tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post599978640309637407..comments2024-03-28T17:49:27.846-04:00Comments on Daniel Greenfield / Sultan Knish Articles at DanielGreenfield.org : Progressives Without ProgressDaniel Greenfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13575285186581875356noreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-53886065943396037222014-02-03T01:33:50.564-05:002014-02-03T01:33:50.564-05:00While I agree with you, on many issues - you are b...While I agree with you, on many issues - you are barely comprehensible. This seems like a "rant" and flow of conscious thought - many overlapping ideas and comments. I think this could have been said in two or three sentences. Also, it lacks any real argumentative techniques - purely one sided - comes across narrow minded ... almost like "fundamentalism for politics". You should be embarrassed to print something like this without editing. Redo it! please. - RGBAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15009315787734190931noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-25701226932302144902014-02-02T17:40:05.059-05:002014-02-02T17:40:05.059-05:00I don't think the conversion process would be ...I don't think the conversion process would be ugly, because there would be little that could be "converted". That is, there would be no "conversion process", but rather lifestyle and "other" changes, much of which some people might indeed find ugly.<br /><br />Everything else without quantification or known solutions is speculation and faith, if not outright dependency in hoping that some hardworking scientist, engineer or industrialist will fix your world for you.<br /><br /><br /><br />Phil Lipofskyhttp://www.media-quest.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-74097694796777689202014-02-02T13:32:45.288-05:002014-02-02T13:32:45.288-05:00Phil,
I fail to see how the conversion process ha...Phil,<br /><br />I fail to see how the conversion process has to be ugly. As non renewable resources become steadily more scarce -- whether in decades or centuries -- basic economics will steadily increase the incentive to substitute renewables and invest further in their development. The same forces will reward substituting quantity of resources for quality.Instant Karmahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08907882955776032199noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-76610792009098541972014-02-02T12:41:10.108-05:002014-02-02T12:41:10.108-05:00Koestler remarked (in Darkness at Noon) that there...Koestler remarked (in Darkness at Noon) that there is no place for the watchmaker among the gears of the watch.David Fosterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15464681514800720063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-91839020983362657052014-02-02T12:33:37.901-05:002014-02-02T12:33:37.901-05:00"Unhappiness proves the left right..."
..."Unhappiness proves the left right..."<br /><br />You have just achieved the most excellent synopsis of the Leftist Utopians. So you are happy up until someone points out that it is not perfect. <br /><br />See? Lack of perfection will always make you unhappy, and so therefore you should understand that it is those who criticize who provide your unhappiness. <br /><br />Because Critical Theory has been the primary tool of the Left, then your unhappiness proves that the Left is correct (right) <b>in what will make you unhappy</b>. Pascalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00303025432356543062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-24492783828686706042014-02-02T12:21:46.496-05:002014-02-02T12:21:46.496-05:00Unhappiness proves the left right...Unhappiness proves the left right...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-92041657269574481452014-02-01T19:58:02.228-05:002014-02-01T19:58:02.228-05:00The Rockefeller Republicans are dead. Ford and eve...The Rockefeller Republicans are dead. Ford and even Goldwater blasted the GOP as having gone too far to the right. <br /><br />The presidential candidates still tend to be liberal, but they have to talk like conservatives, which is in some ways disastrous because it gives us the worst of both worlds, but it does highlight the shift.<br /><br />The party establishment is still far more liberal and eager to surrender on most issues, but it has slowly and grudgingly moved to the right.Daniel Greenfieldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13575285186581875356noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-53071898219398526172014-02-01T19:42:15.798-05:002014-02-01T19:42:15.798-05:00Whoa. "the entire Republican Party doesn'...Whoa. "the entire Republican Party doesn't have very much in common and it has been slowly moving to the right over the decades, more in rhetoric than in substance." <br /><br />If that is not a "right" is not a typo, I'd like you to demonstrate the ways they are moving right. Had you written they've been moving to the left since Bush41, and more in substance than in rhetoric, I'd have no need to ask for examples. <br /><br />Over the last two decades, the GOPe has pulled up whole stakes of republican principles and moved Left, letting the radicals on the Left set the agenda and them ever willing to compromise on nearly anything. <br />Dems: "I want your life." <br />GOP: "Won't you accept an few toes? Next week we'll arrange for you some poor schnook's arm." <br /><br />This isn't even what I wanted to ask you. But that last statement made my jaw drop.Pascalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00303025432356543062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-74477266461311345512014-02-01T19:24:37.738-05:002014-02-01T19:24:37.738-05:00the entire Republican Party doesn't have very ...the entire Republican Party doesn't have very much in common and it has been slowly moving to the right over the decades, more in rhetoric than in substanceDaniel Greenfieldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13575285186581875356noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-85933736540485330082014-02-01T19:08:43.169-05:002014-02-01T19:08:43.169-05:00I will concede the debate only because this story ...I will concede the debate only because this story is heading chronologically south, but if the right is "fairly libertarian" then there are a great many people calling themselves "right" when they are anything but. <br />The entire Republican party, for instance.Wombatnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-21026988995948476072014-02-01T18:53:03.090-05:002014-02-01T18:53:03.090-05:00Wombat,
