Gun Free Zone

Every candidate that got asked last night if would ban off-shore drilling, oil extraction, and coal said “yes.”

That got me thinking.

Let’s ignore power generation for one minute, and assume that all of our energy needs are met through renewable sources, including electric cars and stuff like that.

If we banned petroleum and coal, what would happen?

According to extrapolated data from NACE (National Association of Corrosion Engineers):

The total annual corrosion costs in the U.S. rose above $1 trillion in the middle of 2013, illustrating the broad and expensive challenge that corrosion presents to equipment and materials and is now estimated at $1.1 trillion for 2016.

According to Friction:

In total, ~23% (119 EJ) of the world’s total energy consumption originates from tribological contacts. Of that 20% (103 EJ) is used to overcome friction and 3% (16 EJ) is used to remanufacture worn parts and spare equipment due to wear and wear-related failures.

According to Machine Design:

By one estimate, 6% of the gross national product is wasted due to friction and wear on 21st Century mechanical and electromechanical systems.

That is $1.12 Trillion in 2019.

So corrosion and wear cost the United States roughly $2.2 Trillion and one-fifth of the energy we generate.

So what happens when we ban petroleum extraction and thereby eliminate the source of most of our paints, greases, oils, lubricants, hydraulic fluids, and corrosion inhibitors?

Exactly how fast will every mechanical system in the United States grind to a halt, rust, and fall apart?

Do any of these politicians have a clue how much petroleum it takes to make an electric train run?

What about all the super-efficient electric cars and wind turbine blades and everything else made from strong, light, carbon fiber.  Do they realize most of that comes from PAN made from petroleum pitch?

All 785,000 tons of aluminum produced in the US comes from ore that is smelted using graphite anodes.

The 81.6 million metric tons of steel produced in the US is refined using coke.

That graphite and coke comes from petroleum and coal.

There are 140,000 people employed in the steel industry and 161,000 people employed in the aluminum industry.

According to the Polymer Database:

The US plastics industry is the third largest manufacturing industry in the United States. It employs nearly one million people in the manufacturing sector (about 16,000 manufacturing sites) and 1.4 million people total when including plastics suppliers.1-5 The U.S. plastics industry created a turnover of about $380 billion per year with more than $13 billion trade surplus and a total production volume of about 55 Mtons in 2012.

And almost all of that plastic comes from Petroleum.

So we ban petroleum and coal and we lose steel making, aluminum smelting, and polymer production and nearly 2 million jobs.

I’m just scratching the surface here, but “we have to get end the use of fossil fuels” will pretty much cause every machine in America to seize up and quit, most of the ironworks in America to rust, and end domestic production of most of our useful structural materials.

I’m not a politician, just an engineer, but I think this is a really bad idea.

I missed this part of the CNN town hall last night, so I am both glad and horrified that I caught it online this morning.

One of the most disproven and morally reprehensible theories to gain popularity is Malthusianism.  It ranks up right up there with eugenics in terms of how truly awful it sees people and the value of human life.

So it goes without saying that the morally bankrupt supporters of Socialism in the US would also go in heavily for Malthusianism.

Democrat Voter: There are too many humans on earth.

Bernie: I agree. We need to fund abortions to poor, third world countries.

This is absolutely horrifying. pic.twitter.com/B2SBT053mz

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) September 5, 2019

To Bernie, the supporter that asked this question, and all the people who applauded human beings are not people of intrinsic value.  They are consumers of resources who only destroy the environment.

It’s not shocking that a radical Leftist thinks this way.  This history of the Left of the 20th century is of disposing of millions of human beings for being an inconvenience to the utopian machinations of those in power, be it for being Jews or Gypsies, Kulaks, business owners, educated professionals, or just unlucky.

Still, to watch a Presidential candidate advocate for abortion and birth control for population control as a tool of environmentalism is grotesque.

What happens when the population continues to grow because not enough of the disposable classes choose to self dispose of their children?

China has been doing that for half-a-century and is paying the price for it now.

