Thursday, September 28, 2006

Solving the Terrorist war Problem, one solution, 1.05

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It's obvious that the Osameraneans* are able to a lot of their damage because they are able to "blend in" with the normally peaceful and neighborly Islamic peoples. Going with the dictum that is best to as stupidity or apathy, instead of coniving conspiracy, I would assume that the above situation goes on in part because the peaceful and neighborly Islamic peoples are not particularly affected by the Osameraneans.

*Osameraneans, a term which contains no references to Islam or the Arabic World, other than the name of a madman already responsible for 10,000 + deaths. Do you, as an Arab or a follower of the Islamic/Muslim religion, wish to identify with the madman and his followers ? Can you come up with a better term, non-offensive to you, for the rest of the world to use when discussing the SOB and his henchmen ? Good, WHAT IS IT ? OR, do you actually support him ???? As you can tell, some of us are getting really fed up with this runaround on terminology, not to mention the whole situation. I might also spell it, "Osamaraneans, " what do you think ?

I then make the assumption that if the discomfort level of the peaceful and neighborly Islamic peoples is raised a bit, they might pay attention to the problem, which they are inadvertantly a part of, and covertly OUT the SOB and his henchmen. I will ignore for now childcare situations in which the US is described as the devil and suicide bombing a service to mankind and oneself. These of course only occur in a very small groups of normally peaceful and neighborly Islamic peoples. Like apparently many Palestinian camps.....

To raise the discomfort level, I would recommend a reduction in oil prices.

To do this I would do a WWII and switch production of SUV's over to the production of multiple sizes of jitney busses. I would also develop cell technology to a level where you pick up your phone and punch in a destination, and the nearest jitney going in the right general direction diverts itself over to pick you up, after you confirm. Your phone says when it will be there, and how long it will take to get to your destination, and you then approve or disapprove. If you approve and then disappear, your transit priority rating will go down. Pre-scheduled express buses could be arranged in advance for those on fixed schedules, but still able to adjust for a "sick day." speeding up other pickups.

Special needs, bikes and wheelchairs and standardized shopping carts, could also be factored in. A small trailer could accompany at least some of the buses. The bicycle side of this is already in place on the San Francisco Bay Bridge. The instant pickup buses would have both a driver and a navigator. The navigator would work with GPS updated map, and would direct the driver to keep the driver's eyes on the road.

At present we are merely a bunch of suburbanites screaming NIMBY to terrorism, but not doing much more than signing petitions and wasting lives and dollars. This country needs to really tighten its belt, energy wise, if we're ever going to beat the terrorists. WWII meant no new cars, no sewing machines, ripping up railroad tracks for steel, hitchikking, etc. We can update all that with modern communications technology. We are not in an attitude of being "at war," we are instead "at whining pattycake," with no teeth that the other side understands. They are too busy watching one another to be much worried about the US. We are not important to them. Dropping oil prices might just change that.

I've already made plenty of noises in earlier posts about a Manhattan Project (Nuke bomb, WWII), Moon shot federal effort to develop cheap and efficient solar panels, and then throwing the patent into public domain for all the world to use.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Starving Arabs will kill Osama, Inc. Opera at 8 in Berlin

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George Bush simply is not getting the job done. He is not a super nanny. The bad boy of Saudi Arabia and his followers continue to plague the world. Bush cannot do the obvious, which is to do EVERYTHING POSSIBLE to Drive the Price of Oil DOWN, and cause the Arabs to take out Osamaraneans all by themselves. They, the Arabs, are the parents here, not the US military and US taxpayer dollars.

Is anti-Islamic sentiment on the rise ? Yes, it is awful that we are "hurting," "embarrassing," "rediculing," "demeaning," "slandering," etc a great many followers of Islam in all its variations. However innocent they may be, they cannot deny that Osama and his followers are able to hide among them with impunity. If they are a sea in which monsters lurk, then they have to realize that the rest of the world is not going to want to swim at their beaches. I see no reason to tiptoe around the Islamic religion to any more of a degree than we tiptoe around Jesus and the rest of the current religious pantheon, and this includes cartoons and operas. Lately we have too many devils and too few Gods. besides, the Islamists, or at least the Osamaraneans, seem to be willing to burn the Pope in effigy, etc. And the Arab countries are very intolerant of other religions even being practised locally, even without proselytizing. What on earth do we owe them ?

