Common sense and other things not related to the end of the world

This time folks, I just have to make a few personal observations that come a little closer to home than my usual rants about world politics or electric cars or whatever.  Some of things I may say may offend a few folks. If so, well, sorry.  My grandmother always said that if you throw a rock at a pack of dogs, the one that yelps is the one that got hit.  If you yelp about this, then maybe you need to take a close look at yourself.

So, on we go.  With graduation season upon us, I’ve had the opportunity to attend a number of ceremonies, as well as having observed some of these folks out in public at various celebrations afterwards. The graduates for the most part have been great and should be congratulated for a job well done.  Some of their relatives and friends however, need a bit of sprucing up.  I recently attended a kindergarten graduation.  The kids did a fine job, as did their teachers.   There were a few technical difficulties with the sound system, but they got it worked out quickly.  Kudos to the folks doing that.  The audience, however, needed a lesson in manners.  I will grant that listening to 20 five year olds singing a song over a flakey sound system may not be the most entertaining thing you ever watched, especially if they are not your kids.  But didn’t your mother even attempt to teach you some manners?  You should not be yammering on your cell phone the whole time dude…if your employees are so inept that you can’t leave them alone for an hour, hire some better ones.   There are lots of folks out there looking for work now.  Same for your family. If they can’t manage on their own for an hour, hire a sitter.  Either way, shut the hell up, people around you are trying to hear their kids.

Let’s talk fashion for a minute too.  I really don’t care what you wear to these thing folks.  You can wear a suit, or a tank top and shorts…I don’t care, really.  I wore shorts and a t-shirt.  It’s ok.  But wear something that FITS!!  I’m not saying anything about body image here, I don’t care if you weigh 95 pounds or 950 pounds…get something that fits.  If you were a size 6 in high school, and you are a size 40 now, stuffing yourself into the size 6 clothing to come to little Johnny’s graduation is not cool. It won’t make you look slimmer; it makes you look like a dumbass.  Especially when you bend over to kiss little Johnny and the seat of your butt cheek exposing shorts split from front to back simply because the thread can’t stand the strain anymore. And yes, I did witness this event.  And by the way, these comments apply equally to men and women.

If you are going out to the clubs to get noticed, wear whatever you think will get you the type of attention you are looking for.  At a kindergarten graduation, no one wants to see your tramp stamp, your butt crack, or cleavage that would smother little Johnny if he happened to fall in to your lacey open to your naval blouse.  This is the kids’ big moment, let them shine, not your butt.   Guys, jeans shorts down past your knees, with the waist band about 4 inches below the top of your butt crack, topped off with plaid boxers that look like someone just gave you a major wedgie is not sexy.  Every woman in the place is laughing at you, wondering why your momma let you out of the house like that.

This also applies to 5^th grade graduations as well. Pick up your next ex-wife/husband somewhere else. Make this about the kids, not your next date/divorce/doctor appointment/whatever.  And don’t get up and leave as soon as your kid has his diploma.  All the folks you have to climb over and walk in front of are trying to see their own kids and you just blocked it.  You can wait a few more minutes to get back to the rat race.

Speaking of walking in front of someone, the guy in the corner with the big camera and tripod is there to take lots of pictures of all the kids. Walking up right in front of the camera and stopping to flap your trap is not something you should do.  He does not want pictures of your sparkly grill, or your nipple ring, or your multicolored spikey hair.  Get out of the way moron.  He is taking pictures of the stage.

I also attended a college graduation this season.  What a zoo!  Again, the graduates for the most part were great. Some of the people in the audience, not so much.  For instance, Mr. Rich Uncle from Texas…your $500 Stetson is really cool and all, but it’s blocking the view for the people behind you.  Leave it in your truck, butthead.  Ain’t no sun shining in Baum, we have roofs here in Arkansas that eliminate the need for such apparel.  And oh, by the way…the cops had your 4 door 4wd one ton that was parked diagonally across 8 parking spaces towed to the impound lot.  You can get it back when the courthouse opens next Monday.

A note on photography here.  If you are in the audience a quarter of a mile away from your graduate, turn off your flash.  All you are going to do is light up about 2 rows of heads in front of you, and not be able to see your little Johnny.   Beyond 30 -40 feet, a flash is useless.  The stage is lit, your surroundings are already dark.  If you flash, it will cause your pictures not to turn out especially if you are using film instead of a digital camera.  Leave it off, your pictures will be much better and the people around you won’t be spitting in your drink while you’re not looking.

Come on people, use a little common sense.

