05/25/2026
I have been pondering for a long time the angst that our Chief Executive has for alternative energy, particularly wind and solar. I thought, this guy was a sharp businessman, ending up really being sharp in a shady way, maybe.
To me, solar and alternative energy, in general, is like finding a quarter on a sidewalk. It may require a certain amount of biomechanical engineering, but you lean over and you pick it up and put it in your pocket, There is no cost of extraction. You're just simply a collector. That collector will collect for as long as the sunshines, quarters are lost on sidewalks, or the wind blows.
Instead of retreating from alternative energy, we really should be encouraging the Chinese to start building turbine blades here, to build photovoltaic plants here. If there was encouragement from the government ptogress would be greatly accelerated.
From what I have been able to determine our Chief Executive's animus towards both solar and especially wind power, is esthetic. He just doesn't like it. It does not meet his stsndards of function or beauty.
Is wind power really that noisy? Do the turbines really kill that many birds? With proper design solar panels can be hidden or integrated into structures, and there are new technologies that allow the cells to be laminated to glass, so that entire buildings could become Maybe not very efficient collectors, mind you, but they would be collectors.
It's taken me time to wrap my head around these objections, I've always been one of those people that when there is a problem, it's our job to solve that problem, it's amazing to me that there are so many people in the world that gripe and fuss when their particular favorite way is not available, so they get frustrated in traffic and lash out at the world in meaningless and ineffective ways
There is a story about a Chinese philosopher, a teacher who was interviewing prospective students. With the first the first he asked how many ways is there to go from point A to point B. The student replied that there is just one way, that the the philosopher said you need to leave. You cannot learn.
To the second prospective student, the philosopher asked the same question. The student replied, there are many paths between the two points. The philosopher replied, you need to stay. Perhaps you can learn.
Then the philosopher asked the remaining student the same question about how many oaths there are between two points. The student replied, there are an infinite number of ways, to which the philosopher exclaimed, you must stay! Perhaps someday you can teach.
There are so many different paths. An infinite number of paths, yet we seem to be all wanting in the same lane all wanting to merge at the same time. The willful ignorance.and arrogance of our time is daunting. The exercise of patience will show us not only many more paths , but which ones are the correct ones.