Against All Energy Anywhere ... Alan Caruba

Against All Energy Anywhere

By Alan Caruba

One of the great afflictions of the environmentalists—Greens—everywhere is a profound lack of understanding of the role that energy plays in whether a nation prospers or just limps along, barely keeping the lights on.

A classic case is the communist paradise of North Korea that is almost completely dark at night while just across the 38th parallel, South Korea is ablaze with light, energy, and a thriving economy.

Dedicated Greens don’t really like any kind of energy whether it is nuclear, provided by burning coal, from natural gas, oil or from hydropower. They think that wind power is trouble-free and cost effective when it is neither. They feel the same way about solar power. Both are deemed acceptable because they don’t "emit" anything. This viewpoint is not merely naïve, it is profoundly stupid.

Before we go further, let’s examine the basic facts of U.S. power, give or take a percentage point or two, coal provides over 50% of electrical power. Nuclear provides around 20%, natural gas is just over 20%, hydroelectric is close to 7%, and so-called "renewables" like wind and solar are credited with about 3%. Petroleum generated electricity is 1% and "other sources", whatever they may be, come in at around 0.3%.

These are figures from 2009 and, suffice to say, are subject to change, but not much. Friends of the Earth, an international Green organization, (FOE) is no friend to humanity. Hardcore Greens think Earth’s problems would be solved if human beings were not part of its ecology.

Following the Japan earthquake, FOE sent an email to its members and fellow travelers saying, "We must learn from this disaster. Tell your members of Congress that nuclear power should not be part of our energy future." Ironically, FOE is very unhappy with President Obama and his administration which has been very inclined toward nuclear energy.

The Sierra Club, another ultra-Green organization, put out a newsletter reminding its members that it is "unequivocally opposed to nuclear energy" and has been "for more than three decades." The same newsletter warned that "politicians who owe their primary allegiance to the fossil-fuel industry (coal, natural gas, and oil) are quick to promote domestic drilling and deregulation, as if that would make the gauge on the gas pump start to run backward." In point of fact, it would. U.S. domestic oil is always cheaper than imported oil.

The Sierra Club just conjured up a petition "to tell the Obama administration to protect the Arctic Refuge" because "We cannot allow these oil companies to destroy the pristine wilderness of the Arctic Refuge." Every time you hear the words "pristine wilderness" think of a place no human would ever want to live, let alone visit. And no one is really addressing the economic devastation the Obama administration has visited on the Gulf States because of its refusal to allow oil drilling to resume.

FOE recently was fulminating against the use of coal to light up the homes, businesses and streets of South Africa and was equally unhappy about the effort to install a pipeline from Canada to the U.S. to transmit oil derived from its tar sands. A lot of our "imported" oil comes from Canada. That’s because it has been government policy for decades to make it difficult, if not impossible, to drill, extract, and refine oil here in America.

The March 21-27 edition of Bloomberg Business Week has an article by Brendan Greeley that is a good analysis titled "Facing Up to Nuclear Risk." When nuclear plants have been built as many safety factors as possible have been built into them, but it is impossible to calculate the impact of an earthquake. The U.S. has its own tectonic fault lines, all well known, but the fact remains nuclear plants have been built near or on them.

"David Okrent, who advised the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on reactor safety for 20 years, points out that reactors are designed for only a set of defined events. ‘The early nuclear reactors weren’t designed for tornadoes,’ he says, ‘until one came along in Arkansas, and then we thought, ‘we gotta design for tornadoes.’ It’s not easy to be all-knowing."

Were it not for Green propaganda, the U.S. would not be wasting billions of taxpayer dollars on idiotic wind and solar farms that are utterly dependent on government subsidies and mandates that require utilities to use the pitifully small amounts of electricity they produce.

The same can be said of the equally idiotic regulatory mandates for ethanol that drive up the cost of every gallon of gas pumped while, at the same time, reducing the mileage and damaging to your car’s engine. Even Al Gore thinks ethanol is a bad idea.

Ironically, more people have died from wind turbines than nuclear plants. In 2008, there were 41 recorded deaths. The carnage on birds and bats is rarely mentioned by the media. Despite all the blather about Three Mile Island not one person has died from radiation since nuclear plants were first introduced.

It is surely worth noting that coal-burning plants in a nation that is the Saudi Arabia of coal do not have meltdowns causing radiation that can make large areas uninhabitable. That "smoke" you see coming from the smokestacks of such plants is steam. Water vapor. Clouds are made of water vapor.

If we were really serious about safety and the provision of more electrical power, the U.S. would be building a hell of a lot more coal-burning plants right now and into the future.

© Alan Caruba, 2011

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Alan Caruba's commentaries are posted daily at "Warning Signs" his popular blog and thereafter on dozens of other websites and blogs. If you love to read, visit his monthly report on new books at Bookviews. To visit his Facebook page, click here For information on his professional skills, Caruba.com is the place to visit.

America On The Brink Of Nuclear Destruction?