Summer and world politics

Seems that summer weather has roared into NW Arkansas all at once. After having record low temperatures in May and even some late season frost, this month so far has set some record high temperatures. Today’s highs will be in the 90’s and looks to be that way all week. That’s ok. I’ll take that over this past winter any day. At least I can keep the water and power on when it’s hot. Hard to do that when the power lines get coated with ice to the point that they can’t hold the weight anymore and break. And I got all of the wading waist deep snow last winter I will ever want, thank you very much. No need to repeat that…ever.
Let’s see, what’s going on in the world today? Looking over the headlines on the news services. Looks much the same as every day. Israeli and Palestinian forces are shooting at each other again. Or rather, still. There’s been an e.coli outbreak in Germany. Seems like with all our modern technology, this shouldn’t be possible, but it happens every week somewhere. There are of course the usual reports of all the fighting all over the Middle East and Africa. Various terrorist organizations and gangs of thugs are causing problems in every nation in the region. We are up to our eyeballs in a lot of it too. Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Kuwait, all have our troops actively engaged. The question is, however, is it doing any good for us to be there. Certainly it was necessary to take the fight with Al-Quaeda to their front door. No question about that. But should we be involved in Libya? What had they done that warranted US involvement any more than some of the others? If we are there because of crimes against humanity, then why do we ignore the other nations that are being run by ruthless dictators?
And what about the nations who have no leaders at all? Take Somalia for example. By what I can see on the news and talking with people who have actually lived there, that’s as lawless a place as there ever was. Shouldn’t we intervene? Shouldn’t the greatest nation in the world reach out to what may be the worst one in the world and fix it whether they want it or not?
The answer to those questions is……NO! We should not. At least not internally. I do believe that there should be some sort of multinational effort to put an end to the piracy that goes on there. No ship is safe that’s within the range of Somali pirates. There is too much shipping to escort every vessel, but a group of combat vessels from all the nations that have commercial interests in the region should be able to quickly knock out any of that activity. Will it happen? Probably not. That would make too much sense.
Oh well, they don’t listen to me much anyway. If they would, I could help them straighten this mess out!

And you thought you'd gotten rid of me, I'll bet!

Well, it’s been nearly a month, over a month actually since I put a new edition out.  My how time flies when you are having fun.  Let’s see, where to start?  Since we last got together much has happened in the world.  Lets take a look at some of it, eh?

 Washington DC is as usual drowning in a sea of its own crap. Obama’s budget proposal was defeated in a Democrat controlled Senate by a vote of 97-0.  Even his own cronies can’t go along with all this anymore, but none of them have the balls to actually fix it.

The world has seen the death of Osama bin Laden finally. That’s got to be a good thing. Maybe at least in the short time, the people in the world can breathe a little easier.  The problem with terrorists though is that they are like roaches.  You have to kill them all to solve the problem.

Joplin, Missouri sadly has become the site of the most deadly tornado since 1947 I think they said.  At the time of this writing the death toll was 125, many hundreds hurting, and thousands needing places to live and work.  In a path ¾ of a mile wide and 6 miles long, not much was left standing. Houses, apartment complexes, a high school, Wal-Mart store, Home Depot, and St. Johns Hospital all took a direct hit from an EF-5 tornado.  They’ll be a long time picking up the pieces from this one.

Joplin wasn’t alone in the crazy weather. The little town of Demming, Arkansas was pretty well obliterated by a tornado a couple days later. Lots of other places have been hit as well.  There have been more than 80 this week alone, and at least 136 deaths.  So far, there have been more than 1000 tornadoes and more than 500 deaths in the US this year…so far.  May is the prime month, and as screwed up as the weather patterns have been I would not be surprised to see this trend continue.  The National Weather service says that 2004 was the worst year for the number of tornadoes, with 1817 nationwide.  However, 1925 was the deadliest year, recording 794 tornado related deaths.   Let’s hope these are not records we break this year, or any other for that matter.

And all that damage and death has been accompanied by some of the worst flooding in history as well. And of course there have been several reports around the country of people dying because of driving on flooded roads or bridges.  There were two women and two children in this area who were killed by that very thing. Please folks…don’t drive into deep water.  Turn around, don’t drown.

On a more positive note, at least for some…Oprah is finally off the air.  She’s being replaced by Dr. Oz.  I had hopes for a car show, or outdoors show of some sort, but I guess it just wasn’t in the cards. Two of the soap operas are done now two, but I can’t recall their names right off. There ‘s three times slots right there…three opportunities to improve daytime tv by leaps and bounds, but will they do it?  We could have off road racing, hunting and fishing shows, monster truck rally coverage, but no.  Ain’t no hope for daytime tv folks.

