I’m so glad Jonah wrote this!

It’s been bugging me ever since Walter Cronkite suggested – not in so many words, but suggested it, nonetheless – that the lesser folks living inland in New England could live with the affliction of having their scenery marred by the presences of wind farms, for the greater good, because he certainly wasn’t going to acquiesce to any ugly such energy creation within sight of his privileged eyes.

“I’m all for these (windmills), but there must be areas that are far less valuable than this place is….(said Cronkite)…Inland New England would substitute just as well.”

To be fair, I saw a wind farm in Ireland and I thought it was ugly in the fields, and ruined the view. Which is why it made perfect sense, to me, to put the things 5-15 miles off shore, where they can barely be seen, except in the clearest weather. Why ruin EVERYONE’s view, every day, in every weather, when really – no one’s view has to be “ruined” completely, everyday, in every weather, if you put the things out to sea.

If I were a rich liberal with a house on the shore, this is one fight I would not be joining. I’d be so damn glad to have the beachhouse, and the chance for 75% of my energy needs to be provided cleanly – and without guilt – that I’d embrace it, act noble about my “sacrifice,” brag about how progressive I am, and move my chair 7 inches to the right or left, just enough to slip the tiny white blip out of my line of vision – and then I’d sit back with a Margarita, and admire the view.

As Jonah Goldberg suggests in his piece…if Ted Kennedy or Walter Cronkite really have a problem with it, I’d be happy to switch houses with them! Hey…we have a pool! And umm…new windows! They’d love the view of the big microwave tower we can see from our backyard, you know, so everyone can use their cellphones!

Ask me if anyone cared what I thought about erecting that thing within my line of vision; ask me what my senator did when I wrote a worried letter requesting an investigation into the long-term health effects of building such a tower in the middle of a residential area.

Heh. I’ll take that porch, that sea-view and that Margarita whenever you’re ready, Ted.