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Friday, March 21st

People Piss Me Off

The title of this entry is not quite my motto, but it is a subtext for my life. I was just thinking about how much the wind annoys me (I know how that sounds, but I don't like that I have to worry about tying everything down all the time), which brought me to windmills.

Now, I happen to be a firm believer in efficiency, which is why I support the building of windmills and solar farms. There's nothing more efficient than taking something that you get in abundance for free into electricity, and it bugs me that circumstances, if not people, conspire to make the most efficient forms of energy production so expensive to set up. I know that eventually, the costs will come down, but some temporary subsidies wouldn't hurt.

Anyway, I was thinking about windmills, and whenever I think of something that I've heard ridiculous things said about, I immediately think about those ridiculous things. In the case of windmills, some people actually argue against them because of the sound and the danger of the blades ripping off the thing and decapitating their dog. Eye roll Right. Because you wouldn't hear the wind blowing across the plains without a big machine in the way. You also want to take care to avoid problems whose likelihood of occurring is roughly equal to the chance that you'll live to be 200 years old and completely ignore a known factor in killing you earlier (namely the smoke from the majority of the power plants in the country).

Look, if you're too cheap to give a rat's ass about wind power, that's fine. But if someone is willing to spend the money to allow you to trim your energy costs and not increase the crap you breath in, shut the hell up and move aside. You're an idiot.

phrebh on 03.21.08 @ 09:56 AM CST [link] [No Comments] [Karma: 0 (+/-)]




Tuesday, March 18th

U.S. News, 24-31 March 2008, Letters Rebuttals

Tracy Leverton's letter about voting for Barack Obama because he was black brings to mind my own proclamation about the presidential election. Before the primary was really underway, I said that I would vote for any minority candidate, no matter what party. Looks like I'll be voting Democratic this year. Yay, Obama! Boo, Clinton!

David N. Hooper may be right that Super Tuesday results may have been from Republicans who thought Obama would be easier to beat than Clinton, but if so, they are wrong. Due to her past and the past of her husband, Hillary Clinton remains one of the most divisive candidates at the national level. She ranks right up there with the current president for being someone that people love to hate. That's a pretty big deficit to start a run at the White House with. Quite frankly, I think the only chance John McCain has to win the presidency is if Clinton wins the nomination.

Guy Wold describes the current government as moderate/conservative. Shocked Just because George Bush doesn't show an fiscal conservation doesn't make him a moderate.

P.J. Mills's letter was so funny, I'm going to quote its entirety: "Suppose McCain wasn't a POW, Hillary wasn't a woman, and Obama wasn't black. We might have to focus on the real issues at hand." Sure, it's completely naive to think that we could focus on the issues, but it's still a funny way of putting it.

phrebh on 03.18.08 @ 01:39 PM CST [link] [No Comments] [Karma: 1 (+/-)]




Tuesday, March 11th

U.S. News, 17 March 2008, Letters Rebuttals

Robert Houston obviously has some strong opinions about war. Too bad they're also confused and irrational. He writes that "wars are against people, and therefore people are against wars." Confused What the hell kind of logic is that?! Grant it, it is a pithy statement, downright folksy, even, but it makes absolutely no sense. He starts with a shaky premise (fighting is against people, wars are political and therefore have nothing to do with real people) and then goes downhill from there. I also question his assertion that McCain proposes we occupy Iraq for 100 years. I believe that what McCain actually said was that even if we are there for a hundred years, we cannot let the Iraqi people down. There's quite a huge difference there, but what else do you expect from a madman?

phrebh on 03.11.08 @ 07:11 PM CST [link] [No Comments] [Karma: 3 (+/-)]




Wednesday, March 5th

U.S. News, 10 March 2008, Letters Rebuttals

Jane Basey went from making a good point to some weird rant on "ageism" [sic]. That's not a good way to argue that old people aren't all crazy.

phrebh on 03.05.08 @ 06:58 AM CST [link] [No Comments] [Karma: 2 (+/-)]




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