Higher gasoline prices; a fairness issue,
In 2008, Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary, Dr. Steven Chu said that American energy policy should be calibrated to drive the cost of gasoline to the same level as Europe in order to produce more demand for alternative energy production. Chu told The Wall Street Journal, "Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe."…
Article comments
26 - Christopher Rose
That's not really a very satisfactory response, Roger.
I don't see liberalism as dangerous to anyone but control freaks, dictators and fascists so I don't really have any other questions than repeating my request for you to explain what you mean with your casual if sweeping remark.
27 - troll
hopefully Roger has written his summation to his series in a manner accessible to all so that it can serve as a base for discussion of this important question
28 - roger nowosielski
It's rather difficult, troll, having to condense the works of Hobbes to three or four pages. I grant the articles submitted thus far don't make for easy reading, but I can assure you, they were even more difficult to write.
I take it as inevitable that some work on the part of the reader is a must, if they be willing to examine the prejudices and biases that govern their thinking. And if they are not, well ... there's nothing I can do about that.
One could of course try to write a critique of liberalism in a novel form, a la Ayn Rand, but that's not in the cards right now.
29 - Glenn Contrarian
In other words, "It takes a bit of work on the part of the reader to decipher the tea leaves splattered among the digital diarrhea I've deposited over the past few months, but I can't really boil it down more succinctly than that. If the reader isn't willing to go to the effort, well, there's nothing I can do about that".
Roger, even most undergrad students are able to describe the concepts of Einstein's general relativity in just a few sentences, and somehow I'm disinclined to believe that you're unable to do the same for something that I doubt is as complicated as relativity. Unwilling, perhaps, but not unable.
30 - roger nowosielski
Don't waste your breath, Glenn. Thinking has never been your forte, especially abstract thinking. As to your change of subject, you may be versatile in relativity theory, but when it comes to sociological or political analysis, you suck.
In any case, I'm not about to convince hard-core liberals. I've given up on that project long ago. If anything, I'm writing for my own self-edification, which ought to be the main reason behind any kind of writing, participate in it or not.
Sorry I couldn't be any more positive about my response, if that's what you were looking for. As far as I'm concerned, I've been spoon-feeding you all along. If you refuse to regurgitate Gerber food, I can't help it.
I can't be a nanny forever.
31 - Jordan Richardson
I'm writing for my own self-edification...
Noooo, really?
32 - Jet Gardner
Obama Hussein is really a lousy president anyway. After all he needs to get off of his lazy ass and at least have an affair with a White House intern, or be photographed holding hands with a Saudi King, or been caught in a shady real estate deal, or at least have the Republican National Commitee's offices bugged.
What fun is it when his wife and two daughters are devoted to him and no one can dig up any personal dirt on the man?
I betcha just before the election, some GOP-paid staffer will reveal that Michelle has been caught having a lesbian affair with Ellen Degeneres and was blackmailed into giving the Chinese her secret formula for fertilizer in the White House vegetable Garden and that she's been smuggling drugs in her cuccumbers and squashes.
Oh the scandal...
33 - roger nowosielski
@31
Such a strange idea, Jordan, that it never crossed your mind?
Do you really think it's more rewarding to be writing for edification such as you and company?
34 - troll
Roger - you haven't spoon fed anyone anything...you need to cut the crap if you intend to have a meaningful discussion about liberalism with anyone
you don't seem to understand that your audience isn't entirely made up of students of philosophy who have studied Hobbes
your attitude is alienating and annoying
35 - Glenn Contrarian
Roger -
If anything, I'm writing for my own self-edification, which ought to be the main reason behind any kind of writing, participate in it or not.
If you were a poet, I'd agree with you. But IMO poets are not generally happy people. That's something you might want to think about. And I have never said or implied that I was 'versatile' with or that I had much more than a layman's understanding of relativity - that's simply you reading meanings into my words that was never there.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'll go back to being the greatest threat to democracy - see? It says it right there on the abstract....
36 - Jet Gardner
Glenn I must've missed the memo-congrats!
