First off, Happy Earth Day! I hesitate to talk about this topic at all because I'm about to make fun of a lot of people's religious faith... but here goes. When people speak with you about some radical change that will save the world - not just on environmental issues but on any issue - and they do so with religious fervor, you should either rigorously question what they are saying until you find the gaping hole in their theory, or simply run like hell. I present to you the results of radical change to save the Earth. Blood is being shed because of a cockamamie idea which turns out to be not a lot better than witch doctor science. At least witch doctor science has a placebo effect; but this snake oil was sold as having better effects on all of us than aspirin, penicillin, and Dr. Mertens Hair Restorative Tonic, rolled into one. Unintended consequences? Sure, it's possible to be surprised by what happened here. But only if you were willfully blind to the warnings. No, it's not the end of the world yet, and I'm sure the press reports are subject to the usual distortions and exaggerations, but there's clearly a problem here caused by bad policy. Remember this the next time somebody says they're here to save you, and all it will take is radical change, and by the way, they have *exactly* the plan... Thus endeth today's sermon, flame away in comments if you think we just haven't tried hard enough to convert our food sources into fuel for our cars and homes, and that if we try a bit harder or encourage the Brazilians to raze the rain forest to grow extra cane sugar for the Escalades, that it will all work out for Ma Earth...
Different subject - you probably think that Shaquille O'Neill was the first sports star to transition from playing to singing. But he was just following in some much smaller footsteps... Fausto Coppi's. Seriously. Check this out - Coppi and Bartali sing a duet.
Okay, that wasn't good enough for you? Fine.
How 'bout I let this jackhole steal ten minutes of your life, that you'll never get back? Here, have a heaping helping of that insane little dude, the Opinionated Cyclist.
9 comments:
Man! Coppi looked as good in a suit singing as he did riding. Now That's a Superstar!
For the record, and without getting too serious, E85 wasn't some nutjob scheme put forward by greenpeace or Al Gore or some crap. It was supported by Bush 43! It was never going to help the environment. It was a way of stretching petroleum (So we can be energy independent!- yeah, oil isn't some kind of world commodity. Oh, wait a minute...), while helping agribusiness. Real nutjobs like me are pushing for clean diesel, and biodiesel, plus huge increases in CAFE standards. If Honda can develop a 2 litre diesel that gets 46 mpg, and generates 254 lb/ft torque, while meeting nationwide emissions standards why can't GM, Ford, etc? Sure it only has 140 or so horsepower, but no one needs top end, just so long as we can get to highway speed.
Holy Schneikes, Jim. Sorry to get you so fired up about the ADM/Cargill pocket lining. I was just trying to make light of the sweet corn situation. You know, "teh funny?"
When you said don't mess with my corn, you weren't kidding! I'd better not post that baco-diesel link I found.
Worst. video. blog. EVAR!
Seriously, I made it like 2 mins into the clip before I had to bail. WTF is that guy eating?
SD, Womble - that's the tragedy of it. It was a huge bi-partisan Mongolian Clusterf*** that will probably get worse before anybody admits they made a mistake. But when pop science is passed off as science, and then you make the pop science a moral issue (see, e.g. the GM ads about their ethanol friendly vehicles) and you get the support of the 'l33ts, then it's sort of an unstoppable force - that kind of "everybody's doing it so it must be right" is the kind of thinking I have real trouble with - it leads to some really bad results, not least of which are acid-washed jeans. And as for baco-diesel... how do you think I power my riding exploits?
Mike, you're not kidding. That guy is not so bad that he's good, he's so bad that he's unbelievably bad. It almost makes him entertaining, in the way that watching a huge crash unfold in a race is morbidly entertaining, as long as you aren't a part of it.
Escalade! When you can't pay too much for a Suburban...
I made it 1mintue and:01 into jackhole you are far too kind in calling him jackhole. WTF is he eating and why with a microphone at his mouth, I want to put him out of our misery!
I have a theory about E85 but I don't dare post it for fear I will be added to some hit list by agribusiness/oil.
Cheers!
ok, ok, ok.
I did a 90 second perusal and...
all I can do is laugh my liberal (yes, I'm liberal despite wanting to shoot my daughter's suitors) ass off.
this fits PERFECTLY in my bottom quartile theory.
population pressure?
no prob. let's just off the bottom 25% (on any measure but height. I'm short) of the human population (by starving, if necessary)...
and VOILA!
On a fascinating (to me) tangent... with all the ethanol sources available it's interesting that the USA is throwing the majority of it's support behind corn based ethanol.
It's obviously a "for the boys" decision because corn is about the dirtiest of the ethanol fuels and it is also the most expensive to produce, both economically and in regard to the carbon footprint of the production process. All corn based ethanol does is remove some of our dependence on dead dinosaurs.
Sorghum, wheat, barley and sugarcane all produce a cleaner fuel and with less energy required to create the end product.
I think Weird Al Yankovic should do a farewell anthem for Dubya entitled "For The Boys".
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