Oil as a way of life

This recent disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has made me give a lot of thought as to how we got there. Not how the rig exploded, and the uncontainable leak is slowly killing half an ocean. I mean what has happened to society, that we allowed ourselves to be in this position in the first place?

By position, I mean the risky proposition of having to deep water drill close to our own shores, for oil that will probably never even see the shores of America in any usable form. The fact that we will take this risk for profit is another story entirely.

I hear the cries in the media. I see the bumper stickers, groups on Facebook, etc. Oil is the demon.....or is it us? We use the oil, the oil doesn't use us. Our society, our lief style, our towns, the way we shop. All designed around oil consumption. And not even on purpose. There is no master plan. It's just the way it works out. An unfortunate by product of our own laziness, apathy, and greed. and now that we are submerged in this culture of oil usage, how do we break the cycle?

The way we live is fueled by our individual attitudes. We chose to drive every where. I read a comment by another writer, that he knows a woman who drives half a mile to the gym, to walk on a treadmill for 20 minutes. We drive across town to a mega store to save 50 cents on a bag of chips, instead of walking to the corner store. Our downtown's' house dying retail while we drive to the outskirts of town to a mall. Could not Old Navy build a store down town? Others would follow. We consume petroleum purely to fuel our own leisure. Think NASCAR. We buy a giant gas sucking SUV because we have a child, even though its not that much safer statistically, than a normal car. Or we just buy an SUV because we like the style. Where I live people let the car run in the winter for at least 1o minutes, so they won't be cold for the 5 that it takes the car to actually warm up once they get in. We waste oil just to waste oil.

Then there are the built in things we have no control over. We have Fed Ex and UPS in the area where I live every day. But they are not allowed to deliver mail, so we have the redundancy of the postal service driving around with a fleet of trucks and petroleum consuming infrastructure. You ever follow a school bus? Ever see the black smoke puff out when it accelerates? Years ago, buses only had so many stops picking kids up fro school and dropping them off. Today they stop every 10 feet to pick up or drop off kids instead of just dropping them off at one spot and letting them walk. Why?

Because we have stopped building sidewalks. Most residential communities now do not have sidewalks. I'm talking suburbs here, not even way out in the country. So kids and parents drive every where. Can't just walk in the street right?

Look at how we shop. We order something from across the country to save ourselves on the purchase price. Now the item must travel thousands of miles, propelled by fossil fuel. We dismantled the nations rail system, and now our roadways crawl with semi trucks, even though trains are more fuel efficient.

You will hear it said we need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. That doesn't solve the problem. We would still be dependent on oil. That's like saying I need to quit using imported heroin, and find a local poppy grower. You're still a junkie. We need to analyze the choices we make and make some sacrifices if we want to be free of this mess.

Right now we drill in Alaska and off the coasts. If you think that is risky, wait till you see what we do when that option runs out. What happens when an addict can't get a fix? They get desperate and the decision making process goes out the window. What will we give up? Environmental protection? DID IT. The health and safety of our citizens? DID IT. National security? DID IT. Whats next? What do we have left to sacrifice? And how far down the bad decision ladder will we let ourselves go?

See the future

So now the President thinks he is doing all America a favor. He is going to tell the banks what they can and can't do, in order to protect us from them. Whatever happened to free choice? Are we so lazy and ignorant that rather than do our own homework, we need the President to legislate the banks to protect us from our own laziness?

Newsflash people. You can protect yourself. Stay away from large chain commercial banks and stay with the smaller local ones. Ask someone in the bank what type of investments they are into. Whatever products the banks offer commercially should be a good indicator. Better yet, have a seat and ask an advisor. They want to bring your business into the bank, so they will give you information. Use the internet. Ask your neighbors. Go on.....you can do it. It's o.k. ....don't be scared. And if the bank looks sketchy, pull out your money and tell them why. Individual depositors like yourself and businesses are what makes them tick. If they get crazy, you pull out your money and be sure to tell them why.

