There is a marked lack of basic logic shown by the leaders of our country.

I thought I should make that bold, because I truly believe that it is at the root of the majority of our problems in this country. You may be thinking “what does that have to do with leaded gasoline?”… We’ll get to that in a bit. Let’s define the problem first.

Problem: Extremist Muslims believe everyone that do not believe the way they do are infidels and they are given a holy commandment to kill them or convert them.

Faulty Logic: Let’s ignore the REAL reason they attack us because if we appease them and show them that we like them, they’ll quit attacking us. So let’s not offend them and they’ll be happy and leave us alone.

Reality: It doesn’t matter how nice we are to them, we can no easier get Extremist Muslims on our side by being nice to them than we can get the Westboro Baptist Church to quit protesting military funerals by being nice to them. These people feel that they are doing God’s will and are not going to change just because you try not to offend them. Our leaders don’t seem to understand that us existing and not believing the same as they believe offends them!

Problem: There is a growing problem with bullying, drug and alcohol use, and other criminal activity among the youth of our country.

Faulty Logic: Kids need to be respected and treated as friends and equals by their parents and teachers. Besides anything other than positive reinforcement is abuse.

Reality: Kids are stupid. I know… I used to be one! And I was stupid! Now please understand me… I’m not advocating that you beat your children with bats, but a correctly administered spanking can do wonders in the raising of a child. A lot of people today do not seem to be aware of the pain/reward balance that contributes to good behavior. Every child subconsciously weighs that pain/reward balance before every action. “Is the pain from the punishment I will receive if I get caught greater than the enjoyment I will get out of doing this?” I can tell you that a lot of time I didn’t compute that ratio correctly… and it hurt when I got caught. That refined my behavior. Life says some actions will cause pain… it is ridiculous to pretend that isn’t true and very effective. (By the way… if the Extremists from the problem above were shown a more appropriate pain to reward ratio they might quit some of THEIR actions also.)

Problem: Our economy is really bad!

Faulty Logic: Lets take money from the rich people and give it to the poor people. That will help the economy improve.

Reality: Well… pretty much what I said up there about the pain/reward ratio, but in reverse. When people learn that they can live an acceptable lifestyle without working, they have no incentive to work. You know what really scares me? The unemployment rate is going down a bit as a percentage of the population but you hear the reporters say “there are twice that number if you count those people who have quit looking for work.” Wake up! This means that for every person that is getting unemployment insurance and looking for work, there is someone who has quit looking for work and is being supported by the welfare system. Taking money from the rich and giving it to the poor to help the economy is like trying to fill up your swimming pool by taking buckets of water out of the deep end and pouring it into the shallow end. The government does not create new money… it just spends money that it has taken from it’s citizens.

Ok… there are three examples of a failure to comprehend basic logic. Now don’t get me wrong… I’m not saying that welfare is a bad thing… I am saying that a welfare system that can be abused as easily as our welfare system can be IS a bad thing. Sometimes people need help… but helping someone is totally different than supporting them. And I know that all Muslims aren’t extremists… that’s why I threw the Westboro kooks in the same concept. I’m a Baptist, by the way, and it embarrasses me that those people call themselves Baptists.

Now… what does all of this have to do with leaded gasoline? In 1921 tetraethyl lead (TEL) was patented by General Motors and they began using it in gasoline as an anti-knock agent. In 1924 several workers died and went crazy while working at the TEL production facility. After years of controversy and testing it was found in the 1970s that higher levels of lead in the blood correlated with poor school performance. After the Clean Air Act Extension of 1970 (and subsequent appeals) leaded gasoline began to be phased out in 1979 and was finally completely phased out for passenger car use by 1986. A 1994 study showed that the concentration of lead in the blood level of U.S. population had dropped 78% from 1976 to 1991. The program I watched made the statement that the average intelligence of children today, as measured by IQ tests, is 10 to 20 points higher than the children raised during the 60s and 70s.

Now I might not be the smartest person around, but I can figure some things out. Most of these politicians grew up in the larger cities sniffing leaded gasoline fumes! No wonder they have a problem with logic…. they’ve all got lead poisoning!