|
|
Thursday, August 13th, 2009
| |
11:18 am - something told to me
|
|
"I always feel as if you're just arriving from a great distance."
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Thursday, June 26th, 2008
| |
6:39 pm - from the NYTimes
|
Mr. Bush, Lead or Leave
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, Op-Ed Columnist
Published: June 22, 2008
Two years ago, President Bush declared that America was “addicted to oil,” and, by gosh, he was going to do something about it. Well, now he has. Now we have the new Bush energy plan: “Get more addicted to oil.”
Actually, it’s more sophisticated than that: Get Saudi Arabia, our chief oil pusher, to up our dosage for a little while and bring down the oil price just enough so the renewable energy alternatives can’t totally take off. Then try to strong arm Congress into lifting the ban on drilling offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
It’s as if our addict-in-chief is saying to us: “C’mon guys, you know you want a little more of the good stuff. One more hit, baby. Just one more toke on the ole oil pipe. I promise, next year, we’ll all go straight. I’ll even put a wind turbine on my presidential library. But for now, give me one more pop from that drill, please, baby. Just one more transfusion of that sweet offshore crude.”
It is hard for me to find the words to express what a massive, fraudulent, pathetic excuse for an energy policy this is. But it gets better. The president actually had the gall to set a deadline for this drug deal:
“I know the Democratic leaders have opposed some of these policies in the past,” Mr. Bush said. “Now that their opposition has helped drive gas prices to record levels, I ask them to reconsider their positions. If Congressional leaders leave for the Fourth of July recess without taking action, they will need to explain why $4-a-gallon gasoline is not enough incentive for them to act.”
This from a president who for six years resisted any pressure on Detroit to seriously improve mileage standards on its gas guzzlers; this from a president who’s done nothing to encourage conservation; this from a president who has so neutered the Environmental Protection Agency that the head of the E.P.A. today seems to be in a witness-protection program. I bet there aren’t 12 readers of this newspaper who could tell you his name or identify him in a police lineup.
But, most of all, this deadline is from a president who hasn’t lifted a finger to broker passage of legislation that has been stuck in Congress for a year, which could actually impact America’s energy profile right now — unlike offshore oil that would take years to flow — and create good tech jobs to boot.
That bill is H.R. 6049 — “The Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008,” which extends for another eight years the investment tax credit for installing solar energy and extends for one year the production tax credit for producing wind power and for three years the credits for geothermal, wave energy and other renewables.
These critical tax credits for renewables are set to expire at the end of this fiscal year and, if they do, it will mean thousands of jobs lost and billions of dollars of investments not made. “Already clean energy projects in the U.S. are being put on hold,” said Rhone Resch, president of the Solar Energy Industries Association.
People forget, wind and solar power are here, they work, they can go on your roof tomorrow. What they need now is a big U.S. market where lots of manufacturers have an incentive to install solar panels and wind turbines — because the more they do, the more these technologies would move down the learning curve, become cheaper and be able to compete directly with coal, oil and nuclear, without subsidies.
That seems to be exactly what the Republican Party is trying to block, since the Senate Republicans — sorry to say, with the help of John McCain — have now managed to defeat the renewal of these tax credits six different times.
Of course, we’re going to need oil for years to come. That being the case, I’d prefer — for geopolitical reasons — that we get as much as possible from domestic wells. But our future is not in oil, and a real president wouldn’t be hectoring Congress about offshore drilling today. He’d be telling the country a much larger truth:
“Oil is poisoning our climate and our geopolitics, and here is how we’re going to break our addiction: We’re going to set a floor price of $4.50 a gallon for gasoline and $100 a barrel for oil. And that floor price is going to trigger massive investments in renewable energy — particularly wind, solar panels and solar thermal. And we’re also going to go on a crash program to dramatically increase energy efficiency, to drive conservation to a whole new level and to build more nuclear power. And I want every Democrat and every Republican to join me in this endeavor.”
That’s what a real president would do. He’d give us a big strategic plan to end our addiction to oil and build a bipartisan coalition to deliver it. He certainly wouldn’t be using his last days in office to threaten Congressional Democrats that if they don’t approve offshore drilling by the Fourth of July recess, they will be blamed for $4-a-gallon gas. That is so lame. That is an energy policy so unworthy of our Independence Day.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/opinion/22friedman.html?ex=1215057600&en=e3ed03fa11ba9dc4&ei=5070&emc=eta1
|
|
(2 comments | comment on this)
|
| |
6:35 pm - NY
|
I've moved to New York.
I've joined the New York City Teaching Fellows.
At Brooklyn College I'm taking classes toward my master's degree.
I'm looking around Brooklyn for a Middle School or High School position teaching Math.
Sim is getting married.
That is all.
|
|
(2 comments | comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, April 1st, 2008
| |
9:18 pm - Caption this Photo
|
|
| Thursday, January 3rd, 2008
| |
1:49 pm - from the FCNL newsletter
|
|
“What is clear to me is that there is a need for a dramatic increase in spending on the civilian instruments of national security – diplomacy, strategic communications, foreign assistance, civic action, and economic reconstruction and development.” – Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, November 2007
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Monday, November 12th, 2007
| |
9:16 pm - From New York
|
Yesterday I went to Friends Meeting down on 15th Street in Manhattan. I took the subway down to Union Square, had a little bit of trouble finding the Meeting House, and arrived a few minutes late.
I've been riding the subways a lot lately. Sometimes I've snuck through the train doors as they close but many times I arrive on the platform just in time to see a train pulling away. It was with this mindset that I arrived at meeting, and I had a revelation as I opened the door:
Here is a door that will never be closed,
here is a train that will never pull away from the platform without me.
