09:17 – Barbara was out doing some work in the yard yesterday when she was attacked by our black walnut tree. The winds were gusty, and walnuts started dropping in droves. At least one nailed her. There are hundreds of them down in the yard now, with hundreds still remaining on the tree.
I’d like to harvest the walnuts, but I have no idea what the best way to proceed is. I vaguely remember back in the 70’s visiting a friend of a friend who had walnuts. IIRC, he’d collected them and put them out to dry. He had a steel plate with walnut-size holes in it. After filling the plate with raw walnuts, he’d smack each one with a rubber mallet to drive it through the hole and de-shell it. But we have no such plate, and I’m wondering if there’s an easier way to go about harvesting them.
Barbara’s at the gym right now. When she gets back, we need to build another batch of the CK01B chemistry kits. Once that’s complete, I’d like to get more bulk staples repackaged, including several 50-pound bags of flour, sugar, and rice. Also, Barbara has commented a couple of times now that the one-gallon jugs of pancake syrup are awkward to handle, particularly when they’re nearly full. I have several of the flip-top 89 fluid ounce (2.63L) orange juice jugs that we’ve cleaned and dried, so I’m going to transfer pancake syrup from the one-gallon jugs into those. Once cleaned, those one-gallon jugs will be useful for storing bulk staples.
I didn’t bother watching any of the debate last night. Watching two psychopaths going at each other isn’t my idea of a good time. Unless, as I’ve suggested, they arm both of them with helmets, shields, and short swords and let them go at it that way. I think Trump could take her. Not that it’d make much difference. Whichever one wins, we Normals are screwed.
Happy Columbus Day – my Italian flag is out.
Placed an order on Amazon last Tuesday for a display port to HDMI 6′ cable via prime for one of my clients. Tried to find it locally but couldn’t. USPS screwed up and sent the package from LA to Tracy instead of Bakersfield. Oddly on Thursday morning the tracking said ‘out for delivery’, but by 4:30 changed to delayed. Finally on Saturday in came back up as in LA and then sent to Santa Clarita (that’s 75 miles south of here but it’s the distribution center we are serviced out of). Yesterday morning it left Santa Clarita. It now occurred to me today is a USPS holiday and I won’t be getting the package until tomorrow.
One week from San Bernardino to Bakersfield. Wonderful.
And Happy Thanksgiving to our Canadian friends.
If you have your own walnut tree, and can expect to have a crop annually, invest in a small de-huller. This one will also hull corn cobs for you: http://pleasanthillgrain.com/maximizer-hand-corn-sheller-manual-walnut-maize-dehuller
Wear gloves, as the hulls will stain your skin black. You *can* hull the ripe fruit manually (peel with a knife, or just roll them under the sole of your shoe), but it is dirty and tedious work. Separate the hulls from your other compost, and make sure they are well rotted down, as the hulls contain poison for non-walnut plants.
Once the hulls are off, pressure-wash the shells, then put them on sheets of newspaper in a warm place to dry. Protect from squirrels. Even better – shoot the nut-thieves and eat them too!
Still sounds like a lot of work for not much in return, unless one has an insatiable taste for black walnuts. I’d be sorely tempted to cut down that tree, remove the stump and plant another type of fruit tree.
I remember Columbus Day being a big day down in Boston and Worcester back in the day; no idea how it is now. Zero up here in Retroville, of course. Italians are an exotic species, lol.
Mrs. OFD went horseback riding yesterday at the Garden of the Gods out there in Colorado and was not impressed with the horse or the staff. She’d had a much better time of it in Ireland last month. Now it’s back to work this morning, as Columbus Day is a big fat zero there, too. Canadian T-Day is a day off for Princess, but McGill makes sure to pile them up with work on the American T-Day, so it so far looks like wife and me will be spending this one alone at home. Fine by me. Eat like a pig and watch football, solid Murkan pastime. Not sure how many more of them like that we’ll have in this country. That will be roughly three weeks after the election.
Some good advice here:
http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/the-first-moments-after-what-you-need-to-do-immediately-after-shtf/
Again, valuable because it’s by someone who actually lived through a SHTF scenario. So have I, but it was over forty years ago and I had the backing of my very powerful and extremely well-armed Uncle. Most of the time.
