'Green Energy': this era's 'Alchemy'

These days, we all hear a cacophonous harping from liberals that we need to focus on exchanging our energy sources away from the evil polluting carbon based 'fossil fuels' and into earth and Gaia friendly renewable green sources of energy.  You know, the stuff of liberal dreams: wave power, switch grass, solar, wind, and the great achievement of the Left: vegetable oil powered VW microbuses. 

The left wants no part of that vile, evil carbon based fossil energy anymore.  They say it produces greenhouse gases that are killing us all. 

The Obama administration is acutely bent on chasing this ridiculous premise, and has squandered billions and billions of taxpayer dollars towards the promotion of these hopelessly futile green energy projects.  Solyndra is only the poster child of this stupid and foolish chase of these dumb progressives of an elusive Utopian dream: an energy source that is 100% pollution free.

Physics doesn't work that way.  God doesn't work that way.  We can't pave a path from here to utopia that is downhill both ways.  We can't eliminate the up hill side of physics, namely that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.  Liberals wish it weren't so, but the laws of God and physics simply can't be undone, or worse yet ignored, not even by the president of the U.S. 

Oil, coal, natural gas, uranium, plutonium, and good old fashioned wood:  all of them great sources of energy.  To harvest the energy from these materials, we have to light them on fire or otherwise raise their temperatures.  Accordingly, the bi products of these chemical reactions are various pollutants in the form of hydrocarbons or radiation.  We need the energy it produces, but we don't like the 'smoke.'  Duh. And we should be more concerned about limiting the pollutants generated by fossil and nuclear fuels with research, without limiting the necessary production of  needed power.  A burgeoning economy needs to accommodate an acceptable yet limited amount of pollution: this is basic economics.  To seek 'zero pollution' from energy production is a fools game, and is simply not physically possible.

There is no smokeless fire.  There is no radiation free nuclear energy.  There is no free lunch, as the late great Milton Friedman constantly reminded us.  There is no such thing as a perpetual motion machine.  There ain't no such thing as cold fusion, and never will be.  I will be the first to admit that I am no nuclear scientist.  But a basic understanding of chemistry necessitates that separating the two hydrogen atoms from the bonded oxygen atom in a single molecule of fresh water requires enormous amounts of energy: heat. And producing such heat will generate some kind of 'smoke,' or pollutant in one form or another.  Chasing this dream of hydrogen power without pollutants of some kind just will not happen under any circumstances.  In other words, the liberal Utopian dream of filling our fuel tanks on our 'green cars' with simple water and getting a few thousand miles per gallon from this 'pixie dust'  is never, ever going to happen. 

But liberals insist that we can produce energy without the equal and opposite effect of an undesirable and offsetting bi product.  These liberal idiots of today are chasing dreams.  Utopian ideals that will never come to pass.  Much like the alchemists of a thousand years ago, trying to turn lead into gold.  And ignorant governments of many nations of long ago pursued this stupid and elusive goal of chasing an unachievable alchemy dream for generation after generation: all with no success whatsoever even to this very day.

We will never see any viable 'green energy' that will lift a Boeing 777 even so much as an inch off the ground.  That feat requires oil.  Or perhaps uranium.  You know, a real live existing source of proven energy in the real world of today.  To think that we can generate our nation's power with only the wind, the sun, the ocean waves, or vegetable oil is the dream of naive children.

Science says it can't be done.

God says it can't be done. 

But this still wont' stop today's stupid liberals from commandeering our tax dollars in their fool's errand of this modern day alchemy: chasing viable green energy that will completely replace fossil fuels is no different than trying to turn lead into gold.

Joe Paterno deserves scorn, not sympathy

With the way the media are covering Joe Paterno's disgraceful exit from the Penn State coaching ranks, you would think the guy was next in line for sainthood.  They depict a tearful son Jay wishing his dad were here, and posters hanging everywhere in the football stadium of loving farewells to good ol' JoePa.

