Thursday, December 18, 2014

Free Energy!... for the low, low price of $1,100,000,000,000

there's an idea going around that the US could provide "free energy" in the form of solar panels for every household in America... and while i'm completely for this idea, as a general rule, there are some nasty facts out there to deal with... let's begin.

there are, at best account, around 316,000,000 people in America.

averaging about four people per household (discounting all arguments regarding apartment dwellers, the homeless, and hermits), we have about 79,000,000 homes to furnish with solar panels.

each solar panel will cost about $10,000 in material, and we can estimate (on the low side) $5,000 to install... we all know that electricians charge a lot (no pun intended), so that is probably really low.

79 million X $15K = $1,185,000,000,000... that's $1.1 trillion.

"Well that's what we spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, combined! Make solar, not war!"

well, aside from the costs of NOT going to war, like allowing terrorists to train in these regions, the continued slaughter of the innocents by Saddam Hussein and the Taliban, and additional strikes on US foreign and domestic target, we'll tentatively agree that we could use a similar amount of money to provide solar panels... we're talking possibility here, not ideology.

so, if it's possible, why aren't we funding that?

well, because we have a small problem:
Thin, cheap solar panels need tellurium, which makes up a scant 0.0000001 percent of the earth’s crust, making it three times rarer than gold.
when the rush to build solar panels increases, the value of these "rare earth" materials will rise exponentially... the cost will be much more than those simple numbers above, because a high demand and a low supply will increase costs dramatically.

so, while, on the surface, it sounds like a great idea, one i'm totally behind... in reality, it's not that easy.

but nothing worthwhile ever is.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Ferguson's night of broken glass

is this going too far?... or not far enough?

there is a man, a rabbi, who has made the assertion that the riots in Ferguson and beyond are similar in many ways to Kristallnacht in Germany... on the face of it, it's absurd to equate the two.

isn't it?

let's set the stage and see who the performers are.

circa 1920 Germany.
  • one portion of the population was being demonized... the reason?... the Jew was seen as traitorous to the German state.
  • many WWI military commanders blamed businesses for turning their backs on the war effort, allowing profits to come before patriotism.
  • the focus of this ire specifically fell to the Jewish businessmen, with the thought being they could not be patriotic Germans and also Jews.
  • the Jews in the military were seen as profiteers, spies, or demoralizing agents.
  • one well-known author later charged, "[Communism was] Jewry's 20th century effort to take world dominion unto itself."
  • additionally, the Germans were propagandized as being betrayed by the socialists among them, saying they had not done enough to overcome the communists and Jews.
  • the socialists seek to unify Germany by focusing on race and a state controlled economy.

circa 2014 United States of America.
  • the wealthy and the business owners are being demonized... why?... the poor are told they are being stolen from; not being given their "fare share".
  • the faceless "Illuminati" are seen as seeking world dominion... they are, of course, bankers and businessmen.
  • some would even go so far as to attack those who support the nation of Israel as being part of this conspiracy.
  • communism is no longer the adversary... capitalism is.
  • instead of businessmen turning their backs on war efforts, the war mongers are seeking to foment war for their own profit.
  • the socialists among us are doing everything they can to overcome these forces.
  • there is great division among the races; some seeking their own national identity.
  • the people want businesses to have less power, therefore they seek to have the government reign in, in some cases rule, businesses and their "obscene" profits.

November 7, 1938 - Herschel Grynszpan, German-born Jew, shoots Ernst vom Rath, German diplomat, over the deportation of his Polish-born parents.
November 9, 1938 - Kristallnacht,

August 9, 2014 - White policeman, Darren Wilson, shoots black man, Micheal Brown, suspecting him of a strong-arm robbery minutes before.
August 10, 2014 - The beginning of looting of businesses and the targeting of white people, especially business owners, for violence. This violence has ebbed and flowed for the last two months.

so... does Rabbi Lapin have the right performers for his modern Kristallnacht play?... or is he reading from the wrong script?... there are extreme voices on each side... but is this a tipping point from which there is no return?


November 12, 1938
"I have received a letter written on the Führer's orders requesting that the Jewish question be now, once and for all, coordinated and solved one way or another... I should not want to leave any doubt, gentlemen, as to the aim of today's meeting. We have not come together merely to talk again, but to make decisions, and I implore competent agencies to take all measures for the elimination of the Jew from the German economy, and to submit them to me."
- Hermann Göring

source:
Rabbi Lapin on Ferguson Riots: Liberalism’s ‘Twisted Pathology … It’s Kristallnacht in Germany’