Stirling Engines

clipped from www.davidwarrenonline.com Stirling engines. This was my first thought on reading this week’s important news, that the Russians have resumed long-range bomber flights over both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, for the first time since the Cold War. And unearned wealth has been, for as long as history records, a great corruptor. It enables the holders to do things that nature would normally constrain; to take what they want without the trouble of labour, or even theft. It enables them, specifically, to forego the development of the moral restraints of people who must earn their livings, or husband what they’ve inherited. We have only to look at the Arab and Muslim world -- at the vast energy reserves of Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Indonesia -- or at contemporary Venezuela -- to realize how profoundly corrupting this unearned wealth can be. I mention them because, we have got to find a way to flourish, in the West, without the slightest dependence on Arab, Russian, or anybody’s, gas and oil.

Don't get me wrong, I think he's spot-on about the corruption. And how I wish we could turn on a dime and switch to alternate energy sources. But even a crash program that wrenched us though dislocation and depression to get there wouldn't be fast enough now.

And worse yet, even if we did it, the Euros and Chinese would keep them in the green. Energy itself is fungible.