Reply to #25: Kend, not to worry. I’m not singling out Canada. Venezuela (sp?), Nigeria, Canada… they can ALL keep their obsolete, dirty, toxic crap. They can pour it over their cheerios in the morning for all I care, long as they keep it the hell out of my country.

Sorry you’re not feelin’ the love… Guess I’m a little more patriotic than I thought. - AIW

to SHF, Alice ---
well said.

Mark J. Saulys ~ Remember, PFNELKAK was referring to another world, not this one. Also, remember, this question is hypothetical only. Absolute monarchy can take one of two forms: that of a King, or that of a Tyrant. There is no middle ground. A King attends to the needs of his people. A Tyrant tends to his own needs.

According to the question, given a planet full of survivors that we are placed in charge of, how will we proceed? You would throw up your hands and walk away? I would take the bull by the horns and take responsibility for these people and their chances of survival and prosperity. Democracy is a fine notion; but, it has it's place; and, this is not the place. The human species must survive; and, this colony needs a strong central leadership. That is not possible in a Democracy.

Survival depends upon order, leadership, and cooperation. If I cannot inspire that cooperation with my leadership, law, or example, I will fail. That is not an option. I'm not going to run away from that challenge. According to the precept of the hypothetical, only I can provide what is needed. Therefore, that is what I would do. Anyone of these survivors who chooses not to follow my law--for whatever reason--is free to do so. I do not want to force anyone to pretend to be a good person. They are more than welcome to leave the community any time they wish. There will be no questions asked nor exceptions tolerated.

Personally, I don't believe anyone has a right to own a planet either. However, it seems obvious to me that when mankind is left to it's own devices, many members act like they do own the planet and proceed without the slightest concern for the good of the planet or anyone else living on it presently or in the future. Knowing that little fact--and the consequences of it--I have no problem assuming ownership of that planet. It is far better for everyone that someone like me takes that role rather than leaving it up to the results of economic or political competition. Whenever absolute control is obtained through greed you can be assured that Tyranny is all that will follow.

Don't worry, its just an idea. Besides, I guarantee my rule will be a Kingship and not a Tyranny... or double your money back.

D'Anne Marc, that sounds positively feudal. Ever hear of something called "paternalism".

Don't you think that as you are NOT their parent it would therefore be tyrannical for you to act as if you are? Don't you know that EVERY tyrant and every dictator - from Lenin to Mao to Castro and even to Hitler - at least says - and many do, in fact believe - that they know what's best for everybody and are justified in ruling as dictators because they are "good", "right" and "mean well"? Don't you know that they ALL invoke the "father" metaphor?

Don't you ever consider that you can't make good people by force, you can only force certain behaviors but you can't make the people acting the forced behaviors good people by force. That's why even the God of Jesus doesn't force but allows "free wiill", i.e., allows everyone to choose to be good or not as they will. He doesn't intervene, even if the world gets pretty nasty, because he knows that what's important and why we all do time on this Earth is not to be happy but to live and grow as people and as souls..

Your "children" would not be your children - or even children at all - only forced to act in that role to please you by the tyranny of your illegitimate, state defined, and thus man made, property rights. Even your own children - when they are no longer children - you have to let go to choose for themselves their values, mores, etc. People have a right to live by their opinions, beliefs and convictions and don't have to live by yours any more than you have to live by theirs.

Dictatorship is no less dictatorship if it is well intentioned dictatorship. I'm sorry if you don't believe in freedom and democracy but that requires faith in people - just like you must have faith in your children when they grow up (only these would not be your children any more than you would be theirs, you would only be able to force a personal, self indulgent fantasy upon them by way sick, twisted, illegitimate property rights).

Who has the right to own a planet anyway, for God's sake. Isn't that our ostentsible objection to everything, here on this site, that a small minority decided they own the Earth and the rest of us have to either pay them what rent they require or are trespassing on "their" planet?

Sorry, the whole thing is like a rape fantasy to me. In a sense, I have to reject categorically the question and challenge of "if you were king of the world" put forth by PFNELKAK.

