Rant!

[dogtag]

I have way too much time on my hands. I'm on the internet too much and watch the news too much.
Why is it that some things seem as clear as glass to me but seem to be beyond the scope of some of the Folks that Govern us?
Back in the 40's we were scared as hell that the Nazi's were going to get the bomb.
We pulled out all the stops and put all of our muscle into developing not one but three bombs.
The scale of the project was unprecedented and enormous beyond comprehension but we did it and we did it first.
Then along comes the moon shot. We end up landing a craft on the moon with two men and bring them back with the help of some computers that have less power than the processor in my IPod and, we did it first.
There isn't anyone on the planet that disagrees that there is a finite amount of oil and an apatite that is growing like a cancer.
Doesn't anyone see that our need for fuel is going to collide head on with our ability to produce it?
Only 50 years ago, I can remember paying 19 cents a gallon for regular gas.
I remember telling my pals that it would be a cold day in hell before I'd pay 38 cents a gallon for the Chevron 108 Octane, white pump. Well, it's getting chilly.
Why is it the Brazilians don't import any oil. Could their sugar cane based E85 be working? Why is it we're using corn based mash to make our ethanol when
sugar cane has 7 times more inherent energy?
The politicians seem to be ready and willing to torpedo any idea put forth to
ease the energy crisis, that is unless it's a bad idea, then they're all for it.
Then they can say, "see it didn't work, I told you so".
What's troubling is that the guy on the streets seems to think that all we have to do is drill. Problem solved. By all means, yes, drill but all that is going to do is put off the inevitable. We need to come up with an answer like the Brazilians did. Might not be E85, might be something else that works for us, but we need to get started yesterday!
In my humble opinion, we're in a war and if we don't win this war it will spell the end of us as a significant world power.
Our enemies would love to see this happen. They are coming to the realization that all they have to do is sit back and wait. They don't need guns or WMD's, just time.
Whoever we elect as Pres needs to be an economic warrior and God help us if he's just another politician.
I can remember watching John Kennedy on TV telling a Nation that we were going to put a man on the moon. I thought, "oh sure", fat chance, when pigs fly.
We really need someone to rev up the American machine, pull out all the stops and solve this problem. A good President could do this.
I hope we don't have to descend into the dark ages before somebody has the balls to exhibit the leadership we sorely need.
DT
whew.....rant over.....returning to normal.....blood pressure dropping.....whew!
Now, where was I?

['32 skidoo]

Don't get me started. I am just absolutely astonished at the things we Americans are swallowing and smiling about without the least bit of questioning. Have we really become a nation of wimps and 'gimmees', not caring what is happening as long as we get "ours"?

I've have tried for years to stay out of the 'conspiracy theory crowd', but with the insanity that has become the nightly news, I have began to wonder just what in the world is propelling the theories, the claims, and the philosophies that are so far from the simple truths that built this country.

I'm through

[Dave Severson]

Maybe the entrepreneurs and possibly some of the major corporations could do it..... But not our government and certainly not a new president on his own.... Government intervention in one form or another, along with the apathy of the voters into actually getting rid of the ineffective politicians whose only priority is job security, just kills any sort of initiative to solve any problems.... A new president do it??? Couldn't do it on his own unless he had the power of a dictator, then it would be doubtful.....

Nothing good is going to happen until the general public takes control of the government and puts people in office who are there to do what their constituients want.

Government officials and elected representatives are no longer referred to as public servants,,,,,they are referred to as "leaders"..... Until this error is corrected, very few worthwhile things will ever get done...... The animals are running the zoo....

[mopar34]

32 Skidoo wrote:

Have we really become a nation of wimps and 'gimmees', not caring what is happening as long as we get "ours"?

Yes, sometimes I believe we have become such. There has been such a dumbing down of America for so long, I really thing some people think it is the one and only true way. Rocket scientist, we need more of those kind of people. And people who are not afraid to boldly step forward. People who will not accept that something can not be done. A lot of it is the government's fault, especially those in Congress. Too much pandering for their own sake and trying to please a minority of people or groups. This country needs leadership. And as far as I am concern that does not currently exist in government today. Unfortunately those who have it are in private businesses that keep being oppressed by government.

I have to stop now, as I know that if I keep on I will surely piss someone off.

[Dave Severson]

Have we really become a nation of wimps and 'gimmees', not caring what is happening as long as we get "ours"?

Yup, seems to be.... Would appear that most are going to sit on their thumbs and wait for the government to solve our problems.....Well folks, it AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN!!!! The government IS THE PROBLEM!!!!!!

[flh4speed]

wow! glad you got that off your chest , i agree 100% but normally when i get to thinking such things i go buy a case of beer and get bent!!

[Bob Parmenter]

We've kind of whipped this one quite a bit on a couple other threads lately. If you go to the thread about $9 gasoline you'll see most of the latest. Ironic you bring up the Brazilians, they recently made a HUGE crude oil discover off their own shores. They need to as they're beginning to peak out on ethanol production and will need it.