Sidenote. CNBC 19 meters by 19 meters by 19 meters. All of the gold ever mined in the world in one cube. 7 feet by 7 feet by 7 feet, all the gold ever mined at the Empire mine in Grass Valley.

Osamaraneans, I like that term. No Islamic overtones to it, rhymes with subterraneans, Albanians, Pomeraneans, etc. It's a good replacement for "Islamic fascists," or "religious facists."


From another reply elsewhere:


"Talking Points" "one man's ceiling is another man's floor..." Paul Simon

or, I'm discounting everything you say because some of it matches some of the rhetoric of a political grouping I oppose. Of course, if my rhetoric matches somewhat the leaders of the side I support say, why no, it is NOT an evil "talking point."

Cultural change is very difficult. Yes, there are a lot of young men who are jealous of the wealth of their oil rich leaders, who happen to be chosen rather undemocratically. Do they rage against the leaders ? No, they rage against the US, it's safer. A very tiny portion of them get carried away enough to storm US lookout posts in Afghanistan, and to otherwise self destruct while causing terror.

Obviously they are not causing very much terror. IN WWII, butter, copper, coffee, sewing machines, cars, gas, etc. were all conserved and rationed, if they were available at all. The US is currently a rediculously long ways away from that. Instead we've got headache ads that give you headaches, reality shows with dancing stars and runways of the non aircraft kind. Obviously we are not taking the situation very seriously, Bush included. He just wants the war elsewhere, NIMBY, but doesn't care if he wins it, just as long as it doesn't upset the US economy and lifestyle very much.

I will believe we are at war when we say, institute mandantory mass transit to save fuel to STOP FEEDING THE ISLAMIC NATIONS with oil money. Solar power I've already mentioned. In WWII we tore up railroads for steel, etc. Oh, but the terrorists can do damage with no money at all, hardly.

Yes, that's true.

BUT, they need to be able to hide in a huge population that is vaguely sympathetic to them. That large population is going to become very unsymphatetic, if they can no longer buy their toys, build their palaces and islands in the shape of palm trees, a world map ( Dubai) [actually neat ideas], and possibly even run out of food. Those vaguely symphatetic will become very pissed off, and quite likely, take out their anger on the terrorist twits who killed the golden goose.

When we're pussy-footing around and cancelling operas and cartoons and censoring the Pope, we are not getting the job done. As the Soviet Union fell to cultural change via underground video, so shall the terrorists fall, in the long term, to a very successful world economy, based on clean power, and communication systems beyond our wildest dreams.

I'd start by airdropping solar powered water pumps, PVC pipe, lights, sat dishes and self contained DVR's into the farther reaches of Pakistan, with free subscriptions and full localization of installion instructions. Most will be destroyed, but eventually a tribal leader will get curious and set one up. They'll be hooked, as Al Kaida , already supposedly is, on Tom and Jerry. The water pump and lighting is the bait to get the electricity up and running. They are the camel's nose under the tent, so to speak.

Friday, September 22, 2006

Can I get a return on my investment in solar power ?

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This is from a continuing discussion elsewhere, wehere the other party asked me the title question.

I don't have to go back very far to when I was paying 8 cents a kilowatt hour for all I could eat. Now it bumps right up to 16 cent a kilowatt hour and higher, if I do much more than the porch light. I can easily see another doubling in ten years. Since I factor in the costs of fighting in Iraq which I pay in taxes and in fear, I think my "amortization" would be immediate, as nothing would give me greater satisfaction than to leave Osama and friends begging for money in safron robes, chanting "hari krishna." (No offense to that group. While they were in airports, at least they were harmless.)

I have no doubt that if I could convince a substantial number of Americans to vote for massive solar research and construction, that Osama would get his tamborine. How about you, would you feel safer and happier if you could flip off the foreign oil tankers as they arrived, desperate to sell anything at low, low, prices ??? Would that be a good return on your tax dollar investment ? Was the A Bomb? Was the the Moon Shot ?

And also, what alternative do you offer for fighting off terrorism, other than getting off the oil energy tit ? How will you feel if China or Japan, or Germany figures it out first, and sits on the patent, squeezing it for all it is worth, charging just a bit less than the Arabs do for oil ? Won't we feel so stupid ? This is something America should do for itself and the rest of the planet, and the sooner the better. It's way more than "getting a return on my money." It's getting a return to the American Way of Life.