motives and all things are irrelevant to ...Wombat,<br /><br />motives and all things are irrelevant to corpses, they are very relevant to police detectives trying to stop murderers. And we aren't corpses yet. <br /><br />In the American context, the right isn't Mussolini, it's a fairly libertarian movement suspicious of government. Daniel Greenfieldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13575285186581875356noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-29972951668226802622014-02-01T09:28:30.453-05:002014-02-01T09:28:30.453-05:00Phil, in a world of sciences that must invent data...Phil, in a world of sciences that must invent data analyses to benefit their benefactors, what makes anyone think that "reality" is what they think it is? However, Israel made the desert bloom because someone didn't see obstacles, but opportunity. <br /><br />No one's living with their heads in the sand. On the contrary, many are noting the challenges and rising above end-game thinking into completely new thinking that frees up resources for whole new industries. That is the Conservative way: free men, thinking freely and unafraid; not alarmists who want to curb, curtail, limit, box in, reduce, retreat. <br /><br />While we're all sorting our garbage, the earth's magnetic field is threatening to punch is in our technological eye. Joan of Argghh!https://www.blogger.com/profile/14729682908266300507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-84547763684059102402014-02-01T06:56:13.414-05:002014-02-01T06:56:13.414-05:00"Wombat, the political left believes that the..."Wombat, the political left believes that the only way to remedy inequality is with radical redistribution carried out by any means necessary."<br /><br />Mister Greenfield, although I appreciate the reply this answer is a shot in the dark. I would remind you of Hitler and Stalin. The difference in their motivations is irrelevant to the corpse in the furnace, and bashing the left while mourning the right is like yearning for Mussolini because "at least he made the trains run on time."<br /><br />I sense you are like the beaten wife who cherishes the moments that her drunken husband is merely abusive rather than violent. Governmental Stockholm syndrome if you will. You may contend that this imaginary right wing is the lesser of two evils but it is still tyranny. <br /><br />I wonder, when things get dicey, will you rally to the defence of central governance in the hope that it will be "right wing" (whatever that may mean)?<br /><br />Where there appears a vacuum of power, will you seek to fill it with right wing controls?<br /><br />Who are you, Mister Greenfield, and what do you stand for?Wombatnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-82424956800591797352014-01-31T14:12:07.670-05:002014-01-31T14:12:07.670-05:00This is Greenberg's description of the Progres...This is Greenberg's description of the Progressive ideology. There isn't very much progress in the progressive movement. Progress is the expansion of possibilities. Progressives however have a Malthusian obsession with the scarcity of all things. They believe that we are about to run out of everything from energy to water to wealth and education and that like starving survivors on a lifeboat we have to redistribute everything. This is pathetically superficial. If you want to boil down the Progressive belief it is to be found in one word.. fairness.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-91463608424117651132014-01-31T13:58:54.218-05:002014-01-31T13:58:54.218-05:00Judith, I presume you mean "non-sustainabilit...Judith, I presume you mean "non-sustainability of non-renewable finite resources... not just "fuels""... as the process, in our area of the universe at least, was long ago finished with creating such geological resources. p.s. thanks for noticing that I wasn't much of a Progressive ;-)Phil Lipofskyhttp://media-quest.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-89956401229103862082014-01-31T13:28:33.741-05:002014-01-31T13:28:33.741-05:00Rob, I didn't say Phil was commenting as a pro...Rob, I didn't say Phil was commenting as a progressive. I don't think a progressive would ever say "The nation and its citizens should be armed to the teeth."<br /> However Phil's preoccupation with the sustainability of renewable fuels which includes plans even down to the trucking of oranges and the use of plastics sounded a little excessive to me. A lot like climate change worry. I guess I believe in Western ingenuity and that creative inventors and entrepreneurs will find new solutions if government gets out of their way. <br /><br />JudithAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-30409146411780292132014-01-31T13:21:21.798-05:002014-01-31T13:21:21.798-05:00Daniel, thank you for the clarifying perspective o...Daniel, thank you for the clarifying perspective on others comments and their reading of my points. That includes at least the material aspect of Joan's comment of which I had already concurred upon in my first comments. But I reject the lack of initiative by only critiquing. Such inaction is neither contributing to society nor living. However such warning of a police state is, again, well taken even if misconstrued from what I actually said.<br /><br />Solar photovoltaic and solar thermal are indeed things I advocate. Note that the first 1/3 of a typical 30 year life for a panel is the break-even point for the energy required to grow the crystals that produce the panel. It's 10 years before you start to get a payback. Yes there are other technologies in solar photovoltaic, many developed in... Israel. In Israel, I believe 80% of the homes already use solar thermal for hot water. The roof area of a house is roughly the area required for solar photovoltaic with some air conditioning running... and you get a roof out of it to boot.