The ethics of corn ethanol

We were told by the TV reporter last night that Easter eggs will cost $.34 more a dozen this year. Corn ethanol is the reason, but reporters probably don't want to look on the down side of Al Gore's movie theories. Such as, China has now caught up to us in emissions (a decade ago we were told it would be 2025), so we could burn water in our automobiles and it wouldn't make a bit of difference in the global temperature, assuming that emissions are causing warming, which many scientists say is a bunch of cow poop. Being Americans, we not only think we are God, but that only what we do to the atmosphere matters, and the only hurricanes that hit land, are the ones we see here.

But let's look at the ethics of ethanol.

" . . . about 29% more energy is used to produce a gallon of ethanol than the energy in a gallon of ethanol. Fossil energy powers corn production and the fermentation/distillation processes. Increasing subsidized ethanol production will take more feed from livestock production, and is estimated to currently cost consumers an additional $1 billion per year. Ethanol production increases environmental degradation. Corn production causes more total soil erosion than any other crop. Also, corn production uses more insecticides, herbicides, and nitrogen fertilizers than any other crop. All these factors degrade the agricultural and natural environment and contribute to water pollution and air pollution. Increasing the cost of food and diverting human food resources to the costly inefficient production of ethanol fuel raise major ethical questions. These occur at a time when more than half of the world’s population is malnourished. The ethical priority for corn and other food crops should be for food and feed. Subsidized ethanol produced from U.S. corn is not a renewable energy source." Abstract, "Ethanol Fuels: Energy Balance, Economics, and Environmental Impacts Are Negative," Natural Resources Research, Volume 12, issue 2 (June 2003), p. 127-134.

And he doesn't even mention the bioterrorism of a well placed fungus that could wipe out the Americans' dependence on corn for fuel the way the potato blight sent the Irish running for a new country in the 19th century.

and the CO2 emissions of corn ethanol

"Proper mass and energy balances of corn fields and ethanol refineries that account for the photosynthetic energy, part of the environment restoration work, and the coproduct energy have been formulated. These balances show that energetically production of ethanol from corn is 2–4 times less favorable than production of gasoline from petroleum. From thermodynamics it also follows that ecological damage wrought by industrial biofuel production must be severe. With the DDGS coproduct energy credit, 3.9 gallons of ethanol displace on average the energy in 1 gallon of gasoline. Without the DDGS energy credit, this average number is 6.2 gallons of ethanol. Equivalent CO2 emissions from corn ethanol are some 50% higher than those from gasoline, and become 100% higher if methane emissions from cows fed with DDGS are accounted for. From the mass balance of soil it follows that ethanol coproducts should be returned to the fields." "A First-Law Thermodynamic Analysis of the Corn-Ethanol Cycle," Natural Resources Research, Volume 15, issue 4 (December 2006), p. 255 - 270

ethanol

3657

Send Swank to Syria

Maybe she'll put some clothes on. Nancy Pelosi's garb in a Muslim country (intended to show submission to men and decrease their sexual impulses) makes a lot more sense than what I saw Hillary Swank wear on the Jay Leno show last night as she plugged her new movie, "The Reaping." She had on a light blue denim strapless mid-thigh length dress, with about the same coverage as an Esther Williams swim suit from a 1950s movie--maybe less.

She looked absurd sitting beside a male comedian wearing baggy jeans and sweatshirt and across from Leno who had on a business suit and tie. It's probably cold in those TV studios. She was pale, pasty and plain as pudding in an outfit no self-respecting prostitute would prance in. Excuse my preposition at the end of a sentence.

It truly grieves me that women, whether Granny Pelosi who spouts one message at home and another abroad or Sister Swank are such terrible role models for young women and an embarrassment to mature women. If women still rock the cradle, they seem to be losing their grip on the clothes closet.

3656

Global warming and Ohio

We're all back in our winter clothes and coats today (it's below freezing). Isn't it interesting that those banging the warning bells the loudest about global warming have chosen to live in sunny climes or along the coasts where they prefer constant danger from storms which have been ripping up the sand and rocks for centuries, eating away the cliffs where they want to build their mansions and summer homes? Except Al Gore from Tennessee, who inherited his money for high living from tobacco sales, simultaneously stripping the land of all nutrients while killing thousands.

Then after they've polluted the air and cut off everyone else's view through punishing regulations which closed down industries that then moved to Asia, they want those of us who live in the "heartland" to fritter away our inheritance of good soil and water resources on even more acres of corn (which has already made the nation fat as a cheap sweetener). Corn to burn in our gas tanks as ethanol, taking more inputs to create a profit than coal or oil ever did. They've barely started this scheme and already food prices are inching up.

Way to go liberals--you've found yet another way to hurt the poor. Are we Americans insane, smug or just shameless--or all three?

