Bear Pit: now the sole domicile of politics at LuLa

[Alan Klein]

The current conditions may not have occurred for a long time but domestic water pipes freeze and burst in Texas on an annual basis and still they build houses without adequate insulation so I'm not optimistic about the "free market" reacting to events large or small.

Local building codes regulate those things.  You wouldn't want the federal government deciding on a single rule that affects a country the size of America with so many regions with differing climates. Maybe Britain where you live is different.  You really don't know America although you're always claiming to know more than Americans do about their own country.   The fact is most new homes are highly insulated in the USA.  You'd have to be crazy not to.  The cost of energy to heat and cool would cost a lot more.

[digitaldog]

No I like Puerto Ricans and other Latinos, especially women.  I find them sexy and attractive. They're very friendly and personable.  I think it's an ethnic as well as a cultural thing.

Down boy! Your new found woody and your politics may be in conflict:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Ocasio-Cortez was born into a Catholic family in the New York City borough of the Bronx on October 13, 1989, the daughter of Blanca Ocasio-Cortez (née Cortez) and Sergio Ocasio-Roman.[9] She has a younger brother named Gabriel.[10] Her father was born in the Bronx to a Puerto Rican family and became an architect; her mother was born in Puerto Rico

[jeremyrh]

Even the rocket industry is making NASA obsolete. 

NASA put a man on the Moon over half a century ago. Give us a call when a private company manages it.

[jeremyrh]

Local building codes regulate those things.  You wouldn't want the federal government deciding on a single rule that affects a country the size of America with so many regions with differing climates. Maybe Britain where you live is different.  You really don't know America although you're always claiming to know more than Americans do about their own country.   The fact is most new homes are highly insulated in the USA.  You'd have to be crazy not to.  The cost of energy to heat and cool would cost a lot more.

I know what I'm talking about cos I lived in Texas. Did you?

[TechTalk]

The articles I read said the building was falling apart. Blocks were falling off the side of the building. No wonder Trump didn't want to pay his contractors. Did he sue them?

Who was responsible for selecting the contractors (and paying them) and maintaining the property after construction?

"I take no responsibility" - Donald Trump

[Alan Klein]

Im not sure that insulating pipes counts as "fighting nature".

Codes are usually established by organizations who are experts in the field.  For example, ASHRAE engineers (American Society of Heating Refrigeration and Air Condition Engineers), a private organization,  determine how buildings are heated and cooled based on the region in the country. We're all familiar with ISO and ASA.  The government doesn't have the expertise to make good judgments in different areas.  MAybe military defense would be an exception.

Of course, stuff happens.  So procedures rules and codes change over time as we learn things.  Haven't you changed your mind and done things differently in your life as problems have happened to change your mind?  So now, in Texas, the engineers will probably add some protective measures going forward.  That's how the world advances. Of course, politicians "never let a crisis go to waste". They use them to gain political advantage like what happened with Covid.

[TechTalk]

Would you really want to fly in a plane built and maintained by Congress?

No more than I would want to live in a building built and maintained by Trump.

[Alan Klein]

No, Trump ran the casino into bankruptcy well before the building started falling apart.

Apparently he got out before the building fell apart. Carl Icahn owned it now.

[Alan Klein]

So statehood is merited on the condition of Alan's underpants?

Stay out of my pants. 

[TechTalk]

he got out before the building fell apart.

"He got out"... Translation: bankruptcy thru ineptitude.

[faberryman]

Have you paid to install fire extinguishers? Why not?

Nope. I just have the alarms that tell me when to run out. Sometimes I hope my house will burn down so I can get the insurance money. My property is such that it is worth the same whether it has a house on it or not. Quite a few houses sold in my neighborhood recently have immediately been torn been torn down and the owner then built a gigantic McMansion. My house burning down would actually be a financial bonanza. Besides, all my stuff would get burned up and I wouldn't have to move it. It would save all those gut wrenching decisions about what to keep and what to throw away. I'd just get new stuff when I moved into a new house. I have even been thinking about taking up smoking in bed as a hobby.

[Alan Klein]

I view people as individuals. To do otherwise is pure unadulterated foolishness.

So do I.  It's just that Latinos are individually and collectively more personable than many other groups. Viva la difference.

[Alan Klein]

You have probably run the numbers, and maybe even visited with your doctor, but don't you think you'll be dead before you break even on the deal?

My wife who's for it expects to live longer than me.  She's done the numbers too.   

[TechTalk]

So do I.  It's just that Latinos are individually and collectively more personable than many other groups. Viva la difference.

Which begs the question of which groups you find less personable and why? Actually... never mind... I'm not interested.

[Alan Klein]

Colonialism isn't a good look or a good system of government for a nation that embraces democracy. Knee-jerk reactions based on ideological labels isn't a good look or a good system of reasoning for someone that embraces rational thinking.

We freed Puerto Rico from colonial Spain.  Now it's up to them to decide what they want to do.  We're being democratic about it.  You know, even if they want to be free of the US, that doesn't mean we have to allow them to be a state.  We could just tell them to go their own way like we did the Philippines and become a nation.  Maybe the Democrats will also make the US Virgin Islands a state. Guam. Midway. Canada. 

[JoeKitchen]

The current conditions may not have occurred for a long time but domestic water pipes freeze and burst in Texas on an annual basis and still they build houses without adequate insulation so I'm not optimistic about the "free market" reacting to events large or small.

Call me crazy, but I kind of feel like if you have no heat and the high is in the single digits (F), your pipes are going to burst regardless.  Insulation only helps so much in that situation.  I woke up last week to find water shooting out of my neighbor foundation due to a burst pipe and we never lost power or heat.  Now, it did not surprise me that this happened to him, but that is another story. 

On top of that, so called "adequate" insulation changes drastically depending on the type of building.  You really need to adjust what type of insulation you use, if any, based on the construction process employed.  For instance, my house is made with load bearing single wall masonry, meaning the interior wall and exterior wall are the same wall.  In this situation you actually can not insulate the walls because doing so will, over the course of a few years to a decade, will compromise the wall to the point where it could collapse. 

Building science is not as cut and dry as you imply it to be. 

[John Camp]

Well they managed OK in El Paso, which is part of a network and not the independent racket that supplies the rest of Texas.

That's because El Paso is actually a part of New Mexico, though we don't brag about it here.

[TechTalk]

We freed Puerto Rico from colonial Spain.

and made it a colony of the United States.

Now it's up to them to decide what they want to do.  We're being democratic about it.

They have voted in multiple referendums for statehood. It requires Congress to act. Congress has not done so. We're NOT being democratic about it.

You know, even if they want to be free of the US, that doesn't mean we have to allow them to be a state.

Now there's some logic for you.

[Alan Klein]

Yet you chose to retire to New Jersey. There appears to be a disconnect between your words and deeds.

We looked at Florida but my wife doesn't like the heat.  Plus we'd have to take her 98-year-old mother with us there.  So we settled on NJ. Trust me.  I never would have thought to move here before we actually did.  But it's actually pretty nice.  Rural.  Horse farms. Dead deer on the road. Turkey vultures who eat the dead deer.  Very natural.   

Not far from my house.

Chestnut Point, Manasquan Reservoir by Alan Klein, on Flickr

[digitaldog]

Profiles in courage? Hardly, just busted:

'I got no defense': Ted Cruz responds after viral tweet mocking California energy policies resurfaces amid Texas storm
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas struck a rare conciliatory tone Tuesday after Twitter users lambasted him for a resurfaced August tweet in which he mocked what he described as California's "failed energy policies."
Millions of Texans have been left without electricity for sometimes-lengthy periods of time over the past few days because of severe winter weather.