Ranger from the North

John Hinderaker:

One of the contemporary Left's more annoying traits is its insistence on labeling those who disagree with leftist dogma as "anti-science." This from the people who apparently don't know about X and Y chromosomes. Or maybe they think an X can "identify" as a Y, and vice versa.

From the executive summary of The "New Energy Economy": An Exercise in Magical Thinking by Mark P. Mills:

The annual output of Tesla's Gigafactory, the world's largest battery factory, could store three minutes' worth of annual U.S. electricity demand. It would require 1,000 years of production to make enough batteries for two days' worth of U.S. electricity demand. Meanwhile, 50-100 pounds of materials are mined, moved, and processed for every pound of battery produced.

(h/t: Steven Hayward.) 

John Hinderaker:

But the idea that batteries of any foreseeable design will combine with wind turbines and solar panels to satisfy America's need for electricity is a fantasy. For one thing, batteries of the requisite capacity would be prohibitively expensive. It has been calculated that, using the most advanced battery technology on the market, Tesla's 100 MW, 129 MWh battery in use in South Australia, it would cost $133 billion to store the electricity needs of my state, Minnesota, for 24 hours. That is more than one-third of the state's annual GDP.

Thus, for the foreseeable future, wind and solar energy will be useless add-ons to an already-sufficient electric grid. If you seriously think that CO₂ emissions endanger the Earth's future, as so many environmentalists at least claim to believe, the only rational course is a massive investment in nuclear power.

Jazz Shaw:

Not for nothing, but this isn't a question of "where do we draw the line" now. The lines have been drawn for the entirety of the recorded history of mankind. And when it comes to competitive sports, those lines are drawn straight down the middle of your 23rd chromosomal pairing. If you have an X and a Y, you stand on one side. If you have two Xs, you stand on the other. It’s the transgender social activists who are trying to blur and move those lines.

General Eisenhower's D-Day message:



Scott Johnson has posted Power Line's annual remembrance of the D-Day landings (The Ordeal of Omaha Beach) here.  Mr. Johnson has also posted a video and the text of President Trump's excellent speech at today's commemoration.

Ed Morrissey has posted his thoughts here (the Washington Post's video of today's full event is included).  Mr. Morrissey concludes:

Macron's heartfelt thanks captured the spirit of the day. France does not forget, and neither should anyone else. Not the nations that the invasion helped free from the grasp of genocidal totalitarians, and not the aspirational madmen who think that civilized nations have forgotten why we needed the sacrifices of D-Day. The men who charged those beaches on that day were our greatest generation, but liberty produces such men and women when the need arises.

From the bottom of our hearts to those who died and those who lived on D-Day: Thank you for the liberty we still enjoy.

Steven Hayward:

But I like this idea better: tell China that if they don't reform their predatory trade practices, we'll cut off all student visas for Chinese students at American universities. What are they going to do—send their students to German and French colleges where Chinese students don't know the language? Think British and Australian universities can absorb that many Chinese students? Do you think they want that many Chinese students? Of course they don't.

This step would annoy the Chinese elite who want to send their kids to American colleges—and use it as a means of sneaking some capital out of the country. One untold story is the number of Chinese students whose parents buy them an expensive house and expensive car in the U.S. as a way of escaping China's capital controls. I’ve seen this first hand.

This would have the added bonus of depriving many liberal universities of revenue, since they love Chinese students because they pay the full tuition sticker price. Admitting a certain amount of full-tuition Chinese students has become part of the business model with many colleges and universities. And you don't even need to bribe a soccer coach. Without full-paying Chinese students, some colleges might have to lay off the six-figure salary associate assistant deputy under-dean of diversity and inclusion. Horrors!

Yes!  I've been saying this for years.