We may cut down the tree. There’s probably $15,000+ worth of wood in it.
Now THAT sounds like a plan; get a tree specialist to take a look at it.
Killary’s dream:
https://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/using-howard-stern-to-build-hillarys-drea/
” “Globalization doesn’t mean that America will prevail, but that it will vanish among the electrons and laser beams by which the planet is to be held together.””
And pixels. Assuming that the electricity stays up and running everywhere. Which I tend to think could be a big assumption. Which everyone just continues to make.
My suggestion is to carefully prune the Walnut tree with a chainsaw…
For whatever reason WordPress won’t let me log in. Since I’ve changed my email and can no longer access the previous one, even asking for a new password doesn’t work.
More RINOs saying tRump sucks. It’s fun watching the Redumblican Party destroy itself. Rather than vote for their party’s nominee, they say they’ll vote for Cankles. Truly, The Party of Dumb. Now if we can get the Dumbocrats to do the same, the country might make a come back.
I’d second taking the tree out if you don’t like walnuts or don’t want the hassle of maintaining the tree.
Growing up in Florida, we had a wild orange tree in our back yard. The fruit that fell on the ground had to be picked up quickly since it attracted rats who would start scavenging in the vicinity once they were finished with the oranges. I’ve seen holes in concrete block chewed through by rats looking for food.
Do rats like walnuts?
“It’s fun watching the Redumblican Party destroy itself. Rather than vote for their party’s nominee, they say they’ll vote for Cankles. Truly, The Party of Dumb.”
My first wife and I voted for the first Bush. Second patriarch of the Bush Crime Family. It was a mistake, of course. And I’ve been saying for decades now that the Stupid Half of the Party betrayed us repeatedly and continued being stupid, and now it’s become very clear that it was all one big Party all the time anyway. There never was a dime’s difference between them. And I got howled at for saying this,; the levels of anger and vitriol directed at me, a traitor, were something to behold.
And now we all know.
Despite knowing, we’re faced with having to choose between the Stupid Half’s nominee, after he soundly defeated a dozen other non-entities and RINO asswipes (or at least that’s how the narrative has been set up), and an evil creature from the Depths. Great choice. Billionaire clown and wrestling promoter or Mrs. Gollum. Swell.
“Now if we can get the Dumbocrats to do the same, the country might make a come back.”
And if wishes were horses then beggars would ride. They’re hopeless; totally beholden to Evil, usually the communist/socialist version of it. And in any case, parties are kaput anyway in the near future. We’ll have other kinds of factions to worry about.
Back more than 50-years ago I remember when my Grandfather had a couple of really old really big black walnut trees cut down by a professional. I don’t remember how many but it took a lot of chainsaw blades to cut the trees down and then into the lengths my Grandfather wanted. The sections went to one saw mill where the black walnut promptly broke their biggest saw blade. Sent to another mill that was able to get the work done. I remember that he was complaining that the best deal he could get for the work was 25% of the rough sawed lumber.
WARNING – microagression) Don’t forget that to be politically correct, this is now Indigenous Species Day, or whatever the American Aborigines call themselves today.
More RINOs saying tRump sucks. It’s fun watching the Redumblican Party destroy itself. Rather than vote for their party’s nominee, they say they’ll vote for Cankles. Truly, The Party of Dumb. Now if we can get the Dumbocrats to do the same, the country might make a come back.
The RINOs are in rutting season and showing their horns. Be careful but they usually only gore themselves.
We may cut down the tree. There’s probably $15,000+ worth of wood in it.
Wow, that is a harvest.
You might also ask Lois (mail carrier ?) if anyone wants to transplant the tree. But I doubt that they would give you much for it.
And your 90 year old neighbor might have an anecdotal story about the tree.
And don’t bother detaching their horns and grinding them to powder; they’re in no way, shape or form, aphrodisiacs.
“Quick Debate Reactions from Switzerland”
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/151599421561/quick-debate-reactions-from-switzerland
“Clinton’s Abe Lincoln defense for two-faced politicking failed as hard as anything can fail. Mrs. Clinton, I knew Abe Lincoln, and you’re no Abe Lincoln. You know that was in your head. Or it will be.”
