Energy Independence - Some points to ponder

In the coming months, after the Messiah is in office, you will begin to see more and more nonsense under the heading of 'Energy Independence'. We need to think clearly about this topic. It is important from both an economic as well as a national security and sovereignty standpoint. The problem is, in a BHO administration, the problem will be framed as an environmental issue. If you have a short attention span, or weak analytical skills, - this post is probably not for you. A fun(ny) article from Mother Jones can be found here. Also, this article recounts some of the whacky predictions from years past regarding climate. Ok - on to our topic

First, man-made global warming is a crock. The sun is the primary driver in the temperature fluctuations that happen on the earth. If you are so inclined, you can find tons of info on the web to germinate your thinking on the issue. So, the whole issue of energy should NOT be looked at through the lens of 'carbon footprint'. The whole notion of carbon footprint is fallacious and will lead you, through wrong-headed thinking, to wrong-headed conclusions.

The environ-weenies LOVE 2 things: wind and solar. The problem is, from a macro-level, these are both fatally flawed. Why? Let's talk in simple terms to illustrate.

Both wind and solar suffer from the same problem: they are unpredictable and variable. Why is this a problem? Let's use an example. I have a town of 100,000 people. I have conventional (coal or natural gas) electrical generation plants to supply the needs of my town. These are primary steam turbines. As the manager of the turbines, I run them at a capacity that exceeds, by some amount, the demand that my customers have. I do this to make sure that they will not run short. Because I cannot store the power (no one has battery technology to do that), any power my customers do not use immediately, I either dump in the ground (or possibly sell to the national grid at a big discount).

Now, a bunch of people in town put up windmills. These generate power for the individual homeowners. They are happy. They use the power from the windmills, making them buy less from the city. If they run short, I am always here to fill in the gap. But, if they produce an excess, they can even sell it back to the city. This sounds excellent! But - it is not so excellent as it seems.

Because, you see, the city as a whole gains no benefit. The city must keep producing power at the same rate as before. They cannot adjust their output to correspond to the fluctuating nature of the wind. What is the net result? The homeowner is happy on a micro-level - but the city as a whole sees no net benefit. They cannot reduce their production, and hence their consumption of fuel. So, we built a bunch of windmills (an intensive industrial process) and see NO net benefit for 'the earth'.

As an example, the Dutch have 6,000+ windmills. They have not reduced their conventional production!

The same problem exists with solar. It is variable, clouds and all. But, I live in Ohio - so we don't really think much about solar!

So, wind and solar are not the paths to energy independence. What could be the paths? We already know the answers:

• We can conserve more. True - but driving consumption down is not a strategy for keeping this country great in the long-term
  
  
• We can produce more of our own coal, oil, and natural gas. The incoming administration has indicated that it is hostile to this idea. One struggles to see a rational reason why. Other countries will be setting up deep water drilling rigs practically within sight of our shorelines. But, for some reason, we refuse. It is almost like the refuse-niks of domestic production WANT us to fail. But that would be calling them anti-American, or anti-capitalist! Hmmm. That is a subject for another day.
  
  
• We can move towards nuclear power. This is the ultimate win-win. If you care about green-house gases (I do not), you have to love nuclear! ZERO emissions. Yes, you have to deal with the spent fuel - but if we focus on this, it is solvable. There are even mini reactors available. Don't look for any in the US - I am sure the enviroweenies will block their importation.
  
  
• We will continue to look at bio-fuels. But, barring some monumental break-through, this will only marginally help. Why? Well, using corn for ethanol backfired. It is less efficient than oil. And, as a bonus, it drove corn prices through the roof. Besides, the environmentalists would stroke out if we put even MORE land to use to produce crops (think fertilizer and pesticide runoff, deforestation, and destruction of habitat for the Fuzzy-Breasted Nut Scratcher)
  

So, in conclusion:

• Wind and solar won't solve our problems
  
• We have options for more domestic production - but the Messiah is against these options
  
• Nuclear is the ultimate solution - but the Messiah will fold to the environmentalists - so no more nuclear
  
• Bio-fuels, nice try - no solution.
  

Net result - we are getting ready to spend Billions on 'feel-good' programs and policies. We will launch a bunch of research programs. We will probably have 'cap and trade' policies that will punish industry, but do NOTHING towards our goal of energy independence.

So, at the end of the Messiah's term in office, we will be NO closer to energy independence than we are now. But,

• We will have given the left control over Billions of dollars to dole out as they see fit.
  
• We will have exerted more control over American business.
  
• We will have weakened America on the world stage - making it 'fairer' for the rest of the world.
  
• We can all 'feel-good' - because we 'did something'. (Nothing useful, but 'something')
  

All of these are goals of segments of the left. And, most sadly, the American people will not hold him accountable for the failure! They will be seduced into believing that all of the 'activity' generated equals progress. Because, for the left, it is not the result that matters, only that you had 'good intentions'.

Sorry, but that is how it is going to play out.

Obama - Court failed by not addressing 'Redistribution of Wealth'

In an interview in 2001 - you can hear the whole thing here..

He said we suffer from not pursuing 'Redistributive Change'.

He was not optimistic about bring 'Redistributive Change' through the courts. It needs to be done in the legislature.

So, he finally, in his owns words, touts REDISTRIBUTION. He tries to call it Economic Justice. That my friends is a code word for 'Better grab your wallet'.