We'll all be much better off for it...Especially those of us who are not part of the CEO class, the new nobility in feudal (non American Way of Life) America. If all CEO's had clauses in their contracts that terminated the contract on the day of an indictment (including all golden parachutes, etc.), subject to re-negotiation, they'd probably all behave a bit better. The rest of us have the equivalent of that. It's called, "you're fired."

By the way, there's a design flaw in my 40 foot stainless steel walls. They need to have tiny holes, or the illegal immigrants would come over like Geckos, ready to install windows anywhere, anytime.

Oh, but how would that work, if nobody owned the patent ? Who owns the patent for a road, a clock, a weather vane, an old fashioned pump, a wagon, a window, a tractor, a car, an airplane ? You get the picture. It's called, "public domain."

Am I changing the world for the better with this blog ? Most likely not, but you never know. The famous quote by Margaret Mead about a few individuals being the only way change comes about, comes to mind. At least my grandchildren will know I was trying, and what directions I was taking. Vote Charlie Brown, and yeah for Mr. Bing and Prop 87. Stick a "Yes on" sticky right above the 87 octane button, it's like eating Scharffenberger chocolate.

Keeping the Country On-Track, CEO's, Gas, and Touch Typing

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Buy my book ! Musharraf Surreal news of the day.


So HP's CEO has done a nasty. Enron's too, and so on. How about a poison pill for CEO contracts ? If you are a CEO and you even get charged with any sort of criminal wrong doing, your contract is NULL and VOID as of that date. No perks, no golden parachutes, no retirement beyond what's been already earned, no medical, etc. The CEO becomes a "new hire," and the contract is completely renegotiated. A current day to day continuation would be acceptable in the language of the contract until things get resolved, maybe set at 1/2 salary.

Why should the stockholders and the public take the hit ?

This Spring, more "demand" was all the rage with respect to rising gas pricing. Now, this Fall, "analysts are not afraid any more," is the explanation to falling gas pricing. What the heck happened to "demand?" The analysts are less afraid of a US that may bomb Iran, #2 producer in the world, and Hugo Chavez is calling the President the devil. What the devil is going on here ? Listening to financial news is like listening to a stone frog oracle in an ancient Greek temple. Dephi piled higher and higher. PhD = piled higher and dryer, especially the econ profs. The questions is, if you understood what was really going on, and could predict the future, would you be such an egomaniac as to tell and spoil your system ? I think not.

After November we will see how high gas can really go. My prediction is $9.11 per gallon by the time Bush leaves office, and maybe sooner. What a legacy !

Could it be, by general unspoken agreement, it would be good to have gas go down to keep November elections from being a total bloodbath for the Republicans ? Or are the Repubs hoping for a Demo victory, so as to have somebody to blame everything for in 2008 ? Good grief this is a messy surrealistic, dadaesque planet !

Does anyone have a list showing the political affiliations of the wealthiest 400 by Forbes ? How about one for all the Board of Director members of the 500 largest corporations ? I know, I know, it's 50/50, repubs and demos....sure.

Now we have cities outsourcing jobs. This is the answer to beating back unions and making sure the poor stay poor and unhealthy, and that the money they generate goes back to whom it rightfully belongs. What a generous and clever group the $*%^$ are !

How to learn touch typing at age 60+. Change the main password to your computer to "fjdksla." You can change other passwords to something similar + say "789." Everytime you start up, your fingers are on the right keys, and for speed you use each finger. Eventually the information goes into your brain, and your typing speed goes up. My speed has gone from 25 a year ago to 40+.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Free National Transit, Space Program for the Earth

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I guess thinking about the space shuttle got my brain going. Check out the last paragraph for new concept in transit. The rest of this is me arguing with people who can't figure out what to do about Iran, but who, in their hearts, are just so sure solar power can't be the answer. I still honor our Space Shuttle Atlantis astonauts at NASA for their accomplishments.

"We've already seen oil go downwards just on the basis of Chevron revealing a week ago that they had a ton of new oil in the Gulf. The futures markets are sensitive to mere possibilities of change.

What else, other than oil, does Iraq have to offer to support its people? They need to eat. They will not be happy with a government that messes with their rice bowl. Given that Iran's nuclear program is already known to be spread across 20 sites nation-wide, not to mention what they may have underground, short of a huge invasion, just how else will you stop their program ?