Well, that’s all for this one.  I will try to do a better job of posting. I appreciate all my readers and I hope that you find these interesting.  I don’t pretend to be an expert on any of the subjects but I do like to get a discussion going.  If any of this gets you to think about what’s happening, I have accomplished my mission.

Government waste, business and the end of the world

I know it’s been a while since a new edition of this appeared, and I’m sorry to have kept you waiting.  Been lots going on since the weather has attempted to warm up, and I’ve been staying pretty busy. 

On top of that, there’s just been so much going on the world that I’ve hardly known where to begin. The description for this blog reads “The View from the Bottom is just one working guy's opinions on what's bugging him at the time.” There’s a lot that’s bugging me of late, and it’s unbelievable how much nonsense is happening in Washington and in just everyday life.

If you talk about Washington, you can’t possibly look at what’s going on there without a mixture of amazement and horror, intertwined with laughter and disgust.

Take for instance, the ongoing budget battle.  The first thing the American public needs to realize is that our wonderful Representatives and Senators are not wrestling with next year’s budget…they are still trying to sort out this year’s budget.  I heard someone say the other day “well, this is only April, so that’s not so bad”.  Yes, it is so bad.  The fiscal year starts in October.  They are seven months late with this budget, and guess what?  They haven’t even started on the next one.  What gets me is when the public starts wanting to rein in on government spending, the first thing they talk about is cutting Medicare and Social Security.  Why is that do you think?  Is it because that’s what’s causing the deficit?  No…that’s the government’s way of threatening the public over meddling in their pork barrels.  “If you make us stop spending from our slush funds, we’ll take away your medicine and retirement.”  There are billions and billions of dollars of wasted money in government these days, and with very few exceptions, not a single one of our elected representatives is willing to even admit that it’s there, much less do something about it.

If you’ve read previous editions of this blog you’ve seen me mention “Wastebook 2010” which is a compilation of 100 programs and various other items that Senator Tom Coburn from Oklahoma put together.  The things that he found and put in this report should be “no-brainers” when it comes to cutting costs.  In really good years, some of these things could be considered luxury items that could be afforded.  When we are struggling for survival, why on earth did we spend nearly a half million dollars of taxpayer money to study the number and social setting of male prostitutes in Viet Nam?   Why did the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives spend $20,000 trying to identify a 2500 year old mummy?  I doubt seriously he had anything to do with the things that BATFE is charged with doing.

Poopoo you say.  That’s nothing compared to the trillions of dollars of debt we are facing.  Well, how do you think it mounted up into trillions?  It was by wasting a few million here, a billion there.  The National Science Foundation spend $200,000 to study why political candidates make vague statements!  Well DUH!!!  They are practicing so when they get in office they can get money to spend on nonsense like this!  (That will be $200,000, please).  Lets put that in perspective.  If your household income is $4000 a month and you spend $20 on something frivolous it’s not a big deal.  But if you do that 200 times, guess what?  You’re broke. It’s not that you can’t afford your house payment, it’s because you bought candy and rented movies and went bowling and all the fun stuff instead of paying your house payment first.   That is exactly what our government has done.  They’ve spent the house payment instead of paying it first,  and now we’re in trouble.

Ok, lets look at the next bit of nonsense…gas prices.  Now for all of you reading this outside the United States, I know what you’re saying already.  “our prices are twice what yours are” and all that.  Yes, yes, I know.  Your governments have imposed a ridiculous amount of taxes on gasoline, so if you strip that off, you’re paying the same per gallon we are.  Your government screwed you with that and you let them.  We on the other hand, have allowed our government to screw us in a different way.  You see, a car that gets 40 mpg in England will only get 15 or 20 mpg in the U.S. because of all the emission controls and all that.  So yes, we pay less per gallon, and our cars get crappy gas mileage by mandate from the government.  Obama got on TV the other day and said that no one who drives a big SUV or truck had any right to gripe about gas mileage and that $4 or $5 a gallon gas was just going to be something we had to get used to.  While that may be true in some cases, there are a great number of people in this country that make their living out the back of a truck or SUV.   I’m sure that crack sat well with “Joe the Plumber” who has to haul a tremendous amount of equipment and supplies around with him to do his job.  Same with all the carpenters, truck drivers, heat and air guys, fence builders, roofers, tow truck operators, farmers, ranchers, and anyone else that depends on a vehicle or gasoline (or diesel) powered machine to earn the money to pay the taxes Obama and his cronies so love to spend.  Just trade it in for a fuel efficient car…right.  How many of us can afford to do that?  If you have a car or truck that’s paid for, are you willing to stick your neck out to buy a new car with the economy in the shape its in right now?

