriage – Ultimately this is a state-level issue, but I see no reasonable argument against it.   In truth, I’d be in favor of secularizing the entire marriage process by offering all couples a non-denominational “civil union” or “domestic union” which removes all religious connotations from the act.  If they want to call it marriage and have it blessed by a clergy-person, that’s up to them.

Healthcare - My general preference is to stay away from a complete government-run system.  I’d prefer to try to make it more affordable for individuals to buy through reforms like reforming the malpractice system and allowing for a greater variety of care facilities.  I would want to increase private insurance coverage by making it tax deductible and also providing incentives to employers who provide insurance.   Direct payment for coverage can continue but be reserved for those far too poor to pay for the cheaper coverage themselves.   This topic is too broad to discuss completely here.

Entitlements – I generally believe entitlements should be as limited as possible to keep them from becoming a “cradle-to-grave” system that is a huge burden on the government.   Welfare should be tied to requirements for seeking work and for maintaining good legal standing.   Also, entitlements need to be consolidated.  The current system is fragmented, inefficient and difficult to navigate.  Heating oil subsidies from the Department of Energy, Food Stamps from the Department of Agriculture, medical insurance from Medicare, Social Security payments from the Social Security Administration.   This is too messy, prone to abuse and difficult for those who really need it to figure out.

Education – This is really a state issue, but we need to maintain high and consistent standards in general and especially with science and technology.  Education should be intensive and well-funded.  I would like to see a greater involvement of industry in education, with companies having input on what they need in future workers.  Also, I’d like to see more involvement from those who are not career teachers in bringing their skills to the educational system.

One area that is extremely problematic is higher education.   It’s so expensive it prices out an entire class of citizens and makes it hard for even the middle class to afford a college degree.  The current system is also not inviting for everyone and is too rooted in a system originally intended to educate an elite few.   What we need is more avenues for students to pursue their degrees.  Part time schools and online programs are helping to fill this to some extent, but not enough.  I’d suggest we should focus a great deal more on allowing students to get credit for non-traditional learning such as work-study programs, apprenticeships and other programs that allow them to learn while supporting themselves and working.

Job-Creation – The government ultimately does not create jobs and any politician who says they have “created jobs” is lying.  The government, however, does get in the way of job creation.   Expanding employment will require a few things.  First, the government needs to establish a monetary policy that inspires confidence.  It also must have policies that encourage cheap and plentiful energy.

Finally, we must get out of the way of employers when it comes to hiring.   Hiring a new employee is amazingly difficult.   Just taking on a new worker requires income tax forms, social security forms, payroll taxes, wage documentation, hour documentation, OSHA compliance, ADA compliance, state taxes, medicare, workers compensation paperwork.   Large institutions can afford to have an entire human resources and payroll department dedicated to dealing with this mountain of regulation, but for small businesses it’s impossible.  This is also why many workers end up being paid “under the table,” which costs tax revenue.   We need to consolidate and simplify these regulations as much as possible.  That will result in job creation.