“For whatever reason WordPress won’t let me log in. Since I’ve changed my email and can no longer access the previous one, even asking for a new password doesn’t work.”
Hey, Bill. Welcome back. It’s been some time since your last post.
I think I can edit your account login info if you want to send me the email you’re using now and the initial password you want.
When the republican “leadership” comes out in favor of the OTHER party’s candidate, it should be clear to everyone with eyes. THERE IS ONLY ONE PARTY– THE POLITICAL CLASS. Above all else they want to retain their power and privilege.
That’s their only goal. Everything else is incidental.
n
Is anyone looking at The Drudge Report this morning ? Drudge has got Bill Clinton warily staring at his three rape accusers. Looks like he is wondering if any of them are armed and if the Secret Service will take a bullet for him.
http://drudgereport.com/
Billionaire clown
Dude, I’ve got to disagree with you. That there is a full on American Alpha Male, still at the very top edge of his prime. We used to see them everywhere but they have been hunted to extinction by the Libs. Watch out, they are very dangerous in or out of the native habitat.
Even though almonds and pistachios are king around here there are also many walnut groves. Not unusual for a farmer to find trees stolen. Cut down and small branches removed, large wood gone.
way, shape or form, aphrodisiacs.
Microaggression, Mr. OFD.
Too close to AFROmaniacs.
60 days Cankles “crust” licking for you!
It’s People Who Fucking Lost a War of Conquest Day.
Americans who don’t want to be celebrating their own “Lost the War Day” a few years from now might want to limit the number of unassimilable “migrants” entering the nation.
“Even though almonds and pistachios are king around here there are also many walnut groves. Not unusual for a farmer to find trees stolen. Cut down and small branches removed, large wood gone.”
I was actually thinking about planting a bunch of the fallen walnuts out by the road. I think I should have enough to plant a couple of them in small holes dug every six or eight feet. I could even toss a dead fish into each hole. I figure that by the time I’m 100 or 110 years old they’ll be bearing lots of walnuts. That’ll make a nice supplement to my retirement income, assuming I’ve retired that early and that the world is still here.
The only problem with that is that if I ever have to set off my claymores they’re really going to shred the trees.
If The Collapse holds off a few years, you can genetically modify your walnut grove to emit poison gas when you signal them through the underground root network. The FSA marching up your road will die in droves… and die where they stand, and rot. OK, maybe not the best idea.
Having had several walnut trees for years, I’d like to get rid of them. The walnuts beat up vehicles, worse than hail. The noise is pretty bad, too. I don’t think I have been hit by a falling walnut, but I would think that such a whack would erase random memories anyway. Walnuts on the ground can twist your ankle. I guess I’d be happier if my walnut trees were not over the driveway and house… Little trees sprout pretty often, but I guess they need some careful planting to survive to be an actual tree.
My grandfather had one of those corn shellers. Never used it for walnuts, but it would likely work. It was actually fun (for surburban kids) for corn, very fast (for dried corn, note).
Even if you get the soft hulls off, the shells of black walnuts are very hard and it takes a lot of delicate hammer work (oxymoron?) to get anything edible out. I love black walnuts to eat, but I have eaten only a very few in all these years.
Oh, the old way to hull walnuts was to put them in the driveway and run the vehicles over them. I’m pretty sure that various contaminants are an issue for walnuts left lying around for very long; it’s a good bet they won’t dry well on the ground, at least.
@RBT: re a new password for Bill: the best process (IMHO) is to change the email address for Bill, and then he can use the ‘lost password’ thing to make up his own password. Less hassle, since he should change his password anyhow if you give him one.
We used to collect them on the roadside in rural Indiana and Michigan where they were commonly found along farm roads and field edges. They typically have a very strong turpentine flavor and are really only good for cooking. Great for that though. I’d test taste a couple to see if they are worth the effort.
When we collected them, we kids would stomp them to get the husks off. Yep, that ruins shoes. Then dad would hang them in a net bag (from potatoes or onions) so they could dry a bit. To shell, he’d crack them in a workbench vise. You don’t get many nut meats from a big bag, and it’s a lot of work. That said, it is doable while watching tv or other passive activity, and doesn’t have to be done all at once or at any specific time.