Okay, we've (as a federal government) spent somewhere around $40 billion over the last near 30 years subsidizing "alternative energies". Results to date? Nothing that will be scaling up to more than 2-3% of our energy needs in the next 10 years. Even our govt estimates that in 20 years we'll still need to meet 85% of our energy needs with petroleum. So here's an idea. We need to drill all we can to stay competitive for now so that emerging nations don't eat our lunch. Then, instead of politicians picking losing ideas for alternatives we take a lesson from the early part of the 20th century. When visionaries wanted to promote the advancement of motorized vehicles they offered a very large monetary prize for pioneer auto makers who could do what most thought "impossible". The entrepreneurs saw the carrot and developed. Same thing happened in aviation a couple decades later. Had we put up a $40 billion prize 30 years ago when we got the first warnings from the Opec embargo I bet something would be market ready by now. Instead we keep feeding flighty ideas that are promoted by those with a handful of I wants and a mouth full of gimmes. So too many of the "guys on the street" think we're going to solve the problem by turning our food production into vehicle fuel (maybe one good thing to come out of the horrible flooding will be an end to that self defining idiocy), or windmills out in the boonies that will need enornous amounts of additional dollars to run high tension lines to attach to the nearest grid point (oops, didn't realize we needed to do that too), or any of a handful of other ideas that only sound good until you try to figure out how to produce enough of it to matter, at an economical cost so we can remain competitive with those who aren't chasing folly, and get it to the consumer in a timely way for use on demand reliably. But heaven forbid we use something like nuclear that has a proven record!!!

When the answer(s) come it will be the private sector, not a government goody program, that will provide the answers.

[valvebounce]

Heres my 2c,
The dirty old US govt are predisposed to opppose anything which is energy efficent and works because all the polititians are in the pocket of the corperations.
The continental US has almost enough oil to be self sufficient, BUT if the US stopped importing oil then the world standard dollar would shift from the greenback, to the Euro. Then the US dollar would devalue beyond belief. Then the US economy would collpase. This would in turn cause the 90% of the world econmys to fall over too.
The obcene cost of fuel is a crime. Here in NZ we are paying $2.12 per litre. Our buys about 75c US, and theres 3.6 litres to a US gallon. You do the math.
How much are you paying per gallon ATM?

['32 skidoo]

Perhaps valvebounce is on to something.

Here is something that I've heard about, tried to check it out and didn't come up with much more than what I heard and what I came up with was off the internet....again.

Off the coast of Alaska is an island, Gull Island. In that vicinity in 1977, supposedly there was found a large oil deposit, so large that it made the Saudi deposits look like a 'dry hole'. In addition, there reportedly was enough natural gas there to last us as a nation, 200 years.

Here it comes.....allegedly the US government, agreed not to open the field, would cap the field, IF the Saudis would buy our US treasury notes.

I understand that out of the North Slope field, we are sending the majority of that oil to Japan. Guess who buys a lot of our US treasury notes?

Here comes the conspiracy theory....could the US government be depending on these countries and others to finance our debt in return for not drilling and using US crude? Not telling the American populace that if we do...the whole shebang goes down the tubes?

And while I'm smokin', I wonder just what our elected officials, Dems and Repubs, do and talk about around dinner and a good cigar, knowing that as far as our national debt is concerned, in the matter of just a few short years, that 900# gorilla sitting quietly on the couch in our national living room is going to 'go off' and tear the whole thing apart?

You heard not one presidential hopeful in the last year, other than Fred Thompson that I'm aware of....and he only mumbled about it once, early on, and then his silence was deafening , say anything about it. That gorilla is our government handouts, US certified, with papers, entitlements. When the 'boomers', thank you, get into high gear, the sum total of all the pay-outs will make our GNP, look like a monthly payment of a mortgage. Then it will be over.

Now that I've put myself into depression, I'll shut-up and go to bed.

[willowbilly3]

Did you also know that we have sold all the Alaska oil to (mostly) the Japanese?

[Bob Parmenter]

Did you also know that we have sold all the Alaska oil to (mostly) the Japanese?

I think you'll have a hard time backing that up with factual data rather than rumor. See the Q&A next to Alaska map here: http://www.gravmag.com/oil3.html#ak

Exporting Alaska crude was forbidden by law when exploration and production were authorized in the 70's. President Clinton (which to some will make it okay) waived that in 1995, but it was re-imposed in 2000.

[willowbilly3]

I think you'll have a hard time backing that up with factual data rather than rumor. See the Q&A next to Alaska map here: http://www.gravmag.com/oil3.html#ak

Exporting Alaska crude was forbidden by law when exploration and production were authorized in the 70's. President Clinton (which to some will make it okay) waived that in 1995, but it was re-imposed in 2000.

Before I left there in 2000 I had worked in the oil industry and actually did spend a couple years working on the pipeline. It was common knowledge that the oil was NOT coming down the west coast because they had no refinerys that could handle the high sulphur content of the North slope crude. Now maybe all the information I accumulated from 18 years of living there and following the situation left me with such a big mistaken opinion but I will need more proof.
And as far as I know there hasn't been a new refinery built in this country since the early 80s although I hear they are building one in Beaumont Texas.

Also, the last I knew, BP held almost all the leases on the North Slope and Kuparik fields, probably others too so it is now controlled by a British company. Of course I saw BP signs coming down and Conoco going up at a local gas station today.

[Itoldyouso]

And as far as I know there hasn't been a new refinery built in this country since the early 80s although I hear they are building one in Beaumont Texas.

No, more than likely in Midland, Tx, in Georges back yard, so he can watch the fruits of his 8 year term making him and his oil buddies even more money. He won't even have to get out of his easy chair.

Don

[willowbilly3]

No, more than likely in Midland, Tx, in Georges back yard, so he can watch the fruits of his 8 year term making him and his oil buddies even more money. He won't even have to get out of his easy chair.

Don

I heard they had a little trouble getting super tankers into Midland. lol

[Itoldyouso]

I heard they had a little trouble getting super tankers into Midland. lol

Oh, you must not have heard about the new "Trans-Texas Canal" being planned.

Don