37 - troll
btw - the answer to Igor's #10 (since he seems to have reneged on his promise to answer it) is "fear" to quote Prof Wolff
in particular fear of European style critical thinking and fear for their academic positions in the US
38 - roger nowosielski
I said, troll, I'm not about to write an Ayn Rand novel. I work hard for my understanding, always have, so I don't see why I should give anyone a pass. And yes, I am spoon-feeding the bastards, providing 'em with the reader's digest. They should be grateful, and if they're not, fuck 'em.
In any case, I don't expect much of a dialogue with anyone one, not anymore. The academics are too much into their own shit, too conceited to talk to you unless you have their kind of credentials; and ordinary mortals, I have far better lack and success talking to them face to face. So yes, I'm in a kind of limbo, I admit it.
My last hope was you and Cindy. Cindy's disengagement at present I can well understand; and as far as Ana is concerned, she's not into "political theory," she says.
But that's quite alright. I've learned over the years to go it alone. I wasn't the first one, and I won't be the last. So long as I have the strength, I'll do my bit and I'll be grateful.
39 - troll
...yer kill'n me Roger - in my case you're preaching to the choir but there are liberals - Chris in particular - who have expressed interest in and a lack of understanding of your proposal and who could carry on a decent argument if you could agree on a 'language' to use
there's my 2 cents and I await your summation...btw folks - it helps to follow Roger's series if you put it all into one document
40 - Glenn Contrarian
Roger -
The academics are too much into their own shit, too conceited to talk to you unless you have their kind of credentials
Says the academic who writes for his own edification who is sure that the reader is unable to comprehend the abstract in his writing.
41 - roger nowosielski
@39
Not really. Internet communications are a joke, can't tell who is who anymore.
Witness recent exchange on TD with Ozark, and that's after a series of meaningful, or so I thought, exchanges. Doesn't make fucking sense.
In any case, should be getting my angioplasty come next week, so I'll be firing on full four again, for a year or so. Perhaps that's why I was being so indolent and down. But don't expect me to be glued to this site. Once I move back to CA, I'll certainly have better things to do. All told, it's been a bummer, an experience in unreality.
You'll always be welcome to keep in touch.
42 - Glenn Contrarian
In any case, should be getting my angioplasty come next week, so I'll be firing on full four again, for a year or so. Perhaps that's why I was being so indolent and down. But don't expect me to be glued to this site. Once I move back to CA, I'll certainly have better things to do. All told, it's been a bummer, an experience in unreality.
I hope your surgery is very successful, and that you'll feel much better afterwards, Roger - and I think you'll feel MUCH better in California. I really do wish you the best of luck.
43 - roger nowosielski
Thank you.
44 - troll
...sorry to hear about the ticker Rog - and good luck with surgery
don't take OzarkM's fun and games so seriously...he was just goofing around methinks
45 - roger nowosielski
Should get five more years or so of productive living, unless there be a mishap. One way or another, I'll be ready to fold it.
46 - Jet Gardner
Roger, I've had angioplasty, 3 stents and a triple bypass and have a pacemaker-believe me it's a piece of cake and it's over before you know it.
In my angioplasty they went up through my groin, so you have to be awake through the whole thing. the doctor stopped a chamber so I could feel what a heart attack felt like and your arm really does hurt, but it's nothing.
word of experience
47 - Jordan Richardson
Roger, everytime I've mentioned the thought that you write only for self-edification, you denied it. Good to see you catching up with reality.
As for your angioplasty and dreams of California, I wish you the very best. Give 'em hell like only you can, pal.
48 - Glenn Contrarian
California -
Hollywood, Disneyworld, and Malibu - but the only thing I really wish I could have seen was the corner of Haight and Asbury in the Summer of Love. I finally did make it there on a port visit in the late 80's...but it was nothing like it was supposed to have been back in the late '60's.
49 - Zingzing
Hope everything goes well with your surgery, Roger.
50 - roger nowosielski
thanx, guys.