To his European fans, Obama is the symbol of American renewal. They know three things about him. That he is young. That he is African-American. And that he has a Muslim name.
Europeans live in countries with large, unassimilated Muslim minorities. The idea that someone with Obama’s name and background could become President of the United States astonishes and impresses them. Europeans are thrilled by the idea that the United States can suddenly transform itself from a pariah in the world into an inspiration to the world.
Without underestimating America’s ability to reinvent herself, what’s truly stupefying about this is the European conceit that America has changed utterly, rather than revealing that many of their precious preconceptions about her have been wrong. What is more, if Obama does win, Europe will say that it was their unrelenting but brotherly criticism that caused her to turn aside from her errant path.
Nuts.
UPDATE: As if to demonstrate the total evaporation of critical thinking, some dolt at Balloon Juice thinks it’s just fine for hecklers to interrupt Bush at a naturalization ceremony. I’m sure this guy is also fine with anti-gay protesters at military funerals and pro-lifers in front of abortion clinics.
I really hate this president. I am a Canadian who loves this country, and this guy is a complete embarrassment. I absolutely believe George Bush is a war criminal. I really wish someone had the guts to put the question to him in an interview.
“Mr. President, you’ve authorized torture. Over 4,000 men and women have died in a war that most people knowwas absolutely unnecessary. It is now well known that intelligence was manipulated to get us into Iraq. Are you a war criminal? And should you be tried as one?â€Â
I would love to hear one – just ONE – credible journalist ask him this question.
“Europeans are thrilled by the idea that the United States can suddenly transform itself from a pariah in the world into an inspiration to the world.”
Because freeing 50,000,000 people from ruthless dictators is just so yesterday.
C’mon, dre, everyone knows it’s the symbolic stuff that counts.
Europeans love Barack Obama and clothing with an inexplicable number of zippers and fucking without making babies and a world where Saddam Hussein is in power and the one thing they simply can’t abide is a world in which the U.S is accorded respect. Bill Schneider is a blinkered idiot.
“#Comment by Dan Collins on 7/4 @ 6:35 pm #
C’mon, dre, everyone knows it’s the symbolic stuff that counts.”
Free Burma shave. Save the signs.
You don’t think he’s aware of what his article says about Europeans, hf?
Ugh. I don’t think I can stay up any longer. It’s up to you guys to stir the pot and make sure it’s a good fight.
I think he delivered on propaganda spec. I seriously doubt he thought much about this piece at all. Also he writes like an eighth grader.
Oh. It’s still sunny here. The happy basking turtles are basking and happy.
Much like Baracky’s America, turtles make great pets.
Recent studies show Europe is 75 years behing America. That sound about right since they are so backwards they are going to fall to Islam and don’t think millions of them dying at the hands of Islam means anything. We free 50 million people and Europe surrenders all of it’s freedoms to the oppressors we are fighting. Ironic that so many stupid people think they are the ‘enlightened’ of the world. A perfect match for the democrats. Selling the lives of their offspring for a feel good moment, and a moment is about all it will last.
Oh sure, they are kicking our butt with the Euro, have advanced light years beyond us in every measure of civilization – transportation, planning, architecture, arts, currency, economies, etc. – and we still have rightwing fruitcakes trying to demonize the word “socialist.”
Exactly what do the conservatives who have driven this country into the ground and turned the entire world against us, have to teach ANYONE in ANY COUNTRY about how to run government? You people are not just the bane of civilization, you are considered its criminals by most of the civilized world.
FUCK YOU.
Fuck you too buddy.
:)
FascistZero.
“have advanced light years beyond us in every measure of civilization – transportation, planning, architecture, arts, currency, economies, etc. ”
Yo Prog the Euros are little lite on the Multiplying part. Caliphate anyEuro?
“turned the entire world against us,”
Thanx dude I didn’t know Antarctica was against us.
Oh sure, they are kicking our butt with the Euro
Translation: “I am an economic illiterate”.
