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Obama has won!

  • Thread starter Ant
  • Start date
  • #121
I didn't even know my title had been changed til the next day when I couldn't find my post. It didn't hurt my feelings or upset me at all, it's not that all fired important. I was very excited and could hardly type at the time, I was actually still crying at the moment I'd posted. Quite against my rule of staying detached and unemotional, I was still overcome anyway. It's like reaching the mountaintop of all the demonstrations and lectures on civil rights I've ever been involved with. To see the dream realized it was hard for me not to get a little emotional and I guess the title reflected that. Until today a black man running for prez and winning in the US has been nothing but a character in a 1966 Philip K **** (PKD) sci-fi novel. I sure wish Phil could see it since the parallels between the kindness and unphased attitude of both Obama and the character Jim Briskin in the novel are so uncannily similar. Anyone interested can pick up "The Crack in Space" by PKD, it's almost prophetic, minus the sci-fi elements of course!

That said, I too will not be any softer on Obama than I would be on anyone else as the figurehead of our nation. He's got plenty of work to do, there's a lot to fix after the Bush era. Most of Obama's ideas I agree with as originally proposed and want to see accomplished. Strengthening a woman's right to choose is just one of the things I'm very much behind. I wish he were more forceful on the gay rights issue too but as Battlehelm.com's UK writer Shan tells me consolingly: "Baby steps mate, baby steps!"

I just heard today that RFK Jr might be the new EPA guy - look out polluters, I hear tell he goes after those smoke stacks hardcore! :)
 
  • #122
you have any clue what that is going to do to your electric bill? even if we start building tomorrow it will be 3-5 years before nuke plants start producing electricity.........almost 50% of our electricity comes from coal power plants.......go on.......take out those coal power plants.........hope yah like reading by candle light.........
 
  • #123
No, Rattler, what will it do to our electric bill?

Wind, by the way, is sprouting everywhere. There's forests worth of windmill plants all over West Texas, and I can't take a 2-hour road-trip without seeing 1.5 windmills on their way to construction. Those blades are immense up close on the highway.

I suppose my point is that there's more to power than nuclear.

Further editing: Candle-light is a great thing to read by.
 
  • #124
Well, if we're going to be "going medieval" wouldn't candles be the best option? lol! ;)

We have numerous nuke plants here in MN, most of Xcell's energy is nuke energy. My only gripe about NE is safe storage and disposal of waste, which is Obama's main concern over NE as well. Which McCain dismissed as "blah blah blah" however curiously. Since McCain as you may recall, didn't want radioactive energy waste stored in Yuma. I believe the feds eventually said tough cookies and put it there anyway but I remember he fought over it. Which is one thing I can say I admired him for, means of proper storage is going to be absolutely key as NE grows if we intend to live on the same earth as the energy waste. The casks used at the Prairie Island Indian reservation where they store Xcells waste along the mississippii are only rated for 17 years, nobody mentioned so far what's next when the aged casks begin to leak.
 
  • #125
how long do you think its going to take to replace the power plants that provide 50% of our power? it cant be done even in two presidential terms......there is no way we can provide more than 20% of our current power needs with wind and solar let alone what our requirements will be in 10 years......not to mention do you have any clue how much land they take up? your against some smoke in the air but your for plastering the country side in solar panels instead......im all for a mix....more nuke, more solar, more wind and add tidal........but to take out all the coal plants is idiotic.......it will take 25 years to replace them all.....to do it faster is really going to cause major power outages
 
  • #126
Who said it was going to happen quickly? Even in the G8 summit they agreed to reduce emissions to... *looks it up* 50 percent by 2050, so 42 years.

Unfortunately, a lot of climatologists say that if we would rather not be well done, we need to do that by 2020. So, hey, I say start building everything we can, put solar in the deserts, but wind on the mesas, and put nuclear somewhere far away from population centers ;D, and best of all, put coal in the hstory books. Or at least the furnaces of those who are in danger of freezing to death over winter, assuming we have a winter in a couple decades.
 
  • #127
Being smart with energy doesn't mean immediately throw out all the old standbys in the hope that old doc Potter's "magical energy machine" (new tech) will let us run our TV and terrariums. Why can't the conversion be progressive and experimental, why must it be either or? Progress costs money, if you compare Somalia (a country with no taxes) to the US what do you see? I don't mind taxes going for things I agree with such as public education, better infrastructure and clean environment, rather that than bombs. Fossil fuels are a finite resource, as is the environment which the little bit of smoke fills up. Not doing anything til later on out of not wanting to deal with it now will only make matters much worse later on.

I think solar will become much more popular when the power company can find a way to put a meter between us and the sun. ;)
 
  • #128
I thought it was awesome to see the WORLD celebrating with the U.S.!! :D Most people here don't know a thing about the politics of other countries. Australians were whooping it up! And the MASS of people at Obama's location? People laughing and screaming and waving flags! What a memorable sight!

Obama himself has said he is not perfect man nor will he be perfect President...but I have hope that he will do good. He is calling on everyone to do their part.

I too was sad at the outcome of Prop 8. I just don't get it....
 
  • #129
Obama's victory rally was held in the same place they busted heads during the 1968 DNC. Very symbolic if you're into civil rights history. Next time he'll have to do a speech at Kent State or the Lincoln memorial to top it.

My pal Shan saw the Obama rally in Germany when he was traveling this summer to cover some metal festival (Wacken Open Air perhaps?). He said it was really amazing to see America being viewed with respect by so many non-American people. Usually when US flags are flown overseas they're upside down or on fire but this time they were just US flags.

My dad said the Somali's in his neighborhood all went wild singing and banging pots and pans when the announcement was made. He lives in the largest Somali population in the US (many are actually Kenyan). His district also put the only Muslim senator (Ellison) back in office 76% to 26%.
 
  • #130
I actually think Dimka had to have been being sarcastic too, nobody really thinks that way do they? I mean, even he laughed at my sarcastic response! Did anyone ask if he was just being silly before banning him?

If anyone had seen his PM reply to the Mod that ban him you would not think he was being sarcastic. I thought what he put here in public was bad but that PM was orders of magnitude worse.
 
  • #131
I was just giving him the benefit of the doubt. I know my own sarcasm gets going in these sort of threads plenty too, so I know how it can blossom over the top sometimes without ever actually intending to say "such and such" even after proof reading and thinking the intent is clear. Since it can often depend upon how one deconstructs a statement as to whether they get a written joke or just get offended.

Anyhoo, Mod on guys! :)
 
  • #132
I'm glad when people care. I have no problem if people have views are completely opposite of mine, especially if they enjoy a somewhat civil argument about it. It's sad that they're so delusional and wrong that they don't agree with me, but at least they've looked at the world and formed opinions. That's what people should do. What I get upset about are people who looked at McCain & Obama and don't form an opinion. How is that possible; even the rocks on my shelf had opinions. Rocks with the wrong opinions might soon be filling holes in the yard, but I respect their right to their opinions.
 
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