I 'm looking out to the horizon south west from my farm where a new ethanol plant is up and running.
Now I'm looking east where a huge wind farm is now in operation - I can see the red glowing lights on each wind tower at night.
I am at the center of the 21st century.
Renewable energy.
The new economy.
Alternatives to oil, nuclear, and coal.
Yet all I hear is people bitchin'.
Whats up with that!
"Oh my God. Ethanol is using up all the corn so people around the world are starving because they can;t get cheap corn! "Shut up already!
"Wind turbines are very intrusive and ugly and I want them out of MY back yard. Plus they kill a lot of birds"
"We are depleating the soil and water quality by growing so much corn and turning it into fuel"
'Coal is so much cheaper and we should not subsidize wind power."
We were all challenged by the federal government a few ears ago to develop alternative energy and to substitute ethanol for some of the toxic additives (for example Methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) that were contaminating the ground water.
So because we are IOWA we went to work and got it done.
Ethanol plants and wind farms sprang up as fast as spring mushrooms.
Then all of a sudden corn prices shot up - NPR reported in July 2008 that:
"A rush to cash in on ethanol has slowed as soaring corn prices squeeze profit margins for producers of the alternative fuel. At a recent high of $7 per bushel, the corn used to make ethanol has tripled in price since many plants were built two years ago, and some facilities have been shut down or put on hold."Well, shut up! Corn prices today (March 2009) are in the $3 or below per bushel range. That's right on the edge of break even.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92559699
BUT, the predictions are that it will rise to $5 or maybe above as ... well shoot! You get the point. Total instability out there! If we were a US Marine Platoon we'd be crazy frustrated! Tell us what hill you want us to take and we will do it. But don't give us constantly changing orders!
Iowa and our farmers - corn as well as wind - are like a small cork on a wind tossed sea. We bob around, we hope to survive alive, we have no control over the gyrations of world process and of the ups and downs of speculators, of OPEC and their oil policies, of the economy, of the ziggin' and zaggin' of environmentalists who can' t seem to make up their minds if they like corn and wind (both renewable and sustainable) or they don't like them for a variety of reasons.
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[Hi InsiderIowa: Wondering if Romney has seen this article that greeted me lately on the web!]
ReplyDeleteMORMONISM OKAYS PORN
by Jared Young
Both Mormon and non-Mormon scholars are aware of a hard-core pornographic drawing in the "Book of Abraham" which is Mormon-approved scripture.
The same Book is part of the "Pearl of Great Price" which, along with the "Book of Mormon" and the "Doctrine and Covenants," make up the LDS church's "triple combination" in one volume.
The porn is found in Fig. 7 of Facsimile 2 in the "Book of Abraham" which shows two beings facing each other, which were described by Joseph Smith as representing the Holy Ghost and God the Father, the latter clearly showing an aroused male sex organ.
After Smith published this sketch in his newspaper in 1842, which offended Mormon sensibilities, the phallic portion was whited out for more than a century until the "restored" LDS church decided in 1981 to restore what had long been censored!
Equally shocking was the discovery that the "Book of Abraham" had nothing to do with Abraham or his God but was actually based on ancient Egyptian funeral documents depicting occultic obscene practices - and the original sketches showed an erotic phallus on both beings including the one Smith blasphemously claimed was the Holy Ghost!
For further information see "Book of Abraham" (Wikipedia). Also see Jerald and Sandra Tanner's "Mormonism - Shadow or Reality?" which on 76 pages reproduces the original Egyptian X-rated drawings and shows how Smith altered them and created one of his many frauds. Highlights of the classic Tanner work can be seen by typing "Facts From Mormons" and "What LDS Leaders Say" on Yahoo.