Every so often (quite frequently, actually), pastor and former Progressive Conservative candidate Jordon Cooper reminds me why he’s one of my favourite sites on my blogroll.
What’s with the political posts
About every six months I have to post something about my politcal worldview. I haven’t done it in a while because I have found a lot more interesting things to say than Canadian and American politics but I am going to say something here.
I am tired of politicians lying. I am tired of food distribution centers set up for George W. Bush’s photo op and then taken down once he leaves. I am tired of George W. Bush saying “We could never have known” when I have been watching documentries this week from the 1980s and 90s that said this was going to happen. I am tired of Bill Clinton saying “We could never have known” when I have been watching documentries this week from the 1980s and 90s that said this was going to happen. I am tired of George H. Bush saying “We could never have known” when I have been watching documentries this week from the 1980s and 90s that said this was going to happen. I am tired of reading how much of a challenge this will be to Republican congressional races and what this will do to the White House congressional agenda. I am tired of reading how Democratic leaders can use Katrina. I am tired of reading how Republican leaders can use Katrina. I am tired of German politicians bashing the United States with Katrina to help them win elections. I am tired of decisions being made solely on winning the next election.
What is wrong with a system that immediately turns a natural disaster into partisan politics? Why were fifty firefighters in the area of New Orleans used as window dressing for the President instead of being dispatched to do what they were trained for?
It’s more than just the United States. It is Canada as well. Recently the Saskatchewan Party sent out a press release that was so full of lies, I was embarrassed when I found out I knew the person who wrote it.
I want my political leaders to be more than this. I want them to be great men and women of character. I don’t care what side of the floor that they are on. I just want them to be a great leader. Instead, all I get is this. I don’t hate Republicans. It is just they are in power right now. I hated it when Bill Clinton did this kind of stuff as well. I want my political leaders to do better and maybe that is why I am so dissapointed in them when it goes back to politics as usual.
One of his commentators replied:
Hello???, welcome to the world of politics, where everything is justifiable and promises are made to be broken.
To which I reply: didn’t we used to do better at this? Was it my imagination? Was it all a dream of time? The leaders of the sixties, seventies and eighties were giants compared to the people on the pedastals today: Trudeau, Pearson, Stanfield, Douglas, Kennedy, Johnson, Reagan! Weren’t debates real debates of issues and not fact-less invectives designed to demonize the other side?
Even Nixon had more gravitas in his finger than Paul Martin and Stephen Harper combined.
What happened to us?
Towards a Hydrogen Economy
My father sent me this link from Scientific American, which is a summary of this article. It’s intriguing, because after I’d learned that chloraphil uses the sun’s energy to break the molecular bonds of water to release oxygen and hydrogen, I was wondering if some sort of bacterial catalyst or something could be dropped into a bucket of water in order to produce the hydrogen we need to power our vehicles. Associate Professor Mahdi Abu-Omar was way ahead of me:
“We have discovered a catalyst that can produce ready quantities of hydrogen without the need for extreme cold temperatures or high pressures, which are often required in other production and storage methods,” said Abu-Omar, an associate professor of chemistry in Purdue’s College of Science. “It is possible that this technique could lead to fuel cells that are safe, efficient and not dependent on fossil fuels as their energy source.”
(snip!)
“The big question is, of course, whether it would be economically viable to create organosilane fuels in the quantities necessary to power a world full of cars,” Abu-Omar said. “As of right now, there simply isn’t enough demand to make more than small volumes of this liquid, and while it’s a relatively easy process, it’s not dirt cheap either.”
But, Abu-Omar speculated, producing organosilanes in larger quantities would bring the price down, and the byproduct — silanol — also could be recycled or sold to lessen the overall cost.
Okay. Now the question I have is: what are organosilanes and silanol and just how could they be used in such a way to make the whole project financially viable?
Another “Non-Partisan” Joins the Green Party
Looney Canuck has announced that he has become a member of the Green Party of Canada!
I think of the Green Party as a bit of a moderating influence, with a different vision, but not necessarily all-environmental. As I may have mentioned before, they are a long shot, but I’ve seen encouraging signs from quite a few people on the blogosphere (like Jim Elve and James Bow who have also become members).
Actually, I’m not a Green Party member, though at present they have my vote. So, will Looney (or, for that matter, me) be kicked out of the Blogging Alliance of Non-Partisan Canadians? Of course not. The blogroll was set up to offer a non-partisan alternative to the partisan blogrolls out there, not to require all members within to be wholly non-partisan. We even have an NDPer aboard; he’s just not a member of the Blogging NDP.
That may change once Green Party blogs hoist up their own blogroll and Looney joins up. But until that happens, Looney is more than welcome to bring us his unique contributions to the diverse political discourse within the BANPC.