A symbol is not a thing, and as much as I'd like to sit around all day and bitch about Obama's deep hatred for me inasmuch as I am an atheist, and it seems, from what I hear, that Obama is having a prayer at his inaugeration, there is something going on much bigger than me, NNadir, fat man.
Speaking of the difference between symbols and things, one often sees pictures of Danish windmills as symbols of the fight against climate change, a fight which involves all of humanity, including fat, bald, ugly, heterosexual atheists like NNadir.
Let's be clear on something:
Two of the most notorious anti-nuke countries in Europe, Norway and Denmark, are huge dangerous fossil fuel exporters, although, we shall see, the Norwegian anti-nuclear stance is suddenly and dramatically softening, in part because of Norway's huge reserves of the element thorium.
Denmark, in case you are unaware of it, is a fair sized exporter of both dangerous natural gas and dangerous oil. In fact, Danish exports of dangerous natural gas exceed, by a factor of 3, Danish consumption of so called "renewable energy."
If you want to see this graphically, I invite you to look at the picture contained in this link:
Look at all the pretty colors.
You see that thin green line at the top? That's all the famous Danish renewable energy production. You see the real fat yellow line? That's Danish dangerous natural gas production. How about the fat purple line? That's Danish oil production.
Where, you may ask, does this dangerous natural gas and dangerous oil come from?
Well, let's put it this way: Wind farms are not the only structures Denmark builds in the sea.
In fact, the internationally much ballyhooed wind farms have not caused the Danes to stop building dangerous oil and dangerous natural gas platforms in the North Sea. Perish the thought!
In fact Danish dangerous natural gas consumption has increased by a factor of 3 since 1990 and, as the link shows, dwarfs the famous wind energy production by a factor of 13.
In fact Denmark has no plans whatsoever to phase out dangerous fossil fuels, although it would very much like Sweden, to which it exports dangerous natural gas, to phase out nuclear power.
Regrettably for the Danes, Sweden apparently has phased out the dangerous and stupid nuclear phase out.
By the way, the Norwegian dangerous natural gas and dangerous oil fields are now entering a period of decline. (Cf. Mikael Höök, Kjell Aleklett Energy Policy 36 (2008) 4262–4271)
In my view, this is not a bad thing, since I, unlike the Danes, favor an immediate phase out of dangerous fossil fuel based energy systems.
However, this fact may explain the sudden turnaround, if real, in Norwegian public opinion on the subject of nuclear energy, if in fact, the reported change in public perception is real.
Over the past eight months, there has been a substantial rise in public support for thorium reactors in Norway. In June 2006, polls showed 80 per cent of the population were completely opposed to any form of nuclear technology. Then in February 2007, the same percentage were in favour of investigating thorium reactors as a potential energy source.
"It is an absolutely incredible surprise that it has been possible to turn around the population in a country, just by quietly campaigning and explaining the benefits of the technology," said Egil Lillestøl, a nuclear physicist at the University of Bergen, Norway.
Lillestøl is a keen supporter of the ADS (Accelerated Driven System) technology used in thorium-fuelled reactors. Because thorium is incapable of achieving a self-sustaining chain reaction – unlike uranium or plutonium – it needs energy to be injected into the reactor to keep it running. This energy comes in the form of neutrons from a particle accelerator. For this reason, a thorium-fuelled reactor is also sometimes called a sub-critical reactor.
Statkraft is the third Norwegian company to express interest in thorium reactors this year; Thor Energi and Bergen Energi, have both applied for government licenses to build plants.
It can't have been a great job up to now, by the way Dr. Lillestøl, nuclear physicist in Norway, but hey, someone has to do it.
(By the way, in case you're wondering, the fat, ugly Obama dissed atheist NNadir is not a fan of ADS systems.)
Sweden, if you must know, has a pretty robust compliment of nuclear engineers, even if Norway doesn't, and many of these engineers know how to curse in Norwegian.
Kyss mæ i ræva, kveithau.
Personally, whenever I have seen the Norwegian energy policies, I have been inclined to say, "Jeg må spy," but I am willing to let bygones be bygones for any country that pursues a policy of phasing out dangerous fossil fuels. If Norway demolishes its new dangerous natural gas fueled electricity plants, all is forgiven. Har du en øl? (Yes, the Norwegian word for "beer" is very close to our word for oil, even if, predictably, they dump all kinds of consonants into their word for "oil," olje.)
I have something else to say, though maybe it is not wise to wade into this matter that so disturbs me, which is, perhaps, off topic. I think I speak for the overwhelming majority of Kossacks when I say that it was a dark cloud on a bright night when that horrid Proposition 8 was passed.
I am not gay, but one reason that I would never consent to let my boys be Boy Scouts or Cub Scouts is the awful, un-American way that the Boy Scouts treated that fine young gay Eagle Scout in my state years ago, when he wanted to do nothing more than serve as a scoutmaster, just as his father had been and, instead, was confronted with a Supreme Court decision that the Boy Scouts could be bigots because they were, in effect, a religion.
My whole life I have faced pressure to be, remain, or to return to being a Christian, but the rights of our gay citizens is one reason why I do not even deign to pretend to participate in that faith.
It brings a profound sense of pain that our gay citizens do not enjoy the same legal and moral rights that I have so enjoyed these many years, and I will always embrace the fight to make this happen.
I have heard it said that the Norwegians are Christians, and even if this is so, they once had an element in the periodic table named for one of their pagan gods, and that element, thorium, is important to all of us. If Norway goes nuke, and provides its thorium to humanity, all is forgiven.
I have been treated with great disrespect and contempt, not only for my honest, if often viciously expressed, nuclear views, but for other things as well. The father of the thug who still resides in the White House, who was once President himself, openly and proudly remarked that atheists could not be Americans. Try that on for size.
As for the NNadir policy of deriding the President-elect for having prayers at the inaugeration, thus dissing this often closeted atheist, I'm willing to let that slide too, since the mutterings of bigots is not the big issue, not when the planet is dying. The essence of Christianity, its worst adherents aside, is to turn the other cheek. This violently opinionated pacifist can respect that concept, which is an idea worth saving.
I believe I know what the President-elect was trying to do, and if he has stumbled badly in so doing, I forgive him nonetheless. He will stumble many times, because that is what a great man or great woman must do in aspiring to greatness.
For instance, I suspect he will try coal, for instance, and he will fail at it, and as bad a failure as that will represent, I will forgive him if hereafter he does the right thing later.
This is not about NNadir, and it is not about you, and it is not about the silly racist Scandanavian jokes that fill my diaries, most of which are unjust, maybe even wrong.
This is not about good times, or happy times, or even about love - as wonderful as love is - but it is about fearful and dangerous times where there will be a great temptation to give into hatred, to become hatred.
We cannot do that. We cannot let hatred define us, either as object or as practioners.
This challenge that comes to us in these days on so many levels is about all of us, this is about humanity, and if we are all human before we are any other thing, we have some chance that we may not fail ourselves.