To call oneself a pedant implies that one is ostentatiously learned. To quip that Rome utilized slave labor is hardly revelatory of a depth and breadth of knowledge of the history of the Roman empire. The negation of all of Greek or Roman history due to the use of slave labor ignores their contribution of republicanism and government of the people. It ignores how the history of Rome influenced our form of government. Or perhaps not. It does seem from your comment that you would actively engage in establishing a monarchical government as your preference. FYI- Bondage by birth status is much much older than the bondage of debt since historically credit was only made available to those highly born. That aspiration to serfdom means no Visa card for you.
It is extremely unfortunate that the prevailing myth is that employment = bondage/servitude/slavery. No person in this country is legally held in bondage of any kind. Debt is a choice. Credit is a means of advancing one's wealth. What use of credit one makes is a choice. Obtaining credit to buy a home, start a business or obtain an education will, in most instances increase one's wealth. Using credit to go to Cancun for spring break or buy material goods will not. Making a choice to go into debt is not the same as being bonded in servitude to a lord by birth status.
It is also extremely unfortunate that the persons of letters in contemporary society would, as you say, rather give up independence and liberty and their burdens to be taken care of as a serf. In a republic the greatest gift one can give to one's fellow man is to assume responsibility for oneself so that one's fellow man does not have to take care of you. The give away is the lowest form of compassion doled out by the highly born to the lowly, with noses pinched, noblesse oblige. Your comment forces me to assume that, rather than a serf, you would prefer to be a middling aristocrat, an Oblomov, supported by the labors of indentured muzhiks and tenants, with no personal responsibilities except to present oneself as a gentleman, such that it is actually the independence and liberty of others you are willing to sacrifice to serfdom, taking away their ownership of their own work and their lives in order that you not be required to exert much energy in life. How noble.
I am working poor, or at least I was until I invested in an education to become an RN and spend most of my adult life working at least 2 jobs. I maxed out at 5 jobs several years ago. I teach nursing assistant courses at a technical college. And I am a home care and hospice nurse in rural Wisconsin tending to the needs of every group of society, death being the great equalizer. I am in my second decade as an RN and still paying off my student loans. I am the daughter of a truck driver. I am a single, that is SINGLE, mother, no child support or 50% placement, shared custody or any of the perks of divorce. So don't attempt for one second to throw the travails of the working poor at me since you would take away my freedom and independence, my social mobility, in order that you might be free from the responsibility of owning your own life, demonstrating unequivocally that you have no understanding of what the working poor are working for.
I care about Rome anymore. After the fall of Rome the Republic disappeared from the face of the earth for centuries, replaced by various forms of monarchy, aristocracy and despotism; all of which necessitated various degrees of bondage, servitude and slavery. America was a return to republicanism and representative democracy. In America the concept of property was expanded from simple land holding to tools, a trade, skills, education, etc. While "enlightened" Europe maintained every other level of bondage and servitude except slavery America ultimately eliminated all of them making every person's labor his own property. So everyone in the world, not of an aristocratic class, should be very worried about the end of America. Talk about voting against your own interests.
It's so vital to understand, what is so often not understood, that the fight for independence or liberty is not the revolution. It is the forming of a new way of life. Thanks for the reminder.
As I read U.S. history I wonder if the advantage the founding fathers had was the need to communicate in letters. Letters take time, and at the time, used not inexpensive resources so a precision of thought and economy of words were warranted. Do you think the speed and universality of social networking may impair the process of building a sound post-revolutionary government? Does social networking increase the risk of tyranny of public opinion? You are justified in responding, "Buy my book and see."
I would like to hear more about this. How tall are they because migrating birds fly at a variety of heights? The city that I live in has the dubious distinction of having experienced the largest ever bird kill, 40k birds in a single night, or possibly 2 nights, related to a television tower, which is much higher than a wind turbine. Also a different type of structure with the stabilization wires etc. But still I don't see how increasing the height of the turbines simply takes care of that complex problem for all species of migrating birds. When I drive from where I live to where I'm from I drive through about 150 miles of nearly contiguous wind farm. Will those thousands of turbines be replaced for the bird-safe higher turbines?