How exactly are we sure that they don't already have the bomb ? Would we be walking into a trap ? Remember, these are the folks that bought the same German presses our mint used to make money during the 1970's. The fake $100's may have had something to do with inflation during the 80's, they were near perfect counterfits, and our new dollar designs are a direct result.

Oil and sand, yup, we have a real shortage of silicon on this planet. Can you build a nuke plant without concrete (sand again) and fuel it before the "Iran thing" comes to a head ? You want an instant solar heater ? Take an old large sat dish, and line it with dead CD's and point it at the sun. Or build a structure from wood bender strips, and place the CD's on nails. At the focal point you will have heat, lots of it. beats the heck out of a cold shower.

We can do it, we just need leadership that is not aligned with Big Oil and related companies. That's probaby the hardest part of the process. The lifestyles Americans have chosen have basically led the American people into an economic gulag of no escape, except by making "hard choices." Free public transit as a national program, including once a month out of state & back, rail, once a year multistate, would be a start. Debit PIN card for admission, tracked and programmed to reject homeless who just want to ride all day and do nothing. PIN would also report to IRS and check income. Those above $80,000 gross would pay some for usage. Gee, if we had that, people would buy fewer cars... guess who would block such an idea in Congress."

Hat's Off to the Atlantis Astronauts !

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Wheeee ! Wonderful ! They made it.

This should be at the top of every news venue, but no, we get overweight bimbos in the Bahamas, world leader wanttabees with genocide/economic suicide on the brain, and throat slashing baby-knappers, and photos supposedly of the wife of a very talented golfer.

No, in my world the astronauts top all that, by at least 170 miles. No more posts today, glad to have NASA's finest back !

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Odds and Ends

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Notes to CB

Dinosaurs of respectable size, gone 65 million years ago

Upright humanoids, showed up about 4 millions years ago.

You are 61 million years out of synch.

Modern brain case sized humans, about 200,000 years ago.

Neanderthal dies out 40,000 years ago, different lineage, probably no voice box of significance. Couldn't say, "hey George, that human over there about to throw a spear at you."

Obviously drunk driver coming down the road, you don't take evasive action ?
Leave your doors unlocked, they'll break in anyway ?
Doctors and dentists only postphone death, so why bother ?
It's amazing evolution didn't knock out your fatalistic genes.

Evolution doesn't work via exposure to harsh conditions, unless there are genes already present that are a better adaption to the harsh conditions. It also works slowly. Mexico won't want us if it gets too cold, Canada won't want us if it gets too hot.

Follow the advice at http://rantingrepublican.blogspot.com for yesterday or today, September 20, 2006. The Navy SEAL story is great!

On Nukes and Imans and Mullahs

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I have no problem with violence as a response to terror, better them than me, but I'd rather not be cornered in a position of wondering just who really nuked NY or Haifa ? Could be the Chinese or the North Koreans or Pakistan, for all we know, if it happens. I see going full bore for solar now as a way of heading Iran and others off at the pass, and the sooner we do that the better. I do not like the thought of someone, who has genocide on the brain the way the President of Iran does, having a nuke.

IMHO, the Xerox machine and the VCR brought down CCCP USSR as much as Reagan. I'd like to see super cheap solar powered satellite Internet computers do they same to the mullahs and shieks.

Even tiny Papua New Guinea has 600 people installing dishes and cell towers everywhere, including in the deepest jungles. True, maybe they can only afford one cell phone per village, but it's a start. Source: the National News of PNG and my daughter, who just returned from a medical field trip there. Lee Felsenstein has the right idea with computers in the jungles (Paul Simon had the lasers in the jungles). So does Dean Kamen (of medical appliance and Segway fame, not to mention the the robotics contests) with his inexpensive water purifier and pump.

Improve the world and your world will improve.

Stand Back, Non-Believers !

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This is another response I made elsewhere:

What is it that still makes you assume that the amount of solar energy hitting a square meter of land and the cost of harvesting it is a constant, like the speed of light ? Why is that a fixed immutable quantity ? Why is it impossible to up the output and lower the cost ? What part of Edison and the light bulb experimentation is invisible to you ? How much experimentation can you buy with 1/10th of the cost of the Iraq War. If we already knew exactly how to do it, we'd be doing it. Now is the time for funded, very well funded, experimentation.

