Thursday, September 10, 2009

Ship of Fools


Organised Rage

"On reading of the young British Muslims who were found guilty of conspiring to murder countless hapless civilians as they crossed the Atlantic in commercial airplanes, I was struck by the similarities with what they intended to do and the way NATO is behaving in Afghanistan".



Penny Red lives in London. She doesn't get out much :

"The age when women had babies on everyone’s terms but theirs is dying"
Her "isn't it great that the Prime Minister is mentally ill ?" post romped home in the "With Friends Like These" stakes earlier today. She then repeats it at Liberal Conspiracy. I'm not sure they've got the hang of this 'cultural hegemony' thing.



British Muslims unite in solidarity after the disgusting murder (allegedly) by black schoolchildren of a Muslim grandfather in front of his three year old granddaughter (there has since been another attack - there were also some before the murder).

"Well done those black boys ! That's one less shia rawaafid beating his chest on the streets of tooting on december the 17th this year ."
The writer is a Sunni Muslim - he's referring to the Ashura processions and the practice of mataam. Poor Ekram Haque was a Shia Muslim.




All this individual craziness pales into insignificance beside collective insanity.

The UK may have to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by 90% by 2050 so the aviation sector can continue to grow. That is the warning from the government's official climate advisers, the Climate Change Committee (CCC).

It would mean even bigger cuts than the 80% drop on 1990 levels already planned for households and industry in Britain.

Our rulers are insane. 80% was in the realms of fantasy, now 90% ! I suppose one ridiculous figure is very like another. Why not go for 95 ?

The only way this could possibly happen is with a massive, unprecedented nuclear build - but we're closing all the plants and handing over any new build to foreigners. But the government's new energy guru, David Mackay, is looking forward to 'the industrialisation of large areas of countryside' in this BBC interview, as we cover the land with windfarms which won't work on still days, and Wales with hydro schemes. Were there any quick wins on hydro they'd have done the dams already. Scotland does have enough hydro to provide at least a decent chunk of its energy - but it'll be independent by then.

Buy generators and candles. We're going to need them.




9 comments:

JuliaM said...

"...there has since been another attack..."

Odd how this hasn't been front page news in the MSM...

Anonymous said...

Jeez...

I wish you hadn't linked to Pennie Red's blog.

Reading her stuff has given me a headache.

I hope it isn't apoplexy.

Anonymous said...

One way around some of the erratic power supply issues related to wind power would be the use of pumped storage schemes. I suppose it could apply to solar as well.

Put simply you use off-peak unused electric capacity to pump water uphill, then let it flow downhill at peak times to generate hydro-electric power, like a giant water battery.

As thats so obvious a useful fix, the govt has been busily expanding our pumped storage capacity. So much so that the latest example in the UK was activated as recently as...er...1984.

List here on wiki of our four, count 'em, pumped storage operations.

Anonymous said...

Ive had a look at Pen's blog.

Jeez.

I look at leftist blogs less and less now. I dont know whether to laugh or cry. These people are delusional.

I was going to leave a comment or two, but moderation is in place. Is it just me or do right wing blogs have a more liberal comments policy than left/liberal ones. Many right leaning blogs allow any comment to stand, those on the left seem to want logins or hold comments for moderation. Now why would that be? Somebody doesnt want to have to hear what we have to say methinks.

Weekend Yachtsman said...

"Scotland does have enough hydro to provide at least a decent chunk of its energy"

Reference?

I always thought we didn't, because basically we don't have enough big mountains. The countries that do have successful hydro are e.g. Norway and Switzerland - smaller populations and MUCH bigger hills.

Anon 10:29 Pumped storage is not a panacea. You need (again) suitable mountains and very large reservoirs on top of them. Do the math. It helps by supplying very fast short-term boosts but doesn't, and cannot, have enough capacity for baseload.

Nuclear is the ONLY way if you don't want to burn hydrocarbon fuels; at least, until photo-voltaics and suchlike get a lot better. And even they need sunshine.

But this whole 80% or more cut in CO2 thing is just gesture politics anyway. Reality will break through in the end. It has to, or we're headed back to the Stone Age.

JuliaM said...

"I look at leftist blogs less and less now. I dont know whether to laugh or cry. These people are delusional."

Well then, you certainly don't want to start reading any lefty feminist blogs... ;)

Anonymous said...

I wasnt arguing for pumped storage as a panacea, we gotta go nuclear asap. But it would help the overall energy situation. Both with regard to getting more utilty from our erratic friends wind & solar and as regards coal fired electricity which cant be flicked on & off efficiently - unlike nuclear or gas.

Dont worry WY, Im Mr. Born Again nuclear power enthusiast!

Anonymous said...

I checked out that blog Julia, I used to read more of that sort of stuff when I first discovered blogs and when I was still of a liberal bent.

Now it just seems like a lot of pointless drivel. Its funny that feminist blogging drivel doesnt seem any the less than non-feminist blogging drivel. The kind of issues Ithat engage me just dont seem to come up on those sites.

Sorry if Ive offended any laydeez!

Anonymous said...

Julia - Ive tried commenting at AROOM or whatever its called and quel surprise my comments have failed to survive moderation.

Way to go with the feminist echo chamber laydeez! No need to have any tiresome dissenting thoughts intrude from the outside world.