Fact sheet comparing ethanol inputs.

ethanol

3655

Old trucks are popular

I saw this old Ford parked between cottages at Lakeside yesterday. Seems to be in the middle of restoration.


Then at Florida Cracker (a librarian), I saw this truck, apparently new, for about $58,000, made by Southern Motor. But you can choose your color.

"For our daughters and granddaughters"

Granny Pelosi speaking in January 2007 about how far American women have come now that she is Speaker of the House. She can sure run for cover and go all traditional and quaint for the Muslims.



If she visits the Old German Baptist Brethren in California, I wonder if she dons a prayer covering?

Lakeside in the spring is waiting

For the perch to bite off the dock
and the Sunfish to launch from the shore
for the restaurants to offer specials

and the Methodists to fill the bookstore

3652

Let's face it, Harry

When I look at the pinched and angry face of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) I see in every line and wrinkle all that's wrong with the United States. I'd like to blame it on boomeritis, but he was born the same year I was, and we're not boomers. But he's overstayed in the Senate, having been there over 20 years, enough to buy and sell a lot of government real estate.

The face of the new America
1) First, we're an aging nation. Being old isn't bad, but we're tossing the common sense and wisdom that usually come with age to dance to the tunes of the 60s and 70s, and abandon our allies to please the war protesters and home-grown Communists who are trying to relive their glory days of smoking weed and frying their brains. Millions of Vietnamese were slaughtered or sent to camps for "reeducation" when we ran out on them, and now we want to leave the Iraqis to the same fate.

2) Second, Reid's mouth is perpetually pursed with the tortured and convoluted reasoning that if you tell your enemy your plans in advance, he'll be cooperative and just wait until you pull out run out to kill any more American soldiers.

3) Third, His beady, narrow, yet strangely puffy eyes, glint with his new found resolve to make a name for himself globally--an old American tradition, if we can believe all the anti-war left tells us about our motives.

4) Fourth, his skin is the ashen color of a man slowly dying from, not too much CO2, but from too much hatred for the Bush administration, so much so he's willing to not just sink the Iraqis, but American soldiers as well.

I know from reading left-wing bloggers that they aren't thrilled with him, but they should be. He be them.

3651

My new Wal-Mart scoop

Yesterday I bought a long sleeve light-weight t-shirt at the Port Clinton Wal-Mart. It has a scoop neck, and is just about the most poorly made item I've ever found made in China. But at $5, the price was right, and our weather indoors and out is so changeable, I thought the sleeves were a good idea. This morning I put it on with my $1 loden green jeans I bought at a yard sale in 2001. Looked nice. Then I took a second look. You know what? This is the same design as long underwear, I kid you not. Oh well.

Today I saw another "expose" about Wal-Mart scoop. This time about how it investigates threats to its business. In the old days, retailers just sent shopping snoops into the stores of the competition, or restaurants send spy customers into the restaurants of its rivals to check on the menus or even to its own stores to check on quality and service. The stakes are a bit higher now, and being the biggest retailer in the world, saving Americans billions and single handedly financing the governments of third world countries, Wal-Mart gets tough. So here's my poem about the latest Wal-Mart story in the WSJ in which some of its own snoops gave scoops to the media on the inside security poops.

Tell me why
Wal-Mart can't spy
on the workers it pays
to sleuth in ways
to snoop
for its Threat Research and Analysis Group.

3650

The Amish Vault

Returning from the lake yesterday, my husband stopped in Bucyrus to take a photo of the mural to use in his perspective drawing class which starts in two weeks. I assured him I already had it, but since the van was parked I hopped out and went across the street to see what the store Amish Vault was all about. Lovely store! Wonderful Amish made furniture, accessories with delightful gift items and artificial flowers with a coffee shop inside. Within 2 minutes I saw it. A headboard for our headless bed. In 1963 we bought a bedroom set, contemporary in oiled walnut, that we still love and wouldn't dream of giving up. But we didn't buy the bed--good thing too, because in those days there was no queen size. About 10 years ago, we bought something, but I really have never liked it. It's impossible to find a match--I haven't seen oiled walnut anything in years, and besides 1960s modern is collectible, but not in fashion. However, elm in a honey sugar stain is close, and mission style will work with modern, so I flagged down my husband who couldn't figure out where I was and he came in and looked. Within another 2 minutes, we'd grabbed the saleswoman and were talking about how we'd get it to Columbus. We've spent more time deciding which gas station will save us five cents a gallon on a ten gallon fill-up.

We made a down payment to hold it, and will come back with our Explorer on our next trip to the lake and hope it fits. The delivery charge was reasonable ($1 a mile) but we're about 60 miles from Bucyrus, so that would be $130 just to deliver it.

