Monthly Archives: February 2008

Ethanol Adds to Global Warming?

Posted on February 8, 2008 | Comments Off on Ethanol Adds to Global Warming?

A new study getting a lot of press says that ethanol is actually worse for the environment than gasoline. A lot of experts have been saying just that for years.

Seems a lot of people get sucked into an “anything but oil” mentality. I too look forward to the day when we have a cleaner, cheaper energy source. But we’ve known for years that ethanol isn’t it. It only has 2/3 the btu’s of gasoline, so it only gives 2/3 the mileage. Emissions are roughly the same. Now we know that the manufacturing process causes more emissions than oil’s. Oh, and it’s more expensive, too. Not a good deal.

Strange that ethanol still commands widespread support. I can think of two reasons: politics (farm state politicians courting votes), and the anything-but-oil mindset.

I’ve sensed the tide turning against ethanol in the last year or so, ever since it started making food prices go up. This study only adds to the trend. Maybe soon companies can pour their R&D resources toward a more useful end.

Seems a lot of people get sucked into an “anything but oil” mentality. I too look forward to the day when we have a cleaner, cheaper energy source. But we’ve known for years that ethanol isn’t it. It only has 2/3 the btu’s of gasoline, so it only gives 2/3 the mileage. Emissions are roughly the same. Now we know that the manufacturing process causes more emissions than oil’s. Oh, and it’s more expensive, too. Not a good deal.

Strange that ethanol still commands widespread support. I can think of two reasons: politics (farm state politicians courting votes), and the anything-but-oil mindset.

I’ve sensed the tide turning against ethanol in the last year or so, ever since it started making food prices go up. This study only adds to the trend. Maybe soon companies can pour their R&D resources toward a more useful end.

Comments Off on Ethanol Adds to Global Warming?

Posted in Economics, The New Religion

The Uses of Distraction

Posted on February 3, 2008 | Comments Off on The Uses of Distraction

The art of argument has a lot of tools. One of them I loathe: the personal attack. Paul Krugman, a partisan Democrat, is a master of the ad hominem. I’ve taken issue with him before.

I’m reading a book of his, 1994’s Peddling Prosperity, for a class right now. Early on (p.23), there is a textbook use of personal attack to distract the reader from the matter at hand. Here, Krugman accuses someone of racism to discredit their main point, which has nothing to do with race:

In 1981 Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan uttered a startling pronouncement: “The Republicans,” he declared, “are now the party of ideas.” Moynihan was and is a moderate Democrat. He once served in the Nixon administration, and he earned the ire of many 1960s liberals both by his willingness to talk about the disintegration of black families and by his authorship of a leaked memo suggesting that the race issue be treated with “benign neglect.”

Moynihan’s “benign neglect” memo is despicable. But it has nothing to do with whether or not the GOP had creative ideas in the early 1980s.

Sadly, the average reader won’t see past that. They will take Moynihan’s wrongness on racial issues to mean he is automatically wrong on anything else he says.

Ah, distraction. When you don’t feel like constructing a strong argument, simply distract the reader. Maybe they won’t notice.

Comments Off on The Uses of Distraction

Posted in Argumentation, Philosophy, The Partisan Mind

Transferring Wealth vs. Creating Wealth

Posted on February 3, 2008 | Comments Off on Transferring Wealth vs. Creating Wealth

Jesse Holland, AP Labor writer, asks, “Will more jobless benefits aid economy?”

The article is less than clear, but here’s my short answer: no.

Unemployment benefits are not new wealth. They are a transfer of already existing wealth from some people to others. To get the economy back on track, new wealth needs to be created. Which unemployment benefits cannot do.

Comments Off on Transferring Wealth vs. Creating Wealth

Posted in Economics, Spending