He gets it.

Lessons NOT Learned

Tuesday was the first real cold morning in CT. I've been waiting for this day for six months now. Waiting for a bellwether of the potential viability of green technology.

Over my 4 miles drive I passed a BMW X5, a Hummer H2 and a couple of Ford Explorer. These vehicles where special. They, in no uncertain terms, spelled the death of many a green startup. It's wasn't so much the vehicles, but the owners that mattered: mothers from decidedly middle-class Shelton, not wanting to expose their young children to the 37 degree weather, bundled them up, stuffed them in their SUV, drove 50 feet to the end of their driveway and idled away awaiting the school bus.

Now, granted gas is back to about $2.50 a gallon, but if there is any indication that the country has learned nothing from the last year, it was evident to me in those idling cars. People are simply not interested in modifying their life styles. They are simply incapable of allowing long term concerns to influence short term behaviors.

Since alternative energy is by definition a long term undertaking, and since OPEC and the law of supply and demand can always influence the short term cost of oil and a 50% drop in oil price just rendered 50% of the green technology non-viable. It just follows that until we actually run out of oil (100 years from now), any attempt at alternative energy will fail.

These 4 mothers did not learn a thing from 2008, and neither did we

Longest Election Night in History

By midnight last night most major networks had called the presidential race for Barack Obama. John McCain conceded shortly thereafter.

It was a great moment for this country, a renewal of the American Dream on a scale never seen since Ronald Reagan's "Morning in America". Across the world millions of oppressed, ignored, marginalized minorities lifted their lonely eyes to the ray of hope from the shining city on the hill and said: "Only in America".

Yet we woke up this morning with an election as of yet undecided. Actually, it’s been decided, we just do not know the outcome.

It is so because for many of us, we still do not know what kind of a president got elected. Which man will move into the White House in January? Will a centrist, post-racial, uniter be the leader of the free world? Or will a weak-willed, go with the flow, I’ll sit-in-church-and-listen-to-vitriol and say-anything-to-get-elected politician be our commander in Chief?

The Economist wrote an editorial endorsing Obama entitled: "America Should Take a Chance on Obama".

We did.

In fact, we’re All-In.

It’s going to be a long night.

Voting "Present"

I’m not sold yet. And there’s less than a week to go.

So, I’m voting “Present” this year, and I’m doing it with a clear conscience. For I live in Connecticut, and my vote will not influence the outcome in any way, I can take the high road and simply abstain.

McCain lost me when he offered to buy everyone’s mortgage. If I wanted a liberal in office, I’ll vote for a real one.

Obama is still a question mark. I love his public persona and I love the idea of being able to move beyond our perceived racist bias. I’m comfortable that he will not change foreign policy that much just the world’s perception of our foreign policy.

I just don’t know what his economic policies will be if he is elected. Will he govern from the center or from the left?

Everything in his background screams “left”, yet he seems too smart for that. Will he learn from Clinton’s first two year in office, or are we destined to repeat them?

I’m just not sure. So I’m voting “present”, just as He did in the Illinois Senate. Thank you CT for making it easy for me!