Hare-brained Schemes

For the title today. I'm borrowing an old pejorative label on some development ideas of Nikita Khrushchev that were colossal flops in the old Soviet Union. This label fits perfectly the endless stream of "ideas" the Greenies put forth as "solutions" for alternative energy. Here's the recent list:

Solar - uh, what do you do at night for energy ? Or in the long, cloudy winters ? The fundamental physics imposes huge limits, too.

Wind - what do you do when the wind doesn't blow ? The landscape is spoiled, birds massacred and the economics don't work, either.

Hydrogen - that was W's big "idea". But where do you get the hydrogen ? Of course, there are no hydrogen mines, as this element is not found in any significant quantities in its molecular state on earth.

Switch Grass - that is, cellulosic ethanol. No viable plant or process exists to produce ethanol from switch grass (which is a fast growing grass). And you have the problem of land: whose land gets taken for production of huge quantities.

Now we have "carbon sequestration". The green crackpots now want to pump carbon dioxide deep into the earth to "store" it. So energy comes from coal, and somehow the carbon dioxide is captured and pumped into storage places deep underground.

Of course, the carbon dioxide is emitted widely and not in the places that it would be stored. How do you get it there ? And how do you capture it, anyway ? Separate that gas from all the other smoke from the smokestacks of industry.

And how is that gas kept deep underground ? I remember reading of an accident where it escaped and flooded a community, killing many people by asphyxiation. And even if is doesn't escape catastrophically, what if in a hundred years, the gas begins to seep out ? Then instead of stopping its increase abundance in the atmosphere, the world will have a double problem.

The greenies refuse to consider burying a SOLID GLASS BLOCK containing nuclear waste underground in dry caverns. Now they propose pumping huge quantities of a GAS underground and say it's safe ? What thumping tosh !

These are really all part of a "bait & switch" by the greenie ideologists, who will always find flaws just before any scheme begins to go into practice. They really want to forceably revert mankind to the medieval village standard of life and be the lords of the manor over all of us serfs, approving anything we do.

Solution: Chuck the greenies over. Build nuclear power and use more natural gas to replace imported oil. Use coal.

Humans don't cause global warming anyway. That computer-based theory doesn't fit the facts at all in any detail. It's just garbage-in, garbage-out. They can make those models dance to almost any tune they wish, but can't even get an intermediate term temperature downturn right with all the data current.

Actions

As the market firmed yesterday on news of Warren Buffet's purchase of Burlington Northern railroad, I started looking for buys. A commentor reminded me of the old Obama Fund stock, CX, which I purchased as it has good profit potential for a speculation. I also started a position in December call options on the S&P 500. I bought 1/4 of my planned size that will put me back at 300% long effectively. Often the market is volatile around a Fed day, so I'm waiting to buy more. This is a play on a rally after the jobs number Friday, which I expect to show some improvement.

Word of the Day

"Trope" - noun [$10]
Trope means a figurative (e. g. metaphorical or ironical) use of a word.
Sentence: This blog commonly uses the trope of "hogs" to refer to highly paid CEOs and other in the executive suite. It fits rather well, and is quite visual, and aural, too.