Celebrating a rare win

Americans should be celebrating today.  Yesterday a crucial part of our Constitution was upheld by our Supreme Court. A majority of our SC Justices finally admitted what most of us (who’ve read our Constitution) already knew: that you, as an individual, have the right to bear arms.

This right was deemed so important by our Founders that it was put into the original Bill of Rights second only to the 1st Amendment (the right to free speech, religion, and association).

Point to ponder: why is the 2nd Amendment so controversial within the judiciary?

Obviously some in the SC think parts of our Bill of Rights are so great they apply them even to non-US citizen, enemy combatants, on foreign soil (detainees in Gitmo, etc. per last week’s SC ruling).  They thought our awesome rights (well…some of  them) are so great they should apply internationally!

Get this: 4 of the 5 who decided to extend our Constitution’s rights to captured foreigner enemies were the same Justices who ruled AGAINST U.S. citizens having 2nd Amendment rights!!! What a bunch of subversives – they should be impeached.

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Just imagine if Gore or Kerry had won?  How do you think yesterday’s SC ruling would have gone then???  You would have been kissing goodbye your right to bear arms – it would have been a 6-3 LOSS for the United States Constitution and you know it.

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We still have our other rights BECAUSE of the 2nd Amendment!

Pain at the pump . . . Who to blame?

Ouch . . . regular unleaded is posted at $4.02 just down the street.  We Americans are used to low cost fuel and are angered that it is no longer so.  After a bit of reading online today, I’ve found some info that has me seething.

So why the huge price spike in the last year and a half?  Supply constraints and price speculation are the biggest culprits for the shortterm.  Long term the problems lie in not expanding the supply.  Thank you Congress!

In 2006 the Democrats took back the majority in the House and Senate.  In Nov 2006, Nancy Pelosi – soon to be Speaker of the House – claimed the Dems had a “common-sense plan to help bring down skyrocketing gas prices”, a plan for energy independence, and claimed oil companies were “price gouging”. When the Democrats took power in Congress in 2006, the price of gas was under $2.30.

Congressional approval ratings are at record lows – 18%; and who can blame the voters for being disenchanted?  The Democrats’ big plan to reduce gas prices has somehow seen the price increase 75%!!!

A 2007 Dem amendment to an appropriations bill blocked establishment of regulations for leasing land for drilling for oil shale within the U.S.  You can thank Sen. Udall (D) from Colorado, for this amendment. Estimates are that there is three times the amount of oil in the Western U.S. shale than in Saudi Arabian reserves. In 2008 Republicans added an amendment to allow oil shale drilling – thank Sen. Allard (R) of Colorado for this attempt – but it was shot down 15-14 by Democrats in the Senate Appropriations Committee.  But, oh sorry, we can’t touch it that shale oil because . . . uh . . . ummm . . . because the Democrats know what’s best for America and they said so.

Pelosi and other tree-huggers are determined to keep the United States from expanding domestic drilling and thus, making us even more dependent on foreign oil.  Prudhoe Bay, Alaska has supplied some 15 million barrels of oil to this point and, less than 70 miles to the east, another 10+ million barrels of untapped oil sit and we can’t touch it.  The Democrats won’t let you and I have the oil because it sits under a deserted area of land that is frozen 8 months of the year – ANWR. Why can’t we drill there?  Dems are afraid we will harm the wildlife.  Screw you humans. . .we’re for the carabou!

Pelosi and crew are also not allowing the U.S. to drill in areas off our coasts (California and Florida especially) – a whopping 85% of U.S coastline has been voted “off limits” to drilling.  Estimates are that we are barred from billions of barrels of oil there – yep, that’s billions – with a B. Why can’t we drill there?  They are afraid of possible negative impact on sea life!!!  They don’t give a crap about you and I and our lives but just love those fish!

Oh, and for you who actually give a crap – Cuba and China both operate oil rigs within 60 miles of some areas of our “off limits to oil drilling because of the fish” coastlines.  And, oh yeah, some fishing excursions chartered out of Lousiana, Mississippi, and Texas take their customers right out near the oil rigs in the Gulf because the sealife is thriving there.

I not singing the praises of the Republicans on this either but the Democrats are complete morons on energy policy issues! America, please fire Pelosi and her ilk.

Oil: our lifeblood . . . and possibly our demise

Oil makes our world work.  Oil is in every aspect of manufacturing, agriculture, mining, transportation, power generation, construction . . . you name it.   Oil is the lifeblood of industry.

No matter your ideological stance on the oil industry, the fact remains that we all need it in larger and larger amounts and the oil industry will supply it for as long as it is available.  We will not wean ourselves completely off petroleum anytime in the next few centuries – but we can start.

To face the problem of our addiction to, increasing need of, and the “non-renewable” nature of this resource we have to address it in a multi-prong attack.  To limit ourselves to focusing on only a few options is asinine, illogical, and self-defeating.  A narrow view will only ensure the continued and increasing need for oil – and the corresponding increase in costs to the consumer.

Let me state that I am NOT a petroleum market/industry expert in any way and I don’t have lots of stock in any petroleum/power industry companies.  I’m posting this as a consumer who has spent a substantial amount of time reading what I can on this subject, who is sick of watching costs rise, and mad at our Congress who makes things worse.

I do not know the whole answer but do know how we should be working toward that answer:

1) Do not penalize oil industry companies because they are making a profit. This knee-jerk, liberal, feel-good idea is moronic.  What other companies do we create new taxes for if they make a 10-12% profit?  From 2007 and 2008 financial statements we find that Walmart had a 28% profit margin, Google had around 25%, Planned Parenthood had 11.3%, and Texaco had around 11%.  Yep, that’s right . . . a “not-for-profit” organization that kills unborn babies for money had a larger profit margin (revenue after expenses) than the “evil” oil giant.

2) Provide tax incentives for companies researching promising new energy sources. It costs lots of upfront money to do this research and our government needs to encourage this by offsetting at least some of the cost.

3) Congress must stop trying to kill our economy through asinine, power-grab bills. The Climate Security Act (in the Senate NOW) would give Congress more power and raise the cost of EVERYTHING that uses energy . . . and that means EVERYTHING! Our domestic industries would have additional costs added to their services and products while overseas competition (India, China, etc) will NOT.  Incredibly stupid idea.  We all need to call our Senators and tell them we’ll kick them out if they support this crap.  They don’t live paycheck-to-paycheck like most of us, so a cost increase for just about everything won’t really affect their standard of living.

4) We must allow our oil companies to expand the supply. Enviro-whackos cannot be allowed to block drilling in ANWR any longer.  There is a vast supply of petroleum on the northern coast of Alaska that was cannot use because someone in Seattle or San Fran worries about some carribou grazing areas!?!?!

5) Stop the NIMBY (not-in-my-back-yard) attitude. If new power generating system needs to be built in your area, don’t oppose it . . . we need it.  So many scream for new wind farms, nuclear power plants, solar arrays but are the first to fight the projects if they come anywhere near them or their precious view of the hills/desert. If you are the NIMBY type, then you should at least be a huge proponent of ANWR drilling!

Petroleum is here to stay but it doesn’t have to be our only power source.  Whether our power/fuels come from petroleum, biomass, coal, solar, nuclear, wind, water . . . we must force our government to help make it happen – not restrict it further.