Progg:
I love Europe so. Its where you can spend $200,000 on a bedsitter in London without a bathroom! The Europeans have advanced so far beyond the US that young people eagerly pay 300,000 dollars for a cowshed. But if we elect the Dalibama we too can live in cowsheds, because the Dalibama has told us we can’t eat th same way, or cool our homes or even heat them without his blesing.
Yes we can!
and turned the entire world against us
credit where credit’s due, little monkey
Are you kidding? Those penguins fucking hate us.
Well you know Progg you can always emigrate if you think it is such a great place. The euro is strong because their interest rates are high. Their unemployment rate averages about 8% and we pay for their defense. In fact without US money NATO would collapse. So maybe they could take some of those valuable euros of theirs and pick up the tab for a change.
Not a chance.
In truth the fact that Progg the frog here would immediately jump to the defense of the eurotrash tells us a lot about the American left doncha think?
Also it probably didn’t help when Baracky’s church cult spread the word that we invented the AIDS virus. God damn America was the chorus I think. Catchy, that. Plays especially well overseas.
And the whole world is not against us. In fact there are more pro American governments in Europe now that there were when Bush took office. The attitudes of the Middle East have actually improved towards the United States compared to the days following 9/11. I know that Progg here thinks that starting a trade war with Canada and crapping on our allies while we pander to the Death to American set will somehow make people like us, but that is not how it works.
Oh. But the BBC fucking hates us. That has to count for something.
Take it easy on ProggHero. He’s barely out of college, and hasn’t had time to discover America yet. He only knows what’s in the news, and what his pampered radical professors told him. He’s not terminal yet, like some other contrarians we get around here.
The Dalibama ’08
The BBC, NYT, Al Jizz what’s the diff?
“Exactly what do the conservatives who have driven this country into the ground and turned the entire world against us, have to teach ANYONE in ANY COUNTRY about how to run government?
– Judging from the condition of our Liberalized/Socialized/Social experiment public school system, I’d have to say the Left gets a failing grade in the only area they’ve had all that much input since FDR.
– Which when you think about, explains a lot.
= PH, the Euros are suffering badly from their approach to immigration, and almost every Social program is a full on mess. Of course they talk down about us. We literilly saved their bacon, or right now they’d be living under Fascism or Communism, abd they know that, and they deeply resent it.
– The upstart Colonialists were supposed to fail and go running back to the British mama, or the French daddy, and instead they get humiliated by having to depend on us to rescue their asses. Of course they resent it. They have a good excuse.
You, however, have no such excuse for being so naive and gullible, you don’t easily understand the human nature of things. You need to round out your education by taking a few courses in human psychology and lay off the political stuff for awhile.
– you’re studying the what and when without any understanding of the why.
Yo, Progg (assuming that you’re for real, not just a first class troll)… I’m afraid it wasn’t us right-wing fruitcakes who so effectively demonized socialism: it’s the socialists gotta take credit for that themselves.
Why don’t you apply for immigrant status anywhere over there in EUtopia, you must have all kinds of marketable skills and talents. Tell us how they respond and if they’ll have you, I don’t doubt that in a millisec, the readers of this blog will kick in however much it takes for a one-way air ticket, and short-term nest-egg ’till you’re properly on the teat and nose in the trough. Hey, I’ll go the first hundred bucks myself.
– Back on topic, I dob’t agree with this guys “assessment” of things for several reasons.
– First of all, theres a long laundry list, both financial and political, that would give a great many countries every motive to want to keep the US as the great Satan, and not have us be able to change that image they find so very useful. I’ll leave it to others to think about what those motives might be, Think about balance of trade and world prices in the first case, and hateful incitement in the second while you consider the “whys”.
– Secondly, whether the Left has motive to deny, deny, deny, in regards to Obama’s “Muslimness, the fact remains, in the eyes of the Muslim world hes an apostate, converted to Christianity, and no amount of words or evasion will change that.
– So from a purely Islamic standpoint he would not exactly represent a role model they’d want to point to, in fact quite the opposite.
