Awwww, Riley (Paddy) is all right. He's just going through MENopause. He's a seasoned citizen like me; I'm a bit older, but he'd been a life long repub (so he says) but now he's into withdrawal since the elected R's have mostly turned into RINO's or out and out statists over the last 30 years. I don't think he actually believes some of the stuff he says. He thinks he does, but he's old enough to know better; and I believe he does, but just doesn't know how to quit being so pissed at how we've been betrayed by the R party.
The single biggest issue we face today is not the war, it's energy; oil and gas.
It's what makes the world go round. It is our freedom, it's everything. If we'd become self sufficient in oil and gas starting in the 70's (and we could have because we've got more oil and gas in and around America than exists in the rest of the world), none of the political problems, war, or economic problems we have would exist. And neither party, especially John Effing McCain, is talking about it except like loons.
I think that pisses Riley (Paddy) off. I know it pisses me off big time.
Well, I guess I'm glad he's got enough spirit to get angry, and not just fall in line and display Stockholm syndrome to the RINO's, but I thought that's what the Paulites were for.
But...
Marx?
Then that's oppositional defiant disorder.
I'm in 100% agreement with you about energy. If we can survive the agribusiness/ethanol scam, the market will take care of it, IMO. Cheap plastic/printable solar with enough efficiency to be used on rooftops north of the 48th parallel, even in winter, is one of the holy grails of materials science/nanotechnology, and they keep announcing incremental gains every few months. And (IIRC) Toshiba has announced silicon nano-wire LiOn batteries have been developed that can take a 90%+ charge in just five minutes.
There's your electric car that can go 150-300 miles on $1 of electricity...
And the Wyoming shale deposits and the Canuck tar-sands are about a 100 year worldwide supply of oil, at current demand + some growth. At at $100+ barrels of oil, and traditional drilling dropping below 5 to 1 net energy gain, it's profitable. And of course there's all our wells which are capped, or fields that aren't tapped at all due to labor costs, and environmental regulations/agitators. Let the rest of the world suck their deposits dry first. Then market demand will see the Gulf, Texas, ANWAR, and the drier goop in the shale and sand be profitable.
And there's several walk-away-safe nuclear designs out there. When the market pressure is enough, we'll build and license those too.
Probably the one thing about France I admire at this point.
If we don't destroy ourselves with bad policy, in 50 years, America/Canada will have the lion's share of the world's food, and the world's oil. And even if other energy sources come into play, the world still needs petrochemicals for just about everything else. Plastics, lubrication, pesticides, fertilizers, you name it.
And except for Dubai which sees the writing on the wall over M.E. oil running out, and is turning itself into Disneyland as fast as it can, the only thing the M.E. has of any great use is labor under non P.C./exploitive cultural and political conditions. And if parts of it stay stable once the oil stops, (Or maybe get MORE stable) that cheap labor pool is going to take a chunk out of China's and India's hide.
