So coal liquification is very bad policy but this April headline still seems a little harsh. Still, were I a consequences-oriented advocate rather than a truth-seeking journalist, I would say that trying to brand liquid coal as "Hitler's Fuel" might be a good idea.
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"Hitler's Fuel"
30 May 2007 08:25 am
Comments (10)
I never expected Godwin's Law to crop up in Energy Policy.
Coal Nazification sounds kinda catchy, ne c'est pas?
well, it does kind of remind you of that headline on the cover of Vegetarian Cooking Monthly that read "Hitler's Diet!"
If we were to follow this logic, then would not coal miners be "Hitlers diggers."?
Coal mining does happen to be one of the few high paying high benefit blue collar jobs left.
How serious about economic justice are those who are opposed to coal mining? And if the Democratic Party is not going to stand up for the coal miners, then what does it really stand for?
I kinda like calling coal liquidification "Hitler's Final Solution" for the lack of standard petroleum within their borders.
Of all the possible means of gaining energy self-sufficiency (and ridding us of the insanity of depending on middle-east oil), this is not just clearly the worst, it is substituting one insanity for another.
Less insanity please.
Duncan Kinder: "How serious about economic justice are those who are opposed to coal mining?"
Please say with a straight face that coal mining has been economically beneficial enterprise in locations where it's practiced. Why is it, if coal mining is such an effective means of establishing economic justice, that some of the poorest swaths of the country feature (or featured) enormous coal deposits? That mining jobs are high paying is meaningless when it takes fewer and fewer workers to operate a mine. I'd argue that the plight of the coal miner is a far less important issue than the poverty of the non-miners who live in extraction-plagued communities, and the first step to economic recovery is ending mining.
No other outside investor or economic interest will get involved in the coalfields while mining is still going on. Who wants their workforce to have to compete with overweight coal trucks on windy roads, or have foundations cracked by blasting, or have black dust settle in over everything, or risk having the local water supply being poisoned by leaking coal slurry? The only people who benefit from mining are the coal executives with rich compensation packages, and to a lesser extent the miners and their families (who make up a tiny percentage of people living in coalfield communities).
I find it ominously ironic, that, at the same time the United States is considering subsidies for "Hitler's fuel", we have (according to Andrew Sullivan) also adopted "Hitler's interrogation techniques" as our own. WTF is up with that?
Please forgive the failure to link, but my technological illiteracy is showing.
"Why is it, if coal mining is such an effective means of establishing economic justice, that some of the poorest swaths of the country feature (or featured) enormous coal deposits?"
First, anytime someone slaps an adjective in front of the word "justice" (e.g., "economic", "social", etc.) it weakens the word. Justice is justice; "economic justice", "social justice", etc. are usually just euphemisms for a lefty redistribution/affirmative action scheme.
Second, it's possible that some places rich in coal such as parts of West Virginia are poor not because coal is extracted from there but because the population there is, on average, not as educated or intelligent as populations of more affluent areas.
Third, what about the industry and jobs coal fuels down the chain? The railroad workers who transport it, the rail car builders who build the cars that carry coal (e.g., the workers at Freigh Car America, the steel workers at coal-fired plants at companies like Nucor, etc. Not to mention that coal miners aren't exactly poorly paid.
Actually I think "Nazi Gas" works better. As a bonus, it ties in the Gas Chambers meme.
Plus, if Oil is like heroin, so sweet until you run out, then Liquid Coal is like Crystal Meth. You destroy yourself when you take it and in withdrawal. truly a desperation play.
(Coincidence: Nazis also gave their troupes methamphetamine)
Comments closed June 13, 2007.
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Heads in the Sand
hahahhaha. You are NOT a truth-seeking journalist
Posted by pimp hand strikes! | May 30, 2007 9:32 AM