Not quite as tough as going to Clark’s Gap but it gets the blood flowing. Enough of these short rides and I’ll be ready to do some longer stuff. I might try for 15 miles or so this weekend.
The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (Waxman-Markey cap and trade) bill passed in the house last week.
I have mixed feelings on this bill. First of all, while I believe that the planet’s temperature is rising and man is contributing to this temperature rise, I’m not convinced that the entire rise in temperature is due to man. Nor am I convinced that this rise in temperature is going to be significant or that it will cause catastrophic climate change.
So, I do not start from the position of ‘OMG WE’VE GOT TO DO SOMETHING NOW!!”.
However, I do believe that we should find more efficient energy sources, preferably ones that we can get from here in the US. Anything that can stop us from giving the crazies in the middle east our money is a good thing. (all the countries over there with oil are full of crazies – not to mention Venezuela). I believe that we need an energy policy that encourages self sufficiency as a country and promotes efficiency in our energy use. Unfortunately this bill doesn’t do this. The only thing that this bill is sure to do is put a drain on the US economy.
This is what I don’t understand about this bill. It looks like its main purpose isn’t really to significantly curtail global warming (because it doesn’t), its main purpose is a starting point for reducing CO2 emissions. I guess the idea is that doing anything, even if it doesn’t really work, is better than doing nothing at all. I’m not a Democrat, but if I were, this position would make no sense at all to me. The Democrats have the White House and both houses of congress. When will conditions be better for the Democrats to pass into law something that does what they want? The Republicans aren’t going to act like jackasses forever. Eventually they will get back into power.
The end result of this is going to be a law that accomplishes relatively little in the way of CO2 reductions but will put a drain on the economy. It doesn’t make any sense to me. I guess the United States will look better to the rest of the civilized world. Fine. Whatever.
There’s also an assumption that once the United States gets serious about climate change that the rest of the world will follow. (don’t make me post a link to the Odd Couple assume scene again – too late). I find the idea that the rest of the world will have a CO2 epiphany because the United States passes an ineffective global warming bill very naive.
If I were a Democrat, and not an Democratic ideologue, I couldn’t support this bill. As a cynic who thinks our government is run by the most incompetent and irresponsible people in the country, this bill makes perfect sense. It’s exactly the kind of useless nonsense I expect from our government. I’m not just picking on Democrats here, the Republicans were holding their own when it comes to incompetence when they were in power. They just have a different flavor. What kind of condiment do you want on your shit sandwhich?
This data was saved via my iPhone’s GPS. I was a little bit faster on the way back.
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Rode my fat butt up to Clark’s Gap on my bicycle:
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RIP Farrah Fawcett. I had this poster above my bed when I was 12 – 13. I pretty sure every boy my age did at the time.
I’ve been uploading numerous old army and high school photos to Facebook lately. (Facebook has a lot of faults but it’s starting to grow on me. shh. don’t tell anyone). While doing this it occurred to me that I don’t have nearly as many pictures from high school as I would like. I have friends on Facebook from high school that I have no pictures of except for the high school yearbook. These are people that I saw 5 days a week for at least a whole school year, if not all four years.
Of course most of us did not even care about pictures. Nostalgia is not something you feel when you’re sixteen years old. I personally went out of my way to avoid pictures. I’m pretty sure one of the four yearbooks from my high school days is missing a photo of me.
I have a bit more from the time I spent in the Army in Panama – mainly because it was a new place which motivated everyone to take pictures. I actually went through three cameras in three years in Panama. On two occasions one of my friends borrowed my camera only to lose it somewhere in Panama City. Both times he bought me a new one.
Even with the motivation of living overseas, there are still people I was stationed with that I have no photos of. People I saw everyday. People that I got drunk with on a regular basis.
When I was in high school, for the most part, people weren’t carrying cameras around with them. Most of us didn’t even own cameras. Today that’s all changed. Everyone has a cell phone and in the last couple of years that means that everyone has a camera. Does this mean that in 20 years kids today will have many more pictures?
Well, the capability is there. They certainly have the technology to take pictures everyday and not have to worry about developing costs or running out of film.Is the motivation there? I wouldn’t have cared about pictures in high school even if I had a camera phone and unlimited storage space. Actually, I would probably had a camera full of candid shots of any girl I though was hot. (which actually leads to another question. Do schools even allow camera/cell phones to be used in school? – I’m not sure it matters, it wouldn’t have stopped me when I was a teenager).
So kids today have the capability to take many more pictures than could have been taken in the past. How many times do these kids just press the ‘delete all’ key to erase last week’s photos to make room for this week’s. In other words, are these photos going to last more a couple of weeks. If they do, will these kids carry around a flash card full of photos for the next 20 years? Will they back these photos up? I’m guessing probably not.
In reality though, this doesn’t matter. I’m looking at it from my old bald headed outdated point of view.
Embarrassing your friends with pictures from twenty years ago is so now. These kids will have had their facebook page, its variants and its decendants since high school. Losing touch with someone for twenty years will be a rarity. Anyone they care about will be connected to them. Most of them will have their entire lives updated online.
Hmmmm.
When I finally invent time travel, before going back in time to kill Hitler , I’m going to go back in time and punch the guy who invented the speakerphone. Afterward, I’m going to go back in time and punch the mother of the asshole in my office who needs to validate his existence by the loud overuse of his speakerphone.
Look, we all know you’re a dangling nutsack of Godzilla-like proportions. There’s no need to prove it on a daily basis. Close your office door or use the handset (that thing with the speaker and microphone connected to your speaker phone with a cable- pick it up). And seriously, you’re not on stage, there’s no need to ‘project’. Even if the guy you’re talking to is on the other side of the planet, he’ll still be able to hear you if you speak at a volume less than 110 decibels.
The best I can figure, is that this snapperhead wants to make sure his boss knows he’s here. I guess ‘good morning’ won’t do. “Hey Look!, I’m talking to a customer!”.
Prick.