I’d collect them. It’s part of the mystique.
nick
So maybe this is why the audience was using disposable film cameras last night:
“WOW! Reporter Admits Secret Service at Debate Said No Flashes Because of Hillary’s Seizure Disorder (VIDEO)
Jim Hoft Oct 10th, 2016 1:16 pm 54 Comments
It has been rumored that Hillary Clinton has a seizure disorder, possibly Parkinson’s disease, triggered by flashes.
Last night the Secret Service took attendees phones before going into the debate.”
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2016/10/wow-reporter-admits-secret-service-debate-said-no-flashes-hillarys-seizure-disorder-video/
Scott Adams’ admiration for Switzerland is noted. With his corrections, he’s also not too far from the truth. Of course, a lot of this comes from being a country of only 8 million, instead of 300 million. That is a huge advantage.
His contact was misinformed: We do get refugees, but so far (for no obvious reason) fewer than you would expect. Some 23% of our population consists of foreigners, from one country or another. That’s a lot. There are also some (obviously unknown) number of illegal immigrants, and there are a few homeless people hanging around most train stations.
Switzerland seems determined to mess up its health care system – it’s not as bad as ObamaCare by any means, but annual rate increases are much higher than inflation, and have been for years. Retirement programs are going to be under increasing stress from the low interest rates, but that is surely a worldwide problem.
All in all, it is a great place to live. I certainly have no desire to move anywhere else. My wife occasionally mentions Tasmania (@Miles), but she hasn’t ever even visited there, so I have to consider that just a random fantasy.
Hi Bob! Oh, I’ve been lurking, just haven’t had much to add to any prepping posts, and I’m just munching popcorn on the election stuff. I visit every day!!
Email sent. You are still using at ttgnet dot com, right?
Thanks for your assistance!
It might just be me, but I find it hard to understand why an undecided voter would go for Cankles. She’s got a long record of lying, obfuscation, destroying Libya, getting Gaddafi murdered, getting the Ambassador there murdered (lying to families), *losing* billions of dollars, destroying comms equipment with *hammers*, letting her minions skate, meddling in the ME. tRump has no political record. How hard is the choice to make? Are Bernie supporters going to vote for her after the emails revealed what a lying fuck she is? Are the undecideds really libturds (they’d be voting for Canklesore anyway)? Did you see her tax increase plans? Her potty mouth? I don’t see how a Secret Service agent would protect her after the way she treats them. UnBeLievable!
If you’ve got some means to grind the walnut shells down, they make wonderful media for a sandblasting kit. Especially helpful when cleaning a softer material, as the shells aren’t as aggressive as other abrasives.
And I’m back! Thanks to Bob for his very quick assistance!
How about partially composting the shells, then using them as mulch? Not on your own plants, of course, but on the prize flowers of someone you don’t like. Or over the grave of some scumbag. “Sumbitch was so mean he even killed the grass over his own grave.”
Took longer than it should have, since I did it from my Fire. I walked over to my desk and found my main system sitting at a GRUB rescue> prompt.
More fun crapping on the Stupid Half of the Party:
https://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2016/10/10/lol-7/
“…found my main system sitting at a GRUB rescue> prompt.”
Nice. What distro R U running on that? I forget (I’m forgetting a lotta stuff and also rarely use my new hearing aid, what does this mean? That I’m becoming an ornery and mean old man, probably…jeez…seems like only yesterday I was be-bopping outta skool to rock concerts in Boston and smoking doobies with Hells’ Angels at the old Boston Tea Party…)
I seem to remember it was either Mint or the standard-issue LTS Ubuntu…
https://outlandersystemsblog.wordpress.com/2016/10/10/go-shoot-the-gun/
This is all true but it also means shooting a chit-load of ammo REGULARLY in all weather conditions. He’s also shooting at stationary targets that ain’t shooting back at him.
For around the village here, I’m good with 100-yard “stand-off” accuracy, even with moving targets. But just up the road is a bunch of property stretching for MILES in both directions that is open and flat farmland. If necessary, it would be good to have the long-range ability that he’s talking about with the AR. Something I’ll be working on this next six months, among other things. MANY other things.
