Sunday, June 26, 2011

Epic Fail Weekend...At Least For Me

The Beer:  My 2nd all-grain batch is a complete disaster, suffering from incomplete utilization; probably because I missed my "strike temperature". It will be thin and weak.

The Bicycle:  River Valley Ride today.  Was going for a Century.  Mechanical problems forced me out at 40 miles.

The VRWC:  Prosser attacks Bradley?  Or Bradley attacks Prosser?  IMHO, it is far more likely that Bradley went after Prosser.  If it really was the other way around, why does it surface 11 days later and why has Bradley not pressed charges?

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Tapping The StrategicReserve

This is a horrible idea, done for no reason other than to make it appear a failing president actually gives a $#!7 about energy prices.  60 million barrels.  Sounds like a lot. The United States uses about 20 million barrels per day.  3 days' supply from the strategic reserve. BFD.

Here is the other shoe.  That 60 million barrels will have to be restored to the strategic reserve at a higher cost to the taxpayer.  Lucky us.  A lot of nothing.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

I Knew This Would Be Coming

It was only a matter of time following the disaster at Fukushima that the American Left would again find their anti-nuclear voice.  Chuck Baynton is the local mouthpiece.


AP reporter Jeff Donn's message is that the U.S. nuclear reactor fleet is getting old. Donn found that as nuclear power reactors age, their age shows in increasing technical failures. Nobody with an old car or an old house should be surprised by that.


An AP reporter is hardly an expert on any aspect of nuclear power.



One of the frightening things about nuclear power is its high upfront cost. For example, the Florida utility Progress Energy, one of the few in America with current plans to build new nuclear facilities, in January 2009 announced a project consisting of two reactors for $7 billion each.

To put that into perspective, the most expensive construction project of any kind in Wisconsin history was a po

wer station, the new We Energies coal-fired facility in Oak Creek. Its price: a comparatively small $2.3 billion.

I assure you I can find that Chuck Baynton is no friend of coal-fired power.  Further, for $7 billion, one gets 1000 Megawatts of electricity vs. about 600 for $2.3 billion.  But the cost of nuclear generation is substantially less than that from fossil sources and since the president has told us he would "bankrupt" those who would build coal-fired power and electricity prices would "necessarily skyrocket", I suggest that Baynton makes no sense.

I leave you the comments I made at the end of the column in MJS:

Perhaps, as a physician (not an engineer, or physicist or technician), the author should consider the risks of NOT building nuclear plants. More 
people die from exposure to cold and heat, from food which has gone 
without proper refrigeration, from unclean water all due to inadequate 
energy sources than have ever or will ever die from nuclear power. It is 
reprehensible that a physician would be willing to deny cheap, proven safe, 
affordable energy to the poor and "disadvantaged" he purports to car 
about.

I have about 20 years of experience in the industry and had leave 
because of irresponsible people like Chuck Baynton who have no knowledge 
of the technology or economics of the issue, but continue with their scare 
tactics because they hate what they do not know. They put me out of a 
job and nearly killed a vital resource necessary to the life, liberty and 
pursuit of happiness of the people of the United States.

I was going to stop there, but I must add that people like Chuck Brayton (sic)
believe the United States has too much, uses too much and needs to be 
brought back to the level rest of the world. Nothing can be more wrong. 
Our predecessors worked hard and improved their lives and the lives of 
others through nothing but hard work. There was no lottery won, no 
advantage other than brains and work ethic. To take away the gains of 
that hard work to assuage some ill-conceived guilt is sin.


Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Huh....really?

Apparently this guy isn't really a crackpot.

How I Really Feel

I posted this at Dad29 in response to a comment about "enhanced interrogation.  Once I started, I couldn't stop.


Ronald Reagan could not possibly have ruled on enhanced interrogation.  McCain's vision of it is tainted.  Further, since those techniques are still in use by The Chosen One and GITMO remains open and there is a deafening silence from the Left about those things and the (now 5) wars, I judge you all as hypocrites, only bent on destroying the country as it has been known for over 200 years.  It is you who will be swept into the dustbin of history as more and more see your childish behavior, hypocrisy and fearmongering.  It is you who do it, not us.  We have been asleep for too long and are now awakened.  It is you who wish to enslave the rest of us to your dystopian ideal of "equality of outcome".  It is you who hate, it is you who want the elite to rule and the rest to suffer.  It is you who invent the bogeymen of Halliburton and (because it is easier for you to spell), Koch.  I accuse you and your ilk of treason against the rest of us.  Your day of reckoning is much closer than you think.  We continue to win hearts and minds while your childish antics continue to enrage those who would otherwise believe your lies.  


