Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Make Them Real

Newt Gingrich showing off his iPhone 4

Tonight in the ornate Johnson Chapel located on the equally ornate Amherst College campus in the left leaning town of Amherst, Newt Gingrich entertained a crowd of almost 700, mostly students, but a smattering of older folks as well.

 Huge crowd in Johnson Chapel, Callista Gingrich front row

He started out by holding up his iPhone 4 calling it, "the most powerful public health device in America today." Furthermore he insisted smart phones should be given to school children everywhere as an access pathway to education.

Like an enthusiastic science professor he went on to extol the virtues of 3D printing and regenerative medicine to revolutionize health care, although he's concerned the FDA slows down innovation and prevents products from making it to the market.

 Plenty of questions

He championed the Google driverless car, pointing out the army is using the technology for supply trucks which reduces the cost in lives should a convoy come under attack.  Although he asserts we lost the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, costing taxpayers trillions of dollars and inflicting thousands of casualties among our troops.

But his views on energy would lead to a brief firefight with two young ladies later in the question period.  Gingrich championed fracking and horizontal drilling as a means of increasing dramatically the production of domestic oil.

In North Dakota oil production increased thirty fold and wages went up 50% as a byproduct of the energy boom, where even McDonald's employees make $15/hour.

Gingrich aimed his most vitriolic criticism squarely at our nation's seat of power:   "Washington has no interest in fixing things"; or "The Senate as an institution has been decaying for 20 years."  He pointed out he was in D.C. a few days ago and there was a dusting of snow which resulted in the Federal Government shutting down sending all their employees home (even though the White House lawn was still green).

"How do you think that makes the taxpayers in Buffalo, New York feel when they trudge to work through a typical snowstorm"?
 Newt leaves the stage

He closed by recapping his faith in new technology and new ways of doing things:  3D printing, driverless cars, online learning.  "The challenge for your generation is to make them real."





9 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Gingrich entertained"? You're being charitable. I showed up hoping to hear something thought-provoking from one of the Republican party's most celebrated theorists and notorious bomb-throwers. Instead I sat through...

"How many people here have a smartphone?"

"How many people have heard of 3-D printers?"

"How many have ever used an ATM card?"

...followed up with deep "insights" like "A third-grader would love to touch a T. Rex tooth made by a 3-D printer." (Uh, okay. And who's gonna pay for that?)

I left after 40 minutes, bored silly. After the ATM poll, I expected his next question would be how many of us were wearing shoes.

This is a guy who ran for president last year?! Has he really got nothing to say about the country's problems and how to fix them? Or did he think his audience had no more brains than a bunch of third-graders?

Good luck with that "Republican Resurgence".

Anonymous said...

Considering how cheap 3D printing has become recently, that 3D printers are already showing up in elementary schools, and that the US has a dire need to reinvigorate interest in math and science, I'd say most tax payers will be paying for that relatively soon. Loved the video, Larry. I suppose these girls are going to raise a few million dollars to install a locally grown organic wind farm at the old landfill? Or maybe in the front lawn of the Dickinson house?

Kris

Why chimps destroy mirrors said...

"Good luck with that "Republican Resurgence"."


Aw, did we vote for Uncle Barry

twice?

No wonder you were "bored silly".

No ~friggan~ wonder.


Yours ever and ever,

Roach Patrol


p.s. Would you like a nice banana?

Anonymous said...

Everyone's for wind power until the turbines are located in their back yard, or located on some landscape or seascape that they hold dear. Then we hear about how threatening they are to wildlife habitat.

It's frustrating, but the simple remark that "the American people are more important than birds" by the Amherst student in the clip really glosses over a much more difficult debate.

Throwing the questions back at the students was a skillful ploy by old Newtster.

Ponziroachychimpville said...

Anon 9:37. Nope, Roach Patrol -- I actually voted Republican in the last two presidential elections. But lately I've despaired of finding anyone in the party who has anything to say that's worth listening to, i.e., might actually lead to real change.

Anon 1:49 hit it on the head. You keep recycling the same boringly brain-dead tropes over and over and over and over: chimps... ponziville... bananas... prozac... roaches... Kathy Mazur was so terribly mean to me, boo hoo... chimps... ponziville... bananas... prozac... roaches...


Even the format of your comments is


utterly ~friggan~ predictable.


If you represent the future of the Republican party, we might as well just give up now.

p.s. Would ~you~ like a

banana




or maybe a




~life~?

Their siphons, your cash-o-la said...

"Good luck with that "Republican Resurgence"."

"Aw, did we vote for Uncle Barry
twice?"

"Nope, Roach Patrol -- I actually voted Republican in the last two presidential elections."


Yeah, you voted republican alright.

And you tell ME to get a life???

HA! You really are you own worst enemy!



All the very best with utmost admiration,


Roach Patrol


p.s. Don't you ever forget, because I ~definitely~ wont:


http://www.viddler.com/v/5a131868

Anonymous said...

yawn

can i have my banana now?

100 grand a year and luvin every penny of it! said...

Not until you apologize.


RP

Walter Graff said...

Did love the video. He put those two college girls in a cab and home early.