Two neo-Nazis have arrested for plotting to kill Senator Barak Obama and at least 88 other African Americans. I am beginning to wonder if this is but the tip of a very large iceberg of people who just can't imagine or stand to see an African American in the White House. I have even had people speculate that he won't live more than a month if he is elected. What has the country come to? If he is elected by the majority of the people, how can it be possible that some idiot would think he or she has the right to assassinate him? It is a poor statement to make--that intolerance runs amok in our land. The land of the free--"that shining city on the hill" as President Ronald Reagan called it. A land where people still defy death to come here.
People seem to forget that Barak Obama is not only African American, he is European American also. Because of skin color and other prototypical "African" features, he was forced at an early age to identify with some group of people--it was a no brainer--he chose to identify with the African American community. Why? Simply because the white or Caucasian community would not have accepted him. I have a great deal of concern about this since I have two mixed race grandchildren and they will eventually be forced to identify with a specific group. I would prefer that not be the case but that just may be the case. I think of them as my grandchildren--period. Someone once asked my granddaughter Winona if she was black or white. I thought her answer was perfect. She simply said, "I'm Winona." That says it all.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
What happened to alternative energy
Yesterday's (10-19-08)"Washington Post" carried an article regarding the downward spiral in crude oil prices and its effect on the development of alternative fuels such as ethanol, biodiesel, and better batteries for electric cars. General Motors is no considering what to do about the much touted VOLT scheduled to be introduced in a couple of years. Tesla, manufacturer of some very high electric cars is laying of workers and locking doors. Manufacturers of ethanol and biodiesel are wondering what happens as oil prices continue to drop to 50% of what a barrel cost just a few months ago.
And what are we consumers doing? We are beginning to look again with covetous eyes at bigger, faster, gasoline guzzling road hogs. Over the years, the automobile industry has convinced soccer moms (and hockey moms I suppose) to haul the kids around in what used to be consider a truck. They lulled us into thinking it's OK to run to the store for a loaf of bread and a quart of milk in a vehicle designed for combat--designed to operate in all climes from desert to swamp while it gets all of eight to ten miles to the gallon. We buy cars that can go from 0 to 60 in just a few seconds and then drive them down highways with speed limits anywhere from 25 to 70 miles per hour. More than a 100 years since Henry Ford cranked up the first Model T, we are still stuck in gasoline powered cars while, at the same time, we have developed vehicles that can travel much of our universe and take men and equipment to the moon and back.
And while we drive around in these gasoline powered vehicles, we are in the midst of the largest transfer of wealth that has ever existed in the history of mankind. Countries that had basically become sand farms over the centuries before it was discovered they were sitting on lakes of sweet crude oil, now run our economy up and down like a yoyo on a string. They collectively decide how much oil they are willing to share and we reward them by paying whatever they demand for it. In the meantime, they are building the world's tallest and most elaborate buildings, they are creating islands shaped like palm trees, driving around on gasoline that costs just a few cents. They have built indoor skiing slopes and they bathe in marble tubs with gold fixtures. And just when we started using less oil and the price began to drop, they are reconsidering just how much oil they should sell us.
Wake up America! Let them pour their oil on their Wheaties or whatever it is they have for breakfast. We have the capability to be really independent of foreign oil, but it means we must get to work on such things as ethanol (produced from many things) and biodiesel--a very clean fuel. Every large cattle operation, every large municipal sewage system has the feed stock needed to feed algae to produce an oil that can be made into biodiesel and a fertilizer that is far superior to the feedstock that wnet into the process. While it sounds like a lot, 15,000 square miles of oil producing algae farms would produce enough fuel to allow us to stop importing oil for gasoline and diesel. Think about it--poop to fuel. Not a new idea--the French used hog manure to produce methane to power cars in World War II. And communities and large farms are doing the same thing today. Let's quit giving our money away--let's break the yoke the oil produces have on our necks. We can do it and we can reverse this wealth transfer, but it takes all of us to do it.
And what are we consumers doing? We are beginning to look again with covetous eyes at bigger, faster, gasoline guzzling road hogs. Over the years, the automobile industry has convinced soccer moms (and hockey moms I suppose) to haul the kids around in what used to be consider a truck. They lulled us into thinking it's OK to run to the store for a loaf of bread and a quart of milk in a vehicle designed for combat--designed to operate in all climes from desert to swamp while it gets all of eight to ten miles to the gallon. We buy cars that can go from 0 to 60 in just a few seconds and then drive them down highways with speed limits anywhere from 25 to 70 miles per hour. More than a 100 years since Henry Ford cranked up the first Model T, we are still stuck in gasoline powered cars while, at the same time, we have developed vehicles that can travel much of our universe and take men and equipment to the moon and back.