– For these reasons, and others, I agree with feets. I don’t think this guy did his homework, or he was just looking for some other obscure reason yo cheerlead for Obama.
The White House ? The Democrats in Congress have bet their gonads on alternatives like ethanol (Reid said Coal maked you sick, etc.)
How long before Obama pivots on ethanol ? Given it’s an “Illinois issue” .. none too soon.
Is it really true that using bio-fuels reduce emissions of greenhouse gases ? I’d like a tutorial as to how that happens.
No,
Proggie is a full-on troll.
Several thread ago, he explictly stated he wanted us jailed for our beliefs.
I scanned through this piece and couldn’t come up with exactly what this “embarrassingly large supply” of cellulose comes from. I can think of a few, like corn husks and stalks, but the next most obvious are trees. While this may make old copies of the NYT and LAT valuable, some how I just can’t see the Sierra Club signing on if it involves large numbers of trees.
Why does Easter Island come to mind …
Advanced civilization?
Have you SEEN the British and German Bestseller lists ?
Protip: They ain’t reading Mann and Proust.
Hey why don’t we burn our food to fuel our cars.
F##kin rocket science Hanson gov’t worker.
How does Charles Grassley sleep? Probably with a corn cob up his ass. But that’s just me guessing. I don’t know for sure.
Ahhh, ProggHero is well-run tonight. Great job, puppeteer! Must be the extry July 4th beverages.
So, Europe is so much better than the poor ole’ U.S.A., huh? Why do you suppose that’s the case? Well, look at the size differences…here, we’re spread out, with plenty of room. In the Old Country, so much smaller, it’s easier to tie everything together. Transportation, the economy, everything is easier to consolidate.
Yes, the Old Country is very socialistic, but that’s not a strength, it’s a flaw. Socialism attracts deadbeats, and leftists…and worse.
Just look to poor old Britain, where a Judge says Muslims should be allowed to live under some sharia law. That can’t be good.
You see, proggy, that’s why the Europeans will fail much faster than we will. They acquiesce to immigrant’s demands to stay separate, not do the melting-pot thingy (well, until just recently, the U.S. didn’t acquiesce as much as we’re forced to do now…thanks again, leftists!)
America was, to immigrants, a cultural melting pot. Now, we’re stratified by leftist-liberal identity politics; instead of melding we’re each grabbing a little bit of difference and swinging those around like Mohammed’s sword. Every little difference counts to these scriveners of divisiveness, except of course for those eevilwhitemen who are the cause of all the world’s problems, obviously.
Socialism be damned, Proggy. Socialism is the death of true human spirit. And if Baracky brings socialism, he’s bringing with him the end of the U.S.A.
Oh. Can’t you get a ton of that cellulose stuff from like bamboo? It’s very growy, so you wouldn’t necessarily need trees.
“Is it really true that using bio-fuels reduce emissions of greenhouse gases ? I’d like a tutorial as to how that happens.”
– The one thingI know factually is the heating efficiency for some biofuesl is higher than their oil based cousins. that is factored into the pricing comparison, otherwise biofuels simply could not compete.
– Scientifically, if you get more efficient energy extraction from a given fuel, that should translate into less emmissions per mile of driving, since you’ll generally burn less fuel.
– I don’t have a link, perhaps someone else might.
– In the mean time I’ve layed out the problem and answer to the oil mess.
– Its true that the big money investers, both domestic and overseas, the speculaters, Opec, and the other major prosucers are hapily keeping prices high. a;; of the above, and they can do that because they control the lions share of the sources. They do it by playing off against our stubborn refusal, mainly the Democrats and the Left, but the Right isn’t innocent either. That refusal alows the investments interests to project FUTURE scarcity, so much so the ctual present conditions of supply and demand are reduced to very little effect.
– the answer remains, opening up our own resources. We have a huge pool available, and that would take control back from the oil proce hedge gang, and at the same time essentially make us energy independent.