America On The Brink Of Nuclear Destruction?
Is America the Victim of Nuclear Blackmail?
A commentary by J. D. Longstreet

“ … intelligence reports from various sources say al Qaeda has already smuggled from 7 to 70 nuclear weapons into the country across the Mexican border. American intelligence experts believe the number to be closer to 7 than 70 but admit the threat is very real.” (SOURCE)

“ … Intelligence information from captured al Qaeda documents, computers, and operatives indicates that al Qaeda has targeted 9 American Cities for nuclear attack.” (SOURCE)

While the Obama Regime fiddles modern day Rome is about to burn.

Iran is quickly, quickly, reaching the point at which they can produce an atomic bomb. Never mind the experts predictions that they are a year away. They have been wrong many times before. I suspect they are very wrong this time and your life may depend upon your preparation for that day when Iran lobs a nuclear bomb over the US strapped atop a second rate guided missile that, nevertheless, can get the job done.

Never, ever, allow yourself to believe that Iran is only blustering when saying they will wipe Israel off the map. Remember, they have also said a world without America is desirable -- and possible. They mean to blast America from the map as well.

However, a nuclear guided missile is not necessary to bring America to its knees. Iran knows that, as does al Qaida. Those suitcase bombs, placed in America’s major cities will do the trick and do it well.

Security experts, as reported above, tell us they have reason to believe that Islamic terrorists have been able to smuggle at least 7 and as many as 70 nuclear bombs into America by simply walking across the border between Mexico and the US. So much for border security, huh?

Captured terrorist documents tell us the targeted cities are: New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Of course, New York and Washington are the top two cities on the list for obvious reasons. They represent the seat of America’s government and the seat of America’s economic system. The destruction of those two cities, alone, will throw the entire nation into fearful confusion and spread panic much as a prairie fire races across the plains.

Some reports proclaim that one month after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks at least two suitcase nukes reached al-Qaida operatives in the U.S. Each suitcase weighed between 50 and 80 kilograms (approximately 110 to 176 pounds) and contained enough fissionable plutonium and uranium to produce an explosive yield in excess of two kilotons. The plutonium and uranium are kept in separate compartments that are linked to a triggering mechanism that can be activated by a clock or a call from the cell phone. (SOURCE)

If these security experts are to be believed, the nuclear bombs are already in place within America. So, it is only a matter of time.

I have to wonder if THAT is the reason the Obama Regime will not attack Iran and take out Iran’s nuclear facilities. I have to wonder if this is the reason Obama will not allow Israel to do so. Could it be, is it possible, that Al Qaida and Iran are, even now, blackmailing the American government? (It’s called nuclear blackmail.)

Iran IS in the process of building the “Islam Bomb.” That we know. We also know they will use it. We know they will use it on Israel and they will use in on America. Nuclear blackmail is the only reasonable answer to the question of why the US has not already taken Iran out. Nothing else makes any sense.

Even the bible scriptures of the Old Testament tell us that Russia and Iran will team up to attack Israel. (Ezekiel chapters 38-39) What do we have today? Russia and Iran have formed an alliance, a nuclear alliance, for the purpose of producing nuclear power, which will, in turn, make it possible for Iran to use the spent fuel rods (supplied by Russia) from their nuclear reactor(s) to produce the materials necessary for their atomic bomb. (There is a much more scientific explanation for this, but this is all one needs to know to understand the danger to Israel and the US from Iran.)

As Obama brings US combat troops home form Iraq, which borders Iran, one has to wonder why? Why are the troops coming home when it is so painfully obvious they are going to have to return in a few weeks, a few months, or a few years?

We have told you many times in our commentaries that America will never leave the Middle East again. We have a long-coveted military position in that troubled area, which gives us the advantage of being “forward deployed” in a region that foments most of the world’s problems. As the world’s policeman, by default, America needed a police station in that troubled neighborhood. Now we have it -- and we will not be giving it up.

But understand this: American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are only speed bumps in Iran’s path once they have the bomb. And they will have the bomb any day now.

Will the Obama Regime tell the American people the truth about the terrorist capability to wreak nuclear destruction on the homeland? No, I don’t think they will.

Will Obama take the risk that nuclear bombs are here and can be detonated at any time, and take the iniatives and mount an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities? Again, I believe the answer to be no. You see, that takes strong leadership, of which Obama is not capable.

With the Damocles Sword of nuclear disaster dangling perilously over America’s head it will call for a leader with a steel backbone and rock solid determination to do what needs so desperately to be done.

Time is NOT on our side – not anymore. We have reached the point at which anything we do is going to mean massive death and destruction to our friends and ourselves.

Yes, dear reader, I understand that all this sounds like an unlikely conspiracy. But remember -- as a TV promo says: “ALL conspiracy theories are not just theories.” Sometimes, those “theories” turn out to be very prescient. We have no choice now but to wait and see. It is sad that so many innocent people will die, needlessly, if this theory proves to be anything more than just a theory.

