We need to make a structural shift in our energy economy. Ultimately, we need to move our entire fleet to plug-in electric cars. The only way to get from here to there is to start now with a price signal that will force the change.
-Friedman
Yeah, I know I can't wait until John Galt's static-electrical motor is revealed to the world, but it'll still be too late to save the railroad. Making the structural shift [sic, motherfucker] to cars that recharge overnight via USB connections to our laptops is, bee tee dubbleyou, "the truth, the real truth, to the American people about what would be the best — I mean really the best — energy policy for the long-term economic health and security of our country." If I hated to repeat myself, I'd hate to repeat myself when I say that this notion, that "change" will yield up precisely the same situation and circumstances we have now, only without any of the negative consequences, is the purest and dumbest of self-flattery. Atlanta does not become fit for human habitation just because its rush hour whirs instead of roars.
Imagine for a minute, just a minute, that someone running for president was able to actually tell the truth, the real truth, to the American people about what would be the best — I mean really the best — energy policy for the long-term economic health and security of our country. I realize this is a fantasy, but play along with me for a minute. What would this mythical, totally imaginary, truth-telling candidate say?
Probably something like, "My fellow Americans, you'd better break out the hoes and start tilling those half-acre lots."
13 comments:
How does that fucktard Friedman think that electricity is created?
About 30% of all fossil fuel consumed in the United States is used to make electricity.
Just don't say 'break out the hoes' in Atlanta. That would get an entirely different reaction...
I just can't shake the feeling that IOZ watched a certain great 80's movie one too many times and thought to himself that this:
http://bp0.blogger.com/_MMdPyEJGyhc/Rn8ckf76kOI/AAAAAAAAADQ/KddUpgpTrKo/s1600-h/Wez+with+friend.jpg
would be a great way to live.
The gas has run out, society is no longer recognizable, and there is no functioning government. Plus, you can ride around on your motorcycle with a dreamy blonde.
IOZ, do you have a penchant for metallic football pads and mohawks? The public want to know!
I just fucking hate, and I mean really fucking hate, that fake internal echo - that annoying internal echo - used by the Moustache to give his scribblings, his self-important scribblings, the ring of oration.
He can take his dime-store epistrophe and ram it up his Triple Convergence
Atlanta ain't no kind of town. Frankly I hope some new Sherman burns it a second time.
Imagine for a minute, just a minute, that someone running for president was able to actually tell the truth, the real truth, to the American people...
What about and nothing but the truth? Are they allowed to say some things that are false mixed in amongst the truth, the real truth?
And is God supposed to help them?
Woops, my minute is up. Back to reality.
Tommy boy was right about the Chrysler gas gambit though...it's a seriously bad idea in a global sense. However, if I were looking for a new car, a Sebring or an Avenger would look pretty good from the cost/benefit analysis.
Actually, that gambit is pretty silly. Instead of a lower than credit score would indicate loan or a rebate, they give you a gas card. Hoooboy...I wrote something about this yesterday afternoon on the Defeatists. http://thedefeatists.typepad.com/apoplectic/2008/05/smart-the-gas-c.html
Although thinking of something before Tom Friedman isn't something to get excited about--it's more or less a sign of sentient life. At least my post has a singing gas can from Dublin...
Well, we do have some rudimentary wireless electricity. It's not ready for practical use though.
Nuclear power has been and always will be the future. The French know it. The Japanese know it. And even if I have to beat every hippie to death with their bongs, the U.S will come to know it to.
When you send Sherman, make sure he leaves Decatur alone (again.)
We live less than ten miles from the centre-ville, recycle, have lots of parks, can walk or scooter most places, Emory and Agnes Scott are here (although AS produced Katherine Harris) Michael Stipe was born here, etc.
Take the rest of the car-centric blight, but leave us alone...please.
If the Heritage Foundation and a copy of WIRED magazine were to have a kid, it would be Tom Friedman.
Expect more science-iness from Tom, it's a desperate attempt to attach something else to Friedman unit.
When that doesn't work, he's going to pose nude.
tggp: You consider yourself a libertarian. The degree of centralized control necessary to protect and secure nuclear power will require an authoritarian police state. It's not just "hippies" that don't want a nuclear power plant right next door. France builds nuclear power plants because they have a tradition of State dirigisme that tries to ignore local protest when it can.
They have still not conclusively solved the issue of long term (as in MILLENIA) storage of nuclear wastes. Burying it in Nevada where it can apparantly leak into the Colorado River may not be such a good idea, and that's ignoring the fun of having nuclear waste trains (or trucks) carrying waste from throughout the country.
Hubbert Peak? It exists, potential, for uranium as well. Sure, we have some Uranium in the United States, but a lot of it is in unfriendly countries and places. Breeder reactor technology may solve that problem...MAY...
I'm not an expert, but I am not so sure this is a miracle solution, either.
France and Japan are not authoritarian police states. Hell, as far as civil liberties go they may well be ahead of the U.S. Nuclear waste can be recycled to produce more fuel. Even without that it's safer than coal, which is the real alternative to nuclear power. What would get protesters to shut up is not building (and possibly shutting down) fossil fuel plants. When it's nukes or no juice, people will take the nukes.
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