Oh my, all this name-calling:
http://www.thedailysheeple.com/did-wikileaks-just-end-hillary-clintons-campaign_102016
Baskets of deplorables on the one hand, and buckets of losers on the other. Gee whiz, she doesn’t like ANY of us, does she?
Trump said “pussy” eleven years ago and the MSM and Cankles supporters lose their minds. She disses the whole fucking country and nobody blinks.
Baskets of deplorables on the one hand, and buckets of losers on the other. Gee whiz, she doesn’t like ANY of us, does she?
The great unwashed ? No freaking way, she is part of the washed, the special people.
Yet her supporters will vote for her without question. The Stepford voters.
“The Stepford voters.”
Like the women in this family here. Trump is a rotten sexist pig with a foul mouth and probably gonna blow up the world. He said “pussy” and other bad things about women ten or twenty years ago, therefore he is persona non grata forever.
She’s running the commercial on the stations/networks here which blathers about how don’t want this guy for President for our daughters’ sakes. No, we’d rather have her, who’s enabled her serial rapist/pedophile cokehead husband for DECADES and viciously gone after his victims. And successfully defended a rapist and bragged and laughed about it after; like she brayed like a jackass over Qaddafi’s miserable death. And she’s FAR more likely to blow up the world than he is. All this falls on deaf ears.
Of course my Italian flag is about my heritage and Columbus Day, but only a small part. Mostly I’m about thumbing my nose at the pc crowd and their fucking ‘indigenous people’s day’.
But whites were in North America before Indians were.
“But whites were in North America before Indians were.”
You betcha. My Norse/Viking ancestors were here centuries before those folks who try to lay claim to being first. The only reason my ancestors didn’t stay is that there was nothing to pillage and plunder, damn boring place 😉 Except the hunting and fishing weren’t bad, but you can only do so much of that. Pillage and plunder, that’s fun.
Oh and there weren’t any wenches to take advantage of either.
there was nothing to pillage and plunder, damn boring place
Never knew they got as far west as Texas.
MrsAtoz was asking me about voting today. I immediately activated my covert obfuscation plan. “Um, yeah, you just go over to the polling place.” No question about ID, voter reg, not even *where*. Lol! Plan in effect! I can only hope it comes down to election day and she asks if *I* want to vote. “Um, err, I already voted early hon.” “Oh, can you take me there?” “Oh, sorry, early voting is closed. You’ll have to go to the polling place.” The line will probably be out the door at the HS gym. She won’t stand in line for long. Lolololol!
Nicely played, MrAtoz.
Mine keeps mentioning going over to make sure she’s registered in this town so she can vote, absentee, if necessary. Has made no move yet to actually do so. The danger window is between the time she gets back from her last gig around the end of the month or first day or two of next month and 11/8. We’ll see. She might make it to the town hall for the registration stuff, as it’s about a one-minute hike, but the voting takes place at the big sports building about four miles away, and the two vehicles here might develop mechanical or electrical problems around then….
If she is gonna be away for some reason, I’ll give her a phony address to mail her ballot to. And Princess will be in Moh-ree-all and voting won’t even occur to her, probably. That leaves the 88-year-old MIL; I’ll mess up her car, too. But wait–she’ll call her 91-year-old big sister for a ride…what to do…what to do…
As for who was here first in North Murka, my money is on either Bigfoot or space aliens, and I can claim descent from them, too.
This guy nails it too:
https://outlandersystemsblog.wordpress.com/2016/10/10/fuck-you/
Even more bad language alert, meaning there is a LOT more bad language. Don’t like it? Fuck you.
I just wish he’d take off the kid gloves and tell us what he REALLY thinks.
Med preps smorgasbjord:
http://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/2016/10/medical-text-linkapalooza-fm-21-11.html
Like he says, throw it all on a USB stick or two.
there was nothing to pillage and plunder, damn boring place
Never knew they got as far west as Texas.
Yes, they got as far east as Texas, maybe 14,000 years ago. Probably walking across a dry Bering Strait in the last mini ice age. And possibly Caucasians.
http://offcite.org/a-heartbreaking-loss-grand-parkway-segment-e-ruins-site-of-international-significance/
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Second-set-of-bones-found-in-tollway-project-path-3854601.php
The State of Texas and the five Native American Nations in Texas agreed to concrete over the burial site in 2012 so all excavation work was halted. And somewhere I saw that the bones were Caucasian instead of Native American but I cannot find it now.
