Corn rows in New York

On our recent trip through New York, I was pleasantly surprised to see a whole bunch of corn growing everywhere. I was a little surprised because I don't remember seeing so many corn farms in the past, but I also haven't driven through New York much. This was our third time, and the first time during the Summer.

I thought, "Wow, New York must have a really great climate for growing corn."

My thoughts were all rosy as I continued to see corn patch after corn patch, that is, until I made a comment out loud about them, and Ken pointed out that they were probably being subsidized and would eventually be made into ethanol.

My thoughts turned acidic. Ethanol. One of the most foolish and least compassionate of all alternative fuels. It is bad enough that farmers are paid not to grow corn and wheat.

NOW, to add insult to injury, the government is not only encouraging farmers to grow corn with another subsidy, but it then gives tax incentives to farmers to turn it into a fuel to burn. Burning food has never been wise. Burning food that isn't even an efficient fuel, and produces more carbon monoxide than gasoline, is the insult.

Other countries (like Brazil) use sugarcane as their source for ethanol. I don't think that is as insulting as corn, because you can't really eat sugar - well it does not sustain life at least.

So why is there such a big push for corn ethanol in the United States? Could it be huge agriculture lobbyists? What else would promote such a silly fuel? Beats me.

And the final argument against corn ethanol. Food prices. Food prices rose at an unprecedented rate last year, thanks to the high demand of burning food as fuel. Poorer countries quickly found it difficult to pay the higher prices, and more people went hungry than would have if the government kept its nose out of foolish fuel production. The key word being foolish.

I am all for wise fuel production, as I have stated and restated several times before. But once again I have to resort to the same conclusion I have come to before; Until we find a way for the government to make a lot of money from the Sun, free energy - solar energy - will never be the erergy source being subsidized by the government.

Constitutional right to life

The United States Constitution states in the fifth ammendment that "no person shall... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of the law."

The fourteenth amendment restates once again: "nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."

No one is going to argue that we all deserve the right to life. Until, that is, you start talking about the unborn.

I have no idea how so many people skipped that concept in their minds when they decided that a woman's right to privacy somehow trumped the baby's right to life. Where is compassion? Where is the respect of law?

I am not an idiot, I know there are certain circumstances that justify an abortion.

That said, I still don't understand how it is constitutionally legal to take a child's life even before they have a chance to make a case for themselves.

In my view, this is the ultimate form of oppression - whole generations have been denied the simplest, most basic right - to LIFE. Their cries can't ever be heard, so they are ignored, relegated to nonexistence because of their silence.

PIAXP April 2009 Registered Teams B-Roll Footage

I have been following the competition to build mass production ready vehicles that meet or exceed 100mpg. Last month the competitors were announced and here is a great youtube video about the competition. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IpG5hbY4WI

Electric Ford Focus

Ford announced today that it will be transforming an existing plant in Michigan into an Electric Ford Focus plant. Here is the article I saw from the New York Times.

May 6, 2009, 3:41 pm

Ford Truck Plant to Build Electric Cars

By Nick Chambers

Amidst one of the auto industry’s largest wholesale shifts in modern history, the Ford Motor Company is investing $550 million to turn a factory that was dedicated to making large and fuel-hungry sport utility vehicles into a modern and scalable small-car plant that will eventually produce an all-electric version of the Focus.

The Michigan Assembly Plant, known as one of the world’s most profitable manufacturing sites during the S.U.V. boom of the 1990s, was once the hub for the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator. The plant is expected to begin building the new Ford Focus next year, followed by production of the all-electric Focus in 2011.

The electric Focus will be Ford’s first all-electric passenger car for the mass market. In addition to the electric Focus, the company plans to sell an electric version of its Transit Connect commercial vehicle in 2010.

Ford has previously promised that they will deliver four new electric vehicles to the American market by 2012.

“The transformation of the Michigan Assembly Plant embodies the larger transformation under way at Ford,” said Ford’s president and chief executive, Alan Mulally, in a statement. “This is about investing in modern, efficient and flexible American manufacturing. It is about fuel economy and the electrification of vehicles.”

The electric Focus is part of a larger strategy announced by Ford in January to develop electric vehicles for North America quickly using its global reach and capability to keep the cars affordable.

In addition to the Michigan Assembly Plant, Ford is retooling two other factories to build new cars in the face of global market changes. The company’s Cuautitlán Assembly plant in Mexico is slated to begin building the new Fiesta subcompact early next year, and its Louisville Assembly plant in Kentucky is also expected to begin producing small vehicles based on the Focus platform beginning in 2011.

