pre-speech anal
Hume, Mort
not fuc g workin
when I figure this stupid
*****
up : Madame
classic powersuit, and ap ars to have had her latest round of inj
new congress, but same respons
unemployment low; budget deficit cut ahead of schedule; no need to raise taxes (at this, Pelosi visably eyebrow twitch.
****
dent makes case for social security reform and school choice—both of which have about as much chance of happening in a Democratic Congress as Denis Kucinich has of my waxed by Claudia Schiffer.
ill not workin
Stupid techno
remind me to use a deck of Sprint Wireless Broadband cards like throwing stars to pin Reynolds to the wall like some sort of exotic butter y.
HATE THIS THIN !
upda 2: surprising applause for ‘clean nuclear energy’, though Bush was clever enough to stick it in corn
CAFE standards? Jesus. A half dozen folks at CATO just choked on their trans fat footlong
sausage with bell peppers.
upd 3: meat: foreign policy (and by that, I’m not talking balloon fences or mile-high berms). Bush ticks off a litany
like you’d expect out of a Biblethumping Evangelical.
OBAMA!
not like us to leave our promises unkept…” And by “us,” Bush is clearly bracketing out the entire
Eeeeyore!
Iraqis not ready to stop sectarian violence on their own. Hence the justification for the surge. For their part, most of the Democrats in the Gallery al Qaeda fighters. Which
par for the course, at this point.
benchmarks, and eventually take responsibility
OBAMA!
****
give up. Honey? Fetch me a beer, would you?
update 4: Up next: “American Idol!”
Starting rumors?
I’m not even going to bother to watch the SOTU.
I’ve learned that what the president says matters far, far less than the reaction to it.
The reaction to it frequently has nothing to do with what was actually said or not said….
SOTU?
Well, no wonder I never got in the spirit of these things. I thought it was supposed to be STFU.
Well said.
I’ve got a concord grape lodged in my sinus cavity after the first screen shot of Hillary. Any suggestions?
wait til the next one, alp, I’m sure you’ll snort it back out.
BAD Goldstein! BAD! BAD!
Put down that toad!
SB: else23
Hah! Havatchoo!
There it went. Who’s got the Windex?
I’ll wait for the post-mortar to see who’s the new persona non gratin.
I got my bberry pearl about a month ago and now LOVE it. Give it time, you’ll soon be rubbing it against your naked body. That’s how much you’ll love it.
Cars will get shittier and more expensive.
OH, no!
SB: bill99
Did McCain just take a standing 8 count?
Does botox make you bite your tongue compulsively ?
So even more folks will start driving SUVs.
Is this shit really that hard for people to figure out?
Hey Jeff: I see that, like the national media, your Blackberry has the Obama virus.
Somewhere Tom Tancredo, Duncan Hunter, Chris Dodd, Joe Biden, and Sam Brownback are hoping for gratuitous camera shots.
The term “putting lipstick on a pig” comes to mind. Or perhaps “polishing a turd” would be better.
So. What are you wearing?
Steve,
Please bless us with your energy ideas.
(This should be good.)
Nancy: Palomino!
From the democratic rebuttal to the State of the Union Speech:
NPR anchor… “I am tempted to use the word ‘tepid’” with respect to the applause the President received.
Wishbone…”I am tempted to use the word ‘kneebiter’ to describe NPR anchors.”
That was the best Ted Kennedy impression ever.
Fifty bucks says it has something to do with another Manhattan Project.
Man, am I sorry I missed that.
Wishbone,
I thank you for the advance praise. My “ideas” are hardly my own original ideas, but they are quite simple. Before you start talking about nuclear energy (at the same time threatening other countries with war for saying they need nuclear energy), I think that we should take the time to explore alternatives. If we had every new home loaded with solar panels (and a push to do the same with old houses), plug-in hybrids for potential 100 mpg + driving, exploited wind energy, used improved conservation methods, energy efficient appliances and home/business designs, alternative fuels, improved mass transit systems for starters, and we still had some sort of energy consumption crisis, I’d say that you could start talking about whether nuclear energy has some merit. Instead, I see a bunch of talk and little action. The absurdity of “hydrogen cars” for example, which is a complete scam that Bush has backed in the past because he knows it will be fruitless, is nothing more than insincerity. Nuclear power plants are mostly a big cash cow for the likes of Halliburton and Bechtel type corporate sycophants, beyond the fact that they are accidents waiting to happen.
Run little hamsters, run! You can do it, I know you can.