It reminds me of a story about Christopher Columbus. Probably an urban legend, but supposedly when he came back, he went to a dinner at which all the other guys claimed it was obvious, and that they could have done it. Christopher then took a hard boiled egg and asked if anyone could make it stand on its narrow end. The egg was passed around without success until it came back to Columbus. He took it, and crunched it lightly into the table where it stood quite nicely.

When gas hits $9.11/gallon, panels on roofs will be attractive signs of wealth, much as mowed lawns originally indicated plenty of meat. Learn to think outside the oil drums of war.

As for Berkeley city brat, you might guess that my presence here on a WB related website indicates a different locale now 40 years later. 62 acres, Sierra foothills, saving trees by buying land, and clearing non-native plants, among other things. We got tired of having to scramble in February to get camping reservations in August in Yosemite.

The government could make several different sized and powered standardized chassis's and powertrains, which would be available to passenger compartment builders at low rates. As long as the passenger compartment builders (including private individuals), had seat belts and airbags, they could build whatever they wanted. Of course if the government couldn't produce something cheap enough, they'd sell none of them. These could be powered by any form of power that appealed to the NASA like agency. If the agency did not become self sufficient in 15 years, then kill it. If you gave it an initial funding of 10 billion for prototypes in five years, it would cause the majors to consider building more efficient cars.

Another idea, tax cars by weight to pay for suvivors of crashes. Do you have any idea how unsafe our highways will be in 10 years when uninsured motorists who do not maintain their vehicles own all the SUV's of today ?

Third idea, simple to do, stops secondary crashes, instant radio signal from a motor vehicle whose airbag has deployed, containing its GPS location. Couple this with warning indicators in all new cars, that go off in varying degrees, depending on how close the deployed bag is. Avoids coming around the bend at full speed to pile into an existing accident. Added costs ? Probably $100/vehicle.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

An Inconvenient Truth, I don't Need to See the Movie...

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... Don't need to see the movie....
I grew up a faculty brat in Berkeley, in the shadow of the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, lived 2 blocks from Ernest O. Lawrence and six blocks from Edward Teller of H-Bomb fame. The current head of the Rad Lab goes with. "global warming is happening," and he's enough of a scientist for me. Solar power kills three birds with one stone. It gives us control of our own energy supply, and it it takes the cash away from the jilhadists, and, if global warming is bad, (mama nature's gonna KILL all of us to rebalance the planet, some of you seem happy at the thought, or fairly neutral) at least solar power will reduce CO2 emissions..

Oh, solar power is impossible ???? Yeah, and so are modems faster than 1200 baud. Add in the moon shot and the nuke bomb. All those things were "impossible." What sort of drugs are you taking that cause your brain to freeze when it comes to might of American know-how and can-do when it comes to solar ? You're quite willing to believe a satellite 22,700 miles up beaming signals to and from your backyard. I suppose that was all so obvious to you 30 years ago when your keyboard was on a Selectric ?

Throw the kind of money at solar research that went towards nukes and the moon shot and the price of oil will fall like King Kong from the Empire State Building just on the FEAR that we might succeed.

This is a preemptive strike on right wing dups supporting the Republicans on the Boards of Directors of the oil, power technology, and utilities companies, including BP which waded in to saturate the solar panel market with old technology. No thin film for them. Of course research in secret labs at GE and BP goes on until they are sure they can control the markets with patents, instead of letting government developed technology go into public domain, and giving "EveryPerson" a shot at controlling a bit more of their economic lives.....What happens to PG&E stock if everyone places inexpensive panels on their roofs ??? How dense can Rush Limbah, Limbaugh, followers be ?

I'm a bit cranky tonight, as I'm stuck with a government that thinks there is only one effective way to hang a terrorist. They just don't seem to be able to think outside the oil drums of war....

Monday, September 18, 2006

Shut and Just Pay the Money ! Submit to Allah too !

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This seems to be the attitude of most major corporations. If you have questions about anything that is not covered on the menus and which can be handled by robots, you will spend forever waiting to get to a person, who then may decide to place you back on hold. I just wasted 2 hours trying to find out where my "free DVD player" for signing up with Direct TV went.