“We’re changing from a company focused mainly on trucks and SUVs to a company with a balanced product lineup that includes even more high-quality, fuel-efficient small cars, hybrids and all-electric vehicles,” said Mark Fields, Ford’s president of the Americas. “As customers move to more fuel-efficient vehicles, we’ll be there with more of the products they really want.”



Is this really happening? Are my dreams since I was 12 finally coming true? There are still two or three years before Ford is promising these cars to customers, and that seems to have been the case for the last decade. Two years are better than ten.

I love electric

I finally got to take a look at this custom electric car. It is a racer, and is so fast!

I am not really a racing fan, but watching this Datsun beat fancy BMWs and Corvettes was really entertaining.

Jump-Starting The Electric Car Dream

Jump-Starting The Electric Car Dream

I read this news article about the Company: Better Place.
I have written about this company before, it started in Isreal, the selling of "miles for a car, like minutes for a cell phone."

Apparently other governments in Denmark and Hawaii are jumping on the bandwagon and building charging stations for 20K ekectric plug-in cars. Where is America in the line? No where. A few cities like the idea, but not the country in general. Where are our brains?

I know electric cars aren't as cool as solar, and electricity has to be generated from something. But I think this idea is going in the right direction - oil independance.

fuel our future now

I found a fun website geared towards teaching our children about alternative energy for cars. Here is the link to the website.
http://www.fuelourfuturenow.com/

I hope it is helpful and fun!

I edited my post, "The Effects of Pornography on our Rights as Women

View my edited version here : The Effects of Pornography on our Rights as Women.

Battery electric vehicle from Toyota

New CONCEPT vehicle from Toyota

This is a BEV- a battery electric vehicle, able to drive up to 50 miles a charge, and up to 70 mph.

This kind of car is really great for commuters, and for people like me, I rarely drive more than 15 miles away in a day.

I was really excited as I read about it on Toyota's website - excited that is, until I read that it is a CONCEPT vehicle, and won't be available until 2012! What is wrong?

It is like a car already being sold in Europe and Japan, why not here? What is wrong with Toyota? Now is the time for such a vehicle to be sold in the US. NOW! I don't get it, how long do we have to wait for progress?

I wonder what is holding them back, is it Toyota themselves, or maybe the US government?

If you would like to explore the new Toyota CONCEPT vehicle (I am SICK of concept vehicles) click on this link.

The technology has been around long enough, actually, cars like this have been around for a long time, and are being offered for sale right now online. What is taking Toyota and other mainstream automakers so long?

It's time the US started charging for Sunlight

Well, since we are in another space race, this time with China, I think it is about time America claimed the sun, and started charging for sunlight before someone else does. That way we might actually get somewhere in the solar arena.

It seems plain to me that the main reason solar cars aren't available on the market is because no one will make much money fueling the cars once they have been purchased. Bummer. Maybe we could be energy independent as a nation then! And we could stop waging war for oil. That would be bad, I guess, since that isn't a priority on anyone's political agenda.

Does anyone know of a sun resistant material we could make a flag out of and send to the Sun?

The Affects of Pornography on our Rights as Women.

Women in America fought a long time to achieve the right to Vote and the right to own property. Having been simply objects of possession, tools and entertainments to men it was quite the turnaround. It took so long to get where we are today. We have the right to go to school, to pursue college and graduate degrees - as far as we have the inclination, and funding. We can own our own businesses, our own houses.

We continue to fight the long fight for equality in the workforce and in normal day to day interactions. Most women in the workforce and at home feel like they are treated with respect. There are some professions where this is integrally not the case - the military where respect is absent peried- women are scarce and the realities of war harden the average man. But on a large scale, women are recognized and treated with a high level of equality socially, in the workforce, and in the home.

However, there is an new trend. This trend results from the proliferation of pornography acted out by those who use it and our ever increasing sex obsessed society. Without professional expertise, I rely on what I have witnessed in the behavior of those around me or seen in the media. My eyes are open and I have intelligence enough to notice that the more a person consumes pornography, the less likely they are to hold women in any sort of esteem. Peole who use pornography devalue any contribution in thought or action by woman, except of course if it is sensual. The more deeply involved in pornography, the less they value women as people - at home, at work, anywhere, and the more they view women as objects, without intelligence, without respectability. This is a return to the status women held less than forty years ago as passive, worthless, entertainment.