The evidence of what Joe Paterno's legacy will be is in front of everyone's nose: this is the guy who put football money and power above the protection of the innocent.  Estimates are around $50,000,000 per year in 2011 dollars of Penn State's football program revenue, and these are the dollars Joe Paterno chose to protect, not the children victims who may number in the hundreds by the time this investigation into the pedophile Jerry Sandusky and his crimes committed while associated with the Penn State football program are completed.  Joe chose the approximate $500 Million dollars over the children, when he made his decision to leave the police out of this situation.  And I suspect, but can't verify that Joe didn't make this decision by himself, either.  He had the ear of the athletic director and the university president at the time, and I suspect also that the revenue that might be adversely affected should this story come to light was discussed at length.  And then jointly, the whole scummy lot of Penn State athletic poobahs decided to keep all of this hush hush.

And Joe Paterno knew of this reprobate's activities for years, and chose to turn a blind eye to the irreparable damage that he was inflicting on untold numbers of children.  What kind of monster does this?  And this scumbag Jerry Sandusky was still held in high esteem by Joe Paterno until just the last few weeks when the story broke. 

Don't feel sorry for poor ol' Joe Paterno, getting fired after years of his basking in everyone's perceived love and adoration.  He is just as much a scum sucking dog of a man as is his defensive coordinator, Jerry Sandusky.  And now we hear Joe has lawyered up, pending the civil and possible criminal proceedings that may come his way. 

He is the scum of the earth, and not the hero we all thought him to be.

A pox on Joe Paterno's legacy.

Top Ten Most Worthless College Degrees

We all know one of these guys.  You know, the professional college student who is constantly changing his course of studies, and spends about 9 years and untold thousands of dollars in finally obtaining a bachelors degree in fine arts.  Or film studies.  Or sociology. 

And we all  know where to find this guy: playing video games in the basement of his parent's house, where he has lived for the last nine years since enrolling in college.  This guy can wipe out hundreds of bad guys in Call to Duty XXI, but couldn't talk his way into a real life job interview to save his soul.  Accordingly, he will be a burden on his aging parents until they finally work up the backbone to kick him out.  And then and only then will he actually start to look for a job.  And very, VERY likely, it will be one flipping burgers, if he's extremely lucky.

There are millions of guys like this out there.  Millions and millions of 'em.  Some of them are camped out on the sidewalk in Manhattan these days, but most are still in their parent's basement.  And nearly all were ill served by their choice of studies in school.  Some of them have degrees that are pertinent to some employers, but most simply chose worthless degrees, and the Top Ten Most Worthless are:

1.  Fine Arts.  This degree has virtually no bearing on life, and particularly is irrelevant when it comes to an employer. Just how does one transfer the skill of making paper mache figures into being part of a productive business enterprise?  That would be a tough one to explain.   Sure, a few fashion houses here and there will specify this degree, but those jobs are as plentiful as chicken lips.  Meaning: not very plentiful at all.

2.  Art History.  Another degree that is high on the scale of worthlessness.  Just how many employers are interested in your knowledge of the impressionist era, or of art deco?  I know the answer to that one: approximately ZERO, give or take zero. 

3.  Women's Studies.  Sure, there are employers everywhere falling all over themselves to throw money at women's studies graduates, since they are in such high demand.  Actually, I am dripping with sarcasm as I wrote that first sentence.  In the real world, there are NO employers who would touch a women's studies diploma holder with a ten foot pole.  They are perceived as walking, talking sexual harassment lawsuits, waiting to descend with a God awful vengeance on whatever hapless employer stupidly hires them.

4.  Marine Biology.  Of course, every kid who ever had a pet turtle or goldfish, or ever watched an episode of Jacques Cousteau tells their parents that when they grow up, they want to become a marine biologist. Just like we all wanted to be ballet dancers as girls, or train engineers as boys.  Eventually, though, we grow up and know that those professions, while they exist, are few and far between and we get real jobs.  But not real, live marine biology graduates.  The only jobs for those guys are teaching other guys to be marine biology graduates, and even those are tough gigs to land.  Question: what is the most common question asked by a marine biology graduate these days?  Answer: 'would you like fries with that?'

