The Keystone Pipeline will cut through the Midwest.

There is much I do not understand. For example, although I am fascinated by physics, I will never really understand dark matter, black holes or Higgs boson particles. My brain turns even more gelatinous as I try to read up on subjects beyond my ken. I am content to let the big brains do their best through cartoons on the Science Channel (when they are not tracking down NASA alien footage) and PBS to get it down to my level.

I am good with my ignorance on those subjects. I trust the people who know lots of stuff of which I am ignorant. My husband is quite aware that I think Neil deGrasse Tyson is dreamy and Michio Kaku is a cutie. He is okay with crushes of this type.

There are other issues closer to home I do not understand. Like the Keystone Pipeline.

For starters, I don’t understand the whole pipeline concept. Is it just me or does it seem unreasonably complicated for a pipeline to be constructed from Alaska to Louisiana for processing? To then have the processed fuels shipped overseas?

Sorry. It does not compute. Is there nowhere else to process it? Wouldn’t it make more sense to process closer to where it is produced (or in this case, dug up)? Aren’t there processing facilities in the 49th state? Why would Louisiana, having suffered Hurricane Katrina and the Gulf Oil Spill even want more of the same ick coming downhill to them?

Are there that many jobs involved? Somewhere I read lots of jobs in construction, double digits in maintenance. Is that worth the risk?

Yes, I hear the chant “Jobs. Jobs. Jobs“ coming from politicians more concerned about keeping their employment situation the same.

I also do not understand how there exists a belief that the Keystone Pipeline will never leak, never pollute, never blow up. Never is a very long time. Wyoming just suffered a natural gas explosion. Town was evacuated. Were the townspeople told the pipe would never blow up?

Poor West, Texas. You remember West. It‘s the place that lost fifteen people with 180 injured when the fertilizer plant blew up. West residents must have believed all would be well forever or they would have moved themselves or the plant farther away.

Or maybe not. The human capacity for thinking all will be well can be limitless.

The danger of leaks, booms and escaping gas clouds will not be to the captains of industry or politicians who think it is such a wonderful idea. The danger will fall on the good folk along the line who believed their leaders are looking out for them.

I finally don’t understand why this is a political issue for Kentucky – or New York – or Alabama – or California – or any other place not on the Keystone Pipeline proposed route.

I do understand why the Nebraska Supreme Court (not what I would call liberal tree hugging radicals) weighed in. The Court has every right and reason to consider the case – it runs through their yards, metaphorically and geographically.

Politicians, pundits and talking heads outside of the affected areas should keep their eyes on problems that affect their constituents before they go running to the next big crisis. Or worse, before they make the next scientific, economic, legal, local decision into a big national political crisis.

Taking a political stance on EVERYTHING (yes, that was internet shouting) is the order of the day now.

Politicians like those battling it out here in Kentucky for a seat in the US Senate are compelled to make a statement, take a stand, pick a position.

Why? Because McConnell is using Kentuckians’ traditional distrust of outsiders and environmentalists against Grimes. He will be for it because the tree huggers are against it. Also against it are those along the route - farmers, ranchers, Indian tribes, local governments, townspeople and the Ogallala Aquifer – but facts don’t seem to be part of this discussion.

Grimes has now endorsed the Keystone Pipeline, taking a tiny bit of wind out of her opponent’s sails. That endorsement won’t endear her to the environmental movement. But progressives and environmentalists are in a box – do they desert her and vote for her opponent?

I don’t think so.

I may not know what an event horizon is – but I can parse a political horizon. The left will hold its nose and vote for Grimes. The lure of sending McConnell back to Louisville is bigger than one endorsement of an iffy project.

The only explanation for coming up with the Keystone Pipeline scheme somebody didn’t get their Higgs bosons for breakfast.