Friends, my latest article explores the hypocrisy and downright kookiness of our esteemed Govenor Andrew Cuomo. I've written before of Cuomo's vendetta against fossil fuels. He's still hard at work trying to deprive you and yours of power and heat. No one can fault him for lying down on the job! So far New York politicians' ability to stymie the energy industry and utility companies has been minimal, but don't count them out. If the Greta Thunbergs of this world have their ear, you can bet the attacks on our economic lifeblood will intensify.
https://townhall.com/columnists/nicholaswaddy/2019/09/23/governor-cuomos-war-on-electricity-and-central-heating-just-hit-a-roadblock-n2553493
Meanwhile, check out this article on the decline of the coal industry:
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/coal-industry-decline-trump-revival
Coal's long-term decline is, as the article suggests, mainly due to economic factors, especially the cost-effectiveness of natural gas, but political factors still play a role. Wouldn't it be nice if, instead of thinking up ways to torpedo whole industries and hundreds of thousands of American jobs, we spent just as much effort trying to reduce the carbon emissions and other pollutants those industries produce? Then we could have our cake and eat it too. The truth is that "clean coal" is closer to becoming a reality than it's ever been, but liberals seem determined to drive a stake through coal's heart, regardless of changing circumstances. I can hear the nuclear industry saying, "Tell us about it!" Above all, we need an energy policy based on reason, not on mass hysteria.
I couldn’t agree more. Some more interesting facts for you ..... people do not realize that with wind, national statistics show wind is only blowing (generating) 25%-35% of the time. When you flip your light switch you want electricity right now, so utilities “firm up” this electricity by building thermal (mostly gas) generating plants that take over when the wind stops. Therefore, that “wind kwh” is really only 25%-35% “green”. Gas is necessary as this backup because mass storage of ”wind” electricity is not yet feasible ..... the environmental cost of sufficient quantities of batteries (not only production, but disposing of) is staggering not to mention the cost.
ReplyDeleteThanks for chiming in, Dave! Good point about the impossibility of relying on wind for power (the key word being "relying"). It's really extraordinary that the eco-left thinks that wind and solar, which currently meet only 2% of global power needs, can be scaled up to replace all fossil fuels...virtually overnight. They are living in a fantasy world!
ReplyDeleteThanks Dave for chiming in, I totally agree with your thought. Let me just say, I will not take orders from a 11 year old child (or whatever age Greta Thunberg is)--that has to be a form of child abuse what her parents are allowing her do.
ReplyDeleteI agree 100%, Linda. Too many children have been convinced that the world is about to end (which is the purest nonsense). To scare the living daylights out of them, and then shove them in front of a tv camera...that's reprehensible.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy and Linda and David: Two words encompass and if enacted, solve this problem in a manner utterly unacceptable to the apocalyptic left: natural gas, plain and simple. Oh what violence this does to the left's dreams of totalitarian transformation! Why, does the left think it has at hand another Joan? I would bid it consider the entire history of the Maid before and after her immolation. Why, she maintained she embodied transcendent truth.And maybe she did in her way and in that of France ! And yes, though her story was radiant and is endorsed by no less than Churchill,her heritage yet proved at earthly fault. And so does this young Swede.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting analogy, Jack. Were we to encounter the real Joan of Arc, would we find her admirable or...pathetic? Who can say. I'm pretty sure she wouldn't have the cachet of Milla Jovovich, though...
ReplyDeleteAlso:on coal: the left has a bad case of mass OCD. They are incapable of admitting they are wrong on anything once it has received their infallible imprimatur.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy: I am a Christian believer and so I think it possible that Joan was divinely inspired. And maybe not too. But oh my, the left may think it now has an unassailable standard bearer in this young Swede for the subjection of the West to the emotionally based convictions it cherishes of an imagined to be absolutely critical environmental "crisis". Well of course that dear girl is "convinced". She's youthful and naive though she hasn't claimed to have heard "voices" after all.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I think about how life might be under a triumphant modern leftist totalitarian regime. Not for them Stalinist fleshly crudities, oh no! But I can just imagine the second grade curriculum requiring "Introduction to Correct Feelings", yes. Integral to such indoctrination would be a caution, to be carried to evermore definite threat in higher grades, of the consummate consequences of noncompliance with emotional doctrine.
Jack, it seems to me that the enthronement of emotion over reason is nothing new in human affairs. Most societies cherish their delusions, and they persecute free thinkers. The modern Left may want to turn back the clock in some ways, to a time when heresy was punishable by death (or at least "social death"), but I don't see much in their thinking that's in any way original.
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough, I tend to assume that, if the Left ever seizes total power, they will use it in much the same way as every other tin pot dictator has down through history. They will enrich themselves, they will settle old scores, they will fall out with each other, they will impose senseless burdens on the productive elements in society. They will also freely and frequently violate their own professed norms. My guess, therefore, is that the surest way to destroy "Mother Earth" would be to empower a leftist dictator, because, as soon as he's silenced all dissent, the need to humor tree-huggers will disappear.
Well, I will let you know about Joan of Arc. She and a few other Women of Politics in the Middle Ages is the topic of my Women in Middle Ages final paper.
ReplyDeleteLinda: Looking forward to your evaluation of her. Her story is sublime. One of the few things I dislike about Shakespeare is the way he denigrated her. Dr. Waddy: Very plausible and creditable views expressed by you just above.
ReplyDeleteYes, we must get to the bottom of this Joan of Arc business! Why not? Jack, why do you admire her so? I would think, at this stage, it's almost impossible to know anything about her with certainty. She was a living legend even in her own time -- which means her contemporaries had every reason to make things up about her. Isn't it possible she was just a confused youth who was manipulated by those around her?
ReplyDeletehmm..possibly, Dr. Waddy. She was one of many women who heard the call of God or as some put it "voices." Interesting twist in my research--thank goodness to the wonderful new Medieval Historian/Librarian at Geneseo-we are on a adventure now. Stay tuned. smiles
DeleteWe await your final verdict, Linda! Bon voyage in the annals of history. :)
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy and Linda:From Cuomo to The Maid; from the ridiculous to the sublime. Such is one of the rewards of free discourse.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy: Your tentative misgivings about Joan are very plausible. If she was not divinely empowered then stories of her combat in full armor may not be creditable. It took years of training and massive strength to wield that and the heavy weapons necessary for the defeat of armor. Perhaps she was possessed of such a body and some precocious ability to learn the manual of the knight(?).
In an age like hers, of belief without benefit of empirical evidence and when we consider how some historical personages have had considerable inspirational and persuasive power in their speech, personalities or perceived visages, a mesmerizing youth may have been able to exercise much influence. But too and even without that aura, she may well have been used by those with consummate and cynical understanding of POWER.I would strongly recommend Shaw's Saint Joan for a sardonic but intelligent presentation of both views.
I guess I'm much influenced by Churchill's regard for her. Her story was, in its totality, arguably, radiant and sublime. Linda, your opinion on this will reveal much.
Jack, I've always believed that we need our historical heroes and heroines -- even at the cost of fudging the truth now and then. At a certain point, history and mythology can be...complementary?
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy: I fully agree.
ReplyDelete