I hate the Left because the Left has driven me to Hate.  And I don't need a pill or therapy or any of the other remedies the Left espouses.  I only need their disappearance from American life.  


What arrogance makes the American Left think they can make a Socialist utopia work when it has not worked wherever it has been tried?  Socialism is in its death throes all over the world, yet those who believe themselves to be "smarter" continue to follow the same path.  The very definition of "insanity".


I'm done ranting (for now).

Friday, June 10, 2011

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Redistribution

This is a problem.

70% of Democrats and 43% of Independents believe government should redistribute wealth.  52% of women believe so.

It is interesting to note that about 47% of the population also pays no income tax.  I suspect there is some correlation there.

This is why the founders only wanted property owners to vote.  I wonder if any of the 47% have considered that  once the property of one can be confiscated, it becomes easy to confiscate the property of all.

Friday, June 3, 2011

The Plan? Run Against Bush

It is clear that the abject failure of this President in all things foreign and domestic will be front and center in the 2012 election.  What is also clear is the counter-point.  Run against Bush.  I'm seeing it in comments, hearing it from Lefty talkers and in print.  It goes like this:  "If Bush and Co. hadn't gotten us into this mess, why,everything would be right as rain".  Schrum, of course is nothing short of Obama-worshipping shill for the far, far, far Left.  But it seems to be a mental illness of many who supported The Chosen One in the first place.  They seem to be more than happy to defend trillions in debt brought on by this President with no resulting economic improvement.    Their only argument is "it  would have been worse..."  They lay their hat on the death of Bin Laden.  Now their "Peace President" is a "Great Warrior".  The SEALs got Bin Laden because The Chosen One continued Bush-era policies that he was against before he supported.  Obama is considered a Great Statesman by some.  I am sure it is because he continues to throw allies under the bus (England, Honduras) while prostrating himself before our enemies (Venezuela, Iran).

The GOP Presidential nominee will need to hammer on the record.  Economy, Obamacare, the rule of law, a third war, czars, using federal agencies to punish political enemies, lack of respect for the office and other branches of government.  This is the only way the GOP can win.  Let the Democrats run against Bush.   Don't go  for the bait.  Hammer the record.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Time? I Don't Think So

A couple eggheads and MJS think there's time to deal with the debt problem.


There's not.  Debt at 65% of GDP is too high by about that much.  That's like having a job that pays $100,000 per year and having $65,000 in credit card debt.


The referenced study clearly states "(t)hat government debt will grow to dangerous and unsustainable levels in most advanced and many emerging economies over the next 25 years - if there are no changes in current tax rates and government benefits programs in retirement and health care...".  Then MJS promptly pans Ryan's plan for Medicare, saying, "(i)t would, for example, give younger Americans a voucher to buy health care instead of the standard Medicare plan, which runs the risk of shifting the burden from the government onto seniors."  


The very idea we can continue to fund entitlements, including Medicare via taxation is absurd.  It hasn't worked anywhere it has been tried.  That we can tax our way out of this is equally absurd.  Government finds a way to spend that "extra" money.  They have done it time and again.  Starve the beast.  Get as many people off the dole as possible.  If you are able-bodied, you work for your living.  Return to those Constitutionally authorized activities for the Federal Government.  The states can do as they please, but the Feds must be restrained.  Repeal the 17th Amendment to take a BIG chunk of money out of politics and return the Senate to work for the States.

God, Prayer and Atheists

The Beer:  I have 6 beers in bottles, 2 in kegs plus one awaiting bottling and a mead that should be ready in a few months.


The Bicycle:  Weather permitting this year, I plan to bicycle to work (about 40 miles) for my 55th Birthday.


The VRWC:  If there is no God, why are atheists so intent on pushing Him out of public life?


This type of suit comes up multiple times a year, whether graduation prayer, a prayer prior to a sporting event or some type of Christian prayer to commemorate a holiday.  Invoking God is a longstanding tradition in a largely Christian-oriented country.  It harms no one.  Then "wall between church and state" whether it even exists was never intended to bar Christianity from public life.  And it is only Christianity which is barred.  The atheists and fellow travelers have no problem with public displays of Islam or various minor religions.  But bring up Christianity and they become apoplectic.  I have yet to understand it.


But, as a born-again Christian, I have to pose this:


If I am wrong about God, Jesus and heaven, when I die, I lose nothing.  I will not know the difference and will not care.  But if I am right, those who do not believe will have a very long and unpleasant time to think about it.