Huh... I always thought you lived somewhere in the U.K. I'm honestly not sure why I made that assumption....Grok wrote:I live in Seattle
As promised...moonshadow wrote:There is much in your [Dillon's] comment I'd like to discuss, but it will have to wait until I get on the dinosaur (my old desktop) with a proper keyboard.
Yeah, that sounds nice. I'm not really well studied on much of the subject matter here, but I'm not overly concerned about any notion of "one world government" provided that government is laid in the interest of individual liberty. But mainly I'm really not concerned with it, mainly for the reason that I don't see it happening in my lifetime anyway, so I just never gave it a lot of thought. Hell, it's all we can do now just to keep the U.S. from escalating into another civil war at this point, it's no time to start planning a unified world government!dillon wrote:I’m proudly globalist because I see the multitude of ways the US, and world as a whole, benefits from mutually-affirming international relationships, and understand that a certain amount of give and take is necessary. It isn’t about one country winning and another losing; a high tide lifts all boats. And few of the isolationists I have known have had any international experience aside from military deployments, and that environment doesn’t lend itself to encouraging either human compassion or thoughtful objectivity. In other words, I don’t see shithole countries; I see shithead politicians, fawning fools, and superficial sycophants.
Agree with the first part, not so much the second. We get nowhere by bickering. Civility and respectful behavior are always appropriate. It's the constant bickering that's destroying the fabric of our culture and making it impossible to work towards any progress whatsoever. I will admit, our current administration seems to delight in instigating this unrest, I'm not sure if it's intentional, or just his nature, the former is downright scary (why is he doing this?), the latter is easier to swallow, but it doesn't speak much for the man's character if that's the case.Too, the planet is in such dire straits at this time that we cannot afford to indulge inaction just because the powerful tell us that we’re supposed to be “respectful” to a petty and reckless demagogue.
I recall a push for a windfarm along some mountains in Roanoke County that were met with fierce resistance from local "environmental groups". Reasons for objecting were as you mentioned, shredding birds, cancer, and the "flicker effect" of turbines in the sun/moon light causing problems. It was at that point I realized that many environmentalist are just a bunch of damned hypocrites!I drove past hundreds of wind turbines today, slowly turning, producing electricity from the energy that God placed right in front of us, and recalled hearing our relentlessly lying POTUS claiming that these graceful giants, like slow motion ballerinas in pirouette en pointe, were unsightly, that they caused cancer and shredded birds into confetti. I marveled at how anyone who had seen mountaintop-removal strip-mining in Appalachia could find wind turbines unsightly.
The fact is, the Roanoke valley is a hipster trendy area with thousands of New England transplants that wanted a taste of southern life without having to travel to the "deep south". Virginia is just progressive enough to pass for them. And then when someone proposed a windfarm... oh no no no... NOT IN MY BACKYARD!
Funny, you don't have to travel too far west, just a hundred miles down I81 and about 50 miles along U.S. 58 into the coal fields to see where these "environmentalist" power comes from. Of course these people don't live in far southwestern Virginia/eastern Kentucky, they can't see the big strip mine from atop Black Mountain from where they live (Kentucky's highest elevation)... so what the hell do they care...? These Tesla's running up and down the road locally are running on coal power. We tried to build renewable plants, but nooooooo!! "NOT IN MY BACKYARD!"
The joke's on them though... since we are west of central Virginia, guess which way they weather blows all those byproducts of our coal burning power plants....? Enjoy your acid rain Roanoke valley hipsters!
Now all my cynical joking aside, I wonder about the future of fusion power. I'm not a scientist or really up to date on the pros and cons, but from what few tidbits I've read here and there, I feel like it might be the future. Wind and solar have their drawbacks, fusion is basically the same type of energy generation that powers the sun. If we can figure it out without blowing a massive hole in the side of the Earth... maybe?
I don't despise you. I consider you a friend. As for labels, you'll always be "Dillon" to me.Despise me if it pleases you but don’t expect me to wear a label for anyone’s inability to sort me neatly into a cubbyhole.