What a blessing it is that the ear of God is always listening,
what a blessing it is that the arms of our friends are always ready to embrace us.
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Saturday, June 23rd, 2007
| |
4:01 pm - The Utopian Vision
|
Todd offered a seminar during the first three days of IMYM this year. The theme was the Utopian Vision. In preparation I blazed through Brave New World (Huxley), which is an interesting thought experiment in a biologically-engineered caste system. Where that particular vision fails, and Huxley does seem to offer the vision as a distopia, is in placing Happiness as the sole goal of the Utopia. And in abandoning the morality that would prevent a society from engineering stupid humans to do lots of work.
To be fair, Plato's Republic offers a utopian vision that includes slaves, and the notable utopian vision of Thomas More (16th Century) includes slaves. But our task was to create a Quaker one. For the most part we deliberated over our system of values, giving only an hour or two to discuss the manner in which we would govern, educate, sustain ourselves, and so on. Andrew had hoped that we would have more debate, and I obliged him by suggesting that our utopia could do away with certain inherited institutions. Like the family unit.
What the seminar did succeed in doing was giving us insight into what other Friends value, scorn, and so on. One member of our group saw sustainability as a key element, another felt that maintaining our natural ecosystems was essential, and so on. We did come to agreement on a value system, though in my head I was noting the places that my personal vision departed from the group's.
Afterward Todd and I talked at length about our own visions, and the sustainable communities that exist across the US (notably the longer-lasting ones in Missouri). My vision is shaped a bit by Orson Scott Card's books - I think some form of Bugger-like telepathy would be a huge asset.
This brings me back to what I think are key elements to a perfect society: altruism and perfect knowledge. Especially knowledge of your companions in society which serves the altruism. Simply put, we are too far removed from our neighbors. What may not be too far distant is my technological solution to provide a sort of quasi-telepathy: we could share information across a network, as we do now, but via a computer implant in our body.
It needn't be comprehensive - it could begin as simple as a set of shared folders and a chat system. Gradually I think our brains would adapt to be able to assimilate more information in less time, to eventually be aware of local, national, and global news. We would, by nature, become citizens of the world. And in a perfect society, we'd be driven by a concern for each other and for our environment.
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| |
3:39 pm - j00n
|
June has been busy. When it began I was in Boston, enjoying the company of my brother's family. The family grew in size while I was there - with the arrival of Cora I have a niece as well as a nephew. As June progressed I returned to Denver, where I allowed myself to be mauled by a cat. Also, I went on a wonderful first date.
Then there was a rockin' carpool down to New Mexico, replete with planned and unplanned stops;- notably flamingo jousting and the sand dunes. IMYM this year demonstrated again to me that each experience, though it can be planned for, occurs differently than we imagine it will. The week took on an interesting shape when Sarah B took a fall and was hospitalized.
It's always a novel experience for me to see how our lives revolve around certain priorities. In times of trial we cut straight to them, discarding the shells of habit, convenience and taboo.
June continues with me in Denver, getting scratched more cats. A few more days sweating in the fantastic heat wave, then June should conclude with me in Carbondale doing what I do best.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Saturday, May 19th, 2007
| |
10:35 am - The following file is missing or corrupt: v 2
|
I had a busy Friday. Tia and I hit an estate sale and bought some books and popping corn. We carried home the free rockingchair/loveseat/couchthing and sat outside rocking in front of our house like old men. Then we cleaned it off, and set it up in the living room where we watched the UEFA Cup final.
Most of the day was spent trying to fix Tia's laptop. Which I did. I rule! We burned a tall pile of CDs to backup her pictures and documents, just in case it fritzes again. It should be ok now, we're back to the old, regular windows crashes now. "This program has had an error and must close!" is a refreshing change from "Your files are missing or corrupt. Probably both. In fact, the corrupted files have kidnapped and raped the other files, and that's why those are missing. Have a nice day."
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Wednesday, May 9th, 2007
| |
12:31 pm - More TO&FK ~T.H. White
|
How did the fact of war begin in general? For any one war seemed so rooted in its antecedents. Mordred went back to Morgause, Morgause to Uther Pendragon, Uther to his ancestors. It seemed as if Cain had slain Abel, seizing his country, after which the men of Abel had sought to win their patrimony again for ever. Man had gone on, through age after age, avenging wrong with wrong, slaughter with slaughter. Nobody was the better for it, since both sides always suffered, yet everybody was inextricable. The present war might be attributed to Mordred, or to himself. But also it was due to a million Thrashers, to Lancelot, Guenever, Gawaine, everybody. Those who lived by the sword were forced to die by it. It was as if everything would lead to sorrow, so long as man refused to forget the past. The wrongs of Uther and of Cain were wrongs which could have been righted only by the blessing of forgetting them. […]
The blessing of forgetfulness: that was the first essential. If everything one did, or which one’s fathers had done, was an endless sequence of Doings doomed to break forth bloodily, then the past must be obliterated and a new start made. Man must be ready to say: Yes, since Cain there has been injustice, but we can only set the misery right if we accept a status quo. Lands have been robbed, men slain, nations humiliated. Let us now start fresh without remembrance, rather than live forward and backward at the same time. We cannot build the future by avenging the past. Let us sit down as brothers, and accept the Peace of God.
Unfortunately men did say this, in each successive war. They were always saying that the present one was to be the last, and afterwards there was to be a heaven. They were always to rebuild such a new world as never was seen. When the time came, however, they were too stupid. They were like children crying out that they would build a house–but, when it came to building, they had not the practical ability. They did not know the way to choose the right materials.
|
|
(5 comments | comment on this)
|
|
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
soromon's journal