What our President does not realize is that extremely high fuel prices will wreck this nation’s economy this time. It nearly did in 2008, and was a major contributing factor to the collapse we experienced.  Food prices will sky rocket (they already are) because farmers will have to get more for the crops just to cover the fuel prices for the equipment they use.  When you run thousands of acres of wheat, you can’t run down to the home improvement store and by a little garden tractor to work the farm with.  You gotta use something that will get the job done.  Then you gotta use fuel to get it to market, and to the processor, and to the store.  Unless you are into home canning your own food, that can of corn you had with dinner last night did not grow in your back yard.  Neither did anything else you ate.  I can tell you this though.   If we continue to allow Congress and the leaders of this nation to run amok, you’ll be growing your own food.  You won’t have any choice if you intend to have anything to eat.  If fuel prices crawl up over $5 a gallon, you’ll see an economic depression in this country that will make 1929 look like a picnic.

There are many people and nations in this world that would cheer when that happens.  Believe it or not, we have enemies that are committed to our destruction, no matter what it does to them.  They can’t defeat us militarily, but they can destroy our economy,  and we will sit back and let them because “its just business”.  Remember that when you’re digging through trash cans and trapping pigeons and blackbirds just  to feed your kids.  It was just business.

A hybrid car for the Supercar set

Seems like every car company is jumping on the plug-in hybrid/full electric bandwagon these days.    At Plugincars.com you can look over 29 different offerings in this class of vehicle ranging from the now discontinued Toyota Rav4EV to a new version of the same car to be produced in conjunction with Tesla.  No pricing is available yet, but it is supposed to be out in 2012 and may be produced at Tesla’s facility in California. 

Full electrics and hybrids take on many shapes and sizes, from the Smart ED, a tiny 2 person car with a range of about 70 miles and a top speed of 60 mph, to Ford’s Transit Connect Electric, a minivan sized car that will go about 80 miles on a charge and according to it’s producers would meet the needs of a company needing a local delivery vehicle.

Most of the vehicles offered currently look more or less like ordinary cars.  In fact, most share the same platform as their gasoline powered counterparts, but there are a few that have tried to make them more sporty looking as well as improving the aerodynamics.  Cars like the Tesla Roadster, the Fisker Karma and the BMW Vision are all on the cutting edges of looks and performance, with of course a price to match.  The Tesla is a full electric that will do 0-60 in less than 4 seconds, and has a 200 mile range (according to Tesla).  If all that is true, it might make even the most diehard of detractors take another look…till he gets to the price.  Tipping in at a whopping $109,000US, you’re not likely to see many of these in the hands of ordinary working people.  Big price tag for a car that will only carry 2 people.

The Fisker Karma will carry 4 people and is a bit less expensive, though still out of reach for the average factory worker.  For $96,000, you can have the world’s first luxury plug in hybrid. Slightly slower than the Tesla, it will take you just over 5 seconds to hit 60 mph, and you’ll hit it’s top speed somewhere north of 120 mph. You can drive this car approximately 50 miles on its battery pack before the 2.2 liter engine kicks in to power the generator.  This is all assuming of course that Fisker can get it into production.  The company has missed a number of self-imposed deadlines, and is now aiming at sometimes this year to have the first ones off the production line.

The BMW vision is another 2-door, 4 seat hybrid with impressive looks and performance.  Using a combination of diesel and electric motors, this 356 hp rocket sled will take you to 60 mph in 4.8 seconds.  The car will travel 30 miles on it’s battery pack, and will get a combined mileage of 63 mpg.  No MSRP has been officially set yet.  The car is due to make its debut sometime in 2013 but it’s expected to sell in the $100,000+ category.

The car with the most futuristic look is without a doubt the Aptera 2e. Looking something like a cross between a motorcycle and a single person spacecraft from a sci-fi movie this 3 wheeled vehicle first appeared on the web in 2007.  Since then it has gathered quite a following with the public, having won a number of awards for design and innovation.  In spite of all that, the car is still in the concept stage, with no firm prediction on when it will go into production. The car will carry 2 people for 100 miles before recharging.  Originally expected to sell for around $27,000 (according to Plugincars.com) there is some doubt that the car will ever be practical.