The matching dresser and chest had been purchased by someone else--and they didn't want the bed. Forty-three years from now they'll be sorry.

3649

Two bumps on a log

We are driving up to our summer home in Lakeside on Lake Erie today. There will be lots of yard work, so I hope the warm weather we're having in Columbus extends that far north. Seems there's been a bit of storm damage. A neighbor called and took some photos. Our trees are probably over 100 years old, and because the early community had no zoning or plan (started as summer tents on platforms for chautauqua), they are often too close to the homes or street. Still, they provide beauty and shade, and I would hate to lose them.

As we get closer, you'll see that two of the "bumps" are alive.


I haven't a clue how we'll cut this up and get it out of the road. We pay huge taxes to the county (which provides no services) and dues to the association (which owns the land), but we're a private community and when something expensive turns up, all fingers point to the home owner who gets very little return on taxes and dues.

3648

Get the clean hands habit

This was one of a series of instructional images used by the Minnesota Board of Health in the 1930s used to train the state’s public health workers. The purpose of these images and the appropriate training was focused on protecting food supplies from bacterial contamination.

Many people do not think about food safety until a food-related illness affects them or a family member. While the food supply in the United States in 2005 was deemed to be one of the safest in the world, CDC estimates that 76 million people get sick, more than 300,000 are hospitalized, and 5,000 Americans die each year. Text and photo courtesy of PHIL, Public Health Image Library.

3647

We be God

As we flee from any worship of the true God, let's pretend we are great and powerful, that we are stronger than the sun or the tides, that there never were climate cycles before the automobile, and that we hung the moon*. Let's just legislate ourselves out of the world markets, incrementally, and turn it all over to our friends the Chinese.

In this case Massachusetts v. EPA, [also known as Bush v. Gore Movie], the Court ruled that the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has existing authority under the Federal Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles. Greenhouse gas pollutants, such as carbon dioxide, cause the warming of the earth’s atmosphere.

As Massachusetts Chief Priest and Attorney General Martha Coakley says: "As a result of today’s landmark ruling, EPA can no longer hide behind the fiction that it lacks any regulatory authority to address the problem of global warming." From the Massachusetts AG site.

Clean air is good. Good for us and good for business. But tying it to humans controlling the temperature of the earth's atmosphere, is ludicrous.


*Wasn't there a full moon last night?

3646

Di-Fi flap fails to faze Dems

The hardest thing to get used to as a Republican is how they immediately cave in on everything. Like the firing of political appointees for being political. Why do those guys think they got the job? You’d never find a Democrat running from controversy! It’s just a smoke screen to cover the tail between their legs as they cut and run in Iraq. I’ll stay Republican so I can vote in the primaries, but these folks are just so wimpy I go crazy. And they really aren’t strong on pro-life anymore, and will probably collapse on stem-cell if a Democrat celebrity with a disease says BOO. God knows, the Republicans spend money like Democrats--and I didn’t like that even 10 years ago.

So now that Diane Feinstein (D-CA) has resigned as chair of the Military Appropriations Subcommittee (MILCON) after six years of running it with a conflict of interest because of her husband's war contracts (Richard C. Blum's companies) and oversight for funding for wounded soldiers, I'm pretty sure there won't be calls for her to close her office and quit (except from the farleft who see her as an evil Republican). Democrats seem to lead a charmed life when it comes to ethics and conflicts of interest. They don't even mind that George Soros, who supports all sorts of left wing causes, gets richer daily with Halliburton stock. (BTW, I see that Halliburton is 6th in government contracts, but University of California system is 7th--oops, the top 5 are also in California.

"As of December 2006, according to SEC filings and www.fedspending.org, three corporations in which Blum's financial entities own a total of $1 billion in stock won considerable favor from the budgets of the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs:

Boston Scientific Corporation: $17.8 million for medical equipment and supplies; 85 percent of contracts awarded without benefit of competition.

Kinetic Concepts Inc.: $12 million, medical equipment and supplies; 28 percent noncompetitively awarded.

CB Richard Ellis: The Blum-controlled international real estate firm holds congressionally funded contracts to lease office space to the Department of Veterans Affairs. It also is involved in redeveloping military bases turned over to the private sector."

Disclosure: Everything I've read about this seems to point back to this source, and I know little about it except it covers California's celebrity scene.

Update: Here in central Ohio, a sheriff in a nearby county has been disgraced and had to leave office for directing a contract worth $1300 to his son-in-law. He has pled guilty, apologized, and said he was ignorant of the law, but because of his position of trust, that's no excuse. Now there's a man who knows what to do when you're caught with your hand in the cookie jar. Di-Fi should be so brave.

COWS

Not Holsteins. Not Brown Swiss. Not Belted Galloways. COWS is the acronym for Central Ohio Watercolor Society, and Saturday we hung their Spring Show at The Church at Mill Run, 3500 Mill Run Drive, Hilliard OH 43026. The show will run April 1 - May 10 and you can see it between 9 a.m. - 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and Sunday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.





