Archives for August 2011

In Massachusetts, one of the poster children of the “green energy” and “green jobs” myth has shown us what the reality really is. After taking $58 million in taxpayer money to build a factory, the company has filed for bankruptcy liquidation after having shut the factory down months ago.

The end of Evergreen Solar should be a reality check for cheerleaders for “clean energy” advocates — such as Barack Obama — who beg governments to pour millions and millions more of our dollars down that rathole in search of the elusive dream of energy without any environmental cost.

Evergreen Solar promised 800 good jobs in Massachusetts, but it wanted $58 million in state money to help build the factory. So the state ponied up the money — leaving taxpayers without their money as the company owes nearly $500 million in debts. But the funniest thing is that it didn’t even produce the promised jobs for long. The factory was built. Those 800 people were hired. But it wasn’t working. The economics of solar power don’t work at this point. So the company shut down the factory last March and shifted its production to China.

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The most evil man I’ve ever personally experienced was almost elected lieutenant governor of Alabama. I met him years before that, though, when he was about to run for his first office. Our first meeting at his office was surreal.

He had the coldest eyes I’ve ever seen. His voice was flat and monotone. But he had a presence that you might expect from a senator or a governor. He seemed to feel entitled. He seemed to feel superior. Strangely, none of his words matched what I felt in his eyes. He talked a good game about morality and ethics and feeling guided by his Christian faith to run for office. The scary thing is that I think he believed what he was telling me. I’ve worked with enough charming liars to know the difference. This guy felt evil, like a psychopath.

I didn’t work for the guy, but he was elected to his first office and became a powerful man in state politics. I heard plenty of things about him from friends inside his campaigns that gave me a great relief that I never worked for him. I felt a sigh of relief when statewide voters barely rejected him.

What I’m about to say is terribly unfair, because I don’t have enough facts to know the truth about this man. I’m well aware of that. But I get the same feelings about Rick Perry that I got from that psychopath long ago. I think he’s scary.

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Black cats are said to be a source of bad luck, but this black cat seems to be incensed at being blamed for the stupidity and ignorance of politicians. You can’t blame her, can you?

Campaigning in Iowa — although he pretended it wasn’t campaigning — Barack Obama lamented the state of the economy. He claimed that his administration had things turned around until … well … you read it:

“We had reversed the recession, avoided a depression, gotten the economy moving again,” Obama told a crowd in Decorah, Iowa. “But over the last six months we’ve had a run of bad luck.” Obama listed three events overseas — the Arab Spring uprisings, the tsunami in Japan and the European debt crises — which set the economy back.

I covered this just a few days ago. The late, great sci-fi author Robert A. Heinlein famously wrote that those who did everything in their power to stop creative people from advancing civilization would blame the problems on something besides themselves:

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