We always heard "it's the economy stupid" in campaigns past, but today I think it more fitting because of the emphasis on high energy costs, that we focus on "oil" and its primary derivatives - gasoline, heating oil, kerosene, and diesel fuels. Most of our politicians bemoan the cost of oil and its effect on our personal lives, but hardly any of them really get at the heart of the problem, and that is we need more domestic oil production and refinery capacity.
Although I personally promote the conservation of our natural resources, we cannot get carried away to the point that it will have a significant adverse effect on our economic growth. Unfortunately, we are now at that point, and our political leaders need to get the courage to advocate increasing our domestic production of oil and its fuel derivatives along with the increased use of nuclear power. To accomplish this they need to treat the environmental issues, such as "climate change" with much more skepticism and not so quick to dismiss the abundance of scientific facts that do not support man-made global warming.
This will take political courage since our media and the bulk of our politicians, along with our educators, have done a very good job of "indoctrinating" the public and our kids with the notion that we are destroying the planet with fossil fuels. This is hogwash. Lest we forget, oil, along with coal, are now and will be for the foreseeable future, our only economical sources of energy and there is plenty of it here on our own soil and offshore, contrary to the myth that there isn't. To shun this fact will doom our economic system and our way of life as we know it today. Many alternative sources of energy, such as wind and solar power, are much too expensive and each have its own serious problems. We have made nuclear energy into an enemy by our "nuclear phobia" but it is a relatively practical and clean alternative source of energy. Until we get smart leadership on this issue, our national economy will suffer like it hasn't suffered since the Great Depression. We need to act now before it will be way to late.
OneConservative
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Letter to RNC and McCain Campaigns
I'd like to share a letter I recently sent to the RNC and John McCain Campaign Chairman with a copy to the North Carolina Republican Party. I encourage others to take similar actions to try to get their attention before it's too late:
"I am very disappointed, to say the least, that Senator McCain has chosen to criticize the North Carolina Republican Party for running an ad that associates the state’s Democratic candidates with Senator Obama and the views of his pastor, Reverend Wright. Apparently, the Republican National Committee agrees with the senator because I have not heard anything to the contrary. It appears that Senator McCain is trying to distance himself from what he discerns as personal attacks when in fact they merely point out that Senator Obama, and those supporting him, closely associate themselves with those advocating radical views. This is a very legitimate argument, and to dictate that a political arm of the Republican party cannot advertise this argument is not only harmful, but downright insulting and, in fact, dictatorial. Senator McCain appears to take more comfort being critical of his own party than the Democrats, and the press eats it up. The close personal associations of a candidate for public office are fair game because they may reveal a person’s worldview. This is a very important element in any campaign.
The mainly liberal media loves it when the Senator is critical of his own party because in their eyes he is a maverick among the conservative political culture. Well, if Senator McCain can be a maverick within his own party, I guess I can be one also. Therefore, I have decided for now not to donate any more money to the RNC or to the campaign of Senator John McCain until Senator McCain and the RNC “grow up” and stop being afraid to criticize because it may be too offensive. The stakes in this election are much to high to risk the takeover of this country by radical elements bent on destroying the culture and infrastructure that made this country great. It is bad enough that I was reluctantly supporting Senator McCain in spite of his more liberal views on immigration and global warming, as well as his negative attitudes toward the oil and drug industry and the like, but this issue has taken it to a new level.
Additionally, Senator McCain is on record as opposing the so called “527” organizations on all sides of the political spectrum. He is basically trying to stifle political discourse in taking this point of view. Ironically, he helped create these groups with his campaign finance reform. How else does he think people should debate political issues? Gone are the days when individuals have enough political impact to make a difference so they resort to other methods.
I applaud the actions of the NC Republican Party in airing the ad in question and I hope more state committees and conservative 527 organizations take similar actions. In fact my future donations will be going to the 527 groups that support truly conservative causes. They will probably have more impact by taking the issues head on than Senator McCain or the RNC can even hope, or have the courage, to do".