– The motives behind why both sides of the aisle continue to play the game are varied and sundry, But the point is they do.
– The point is its just a question of time before the pols will buckle under public pressure, and theres going to be a lot of questions later when they do.
Whatever PhroggZero paid for that college education, he should get back with interest.
Twatwaffle.
You could harvest cellulose from yard clippings. Cellulose is plant fabric, all plants have some. Cotton is 90% cellulose; wood, only 50%.
Plants just aren’t a good source of high-density energy. Oil’s the best. Imagine that.
With a higher consumption rate, wouldn’t the production of greenhouse gases be equally larger ?
I think the theory is that the CO2 released = the CO2 the corns absorbed, so it’s a wash. That doesn’t count the tractors and the combine thingers, but it wasn’t my idea.
Phuck yurp.
Because freeing 50,000,000 people from ruthless dictators is just so yesterday.
If Obama wins, he’ll be freeing 300,000,000 Americans from a ruthless dictator.
If Obama wins, he’ll be freeing 300,000,000 Americans from a ruthless dictator.
And yet not one of your hippie buddies has been sent to the gulag.
Go figure, huh?
Moron.
“With a higher consumption rate, wouldn’t the production of greenhouse gases be equally larger ?
– Rapid Oxidation (burning by chemical interaction with oxygen) is a chemical process. The chemical byproducts (emissions) that result depend on the complex chemical constituents of the original fuel. So to answer that question accurately you’d need to test each fuel for BTU output and actual emissions measured. Chemical analysis can project such a result accurately, but there are many other factors, including the operating environment, so testing would give more accurate results for any given conditions.
– Because I’m aware of these other “factors” I don’t trust analysis standards alone. YMMV.
– I have heard that although there may be a heating efficiency advantage with bio, in general biofuels are not cost competitive if you compare them side by side with oil, and you include every factor from source to combustion chamber.
– In the end that sort of exact comparison where total cradle to burn costs are coupled with efficiency (BTU), and emissions as tested, is the only data you could trust. For some mysterious reason I have not seen such a comparative study published.
A minor thing, now, I guess, but —
Europeans don’t think that.
Well, the ones that aren’t still Nazis don’t. And that’s almost half of them.
– BTW, a new study just published says that scientists in Iceland have determined that the ice shelf of that continent are not melting nearly as fast as was previously reported, and that at the recently detected rate, as studied over a 17 year period, the melt-off would have zero net effect on surrounding sea levels for the next thousand years.
– Even more remarkable, in view of the recent “climate change” alarms, the study showed that melting is actually slowing down.
– The scientists as a group agreed it might be an early indication of global cooling.
– I suppose we could meet in the center of the climate field and flip a coin to select which team kicks off and which team receives.
If 300,000,000 Americans were living under any sort of ruthless dictator, it wouldn’t really matter if Baracky won, now would it?
It’s hard to tell whether foax like jasperjava are going to be disappointed or relieved when Chimpy McHitlerburton and Darth Cheney fail to call off the election and impose martial law come November.
Well, if McCain wins (a big if, that) at least they can still bitch about how the election was stolen.
Europeans for real are a lot Nazi. Some of it comes from a fetish they have for homogeneity. The racial kind. When they say they want Baracky to win that’s a lot the most vicious curse they know. But the thing about Europeans is, ignore them long enough and they will go away. Buh-bye, really. They had a good run.
Cause of all that multi-ethnic electing they do. It’s like spinning the color wheel over there, the way they pick their leaders.
Bill Schneider doesn’t get out much, it seems. And when he does, it would appear that the only people he talks to in Europe are leftists. Sure, Eurosocialists love them some O!; so do the Brit lefties I know. But, here’s a funny thing – not all of Europe/Britain votes socialist! Yeah, sure most of the population is addicted to the welfare state, and sucking on the nanny state’s teat is well established across the continent. It seems to be a hard habit to break. But the idea that all of Europe is a massive bastion of Barackyness is a fiction.
