Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Rail or autobahn

I found this on slashdot: a proposal for a real highway system for Canada. It says that Eastern Canada has highways of the quality of the United States' "interstates". Central and Western Canada also have highways... which go to the United States.

Part of the problem, I believe, is that central Canada is even more sparsely populated than the Great American Desert. Who wants to run out of petrol in the middle of Manitoba, in November? Canadians figure it easier and arguably more humane to make it difficult to get there in the first place.

An alternative would be high-speed rail through those parts of Canada where no-one lives, i.e. the longitudinal centre.

One of the comments in the original post points out that rail costs about as much as the freeway - it's just that the costs are bourne, for the most part, by the drivers (when they purchase that petrol, or get in a crash). And I have to admit, when I'm driving from Houston to Austin or Dallas, that I've oft wished I was lounging in a rail-car reading a book.

My problem with rail is that it becomes a transportation bottleneck. Da Workerz always end up taking those over, and then they extort concessions from the government. Governments which have become structurally socialist, as have those of Canada and the United States, grant to Da Workerz too much power.

Motorways bypass Da Workerz and so are politically safest in a society like ours. For as long as our masters allow us to use them...

Labels: energy

posted by Zimri on 18:35 | link |

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Rep. Mark Kirk's dereliction of duty

The so-called "Cap And Trade" bill which passed the house in June was a mistake. It was a job-killer as written (where it was even written), but that doesn't even matter so much. Worse than that, it had gaps where there wasn't even any text.

It's theoretically Constitutional to send a bill with a title and a demand to fill-in-later, to the Senate; but it shames the House to do it, and thereby it shames the entire government and so the nation. Some actions are so stupid that they shouldn't even be illegal. Some politicians deserve Darwin Awards.

(LGF's endorsement of this bill was one of the "WTF Moments" which pushed me out of that blog. I was barely able to spin the Von Brunn shooting as cultural-rightist. Not so here.)

Mark Kirk deserves his Darwin as much as any other.

Kirk was one of eight "Republican" rodents who pushed this swiss-cheese bill through the House. So when I see him (with fellow "capntr8or" Mike Castle) mulling healthcare nationalisation, I expect he's pulling an Olympia Snowe. He gets in payment for his perfidy: fawning news stories, national recognition, a primary endorsement from the RNC, and grovelling from other Republicans in office and on campaign.

Kirk is running for the Senate next. I think his aim is to establish himself now as the "electable" guy; and once in the Senate, to be the next "moderate" swing-voter who holds the real power and who gets the bribes and the accolades.

Illinois Republicans need to bounce Kirk from consideration now before he builds up a machine.

Labels: energy, lgf, republicans

posted by Zimri on 17:08 | link |

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Renewable energy

I mentioned it in passing below, but Understanding E = mc² bears posting again. What it boils down to, is that "renewable energy" doesn't scale for a population of our size.

Solar energy is good only for dealing with peak daylight usage; and it doesn't solve the problem of the baseline energy we must use when the air-conditioning isn't running and the offices are powered off (at night).

Geothermic, wind, and hydro power together won't make up that difference.

There's another equation to keep in mind here: total energy = number of people x energy use per person.

Environmentalists have a principled case to levy against coal and oil (less so, natural gas). If we find a principled environmentalist, who is fine with our population the way it is, and wouldn't mind lower energy bills: he would then support nuclear power. However we don't see this amongst the Al Gore set. Something Else Must Be At Work.

That Something is that these "environmentalists" are not, in fact, environmentalists. They are simply a coalition of those who would set a ceiling upon the nation. Here, the ceiling is allowable power usage. With total energy capped, the number of people becomes too high, and energy use must be rationed.

The Left wants either fewer people, or a return to the Dark Ages - except for the Left elite.

Labels: bullshit, energy, progressives, propaganda, science

posted by Zimri on 00:59 | link |

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