Who Cares About the Ukrainian People?
Here’s a good example of the appeal to hatred and indifference to human suffering that lies at the very core of the Republican Party platform.
Tagged with: indifference to human suffering
How the Republican Party Appeals to Its Base
Re: the piece at left, a reader notes: I love your optimism “should end his career” but … I would imagine such a suggestion is exactly the “solution” the “conservatives” have up their sleeve.
Exactly. Bitter and hateful statements always ended political careers …until they became the way the GOP conducts itself and appeals to its base of hateful, misogynistic idiots.
Steve Bannon To Become First Insurrection Architect To Enter Jail
Here’s something to look forward to.
Tagged with: Steve Bannon Insurrection Architect
Focusing on Virtues
Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor from 161 to 180 CE, was an adherent of the Stoic philosophy, which I would summarize as valuing our limited time of Earth, and making ourselves the best people possible by focusing on long-term virtues rather than short-term pleasure.
What he wrote here couldn’t apply more directly to current-day American society. We seem to have lost our minds when it comes to virtues like compassion for others, reason, justice, and, above all, long-term sustainability.
Tagged with: long-term sustainability
Marjorie Taylor Greene –Divorce?
I’m not sure this is true, but it must suck being married to one of the country’s most revolting people.
Tagged with: Marjorie Taylor Greene --Divorce?
Libraries and Socialism
The author of the meme here nailed it.
American libraries, obviously, are the product of Benjamin Franklin, one of the most broadminded leaders in our nation’s history. Those who stand for critical thinking and human creativity tend to favor the broadest possible distribution of books–even the controversial ones.
Where we are today is shameful. We ban books that call upon us to question authority or examine the true nature of our country. We criticize people of compassion and reason as “woke.”
And let’s not forget that all of this garbage has horrific consequences. Almost half of our voters favor the re-election of a criminal conman as the President of the United States.
Demons on the Inside?
I can’t imagine Freud really said this.
Obviously, I can’t read others’ thoughts, but it strikes me that people who behave with compassion and reason are less likely to have “demons” inside than those who are overtly irrational and mean.
Tagged with: compassion and reason
Rapidly Improving Technology
There is no doubt that humankind is the beneficiary of a great many breakthroughs in technology – that applies to medicine, IT, communications, and yes, environmental sustainability.
In an interview I conducted for my third book “Renewable Energy – Following the Money” the spokesperson for the libertarian CATO Institute told me that this is the principal reason that we needn’t concern ourselves with global warming, in other words that, by the time it’s a real problem, it will be solved by new ways to generate electricity and transport ourselves and our possessions.
I countered that hoping for a miracle doesn’t sound like a viable strategy, especially when the stakes are so high. We didn’t beat Hitler in WWII with hopes and prayers; we did it with rifles and bombs.
Why Don’t We Have Solar-Powered Cars?
Like a lot of things we’d like to have but can’t, it’s because of physics.
When the sun is high in the sky on a sunny day, each square meter of the Earth’s surface below receives about 1000 Watts (1 kiloWatt) of power. Suppose there are three square meters of solar PV on the car shown here, so that’s 3 kWs. If the solar panels are 30% efficient, that’s 900 Watts, a little over 1 horsepower, not even enough to filter a good-sized swimming pool.
Now, obviously, if the car has a big battery pack, you can leave it charging for a long period of time. But even cheap little cars have 100-hp+ motors so they can achieve freeway speeds and get up hills.
Let’s suppose that, because of its sleek design, you can get away with 50 hp. You’ll be charging it (in full sun) 50 times longer than you’ll be driving it.
Is the Value of Education Questionable?
The sentiment expressed at left makes sense to many of us, but, upon reflection, it comes from two completely disparate camps: the opposite ends of the IQ bell curve.
We happily grant that people like Mozart, Einstein, Monet, and Mark Twain himself, didn’t learn anything in school that tapped into their genius, and that they (and we) would have been better off if they had been spared whatever was inflicted upon them in the name of “education.”
We also grant that our working class received very little from their education that advanced their position in modern-day America in any meaningful way.
But what about the rest of us, including the mainstream of 2GreenEnergy readers? Speaking strictly for myself, I spent my early life immersed in a world of critical thinking, and I’ve never stepped out. It seems to me that it’s worked out fairly well. Wouldn’t most of us say the same?
Most of the complaint against education isn’t coming from the Einsteins and Twains of the world. It’s coming from those who believe that our colleges crank out liberals who, for example, have a hard time with the idea that Trump was an honest and effective servant of the American people and the victim of a rigged election.
In any case, it’s a weak claim indeed that young people would be better people if they were prevented from reading the world’s great books.
Tagged with: Value of Education