5.  Archaeology.  Just like all kids who want to be marine biologists, when we started learning about dinosaurs, the first thing we did when we came home from school is tell mom and dad, 'when I grow up, I want to become an archaeologist.'  Sigh.  Ask all of those fifty three genuinely employed archaeologists, out on a dig in the middle of Montana, what they get paid for digging through a few tons of dirt with a toothbrush.  When they tell you $7/hour, don't visibly gasp, as it might hurt their feelings.  On the bright side, at least those 53 archaeologists are working.  The other 5 million archaeologist degree holders are still living in their parent's basement, playing Mortal Combat. 

6.  Law.  These are some of the saddest cases, these new law school grads, and especially the ones who passed their state's bar exam, and find that for every scummy little paralegal job opening that pays $20,000 a year, there are about a million unemployed new lawyers standing in line to get an application.  That, after they just coughed up about $150 Grand worth of expenses getting this jewel of a degree.  They should have taken note of all of those lawyer jokes they heard growing up.  Turns out, those jokes are not jokes.  They are all true. 

7.  Sociology.  Social work.  That is a magnet for all of the do-gooders in high school, who 'just want to help people.'  Oh, boy.  Where to start, where to start....first of all, these dreamers have to know that all jobs in social work pay almost nothing.  And some pay exactly that: nothing.  If you really want to help, your employer says, you will voluntarily do this for nothing and that will really, REALLY help (unsaid, it will mostly help keep the boss' payroll down).  Eventually, these dopes wise up and go get real jobs flipping burgers.

8.  Journalism.  It could be said that dumb ol' Fredd here is a journalist (although I was not dumb enough to get a degree in this stuff).  Sitting here, writing an article that is published on the World Wide Web.  And what kind of dough does Fredd pull down in payment for the crap, er I mean, material he publishes?  That's right: ZERO dollars.  And in the communications age, transfer of information is virtually free.  Accordingly, we all see print media struggling, newspapers going belly up, and what do these numbnuts do when considering a degree?  Journalism.  Doh!!

9.  Fashion Design.  For all of the girls in high school who were called 'clothes horses,' this is the degree for them as they know when they graduate, they will quickly develop a line of clothing named after them, such as Vera Wang, Johnnie Versaci, Calvin Klein and that gang.  With 500,000 fashion design degrees pumped out each year, and about 7 fashion design slots available, the simple math here suggests that the only fashion designing decisions these dumb degree holders will be doing is deciding which color of McDonald's name tag they will wear that day: Red, Yellow or Black.   Question: typically what material is the hat made of that a fashion design degree holder wears? Answer: paper.

10.  Performing Arts.  Or acting, as it used to be called.  Question: what is the main activity engaged in by those holders of a performing arts degree?  Answer: busing tables.  I lived in North Hollywood for a year or two way back when, and everybody I met had a script in their pocket: they either wrote it, or were studying lines in it, but everybody had a script.  In their back pocket, of course,  because they needed their hands free to wipe down counters, bus tables, flip burgers and wash shot glasses as they tended bar.  But they were all actors.  And they all had performing arts degrees.  As do most mimes, by the way...

Borrowing a fortune to buy a useless college degree

What do you call someone who borrows a virtual fortune to finance a college degree that isn't worth the paper that the diploma is printed on?  A college graduate?  An up and coming titan of industry?  A future pillar of the community?

Nope, none of the above.  At least, that's not what I would call these folks.  I would appropriately label these guys and gals as stupid morons.  You know, those college brainiacs who majored in any liberal arts degree such as journalism, film, photography, sociology, psychology, English, art history or a litany of other completely irrelevant and useless program that no reasonable profitable business owner has any use for whatsoever.

And to top off the bad choices that these morons (or, college graduates as some would call them) make is that they went into hock to the tune of upwards of $30,000 or even more to call themselves a college graduate.  It's one thing when Daddy and Mommy fork out the dough for little Sally to spend four years studying fashion design, and then end up working at Chick-fil-A for $7/hour.  But when little Sally obtains four or five student loans that hang around her neck for most of the rest of her life like golden chains around Mr. T's neck, that truly is a magnificent example of an absolutely horrific and terrible life choice.

