Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Easy street for electric vehicles

Posted: April 4, 2023 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
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By Christopher Harper

When an industry needs federal subsidies, it’s almost certain that businesses are in trouble.

That’s precisely the state of affairs for the electric car industry.

Here in Pennsylvania, the federal and state governments plan to build “alternative fuel corridors” along the interstates, sucking millions of dollars into an industry that should be self-sufficient.

Think gasoline stations. Was there ever a time that gas stations needed federal subsidies?

But Joe Biden plans to spend $7.5 billion for electric vehicle charging stations nationwide. The federal government gives money to Pennsylvania and the other states to distribute, and a second pot of discretionary funding will come straight from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Pennsylvania will receive $171.5 million for electric vehicle charging over the next five years under the program. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is preparing to open grant applications for the first year of funding for about $24.5 million.

We all know that the cost will exceed $7.5 billion because government programs never come under budget.

Here’s an idea: Since Elon Musk has already built an extensive charging system for his Teslas, I would wager he’d create a less costly and more efficient plan than any government.

Silly me! I forgot Musk has the wrong kind of politics!

But there’s more. More money will be needed to subsidize the electric car industry.

Ford’s electric vehicle business lost $2.1 billion in 2022 and has projected $3 billion in losses for 2023. When a company loses that much money, it’s likely to lean on governments for subsidies.

Those losses came despite government rebates for buyers of up to $7,500 and a significant increase in the number of vehicles bought.

All told, Ford plans to spend $50 billion by 2026 on electric vehicles.

Alternatively, the company’s gas-powered business, which it is calling Ford Blue, and its commercial and government fleet, Ford Pro, generated $6.8 billion and $3.2 billion in adjusted income in 2022, respectively.

Biden has made the electric vehicle industry a cornerstone of his executive policy—a policy that includes “voluntary” standards through which he expects half of all new cars to be electric by 2026 and to achieve fuel-efficiency standards of 55 miles per gallon during the same period.

Finally, the electric vehicle “revolution” neglects flyover country for the most part. EVs work fine in balmy climates, where owners drive long distances and have good weather for much of the year.

Simply put, EVs need more frequent charging in Pennsylvania than in California.  

Here’s some sage advice from James Meigs, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and the former editor of Popular Mechanics.

“Governments generally aren’t very good at picking the technologies of tomorrow. Maybe the car of the future will run on batteries; maybe it will be hydrogen fuel cells, maybe it will be super-efficient combustion engines. Nobody knows for sure, least of all state and federal bureaucrats,” he wrote recently. “Instead of limiting our choices, our leaders should let innovation flourish and let Americans drive what they want.”

Amen! 

Five Very Quick One Liners Books, Logical Reversions, Runs Runs Runs, Better Luck Next Year and the next logical ChatGPT question

Posted: April 2, 2023 by datechguy in Uncategorized

Holy Week begins with a small vanity announcement. The Mother of Mercy Catholic Center is now carrying my book Hail Mary the Perfect Protestant (and Catholic) Prayer.

When I saw the Canadian Government is sponsoring a drag camp for kids I’m reminded that before Christianity became big the sexualization of children was the norm in pagan places which explains why you see it advancing in post Christian societies

The two Red Sox games so far this year is a pretty good sign of what we are going to see this season: A team with no pitching that scores a lot of runs.

Much to my shock I was able to take Tampa Bay to five games and was actually up two games to one at one point so I put the fear of God in him.

Can someone explain to me why the guy who asked the ChatGPT to make a joke about Jesus (it did) but refused to make a joke about Muhammad (out of respect for religious sensitives) why he didn’t ask ChatGPT why Muhammad is off limits but Jesus isn’t?