NPR anchor … it’s clear that Jim Webb was chosen to deliver the response (as opposed to Harry Reid etc) because of his tremendous background … (NOT because he conveniently wasn’t around to vote on the Resolution Authorizing Force in Iraq…)
that’s some tremendous background. right? and I think he was in Vietnam.
Is it me or does Jimmy Webb look like some second string, vice-principal, possibly some converted girl’s basketball coach that hugged a little frequently for the comfort levels of the athlete’s parents? Funny how he doesn’t have time respond properly, but can mention the entire militaristic careers of 3 generations of his family, plagiarize John Edward’s 2 Americas & make a sleeping Al Gore seem jocular. Potential kiss of death could be Brokav, Olberman & Matthew’s wholeheartedly approval.
Bush – good
Webb – better
Good day for America.
Which probably won’t be quite as useful once the peaceful Iranian nuclear power program comes on-line.
Let me start here:
Iran can build all the plants it wants. Enriching uranium to weapons grade level is another matter, but I digress.
I’m not going to argue the merits of your other ideas–you are aware that they have limitations and costs. Solar and wind are severely limited by location and space considerations (they grow geographically, not exponentially).
Nuclear is attractive because it can be safe (and greenhouse free) and even in the event of a major accident–contained. Please don’t bring up Chernobyl–all American plants have containment vessels. And as for the companies that build them–well, that’s what they do. If Fred’s Plant Building Company comes on line, let us know.
Rest assured, we’re going to need it. The U.S. population will hit 400 million or so in the coming half century and those people and their economic activity will need energy. China and India will also need massive amounts and the nuclear power is the only existing technology to deliver the bang for the buck. Forgive the pun.
guinsPen,
Do you think there is a problem in threatening other countries that claim to be pursuing nuclear energy while saying that we need it for this country?
Wishbone,
Will Iran and North Korea need nuclear energy as well?
I didn’t understand why Webb ran on a Democrat ticket until today. Webb comes over like a petulant child. So he fits right into the Democrat party.
Sorry Wishbone, I missed the first half of your post until after I posted that.
Dear lord…Matthews and Olbermann at the same desk.
The fabric of space time might not hold up to that.
That’ll be HUGE in Seattle. The quality of idiot seems diminished of late. Where’s actard?
The plain fact that the world still needs fossil fuels combined with the current push for cleaner energy means my FTEK shares continue to jump!
For the record, there aren’t really significant space limitations to solar in the sense that most houses can hold enough solar panels on their roofs right now to meet most of their daily energy demands (I grant you that is less so in some climates, but true for a large part of the country right off the bat).
And Steve,
Let’s do remember that an offer was on the table for Iran to do exactly that with Russian uranium, complete with accounting and they shoved it back in everyone’s face.
There’s only one reason to set up the centrifuge cascades they have: Bombs. Lots of them.
This is not true. Most installations would cover about half. And run around $32,000 for an average house.
sxx,
There’s a big difference between the uranium used in civilian nuclear power and that used in nuclear weapons. The former is about 3% U-235 (or 0.7% in CANDU reactors), the latter more than 96% U-235. There is no need to enrich uranium to weapons-grade level for civilian nuclear power. Since weapons-grade enrichment requires expensive and complex equipment, it’s easy to tell when a country is pursuing a weapons program. Your equivalence is a false one.
Are shrinks supposed to be this cynical.
After a rant (which I largley agree with, to my suprise), about expansion of existing alternative energy sourses (how about a 100%, off the top tax deduction for personal property investments in solar/wind tech), you blind yourself with BDS.
A very important componant of those kinds of energy sources is storage. Giving private interests (car companys for ex.) incentive to refine and advance batterys, will hasten the success by a generation over government think tanks.
I only have one objection to nuclear power, what to do with the radioactive waste. Send that shit to the sun, and I’m totally on board.
Only if your heart and sympathies lie with them, chickenhadeen.
Does Tehran fax you these things, or are you just on the same wavelength?
Problem is steve ex-pat,
Almost 57% of electricity in the US is generated by coal & not oil. We do not import coal & the only feasible answer is nuclear. Funny how your side will defend Iran or North Korea in building nuclear plants for power, but freak out if it is ever mentioned as a solution here – meanwhile completely ignoring that the French generate 75% of their power that way.
PMain,
I don’t defend anyone building nuclear power plants. I’m pointing out the contradiction is saying that it’s necessary, but insisting that others can’t have it.
kyle,
Do you think that Seattle needs a decent mass transit system?