Dadgum, Trump is going to have to buy some new engines for his 757 plane in November, “FULL EVENT: Donald Trump Holds Rally in Wilkes-Barre, PA 10/10/16”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-Cb9C1N8oE&feature=youtu.be&t=9348
This guy has tremendous amounts of energy for a 70 year old.
Great comment:
“Trump the Deplorable – Pence the Irredeemable
************* THE Winning Ticket *************”
This guy nails it too:
Man, that would be a great Youtube rant. I would love to see those MSM fukstiks get a big FU right in their fugly faces. Vote early and vote often just like a Libturdian!
From a comment at ZeroHedge, best summation I’ve read.
n
Oh man, this has me worried. My wife just told me that she is not going to vote for Trump. She is big #neverhillary fan so she will not vote for Hillary under any circumstances. In fact, she told me over the weekend that she wants me to bury my guns if Hillary is elected.
That video shocked my wife. Someone posted it on youtube and she watched it and was shocked. I told her that I have seen several guys talk like that in my time, especially in trying to impress other guys so they “lie”. She thinks Trump is a total pig though and does not want anything to do with him. Texas is not a battle ground state so she thinks that she can vote for Gary Johnson. I told her that Gary Johnson wants to put me out of business, the fossil fuels industry, and that stopped her for a moment.
Sigh. This is bad. My wife is extremely tolerant. After all, she is still married to me for almost 35 years. What about all of the other women who are not tolerant at all ? Are they going to hold their nose and vote for Trump ?
Speaking of youtube, this is a cool thing. My wife’s youngest uncle, her dad’s brother, passed away 20+ years at the age of 48 with lung cancer. He was a New York State Trooper K9 unit after he got out of the Air Force. His best dog was a big German Shepard named Brummer who lived with him and his family 24×7 for 12+ years. My wife’s cousin put together a little video for his dad a few years ago with a lot of pictures of them. Brummer does not look so big unless you know that George was 6’4″.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJsCJG1pi0c
Brad wrote:
“All in all, it is a great place to live. I certainly have no desire to move anywhere else. My wife occasionally mentions Tasmania (@Miles)…”
Real estate can be expensive and if you bring your sons you’ll have to send them off to the mainland to snare wives. Tasmania is more inbred than eastern Tenn.
Dave Hardy wrote:
“As for who was here first in North Murka, my money is on either Bigfoot or space aliens, and I can claim descent from them, too.”
Weren’t Mormons in the US before anyone else?
Barbara wouldn’t vote for Clinton if she were the last demon on earth.
My sister seems oblivious to Clinton’s many faults. She can’t believe I despise her so much and thinks she’d make a better president. I despair.
Several right wing Aussie male friends also are in Clinton’s corner. Why did the Rs pick a tosser like Trump? I thought the religious right ruled the Republicans and no way is he one of them.
Lynn, what makes you think the Libertarans want to put you out of business?
@lynn – thanks for that youtube. I paused it several times to be able to read the articles.
BTW, I want to make it perfectly clear that as a certified and accredited Submarine Sailor I have used some very descriptive language, but I learned most of it from my paternal Grandfather who swore a blue-streak all day long and it got really good if a piece of machinery or some livestock were not cooperating. All these goodie-two-shoes who say they are pure as the wind-driven-snow would lie about anything.
I briefed many Flag Officers in my day who used fuck, cunt, cock, pussy, etc. In front of females, also. Those words, like the 7 you can’t say on TV, are now on par with ni**er. Say them at your own peril. I can’t even type *that* word without being called a raycis.
[snip] Lynn, what makes you think the Libertarans want to put you out of business? [snip]
Johnson has said some anti-fossil fuels things. Very impractical, IMHO, as they are absolutely vital for a modern industrial economy, but there are those who would rather live like 12th century peasants than enjoy the benefits of machinery. If and when someone ever makes a practical, functioning fusion reactor then maybe we can get away from some uses. Anyway, that’s more thought on the topic than has been expressed by either major candidate all year. 🙁
“there are those who would rather live like 12th century peasants”
there are those who would rather have everyone but themselves live like 12th century peasants
FIFY
Just read some stuff concerning how to define what percentage of actual slavery people have lived under since ancient times and one of the take-aways is that a 12th-C serf was freer than we are now. We were freest in the late 19th-C and have been increasingly enslaved since, by taxes and gummint interference in our lives from womb to tomb.