OneConservative
"I am very disappointed, to say the least, that Senator McCain has chosen to criticize the North Carolina Republican Party for running an ad that associates the state’s Democratic candidates with Senator Obama and the views of his pastor, Reverend Wright. Apparently, the Republican National Committee agrees with the senator because I have not heard anything to the contrary. It appears that Senator McCain is trying to distance himself from what he discerns as personal attacks when in fact they merely point out that Senator Obama, and those supporting him, closely associate themselves with those advocating radical views. This is a very legitimate argument, and to dictate that a political arm of the Republican party cannot advertise this argument is not only harmful, but downright insulting and, in fact, dictatorial. Senator McCain appears to take more comfort being critical of his own party than the Democrats, and the press eats it up. The close personal associations of a candidate for public office are fair game because they may reveal a person’s worldview. This is a very important element in any campaign.
The mainly liberal media loves it when the Senator is critical of his own party because in their eyes he is a maverick among the conservative political culture. Well, if Senator McCain can be a maverick within his own party, I guess I can be one also. Therefore, I have decided for now not to donate any more money to the RNC or to the campaign of Senator John McCain until Senator McCain and the RNC “grow up” and stop being afraid to criticize because it may be too offensive. The stakes in this election are much to high to risk the takeover of this country by radical elements bent on destroying the culture and infrastructure that made this country great. It is bad enough that I was reluctantly supporting Senator McCain in spite of his more liberal views on immigration and global warming, as well as his negative attitudes toward the oil and drug industry and the like, but this issue has taken it to a new level.
Additionally, Senator McCain is on record as opposing the so called “527” organizations on all sides of the political spectrum. He is basically trying to stifle political discourse in taking this point of view. Ironically, he helped create these groups with his campaign finance reform. How else does he think people should debate political issues? Gone are the days when individuals have enough political impact to make a difference so they resort to other methods.
I applaud the actions of the NC Republican Party in airing the ad in question and I hope more state committees and conservative 527 organizations take similar actions. In fact my future donations will be going to the 527 groups that support truly conservative causes. They will probably have more impact by taking the issues head on than Senator McCain or the RNC can even hope, or have the courage, to do".
OneConservative
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
The Big Bail Out Mentality
Here we go again. If the tax rebate bailout wasn't enough, we now have government talking about bailing out the home mortgage industry and mortgage holders who can't seem to afford what they agreed to pay for in the first place. Even though about 95% of mortgage holders have no problem paying their monthly payments, we have a bunch who the government says needs help. What is it with this bailout mentality? Can't we just let the system work to correct itself and leave it to personal accountability? I'm tired of having to pay for everyone else who can't seem to get it together. I guess the media who hype all our problems, and the supporters of big government can't leave well enough alone.
It wasn't long ago that people didn't always need to have big government come to the rescue, but today politicians need to have the Feds bail out every natural or man-made crisis to buy more votes. This wasn't the case in the past on such a massive scale. Where is the money coming from? You know where - from our pockets in the form of higher taxes. It won't be long before this country implodes on itself, and a revolution will be necessary to rescue ourselves from .... uh, well, ..... ourselves.
OneConservative
It wasn't long ago that people didn't always need to have big government come to the rescue, but today politicians need to have the Feds bail out every natural or man-made crisis to buy more votes. This wasn't the case in the past on such a massive scale. Where is the money coming from? You know where - from our pockets in the form of higher taxes. It won't be long before this country implodes on itself, and a revolution will be necessary to rescue ourselves from .... uh, well, ..... ourselves.
OneConservative
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Shooting Ourselves in the Foot
Well, here we go again. The price of oil hits another high and, guess what? It's not the fault of "BIG OIL". Here we have a combination of market forces due to normal supply and demand coupled with speculation on the future price of oil due to political events, and government intervention.
Normally, when a product is in high demand and the supply is limited, the price goes up resulting in the producer increasing supply to sell more product at the higher price. Eventually, the increase in supply will meet demand and the price will stabilize or fall if demand decreases and, in a free market environment, the cycle continues. However, oil as a commodity, unfortunately does not exist in a free market environment.
