For those who don’t know, the character of the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland was partially based on reality. Not that long ago, hats were blocked using mercury to force the felt to take the shape of the mold. From the extended exposure to mercury vapors, the milliners (hat makers for those who attended public schools in the last 25 years) would develop central nervous system damage and literally go insane.

I’m only half joking. The young are generally so ignorant, many heads so filled with Leftist mush, it might take such creativity to reach them.

We should also get the coal to liquid technology up and running. We have more coal than anyone on the planet. We just need to burn it cleanly. The technology has been there to scrub out the pollutants since the 70s. If all else fails, bubble the exhaust through a water bath, ala a huge bong. It will cool the smoke, remove the pollutants and can be used to produce electricity and chemicals from the heat and filtered out pollutants.

Good to see John galt around here.

lb, thanks for the kind words.

America needs a new Independence day: Energy Independence Day!

This is how it can be done:

1. Changeover to nuclear power for electric generation. Phase out completely burning of natural gas, coal, and oil (if it is still used) for power generation. Invest in upgrading the nation’s power grid. The huge amounts of natural gas formerly used for power generation can be liquified and used for vehicle fuel, reducing the demand for gasoline and diesel. The extra natural gas supply will reduce prices, lowering the cost of heating homes and putting more money in the pockets of consumers that will be spent elsewhere to boost the economy. So-called nuclear waste is a non-issue and through the use of breeder reactors the supply of nuclear “fuel” is unlimited. There is not even a single reason not to go nuke.

2. The abundance of cheap electric power from nuclear power will enable change over to plug-in hybrids, further reducing the need for gasoline.

3. A Manhattan project to develop the hydrogen fuel cell for full commercialization and productization will further reduce the need for oil as a transportation fuel. Power from nuclear plants at night can be used to generate Hydrogen. That plus the proliferation of plug-in hybrids will almost eliminate the need for oil for transportation. Pollution from transportation will be almost eliminated, the emission of C02, if you care about that, will be reduced by ~40%, and as the price of oil sharply declines the costs of all the products made from oil will also decline, further enhancing the economic boom.

4. Ethanol? If it can be made to compete, like with development of other biomass that enables a better output to input ratio of net energy from the process, it will find its own level. Otherwise, it can go away. Sorry, agribusiness, but let the chips fall where they may. It’s time.

5. America’s balance of trade will nearly balance as we will import no more energy, and America will experience a clean, healthy economic boom that will be unprecedented.

This is a very simplified version of the model, but if I can figure it out, why can’t Congress? This is a multiple choice question:

A. Ignorance
B. Utter incompetence
C. Corruption
D. Mental illness
E. All of the above

Make that 6 votes, do I hear 7, do I hear 7. Keep it up we’re only about 30 million short, write in candidate, get this country back on track.