I posted this for june 16 awhile back. My thing was not so much not buying gas but not going to work. If everyone did it like the Hispanics did a few years ago we would be heard.





I posted this for june 16 awhile back. My thing was not so much not buying gas but not going to work. If everyone did it like the Hispanics did a few years ago we would be heard.
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
Actually, there are a lot of other alternatives. Solar being a huge one. Wind power is really taking off in the US, too.
I think Americans would be more than happy to adopt new ideas. Look at how fast things like cell phones and internet usage took hold (neither were in common use 12 years ago). The problem is that current corporate power base is holding the US population hostage to these outdated energy sources in the name of profit. They are so rich and so powerful that they can stomp out their enemies, even if those enemies occupy Washington D.C. and represent the American public.
I have a feeling that many ambitious entrepreneurs have been stonewalled by corporations that wield power to block their efforts, and it is happening at all levels of government; be it issuing patents, approving zoning, approving loans and financing for start-ups all the way to blackmail, inventing criminal charges to imprison people for political reasons and possibly even murder.
It sure wouldn't be the first time it has happened. It certainly won't be the last, either. The only real power we have is to vote with our feet and our dollars. Buy as little gas and plastic products as possible. Do this everyday. When a product comes out on the market that suits your needs that is not made from petroleum, buy that instead.
If every American could change one plastic habit a week (like buying soda in cans instead of bottles), just imagine the huge impact it will have over all! Starting this week, stop buying beverages in plastic containers. Next week stop using plastic shopping bags, etc.
*Sitting here at home, not driving today.
Promote yourself and earn more money! This is a business that is owned by strippers for strippers. Let's make that money!





people think nuclear is unsafe and dangerous (but funny enough it seems to work ok in france, where the designs are standardised).
solar doesn't scale. it can help offset a/c costs in places where there are heatwaves, but not much else. which is great from a local/regional perspective and can certainly be put into play where it's regionally feasible.
wind especially doesn't scale, and the lawsuit issue alone is going to keep it from being maximised even in the regions where it's a feasible supplement.
oil is damn near magical. so's coal, in many respects. nuclear is very nearly the only scalable alternative fuel out there. all the rest is just supplemental on a regional basis at absolute best.
heck, where i live (WA), a LOT of salmon have died for 5-10% of the power to be hydroelectrically derived. and we don't have many more salmon runs to destroy to get that number up much higher. it's still not scalable even if we kill off a natural resource that contributes to the local economy quite a bit.




Uh, you might want to research this again. Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Pennsylvania, New York, and MANY other states are building wind towers. The work crews have been here for 7 years building these things, along with several ethanol plants. These things are everywhere out here!
Most of the guys working on these are from out of state, no where to go, and lots of money to spend. They like the little bar I work at!





Best thing is to take care of your car to reduce gas consumption AND to plan all your trips to get the most out of the miles you have to drive. You may have to consult a map and/or change your usual shopping places or haunts and use your telephone more to do business. Forget about Sunday leisure drives, idling while waiting just to run your AC, etc. This price is just way out of line for anything except efficient basics.
Last edited by threlayer; 05-25-2008 at 06:58 PM.
I loved going to strip clubs; I actually made some friends there. Now things are different for the clubs and for me. As a result I am not as happy.
Customers are not entitled to grope, disrespect, or rob strippers. This is their job, not their hobby, and they all need income. Clubs are not just some erotic show for guys to view while drinking.
NOTE: anything I post here, outside of a direct quote, is my opinion only, which I am entitled to. Take it for what you estimate it is worth.





You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Free your mind, and your ass will follow.
George Clinton
______________________________________
^ gotta agree with miabella on this one. (woah).
Wind farms can appear to be everywhere, but their output is such that on a large scale, the energy produced is negligible. Unfortunately, I think the wind towers being contructed today will be the relic oddities of tomorrow. They're fantastic for small-scale personal use, though.
Nuclear is a great option, but expensive. Like, really really expensive. It would take decades to begin to see returns on the investment in infrastructure, and we North Americans don't seem to think that way. Half the plants in Canada are out of commission because they're too expensive to run, even though we've already dumped billions into the infrastructure...
As for safety- I can dig out the exact source if someone asks for it, but I have read more than once that we could literaly have a Chernobyl-sized nuclear accident per year (VERY unlikely), and there would still be fewer casualties-- environmental damage and long term heath effects taken into account-- than result from the mining, processing and burning of fossil fuels in one year.
Feature costumes for sale!





google 'wind farm lawsuits'. there's a lot of nimbyism regarding wind. plus, it must be nice making money off government welfare. subsidies seem to always be more acceptable in this country when they're to firms rather than folks. you forgot to mention the federal and state subsidies surrounding wind production.
but the key thing is that it's not scalable. i didn't say 'nobody can use windpower'. it's regionally feasible, certainly. but it simply cannot contribute more than a few percent of total energy needs for this country. even the people who put up windfarms wouldn't make a claim that it's a viable substitute for fossil fuels. very little alternative fuel production scales. nuclear is kinda your biggy, and you can't use it for cars. so you'd have to have something like a nuclear grid and then electric cars with the requisite infrastructure. looking at trilions of bucks, minimum for all that, IF you can get people to listen to reason about nuclear, which ain't likely in america.





Actually the answer is fusion power--clean nuclear energy, in unprecedented abundance.
This is one area in which I agree with some of the hard-liners. If we could get fusion power going, things would be much easier. The Mideast, for instance--a colossal joke. We could save billions of dollars in military and other expenditures, were it not for our dependence on the oil over there.
You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Free your mind, and your ass will follow.
George Clinton
______________________________________





^^ Fusion power is a LONG LONG way off. Lots more basic research has to be completed first and that is NOT a priority of our government. They would rather spend research money on flashier things like space exploration, elementary particle physics research, etc. Russia has been working harder on it than the US for years and they aren't close either. Too bad, but I agree that this could eventually become a critical omission for us after I'm dead and gone.
Last edited by threlayer; 05-28-2008 at 11:55 AM.
I loved going to strip clubs; I actually made some friends there. Now things are different for the clubs and for me. As a result I am not as happy.
Customers are not entitled to grope, disrespect, or rob strippers. This is their job, not their hobby, and they all need income. Clubs are not just some erotic show for guys to view while drinking.
NOTE: anything I post here, outside of a direct quote, is my opinion only, which I am entitled to. Take it for what you estimate it is worth.




I grew up near a nuclear plant. I've been to the plant before. I've seen how the towers were constructed. I know how they would react in the case of a goof-up. Im confidant in the influence of nuclear power, and desire that more plants be built.
I want to get a bike. Where I am, though, is all hills. I would kill my knees trying to bike everywhere. Thus, I walk to the places closest to me, and will be taking the bus more often. I don't drive. I don't even have my license. Partially because I don't want to deal with gas prices and insurance costs. I'm paying a lot right now as is.
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