It’s During Weeks like this when I get Christ’s Admonition about “Loving Your Enemies” the most

Posted: March 31, 2023 by datechguy in Uncategorized

There are many advantages to being a Sicilian. The great genes from being from a land conquered by just about every nation that ever lived, the food, but the biggest one is that people tend to leave you alone and not mess with you as articulated by Don Corleone in the opening scene of the Godfather

But one of the disadvantages, at least to me, is the instinct to take revenge.

Sicilians don’t just take revenge like other people they take generational revenge. When one harms a Sicilian that person puts their grandchildren and great grandchildren at risk. I’ve known of people worried about vengeance for actions done a century and a half previous and acting accordingly It’s one of the reasons why you never see rioters cross over into certain neighborhoods in certain cities.

Now most people and communities don’t have that instinct toward revenge squared but the reaction by the left that I mentioned yesterday concerning the shooting up of a Christian School and the killing of kids there is just the type of thing to bring out the Sicilian in a lot of people, and frankly the Trump indictment which implicit ally says “If we can do this to him we can do this to you” makes it worse.

All of this brings out the normal human instinct to start putting such people up against walls, particularly when they are making open threats or celebrating violence against you and yours

It’s then, when you are being driven toward that instinct that, if you are any sort of the Christian, Catholic or Protestant that these words of Christ slap you across your face

The direct admonition of Christ to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you is one of the most basic non-optional doctrines of the Christian faith. It is completely opposed to basic human instinct to strike back. It’s the most non-Sicilian thing in the world and is, in my opinion, even harder than the admonitions against lust and sex outside of marriage in the faith.

But it is the thing that prevents us from entering into a self destructive cycle because nothing makes a person more worthy to be put up against the wall then to start putting their foes there first.

Loving your enemies prevents all the horrors of Communism and Nazism because it forces you to see the person in front of you as a child of God, loved by him and whose sins have been paid for by the sacrifice of Christ. It reminds you that said enemy is only one good confession away from turning away from the pit.

That’s why it’s so important to practice in life.

Or to put it another way Heaven will be no less glorious and hell no less unbearable if you find someone you didn’t expect next to you there.

This poll proves how devastatingly effective progressive indoctrination has been

Posted: March 30, 2023 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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I have been a very outspoken critic of progressive indoctrination and progressive revisionist history.  Both have done tremendous harm to college students since the mid 1960s, when they were unleashed like a plague.  Progressives used these two destructive strategies as tools to brainwash impressionable youth, of college and school age, into believing collectivism is superior to individualism.

Individualism is one of the most important founding principle of the United States.  In order to destroy our national love of individual liberty, progressives knew they must first destroy our history.

I knew that progressives have been effective at their schemes to condition the last two generations based on conversations I’ve had with large numbers of individuals, news coverage on conservative libertarian sites, and the past couple of elections.  It wasn’t until I saw this article, Poll: Support for Traditional American Values, Patriotism Declines (breitbart.com), that I knew how exceedingly effective their brainwashing has been.

Beginning with patriotism, only 38 percent of Americans say it is “very important” to them, down from 61 percent in 2019 and 70 percent in 1998. Thirty-five percent say patriotism is “somewhat important,” and 27 percent say it is “not that important (16 percent) and “not at all important” (11 percent).

Broken down by political affiliation, Republicans (59 percent) are more likely than Democrats (23 percent) and independents (29 percent) to rank patriotism as a “very important” value. Older adults are also more likely to place more importance on patriotism than young adults. Twenty-three percent of adults under 30 say patriotism is “very important” compared to 59 percent of seniors ages 65 and older.

Respondents were also asked about how they view the United States. Twenty-one percent say the United States “stands above all countries in the world,” 50 percent say it is “one of the greatest countries in the world, along with some others,” and 27 percent say “there are other countries better than the United States.” The percentage of Americans who believe other countries are better than the U.S. rose to 27 percent from 19 percent in 2016.

Have we reached the point of no return?  Is there any hope of regaining control over our institutions of learning?   I think it very well may be no hope, but we must immediately try, and our effort must be a Herculean effort.

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