This is all somehow a scam. There is an angle being worked that you can't or maybe can see. Somewhere behind this is a lot of money. Who stands to profit? Big investment firms. If the banks can't get in, that leaves more profit for them. So all the little special interest groups, and community organizers, and leftist types that think this is a good idea are probably in on it. And I can bet you that somehow they will profit from it. This is graft on the highest of levels. Just watch and see. 6-10 months from now there will be a big story about someone who profited big from this. And I will bet $5 that you can connect that person to the white house in 3 moves or less. Or at the very least to someone in the Senate Banking committee.

Let me leave you with a final thought from Ayn Rand that is starting to ring true:
"Do you wish to know whether that day is coming? Watch money. Money is the barometer of societies virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion-when you see that in order to produce you need to obtain permission from the men who produce nothing-when you see that money is flowing to those who deal not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you- when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice- you may know that society is doomed."

-Atlas Shrugged

Think about what that means and what you see in Washington. Then sit back on the couch, and see if you can still shrug your shoulders and agree with what is going on in D.C.

Why you shouldn't trust the right, and why they use you.

I am no fan of the American left. Trust me when I say that. I'm not down with the nanny state mentality and how it seeks to rob your freedom of choice. I'm not for peacefully cooperating with people who think they can actually open dialogue with the puppet governments of states that sponsor terrorism. I really hate that I'm o.k, you're o.k crap. Or other people acting in my best interest trying to save me from myself by gradually eroding my freedoms and liberties for my supposed "protection".

All that being said, if I hate the left I should love the right, right? Wrong. This is most people's incorrect assumption that you have to support one or the other. We all tend to want to be part of the winning team. But we assume there are only two teams in the game, and ignore the fact that the game is rigged by the two teams so that no one else can play.

Why must I support the right, if I don't support the left? Is one really any better than the other? Our current duopoly controls the whole pie. Once in a while one side or the other gets a bigger slice, but the same two people eat it every time. Is that fair? Are we not entitled to more than two choices? I wouldn't keep going to the same place two eat if they only had two items on the menu, one that gave me heartburn, the other gas.

So back to the right. Why do all republicans think that their party is the only logical choice? As I see it the difference is this: I hate the left because it tries to be my master, and I hate the right because they slowly try to sell me into slavery so they can make a buck.

That's not all there is. I hate the overbearing use of christian dogma as a form of control. What makes the religious right so morally pure that they can actually think it is okay to wage war and destroy an entire country, just because the Commander and Chief told everyone that Jesus said its okay. And they all march blindly along with it, because they have to oppose whatever the left stands for. Again, duopoly in action. Think about that. Your entire system of moral and political principle is entirely based on just doing the exact opposite of whatever your "opponent" does. No common sense, no compromise, no free will. Just oppose.

Of course, its not that simple. The truth of the matter is masked from you. If the current president makes a decision, you are basically told how to feel right from the start. They take what he says, edit out the context, add their own, create some talking points, stir in some easily recognizable pundits and viola. They form an opinion for you. And whatever that opinion is, will surprisingly be directly in opposition with the other side. And you readily agree because the constant barrage of dissent tells you that no matter how many decisions he makes, how well informed, or well intentioned he is, the President is always, 100% of the time wrong. Now common sense will tell you that this is not possible, but it has to be. Otherwise the Republican party can't be right.

Another thing I hate,is the way the right tries to legislate my morality. Aren't we supposed to be a country based on freedom? Nothing is more satisfying to me than turning on the T.V and seeing yet another member of the party that claims to represent moral goodness, and all that is godly and just, caught with a mistress, or addicted to painkillers, or playing footsie under an airport bathroom stall. I love it. The right sets itself upon so high a pillar, that when they tip and fall they shatter.

