Economy for Energy and Health Care

I have listened to health care town halls and even participated in a few of them. I have even volunteered as host and as participant along the way. This is my current thinking for our economy, health care, and the development of energy.

1. Shouldn't we figure out how to pay for health care first before implementing it?
   
   All we see is the intention to put it in place. I suggest we create wealth which solves the energy problem and use that excess for services. Check out Solar Roadways at http://www.solarroadways.com. For the cost of paving the roads we can have 3 times the amount of electricity that we use in the United States today through a renewable energy resource -- Solar. And we can drop in a fault tolerant, distributed network which plugs other energy source into it.
   
   
2. Shouldn't we figure out infrastructure before we invest in alternative energy that has no where to plug into?
   
   Then all projects have somewhere to fit and probably will be funded privately because plugging into infrastructure means local money saved if we do what Germany did with their infrastructure.
   
   Don't you find it ironic that private industry (a cottage effort) shows us how to use brown's gas, wind turbines for $200 that cut local electricity 80 percent, and a host of inventions that are leading to renewable solutions? In government we seem to talk in magnitudes of millions, billions, and trillions.
   
   Even T. Boone Pickens figured this out when he postponed his implementation of Wind for the infrastructure to be in place.
   

Doubling nuclear power is not a solution. McCain promised 100 more nuclear facilities. The only thing we lack in this country's leadership is the will to do renewable energy. As Henry Ford said, "if you believe you can or can't, you are right". It is T. Boone Pickens that showed us that 30 million dollars of wind can do the job of more energy across the midwest. In fact, 20 percent of our electricity currently generated can be generated by wind in the midwest if we only had the infrastructure to support it. That is our government's responsibility in my opinion -- it is the large stroke of President Eisenhower who gave us interstate highways for the benefit of the people. Now we need the magic of boldness to create interstate solar highways for the people. It will lift us out of this economic decline. Why?

1. Source of energy is renewable
2. Fault Tolerant Grid is plug and play
3. Smart highways clean off their own snow
4. Half the country powers the other half as night falls
5. Half the country powers the other half as day comes
6. Smart highways detect and warn of accidents, pedestrians, deer ahead
7. The cost is what we spend anyway to pave the roads
8. Removes terrorist threat of taking out a single power station
9. Provides a new communication backbone as well
10. Interstates travel to most remote areas, takes power and communication there
11. Wind now has a role to play for night time power usage
12. Electric cars can plug in the grid

I believe there is a role for government when it is an enabling technology that binds us together as a people. Some examples are printing and managing money, raising taxes to cover services, creating laws for the protection of the people, and creating infrastructure which enables private enterprise to thrive.

Seeing Oregon for the First Time

Maybe this sounds too simple but I felt like I was entering God's country as I entered the wonderful state of Oregon. The trees were happier, the forests stood taller, and the people seemed to drop all pretenses. By the time we had reached Corvallis we had passed endless rows of mountains, meadows, valleys, bridges, and forested byways.

At the ocean the water was especially cold for a summer. The kelp made a great jump rope for the group of us. And entering the water until the knees were numb felt great. It made the picnic and games at the beach even more warming. With our family we sang, played piano, played drums, and frolicked through their lives at bit.

Julie and I danced to a small dance band with piano, drums, stand up string bass, trumpet, and saxophone / clarinet. The next morning we played racquetball and literally forgot the time. I think we will always carry a bit of Oregon with us wherever we go.