The Valley shows it's Honor...

The Valley shows it's colors....

Shenandoah Valley

Several posts back I did a commentary on all of the flags and patriotic items that I saw along the road when driving up to New Jersey for a weekend. I found that near the Jersey Shore there were many flags on highway over-passes and these flags were new and very well maintained and I did not see anything faded or torn... This area of Jersey is the home to many who work in Manhatten and were involved in numerous ways to the attacks on 9-11 and is still a topic still very "Fresh" in their memories...

It is good to see that the Valley remembers also...

Renewable Energy

Eco-friendly energy sources...
Eco-friendly Senator?

During his last State of the Union speech President Bush stated that “We are addicted to oil” and must find and develop alternative forms of energy. This is something that many President’s have talked about and funded for many decades but with the price of petroleum relatively low there has been no real push to develop other forms of energy. Until now…

When I lived in Key West Florida I worked on a Sportfishing charter boat and was fortunate to have one of the most knowledgeable Captains in the Keys. Besides marine biology Captain Jim Sharpe http://www.seaboots.com/ exposed me to numerous facts and conditions within the “Keys” environment. At times we would fish the currents both in the Gulf Stream and near the bridges. Several times a day the tides will change and the flow of water thru the bridges was incredible. Also reliable and constant…

A company by the name of Blue Energy has developed turbines to harness this power. http://www.bluenergy.com/

“The sources of Blue Energy’s tidal power production are fast flowing tidal currents. The gravitational pull of the moon causes water to flow in from the ocean twice a day on the flood tides, and outward during ebb tides. Additional monthly and annual lunar cycles vary the strength of these currents. Narrow and shallow constrictions produce the fastest and most powerful movements of current, whose energy can be harnessed using the Blue Energy Ocean Turbine.”

“The Blue Energy Ocean Turbine acts as a highly efficient underwater vertical-axis windmill. Sea water is 832 times denser than air and a non-compressible medium, an 8 knot tidal current is the equivalent of a 390 km/hr wind.”

The President also spoke of developing methanol fuel from cellulose products such as the waste from farming and other organic products. This is done by breaking down the organic source such as cornstalks, grass, etc. with enzymes which then produce methanol that would be mixed with fuels.

Now these sources of alternative fuels are needed and research into these areas will be beneficial for both society and the environment. It should and will be the free market that makes it work and will just be a matter of time. Great advances in Hybrid cars have been made and the government should encourage this research but not control it.

Many politicians have seen the opportunity to capitalize on this subject and many have been quick to criticize the President for his “Connections to Big Evil Oil companies”. Seems that many Democrats have been sure to court the “environmental” vote by attacking those who understand the importance of reliable, and affordable petroleum sources.

And then there is Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass). Kennedy has been a strong supporter of, and has received strong support from the environmental community in the past. Seems now that he is leading the opposition of Eco-friendly windmills being placed off of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. They would be visible from the Kennedy compound when Ted is up there vacationing…
The Washington Times just did an article on this and is good reading….
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060302-124537-9804r.htm

On the back burner, for now...

Investor Business Daily (IBD) had a great commentary on the recent release of over 12 hours of audio tape made by Saddam Hussein back in 1995. Seems that there is now audio evidence, not disputed by anyone, that has Saddam actively talking about the status of pursuing WMD’s and including a plasma uranium program that was missed entirely buy the United Nations weapons inspection teams. On one of these audio tapes there are recordings of Hussein’s son in law Hussein Kamel, describing how they fooled the inspectors by “We did not reveal all that we have”. He even goes on to state “Not the type of weapons, not the volume of the materials we imported, not the volume of the production we told them about, not the volume of use. None of this was correct”.


IBD goes on to state the obvious. “In short, let us repeat: President Bush was right. We had to invade to disarm Saddam - otherwise, he would have completely reconstituted his chemical, nuclear and bio-weapons programs when inspectors left”.


There is also a book out now telling the story of Georges Sada, who was the former #2 in Iraq’s air force and details how WMD’s were moved into Syria before we went back into Iraq the second time. This claim has also been corroborated by another one of Saddam’s commanders. This is something we have discussed on Rightside before and sounds like a topic we will be watching closely in the future…


Again IBD makes a great point. They point out how the Mainstream media has been more interested in the Vice-President Cheney hunting accident and the Port management issue then setting the record straight on WMD’s and where they went…

It’s on the back burner for now but it will have to come up front and be dealt with sometime…

Info used from Investor Business Daily Issues & Insights Investors.com 27 Feb 06