Random thoughts on the debate last night.
Yes, I know you're all sick of the political posts. I'm really trying to not let it all out at you all (hmm, let me diagram that sentence, better yet I shouldn't try it).
Boy, McCain is going for the low road.
Nuclear power is environmentally friendly? Really? Sure, you tell that to the residents around Yucca Mountain, NV. They have nothing to worry about. It's environmentally friendly. We'll be burying the equivalent of daffodils and forget-me-nots deep in the ground, under a mountain that has been reinforced, and lined. Nothing to worry about. I know some of my friends are very pro-nuclear power, and I am a little bit, but I don't condone lying about it. Nuclear power emits fewer (in quantity and types of) greenhouse gases, much less and fewer. However the hot water effluent causes problems. The chemicals used in the process cause problems (and are highly toxic). And the radioactive waste (spent fuel, coolant, contaminated metals and materials, by processes of the refining of the fuel, etc) spans the gamut of "slightly worrying" to "wear a lead suit" (some radiation is worse than other radiation, ie. gamma and beta emiters, also things vary in RADs).
Obama told his own whoopers. I think on balance though, McCain takes the award for slinging the BS. Here's FactCheck.org's take on it.
Also, McCain likes to tout how he's been tested, a direct reference to his being a POW. You all have caught on to the fact that McCain was a POW in Vietnam, right? How could you miss it? So, let's look at that. McCain broke. He offered to tape a confession. To be fair, he wasn't in the best physical condition. But if that's what you're pointing to as the shining example of service, it doesn't measure up all that far.
Also, whenever any of the candidates (although it's mostly McCain and Palin) talk about sending so much money to "countries that don't like us very much" (as a dis against Saudi Arabia and other Middle East places) I normally shout out, "Damn those Canadians" in my best "Kahn!" voice. This is not as a dis to my Canadian friends ::waves to those of you above the border:: but more as a counter to the fact that we receive very little oil form "those that don't like us." If you start removing "those that hate the current administration but love America" the number gets even smaller. I haven't done the math from the latest figures, but from what I remember, only one quarter (or less) goes to the Middle East. Unless we want to talk about how the UK and Russia don't like us all that much any more. Also, we are nominally allies with all the countries that import oil (the most notable "exception" being Venezuela and Hugo Chavez, who BTW for the past six years has been giving some US families free heating oil. Certainly an insidious attempt to foment radicals and revolution).
Less than a month to go. I wonder if we'll make it? Or my head might explode.
2 comments:
I'm thinking no one's going to venture into commenting on a polital post, so it's safe to park here for a while and kick my shoes off. I'm what's called a Pareto-Libertarian/Socialist. 80% Libertarian and 20% socialist. Zoe Winters says that such a diametrically opposed mixture of political views might cause insansity, but we've already met and you can probably guess that there's not much room in my brain for either sanity or insanity.
I'm for a third party with some weight behind it. We badly need one so that we don't go back and forth between Democrats and Republicans for all eternity.
Now, I'm off to put sugar on my sugarfree cereal.
No worries, Rick. Me casa es su casa as it were.
A third party would certainly help, unfortunately at this time there's no party coming from the middle, they're all around the fringes and pick off the unwary.
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