Our governments (federal and state) have chosen to limit production of raw oil and its by-products, such as gasoline, heating oil, etc. through environmental regulations and, more recently, the man-made global warming myth. OPEC which is a consortium of foreign oil producing countries exacerbate the problem by controlling production to keep the price as high as possible. This would be considered price fixing in our country and would be illegal, but our government essentially ends up doing the same thing through regulation. Thus, when the supply is limited artificially, and demand remains high, the prices will remain high as well.
Government also effects the cost of energy by subsidizing products that compete with oil, such as, ethanol, wind, and solar power, and the like. Most of these products cannot exist without subsidies and research grants because the costs of such new technologies cannot be sustained in a free market at the present time. Even if oil companies could produce more oil, they have a hard time justifying an increase in the product because of the unknown effects of the use of other forms of energy. Why would you invest more millions or billions of dollars to increase production when you weren't sure how much competing subsidized products may reduce demand for your product, even if these products may cost substantially more to produce than yours.
When we combine these market factors with the perversion of science that has embedded itself into the political process, we approach what I call a "perfect storm" - the combination of an self induced increase in the costs of energy with the fanatical belief that man is ruining the world and changing the world's climate. If this process continues and we continue to shoot ourselves in the foot, our economic system and standard of living will be drastically reduced to a mere figment of itself. Maybe this is what many of the global warming fanatics really want - a destruction of the capitalistic system and along with it, democracy.
We have to understand that oil at the present time is the only source that can produce the amount of energy that this country needs to sustain our economic growth. Oil reserves are plentiful enough to sustain the planet for many years to come. Nuclear power is a great alternative to our electric grid but we are so blinded by the word "nuclear" that our country resists any increase in its use. Many other alternative sources will take a very long time to become an affordable and practical product in a free market. All this hype on bio-fuels is causing world food prices to rise exponentially and is inefficient compared to oil.
The so-called Third World nations are unnecessarily stifled economically because the developed nations don't want them to use oil for fear of global warming. Do people really want windmills in their backyard and huge solar panels on their roofs that cost more to install and maintain than the money they pay to the power company? Do people want to give up the number of TV sets, computers, electrical appliances, cell phone chargers, video game players, etc.? Think of it. Most of the people you hear who are demagoging the environmental issues have large cars, a lot of home electronics and appliances, huge living spaces, and use personal jets. Will they give all these things up? Not a chance. But they want YOU to give them up and limit your choices in what you buy.
When are we going to realize that this self-induced hatred of oil will cause our economic downfall? It is amazing that our politicians are reluctant to speak out on this issue, probably because they think that everyone has accepted the man-made global warming myth and the blaming of "BIG OIL" for the world's woes, and are afraid to lose votes and be hated by the mainstream media. It is time for some political leadership calling the environmental myths for what they are and stopping the demagoguery on the evil of oil. If this doesn't happen soon, the results may be irreversible.
OneConservative
Normally, when a product is in high demand and the supply is limited, the price goes up resulting in the producer increasing supply to sell more product at the higher price. Eventually, the increase in supply will meet demand and the price will stabilize or fall if demand decreases and, in a free market environment, the cycle continues. However, oil as a commodity, unfortunately does not exist in a free market environment.
Our governments (federal and state) have chosen to limit production of raw oil and its by-products, such as gasoline, heating oil, etc. through environmental regulations and, more recently, the man-made global warming myth. OPEC which is a consortium of foreign oil producing countries exacerbate the problem by controlling production to keep the price as high as possible. This would be considered price fixing in our country and would be illegal, but our government essentially ends up doing the same thing through regulation. Thus, when the supply is limited artificially, and demand remains high, the prices will remain high as well.
Government also effects the cost of energy by subsidizing products that compete with oil, such as, ethanol, wind, and solar power, and the like. Most of these products cannot exist without subsidies and research grants because the costs of such new technologies cannot be sustained in a free market at the present time. Even if oil companies could produce more oil, they have a hard time justifying an increase in the product because of the unknown effects of the use of other forms of energy. Why would you invest more millions or billions of dollars to increase production when you weren't sure how much competing subsidized products may reduce demand for your product, even if these products may cost substantially more to produce than yours.
