"My momma always said 'stupid is as stupid does'". - Forrest Gump

I'm not surprised at all. East TN elected Stacey Campfield!

I think that letter's value is in its depressing representation of the mentality of a large percentage of the population of this region. Obviously letters are opinion only and not presented as facts. And I'm not even talking about the content of the letter - just the level of know-nothing ignorance that is pretty much in control of this area. To tie this in with Campfield - there's a reason why guys like him keep getting elected all over the state, and this letter is a shining (or dimming) illustration of why.

And I don't think there's anything that can be done about it. When that guy's house is knocked down by a mudslide caused by deforestation, mountain topping and overdevelopment, and gets sick from all the frozen popcorn shrimp he ate that was contaminated by Pacific radiation and low pH level microorganisms that are killing the ocean thanks to elevated carbon levels, he'll be looking for miraculous images of Jesus in his mail order 2% gold laminated "collector's coin" from Liberty Gold.

There is absolutely no hope for this region. That's why progressive people huddle in groups downtown and in book circles - the comfort of a few but ultimately impotent like minds.

/rant out

There is absolutely no hope for this region.

Personally, Hilde, I have some hope due to folks like you, especially given how well you can turn a phrase.

Looking forward to reading your own letter in that space soon. Please, please take a deep breath and write it?

There's work to be done!

I don't know if it makes it more or less sad, but I don't think it's at all limited to this region, though that mentality (or lack of) is certainly strong here. Isn't this "solar energy doesn't work" meme a national one hugely popular now with Rush, The National Review, Fox News, and on and on? I'm surprised the person interrupted his (I'm guessing not a her) diet of fear and ignorance to pen his own "thoughts" on the matter.

Back to the question, I have no idea...

"Showcase the ignorance of the region"

Awesome. Simply awesome. I'm picturing a bunch of buck toothed hillbillies sitting atop a NASCAR coming out of a cornucopia.

I started to send all of y'all this video Christmas card last month, but I thought it would be in poor taste. It seems to fit here though. Please note the line about the tree leaning to the right.

The letter writer is from Lenoir City...has he not heard Ted Wampler championing solar panels?

Ted claims that he is saving $150K a year on utilities since the solar panels were installed at the Lenoir City plant.

(link...)

...on Fox Business, Chris Horner of the Competitive Enterprise Institute claimed that the solar companies “are not responding to demand – they are providing something that doesn’t work.”

Fox’s Neil Cavuto hosted Steve Milloy twice this week to blast the solar industry. Milloy said that “the solar industry is leading the country … right down the toilet.” He went on to claim that:
STEVE MILLOY: Half the time solar panels don’t even work. Half the time they do work they produce expensive electricity. This is just lose, lose, lose, for America. We can’t do it here.
[...]
MILLOY: Solar panels don’t make economic sense anywhere. They are strictly a luxury item.

The next evening Milloy called Solyndra “the poster child for the disaster of green jobs and clean energy.”

Meanwhile, Rush Limbaugh said he didn’t understand why Solyndra had to shut down because “the sun is still there”...

Don't bother telling them that total solar industry exports exceed imports by over $1.8 billion.

(link...)

The guy claims solar panels are all made in China and produce no jobs here.

Sharp in Memphis (Tennessee) employs 400+ workers making solar panels, and just had a round of hiring in December. They shipped their 2,000,000th solar panel last summer. They say the Memphis operation has produced enough solar panels to power 65,000 homes, 20% of the homes sold in the U.S. last year.

Also, Hemlock Semiconductor is investing $2 billion in a plant near Clarksville (Tennessee) that will employ 500 workers making materials for solar panels. 1600 people are currently on construction.

Also, Wacker Chemi AG is investing $1.5 billion in a plant near Cleveland (Tennessee) that will employ 650 workers making materials for solar panels.

etc.

My church just applied for a CAC grant for a solar panel.

Today's published letter from Arthur L. McGinley is every bit as bad.

Some letter writers are misinformed (heh)...

...East Tennesseans believe that the United States is a democracy. Nothing could be further from the truth. The United States is a federal republic. The framers would be terribly insulted to believe that the nation had become a democracy...

...people believe the Earth's climate has always been as it now is and that this is the ideal. Even a cursory review of the world's geological history reveals that the Earth has often been both much colder and much hotter as well. Major changes in climate are more likely the result of natural factors — the solar system's position in space, solar storms, volcanic eruptions and meteorite strikes — than human activity. No one can prove that man has had more impact on environmental pollution than natural factors like a volcanic eruption. Nor can they absolutely prove that the changes we are currently experiencing are manmade.

Third, most people are not aware that...

Oh my.

You may have caught NASA's most recent study on climate change, released last week.

A new NASA study underscores the fact that greenhouse gases generated by human activity—not changes in solar activity—are the primary force driving global warming.

The study offers an updated calculation of the Earth's energy imbalance, the difference between the amount of solar energy absorbed by Earth's surface and the amount returned to space as heat. The researchers' calculations show that, despite unusually low solar activity between 2005 and 2010, the planet continued to absorb more energy than it returned to space.

You know, of course, that many of these same climate change deniers will also tell you that the videos of the moon landings were really shot somewhere in the Nevada desert.

Upon rereading the letter, I should have kept this line in the excerpt:
"Those who advance the position that this is a democracy are the ones who can't win with ideas and favor a "Tyranny of the Minority" rather than the rule of law."

Beautiful!