Don't tell me how to live my life. Don't tell me what is right. That is for me to decide. Republicans are all about suffering, denial and repression. You can't smoke pot in the privacy of your own home, because drugs are bad. But you can drink, and smoke cigarettes. Because the Alcohol and tobacco lobbies pay them a lot of money. Military service among the right is like a badge of honor. But then they disrespect everyone wearing a uniform by hiring contractors and waging war for profit. Profits made by companies most of them own stakes in. Ask an enlisted Marine how proud he/she is to serve our country for $30,000 or less a year in some mid-east meat grinder. The look at the fact that the lunch they were just served was prepared by some third party national making minimum wage, while the company that hired him billed the crap out of the U.S. for it.

Let's talk family values. I'm all for the stable family unit. But don't talk to me about the definition of marriage when you are keeping a South American mistress on the side. Or sleeping with pages, aides, secretaries, campaign workers, or random strangers you met in a dimly lit park.

Take a good look at your party. Look past all the spin, the talking points, and the barrage of commercials paid for by "friends" of someone. Its all an illusion. A lie. A trick to make you feel a little better about supporting them. Because in the end, they don't want you to look around and realize that there is another choice. There is always another choice. If you don't like choice A, that doesn't mean you have to go with B. This is America. Wake up. Make your own. Just because you are not on the winning side, does not mean you still can't be in the fight. Sometimes that's all that matters.

Here once again...

I'm going to pose a question.

Name one thing that our state or Federal government does well. Take a moment and really think. If your answer is anything other than spend our money, please by all means tell me what it is. I have to see this miracle of legislation.

Notice, I said "spend our money". I didn't say spend our money well, or spend it efficiently, or wisely. I simply said spend our money. Think about that. We happily pay the salaries of everyone in those giant buildings in DC, or your state capital. And what do we get back? Can the money you ever spend in taxes, ever get you anything other than a negative return?

Think about that, I said a negative return. You wouldn't happily pay on average 20% of your income to someone to invest if you had to pay a 20-30% commission would you?

You pay tax on everything. Gas, food, death, your house, and then fees for everything else. Your tax dollars go from local to state to federal coffers. Only to have a watered down portion maybe return to your state to fund whatever project is deemed critical. So just to use an example, New york in total pays 10 Billion dollars a year in taxes. This is not a real number.....so don't start bitching about facts. Out of that 10 billion, how much comes back? Right off the bat take out all of the overhead at the federal level. Whatever program gave New York the money has people that are getting paid, so they get their cut. Don't forget about oversight. Somewhere in the vast federal ranks exists a group of people who get paid to ensure that money is wisely spent. Now go down to the state and repeat the process. Now lets say congress was extra generous and set aside 2 billion dollars for New York. Out of that 2 billion how much actually gets spent on what it is intended for?

Could we not save a few bucks by keeping as much money as possible at the state level? That would mean we would have more money to go around. And it would ensure that when New York pays that 10 Billion, part of it doesn't get siphoned off to another state due to that state having a more powerful senator.

Our country was founded with strong state governments for just that purpose. The federal government should not be taking money under the guise of responsibility for something the state is set up to handle in the first place. All it becomes is an excuse to create more federal jobs and more red tape.

Medicare is the best example of this that I can see. Every state doesn't even pay the same. I think New York pays almost twice as much for medicare as most other states. How is that equitable? If all of the money that New Yorkers paid for Medicare stayed in the state, we wouldn't have these medicare balloon payments that pop up every so often forcing the state to shaft the local governments to make it up.

You may seem to get from this post that I am no fan of government. I am not, never have been, and never will be. And neither should you. You should never, ever say your government is doing a good job. They use that as a license to steal. The call it"public mandate".

My vision of government is simple. It should be run like a business. Sure it should not try to profit off the taxpayers. But a business runs smart, it seeks the best product for its dollar, and seeks to provide the best service at the lowest cost. Our government operates for profit. Don't believe me? So how come the government can vote itself a pay raise? You know, just like a board of directors? They profit from our taxes, because we pay their salary. And if you don't think they profit in other ways, then you explain to me how someone with a salary of $174,000 for what amounts to essentially a part time job (Congress gets a lot of breaks), are millionaires. Not just like 2-3 million, but 15 million and up. Lets assume that they made $174,000 a year for 20 years and paid no taxes whatsoever out of that. That amounts to 3.4 million. Where did the rest come from? They started businesses to profit from their influence, they take money from special interests, leftover money from election campaigns, they right books, get t.v appearances. All of this money is generated and made possible by the salary that we pay them.