Forget mandatory buybacks for guns and gas-powered cars.  We’re now entering the territory where the government believes it has the right to tell families just how fecudant they can be.

If there was ever a reason not to give up your guns, this is it.

Woe be unto the bureaucrat who comes to my pregnant wife and says “You already have two children, don’t you think for the good of the environment, you shouldn’t have a third?  How about I leave these pills with you and let you think about that for a while.”

I saw SiGraybeard’s My After Action Review on Dorian  and  I figured I should share mine.

We did not dodge a bullet but a 12 gauge slug. But I am happy to not have used any of the Hurricane Prep items but for the panels which are not coming down just yet because of the disturbance coming out of Africa.

 
The prognosticated/guessed path is familiar to Floridians and usually associated with hurricanes that come too close for comfort or plain hit  Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe.

Some panels have come down: Mom’s window (because I know she can’t live with some sunlight) and both accesses to the back have some of the panels removed for easy access.

As for the rest, I am not touching anything till I have confidence we are not gonna get hit by the African import, call me paranoid.

Two improvements I am already implementing. The first is to dedicate one box to the purely hurricane items, that is  stuff that only comes out when one is coming.  I got me a couple of Sterilite 106 Qt. Latching Storage boxes for that purpose and once filled, they will go hibernate in a corner of my office.

The second improvement is a list of things that can be used in both hurricane and every day life.  Tools, good gloves, 2 way radios, etc that makes no sense on buying duplicates or triplicates. I found myself running around the house trying to remember what was needed and where was it.  A simple list would have made the process simpler.

What will I add to the kit? The WaterBob is one.  They keep telling you to fill your tub with water, but this is plastic bag that fits in the tub and it is designed as water container with a manual pump while keeping any possible contaminants away. 100 gallons of fresh water makes for a month of potable water for the three people in our home. A gallon per day per person for 5 days is the minimum recommended for natural disasters, so going six times over seems like a decent buffer.

I am going to investigate water pumps. With the lake so lose to the house, I can use the lake as a source for the toilet and the occasional shower. Not sure what I am looking for, but I guess I will figure it eventually because the idea of a bucket transfer makes my back scream in pain.

OK, that’s it. Fingers crossed.

Following up on J. Kb.’s post 

Dear Mr. Frum, allow me to introduce to you the great State of Florida.  We had Concealed Carry for over thirty years now and as of August 31st, a total of 2,042,384 Floridians (with a sprinkle of people from other states) carry concealed weapons with our license. And in those 30+ years we have yet to see an incident similar to what you described.   And boy, Gun Control activists had been looking for that event with the zeal of true believers and struck out miserably.

I am all for recycling, but your argument went stale sometime before the new millennium. And by unearthing the only thing you managed to do was to cover yourself with a stink of dumb because a simple internet search would have provided you with the information I just posted here.

Now I want to give you something to think about if you decided to visit us for vacation: Florida has a population of 21.3 million and 2,042,384 people carrying concealed that makes almost one person in ten with a sidearm. The moment you step out of your hotel or time-share, one of ten people you can see may be carrying a gun.

Did I just ruin your vacation?

David From writes for the Atlantic and is a contributor to MSNBC.  He went to Harvard and Yale.  That means he is much smarter and more knowledgeable than you and his opinion is worth far more than yours.

He Tweeted this:

One of the reasons we should not let people carry deadly weapons around town with them: many of us are prone to panic in unexpected situations – and might respond to a purse-snatching by opening poorly aimed fire and likely maiming half a dozen unfortunate passers-by

— David Frum (@davidfrum) September 4, 2019

He may be prone to panic, but I could not find an incident like the one that he described.

NYPD shooting innocent bystanders?  Yes.

A civilian with a CCW going all Yosemite Sam during a purse-snatching?  No.

But that doesn’t matter because Mr. Ivy League MSNBC thought this up, it must be true and we should lose our rights because of it.

I didn’t watch all of it, because it was seven-fucking-hours long, but I did watch enough.

The overarching theme of the entire spectacle was “we are going to control every aspect of your life and upend the economy.”

