Flash - Some Republicans are as dumb as Democrats

New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Republican, wants to put huge windmills on top of his city's skyscrapers to make the city green. What especially caught my eye was that he was quoted by New York Times reporter Michael Barbaro as saying that he imagined the Statue of Liberty’s torch being one day “powered by an ocean wind farm.”

Duh! Mr. Mayor, with all due respect, the Statue of Liberty's torch doesn't have a light in it anymore. The old torch, which did have a light in it, was replaced by one covered with gold leaf when it was renovated in the 1980's. And, duh! Mister Barbaro, you might have followed up by reminding the mayor or pointing out in your article that Miss Liberty's torch is already powered by the renewable energy of. . . reflection.

I owe seeing this item to Greg Pollowitz at National Review's Planet Gore blog. Mr. Pollowitz, who is probably a lot smarter than Mayor Bloomberg and Mister Barbaro, and who is also probably a bit more of an engineer than me, noted that the Mayor ". . . didn't say which buildings (he wants windmills on) . . . probably because putting a giant windmill on top of a giant skyscraper creates engineering stresses that said building was not designed to absorb. . ."

You can read the whole thing at http://planetgore.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MTUyODkyNTJhMDdmY2NhOGIwMTBjMzI0Zjk5ZTI1Yzc

Update - the more I think about it the more proud I am of avoiding the cheap temptation to go on with a very politically incorrect riff on this post given the probable ethnic backgrounds of Mayor Bloomberg, Mr. Barbaro, Mr. Pollowitz and Al Gore. Could it be that I'm finally maturing? Nah, it's just that to work that riff has to start "A Jew, a Dago and a WASP pedal their bikes from an environmental conference to a smoke free smoothie bar where they find a Polack smoking a cigar and sipping a bourbon,". . . I'm not fully pleased with the rest of the joke as I've developed it so far. If anyone comments with a better completion than I have it will be posted here for posterity to admire.

Update 2 - August 21st
"NEW YORK (AP) - Mayor Michael Bloomberg is backing off his suggestion to put windmills on city bridges and rooftops after newspapers mocked the idea with photo illustrations of turbines on the Brooklyn Bridge and the Empire State Building.
"There are aesthetic considerations," Bloomberg said. "No. 2, I have absolutely no idea whether that makes any sense from a scientific, from a practical point of view.""

So now Mayor Bloomberg admits he was an idiot last week. It's a fair guess that he's still an idiot. What a maroon.

The whole article is here - http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080821/D92MJ32O1.html