Kend ~

The Daily Kos: Industrial Hemp Can Save America

Quote Article:Growing industrial hemp on just 6% of American lands would produce 100% of our energy needs. We don't need one drop of stinking fossil fuels. Heep seed oil is an excellent biodiesel which produces far less harmful pollution into our atmosphere, 80% less carbon dioxide and almost no sulfur emissions. Hemp produces 40% more ethanol than corn per acre and it grows in marginal soils actually improving soil quality when used as a rotation crop. Hemp requires almost no fertilizer and absolutely no pesticides compared to corn which is the top consumer of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in American agriculture. Industrial hemp grows quickly, maturing in as little as 100 days and produces 4 times a year, enough biomass to produce all our electrical generation needs with far less pollution and with industry creating additional beneficial byproducts.

Quote Article:The University of Missouri estimates that an average-size metropolitan area production of 100 million gallons of biodiesel fuel could generate $8.34million in personal income and 6000 temporary and permanent jobs. (Ref: National Biodiesel Board)

Quote Article:For those wanting links and more information on the 6% claim.
United States Fact Sheet: US agriculture
Total Land Area in the Continental United States is 2,263,994,361 acres [3,536,294 square miles] 6% of this total land area is 135,659,662 acres. Hemp yields about 10 tons per acre every 100 days to 4 months or 1,356,596,620 tons of total hemp biomass at least twice a year, 3 times a year in southern climates.
Hemp biomass conversions
There are several ways to convert biomass into usable energy including direct combustion to create steam. Assuming that most of the biomass is converted to cleaner fuels first and we subtract the weight from the total biomass for all the other uses before converting we are still talking close to a trillion and a half tons of hemp for fuel conversion. Ethanol conversion rates vary from low of 25 gallons a ton to as much as 100 gallons a ton with modern conversion techniques. Lets use 50 gallon a ton as an educated estimate, that's around 750 trillion gallons of ethanol a year which is more than all the gasoline used in 2010 which was just over 125 trillion gallons. Ethanol is not as energy concentrated as gasoline so the ethanol would require reforming and concentrating to yield fuel mileage rates like gasoline. Still enough hemp fuel could be created and still have enough hemp biomass left to produce methane for electrical generation.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/09/09/1014706/-Industrial-Hemp-can-save-America

Kend ~ Do you have any idea how many JOBS would be created to produce that much Hemp? Do you have any idea how much O2 that would produce and how much CO2 that would remove from the air? Think about it! Saving humanity aside, the economic stimulus alone is worth the effort.

Kend ~ Hemp can replace all those things anytime; and, do so cleaner and more bio-friendly than any petroleum products ever could. Also, cultivation of Hemp will clean the air for real; unlike carbon capture--which, at best, will only slow global warming--use of Hemp oil will actually reverse global warming.

And yes, I do hate oil companies with a purple passion. They are the root of all evil on this planet and I can't wait until they are all nothing more than dirty elements of history.

So Marc, no more paved highways, no plastic (computers, cell phones etc.) anti freeze, medicine, ink, life jackets, paint, eye glasses, I could go on forever and one day we will replace all of these but for the next 30 to 50 years I think we are stuck. So let's do the best we can with what we have. Like I said earlier we are doing research on carbon capture that would clean the world up but no one wants it because you hate the oil companies more than you love your planet.

Pretty close, Arrgy, but you need to know that conservatives fought every typoe of FDR's reforms tooth-and-nail and complained bitterly once those reforms were enacted. That's why he capitulated to their whining in 1937. That capitulation resulted in jump-starting the Depression which then took WWII to end.

I went to university when higher education was free, why shouldn't everyone else?

Continued from posts #39, #41 and #46: Still listening, Tarheels!

SHF, you are right government has no interest in what people think. Over 70% of Americans want Ketstone to go ahead, all the states involved have approved it yet six years later and still no decession. Most Americians are complaining that the manufacturing jobs are gone but who in there right mind would invest in any manufacture start up knowing it has taken six years on Keystone and still no desicession. Not even a NO. Who can wait that long. No one can start anything that produces green house gases. Which by the way is everything pretty much.