I finally called in and punched button until I got to a "discontinue service possibility" option. That got me to a real person in a hurry who did stay on the line, and who partially resolved some of the issues. Of course getting the freeebie involves going to a website with an Adobe Reader .pdf document which of course could not be read by the version 6 of Adobe which I had, and which brought about "install Yahoo toolbar" as an upgrade option. I instead reached for Google and punched in "substitute for Adobe Reader," and got back on track for www.foxitsoftware.com, the location of a reader that takes the place of Adobe/Yahoo's market tracking crap.

I was able to download the new version file just fine. Adobe Yahoo Sux! as they say in modern terminology. Foxit works faster, and doesn't monkey about with Yahoo.

I don't mean to upset any of the Muslim Islamic religion people (do they prefer to be called "Muslims", or, "Followers of Islam," or what ?) but if you're going to have members that go running around killing nuns over soundbites quoted out of context, and the best the Council of Islamic-American Relations can do it to point to a year old plea for a non-violence FATWA which apparently has gone unnoticed by the majority of Muslims (coupled with a very current quote about the Pope, treating him negatively), then do not be startled if some of us choose to defend ourselves, should we feel physically threatened by the loonies who claim your name and religion. This would include the President of Iran, and any others who get their rocks off chanting "death to America, the Pope, and whoever else is not in the mood to "submit" ." Go build your self image some other way, or be prepared for "living in interesting times."

Mad as Heck and not feeling like taking it any more....from anybody ! Solar Power Now !

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Just in time, yeah Kurdistan !

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Within 5 hours of my previous post complaining about the attitudes of neutral Muslims, the Kurds come up with a nice pro USA ad on FOX or CNN. I'm impressed.

The Pope (Benedictine) Has This Right

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Pope Benedictine came down hard on the side of tolerance, stating unequivicably that anyone who reads either the Koran or the Bible or any religious work in such a way as to justify a "holy killing war" for conversion, has got it all wrong. This would probably inculude the nut case at www.theamericanbible.com, and certainly includes al kaida and any (Hugo Chavez, the rest of the Cuba Conference in Havana this week, etc.) who would issue blanket kill orders for any human who happens to have been born in the U.S.A.

I think the USA (or at least me) is close to the mood of Captain James T. Kirk of StarTrek in "The Search for Spock." The Kingon commander has killed Kirk's son, the planet is falling apart in fiery cataclysms, Kirk and the commander are fighting, the ground gives way under the Kingon, and he falls and is hanging by his fingernails. Kirk comes over and offers him a hand to get him up on solid ground, and the Klingon tries to pull Jim in with him to certain death. They struggle, and Kirk finally says, "I've had enough or you ! " and kicks the Klingon in the forehead and off into the fiery depths.

If peaceful Muslims do not understand their duty to turn on the nutcases amongst them, turn them in anonymously, and instead they continue to try to hide rockets in Lebanon, while decrying the destruction they got in return for harboring the Hezbollah who launched the rockets, then there is a good chance that a great many of them will join the few, should Iran wind up with nukes, or should another 9/11 like attack occur.

I would not be happy about such an outcome, but at least have the common sense to see it coming, and here I call attention to the situation, in hopes of avoiding such an outcome. I have hopes that the "peaceful Muslims" will become the activists Muslims.

BTW, IslamoFascist is just plain wrong. ReligiousFascist is much more accurate, most religions have got nutcases. Not too many Zen Buddists, Quakers, or B'hai going bonkers lately..... There are choices to be made, make them wisely...

amen!

Douglas Keachie
Hopeful Agnostic Quacker

"ducks R us" AFLACK !

Monday, September 11, 2006

Tracking Oil and Energy Prices

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I'm still on this case. My new search uses the phrase "world's largest oil consumer" September 2006 "second largest consumer" all punched into Google. This got lots of good sites, but no verifyable listing of countries showing current production, refining, exporting to where, importing from where, numbers.

I did learn that the USA is Numbah One, around 20 million barrels a day, and China seems to be number two around 8 to 9 million barrels a day. Now we might consider that we cannot get accurate data from the rest of the world, but surely we can pass laws that require the oil companies to release to the government exact daily data on all their information as listed above, supplies on hand, importing, exporting, etc.

In short, we could, by law, force "trade information" out of the companies, handled confidentially, but summarized by the government for the benefit of Congress and the average consumer. Since the US represents such a huge porportion of the world's consumption of oil, having this information would help stablize the market prices, and prevent all the mystic mumbo-jumbo tea leave-reading that economists and politicians currently present to pretend that it is impossible to understand the market. It would also help foresee "Peak Oil." This knowledge is too important to be left to the CEO's of the oil companies.

