4.01.2009

It's April Fools day, right?

Evidence:
At what point do the people tell the politicians to go to hell? At what point do they get off the couch, march down to their state legislator’s house, pull him outside, and beat him to a bloody pulp for being an idiot? [...]

If the GOP plays its cards right, it will have a winning issue in 2010. But it is going to have to get back to “leave me the hell alone” style federalism where the national government recedes and the people themselves will have to fight to take their states back from special interests out of touch with body politic as a whole.

Were I in Washington State, I’d be cleaning my gun right about now waiting to protect my property from the coming riots or the government apparatchiks coming to enforce nonsensical legislation.
The issue that will result in the coming revolution? Dishwashing detergent.

Evidence:
Now, here’s the rub. There is one way that windmills can be integrated onto the grid. That is to pair them with natural gas turbines. Gas turbines are different from ordinary electrical boilers in that they do not produce steam to turn the turbines. The exhaust gases drive the turbines directly. That gives them a big advantage in following load. They can be started, stopped, and adjusted almost instantly. With a coal plant or a gas boiler, on the other hand, it may take 45 minutes before they can get up to speed.

Gas turbines have mostly been used to this point to meet the “peak” demands that occur on hot summer afternoons. Utilities find it far too expensive to build major generators that may be used only a few weeks of the year. So they install gas turbines — essentially jet engines bolted to the ground — which are cheap to build but very expensive to operate because fuel is the major cost. That’s why, although natural gas constitutes 39 percent of our electrical generating capacity, it only provides 20 percent of our electricity — because the plants are only used when absolutely necessary.
I actually agree with the majority of a post on Planet Gore (all but the last three paragraphs where the William Tucker becomes an alarmist). I thought I'd never say such a thing.

Evidence:
To be clear, this is no ordinary budget. In a nutshell, the president and Democratic leaders in Congress are attempting to bring about the third and final great wave of progressivism, building on top of the New Deal and the Great Society. So America is placed in a special moment in our history -- brought about by the deep recession, Mr. Obama's ambitious agenda, and the pending fiscal tidal-wave of red ink brought forward by the looming insolvency of our entitlement programs. If this agenda comes to pass, it will mark this period in history as the moment America turned European.
Yurp? Now you got me scared! How will the Republicans save us from becoming just like those dirty Europeans?
- Spending. Our budget gives priority to national defense and veterans' health care. We freeze all other discretionary spending for five years, allowing it to grow modestly after that. We also place all spending under a statutory spending cap backed up by tough budget enforcement.
If that ever were to come to pass, we may as well give up on science in this country. Here's another good one:
- Energy. Our budget lays a firm foundation to position the U.S. to meet three important strategic energy goals: reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil, deploying more clean and renewable energy sources free of greenhouse gas, and supporting economic growth. We do these things by rejecting the president's cap-and-trade scheme, by opening exploration on our nation's oil and gas fields, and by investing the proceeds in a new clean energy trust fund, infrastructure and further deficit reduction.
Deploying more clean and renewable energy sources free of greenhouse gas by opening exploration on our nation's oil and gas fields.

Yeah, it's gotta be April 1.