gas guzzlers unite

Sporting a panel that read: "Congress get in touch with America," an oil industry worker bused in by her employer, Anadarko Petroleum, protested the upcoming climate change bill at a meeting in Texas.

The America Congress is supposed to get in touch with is a gas-guzzler nation that seems to care very little for the future or the environment. It is a nation that burns gas for no good reason. It is all part of the great consumerism wave.

David Leland, a geological map maker for the petroleum industry, was quoted by the NY Times as saying: "We provide a product at a reasonable price, and we're going to get punished for doing a damn good job." What he forgot to mention is that the price is so "reasonable" because his company fails to pay for the environmental damage it does. What he also forgets is that this reasonable price is conducive to some very unreasonable behavior on the part of consumers.

Big oil, like big pharma and many other big businesses realize that they can only keep going the way they are now if the public behaves in an extremely irrational and wasteful manner. People have to consume oil, drugs, and other goodies as if these things have no value.

Unfortunately, this is not a viable long term strategy. The executives with their fat bonuses and lavish lifestyles may not care, but in the (not so) long run their irresponsible behavior is going to cause massive harm and loss of life.

Wouldn't it be better if we could tone down our economic activity to a more reasonable level? We would all be happier and we'd live longer too.

Death panels

I am sure you are all aware of the fact that the President's healthcare reform plan will not only bring socialism to our country, but it will also encourage embryo-factories, where embryos will be grown to be used for stem cell research, abortion clinics, where young women will be forced to undergo unwanted abortions, condoms and birth control pills in schools so pupils engage in early sexual activity, and death panels, where experts will decide who will live and who will die.

Yes you got it! It is all part of the master plan devised at the UN to make America weak and to undermine religion and family values. Obama is really a UN spy in disguise, who wasn't even born in this country and illegitimately claimed the presidency so he could sell us all out to atheist aliens.

Fortunately for all of us however, the healthcare plan will be administered by the government. That means it will be so inefficient and wasteful we won't have to worry about it. We will just pay higher taxes, but none of the bad things will happen because bureaucrats in Washington won't be able to make decisions in a timely manner.

And so you see, it all balances out in the end!

clunkers

Congress just expanded the cash for clunkers program. It is a typical example of Washington "dual use," as we used to call civilian programs with military applications. This one is not of the civilian-military dual nature, but rather of the green-consumerism variety. Once again, it is one of those attempts to do the impossible. One that achieves nothing good.

Destroying perfectly good cars and replacing them with new ones, even if those new ones are more efficient, is an environmental disaster. Every time you throw out something that works fine to replace it with something new, you are creating excess waste, and unnecessarily consuming resources. There is no free lunch here, no matter how you add up the numbers.

If Washington wanted to do something they should make gas more expensive. Much more expensive. That -unfortunately- appears to be the only way to achieve our goal of using less fossil fuels. I have never seen another incentive that works and I doubt one exists. I don't like high gas prices but it appears to be the only option.

If you are serious about the environment and the future of our children, then pay more for gas. Pay more and use less. Unlike what you may think this is not silly. Paying more is the only way we can pay for the true cost of gas. Right now, we are not paying the true cost. We are only paying for the cost of finding, refining, and distributing it -and let's not forget the fat margins for the oil companies. But we are not paying for the environmental destruction and ongoing pollution.

No matter what you think, eventually we will pay. The longer we postpone, the more it will cost too, and the more painful it will be. So, wake up and get real. Pay the bills now before it is too late. And tell Congress cash for clunkers is a dumb idea.