The Fellowship of Data and Facts

The Far Middle journey continues into 2024 as Nick celebrates one of the greatest baseball players ever to play the game, Johannes Peter "Honus" Wagner. Nick looks back on "the Flying Dutchman’s” baseball career and southwestern Pennsylvania roots. It’s a dedication “riddled with history,” that will entertain both constant-listener sports fans and non-sports fans alike. “You don't get more Appalachia, more Western Pennsylvania, or more Pittsburgh than Honus Wagner, says Nick. “And you don't get more scrappy, doer, and achiever than the Flying Dutchman.” Nick then takes a minute to discuss his Western Pennsylvania accent before connecting to the more serious topic of air quality in Western Pennsylvania. Nick highlights the organization Pittsburgh Works Together (online at pghworks.com) and their “Clearing the Air” report. “A few years ago Pittsburgh Works Together (PWT) started to think seriously about why all one hears about Western Pennsylvania when it comes to air quality is that it is horrible and that industry, manufacturing, and energy, they're to blame, and we should shut them down,” explains Nick. He proceeds to highlight PWT’s report, which uses 2022 EPA data to dispel the myth (perpetuated by many including the American Lung Association) that the air in the Pittsburgh region is among the worst in the country. “We need to act and set policies and establish goals that are based on facts, not fear or feelings,” says Nick (a repeated theme Far Middle constant listeners know well). Similar to PWT’s analysis of air quality, Nick highlights the ongoing research from the Institute for Energy Research (IER). Specifically, Nick discusses IER’s Environmental Quality Index analysis (available at www.instituteforenergyresearch.org). Per IER’s research, Nick demonstrates how “replacing American domestic production of oil or natural gas with foreign supplies would be an overwhelmingly negative trade-off for the planet, for Code Red, and for the environment.” Staying on data and numbers, Nick shifts to America’s debt and annual deficit. While a recurring Far Middle topic, in this discussion Nick helps provide perspective to just how unsustainable and calamitous America’s financial situation has become. The federal government’s insatiable desire to continue to spend is akin to the draw of Lord Sauron’s magical One Ring. With that, Nick concludes this Far Middle by heading to Middle-earth as he remembers J.R.R. Tolkien on the anniversary of his birthday back in 1892.