I'm not an expert on wind energy or any type of energy. But I have a very good friend who has been on the board of directors for a local energy co-op for over 25 years. This co-op has a very divers portfolio of energy sources including a methane fired turbine at our local landfill. What I understand from him is that wind is actually a very expensive source of energy and has very limited application because of the multitude of requirements; landscape, avg wind speeds, the costs of maintaining what is essentially an energy plant that extends for 10s of thousands of acres, etc. They are also not controllable in terms of use vs energy production ratios. Traditional power plants can be ramped up and down according to energy use thus extending the life of the plant. With wind turbines they produce when the wind is blowing according to how much the wind is blowing. The last time I drove home the entire 150 miles was shut down because the turbines were producing much more energy than could be accommodated on the grid and there is no means of storing the energy. So by my friend's estimates wind energy costs as much as 30% more than traditional energy sources.
Most of us that support greening do so with a pocket book to match and little regard for real life actualities until we can attach a corporate villainy to it.
The electric car is a great example. In 120 yrs we went from zero automobiles to 130 million. Right now the publicity for electric cars is that we will plug them in at night when electric use is low and costs are less, etc. What happens when there is 130 million of them being plugged in at night? There will be no low use discount. The power plants' life expectancies are calculated with those low energy use times included so now the electric car has decreased the life expectancy of a traditional power plant by half and doubled the same plant's waste production aka green house gases, thus accelerating the problem of global climate change if at that point in time we still accept the current theory. The narrative will again be that corporate interests superseded the health and safety of the public and the environment.
I don't understand how such a diversity of such highly educated and intelligent persons can not grasp the concept of risk assessment. I am confident that those in charge of the building of the Fukushima plant engaged in a thorough risk assessment and didn't just slap it up with a "what the hell, why not build here?" I've not been there but it seems a reasonable assumption that Japan takes nuclear power seriously as well as earthquakes and that they built to withstand what was reasonable and expected according to their analyses. Yes, mother nature can always defeat whatever man attempts to achieve. There will always be a bigger earthquake, hurricane, volcano; the human response is never going to be that there is no point in going forward or in trying to improve upon the technology. Experts used to agree the human body could not sustain speeds in excess of 20 mph. It can be reasonably assumed that those first few cavemen that harnessed fire burned up their villages not realizing that straw bedding and fire don't mix, so eventually they dug a pit and put stones around it to keep the heat source from destroying everything around it. We are part of mother nature and our evolution has been to keep adapting to protect ourselves from her.
If we convert all our energy resources to wind and solar eventually there will be "big wind" and "big solar" that will have used unfair political advantages in order to execute their diabolical plan to kill all the migrating birds. Naysayers will never be happy. Like fundamentalists their only goal is to tell others how they should be living their lives and it is always about the same things fundamentalists go on about, the evils of materialism and consumption and provocatively dressed women.
Tell all the people with cancer we need to get rid of nuclear power. Their responses might be "Ummmm but that's how I got rid of my cancer." Japan is not the USSR they are monitoring doses for the workers and making every effort to prevent anyone exceeding maximum dose requirements, not simply ordering, at the point of a gun or threat of a gulag, workers to martyr themselves.
Nuclear power is the current best option for bringing much of the third world to the industrial age, 100 yrs ago for us. It's inexpensive and the overall safety record is quite good. Better than, say, the automobile. We ignore the racism and oppression inherent in the idea of "preserving traditional cultures" when what we're really doing is preserving their impoverishment using the stereotype of the Noble Savage.
Ralph Nader tells the story of how Ford and Firestone et al gathered together to make the plan for the nation's energy and economic future to ensure their pockets were lined and it was all diabolically evil. While they certainly ensured their financial gain, who among us wouldn't, they also understood that our food production and our energy production should not be in competition with each other. My family of Iowa farmers have leased land for windmills and they are being paid very well for it. They are also reaping the financial benefits of ethanol. The vilification has already begun about corn/food prices and the pollution of ethanol plants. I apologize for all the digressions.
