< Changing Worldviews.Commentary >

Words are powerful - Thoughts shape - Ideas have consequences

Gary Aldrich

Patrick Henry Center
Posted April 12, 2004

Senator Kerry's Propellers
Mother Earth Democrats

Nothing looks sillier than a man wearing a multi-colored beanie with a propeller on top.

Unless, of course, that man stands in a former cornfield surrounded by large propellers on long, metallic stalks. Those noisy, bird-slaying, eye-polluting spinners provide mute evidence to the foolish pseudo-scientific breakthroughs and earth-friendly policy demands the whacko environmentalists force us to accept in the name of their religious cause – worshipping Mother Earth.

While traveling in Iowa last weekend, I marveled at the number of these “Rube Goldberg” contraptions dotting the countryside. Will future anthropologists discover the rusting hulks and conclude they were used to blow away the smell of Iowa hog farms?

They might laugh at those talked into planting these atrocious devices instead of corn, falling for the promise that a mere dozen might supply a single farm house with power, so long as the wind blew.

Meanwhile, in another part of the country, college students use taxpayer funds and pull all-nighters to fashion solar-powered cars from beer cans topped with expensive, solar-power cells, and attached to wheels and an electric motor.

They then zoom off at 10 miles an hour, in a race to prove that solar power makes gasoline obsolete, so long as a person doesn’t care how long it takes to travel (and as long as the sun shines).

During these circuses, Mother-Earth Democrats feel better about themselves, which may be the real point. While the rest of us pay high gasoline prices and truck off to work just to make a living, the perpetually silly spend someone else’s money to chase their pipedreams of environmental utopia.

The newest invention in lighting technology produces double the light at half the cost. That fact alone is sure to annoy Earth worshippers. You won’t read about this new technology, because it’s simple, it doesn’t cost taxpayer money, and a federal government committee didn’t invent it.

While left-over hippies with gray beards chain themselves to the gates of future nuclear power plants hoping to stop progress, and while bird- and caribou-watchers shed tears over the imagined trauma that Alaska oil drilling might cause, the rest of us get on with the business of business – finding real ways to make and save energy.

For instance, until very recently, virtually no improvements had been made in the manufacture or design of the simple incandescent bulb, although many are needed to light large, industrial buildings. A German manufacturer realized that newer, sodium bulbs make loud, vibrating noises, and that both sodium and halogen lighting produces excessive heat, wasting vast amounts of electricity.

They reasoned that with the correct reflector and an improved, cooler, florescent tube, they could focus the light to where it would do the most good – on the manufacturing floor.

The scientists came up with a beautifully-shaped reflector made of light, cheap Aluminum, then coated it with a special surface to reflect 98% of the light produced. Eureka! They invented a lighting device that produces twice the light at half the energy cost. This amazing light fixture can be installed by anybody with a screwdriver and a pair of pliers.

Imagine the millions of square feet of warehouse and manufacturing buildings lighted by billions of conventional bulbs, all burning hotly. Now imagine the wasted energy used to cool those same buildings during summer months. I asked John Scribante, a St. Paul, Minneapolis businessman and ambassador for this new, wondrous light source, if owners might object to the loss of heat during the winter. After all, I reasoned, don’t these old bulbs help heat the buildings? He asked if I heated my home by turning on my kitchen oven.

Of course, such an idea is ridiculous – imagine the cost of doing that!

John Kerry’s propellers spin round and round as he and his friends try to find more “interesting” ways to save energy. Why are their solutions always just out of reach? Aren’t they simply using so-called crises to drive the touchy-feely to vote Democrat?

Capitalists who seek to cut costs and increase profits always find ways to solve problems. Now they found a way to save money on lighting costs, thus saving energy. But their solutions are the result of a desire to make money rather than spend it. Therein, I believe, is the difference between us and environmental activists.

That’s why Senator John Kerry won’t ever mention these clever, new, light-source inventions on the campaign trail. He prefers to blame President Bush, rather than promote a solution.

© Gary Aldrich 2004 Reprinted with Permission

Gary Aldrich is a 30-year veteran of the FBI, Gary specialized in white-collar crime, including fraud and political corruption, and for five years prior to retiring, he served under former Presidents Bush and Clinton in a national security role. In addition, he was assigned to the U.S. Senate and House, working closely with elected officials on a variety of security issues. He is also the Founder of The Patrick Henry Center for Individual Liberty, which dedicated to promoting the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. Mr. Aldrich has made thousands of radio, TV and personal speaking appearances, including This Week with David Brinkley, Good Morning America, Dateline, Hannity and Combes, The O'Reilly Factor, Inside Edition and others. Mr. Aldrich has also authored editorial pieces for distinguished publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Human Events Magazine and Insight Magazine. In addition, he writes for WorldNetDaily.com weekly and Townhall.com bi-weekly. You can contact him at www.patrickhenrycenter.org