“As Christmas and Hanukkah Coincide, Lights Can Inspire All,” writes Eli Federman in the Los Angeles Times (December 17, 2024). He explains:
Holiday lights have more than aesthetic benefits, signaling community and social connection. Lights can boost mood, reduce stress and create warmth, especially during the dark winter months. Holiday lights are more than decorations; they’re a means of emotional well-being.
Lose the darkness, he concludes, “it’s time to shine.”
Scrooges
Yes, more lighting the better. Bah Humbug to the deep ecologists and climate busybodies who distain turning darkness into beauty. Three examples:
…With the holiday season, the intensity of light pollution only increases…. Ideally, there would be a public outcry against bigger causes of light pollution, such as street lamps and tall buildings. But until that happens, the simplest thing that one can do is to not put up any Christmas or Hanukkah lights.
Paul Williams, chairman and CEO of Stallion Oil Corporation, recently shared his holiday wishes on social media as follows:
To All My Democrat Friends:
Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.
I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2025, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great.…
“Rob’s snide reference to my ‘chess pieces’ is a reference to my unwillingness to agree with his Utopian dismissal of ISO/RTO organized wholesale markets.” (Lynne Kiesling to Vernon Smith, below)
“Yes, playing with government chess pieces (on-grid solar, wind, batteries, ‘smart’ meters) and a centrally planned wholesale market is Statism writ large.” (Robert Bradley to Kiesling, below)
Electricity specialist Lynne Kiesling champions herself as a classical liberal, free-market advocate. But she is just the opposite and relies on obfuscation and charm to advocate and sell
1) government central planning of wholesale electricity and
2) government-enabled wind, solar, and batteries in place of least-cost (central-station) electricity.
It is her “synthetic regulation” or the highway, premised on a belief that there cannot be private property rights to grid electricity.
This woman of system will not forthrightly define what a free market is with electricity.…