To call oneself a pedant implies that one is ostentatiously learned. To quip that Rome utilized slave labor is hardly revelatory of a depth and breadth of knowledge of the history of the Roman empire. The negation of all of Greek or Roman history due to the use of slave labor ignores their contribution of republicanism and government of the people. It ignores how the history of Rome influenced our form of government. Or perhaps not. It does seem from your comment that you would actively engage in establishing a monarchical government as your preference. FYI- Bondage by birth status is much much older than the bondage of debt since historically credit was only made available to those highly born. That aspiration to serfdom means no Visa card for you.
It is extremely unfortunate that the prevailing myth is that employment = bondage/servitude/slavery. No person in this country is legally held in bondage of any kind. Debt is a choice. Credit is a means of advancing one's wealth. What use of credit one makes is a choice. Obtaining credit to buy a home, start a business or obtain an education will, in most instances increase one's wealth. Using credit to go to Cancun for spring break or buy material goods will not. Making a choice to go into debt is not the same as being bonded in servitude to a lord by birth status.
It is also extremely unfortunate that the persons of letters in contemporary society would, as you say, rather give up independence and liberty and their burdens to be taken care of as a serf. In a republic the greatest gift one can give to one's fellow man is to assume responsibility for oneself so that one's fellow man does not have to take care of you. The give away is the lowest form of compassion doled out by the highly born to the lowly, with noses pinched, noblesse oblige. Your comment forces me to assume that, rather than a serf, you would prefer to be a middling aristocrat, an Oblomov, supported by the labors of indentured muzhiks and tenants, with no personal responsibilities except to present oneself as a gentleman, such that it is actually the independence and liberty of others you are willing to sacrifice to serfdom, taking away their ownership of their own work and their lives in order that you not be required to exert much energy in life. How noble.
I am working poor, or at least I was until I invested in an education to become an RN and spend most of my adult life working at least 2 jobs. I maxed out at 5 jobs several years ago. I teach nursing assistant courses at a technical college. And I am a home care and hospice nurse in rural Wisconsin tending to the needs of every group of society, death being the great equalizer. I am in my second decade as an RN and still paying off my student loans. I am the daughter of a truck driver. I am a single, that is SINGLE, mother, no child support or 50% placement, shared custody or any of the perks of divorce. So don't attempt for one second to throw the travails of the working poor at me since you would take away my freedom and independence, my social mobility, in order that you might be free from the responsibility of owning your own life, demonstrating unequivocally that you have no understanding of what the working poor are working for.
I care about Rome anymore. After the fall of Rome the Republic disappeared from the face of the earth for centuries, replaced by various forms of monarchy, aristocracy and despotism; all of which necessitated various degrees of bondage, servitude and slavery. America was a return to republicanism and representative democracy. In America the concept of property was expanded from simple land holding to tools, a trade, skills, education, etc. While "enlightened" Europe maintained every other level of bondage and servitude except slavery America ultimately eliminated all of them making every person's labor his own property. So everyone in the world, not of an aristocratic class, should be very worried about the end of America. Talk about voting against your own interests.
It's so vital to understand, what is so often not understood, that the fight for independence or liberty is not the revolution. It is the forming of a new way of life. Thanks for the reminder.
As I read U.S. history I wonder if the advantage the founding fathers had was the need to communicate in letters. Letters take time, and at the time, used not inexpensive resources so a precision of thought and economy of words were warranted. Do you think the speed and universality of social networking may impair the process of building a sound post-revolutionary government? Does social networking increase the risk of tyranny of public opinion? You are justified in responding, "Buy my book and see."
I would like to hear more about this. How tall are they because migrating birds fly at a variety of heights? The city that I live in has the dubious distinction of having experienced the largest ever bird kill, 40k birds in a single night, or possibly 2 nights, related to a television tower, which is much higher than a wind turbine. Also a different type of structure with the stabilization wires etc. But still I don't see how increasing the height of the turbines simply takes care of that complex problem for all species of migrating birds. When I drive from where I live to where I'm from I drive through about 150 miles of nearly contiguous wind farm. Will those thousands of turbines be replaced for the bird-safe higher turbines?