Of course, with all this attention to electrics and hybrids, the super-car crowd will not be left out.  If your taste and pocketbook runs to the exotic, here is the car for you. Take a look at the  Porsche 918 Spyder.  Slated to roll off the production line in September of 2013, this supercar offering from Porsche has a 500 hp 4 liter V8, combined with a 218 hp electric drive system that allows the car to run on gasoline, a combination of gasoline and electric power or electricity only. It will do 0-60 in 3.2 seconds, top out at 94 mph in pure electric mode and climb to 199 mph on gasoline.  If you want one, you better get your order in early as Porsche says they will produce only 918 of the 918 Spyders, and prices will start at $845,000. Oh, yes…how far can you go in full electric mode? Well, if you are easy on the throttle, and drive conservatively, you can probably get 16 miles, maybe a little more before your battery is depleted and the 500 hp V-8 has to take over.  Remember the 94 mph top speed in electric mode?  Lets think about that for a minute.  That’s a mile a half a minute.  With a 16 mile range, and keeping in mind that you’ll use quite a bit of your reserve just getting to that speed, you’d have what, four, maybe 5 minutes of run time at that speed?  The only purpose I can see for a pure electric mode in this car is so your teenage kid (or errant spouse) can sneak out of the driveway in the middle of the night (or back in) without waking you up.  As with most supercars, the only reason for building or buying this car is because you can.  Might make a good addition to the next Bond movie.

Debit cards, Confederate Flags, Gas Prices and Terrorists

Well folks, the world is continuing its downward spiral into insanity today.   All you have to do is peruse the headlines on any of the major news sources to see that.   Let’s take a tour of the nonsense that’s going on today.  Click on the blue text to access the news story.

In this article on CNN.com,  $50 spending limit, JPMorgan Chase is reported to be considering restricting debit card transactions to as little as $50, because new banking  rules aimed at protecting the customers from excessive fees would limit their ability to charge customers.   As more and more Americans have moved away from using credit cards (and the ridiculous fees associated with them), opting instead for the more manageable debit card, banks are seeing their cash cow get smaller and smaller.  Poor banks, don’t they realize that if they force us back to using cash, they won’t get any fees at all?  My wife and I already have freed ourselves from credit cards.  We don’t have any, nor will we ever have them again. We use our debit cards for almost every purchase we make, believing them safer than cash.  If the banks want to play this game, I have no problem going back to cash.  More and more places will not take checks these days, and many of the one that do will run the transaction in much the same way a debit card is used.  They process it, debit your account immediately and if approved, they hand your check back to you right then.

Personally, I think relying on the cash you have in your pocket is a good thing. If more people could resist the impulse to whip out that credit card and by something they don’t need, they’d be a lot better off.  If we replaced our paper money with coinage, it would be virtually fire proof, would cut costs at the mint, make forgery harder to do, and make it easier for people to keep their money in a safe or other location at home.  Who needs banks when you have a cookie jar, right? On a serious note, limiting transactions   to such a small amount will only serve to drive customers to use cash, thereby depriving the banks of any fees.  What are they thinking? With today’s gas prices, I couldn’t even get a fill-up on my truck with a $50 limit.

Here’s some more stupidity: Confederate flag costs man his job.  Found this one on Fox News.  Apparently an Oregon school bus driver has been fired for displaying a Confederate Battle Flag on his vehicle. Not the school bus, but his own personal vehicle.  According to the article, the flag was in violation of a school policy that prohibits symbols that could be offensive to minorities.  I suppose that if a group of Islamic students who support the Taliban complained, the US Flag would have to come down as well.  When did we become a nation of “minority rule”?  These days, if a thousand people gather together, and 999 of them like something, and one person complains, the thing must be removed. How did it get to be this way?  What if it offends the 999 who like it to see it removed?

Here’s another from CNN: Gas Prices .  In this one, the author brings to light that most of Europe laughs when they hear Americans complaining about high fuel prices.  Seems that gas ranges from $7.50 to $10 a gallon there.  But you know what?  I don’t care what Europe pays for gasoline.  If you take the taxes off that their own governments have imposed on fuel, they pay less than we do still. If they want to do something about their gas prices, they should reflect that when they go to the polls.  Well, in the nations that allow them to go to the polls, anyway.  We still have that option, at least for now.

Speaking of nonsense, here’s the latest casualty of “global warming”.  Got this at MSNBC:  Coffee prices up due to global warming.  One Columbian farmer interviewed in the article says his farm’s production is down 70 percent from 5 years ago and that now his sons may not be able to go to college. Global warming hasn’t seem to have reached Brazil yet though, where production is actually on the rise.  Apparently the coffee plant is very particular, and even a half degree difference in temperature will cause detrimental effects and a 24 hour rainy spell can cause irreparable damage to the crop. Farmers are traditionalists, and are resistant to replanting fields with disease and weather tolerant strains, even though they are already in wide use throughout the world.

The article briefly makes mention that fertilizer prices have skyrocketed, and that that has dented yields as well. I suspect that this is the main culprit, but that’s only my own opinion.   If the farmers have cut the amount of fertilizer due to the costs, the plants will not produce regardless of the weather.  If they have sufficient nutrients in the soil, they will be healthier and more tolerant of changes in the weather.