In the media pornography is portrayed as something "that men do." It is no big deal, no one is getting hurt by it. And now, as time has passed, normal day to day people are beginning to believe the lie. Nothing could be so opposite of how it is shown to be. It is amazing how blatant the lies are. On the sitcom, "Friends" the men were known to view pornography, and it was laughed at in disgust, but laughed at nonetheless. This casual use of pornography had no visible side affects on TV. There is no mention made of the destruction of the user's ability to love in a healthy and normal way.

What are the women like on TV? Are they treated with respect? Are they strong and are they making a positive impact in the world? No, the only way to get good ratings is to have hardly anything on, and sleep with anyone who smiles at or hits them.

For those women who act the parts of pornography, or who promote it, or allow it to continue in ignorance of the reality; "Do you really want to derail our progress in this world as women? We have come so far. Look beyond yourselves and open your eyes to what you threaten our daughters with." As pornography spreads throughout our society and the world on the Internet, filling the pockets of villainous vultures, think what that will do to our Civilization, to our hard-won rights as women.

The disrespect towards women I have witnessed has only been on the personal level. Imagine the consequences on a national scale. I have no doubt this is exactly what our daughters will face in just a few years: scorn and objectification once again, only worse, because our sons will remember our current level of equality and opportunity and grind their faces with the memory.

Smart Car

Smart Car Website

Last year I saw  a Smart Car on the road for the first time. I was so excited, I went home and looked it up on the internet, because I had only read about it cursorily. I thought it might be an electric vehicle, but I didn't remember exactly. So I looked it up, and was not too surprised that it is run by gasoline, but I was surprised when I read it's gas mileage: 33 city/41 highway mpg. I was shocked. Someone had obviously gone to a lot of trouble to buy that car. It's not easy to get, you have to order it, and wait a long time, and it isn't cheap. But I wondered why they had gotten it. For it's size, the fuel economy was outrageous. Horrible! My van is at least four times that size, and it gets about 16 MPG. That is not a good mileage, I know, it rankles. Back to my point, though, I would think that a vehicle 1/4 the size of my van would get at least as good mileage- comparatively, but even if it was as efficient as my van, it would get around 64 MPG. If my van were as inefficient as the smart car, it would get about 8 MPG.

So, basically, I think anyone who buys this car is being tricked. Personally, I think it wouldn't be that difficult to get the mpg on a vehicle this small and light up near 100 MPG. I am just sizzling with frustration at our "Green" options. 

Seven-part anti-pornography series reported by the LDS Church News

» Part 1: March 3 — In your family?    » Part 2: March 10 — Protecting homes from pornography    » Part 3: March 17 — Young and trapped    » Part 4: March 24 — Dual relationship with family, fantasy    » Part 5: March 31 — Finding recovery from porn addiction    » Part 6: April 14 — Fight to stop porn    » Part 7: April 21 — Defending the home against pornography

Hurray for Plug - In's

Whooppee, this is what I have been waiting for since I was 12, electric cars being widely used and promoted. I saw a news article about Steve Bernheim finding places to plug in his Corbin Sparrow in Edmonds, Washington. Of course it was Washington! Washingtonians are very energy conscious:).

Goodbye for now, we are making sugar cookies for Halloween.

The Unpopular history of Feminism, and the Danger of Porn

I feel so inspired to assert myself in my civil duty. It is because of an inspiring article on the history of feminism- an unpopular history. My eyes have been opened to what is truly influential in affecting change in our society, and since there are many things I could wish were different in our society, I want to start trying to influence some change! Here is a link to the article, a well written report calling women to be more active in changing our world. So, here we go.

I would like to bring people around me, especially women, to a higher awareness of the dangers of pornography. Pornography is not innocent entertainment, and I hardly think anyone considers it so, however, there are many who don't see it for what it is: a bomb, a tidal wave of immeasurable proportions, a tsunami, a force of ill-nature so broad it threatens our whole world, especially the women, for we are the ones who feel the brunt of the force of this ill-nature.

There are many who view it as unwise, distasteful, unpleasant, but not dangerous. To any who think that pornography is somehow acceptable, you are seriously deceived. Carefully deceived. Even deliberately deceived.

