Making the magic lightning

Common stupidities can be voiced various ways. As regards the Keystone pipeline, a common theme, one expressed by a friend of mine who leans, shall we say, leftward, is that the loss of jobs arguably caused by President Bidet Biden’s executive order are not really a big deal if a net increase in jobs is enjoyed. If we think in terms of buggy whip makers, that’s true. The problem, of course, is that buggy whip makers were not put out of work by any sort of government mandate. This important distinction seems to consistently escape the notice of the Left. “But we need more green energy,” some will exclaim. I agree. Unfortunately, Watts Bar #2 is the only reactor to be brought online this century. That’s it. Just one. It appears the Left’s actual cry is “we need more green energy, as long as it comes from a source we like.”

Related to this is the cry to rid ourselves of our dependence on petroleum. Well, yes, we are dependent. Old NFO deals with this in his blog post “We don’t need no stinkin’ oil.” He provides a lengthy, but far from exhaustive, list of all the things for which we need petroleum. I encourage you to read the post.

I know a man who has made an important observation. My paraphrase is this: “With the exception of solar power, anytime we generate the magic lightning, we must spin the thing. If the thing does not spin, there is no magic lightning. If there is no magic lightning, the things which run on magic lightning don’t work. One of the things that will keep the thing from spinning is friction. To control friction, we must lubricate the spinning thing. We lubricate the spinning thing with…petroleum.” You might think this is not a difficult concept. Apparently, as regards the Left, you would be wrong.