We found a very nice tree about the size of the artificial one, and it was $20 with a tip for the guy who wrapped it up and stuck it in the truck. I had put the old tree stand in a handy place in the basement, so it came readily to hand, and now the tree is in the front window, warming up and relaxing. We're going to decorate it tonight, I think.
Well, what the hey.
* * *
Environmentalism is economic suicide. The city of Portland, Oregon, wants to cut CO2 emissions to 20% of 1990 levels by 2050.
It's flatly impossible to do that without laying waste to three quarters of the city. Detroit managed to cut its CO2 emissions; of course no one wants to live there because it's a festering shithole of epic proportions, but if being "green" is your goal that's about what it will take to accomplish a goal of using only 20% of the energy used in 1990.
You cannot conserve your way to such a point. It will require solar and wind power, two sources which are diffuse, highly inefficient, and very expensive to implement. (I think it goes without saying that of course no nuclear power plants will be built.)
The result will be hyper-expensive energy and a bunch of poor people freezing in the dark. But as Borepatch points out, they're all the wrong sorts of people, anyway. "Not the swell sort that go to wine tastings at the very well regarded localvore cafe. Almost Kulaks."
* * *
Kulaks. About six million people, killed on Stalin's orders, because Class Enemy.
* * *
There are record numbers of unemployed men and one reason is that there has been no recovery from the so-called "Great Recession". We are in an ongoing economic depression, which is why unemployment is so rampant. All the critical statistics are being fudged, adjustered, or flat-out fabricated by the federal government, because the alternative is for a hell of a lot of politicians, bureaucrats, bankers, and lobbyists to end up unemployed and/or lynched.
* * *
Another Windows update that breaks shit. This time it's for Win 7, which I skipped.
* * *
The A380, the double-deck airliner nobody wants. That's not exactly true, since they initially had all kinds of orders for the thing, but because Airbus had so much trouble getting the things out of the factory many of those orders were canceled.
The saddest part of all this is the timing: the A380 is a good idea, but it hit just as the entire world-wide market for air travel declined, because the world economy is in the crapper.
On the other hand, the ability of Airbus to build a good airplane is suspect. "If it ain't Boeing, I ain't going" is not entirely an uncommon saying.
* * *
Well, with everything I have to do tonight--I have to cook dinner and help decorate a Christmas tree, apparently--I suppose I'd better stop lollygagging at the PC and start moving.
It sure is nice.