COWS was established in 1965 and holds steadfastly to true transparent watercolor. It sponsors worshops and paint-outs and holds two juried exhibitions per year. This year Stan Pierce is the president. New member applications are accepted in November.

3644

Have you ever had one of those weeks

where it seemed to be non-stop eating? I've written here several times since September about weight loss, and I've been successful and am right where I want to be for the last 60 days. Last Tuesday I noticed I was a bit under. Well, not to worry, it was a rather social week. Pie on Thursday. Pie on Friday. Cake on Saturday. Nibbles and brownies with frosting on Sunday afternoon. Nibbles and some sort of cream dessert in a graham cracker crust on Sunday evening. This morning I feel like I've been run over by a truck. I think this is a carb hang-over.

3643

Korean War Vet proposes duct tape solution

When Sen. Joe Biden was stumping a very small audience in Sumter,SC, he asked them for Iraq solutions. A 79 year old Korean War veteran suggested duct tape:

"But when Biden turned to the audience for questions, John Stevens, a 79-year-old Air Force disabled veteran of Korea and Vietnam, told Biden he had a better solution.

The war's being lost in Congress by the people who give aid and comfort to the enemies that are killing our troops," he said.

Stevens then said he had his own plan: "I call it the duct tape solution. You take a roll of duct tape and you put it over the mouths of the people that are criticizing our troops and also causing the enemy to continue attacking our troops and blowing them up."

Story at Myrtile Beach Online, noticed at Don Surber's site.

This could be an April Fool!

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Some mountains are very real; some, not so much. Be sure you know the difference!

3641

Travel by walking

I must be missing something. Researchers have determined that 6th grade girls who walk to and from school (called "travel by walking" in the published study) have more minutes of physical activity than non-walkers. Eight people with a doctorate and one with an MS participated in designing and publishing this study. http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/161/2/153 The next thing you know someone will want to study the cutting edge concept that pop, potato chips and candy bars contribute to childhood obesity.

The night Research went on a joy ride

In my Thursday Thirteen I'd mentioned working on a poem. It may not stay exactly in this form. April is poetry month--write or read a poem.

The night Research went on a joy ride
by Norma Bruce
March 31, 2007

Surprise and his best friend Serendipity
picked up the good-looking Research.
As they left the house that night
her mother, Discipline, was nagging and
her dad, Questioning, looking for a fight.

So they sent along her younger brothers
Assumption, Guess and Hunch
who rode along in the back seat
to throw spit balls in the stacks
and trip Librarians they would meet.

Along the way they picked up
Strategy and Documentation
who kept them from caution tossing
to the wind as the lovers parked
on Mount Concept Glossing.

When they stopped to refuel they hailed
Curiosity and Argument waiting for a ride,
noticing Challenges and Debates smoking
language and meaning in the dark
where Inquiry and Paradox were groping.

It was a wild ride that night,
with passionate struggles and heavy breathing.
And now poor Research is pregnant.
Will she birth a fat Report, short Novel
or just a Sweet Little Memory segment?

3639

Ask your doctor about

low dose aspirin. Especially if you are a woman.

Story from Medscape.com, as reported in the March 26 Archives of Internal Medicine

"In this prospective, nested, case-control study, 79,439 women enrolled in the Nurses' Health Study who had no history of cardiovascular disease or cancer provided data on medication use biennially since 1980. Relative risk (RR) of death according to aspirin use was determined before diagnosis of incident cardiovascular disease or cancer and during the corresponding period for each control subject.

During 24 years, there were 9477 deaths documented from all causes. Compared with women who never used aspirin regularly, women who reported current aspirin use had a multivariate RR of death from all causes of 0.75 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.71 - 0.81). Risk reduction was more evident for death from cardiovascular disease (RR, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.55 - 0.71) than for death from cancer (RR, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.81 - 0.96).

Aspirin use for 1 to 5 years was associated with a significant reduction in cardiovascular mortality (RR, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.61 - 0.92), whereas a significant reduction in risk for cancer deaths was not observed until after 10 years of aspirin use (P for linear trend = .005). The benefit associated with aspirin was confined to low and moderate doses, and it was greater in older women (P for interaction < .001) and in women with more cardiac risk factors (P for interaction = .02).

"In women, low to moderate doses of aspirin are associated with significantly lower risk of all-cause mortality, particularly in older women and those with cardiac risk factors," the authors write. "A significant benefit is evident within 5 years for cardiovascular disease, whereas a modest benefit for cancer is not apparent until after 10 years of use." "

I have a very conservative doctor, and have been on low dose aspirin probably 7 or 8 years.