Snowflakes in Hell

Ed Rendell’s energy plan is looking great so far:

Gov. Ed Rendell on Thursday proposed a new fee on the sale of electricity in Pennsylvania to help finance an ambitious plan to promote alternative energy sources, increase conservation and blunt expected increases in utility bills.

Yay! New taxes. I always love new taxes. But what will they pay for?

The fund would finance grants to reimburse homeowners and small businesses for half the cost of installing solar panels.

Solar panels are a not a solution to our energy problems, because it takes years for a solar panel to produce as much electricity as went into making it. There are numerous engineering problems with solar energy. This ain’t a solution, Ed.

The largest share of the money would be invested in clean-energy projects that include solar manufacturing, advanced coal technologies and biofuels.

I’m not down with any of this, except for clean coal, because of the practical difficulties. We will not grow our way out of our energy problems. If you do the math, it’s just not going to work. The only reasonable alternatives to petroleum are coal and nuclear power. I might even be OK with Rendell’s plan if it proposed putting more into nuclear power, but that’s really more of a political problem than an engineering one, and one that will likely have to be solved at the federal level.

All in all, it looks like a tax that will transfer money to special interests. No thanks, Ed.

Seriously, the only thing that depressed me more than the PA Senate getting the smoking ban out of committee is the fact that so many Pennsylvanians don’t seem to care about the private property rights of business owners.

I should note that I’m not, nor have I ever been a smoker, but if I’m a bar or restaurant owner, I get to decide.  If you don’t like that choice, then go somewhere else.  Aren’t people kind of getting fed up with the government intruding into so many areas of private concern?  I am, and I worry for the future that so many people turn to government to enforce their own preferences and tastes on everyone else.  Take that to it’s limit, and we don’t live in a free society anymore.

I don’t know if anyone saw the guys that put up the guerrilla marketing LED devices all over Boston give their press conference, but I would highly recommend it, because it’s a total riot. Click on the “TOP VIDEO” link on that story. If I can find a better video feed, I will post it. Looks like their attorney advised them to say nothing about the case, and they decided to have a bit of fun with the press:

“I feel like my hair is pretty perfect but altogether I want to redirect this to the haircuts of the ’70s,” Berdovsky said, ignoring reporters’ shouts.“I really like the one where the hair curls around to the back,” Stevens replied.

“Oh yeah, that one’s so hot,” Berdovsky then responded.

Frustrated reporters, trying to get the pair to respond to serious questions about the incident that at one point involved the participation of the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, finally tossed a question that gave one of them cause to reflect.

When asked whether they were afraid their hair might be cut if they are sent to prison, Berdovsky stopped his rant and answered, “Whatever happens I feel that my hair is safe at the moment.”

Kudos to them for treating this like the steaming pile of bullshit that it is. The only people at fault here are the authorities for overreacting. People should be pissed at their government, not these two guys. It should be obvious to anyone who doesn’t have severe brain damage (i.e. not Boston and Massachusetts politicians) that these devices were NOT bombs, and were not intended to be threatening:

“It’s clear the intent was to get attention by causing fear and unrest that there was a bomb in that location,” Assistant Attorney General John Grossman said at their arraignment.The surreal series is about a talking milkshake, a box of fries and a meatball. The network is a division of Turner Broadcasting Systems Inc.

The 1-foot tall signs, which were lit up at night, resembled a circuit board, with protruding wires and batteries. Most depicted a boxy, cartoon character giving passersby the finger — a more obvious sight when darkness fell.

“It is outrageous, in a post 9/11 world, that a company would use this type of marketing scheme,” Menino said Wednesday. “I am prepared to take any and all legal action against Turner Broadcasting and its affiliates for any and all expenses incurred during the response to today’s incidents.”

You’ve got to be kidding me? Mumbles Menino can go to hell and so can the Massachusetts AAG. I don’t think their charges of planting a hoax device will stick, and I really hope they go after these clowns for malicious prosecution. If you live in Massachusetts, and you like it there, I think you need to lay off the crack. At the very least, you need to start electing better people to run your government.

UPDATE: Bruce at mAssBackwards makes a really good point.  But first instincts, I would think, is that a brightly colored LED display with a cartoon like figure on it is not, in fact, a terrorist explosive device, and maybe out to be checked out, but not create absolute panic.  Bruce does have a good point, though, and I’ll agree that being cautious and checking out the devices was warranted.  But I still strongly comdemn the Boston authorities reaction in the aftermath.  Plus Turner came forward and claimed responsbility for the signs, and they were ignored!  Then the city went ape shit and starting throwing bogus charges around.