You are intentionally ignoring the difference between benign nuclear power plants and uranium enrichment, Steve. The world is peppered with the former and the latter sticks out like a sore thumb.
Iran may say one thing–but science says another.
I apologise stevexx, You were taking about hydrogencars. I got confused.
My points still stand though, after talking alternative, you condmn Bush for pursueing innovative alternatives.
Plus the whole private enterprise thing.
It’s treacherous.
His hatred of America and Americans is so deep it has metastasized into advocacy and a philosophical allegiance with those who wish to kill up.
He knows the difference. He actually wants them to have the bomb. He wants to see America defeated and humbled–he has a sick emotional need for it.
PMain – concisely and effectively put… I’d only add that solar and wind are completely ineffective without 1:1 backup generation when the wind won’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine. Factoring this cost into “alternative energy” produces a balance sheet that is entirely indefensible.
No, they aren’t building them for power as you blindly believe, which is the point that the President was/is making. Unless you can explain the announced Iranian increase number of centrifuges (un-needed for power generation) & lack of internal infrastructure to handle, much less deliver or use the supposedly “for electricity only” power in either country. Why is it that the Iranians have refused the aid offered (as mentioned by another poster here a few comments up) to handle their enrichment? Why do they insist on using the French/Russian plant designs that are less efficient at generating power but are easily adaptable to producing the product necessary to begin weapons level enrichment?
I would further add that the alternative fuels (alcohol and biodiesel) are a wash because it takes a lot of energy to convert the vegetable matter into fuel, and there isn’t much that you can do about it. However, I have been told that there is a positive energy yield from alcohol, by which I mean that you can get more energy out of the fuel than you used to make it. I don’t know the margins.
However, you have to gather the vegetable material, which has a relatively low energy density compared to oil and coal, and ship it to a centralized location. I seriously doubt you can get more energy out than you used to make it during the entire process.
Finally, even if it did work somehow, how much land would have to be used to grow our fuel, and how much additional water would be required?
Wishbone,
I don’t think it’s as easy to ferret out these issues as you are supposing. When your country calls other countries “The Axis of Evil” and then starts making claims about nuclear bomb development (remember the Niger/yellow-cake incident for starters), while at the same time saying that they have the right to inspect that country’s nuclear power development even though that right wouldn’t be reciprocated and even though the U.S. makes plenty of their own nuclear bombs and has apparently allowed stockpiles of nuclear bombs to be developed in Israel, it clouds the picture a bit. Wouldn’t it make more sense to develop alternative energy as a model for other countries to follow? I don’t know whether Iran is developing nuclear weapons, but certainly it is a lot easier to hide that when you are also developing nuclear power plants. I just think people are trying to have it both ways here.
cranky-d,
No one is even trying. This stuff should be bigger than the push by NASA to put someone on the moon. It should be the biggest thing going and not much is happening at all. It’s time to get to work on what is important.
Gray,
Don’t you think that’s a bit over-the-top?
The laws of thermodynamics cannot be overcome by wishful thinking.
Please name the last time an Israeli Prime Minister threatened to remove another country from the map (and I ain’t just talking about the Iranian Rumpled Boy here) and then you can try the old equivalency argument.
It is VERY easy to discern a nuclear weapons program for ALL the reasons cited above.
Enrichment of the kind that Iran is enganed in is necessitated by one use–weapons. It is unnecessary for power generation–PERIOD. I’m not making this up–you can Google it for yourself. And, by the way, the European negotiating countries know it, the Russians know it, and the Chinese know it. Remember–the UN has voted sanctions. The US is not making this up out of whole cloth.
Iran has treaty responsibilites under the NPT (something Israel never signed on to), so the next time you want to wave international law around–remember that. The U.S. is a recognized nuclear power under the same agreement and has taken great steps to reduce its own arsenal with further reductions to come.
One sure way to contribute to global warming is to put up a solar panel to capture all that solar energy and make sure it doesn’t go anywhere.
cranky-d
Solar Power has been around for decades. It is capable of supplying a large amount of power to much of the U.S. Wind Power could add more. Fuel efficient cars could help even more and plug-in hybrids already exist that get 100 mpg. Are we incapable of building mass transit systems like those in Japan. This has nothing to do with the laws of thermodynamics. It is the law of apathy. This is the technology that is available already today.
No. I think you’ve made common-cause with the enemies of America.
Your statements about Iraq are very nearly identical to Al Zawahri’s, but you don’t have the rhetorical flourishes.
