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Saturday, Nov 7, 2009
agore
Published Letters: 580 Editor's Choice: 9
As a computer geek of over 40 years standing, I'm not concerned that John McCain doesn't have a MySpace page. He understands the need for nuclear power in this era of $4 gasoline and energy dependence on terrorists who hate us. You people don't.
Last time the country was broke, FDR put people to work building Hoover Dam and electrifying the Tennessee Valley. Today's Democrats are too busy kissing the butts of the flat-earth lobby to put any of those tax dollars to work actually building the infrastructure we need to get the nation out of debt and back into competition with Asia.
...from Pat Smith, who can't stand the fact that foreign airlines are getting a huge new plane with 21st-century amenities. Meanwhile, for the last several years domestic airlines have been operating aircraft that are smaller, slower, and less comfortable than the older models they replaced, with filthy "recycled" air. Complain about their lousy service, and you will find that airline lobbyists have acquired special legal powers to tie you up for the rest of the flight, then send you to Guantanamo.
We need to put an end to the cabotage law that prevents foreign airlines from competing in our domestic market. I want to be able to choose among Qantas and Singapore and Emirates when I fly the Phoenix - Chicago route. Watch everyone's service improve radically when this happens.
Although I'm a Republican who gets around mostly by car, I'm the first to agree that cycling should be encouraged, and that this Rob Anderson character is being a complete douche.
But Anderson's use of legal obstructionism to raise "environmental" objections to an activity that reduces pollution and saves energy highlights the fact we don't have an energy problem in this country so much as we have a lawsuit problem. The legal obstructionism that allows any idiot to prevent us from drilling for domestic oil or building nuclear plants of standard design - and from storing the waste in a known-safe place until it becomes economic to recycle it - is now also being used against wind, geothermal and solar installations. And yes, Anderson is using the same system in his jihad against bicycles.
My solution: unify our systems of civil and criminal law by making civil plaintiffs follow the same stiff code of legal procedure as the prosecution in criminal cases. If Rob Anderson and his ilk had to prove their cases with a "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard of evidence to get a unanimous jury ruling, rather than "preponderance" of evidence to get a majority vote, junk lawsuits by Luddites would be largely filtered out without needing government to pick winners or manage arbitrary caps in damages. And within a few years, this country would be energy independent.
@kasha6228
"Bolt is an amazing athlete, but an embarrassment to the USA AND the Olympics."
Yessirree - anybody who does something you personally consider offensive is obviously an American, even when he's actually...a Jamaican!
"But, you failed to mention that nuclear power is also emissions free."
Behead the infidel!
I can't wait to see Michael Moore's upcoming film "Der Sieg des Willens."
Biden has the opportunity to redeem himself on the copyright issue by coming out with a creative global solution to the existing mess. Suppose, for example, that we recast intellectual property as an inalienable personal right of the actual creator, like free speech, not transferable in any way to corporate middlemen, and lasting for o longer than the lifetime of the creator. To profit from an artist's work, you would have to make arrangements with that specific person.
The entertainment industry would no longer be able to screw artists out of their rights for a pittance, then profit again by doing the same to their customers. No longer would tech companies be able to grab employee patent rights by forced pre-arrangement, then kick their engineers to the curb and outsource their jobs.
Wouldn't Democrats love to be able to take credit for fixing what has become an international joke?
The only flaw in Pickens' plan is trying to put wind on the grid. The grid is for 'baseload' power sources that plug away constantly day and night, and 'peaking' sources like natural gas, which can be turned on instantly and at will at times of highest demand.
There's a lot of energy in wind, but it fluctuates. We need to match it to appropriate uses. Traditionally, wind was most often used for pumping water. In wet parts of the country, we could have wind send water uphill, when it blows, into pumped-storage reservoirs. The water would then be available for peaking use on the grid. In dry parts of the country, why not use wind for desalination? The more seawater the wind can generate in California, the less water that state needs to suck from inland. Environmentalists, consider: with enough windfarms churning away on the dry parts of the Pacific coast, we could restore Glen Canyon.
@RobbySh
"I am no fan of Pickens. He never supports any cause that doesn't make money for him."
And how in hell is that an argument against Pickens building windfarms? It's a tribute to our evolving technology that wind is finally starting to attract Eeevil Corporation money. The more profit there is in wind, the more windfarms will be built. I thought that was supposed to be a Good Thing.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The Maine fight was supposed to be the dress rehearsal for repealing California's Prop. 8 -- but gay marriage lost
Once one obtains Seriousness credentials in the Washington media, they are irrevocable no matter one's conduct.
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