And while we drive around in these gasoline powered vehicles, we are in the midst of the largest transfer of wealth that has ever existed in the history of mankind. Countries that had basically become sand farms over the centuries before it was discovered they were sitting on lakes of sweet crude oil, now run our economy up and down like a yoyo on a string. They collectively decide how much oil they are willing to share and we reward them by paying whatever they demand for it. In the meantime, they are building the world's tallest and most elaborate buildings, they are creating islands shaped like palm trees, driving around on gasoline that costs just a few cents. They have built indoor skiing slopes and they bathe in marble tubs with gold fixtures. And just when we started using less oil and the price began to drop, they are reconsidering just how much oil they should sell us.
Wake up America! Let them pour their oil on their Wheaties or whatever it is they have for breakfast. We have the capability to be really independent of foreign oil, but it means we must get to work on such things as ethanol (produced from many things) and biodiesel--a very clean fuel. Every large cattle operation, every large municipal sewage system has the feed stock needed to feed algae to produce an oil that can be made into biodiesel and a fertilizer that is far superior to the feedstock that wnet into the process. While it sounds like a lot, 15,000 square miles of oil producing algae farms would produce enough fuel to allow us to stop importing oil for gasoline and diesel. Think about it--poop to fuel. Not a new idea--the French used hog manure to produce methane to power cars in World War II. And communities and large farms are doing the same thing today. Let's quit giving our money away--let's break the yoke the oil produces have on our necks. We can do it and we can reverse this wealth transfer, but it takes all of us to do it.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Ramblings
It seems the older I get, the less enamored I am of war. I spent nearly 40 years in the military and served in Korea and Vietnam. I understand why we invaded Afghanistan, but somewhere we lost sight of our mission. It happened when we decided to invade Iraq. I can understand the first Gulf War, but am still trying to understand why we thought it was our job to remove Saddam Hussein. I know we were told about "Weapons of Mass Destruction" and that Iraq was a hotbed of terrorism. Neither one of these proved to be true once we invaded. Yet we persist. Now, however, our invasion has created one of the largest schools of terroism in the world. We have added to the radicalization of Islam and yet we don't seem to be aware of that.
We have spent five years in Afghanistan and Iraq and now it has been revealed that we have no plan for victory in either place. The old USSR spent something like nine years in Afghanistan and finally left with their tail between their legs. How many years will we stay? President Hamid Karzai controls little more than Kabul; warlords control the rest of the country. Poppy farming and opium production are at an all time high--all on our watch. Sectarian violence continues and now the Taliban and al Qaeda have figured out that by linking together, they have more power than they have ever had. Suicide bombings are on the increase and we want to increase the number of forces we have in Afghanistan. But do we have a plan for them?
I surely don't know the answer or I would have provided it long ago. We can only hope that the upcoming national election will provide the necessary leadership to find an honorable way out of both of these places.
Perhaps George Santyana summed it up best:
"It is war that wastes a nation's wealth, chokes its industries, kills its flower, narrows its sympathies, condemns it to be governed by adventurers, and leaves the puny, deformed, and unmanly to breed the next generation.” —The Life of Reason: Reason in Society, Scribner's, 1905, p. 82
We have spent five years in Afghanistan and Iraq and now it has been revealed that we have no plan for victory in either place. The old USSR spent something like nine years in Afghanistan and finally left with their tail between their legs. How many years will we stay? President Hamid Karzai controls little more than Kabul; warlords control the rest of the country. Poppy farming and opium production are at an all time high--all on our watch. Sectarian violence continues and now the Taliban and al Qaeda have figured out that by linking together, they have more power than they have ever had. Suicide bombings are on the increase and we want to increase the number of forces we have in Afghanistan. But do we have a plan for them?
I surely don't know the answer or I would have provided it long ago. We can only hope that the upcoming national election will provide the necessary leadership to find an honorable way out of both of these places.
Perhaps George Santyana summed it up best:
"It is war that wastes a nation's wealth, chokes its industries, kills its flower, narrows its sympathies, condemns it to be governed by adventurers, and leaves the puny, deformed, and unmanly to breed the next generation.” —The Life of Reason: Reason in Society, Scribner's, 1905, p. 82
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)