“The educated, well-informed Europeans I met were not entirely sure what Obama stood for. “Is he a socialist?” they asked.”
That’s a big clue. We know the kind of person Schneider likes to talk to – those he identifies with. You don’t think the intrepid CNN senior political analyst ventured away from the elegant sidewalks of Paris, do you? But I’ve got news for him, and ProggHero – there are a heck of a lot of Euro-rednecks living out in the sticks, just like me, who wouldn’t touch O! with a barge pole. There’s a lot of “fly-over” country here too.
Those penguins fucking hate us.
Actually we’re rather fond of most Americans. It’s your Big Media and Big Movie that really frost us.
Hmmm.
“Actually we’re rather fond of most Americans. It’s your Big Media and Big Movie that really frost us.”
You bet your ass! Bad enough being snacked on by a fucking leopard seal but to have Morgan Fucking Mr.-Deep-Voice Freeman commenting on that shit while it’s going down?
Total fucking joy-kill.
#15
“architecture, arts, currency, economies, etc. â€Â
That’s just funny, right there.
BBH,
You’re letting your understanding and appreciation for complex analyses spill over into places where it isn’t necessary or appropriate, and as a result you’re allowing yourself to be confused by the smoke screen.
In practical terms there are precisely two fuels, substances which yield usable energy when reacted with the atmosphere: carbon and hydrogen. Nothing else is both abundant enough in unreacted form and produces enough energy when burned to be useful.
Biofuels also contain carbon and hydrogen, and that’s where the energy comes from. The difference is that biofuels also contain at least some oxygen locked up in chemical bonds. When they are burned some of the oxygen comes from the fuel itself instead of the atmosphere, so emissions per pound of (visible) reactant are less. Total energy output still depends only on the amount of carbon and hydrogen present, and emissions depend on the ratio of carbon (-> CO2) and hydrogen (-> H2O) in the fuel.
It’s the difference between a jet, which carries only fuel, and a rocket, which carries both fuel and oxidizer. The rocket has to deliver more pounds of “stuff” to the engine to produce the same amount of power. Total emissions per kilowatt are the same whether the oxygen comes from the atmosphere or the tank. The rest of it is bullshit and misdirection designed to keep people’s eyes off the ball, and I’m surprised to see you of all people falling for it.
Regards,
Ric
“Plants just aren’t a good source of high-density energy.”
Just ask any herbivore.
“credible journalist” is an oxymoron.
PH: “Oh sure, they are kicking our butt with the Euro, have advanced light years beyond us in every measure of civilization – transportation, planning, architecture, arts, currency, economies, etc. – and we still have rightwing fruitcakes trying to demonize the word “socialist.—
PH, you haven’t thought it through, as usual. It is America’s generous contribution to Western European nations, in the form of the defense subsidy known as NATO that allows all these good things — well, that and the fact that their infracstructure was all but erased and rebuilt from the ground up, using those nasty, nasty greenbacks under the Marshall Plan.
“Infracstructure”. I like it.
“Oh sure, they are kicking our butt with the Euro, have advanced light years beyond us in every measure of civilization – transportation, planning….”
Scratch a leftist, find a fascist.
Hell, even the Underpants Gnomes had a plan.
Progg Hero is so much fun. He literally cannot comprehend how anyone could say the things that get said here. It is beyond the ken of his zen. Nor does he grasp how his cocktail-party soliloquies earn him nothing but raspberries. It’s like a strawman came to life.
Comment by Smirky McChimp on 7/5 @ 7:37 am #
Progg Hero is so much fun. He literally cannot comprehend how anyone could say the things that get said here.
He IS fun if you like inanity. If you’ve noticed, he seems to conceive of the First Amendment as a collective Right. His complaints about Rush were that the “airwaves” were public [ahem PUBLIC as he would have it] and his regard for free speech on the web is so low that we should be punished/jailed. For the children, I suppose.
I wonder if he’s thought any about the differences between collective, individual, natural, civil, and human rights? And their derivations? Thinking on these are like counting your blessings for Americans so I assume not.