Then there’s the bit on AOL News about a teacher who had to resign after some of students found some x-rated films she made about 20 years ago.  This is the second time she’s had this problem come up.  In 2006, she lost teaching job in another state for the same reason.  There was nothing illegal about the movies she made, according to the article, and she has no criminal background, so many people question why something that happened 20 years ago would be a basis for firing a person.  So should it?  She’s been on “Doctor Phil” and talked about it, she’s openly admitted doing it.  Since then, she’s gone to college, improved her life and herself, so how long should this haunt her? People always raise the “morality” issue when it comes to stuff like this, but I say “let he among you without sin cast the first stone”.   She’s turned from that life, but yet the “moral” people of the world still condemn her. Is that the Christian way to be folks?  Seems like I remember something about a thing called “forgiveness” in there somewhere, what’s happened to that?  Come on, get over it.  She did it, admitted it, and moved on with a new life.  If she can’t put it past her, why not go back to it?  She could make a lot more money with a porn site than being a teacher, and no one would care in the porn business that she had once been a teacher!

Every carrier is running news about the Libyan Civil War, though none of them have the cajones  to call it that.  I keep seeing words like “uprising” and “civil unrest” .  Come on folks…there are a group of people using guns, rocks, sticks and anything else they can get their hands on to overthrow the government in their nation.  That government, in response is using as much military might as it can muster to stop it, including troops, automatic weapons, tanks, aircraft and tear gas.  People on both sides have been killed, many are hurting. All the while, the international community sits on its hands trying to figure out what to do.  Well, the answer is simple.  You leave it alone, as long as it stays contained in the Libyan borders.  If the people of Libya want to throw off an oppressive regime and form a democratic republic, that is their right to do so. No one can give it to them; no one can show them the way.  They must do this on their own.  For democracy to flourish, for freedom to have any meaning, it must be fought for, paid for in blood by the people who want it.  It must be their own hard won victory that brings it about.  You can see a good example of how well this works in Israel and the United States.  Both these nations fought their way into being against tremendous odds.  Yes, they both had help from other nations, but only after they had begun the fight on their own.  The free and independent nations of the world stand as such because not only is freedom dear enough to die for, but it is dear enough to kill for as well.  Our presence in Iraq for more than a decade proves that you cannot give freedom to a people. They must wrest it from their oppressors themselves if it is to be a true and lasting victory.  Was Saddam a threat to the world that needed to be eliminated?  Yes, I have no doubt.   He was a threat not only to his own people and his neighbors but the entire world.  The invasion should have removed him, thrown down those loyal to him, and then we should have left and let the Iraqi people sort it out for themselves.  If they don’t want freedom bad enough to pay the price to keep it, we shouldn’t pay it for them.  As the biggest superpower in the world, we have a measure of responsibility to help maintain peace and order in the world.  We have the right and an obligation to defend ourselves and aid our allies if other nations unjustly war against us or them, but internal struggles such as those in Libya now should be hands off until it threatens to spill onto the world stage.  Yes, there will be tragedy and atrocities. It will require that the major powers in the world cooperate to keep outside influences to a minimum, but it must resolve on it’s own, whichever side is victorious.

The worst thing that can happen is for it to become another Iraq, or Afghanistan, or Viet Nam, where opposing superpowers use the peoples of those countries as pawns in their own contest of wills.  Afghanistan is such a mess that the Soviet occupation in the 1980’s failed, and our own has not been exactly a success.  The Soviets pulled out in 1989 if memory serves, and the chaos left behind gave rise to the Taliban. It remains to be seen what the result of the American invasion of Afghanistan will accomplish. Begun in 2001 after Al-Qaeda terrorists attacked the United States on Sept. 11 of that same year, the occupation of Afghanistan continues to this day.  Current plans call for a possible withdrawal of American troops in 2014. The results of American intervention in Iraq remains to be seen, and no one can describe the war in Viet Nam as a success for either side, although there are those that claim victory after the Americans pulled out.

Is the world safer from terrorism because of these actions? I would like to say that it is, but sadly, I can’t say that with certainty.  It has slowed the terrorist organizations down, and made it harder for them to train and recruit, but there will never be an eradication of terrorism.  Unfortunately, there will always be those who are determined to control, at any cost, the lives and destinies of others.  Some, like Adolf Hitler, will find their way to the halls of power through seemingly legitimate means.  Others, like Osama bin Laden, will hide in caves and deserts, aided by those individuals or governments who either fear him or profit by his activities.  The best that we can hope for is to detect and disrupt the activities of these people and the governments of the world that support them. 