Please open your eyes to the addictive qualities of pornography. Please open your eyes to the heartbreak it creates in families. Please open your eyes to all the news articles printed every day about violence and abuse afflicted on women and children - and the perpetrators blame their pornography addictions for their actions.
Viewing pornography alters anyone who watches it - eventually people start to act out the sickness of what they see, and, disappointed, the next step is violation of others either in or out of their own family. For pornography is a lie - a trick that changes a natural loving relationship into insatiable and uncontrolled lust - lust that is impossible to satisfy - because it is a lie. Just like a drug addiction, someone hooked on pornography seeks out larger doses of their drug because their senses become dulled over time. The person seeks larger and larger doses until there is nothing left but an animal, worse, a predator of the vilest kind.
Pornography consumption is so rampant that I believe if it goes unchecked, the illness, the mental derangement of addicts will become a danger to us all.

Just do it, and get out of the way.

I am really excited about the Pickens plan. Can you tell? I think his plan can actually work. Here is a funny quote from an interview this week.
"If only we had a Congress and president who, instead of chasing crazy schemes like offshore drilling and releasing oil from our strategic reserve, just sat down with Boone and Shai and asked one question: “What laws do we need to enact to foster 1,000 more like you?” Then just do it, and get out of the way. "
Shai is an Israeli electric car maker who was also interviewed. I like him! He has a unique company that has, (or will have,) electric cars available like cell phones - except you buy miles a month rather than minutes. I don't exactly get it. But it sounds promising. If you would like to read the whole article click: here.

My take on the Pickens Plan

The previous two posts are about a plan to lower our use of foreign oil. I am so excited about it. It could really work!! T Boone Pickens has a great idea to develop wind to replace natural gas used to make electricity, and in turn use the natural gas to fuel more cars. This would save us $700 billion spent on foreign oil in ONE YEAR! That is amazing. He is also pushing for the real development of all alternative energy sources. This is exciting to me, though I am absolutely repulsed by the development of nuclear energy. That is the one thing I disagree with in his plan. But, since this is the first effort anyone is making to actually move forward rationally at all in our energy policies, I am enthusiastic. I couldn't be more delighted, actually.
I hope anyone who reads about this will look into the matter for themselves. I think the rationale is self-evident. Please, lets do our part to have righteous dominion over our earth, our home.

Pickens plan encapsulated

Texas oil tycoon sees answer blowin' in the wind
BY T. BOONE PICKENS SPECIAL TO THE NEWS
Saturday, July 19th 2008, 12:25 PM
Most New Yorkers remember the old national debt clock in Times Square. It ticked upward every second to show how deep in debt our country was growing - to awaken Americans to a crisis.
We've got an even greater problem now, with consequences far more significant: Our dangerous and growing dependence on foreign oil, an issue that will require us to spend $700 billion this year, which is more than four times the cost of the Iraqi war.
Like many of you, I ignored the telltale signs as our imports of foreign oil grew from 24% in 1970 to 42% in 1990 to 70% today.
With only 4% of the population and 3% of the world's oil reserves, we now consume 24% of the world's oil.
We have had three years of record oil price increases. And while oil supply is decreasing, demand will only increase as developing nations consume more oil. Which will drive prices even higher.
We have drifted for decades without an energy plan. We cannot afford to wait any longer.
Here's my plan to reduce America's foreign oil imports by more than one-third in the next decade.
It starts with wind. Wind is 100% domestic, 100% renewable and 100% clean. In the middle part of our country from Texas to the Canadian border, we have some of the world's largest wind reserves. Using private investment in wind farms, we can tap that power and create 22% of the nation's electricity.
Wind energy can replace the natural gas we currently use to fuel our power plants to create electricity. We can then use that freed-up natural gas for transportation. Natural gas is cleaner, cheaper and better than gasoline, and it's found in abundance in the U.S.
At the same time, I also want to see us explore all avenues, from more R&D into batteries and fuel cells to development of solar, ethanol and more conservation. We should also consider drilling in the outer continental shelf.
It may seem simple, but these three steps would displace more than one-third of our foreign oil imports and get us to our goal. My plan can be accomplished through private investment with no new consumer or corporate taxes or government regulation.
We have a golden opportunity in this election year to build support for this plan. We can solve this one - if we come together and take on the responsibility of change.
Pickens, a life-long Texas oilman, is chief executive officer of BP Capital. Learn more about his ideas at www.pickensplan.com

The global food crisis and its causes

Another article from AEI about the global food crisis. I share in the frustration of biofuel. But I was surprised to see that Biofuel production is only incraesing food costs by 20 percent. The other causes are trade restrictions, and the inflation of the dollar(he hem, please refer to my entry on Jan 08 08 about the hegemony of the dollar). There are more, but I can't remember exactly what they were. I hope you will take the time to read this article, I found it very eye opening.

Ahh, I found another article on the same subject that is much shorter and to the point. And explains the causes much better.