Balloon Juice…didn’t realize there were any sane folk left that still went over to that site. Kos has publicly acknowledged that a “fair percentage” of BJ’s regular commenters appear to be people that he has previously banned from Daily Kos. Guess that gives one some idea of just how deranged most of them are over there. And then, of course, you’ve got the trio of dips and poopyheads that preside over the site; now there is quite a collection of poofs and goofs.
I’m sure this guy is also fine with anti-gay protesters at military funerals and pro-lifers in front of abortion clinics.
Armed Forces recruiters at learning institutions, as well.
Sorry, I should have hat-tipped Memeorandum.
When last seen, John Cole was leading an armed assault on Terry Schiavo’s parents.
What did drive Cole over the looney edge? I used to read BJ back in the day…..
Harriet Miers.
Regards,
Ric
Re: Jeff’s update
Gateway Pndit has a picture of the Code Pinko protester. A commenter nails it with a comparison to the 1970s remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, even though the commie aspect harkens back to the original.
If Obama wins, he’ll be freeing 300,000,000 Americans from a ruthless dictator.
If Chimpy actually were a ruthless dictator, do you really think he would voluntarily step aside and let McCain and Baracky have a chance to run things? java – you should have to rent oxygen.
Wow……….just wow.
If Bush is a “ruthless dictator”, what does that make Mugabe, or Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot.
Hell, what does that make Czar Putin?
If Bush is a “ruthless dictatorâ€Â, what does that make Mugabe, or Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot. Hell, what does that make Czar Putin?
They are pikers.
Well, looks like jasperjava is another brave drive-by.
Maybe we should leave some comments over at his site?
Oh, look. Unlike this fascist site, he doesn’t allow anonymous comments.
Not Jeff’s update, Karl . . . but thanks. ;-P
Bush/Cheney, the ruthless dictators that don’t have the opposition shot because they’re so damned dumb. Yup.
“have advanced light years beyond us in every measure of civilization – transportation, planning, architecture, arts, currency, economies”
Hahahahahaha…oh, you said that and meant it, you poor silly thing. Have you been on the Paris Metro? Stinks it does like the biggest urinal in the world. That’s because so many Frenchy homeless live down there. Oh, but wait–how could there be Frenchy homeless, when they are so much smarter than we? It is a mystery, to be sure.
Architecture? Do you mean those really old buildings built before anyone who had an interest in permanent architecture (aside from the Anasazi, who vanished, and the Maya and Aztecs and such, who were invaded by the Spanish but that’s ok because they’re Hispanic, not white, I think) got here? Or modern architecture, in which case I scoff at you?
Arts? Again, are you thinking of those big Renaissance things, or more modern art, in which case I spit de Kooning at you?
Economy? Well, the French haven’t let their elders broil to death yet this summer whilst away on those 6-week vacas you lust after, but me? I prefer modern plumbing, 300+ channels on my tvs and no license to pay the government for them, all the damn food in the world on my grocery shelves or Amazon.com, and job mobility. But that’s just me.
Currency? You mean you don’t like the Sacajawea dollar? Me, neither. I always end up trading it for 4 new state quarters and then my purse is heavier.
– Ric, not exactly sure what you think I’m falling for, but it seems the more I try to explain things in simplistic terms, the more ammunition I give people to mis-interpret.
– To reinterate, the chemical processes that engage during complex hydrogarbon/ozybenation are anthing but simple, and small amounts of moderating compounds present in the subject “fuel” can have striking effects on the parameters you’re interested in, here work extraction (calometric BTU heating), and volume of emitted byproducts.
– Temperature of reaction can be one of the most significant parameters in any givens fuels score card, having to do with density, basic chemical reaction speed, and efficiencies, and any effects of impurities. That is chemistry 101, so I’m not sure why you think them unimportant. After all, when you’re talking about billions of tons of pollutant even a few percent plus or minus can be significant, but maybe we’re talking past each other.
