oil, politics and greed

Ever since this whole Iraq thing started, I was suspicious. After I saw Farenheit 9/11 I was more suspicious. I think Sept. 11th was planned, but that is a whole other set of blog entries. Even before 9/11 I remember hearing on the news that "due to miscalculations, more heating oil was produced then needed so expect higher gas prices this summer" and vice versa for heating oil. I always thought that was a bunch of croc, a line to feed the public to justify higher profits. I think this iraq war stuff is just a cover for the military industrial complex Lyndon Johnson was talking about (the speech at the beginning of the movie JFK) There is no other way to justify all the money being spent with no enemy in sight. Saddam? Got him. Bin Laden? Do you think they REALLY want to find him? Reminds me of Vietnam, which was a cover for moving drugs in the "golden triangle." But this is much easier because what, OIL IS A LEGAL HUSTLE. They can make money all over the place, imagine if you knew what oil was going to do (increase or decrease in production), and you have a friend in the stock market. You could make a mint!

I also think an increasingly present side effect of this whole "war on terror" thing is getting people to trust that their government will protect them, and for alot of people they will. People can see terrorism, you can see government, you can't see God (if you even believe in God) He's not in the news very often. Faith is being tried in times like these. Those that don't have strong faith in their God will have faith in something....why not the largest entity they know...government. I prefer Jesus.

I read an article today in http://english.aljazeera.net/ that said...

"People talked about $60 (per barrel) crude slowing economies around the world. But here in the US, (Federal Reserve Chairman) Alan Greenspan is telling us the economy is doing great and getting stronger," said James Cordier, president of Liberty Trading Group in Tampa, Florida. "It bodes well for crude testing the $70 range."

Even so, Cordier said he has been stunned by the recent runup in oil and gasoline prices and the lack of any response from motorists. Gasoline prices averaged $2.37 a gallon nationwide last week, while demand picked up by 1.4% from a year ago, according to the government data.

Cordier said prices at the pump may continue climbing "until consumers are crying uncle, which they're not."

What that says to me is that they will keep raising the cost of gas as long as the market continues to go up. Throw in the fact that SUVs have outsold cars over the past 2 years and you have a very large amount of money going in the wallets of a very small group of people. I've read that the US is only 4.5% of the world population, but we use almost 20% of the world's fossil fuels. NOT GOOD. What's worse is that best case scenarios say that at current consumption rates, there is only about 50-70 years of fossil fuel left on the world's reserves. When that happens it will be pure chaos worldwide. Thats not just car gas, but cooking gas, household (heating) gas, lawn mower and chain saw, boat and airplane. If they can't get folks to realize that AIDS can kill you, how in the world do they expect people to realize the earth is running out of gas? That will cripple the world economy, people will go back to horses and plows...unless of course hybrid tractors!?!

It's also interesting how the media portrays "environmentalists" as strange people that live on compounds, farming their land, meditating with "the one" and scrounging restaurant dumpsters for clothes and odd items. These are all extreme examples, but if its so important, why does recycled stuff cost MORE than regular stuff? I think we could all do our part with say fluorescent light bulbs and maybe a hybrid car once the prices come down some. I think I'm going to do the solar panel thing when i can afford a house, but I have not seen a "practical guide to saving energy" yet, so it's all a big mystery soo far.

A friend of mine that is from Africa (I forgot what country) says that they have electricity, but sporadically it will blackout or brownout anytime. So I said "what if I wanted to build a house there...could I get a generator(s)" He said yeah, but then I would have to worry about neighbors and looters stealing it. Can you imagine that. No wait...generators run on gas! Dayum, dayum dayum. Yeah, this thing is serious. But who cares right?