J. D. Longstreet

Obama Continues to Appease Iran

Appeasing Iran

A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

If the President of the US sits down, in a face to face meeting with the President of Iran, and discusses Iran’s attempt to develop an Atomic Bomb, discusses Iran’s meddling in Iraq… including the training and supplying of insurgents in Iraq who are killing America military personnel, discusses Iran’s declared intention of wiping Israel from the map, discusses Iran’s threatening of shipping through the Straits of Hormuz, discusses Iran’s arming and training of terrorists in Gaza and Lebanon and sundry other places around the globe, … would that be appeasement ?

Of COURSE it would be appeasement! Why? Because… it would raise Iran’s President up to the level of the US President in perceived prestige and power around the world (I mean, of course, the “OFFICE” of the President). Plus, it would embolden the terrorist organizations that would read it as “bringing the US to heel”.

There is nothing to discuss with Iran. We have demands to make, but there is nothing to discuss.

Look, Iran is skating on very thin ice. Their arrogance is either covering for their stupidity, or a national death wish. Either way the life of their country is in the balance.

Iran is setting itself up for a preemptory military strike by Israel… or the United States, or (most likely), both.

The fact that the US has been fighting a ground war against Iran, for many months now, is not lost on the intelligence communities of Israel, Great Britain and the United States. Although it has not been spoken of by the press in the US, to any great degree, the British press printed the facts about the 12,000 man Iranian force which flooded across the Iraq/Iran border shortly after the US and British Invasion of Iraq. It is certainly a contributing factor in the continuing battle to knock down the so-called “Insurgency” within Iraq.

The plain fact is, folks, we are fighting Iran on the ground, and all over the world right now. If the troops we are fighting against aren’t Iranian in blood, then they are Iranian by proxy.

Iran has a huge bulls eye painted on her today. If the people of Iran do not rise up and overthrow the mullahs and the Imams and whoever is running that pitiful excuse for a country then they can expect to be attacked by outside forces and their regime changed by force. Iran’s hand is raised toward every man and every man’s hand is raised toward Iran.

Iran’s leadership continues to boast of going after Israel. It is the worst mistake they could possibly make.

Israel has a first, and second, strike nuclear capability. She has nuclear-armed subs, at sea, as a back up to her ground based nuclear arsenal. If attacked, she will certainly strike back and… she has the capability to take out the entire metropolitan population of Iran a number of times over.

For many years, now, Israel has warned that she will use her nuclear option rather than be the recipients of another holocaust. Israel is not just whistling Dixie. She will do it as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow.

Iran finds a democratic Iraq unacceptable as a neighbor. Therefore, they intend to do, and are doing, anything within their power to cripple all efforts to establish such a government in Iraq. In the meantime, their effort to create a nuclear bomb, missiles, etc, is on track and is due to be realized well before the ten years our misled intelligence services led themselves to believe several years ago.

All of this we know. And some in our government want to negotiate??? Some of our presidential candidates want to TALK to Iran? At this point, talking is nothing more than a sign of weakness. On the other hand, if Iran wishes to send an emissary, through back channels, to talk to OUR people in search of a way to save their own behinds, well, that is a different story. We might entertain an offer from Iran to lay down here arms, remove her troops from Iraq, back away from the Straits of Hormuz, stop threatening the free flow of oil from the Middle East, cut off funding and supplying terrorists in Gaza and Lebanon and the other trouble spots around the globe, and basically, behaving themselves… then, we might be open to listening.

But, as long as Iran’s mad mullahs and hallucinating henchmen continue to prance and preen, shine their shields and rattle their sabers, any attempt, on the part of the US (or any other nation at which their vitriol is directed) to talk with them is viewed as appeasement… and rightly so.

Since the beginning of warfare between tribes there has always been those who want to try talking to the enemy tribe in an attempt avoiding open combat. They are, inevitably, the weakest members of the threatened tribe. Unfortunately, it is their protestations that “peace at any price” has cost more lives, in the long run, than would have been lost had the battle begun immediately and ended quickly with one tribe, or the other, wining decisively.

Appeasement does two things: It demonstrates the appeasing side’s weakness and fear and it allows the threatening side to grow stronger and bolder and even more determined to put the pip-squeak nation, begging for peace out of it’s misery.

Even inferring that one might talk to Iran, if one were in a position of power from which to do so, does the nation a disservice. It demonstrates the naiveté, the inexperience, and the lack of security in one’s ability to lead a nation of free people who went to war against a world superpower to gain their freedom and have fought ever since to maintain their freedom.

A great nation does not negotiate peace with another nation threatening war against it. A great nation swats the offending nation, as one would a fly, then dictates the terms of peace to THEM. Great leaders understand that. “Pretenders to Greatness” have never understood that. History records great nations and great leaders. Pretenders to greatness MAY gain mention in the footnotes of history.

So, as our diplomatic elite urge appeasement of Iran by “talking” understand they are not representative of the vast majority of the American people who had much rather act as men, standing on their feet in defense of their nation, than as weaklings on their knees, exposing their necks to the sword of the enemy.

Courage begets greatness. Fear begets timidity. Timidity gives birth to acts of appeasement. There is no place for timidity in the Office of the President of the United States.

J. D. Longstreet