I went to so many interesting sites that I forget just where this stuff below came from, but if you type in the search terms above, you should be able to find it.

"In 2004, the United States consumed a staggering 20.4 million barrels of oil a day, easily making us the world's largest oil consumer by more than three-fold our closest competitor (China, which, in 2004, consumed 6.5 million barrels of oil a day). Where does the bulk of this money go? Despite their guarantees, there is no credible evidence that either Saudi Arabia or Iran can prevent at least some of this money from falling into the hands of terrorists. But even if they didn't support terrorism, the fact remains that our vast oil consumption would still be supporting two of the most markedly corrupt and draconian regimes on the planet.

Why have States in the Middle East stagnated or regressed politically over the last 50 years while virtually every other region in the world has progressed (most noticeably in Asia and Latin America)? Again, Oil. It is no coincidence that every single State that relies on oil as a primary source of wealth is a dictatorship. The one exception to this is Norway, but they found their democracy far before they found their oil. With the recent hike in oil prices, oil-states are now more empowered than ever. Saudi Arabia has a projected budget surplus of over $26 billion. Meanwhile, they bribe the Wahabi imams, fund medressas, and maintain a massive and brutal police state that regularly violates human rights."

Douglas Keachie

Friday, September 08, 2006

Congressperson John T. Doolittle Revealed

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OK,

Abit of research led me to a place called Congresspedia, a part of SourceWatch. It's a very handy backgrounder site for all Congresspeole.

John Doolittle can be found at:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=John_T._Doolittle



It seems Congress is reluctantly setting up a bill to make a database showing who's getting what for whom, in exchange for what. Yes, a little confusing, but certainly an idea whose time has come (it came 200 years ago). I doubt the Congressional version will go deep, it's probably just window-dressing, to make it look like they're doing something.

To really do it right, you'd have to tie in the bills introduced and voted for, and the resultant cash in each Congresspersons' District. This would include the purchase of items from plants and factories and farms, and the spending of money on roads and the like, and placements of government sponsered institutions and the military. HandiDandy charts showing years in Congress, money spent on campaign, sources of money for campaign, would help flesh out an accurate picture of votes bought and sold. The Congresspedia goes in these directions. Good for them !

Honesty and the Right Wing Bloggers ?

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I subscribe to blogs of all colors and stripes, figuring that it is best to learn about the other mindsets by viewing the world through their eyes.

I had occasion to read a random post on Townhall.org or com, which contained a good idea of issuing more hunting permits for the excess deer which are causing accidents on our roads, and feeding them to the poor. On the site was a link that said to write ABC about the upcoming, "blame Clinton for 9/11" mini-series on ABC. Now, with that headline, I assumed that I would do the writing, and that they would provide the address. Instead I was rerouted to yet another right wing blog, which made the same pitch. "Write ABC about the mini-series"

You can see this site at:

http://kevinmccullough.townhall.com/#0482c652-74e4-4aec-ab2d-1850e15cd729



Anyway I clicked and waited, and nothing happened. So then I noticed where the site was linked and typed in that address, and discovered that I got a message which indicated that they (ABC) had received nothing but the header.

My suspicions are that the click through sends a precanned message in support of the mini-series. I followed a few more links and informed ABC what was going on. Whether it will ever get read, who knows ? Will ABC say that they got x number of emails supporting them, you betcha. You might want to write and let people know where those emails are coming from.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Oh, How Incredibly Convenient !

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Two months before the elections, Chevron discovers oil !

Oh yeah, I really do believe that !

I do believe it, but as to when they first became aware of this "new" oil, and when they chose to announce it, well I'd be inclined to believe a time gap exists, much like those in the Nixon tapes.

The Powers That Be must have finally gotten a bit nervous about the mood of the country.

I took great joy in telling Dish Network to take a hike and installed Direct TV instead, when they (DishNet)wouldn't budge on a charge resulting from their screwup, of $5. They tried to apologize when they realized they'd lost their $60/month customer of 8 years, but it was too little, too late.

Vote Yes on 87 !

Vote for Charlie Brown to replace Congressman Doolittle, who's been Rosevillifying Nevada County just a wee bit too long.

Vote no on 90.

Yee Haw !