Last Christmas I was given a daily calendar called "This day in U.S. Military History". I've found it personally interesting... especially for those dates involving the Revolutionary War and our Civil War since I'm very interested in American history - especially the history which involved my paternal family line since about 1650 (and any maternal lines I can find).
However, of interest, on the 16th of September I note that "United States imposes the draft". It says, "On this day in 1940, the Burke-Wadsworth Act is passed by Congress, by wide margins in both houses, and the first peacetime draft in the hisory of the United States is imposed. Selective Service was born!
It not only preceded our involvement in WWII which was declared in December of 1941 but continued on long enough for me to almost be drafted for the Korean Peace Action. In January 1950, I was number 16 on the draft list for that month in Santa Clara County in California so I immediately enlisted in the Unites States Air Force where I might have a better chance of doing something more useful rather than kill the enemy - or be killed!
I served my time well, I think, and was more successful in doing good for my country (and myself) during my four year stint in the USAF than I would as "canon fodder" in a campaign which has historically received mixed blessings as a justifiable war -- the first of several later wars which, I think have been totally unjustifiable! Most important for me, of course, is that I survived!
We don't have the draft now having opted to hire a mercenary military. The reason for this, of course, is that when one's children are faced with being drafted during wartime, as one of my kids were.... and the war is not popular, the government which favors war has a serious political problem! So the draft was eliminated and the Vietnam war was ended just before my son would have had to serve. So, no problem, right?
Actually, not right! ....because how else can the parents of a nation's children object to their country going to war because, after all, their children are volunteers? Obviously those who go to war are willing to go to war! Isn't it interesting that all males in Switzerland must serve in the nation's military? Switzerland hasn't gone to war within my lifetime of eighty years!
I think that probably the only way to end our warlike behavior is to re-invoke the draft!
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
The demise of solar energy in America?
I read recently that solar energy and probably any alternative energy efforts were a boondoggle and died when Solyndra went bankrupt and that Obama's support for the company made him complicit in the crime.
Let me suggest a US News and World Report which commented this week and I quote, that, "Solyndra, a solar manufacturing company based in Fremont, Calif., that specialized in producing a newtype of cylindrical solar photovoltaic panels, was the Obama administration’s clean energy poster child back in September 2009 when it announced a loan guarantee deal with the Energy Department. Early this month, however, after receiving $527 million in federal funds over two years, the company filed for bankruptcy protection"
But that is not the end of the story. As the article said, "According to the Energy Department, more than two years of due diligence were completed before the loan was approved. At the time, Solyndra’s new rolled-tube technology showed potential."
"However, after the deal was signed, the global solar market changed, as did Solyndra’s business prospects. A large influx of Chinese state loans to domestic silicon producers and a decline in demand in the European market drove down the price of polysilicon, and Solyndra lost its competitive advantage with other solar manufacturers around the world."
"Also, Solyndra’s bust demonstrates that the global market often moves faster than the federal government," says Nick Loris, an energy policy analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation. “This just goes to show that it isn’t the role of the government to pick winners and losers, and usually the government’s picking the losers because the winners can compete in the marketplace without the subsidies,” Loris says.
Really? Let me suggest that it was the US Government which put a man on the Moon along with the enumerable programs which created the technological advances we now enjoy in computers, TV, cell phones, and virtually anything digital!. Private industry has never had the financial ability to encourage and develop the scientific advances which were made in the 20th century which were sponsored by the US Government -- but they certainly took advantage of them the results of the research - provided for free by the taxpayer!
However, considering the loss of Solyndra and its solar cell efforts, let me mention a headline in the September 2011 issue of the "Economic Development Journal", a newspaper serving Mohave County [AZ]. They announced that "Site appraisals underway for $6 billion solar energy industrial complex in Laughlin [NV]."
The article which is rather long and detailed, starts out with the statement, "Site appraisals are underway to determine the value of 5,400 acres that a Chinese company wants to lease or purchase for development of a large solar energy industrial complex in south Laughlin, Nev., and project site is uniquely situated to deliver power to the California market."
It goes on to say that, "A lawyer acting as an agent for Mojave Energy Corporation, former Nevada Governor and Senator Richard Bryan, said the company wants to build and operate a one-million square-foot, 720-megawatt solar generating facility that would manufacture solar panels and employ 2,000 people in permanent skilled manufacturing positions."
Is this deja vu all over again? Remember when the Japanese controlled the automotive market and American automakers couldn't compete? Too young? -- well, I remember! I think the thing to remember is that one shouldn't
blame anyone for the failure of a company when times and competition changes. At this point all we can really say is that the Chinese are better at capitalism than we are! As I recall, the Japanese started up automobile manufacturing plants in depressed places like Tennessee and didn't have to deal with fair labor laws or unions.......
Let me suggest a US News and World Report which commented this week and I quote, that, "Solyndra, a solar manufacturing company based in Fremont, Calif., that specialized in producing a newtype of cylindrical solar photovoltaic panels, was the Obama administration’s clean energy poster child back in September 2009 when it announced a loan guarantee deal with the Energy Department. Early this month, however, after receiving $527 million in federal funds over two years, the company filed for bankruptcy protection"
But that is not the end of the story. As the article said, "According to the Energy Department, more than two years of due diligence were completed before the loan was approved. At the time, Solyndra’s new rolled-tube technology showed potential."
"However, after the deal was signed, the global solar market changed, as did Solyndra’s business prospects. A large influx of Chinese state loans to domestic silicon producers and a decline in demand in the European market drove down the price of polysilicon, and Solyndra lost its competitive advantage with other solar manufacturers around the world."
"Also, Solyndra’s bust demonstrates that the global market often moves faster than the federal government," says Nick Loris, an energy policy analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation. “This just goes to show that it isn’t the role of the government to pick winners and losers, and usually the government’s picking the losers because the winners can compete in the marketplace without the subsidies,” Loris says.
Really? Let me suggest that it was the US Government which put a man on the Moon along with the enumerable programs which created the technological advances we now enjoy in computers, TV, cell phones, and virtually anything digital!. Private industry has never had the financial ability to encourage and develop the scientific advances which were made in the 20th century which were sponsored by the US Government -- but they certainly took advantage of them the results of the research - provided for free by the taxpayer!
However, considering the loss of Solyndra and its solar cell efforts, let me mention a headline in the September 2011 issue of the "Economic Development Journal", a newspaper serving Mohave County [AZ]. They announced that "Site appraisals underway for $6 billion solar energy industrial complex in Laughlin [NV]."
The article which is rather long and detailed, starts out with the statement, "Site appraisals are underway to determine the value of 5,400 acres that a Chinese company wants to lease or purchase for development of a large solar energy industrial complex in south Laughlin, Nev., and project site is uniquely situated to deliver power to the California market."
It goes on to say that, "A lawyer acting as an agent for Mojave Energy Corporation, former Nevada Governor and Senator Richard Bryan, said the company wants to build and operate a one-million square-foot, 720-megawatt solar generating facility that would manufacture solar panels and employ 2,000 people in permanent skilled manufacturing positions."
Is this deja vu all over again? Remember when the Japanese controlled the automotive market and American automakers couldn't compete? Too young? -- well, I remember! I think the thing to remember is that one shouldn't
blame anyone for the failure of a company when times and competition changes. At this point all we can really say is that the Chinese are better at capitalism than we are! As I recall, the Japanese started up automobile manufacturing plants in depressed places like Tennessee and didn't have to deal with fair labor laws or unions.......
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