Your statements about North Korea and Iranian nukes are truly identical to Amahdinejad.
Your statements about Israel are pure Amahdinejad.
You’ve crossed the line into open advocacy and philosophical allegiance with those who would kill us.
No.
I only mentioned alternative fuels, nothing else.
S. ex ex ,
Your take on the solution , namely Kyoto ,please ?
Much like fortune-cookie fortunes make more sense if you append: “In bed” to them.
Stevemadinejad’s posts are best read if you add: “‘Cuz America is evil.” to them.
Absolutely.
Behold the wonders of North Koreas nuclear energy progam!
steve ex-pat,
Perhaps you should revise your talking points. Funny how those that bring up the “yellow cake incident†seem to forget that Mr. Plame has been shown to offer 2 different stories about his little visit to Niger (one to the NYT & the other to the CIA), that no one has yet proven the initial report false & the British have re-iterated its accuracy, that Niger has never really produced any other products that Iraq couldn’t get cheaper & in better supply elsewhere & lastly that Saddam had 500 tons of Niger based yellow cake locked up & under UN control at the time of the invasion. HMM, funny thing is he didn’t have the infrastructure to generate, much less deliver the power that that fuel would have provided as well. I guess the common theme is a little too nuanced for you!
Given the facts that North Korea is now aiding Iran in underground tests (un-needed for power generation), that North Korea using a tiny percentage of their plants to supply power to its citizens (the majority is for weapons production) & Iran has sought delivery systems designed to deploy non-conventional munitions. Alos see my last post that I neglected to address to you, mostly because these arguments have become so mundane & common.
Are you actually suggesting that Iraq, Iran & North Korea aren’t evil? I guess they should be praised for their open society & media, their diligence to Nuclear & weapons treaties & their treatment of its citizens. How many people are trying to immigrate to either of those countries again? Face it they are evil much like the Soviet Union was evil when Reagan called them on it & it silly suggest otherwise.
Wishbone,
Certainly you are not saying that international law should only apply to countries that sign on to it and others can do what they want?
Pmain,
Is Saudi Arabia evil?
Okay,
I am at a point where I can’t post as fast as I read the posts to me, which I now have to skim. So I declare all of you the winner. I’ll get you next time. Curses, foiled again!
Sure they can! ‘Cuz they know they will have vile little quislings like you to defend them as long as the wish harm to American and Americans!
Steve,
First, I think you should think about the implications of applying treaties to non-signatories. That’s a huge can of worms there.
Second, please quit trying to change the terms of the debate. We’re not talking about Israel here–you seem to want to believe the best of Iranian intentions when hard science indicates otherwise.
In any event, I haven’t read any accounts of Israelis shouting “Run the Arabas into the sea!!!” in 1948. The Israelis want what they have always wanted–for everyone to quit shooting at them.
Are you saying our constitutuon goes out the window if an international court deams your comments illegal?
s.x.p,
Nice ducking of several points by changing the subject, I wish I could I claim this was the first time today someone arguing your perspective had resorted to it. Can’t respond can you? I don’t recall Saudi Arabia as being a part of the “Axis of Evil.†Or is your memory as effective as your reading comprehension & knowledge of the facts?
TW: Why bother?
you were foiled before you started, steve xx.
I hate to say it, but you are really way out of your league here.
He’s not stupid he’s just on their side.
A lib friend of mine and I were watching a movie. I don’t remember which one, but it had a tank (as in treads, big gun, people inside) with a 2 foot by 4 foot solar panel on it. He figured that solar panel could power it. And he had an undergrad degree in biology, which presumably means he had physics at some point.
I tried to explain that the amount of solar energy hitting that panel wouldn’t amount to much. He figured that if we just spent enough money developing the technology we could make it work.
That’s what we’re up against, people. Wishful thinking, little or no knowledge of the facts.
Not in my back(hic)yard, Junior.
C’mon Stevie , CONCENTRATE………now , your take on Kyoto .
uh, yeah, where would this “international law” be codified? who enforces it?
What about geothermal? Oh wait… wrong Steve.
I read somewhere that they can pull enough lithium, silica sand and other minerals out during the process.
Of course the laws of supply and demand coupled with distance to market will kick in and then plants in the more remote areas will have piles of silica to get rid of, but details details.
I’m thinking that Dr. Evil was ahead of his time with his ideas on “magma”.
