Noblesse Oblige

Now that the entire world is talking about Nuclear energy, the perils of burning food, and energy needs it’s safe to move on to other topics, so I will let those lie awhile. It’s been a somewhat lonely couple of years leading into this however. (if you check past posts, pages etc. you will see where I’ve been predicting that we will need all the sources of energy we have in the short term gap. That includes even bio-fuels and coal which I’ve been picking on lately, research must continue at minimum — and short term we might need it for security.) Also see this article on energy sybsidies.

Some clarity comes from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), an independent federal agency that tried to quantify government spending on energy production in 2007. The agency reports that the total taxpayer bill was $16.6 billion in direct subsidies, tax breaks, loan guarantees and the like. That’s double in real dollars from eight years earlier, as you’d expect given all the money Congress is throwing at “renewables.” Even more subsidies are set to pass this year.

An even better way to tell the story is by how much taxpayer money is dispensed per unit of energy, so the costs are standardized. For electricity generation, the EIA concludes that solar energy is subsidized to the tune of $24.34 per megawatt hour, wind $23.37 and “clean coal” $29.81. By contrast, normal coal receives 44 cents, natural gas a mere quarter, hydroelectric about 67 cents and nuclear power $1.59.

I’m still not running ads, nor asking for donations and I expect that to continue at least until such time as I retire from my other job. 

The sidebar might go wonky later this week, and the format might change while I fiddle with the theme and a few other things here, if it blows up too badly for you please drop a comment, I can’t test with fifteen types of browsers the way the pros like Charles Johnson do.

There’s yet another merger going on where I work, and I might get sucked into a black hole as technical structures get glued togetther and strategies are aligned. I will remain incommunicado on things technical for the duration just to ensure that I don’t spill the beans on anything from work accidentally.  I don’t do too much of that anyway simply because I don’t want to feel like I’m pimping a company or technology to you.

The redbuds are all gone and the trees are leafed out here, and I”m into the mowing routine. I just finished the back but caught the front wheel in that planter again, bending the tie-rod. I beat it out once more with a hammer and all is well with the tractor. Mowing the lawn is getting a bit more expensive due to gas prices, so expect the neighborhood kids to start charging more if that’s how you get your lawn done.

It appears that Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan is either making raids cross border, or seeking alliances or arms judging by who was killed in a recent clash with Afghan and NATO forces in Afghanistan. From the Hindu News:

The dead Taliban belonged to the Wazir tribe and were members of a group led by Pakistani Taliban Mullah Nazir, who operates in the South Waziristan tribal region. Among the dead were Maulana Muhammad Iqbal, deputy chief of Mullah Nazir’s group, and Khan Mohammed Wazir, another key Taliban commander.

Three of the dead Taliban were aged between 15 and 20 years, local tribesmen said. The bodies were repatriated to Wana from Afghanistan’s eastern Paktika province early today, the Taliban sources said.

The skirmish in Paktika left 13 Taliban militants and eight NATO and Afghan troops, including a colonel, dead. Witnesses said the bodies of the Pakistani Taliban were badly burnt, making it difficult to identify them.

More on Taliban captured and killed this weekend here.