Letters to the Editor
sunspot
Published Letters: 351 Editor's Choice: 43
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Americans Freak Out Easily When Confronted By Reality
[Read the article: The politics of home price depreciation]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Sorry, but most Americans lead pretty sheltered lives, well insulated from reality by a cushion of mass-media delivered corporate propaganda and religious frootbattery. Anyone even tenuously connected to reality realized several years ago that the interest only, no money down, adjustable rate, stated income mortgage-financed economy was a complete fraud. That this reality is only slowly dawning on millions of Americans is testament to just how clueless the electorate has become.
This is a bi-partisan fiasco, as the big mortgage scamsters were more than happy to buy off politicians on both sides of the aisle, providing millions in campaign cash, cushy jobs and crooked investments. For the past 30 years or so America drank the free market Kool-Aid by the vat. It's a little late now for folks to bitch about it being laced with cyanide.
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Rainy Climates & Where Solar's The Best
[Read the article: Solar power for the people]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Solar's not as practical when you go north of California. On the other hand, it's more practical than it looks at first glance in the sunbelt. That's because solar typically reaches its peak energy output when demand is at the absolute highest in warm climates. Since the price of electricity varies throughout the day based on current demand, in the sunbelt a solar array can be kicking out the most juice precisely when the cost per kw/h of electricity hits a peak several multiples of the base rate.
We also have enormous issues with transmitting enough power during periods of peak demand, let alone generating it. A widescale deployment of solar arrays throughout the sunbelt on homes and businesses would alleviate the need for costly infrastructure upgrades by distributing power generation straight to the source of demand.
Note that as the efficiency of solar increases and the cost declines, it'll become more and more practical in colder, darker, wetter climates as well. Places like New York City also have high peak demands during the summer which solar should eventually help address.
Unfortunately, solar's not going to do much to help with oil prices.
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Cost Of Oil Has Little To Do With It
[Read the article: Solar power for the people]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Virtually none of our electricity comes from oil. Coal, nuclear, gas and hydroelectric provide the bulk of our electricity, at least here in the US.
What's made solar more practical in the past few years has been a combination of technological advances and peak pricing. Used to be you paid the same amount for electricity day or night. Now the price of electricity can skyrocket during the day when demand peaks. In the sunbelt, solar panels just happen to pump out the most juice during exactly the same period. This makes them far more cost-effective for end-users than they would be otherwise. In general the cost per kw/h for solar still isn't anywhere near competitive with coal, gas or nuclear (let alone hydro), but during peaks it's much less than the going rate on the grid in places like California and Arizona.
The technology to produce solar cells has also advanced over time, making them somewhat more efficient, more durable and reliable and much less expensive in inflation-adjusted dollars than they were 30, 20 or even 10 years ago.
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Boeing?
[Read the article: SpongeBob and the proper role of the State]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You have to be joking. How many zillions in taxpayer dollars flow to Boeing every year in the form of padded defense contracts? Not to mention all the subsidies our airline industry receives from the government, which in turn helps keep Boeing afloat. Boeing receives as much - or more - state support than outfits like Airbus.
At least Europeans are honest enough to admit they have socialist governments, and manage their system accordingly. The rightwing and libertarian fruitcakes here in America blather on about our supposed free market, all the while ignoring literally hundreds of billions of dollars worth of corporate welfare doled out by Washington, state and local governments every year.
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Did she screw OJ, too?
[Read the article: Did Rupert help Rudy?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I mean, apart from the whole If I Did It book deal.
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Where's Moonbase Alpha?
[Read the article: Here comes the Earth]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Don't fly too close to the waste dumps, either.
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You know . . .
[Read the article: Quote of the Day]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If the Republicans spent less time calling Hillary a bitch and more time making Osama bin Laden their bitch, maybe they wouldn't be suffering from abysmal approval ratings.
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Contaminated?
[Read the article: The bright side of consumer paralysis]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm going back to glass because I can't trust the Chinese OR the American inspectors to keep my food bowls free of lead.
Buy dishware made in Europe. It's unlikely to be contaminated - Europe still has some standards in place.
I'd say buy American-made tableware, but do we still make any? I mean, apart from paper plates and Styrofoam cups.
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I'm Not Surpirsed That $100k A Year Morons Would Try To Take Out A $600k Loan
[Read the article: The Citigroup who stole Christmas]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]But I am shocked that a $100 billion dollar bank would be stupid enough to give it to them. Some of these mortgage bank executives have made literally hundreds of millions of dollars over the past few years offering these obviously fraudulent mortgages. These guys were supposed to be the best and the brightest - clearly they were only the crookedest. They should be "foreclosed" on as well, forced to surrender their ill-gotten gains, and spend the rest of their lives behind bars.
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Get Another Dog
[Read the article: Should we euthanize the Yorkie?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If you can't fix the existing dog, either thru medication or behavioral techniques, maybe you could try getting a second dog for grandma, one with a better temperament, and see if she bonds to that animal. If she does, it would make it a lot easier to get rid of the annoying Yorkie.
Better yet, get a nice friendly shorthaired cat. If your folks aren't allergic they make much better pets - no need to walk 'em, they're generally quiet, keep themselves clean, and they usually bond well to a single person.