No one candidate had a plan that didn’t involve spending trillions, yes trillions, of dollars to push tectonic shifts in our economy and infrastructure.

Not just that, every candidate had an idea about how you have to fundamentally alter your life for the more inconvenient to be more green.

Andrew Yang wants to go all Beto O’Rourke on your car.

Andrew Yang refuses to say that Americans won't be forced to drive electric vehicles

Yang mentions a possible confiscation of gas vehicles, says the best option is a buy-back program pic.twitter.com/EXfjWsgteI

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) September 4, 2019

Excuse me, but my “clunker” is my dream truck.  It cost me nearly $60K and worked very hard to be able to buy it.  If you think I’m going to give up my Power Wagon for a Nissan Leaf for pennies on the dollar, fuck you.

Kamala Harris wants to use the power of the USDA to make you eat less red meat.

Kamala Harris says Americans need to be "educated about the effect of our eating habits on our environment," and says she would change the dietary guidelines to reduce the amount of red meat you can eat. #ClimateTownHall pic.twitter.com/XqcFzLv479

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 4, 2019

I lived in Nebraska and South Dakota, I knew a lot of people who were in ranching.  Not just ranching itself, but in the industries that support ranching, from producing cattle feed to making equipment to processing beef.

Understand that out in the Western states, they ranch because the ground is not in the right condition to be farmed for crops.  It’s too steep or rocky or not fit for planting.

I have never heard a single politician address what will happen to the millions of people who will be forced into economic destitution by the destruction of the meat industry.

Then there were the things that were said that show a total lack of understanding of reality.

Back to Yang for a minute.  He was asked about PFAS in the water.

PFAS is the latest in “we’re all going to die” panic, despite there being no evidence of harm from it.  PFAS or Polyfluoroalkyl Substances are largely used as fire-retardant additives.

So an honest answer to a “what are you going to do about PFAS?” would be:

“PFAS are added to everyday items to make them less flammable.  You are surrounded by electricity all the time and you have no idea how often shorts happen.  The reason everything isn’t on fire all the time in your house is that we use chemicals like PFAS to make everything from building materials to household goods less likely to burst into flame in case of an electrical short.  If we didn’t have PFAS in your microwave popcorn bag, it would be a fire hazard every time you tried to make popcorn.  We could ban all these substances, but then we’re going to have house fires and fire death rates like we did in the 1950’s, and all your stuff will be on fire all the time.”

Yang was one of a few candidates that brought up Flint and its water crisis.

I say this with all the authority of a PE in metallurgy with an extensive background in corrosion science, climate change had nothing to do with the Flint water crisis.  I want to know who was the PE that signed off on pumping untreated river water through metal piping without corrosion inhibitors and is he in jail yet?

Pete Buttigieg actually said this about speaking about climate change in a way people from the Midwest would understand: “If you believe that God is watching while poison is being belched into the air of Creation. And people are being harmed by it. Countries are at risk of vanishing in low-lying areas. What o you suppose God thinks of that?! I bet he thinks it’s messed up.”

I cannot get over how much of an insufferable, holier-than-thou, prick he is.  It’s all the arrogance of a Liberal elitist combined with religious moralism of a televangelist.

That doesn’t sound like someone from Indiana.  That sounds like someone from Manhattan trying to sound like someone from Indiana, having never met anyone from Indiana.

I wonder how the people in the steel mills and factories of the Midwest will feel about Pete putting them out of work by quadrupling the cost of doing business through carbon taxation and energy prices?

You cannot run an electric arc furnace or aluminum smelter off wind and solar.  Keeping 200 tons of iron molten at 2500°F in a crucible requires quite a bit of energy.

After watching as much as I could I learned that the Democrats are going to force me to give up my guns, truck, and barbecue brisket for pennies on the dollar in a buyback while destroying the manufacturing industry in America, costing me my job.

There is a “disturbance” coming out of Africa.

Gabrielle is allegedly heading North so I am going to keep an eye on that disturbance for a couple of days before I remove shutters .