This may be news to many college students: a college degree does not guarantee you a huge salary and cushy job for life.  It never was any kind of guaranty at any point in history.  Granted, in the past employers found that college graduates in business, engineering, science and other solid pursuits made excellent employees in the long run, and those who actually studied the Three R's (readin' ritin, and 'rithmatic) had a leg up over those dimmer grads who chose to take pictures, study pictures and critique pictures while they piled up student debt up to their eyeballs.

And now we see a swarm of unemployable fine arts and journalism graduates down on Wall Street demanding that their student loans be forgiven, while carrying signs that blame their woes on all of those fat cat bankers.  Yes, you know those evil guys and gals in the suits, the guys and gals who studied business and finance in college rather than film.  Those guys.  They are the ones responsible for liberal arts major Sally's troubles, and why life has passed her by, or at least according to little brainiac Sally. 

This is so wrong on so many levels. 

You know what I call a liberal arts degree holder who can't even get a job at McDonalds in order to start repayment of their $30,000 student loans?  A college graduate, you say?  No.  I call them a burden on society, a moron and a hopeless idiot.    

Obama is right, for once: 'Republicans want dirtier air and dirtier water.'

President Obama is correct: the GOP condones more economic activity, during which the process of this activity marginally increases pollutants that are an external cost and are unavoidable consequences of all productive human efforts.  As considered from an economic point of view, both Republicans AND Democrats should want dirtier air and dirtier water.  Well, perhaps minuscule increases in air and water pollution, but it is inarguable: more economic activity produces more pollutants.  And as a nation, we all accept certain levels of pollution as the cost of a prospering and growing population. 

Of course, as an economic ignoramus, Barack Obama has no clue that there are certain unavoidable externalities that must ensue given increased economic activity.  No clue at all.  Taken to an extreme, Obama's position would be that Democrats are against emitting one single additional molecule of pollution into the country's air or water.  The only way that this position is achievable is if we stop any and all additional efforts to increase production of any product whatsoever.  This position of Obama's also assumes that the existing production of energy and goods is OK, that the pollution from our current levels of production are perfectly fine, and that cutting back on production would be even more acceptable.  In other words, Democrats support stagnation or atrophy as it pertains to the GNP of the U.S. economy.

Of course this position is ludicrous on its face.  But the dimwits who listen to Obama and Democrats eat this up, and in particular the tree hugging environmental movement types, who ultimately would be perfectly happy if a diminished number of cave dwellers simply lived like we did in the good ol' days, in our cold, damp caves with no cars, no washing machines and no electricity.  And that would entail that of the 300 plus million Americans currently residing within the boundaries of the U.S., perhaps 90% of them need to go away, leaving presumably the 10% of the remaining population (the 'good' percentage) to inhabit the country and live off the land, free from pollution and filth.  Sounds like paradise on earth to me.

And of course, that eventuality is a non-starter as well, but it epitomizes the Left's world view to a large extent: seeking a non-existent utopia that dwells in unison with Mother Earth, or Gaia, with no wants, needs or fears, and one that provides only peace and love for everybody.  Everybody, that is, except the other 90% of us who 'went away,' and the tree huggers choose not to explain what would need to happen to that 90% 'extra population' that Gaia could not support.  To these arrogant extremist environmentalists, all that matters is that most of us (especially conservatives and Republicans) simply 'go away,' and leave the country to them and their vegan and pure ways. 

You bet the Republicans want dirtier air and dirtier water: a certain degree of pollution is unavoidable and indeed acceptable in a thriving, growing economy.   I would vote for dirtier air and dirtier water every time it comes up on the ballot.

And it will be coming up on the ballot in November, 2012.  Vote for dirtier air and dirtier water.

It's the 'Right' thing to do.

The "Occupy" mobs nothing more than a 'Cargo Cult.'

This unorganized rabble we all see yelling into bullhorns about the evils of capitalism, the banking industry, and western civilization in general can be categorized as a cult.  More specifically, a ‘cargo cult.’  They have seen the success of the hated Tea Party, whose efforts have changed the political landscape and swung the pendulum of popular sentiment significantly to the right of center.