I'm not an expert on wind energy or any type of energy. But I have a very good friend who has been on the board of directors for a local energy co-op for over 25 years. This co-op has a very divers portfolio of energy sources including a methane fired turbine at our local landfill. What I understand from him is that wind is actually a very expensive source of energy and has very limited application because of the multitude of requirements; landscape, avg wind speeds, the costs of maintaining what is essentially an energy plant that extends for 10s of thousands of acres, etc. They are also not controllable in terms of use vs energy production ratios. Traditional power plants can be ramped up and down according to energy use thus extending the life of the plant. With wind turbines they produce when the wind is blowing according to how much the wind is blowing. The last time I drove home the entire 150 miles was shut down because the turbines were producing much more energy than could be accommodated on the grid and there is no means of storing the energy. So by my friend's estimates wind energy costs as much as 30% more than traditional energy sources.
Most of us that support greening do so with a pocket book to match and little regard for real life actualities until we can attach a corporate villainy to it.
The electric car is a great example. In 120 yrs we went from zero automobiles to 130 million. Right now the publicity for electric cars is that we will plug them in at night when electric use is low and costs are less, etc. What happens when there is 130 million of them being plugged in at night? There will be no low use discount. The power plants' life expectancies are calculated with those low energy use times included so now the electric car has decreased the life expectancy of a traditional power plant by half and doubled the same plant's waste production aka green house gases, thus accelerating the problem of global climate change if at that point in time we still accept the current theory. The narrative will again be that corporate interests superseded the health and safety of the public and the environment.
I don't understand how such a diversity of such highly educated and intelligent persons can not grasp the concept of risk assessment. I am confident that those in charge of the building of the Fukushima plant engaged in a thorough risk assessment and didn't just slap it up with a "what the hell, why not build here?" I've not been there but it seems a reasonable assumption that Japan takes nuclear power seriously as well as earthquakes and that they built to withstand what was reasonable and expected according to their analyses. Yes, mother nature can always defeat whatever man attempts to achieve. There will always be a bigger earthquake, hurricane, volcano; the human response is never going to be that there is no point in going forward or in trying to improve upon the technology. Experts used to agree the human body could not sustain speeds in excess of 20 mph. It can be reasonably assumed that those first few cavemen that harnessed fire burned up their villages not realizing that straw bedding and fire don't mix, so eventually they dug a pit and put stones around it to keep the heat source from destroying everything around it. We are part of mother nature and our evolution has been to keep adapting to protect ourselves from her.
If we convert all our energy resources to wind and solar eventually there will be "big wind" and "big solar" that will have used unfair political advantages in order to execute their diabolical plan to kill all the migrating birds. Naysayers will never be happy. Like fundamentalists their only goal is to tell others how they should be living their lives and it is always about the same things fundamentalists go on about, the evils of materialism and consumption and provocatively dressed women.
Tell all the people with cancer we need to get rid of nuclear power. Their responses might be "Ummmm but that's how I got rid of my cancer." Japan is not the USSR they are monitoring doses for the workers and making every effort to prevent anyone exceeding maximum dose requirements, not simply ordering, at the point of a gun or threat of a gulag, workers to martyr themselves.
Nuclear power is the current best option for bringing much of the third world to the industrial age, 100 yrs ago for us. It's inexpensive and the overall safety record is quite good. Better than, say, the automobile. We ignore the racism and oppression inherent in the idea of "preserving traditional cultures" when what we're really doing is preserving their impoverishment using the stereotype of the Noble Savage.
Ralph Nader tells the story of how Ford and Firestone et al gathered together to make the plan for the nation's energy and economic future to ensure their pockets were lined and it was all diabolically evil. While they certainly ensured their financial gain, who among us wouldn't, they also understood that our food production and our energy production should not be in competition with each other. My family of Iowa farmers have leased land for windmills and they are being paid very well for it. They are also reaping the financial benefits of ethanol. The vilification has already begun about corn/food prices and the pollution of ethanol plants. I apologize for all the digressions.