When we combine these market factors with the perversion of science that has embedded itself into the political process, we approach what I call a "perfect storm" - the combination of an self induced increase in the costs of energy with the fanatical belief that man is ruining the world and changing the world's climate. If this process continues and we continue to shoot ourselves in the foot, our economic system and standard of living will be drastically reduced to a mere figment of itself. Maybe this is what many of the global warming fanatics really want - a destruction of the capitalistic system and along with it, democracy.
We have to understand that oil at the present time is the only source that can produce the amount of energy that this country needs to sustain our economic growth. Oil reserves are plentiful enough to sustain the planet for many years to come. Nuclear power is a great alternative to our electric grid but we are so blinded by the word "nuclear" that our country resists any increase in its use. Many other alternative sources will take a very long time to become an affordable and practical product in a free market. All this hype on bio-fuels is causing world food prices to rise exponentially and is inefficient compared to oil.
The so-called Third World nations are unnecessarily stifled economically because the developed nations don't want them to use oil for fear of global warming. Do people really want windmills in their backyard and huge solar panels on their roofs that cost more to install and maintain than the money they pay to the power company? Do people want to give up the number of TV sets, computers, electrical appliances, cell phone chargers, video game players, etc.? Think of it. Most of the people you hear who are demagoging the environmental issues have large cars, a lot of home electronics and appliances, huge living spaces, and use personal jets. Will they give all these things up? Not a chance. But they want YOU to give them up and limit your choices in what you buy.
When are we going to realize that this self-induced hatred of oil will cause our economic downfall? It is amazing that our politicians are reluctant to speak out on this issue, probably because they think that everyone has accepted the man-made global warming myth and the blaming of "BIG OIL" for the world's woes, and are afraid to lose votes and be hated by the mainstream media. It is time for some political leadership calling the environmental myths for what they are and stopping the demagoguery on the evil of oil. If this doesn't happen soon, the results may be irreversible.
OneConservative
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Empty Eloquence
I'm beginning to see a crack in Obama's armor. People now seem more aware that his empty words are in fact "just words" - words like "hope" and "change" with little real meaning, substance, or context. His so called "eloquence" is starting to define him as "just eloquent" and little else. Abraham Lincoln made some good words but they had substance and meaning in the bitter turmoil of the times. They weren't just vaporous words meant to stir a crowd. Obama's empty rhetoric reminds me of 1984 when Walter Mondale, the eventual Democrat presidential nominee, said to Gary Hart, his opponent, "Where's the beef."
Some have compared Obama to John F. Kennedy, but where is the comparison? In spite of the fact that JFK would probably fit in more today as a Republican than a Democrat, he had some 14 years as a U.S. Senator after serving valiantly in World War II. Senator Obama has about three years as Senator and a few years in the state legislature with very little to show in significant accomplishments, and he knows little about what it takes to defend a country in time of war. I remember when JFK said those famous words, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country". Whereas, Obama seems to be asking not what you can do for your country, but what I can do for you. This is just the opposite of JFK's vision. In fact John McCain probably has much more in common with JFK than any of the two Democrat nominees.
OneConservative
Some have compared Obama to John F. Kennedy, but where is the comparison? In spite of the fact that JFK would probably fit in more today as a Republican than a Democrat, he had some 14 years as a U.S. Senator after serving valiantly in World War II. Senator Obama has about three years as Senator and a few years in the state legislature with very little to show in significant accomplishments, and he knows little about what it takes to defend a country in time of war. I remember when JFK said those famous words, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country". Whereas, Obama seems to be asking not what you can do for your country, but what I can do for you. This is just the opposite of JFK's vision. In fact John McCain probably has much more in common with JFK than any of the two Democrat nominees.
OneConservative
Thursday, February 14, 2008
The First American Idol President?
Yes, it's true. Our country may be witnessing the first nominee for President that is campaigning like he is a contestant on American Idol. Just look at the MSM (MainStream Media) drooling all over itself while playing snippets of Obama speeches showing the wild near convulsions from his audience. For example, Chris Mathews of MSNBC, formerly an ardent Clinton supporter, said he felt a "thrill" up his leg after listening to one of Obama's speeches.