– In any event, my point was you can’t just extrapolate emissions based on heating efficiency alone for a given fuel.
I hope Europe continues to hate America for a long time. I don’t want to have to send Americans to the continent a couple of times this century to save their silly asses from their latest -ism infatuation. Europe never did grasp freedom, clinging as they do to elitism, cultural arrogance, and socialism. We’ll play with Europe when they act like democracies, otherwise, the toilet bowl will continue to swirl with the usual turds going down.
– Make that oxygenation – so much for typing without enough light.
You people are…considered its criminals by most of the civilized world.
Go read “Anne Frank’s Diary” or Natan Sharansky’s “Fear No Evil,” PH, and get back to us.
Go read “Anne Frank’s Diary†or Natan Sharansky’s “Fear No Evil,†PH, and get back to us.
Also read The Gulag Archipelago and Darkness at Noon, and watch The Killing Fields.
Since javajerk is a Canadian, I’d recommend that he explore the typical fate of resource-rich, defenseless countries that share an undefended border with a dictatorship. I’m sure that Bush’s tanks will be rolling into Toronto any day now!
Hint: if Bush were the “ruthless dictator” you and javajerk are making him out to be, you’d both be in mass graves with bullets in your skulls. You sure as hell wouldn’t be screeching on the Internet. You’d be hiding in your closets, shitting yourselves every time you heard someone at the door.
BBH, I don’t think the effects and processes you mention are unimportant. I do think, based on what I see around me, that talking about them is ineffective.
The whole debate revolves around magical thinking. Ethanol and methanol are different fuels from the nasty old hydrocarbons — O!il — and therefore virtuous. Some means has to be found to break into that thinking, and it seems to me that one approach that might work is to pound away at the fact that they are not different at all.
What burns in ethanol or methanol is the same hydrogen and carbon that burns in hydrocarbon fuels. To the extent that there’s any pollution advantage, it’s because part of the hydrogen and carbon has already been “burned” somewhere else. Alcohols don’t reduce pollution, they shift it to somewhere else.
A little more complicated:
Combining one carbon with two oxygens gives CO2 and energy.
Combining two hydrogens with one oxygen gives H2O and energy.
If you burn methane, CH4, you use up three oxygen atoms and get one CO2 and two H2Os, containing three oxygen atoms. You get all the energy.
If you burn methanol, CH3OH, you use up two oxygen atoms and get one CO2 and two H2Os, containing three oxygen atoms. The third oxygen atom was already there, and you don’t get the energy you would have received from putting it in — that energy was used up elsewhere.
If you burn ethane, C2H4, you use up six oxygen atoms and get two CO2s and two H2Os, containing six oxygen atoms, and you get all the energy.
If you burn ethanol, CH2COOH, you use up four oxygen atoms and get two CO2s and two H2Os containing six oxygens. The other two oxygen atoms were already there, and once again you don’t get to use the energy from putting them in because somebody else already did.
Taking it that way at least makes it obvious why alcohols are less powerful fuels than hydrocarbons, that is, it takes more pounds of alcohol for the same amount of energy because the difference went somewhere else. You get the same stuff out the tailpipe either way, and less energy to run the car.
Regards,
Ric
Toss in “The Black Book of Communism”.
” what does that make Mugabe, or Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot.”
Ooo…Ooo, I know this one.
(Channeling my inner Leftist) “It makes them mere amateurs next to the evil dictator Bush”
How’d I do, any of you leftist morons still listening?
Well, let’s see:
1. An anti-colonialist hero.
2. An anti-fascist who made a few regretable mistakes.
3. An agrarian reformer.
4. Not really a bad guy, if you ask Noam Chomsky.
I happen to be a European, and I can tell you, what other Europeans don’t want to hear and let alone say.
Europe is the Sick Man of the World. As it collapses under the weight of its Ivory Tower contradictions, its only victories are vicarious, and take place in lands of their Imagination. Over to you, Italo Calvino.
X-European