Charlie Sheen, Congress, and the end of the world

Let’s see, today is March 8, 2011.  What do you suppose was going on one year ago today?  Lets see if we find out.

Seems that Iraq was trying to hold elections, and terrorists were blowing up bombs and killing people to keep them from going to the polls. Looking at today’s news, the only thing missing is the elections.  They are still at it, people are rioting , terrorists are planting bombs in shadows.  No progress, just more death.   And we went to war for more than 10 years to change this….how?

The nation of Chile was devastated by a powerful 8.8 magnitude earthquake a few days prior to March 8, 2010 (actually on Feb. 27 of that year). This tragedy left lots of folks dead, injured and homeless. Today they got a scary reminder.  A 6.2 magnitude quake rattled northern Chile this morning, but so far there have been no reports of injury or damage.

The stock market a year ago today was seeing some gains and the DOW closed above 10,500. Everybody thought that was a good thing.  For the last few days, the stock market has been headed back toward that mark in response to the skyrocketing oil prices and civil war in Libya, but no one thinks its good time.  Last time the arrows indication the market’s moves were green, but lately they’ve been red and pointed down.   At the time of this writing, it appears that the market has regained some of its losses over the last few days and the DOW is above 12,200.  We’ll see how long it stays that way.

Speaking of skyrocketing oil, crude at the time of this writing was at $104.76.  A year ago today it was $68.01. Last year gasoline prices were around $2.67 or so here in Arkansas, today I noticed they had climbed to $3.45.  We’ve definitely had change in this regard, though not in a good direction.  Oil and gasoline rose to well over four dollars in July of 2008, and was one of the major causes of our economic disaster that year.  High energy prices and an over extended housing market brought the American economy to its knees, and in spite of propaganda to the contrary, it’s still not on its feet completely.  If gas spikes that high again, it may bring it down for good. Opening drilling in our own oil fields was dismissed then by our President because it wouldn’t help the crisis. Said it would take years to get to, so there’d be no point.  Well, had we started then, we’d be 3 years closer to it than we are now and rising oil prices might not be the crisis it is now.

Other news from a year ago?  Well it doesn’t really matter. There’s unrest in the mid-east, but there has been for what, 6000 years or so?  The faces and names change, but the stories don’t.  Same for Hollywood. Today it’s Charlie Sheen, a year ago it was someone else burning out on cocaine or anorexia or some other nonsense.  Tomorrow, it will probably still be Sheen, but eventually he’ll be replaced by another out of control life going down in flames.  Our economy is crashing or recovering, and our politicians…well, status quo seems to be immovable.  They continue to waste tax dollars at amazing levels.  Wisconsin state politicians have even found a better way to do that…they go hide in Indiana [edit...a reader tells me it was Illnois, not Indiana, sorry.]  I could understand a day or two to make a point, but they’ve carried it well beyond the legitimate protest point and should in my opinion be relieved of their duties and replaced.  Time to stop screwing around and solve the problems.  They don’t want to be part of it, fine. Stay in the other state.

Come on folks…elected officials work for us.  If you had made as big a mess at your job as these people have, you’d have been fired, and rightly so.  So, ok, we haven’t been paying attention, so we share in the blame. We’ve neglected going to the polls and participating in the process and these folks have been allowed to run amok.  Yes, boys and girls, it’s our fault for not taking them to task before this, so go to the polls on the next chance you get and send them a message.  The recent turnover in the House of Representatives should have served noticed that we were paying attention again, but it obviously has not.   We obviously need to send a stronger nudge.   Either they work for us, and I do mean FOR US, or they don’t get to keep the seats.

Working for us means making choices in our behalf that we approve of and that are in the best interest of the country.  Take for instance, this push by the Obama administration to get electric cars into development.  I agree that an alternative to petroleum powered cars must be found, but I don’t think that the full electric battery powered car is the answer.  It could be a stop gap, but it will never be a permanent solution.  Americans are a people on the move.  We go where we want, when we want and none of us are willing to give that up.  Electric cars severely limit this ability.  To just get back and forth to work, they might be ok for those who live in the city and can drive at low speeds to get to the market and to work and such.  What happens when it’s time for a vacation? If you live in New York and decide to go to California, it will take nearly a month in your electric car just to get there, assuming you can get the full 100 miles or so that they all tout as a cruising range.  If you find that funny, lets do some math.  Google Maps suggests three routes to get from New York City to Los Angeles.  One is 2790 miles, the second ins 2778 miles and the third is 2810 miles.   All three are close enough to call it 2800 miles.  If you can only drive 100 miles a day, you’re talking 28 days to get there.  In a normal car, it would be about 56 hours if you average 50 mph.  If you take your time and only drive 12 hours at a time, you’d be there in 4 ½ days. You’d also have to figure out some way to overcome the frustration of only being on the road for 2 hours at a time as well, and hope you find a place to stay with a recharging station for the 16 or more hours it will take to recharge. While that’s going on, you’ll be on foot or at the mercy of cab drivers  to get to you things to do while your car sits at the hotel and sucks up electricity.  You would have to save up a lot of vacation time, and a pile of money to stay in hotels for two months.