I love scientists. They are worried about global warming, but seem unperturbed by the possible consequences of boring holes through the earth’s mantle and then injecting water…
Sometimes “green” building ideas conflict. Living roofs are all the rage, but I’d like to see roofing materials and glass nano coated to produce solar energy. Not cheap, but why not give it a go?
I’d like to see something beyond electric motors running cars, trucks etc. Laugh at hydrogen, but at least it is forward thinking.
Tin-foiled.
Steve G,
We’ll ignore any cost aspects of alternative energy (which are significant), and go on to the problem remaining even if they did work.
The problem as I see it with everyone being their own power company is the massive fluctuations in power demand that might result. The power grid must be carefully managed for load; otherwise whole sections can go down, like they did in NY a few years ago. It takes time to bring a powerplant to up and running condition, which would have to happen every time the sun hid behind the clouds or the wind died down (or sped up, wind power blades are designed for a small range of wind speeds and have to be taken offline when the wind blows too hard).
The only solution is to have a massive source of instantaneous electric power. I have no idea how to manage that effeciently. Maybe that’s where the money should be going.
Y’know, how hard would it be to take someone like Steve xx, who is already predisposed, and turn him to providing information and material support to Al Qaeda? Y’know, like Lynne Stewart?
I don’t think you would even have to ‘turn’ him since he is already so symathetic to their aims and goals. Perhaps you’d just have to provide him an opportunity to join The Struggle in the name of ‘fairness’ and ‘economic justice’ and whatever rot his handlers could feed him.
I wonder how many more are like that out there? Y’know, aside from all of Central California.
It’s worrisome….
Yeah, but in attempting to transmit that instantaneous blast of power over the lines when the lights start to dim, the Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) would frizzle all your electronics anyway.
If the powerlines could handle it, your Blackberry cannot….
Nikolai Tesla?
I don’t think you’d have to have it on the grid that quickly, but you may have to have it providing power in a manner of minutes from a dead stop. That would be the case for a central alternative source that stopped producing
However, if you have everyone providing their own power (which means the grid might not be loaded much, since each house would have to be isolated from the grid to a certain extend to avoid pushing their own power out to everyone else) and then had to quickly provide a bunch more power to take up the slack, your argument sounds about right.
Whatever did happen would not be pretty.
C’mon Stevie…..Kyoto…..?
He’s gone.
Ack! Pfft!
Uh oh–here come the power-subsidies:
I propose a taxcut for all of the people whose employers provide their power, combined with a tax-increase on all those who use more than their fair share of power, to pay for the power of the people who are unempowered or unempowerable.
Illegal aliens, as usual, will get as much free power as they can possibly use.
“We really have to move this discussion beyond people empowering themselves, or their employers empowering them, and look at government provided power”.
steve xx,
Please read the essays linked here before giving us the utopian energy spiel again.
For those of you chattering away on nuclear power, you might find the following site both useful and entertaining: http://RadDecision.blogspot.com . The real world of nuclear power, good and bad, is little known to boosters and detractors alike. The website features the e-novel Rad Decision, online for free, that gives you an inside look at atomic energy, based on my twenty years in the nuke biz. (I like conservation and windmills too.) Readers seem to like it, judging from the homepage comments. Also now in paperback.
“I’d like to see Rad Decision widely read.” – Stewart Brand, founder of The Whole Earth Catalog and noted environmentalist.
Yeah, but like any of these kind of systems, once you account for hardware, software and switching lags, somebody ends up with a big ‘ol blast of powah!
Thanks cranky-d , couldn’t have said it better myself .
The one that boggles me is the brilliant idea of giant orbital arrays beaming solar power down to the Earth’s surface in the form of microwave enery. Yeah, sure. Only, how big of an energy sink will be required to dissipate all the heat back into space?
James, seems like you might want to get started on those essays at my prior link, too. I’m sure you have plaenty of horror stories from the nuke biz of the last 20 years (all occurring after the US made it a ridiculous industry to be in), but alternatives have to be feasible on some reasonable time-horizon. Conservation and windmills ain’t going to come close.
Steve XX, I’m going to throw you an alternative energy bone here which if you choose to take will make you down with all the cool kids…
Essential Reading Before Sounding Like An Idiot About Alternative Energy by Stephen Den Beste
[url=”http://www.electricminds.org/ussclueless/cd_log_entries/2004/06/AnewManhattanProject.htm” target=”_blank”]
A New Manhattan Project[/url]
Kyoto
Energy Scaling Problems
Don’t thank me, I’m a giver.
I didn’t know SDB’s essays were still available online. Cool. He said it all already, at length, and in great detail.