Now, as a principle - I agree we need to distribute the wealth. We do this through: employment, people participating in commerce of their own free will, the free market, buying and selling, and people exercising their liberty by using enlightened self interets. WE the PEOPLE decide these things - NOT the government.

In the audio, BHO bemoans that the Constitution is a 'negative' declaration. It says what the Federal Government CAN'T do to you. He wishes it said what the Fed must do FOR you!! This is a new defintion of RIGHTS. Remember - before the government can do something FOR someone, they must first do something TO someone else.

This audio exposes Biden as a LIAR when he claimed over the weekend that BHO does NOT want to Redistribute the wealth. (As a note - the BHO campaign was SO upset that Biden got asked questions - they have not blackballed the TV station that asked them. That is a hint as to what a BHO Administration would be like. Achtung - You VILL follow the party line, or you vill be punished.)

We have been warned ladies and gents. This man is an unrepentant Socialist. Plain and simple. No more guessing, no more parsing. In his own words - he favors one of the key tenets

To each according to this abilities, to each according to his needs.

Thank you Carl Marx.

A preview of thing to come

I warn you - this is a rather long post - but do yourself a favor and stick around to read it.

I am posting a copy of an interesting letter. It was written by a trucker who lives in Canada. He was born and raised in his early life in Poland. He spends a lot of time driving in the US. The letter was written to a Radio Show (Quinn and Rose www.warroom.com.)

Now - you may think some of what he observes about the oppresion in his homeland is NOT possible here. While I admit that it seems quite remote - the overall message is one I think we should heed. When you hear 'Social Justice' - think Socialism. This drive we are seeing for the 'gov-ment' to take care of increasing more of our 'needs' is a caustic, damaging, and ultimately deadly trend. It strips people of honor, dignity, motivation, and self worth. Follows is his letter...

I was born in Poland, in mid 70's. I spent first 16 years of my life living in what O'Bama calls "social justice", I have to tell you that he makes my skin crawl. The things he speaks of I have heard before, only difference was it was said in Polish back in the early 80's. That version of "social justice" included secret police raids on "dissidents" who dared to speak out against the system, soldiers in the streets of my home town, Marshall law was declared and everybody caught in the street after dark without proper authorization was taken immediately to jail.

I remember officials from the ruling party on TV every-night telling us that everything was fine and it was all the fault of Western Capitalists who were oppressing us. I remember lineups at stores for everything from a loaf of bread to a washing machine. I remember that we were told that the Socialist system was the best on Earth, and our dear friends in Moscow were coming to our aid and that the conditions we lived under were only temporary.

Under "social justice" everybody was equal, only some of my countrymen were more equal than others. Party officials had special passes to government stores where shelves were full of western European products. They had all the gasoline they wanted while the rest of the country had to do with rations (that is if they were lucky enough to be able to buy a car). Everything from bread to gasoline was rationed and I remember that my father traded 4 bottles of home made moonshine for a box of chocolate so that we could have that for Christmas. I also remember care packages our church received from time to time. If it wasn't for rice from Arkansas we wouldn't have anything to eat. The only reason the food actually got to the people is because it was distributed through the churches, and the ruling class knew that if they would mess with the church they would have a revolution on their hands. Things were so bad that at one point we couldn't buy clothes and had to rely on clothes from care packages send from America.

Yes Sir I can honestly say I have had all of the "social justice" I can stomach. I live in Canada now, my father was lucky enough to escape in mid 80's and brought our entire family to Canada in 1992. In many ways it was just trading one "social justice" for another seeing that Canadian system is very "socially" oriented. I live in Ontario now which I sometimes like to call "Michigan Light" and being a long distance truck driver I spend most of my working time in USA. I must admit that I can't believe my ears when I hear these people speak so badly about their own country.

I suppose they do not realize that the "social justice" they are so vocal in advocating is simply another name for Socialism. They must be insane to think that the government will better their lives. I know what unchecked government can and will do to its people and I would rather die then go back to the system I was born under. When I was young every kid's dream was to immigrate to America. People born in America are the luckiest people in the world. They have freedoms that we were only dreaming about when I was growing up. If they lived under that version of "social justice" every single one of them from ACLU to Code Pink would be locked up, tortured and then quietly executed as "enemy of the state".

When I hear Democrats speak about "fixing" education and health care, I must admit my skin crawls. I live under socialized health care and I gotta tell you first thing to go is the health care. If you want a perfect example of that, look at Ontario. After years and years of Liberal government we are closing hospitals and have a severe shortage of doctors and nurses. People are dying waiting for MRI, and vital surgery. I broke my leg couple of years back and it took me 8 hours to see emergency room doctor, he looked at my x-rays and sent me off to get a cast. I waited 8 hours for a 5 minute consultation and 20 minute procedure to put a cast on my leg. Few years back we had a situation in one of Toronto's hospitals when a SWAT team shot a father who was trying to get the doctors to take a look at his baby son. Apparently he waited so long that the child was getting worse and worse so he left the child with his wife and went home to get an air pistol (yes sir an Air Pistol that shoots BB's) came back to the hospital and threatened some doctors with it. The SWAT team was called in and the man was shot dead right there in the hospital. His son died soon after because it took the doctors too long to get around to him. Universal Health Care, free health care for everybody. I don’t remember the details exactly, but I think that the only consequence of that was that some bureaucrat lost his job. But, hey, its free, right?

--End of Letter --

This is the world that BHO wants to create - the the Euro-weenies want for us.... This would NOT be an America of which I would be proud.