<br /><br />But in any case, I do maintain that there is a very serious problem looming on our current trajectory of how we build and grow, in a fashion wholly dependent upon finite non-renewables, and on the opposite trajectory - finite resources with fairly well understood time lines for exhaustion. That leaves a somewhat worthless infrastructure the construction and use of which has left little resources for making corrections. Gas (LPG etc) btw gives out on short notice once the all the liquid component transitions to vapor. The resources exhaust by percentage with relatively short notice, like a BBQ grill tank at its end of use. Coal is good for about 700 more years from what I understand. If you look at how we've blown through the percentage of oil resources in the past 100 years, its alarming, especially when you consider all that is dependent and produced requiring that resource. Look around the room and outside the window and consider a serious exhaustion of such resources. Don't forget that kool disposable child slave labor in China mining out the rare earth elements for lithium-ion batteries. Same for all other raw materials coming in from China. Google search "China rescues 80 slave laborers from mines" and check out even slanted Wikipedia's "The 2007 Chinese slave scandal". You could ask the question right now... "How many children does it take to make a battery powered car?". And how finite are those rare earth resources... that is, why are they referred to as "rare-earth"?<br /><br />I stick by all that I have said, including the critique of who we are based on evidence of the best (or at least most popular) "conservative" candidates that we can come up with.<br /><br />Others may now again have their say. I've had mine. But in the future, they should remember to hold their tongues and reflect back to what they said here, should reality intrude upon their lives.Phil Lipofsky - with a diffrent linkhttp://media-quest.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-30875739291994981822014-01-31T12:36:47.326-05:002014-01-31T12:36:47.326-05:00nothing is endless including the sun, but the rate...nothing is endless including the sun, but the rate at which we'll run out of them has been overstatedDaniel Greenfieldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13575285186581875356noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-31567328280349511952014-01-31T12:34:46.205-05:002014-01-31T12:34:46.205-05:00Daniel,
With all due respect, I hang on to every ...Daniel,<br /><br />With all due respect, I hang on to every word of your excellent commentaries.<br /><br />However, I feel you are very much out of your element regarding limited natural resources.<br /><br />"The universe is rich in energy...", the universe may be endless, the Earth's natural<br />resources aren't endless.<br /><br />re: fracking.... it's turning out to be a very short term boom/bust episode when you explore the relevant available information.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-4317437127023217282014-01-31T12:24:17.429-05:002014-01-31T12:24:17.429-05:00resources are obviously a constraint, but they onl...resources are obviously a constraint, but they only become economically fatal if we get locked into narrow either/or policies. The universe is rich in energy and fracking shows that assumptions about limits are in many cases limits on technique and technology that can be surpassed.Daniel Greenfieldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13575285186581875356noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-54412436030343609182014-01-31T12:11:16.357-05:002014-01-31T12:11:16.357-05:00Daniel,
".......the energy situation is not ...Daniel,<br /><br />".......the energy situation is not nearly that desperate."<br /><br />...hmmmm so, are you saying that there "might" be a problem?<br /><br />okAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-57616454114925660382014-01-31T11:57:13.365-05:002014-01-31T11:57:13.365-05:00Joan and Judith, I think you missed the point of P...Joan and Judith, I think you missed the point of Phil's comment. <br /><br />He is not commenting as a progressive at all, he's simply, <br /><br />1) pointing to some real constraints that are related to Mother Nature (not human libralism, conservatism, progressivism, etc.) <br /> <br />2) Since Daniel "brought it up", Phil is asking Daniel to elplore these important issues separate from any political label.<br /><br />Regards,<br />RobAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-37471559425780145072014-01-31T10:22:38.395-05:002014-01-31T10:22:38.395-05:00Phil, the energy situation is not nearly that desp...Phil, the energy situation is not nearly that desperate. Look up at the sun, look to the tides and for that matter oil and gas outstrip our demand when we look harder.<br /><br />Pascal, progs believe happiness is escapism<br /><br />Wombat, the political left believes that the only way to remedy inequality is with radical redistribution carried out by any means necessary. <br /><br />Joan, exactly, the world won't let us run itDaniel Greenfieldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13575285186581875356noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-43978984139846399802014-01-31T10:08:30.647-05:002014-01-31T10:08:30.647-05:00The Left has always been about a bigger slice of t...The Left has always been about a bigger slice of the cake. They never seem to realize they could have a bigger piece if the cake is bigger. Is this a mental block of some sort?<br /><br />For the politics of envy, utopia has no-one left to envy, because everyone has been made equal (specifically, equally poor, materially, educationally, culturally, etc).<br /><br />For the politics of hate, utopia where there is no-one (else) left. For such people refutations of malthusianism are not just irrelevant, but an impediment on the road to utopia.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-57973287267394542262014-01-31T07:52:04.018-05:002014-01-31T07:52:04.018-05:00Phil, I think you've proved Daniel's point...Phil, I think you've proved Daniel's point.<br /><br />JudithAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com