If you care about the environment, regardless of your view as to whether Climate Change is human caused or not, the two greatest innovations have been hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and nuclear power. Natural gas is now cheaper (and cleaner) than coal thanks to fracking. Nuclear power is the only reliable way to generate large amounts of electricity without harming the environment. If the American people cared about the environment, we would push for molten salt reactors that are inherently much safer than current reactor designs. We would also push for using thorium in our molten salt reactors, because the thorium would not be the first step in making a nuclear weapon.
We would also push for using thorium in our molten salt reactors, because the thorium would not be the first step in making a nuclear weapon.
Youtube:
The Thorium Dream
Thorium: An energy solution – THORIUM REMIX 2011
Can I have one under my garage?
I’d settle for a plain old Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator under my garage.
Last time I spent much time looking at thorium it wasn’t economic.
For those of you who may not recall my nuclear related resume:
– United States Navy Nuclear Power Program (qualified on S5G, S6G, and S5w reactors)
– Fast Flux Test Facility (sodium cooled fast breeder reactor)
– Hanford N Reactor (water/graphite-moderated dual purpose plutonium production and electrical production reactor)
– Representative to the Institute of Nuclear Power Operation (INPO)
http://www.inpo.info/
My position was unique as all other INPO members and representatives were from commercial plants world-wide.
I do not care to engage in a long discussion of what form of nuclear power is best as each has its place. However, there must be a holistic solution that encompasses all types of nuclear power and production. IMHO, the fast breeder reactor has to be the base and core. The fast breeder reactor essentially produces more fuel than it uses, produces many other nuclear fuels for use in other types of reactor, produces medical isotopes, and takes the waste from other reactors and creates usable fuel and isotopes.
[snip] Lynn, what makes you think the Libertarans want to put you out of business? [snip]
Johnson has said some anti-fossil fuels things. Very impractical, IMHO, as they are absolutely vital for a modern industrial economy, but there are those who would rather live like 12th century peasants than enjoy the benefits of machinery. If and when someone ever makes a practical, functioning fusion reactor then maybe we can get away from some uses. Anyway, that’s more thought on the topic than has been expressed by either major candidate all year.
Johnson wants a rapidly increasing CO2 production tax. In fact, he wants to replace the USA income tax with it. This will severely depress the fossil fuel industry in the USA who is 80% of my business.
BTW, I don’t think that the Libertarians particularly want a carbon tax, it is more Johnson that anything else from what I understand. He has co-opted the Libertarian party.
He and Weld are big-gummint coyotes in libertarian sheep costumes. Couple of rancid old goofball buffoons going nowhere. Probably in it as a regime-subsidized sideshow to drain off focus from the two psychopaths periodically.
I have no objection to nuclear power, but I don’t want the “Industry” Hoovering up taxpayers’ dollars to make it profitable.
A few years ago in Oz the Federal government hand picked a pro-nuclear guy to advise them. He was in favour, but said it would take a lot of government subsidies to make it economic, or else non-nuclear would have to be taxed extra to “level the playing field”.
Pass.
I agree about taxpayer subsidies, but we’re already subsidizing the far less practical wind and solar.
hell, we subsidize oil and gas too. Probably coal as well but the current regime is so anti-coal that that may have changed.
Energy, cheap and abundant, is the growth driver. Behind every unit of currency, there is a unit of energy, however obscure or obscured. The more energy, the better off everyone is.
n
Way too much is subsidized, particularly power and agriculture. Absolutely all subsidies and the bureaucracies and rules that go along with them. You have a small argument that at one time, long ago, there was the slightest justification for them. IMHO, even those slightest of justifications were really not enough.
I am of the radical view that ALL gooberment agencies must be eliminated. None existed at the founding of our Republic and things managed to work back then. Maybe it has something to do with people accepting responsibility for their actions and their fellow man (and I use man in its all inclusive form). It also might be because we were taught morals and values.