The American Idol TV show judges talent. In Obama's case this is his oratory skills. All you have to do is substitute the media for the judges. In many of his speeches Obama seems to stir the crowd with themes like hoping for hope, causing young people to almost faint. I keep looking for an audience applause meter while I watched Obama show that he is the best when it comes to saying something about nothing. In fact, it's almost like he is a character on the comedy show Seinfeld, the show about nothing.
While it's nice to hope, hope by itself never gets things done. People actually doing things get results, whether they be good or bad. It's nice to stir the crowd with themes like hope and change, but we need the know what specific actions the speaker is hoping for and what specific changes he or she wants to make. In Obama's case he is really hoping for changes that will make people more dependent on government rather than stirring them into accomplishing more for themselves and being more accountable for their own actions. Government doesn't make this country great, people do. That's the theme I want to hear. I want to hear the specific actions a candidate will take to reduce dependency on government and lower taxes, so people are free to achieve the best for themselves, their families, and their country.
OneConservative
The American Idol TV show judges talent. In Obama's case this is his oratory skills. All you have to do is substitute the media for the judges. In many of his speeches Obama seems to stir the crowd with themes like hoping for hope, causing young people to almost faint. I keep looking for an audience applause meter while I watched Obama show that he is the best when it comes to saying something about nothing. In fact, it's almost like he is a character on the comedy show Seinfeld, the show about nothing.
While it's nice to hope, hope by itself never gets things done. People actually doing things get results, whether they be good or bad. It's nice to stir the crowd with themes like hope and change, but we need the know what specific actions the speaker is hoping for and what specific changes he or she wants to make. In Obama's case he is really hoping for changes that will make people more dependent on government rather than stirring them into accomplishing more for themselves and being more accountable for their own actions. Government doesn't make this country great, people do. That's the theme I want to hear. I want to hear the specific actions a candidate will take to reduce dependency on government and lower taxes, so people are free to achieve the best for themselves, their families, and their country.
OneConservative
Monday, February 11, 2008
Oh No! The Sun Actually Warms the Earth
Oh no! Is it true that the Sun is the main cause of global temperature change? I can't believe it. I thought that we are causing temperatures to change with our "greenhouse gas" emissions. Maybe there is a secret code that DaVinci left behind that may lead us to the truth that the sun is directly related to the warming of the earth.
Another report alleging that the Sun is the primary cause of global temperature change has once again punched a hole into the global warming hoax, or should I say, religion, since a lot of it relies on faith. The article, published in the Investor's Business Daily, reports that the sun fluctuates in an 11 year cycle, but so far in this cycle, it has been "disturbingly quiet". The Canadian researchers warn that if the sun remains quiet for another year or two it could possibly mark the beginning of a solar hibernation period similar to one that began in 1650 and lasting to 1715. This period was marked by severe winters resulting in massive crop failures and famine in northern Europe.
This is just another report that shows that if people continue to bow to the faith that global warming is man-made without taking into account other plausible scientific explanations, they risk destroying man's productivity and hope for future prosperity though unnecessary environmental burdens and massive government taxes. The world better wake up before it's too late.
Another report alleging that the Sun is the primary cause of global temperature change has once again punched a hole into the global warming hoax, or should I say, religion, since a lot of it relies on faith. The article, published in the Investor's Business Daily, reports that the sun fluctuates in an 11 year cycle, but so far in this cycle, it has been "disturbingly quiet". The Canadian researchers warn that if the sun remains quiet for another year or two it could possibly mark the beginning of a solar hibernation period similar to one that began in 1650 and lasting to 1715. This period was marked by severe winters resulting in massive crop failures and famine in northern Europe.
This is just another report that shows that if people continue to bow to the faith that global warming is man-made without taking into account other plausible scientific explanations, they risk destroying man's productivity and hope for future prosperity though unnecessary environmental burdens and massive government taxes. The world better wake up before it's too late.
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