Semi-Successful Foraging

We headed out with our list of stops and stuff to get today so we can spend tomorrow packing up for the Big Trip. The only thing we got chumped on was a camera bag. You would not believe how hard it is to find a camera bag that can hold something bigger than a deck of cards and costs less than $100. This trip, we will modify my old backpack into a camera bag by adding some padding in the form of hand towels. I finally found one on-line where I bought the camera that will only be $50 with tax and shipping which I will order when we get home. Finding a camera strap also proved to be a challenge; Best Buy had exactly one that had all the same problems as the one that came with the camera. Walmart had exactly one, which only had one of the three problems that the existing strap had. I was also able to score a UV filter to protect the front element; it fit and the lens cap still works. Woohoo! So we're all set on the camera front for now. The suitcases are in the middle of the floor and we are starting the ritual Stacking of the Crap; getting out all the odds and ends other than clothes that we think we will need and half of which will end up left home because it doesn't fit in the suitcase.

Now we all know that politicians are moral defectives. But the Obamessiah isn't even trying to hid that fact now. He creates a single-year deficit that far exceeds all eight Bush deficits combined along with deficits far larger than any of Bush's out as far as the eye can see. Nearly all that money is political payback and social engineering. And just so everyone knows what this guy is really about under all the polish and fancy words: While handing trillions to his friends in the financial sector, he cut a dinky little program that was paying for a small number of DC black kids to escape the worst schools in the nation and go to the same private school his daughters attend. Like every other Democrat, he wanna keep dem nigga's dumb an' po' so's dey keep votin' Democrat. Pathetic.

Protectionism plays well in the press, but the reality on the ground is somewhat different:

"You need to tell me how inhibiting business between two companies located one mile apart is going to save American jobs," said Bob Miller, Duferco Farrell's executive vice president. "I've got 600 United Steel Workers out there who are going to lose their jobs because of this. And you tell me this is good for America?"

No, it isn't good for America. At least not for the peons that do the work and pay the taxes. I guarantee it's good for the politicians who will receive massive campaign contributions from the USW (and UAW) union management. And we all know that at the end of the day, that's all that matters.

A model off-grid home in Troy, Michigan didn't last through it's first winter. Notice the instinctive leap to defend solar technology "Someone turned off the breaker...." Uhuh. Having lived off-grid for several years, I can tell you exactly what happened. Winters in Michigan tend to be cloudy. As in no direct sun for weeks, even months at a time, which is needed for solar panels to produce anything more than a bare trickle of electricity. This winter, the temperatures dipped back down to the mean, like temperatures have been doing for millions of years. Then:

"The system was designed to kick a heater on to keep water from freezing," Biegler said. "The heater drew all reserve power out of the battery causing the system to back down and the pipes froze."

I was knocked out of bed in the middle of the night many times by the alarm on the UPS that ran our heating system for exactly this reason, which is why we had a backup generator. You would think that for $900,000 for an 800 sq. ft. house (OMG!), someone would have thought to include an autostart backup generator. Apparently not.

One great commencement speech. I know there are a lot of numbers in there, but here is the key one: 1/6 of one percent of electricity is currently generated by solar and wind. Doubling that means that 1/3 of one percent of electricity will be generated by solar and wind assuming that US electrical usage will not increase while all this stuff is being built and brought on line. Isn't part of the Obamessiah's plan to vastly increase the number of plug-in hybrids? Won't those use, um, ya know, electricity?

Well, it's dinner time.