We all have times during which we reflect. While pumping gas recently, I thought about a
time a few years back when I was fishing.
Crusty and I were floating about in a boat on a lazy, sunny
day when out of nowhere he spewed what he considered profound thought.
“Years ago, GM bought the patent for a carburetor that runs
on water from some guy. GM basically
stole it and now we have to pay through the nose for gas to drive!” was his
epiphany.
Because I am a non-confrontational person, I let this one
go.
“Exxon also bought a car that ran on batteries and hid it so
that no one would be able to replicate it and force us to buy gas!” was the
next sentence from Crusty’s pea brain that made me realize he needed
institutionalizing.
Crusty, like many other easily-swayed folks, like to play
freely with the realities. Facts have no
place in their logic.
I am old – dirt was invented two years after my birth – and
remember the bread delivery method in my neighborhood was via horse and
wagon. Sure, it was great for little
kids like me to see horses about the streets but, for the edification of
urbanites, or modern city slickers, horses bring problems that motor vehicles
don’t.
Equines emit methane gas and other bodily wastes at
will. Read: In the streets, anywhere and everywhere. Suddenly, horses are not as sanitary as one
would hope. Besides, with the benefit of
a good rain, all that farm animal debris washes down the storm sewers and into
the streams and rivers, causing pollution.
Although nostalgic, horses as methods of transportation are not
practical.
Yet, environmentalists feel they can re-invent the
proverbial wheel and try to make life better.
They can’t but, inventors can.
Environmentalists would like us to believe cars, trucks, and
buses can and should be powered by clean, renewable energy such as solar
power. Such ideas are as crazy as those
emitting from Crusty’s yap. While solar
panels have evolved since I was young, they are barely able to now power a
small radio much less a vehicle which needs to travel reliably on America’s
highways.
Then there are those do-gooders who think trains and
trolleys are the wave of the future.
They will be able to carry many, many passengers to all sorts of places
quickly and efficiently, say those idea folks.
That is forward thinking to 1865, perhaps, but not 2013 and beyond.
Crusty and his wife enjoy cruises but, they don’t board
cruise liners with masts and sails. That
would be terribly cost effective saving tons of fuel to amble about the seas.
Unfortunately, the trips would last far beyond the six day, seven night passage
more often than not. That is
inefficient, at best.
And, windmills are the rage for people who don’t have to
look at them every day, all day. Giant
posts supporting spinning blades, catching the wind to produce electricity also
sounds like a win-win situation. The
late Senator Edward Kennedy wanted windmills in everyone’s yard because they
were so good for the environment yet he put the brakes on a project to build
some near his home because of aesthetics.
Zero emissions to yield a valuable product is quite a coup –
until one figures in that the batteries needed to store the magically captured
power have to be replaced every few years. This is akin to the electric cars that require
battery replacement to the tune of several thousands of dollars and the
pollution created to both make and dispose of them.
Still, Crusty and other weak minded individuals actually
believe that some wealthy, greedy corporations have a hidden vault somewhere in
which this water-fed carbs and lifetime batteries are stored.
To recap, the Dutch were renaissance people with their
windmills, Christopher Columbus was a true genius proved by his three ships,
and the iron horse was science fiction fodder.
It’s too bad that environmentalists don’t want to bring back
horses. I loved them.