Alternately, you could take some sort of public transportation like an airline or train or maybe even a bus.  Airline could have you there in a matter of hours, with a great deal of aggravation (getting groped, irradiated, etc by the TSA) and expense.  A train would probably get you there in a week or so assuming you had access to rail service where you live and a bus could probably get you there in 2 weeks.  They stop at every town they come across, remember.  Traveling cross country via mass transit limits your options considerably as well.  In your car, if you see a sign that says something about the world’s largest mushroom, you can take the appropriate exit and go see it if you wish. On a bus, train or plane, that ain’t happening.  You can always get off at the next scheduled stop and back track, if you can find a way, or perhaps rent a car which you’ll have to do with any of these methods once you reach your destination. Sounds like a great time to me.  In fact, I have experienced this.  We loaded up and flew somewhere once, but I didn’t rent a car.  We had booked a hotel right on the beach near all the attractions so we thought we’d be fine on foot or occasionally using a cab.  Well, we had a good time on the vacation, but we’ll never do that again.  Every time we got in a cab it was 40 bucks.  At one point I even considered buying a couple of department store bicycles to use during our stay.  Would have been far cheaper than the cab fare we doled out.  Ever since then, we’ve had a method of self transport when we’ve gone anywhere.  

At any rate, why would we pursue the electric car so vigorously, when there is an alternative that is very similar to what we do now?  No, I’m not talking about ethanol, though that is at least a renewable energy source.   I’m talking the hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicle.  Something similar to the Honda Clarity.  It can be driven like a normal car, at normal speeds and has a range of some 300 miles or so before it needs refueled.  It refuels like a normal car, in that you can pull up to a hydrogen dispensing unit, refill your fuel cell and be on your way in about 10 minutes, as opposed to 16 hours in a plug in electric. Its only emissions are heat and water vapor, so it’s very clean to operate.  Its manufacture does no more damage to the environment than a normal car, and is much less damaging than the plug in electric in that respect.   So why is there so much interest in and push for the plug in electric?  Why not build hydrogen refueling stations and develop the means to produce, transport and store hydrogen safely instead of fooling about with battery powered cars?

Our President has demonstrated a desire to transform America into something more….European.  He likes socialized medicine for some reason. Heaven knows it’s been a failure in every country that’s tried it.  Europe has a much more extensive rail system that we do, and he pushes hard for that, even though Amtrak has been a money pit that has never been profitable. The English rail is the butt of endless jokes even by the English.  If electric cars are eventually mandated, that would force people to use the rail system for longer distance travel, so maybe that’s why he’s so interested in it.  Factories and other employers here would have to become much more forgiving of people coming in late if that becomes a reality, because the trains in Europe are by reputation seldom on time. Still, he could claim success with the rail projects if other means of transportation were as neutered as the electric car.

I for one am not interested in making America more European.  We did not become the world’s greatest super power by imitating our European neighbors.  Not that there’s anything wrong with Europe, I think it is a marvelous place, steeped in centuries of culture and history that is absolutely fascinating.  Nevertheless, 235 years ago this nation decided to do things its own way; to leave behind the old ways and forge ahead on its own.  Sure, we made mistakes along the way. We made some enemies too. But we made a great many friends, and have risen to be the shining example of just how successful a nation can be.   When disaster strikes, we can, have and will offer aid to any nation, friend and foe alike.  Our success is slipping away, however, because we have tried too hard to not offend, to be politically correct, to become multicultural, multilingual, even apologizing for our successes.  Well, to that I say “bollocks”.  We need to climb back up on top, stop that nonsense and make our economy thrive, and put our own ingenuity and inventiveness back to work to solve our problems ourselves.  That’s not going to happen riding around in electric cars and bullet trains.  Sure, we’ll make some enemies by being successful, but they’ll get over it.  If America falls, the rest of the world will fall as well.  The entire planet will descend into chaos and the nut jobs of the world like Imadikkahed (or whatever his name is) in Iran will wage war after war of oppression, till there is nothing left.  If America falls, it truly will be the   End of the World (click to listen).