”Semantics - depends on how you define "closed" system. Earth only?, Solar System only? Galaxy?Universe? Everything? You can play the game by saying nothing is closed, which i think you are trying to do. But, you still can't reverse the 2nd Law.”
No semantics, there is a very clear and real distinction in thermodynamics between closed and open systems.
It is true though than no one really knows where to draw the line in the actual world to say “this is the closed system”. It may be that the universe (since its inception) has been a closed system thermodynamically, but that, beyond the universe at the multiverse level, thermodynamics is not applicable. But this is speculative of course and we really don't know.
"...if the earth is not a "closed" system, then the 2nd Law doesn't apply here,”
Not true. If anyone says “the second law only applies to closed systems” then they don't know what they are talking about. The second law applies to all systems open and closed. But the second law does allow for local decreases of entropy within a closed system (at the expense of greater entropy elsewhere in the system), and it allows for local or general decreases of entropy within open systems. All that the second law really requires is that the overall entropy of a closed system must always be increasing until such time as maximal entropy is reached.
“... and we would expect to find it violated often. We never do. I would be very interested in examples of where the 2nd Law is violated regularly.”
Answering the spirit of your assertion since the substance is based on misconception, I can think of an example. Ok, it isn't earth, but Mars. The rovers Spirit and Opportunity keep running and running with no internal power generation because they absorb free solar energy and radiate waste energy into space. Assuming no mechanical failures, they could do so indefinitely. This is only possible because Mars, like Earth, is not a closed system.
“Show me the 100%+ efficient engine."
As far as 100% or greater efficiency engines go, while the rovers don't have them and the first and second laws of thermodynamics say they can't exist, you don't need them in an open system to achieve results similar to which only 100%+ efficient engines could achieve in a closed system. In a loose yet practical sense, Spirit and Opportunity could be considered perpetual motion machines. As I said before, they can run virtually forever because ordered energy available for work is always flowing into the system to be utilized and disordered waste energy always has an easy way out.
“You can argue semantics, but you can't argue the 2nd Law...”
FreedomResponsibility's primary argument is based on the “fallacy of division”. This is common among creationists when arguing that the second law of thermodynamics doesn't allow for evolution. Freedom my friend, just because the totality of a closed system is always moving towards greater entropy doesn't mean EVERY LAST LITTLE PART of it must simultaneously be doing so too.
To conclude: Your arguments are fallacious. I don't know this is intentional or a result of your ignorance, but, as so many here are fond of saying, you FAIL!