 These mobs want to effect the same degree of change that they all saw the Tea Party achieve, although in the opposite direction, and ignorantly assume that if enough people show up and make noise, their cause will be served.  Their largest shortcoming is their complete and utter lack of understanding of how the Tea Party got the victories they did.  They are clueless, but perservere in their mimicking of Tea Party rallies, when in reality they are stupidly stumbling around aping Tea Party tactics with no real understanding of how to effectively forward their agenda, which is to bring chaos to the existing system that has left them behind.

 If you are not familiar with the term 'cargo cult,' it refers to the primitive native peoples in the Pacific Islands and remote areas whose territories were pressed into service during WWII to service the U.S. Pacific Fleet, in addition to the Japanese Imperial Navy. These native people would watch as these foreigners (both Japanese and American troops) moved in, and subsequently build landing strips and control towers. Then as if by magic, planes would appear from the heavens and land on these strips full of food, water, supplies, gasoline, clothing, etc. Much of it would be distributed to the indigenous populations in addition to serving the war effort.

 After the war ended, these foreigners left, and so did all of their goodies. Not wanting to interrupt this gravy train, the natives would ape the behaviors of those foreigners in hopes of making the magic planes arrive again. They would build bamboo 'control towers,' clear rudimentary, crude 'landing strips' out of the jungle, and talk into crude 'microphones', hoping that this behavior would entice the goodies to reappear, but in reality they had absolutely no understanding of the actual nature of where all these goodies came from. They had to assume it came from out of the sky, (presumably from the 'gods' ). These cults persisted in mimicking these behaviors for years and in some cases decades after the shipments ended.

And the ‘Occupy’ fools are stupidly doing the exact same thing as these ignorant Pacific island natives: they are completely devoid of any understanding of how the Tea Party resonated with voters.  Specifically, the Occupy mobs are unaware that the Tea Party had rock solid principles that it rallied around: less government spending, less confiscatory taxation, smaller government and adherence to the Constitution of the United States. 

The occupy mobs have only their ‘rock solid’ principles of: lay in bed until noon, smoke marijuana until their throats are sore, and demand that money be provided to them in perpetuity to further their slovenly lifestyles.  These are principles that are held by only a small handful of stupid hippies, of whom all pay homage to their spiritual leaders Cheech and Chong, and this worst type of sloth will never, ever gain any support from the voting public whatsoever.

And yet these idiots continue to ape the Tea Party, and expect the same manner of change, but it will never come.  Just like those cargo cult Pacific Islanders continue to wait by their crude landing strips and man their bamboo control towers, hoping that their efforts will entice the goodies from the skies to appear again, as it did in the good old days. 

Filthy, pathetic hippies infest Wall Street

This mob of hippies' petulant infestation of Wall Street may make for great photo ops, sound bites and generate some media interest, but it will mostly generate garbage like their fore bearers always did at these protests, and garner resentment and ill-will from most of the public.

The garbled message that we get from this leaderless rabble seems to be 'these fat cats Wall Street bastards have money, and we don't.  Give it to us.'

Or at least that seems to be the message I am getting from this mob.  They have been raised by their irresponsible Gen-X parents to value self esteem over accomplishment, and they are demanding that the responsible people working in the corporate environs hand them over cold hard cash, simply because they are alive and breathing in the U.S. of A.

Sorry, hippies. Ain't gonna happen.

Sooner or later you all will grow up, and find out that if you want some of that money that these Wall Streeter's have, you'll have to shave, shower and cover up your tattoos, remove your earrings and get hair cuts.  Additionally, you'll actually need some sort of resume that an employer might be interested in, with actual accomplishments: like holding a minimum wage job for more than a week. 

I know, I know: your self esteem will suffer.  Having to flip burgers and be nice to customers.  Yes, I know this is too degrading to even consider.

Well, welcome to the NFL.  Life is tough, and nobody owes you a living.  Despite what your useless parents told you.

Get a job, you smelly stupid hippies.  Nothing you do on Wall Street in the next week, or month, or year will make any difference in your life.  You are not standing up for right versus wrong, for good versus evil.  You just want to steal the goodies from those so-called fat cats up in those office buildings.  Those people up there are the responsible ones.  The ones who shower, dress neatly, keep their noses to the grindstone and respect authority. In other words, they play by the rules.  And you don't.

Just get a job, take a shower and shut up.

You useless human debris.