If you don't think they do this, you are the dumbest person alive. We should pay them almost nothing, except a stipend to pay their staffs. They all like to preach about how they enjoy public service. So, serve the public. They make enough money y virtue of the advantage their position provides. If your steel mill is having problems with the EPA, are you gong to hire a lawyer down the street? Or would you hire the firm that has a partner who sits on the Senate Committee that oversees the Superfund?

In 1885 we paid congress $3,000 a year. Adjust that for inflation and see where you stand. They weren't the equivalent of millionaires back then.

The MIAC Report and you

One of my more conspiratorial minded co-workers was kind enough to inform me the other day, that according to a new report I was a domestic terrorist. I took the bait and he told me that he had a friend in DHS that told him about this report from Missouri that was to become a field training aid for new agents to spot persons of interest as possible domestic terrorists.

Now I have been called a few things in my time, but a "domestic terrorist"? That's a new one. I am not one for wild theories, so I had my friend send me the link and I started to do a little research. As it turns out, its not so far fetched.

The report in question is the product of MIAC, also known as the Missouri Information Analysis Center. MIAC is what is called a "fusion center" that combines resources from several agencies both local and DHS. It functions as an information clearing house and intelligence analysis center, using the data to combat crime and terrorism. Strangely enough, when I googled MIAC I learned that Maine has one two. It appears to be spreading.

On Febuary 20th of 2009, MIAC issued a report entitled The Modern Militia Movement. The report gives the history, more infamous acts and common traits shared by members of these groups. It is very detailed and contains topics covering ideology of militia members, militia organization, and common militia symbols. The report was leaked and its existence confirmed by the Missouri State Police.Several sites give credit for discovery to Infowars.com

If you read the report, you may find yourself checking of imaginary boxes in your mind. I found at least five similarities myself. Think about it this way, what if you were an Officer involved in a traffic stop. You have a white male driving a Ford truck, sporting a Ron Paul and NRA bumper sticker that you stopped on a back road, and the driver appears to be wearing a fatigue jacket. According to the report, if it was issued to local law enforcement as a memo or field aid, it would have given the officer probable cause to pull you over, or at least start following you to obtain more information.

MIAC issued a letter retracting the report on March 25th, 2009. Letters of apology were sent to Ron Paul, Bob Barr, and Chuck Baldwin, all of whom were mentioned in the report. This was after the internet and media buzz, including getting lambasted on FOX News, Rush Limbuagh, and a who's who of Conservative talk radio.

So what does this mean for the rest of us? Obviously, we do not want to see another act of domestic terrorism like we saw in Oklahoma City. And many of us who stand against what we see as tyranny creeping into our lives with the creation of legislation such as the Patriot Act, work towards repealing legislation that seeks to take away our liberty in the name of security. But political tides change. DHS can be used as a political tool that changes with tides depending upon who is in power. Just because the person in charge at the moment does not use it as a tool to suppress dissent against administration, does not mean that someone else will. The same morals do not always rule the roost.

I am a strong advocate that all governments should be afraid of the people. I advocate change in the direction of liberty and individual freedom always. This does not make me a terrorist, simply a good American. As good Americans, we need to be a little more forward thinking when we create these organizations or give them mission statements. We all want safety and security, the right to dissent, freedom of speech and to express our political views.

It was written in the Federalist Papers that anyone who sacrifices liberty or freedom in the name of security, deserves neither Liberty nor freedom. This is a case of just that very thing. Here we see the government attempting to target those who express their conviction, in the name of domestic security. That must not ever stand. If that day comes, hopefully it will make rebels of us all.