Oil, Light Bulbs and Cafe Standards

Well, it has gone from cool damp spring to a rather hot summer around here.  When I was a kid, we didn't have air conditioning in the house, so the sounds of summer were the box fan in the hallway, crickets, trains, dogs barking, Mrs. Hartline's boyfriend running through the backyard, hopping fences to avoid Mr. Hartline, and the occasional hot-rodder.  Nowadays it's the constant humming of the neighborhood AC units.  Nowhere near as home-spun nor enjoyable, but very, very comfortable. 

When I was a kid, I thought it just natural that all the wood in the house was sticky in the summer and everyone went to sleep with a wet washcloth on their head. Of course all the doors and windows were open.  Heck, you might even sleep in the cool basement (with the lights on to avoid spiders and the walking dead that lived down there when the lights were off).

These days being what they are, I immediately started thinking about energy consumption.  Then I started to think about these absurd new curly-cue light bulbs, which throw about as much light versus a standard light bulb as a lightning bug versus a prison spotlight.  I think about the Federal Governments attempt to mandate 52 MILES PER GALLON for US automobiles (Cafe Standards)  Really?  Then I wonder why we don't drill for oil in the massive fields in the ocean off our shores or the Alaskan mountains.  Then my mind starts wandering and I head off to "crazy old man" country.....

See, it is my humble opinion that much of this global warming, tree-hugging energy running out stuff is not so much about saving the planet as it is about control.  Imagine if cars can get 52 miles per gallon but only can travel 200 miles.  Imagine all the curly-cue light bulbs not saving enough energy and instead of curly bulbs we begin to experience rationed utility use in the name of saving Mother Earth.  Imagine having to shut down industry, entertainment and even LOCAL governments in the name of saving energy for a time?  Perhaps the Feds will TAKE OVER various utilities and industries and ration work, production and energy in the name of the "common good".  Think it can't happen?  Ask GM and Chrysler. 

I was listening to my Sirius/XM radio on the "Bridge" station.  They played a Jackson Browne song and the announcer said that Browne would appear at a "safe energy" rally or concert as he had at the very first one.  Then I laughed out loud.  Then the lady next to me at the traffic light looked at me like I was drunk, or weird.  Then I laughed louder and spat out my Trident.

I laughed because of the term "safe energy".  Just the creation of power for various uses can be described as "unsafe".  Wind turbines produce electricity through movement that produces "dangerous" electricty and heat from friction.  Nuclear has it's drawbacks, burning coal, oil, etc. has natural drawbacks, but all produce energy that at it's core is dangerous when used incorrectly.  There is no safe energy, some is cleaner that others, some with less natural disaster possibilities.  Take wind versus oil.  If you have an oil spill, it can be quite disasterous.  Windmills, not so much danger (but don't try to put them up in the sightlines of a Kennedy).

You know, we should just allow drilling in the mountains and oceans for a finite period, say, 30 years.  Then mandate a tear down of those facilities.  In thirty years we should be able to figure out how to safely dispose of nuclear waste, or use solar, wind, geothermal and other technologies better, safer and more economically than available now.  In thirty years I think we can figure out how to light our homes without curly cues or incandescent lights, run our cars on other fuels, our manufacturing with less-damaging side-effects. 

And you know what?  We can spur more pure research, more profit-minded new companies racing for the best mousetrap.  And you know what?  It becomes the AMERICAN way.  We could be leaders again, but many seem to be embarrassed or ashamed of being in a nation that was once a leader in peace, yes, in war, in research, manufacturing and prosperity.  We shouldn't be ashamed of wanting to be great, none of us individually nor collectively as a nation. 

Global warming, curly bulbs, cafe standards....All designed to create a governmental control of it's people.  And as our nation and other nations begin the take-over, many of us sit quietly, believing "saving the world is good".  Many sit by saying, "you're a crazy old man".  Many just go on with Dr. Phil, Oprah, ESPN and TMZ and let their liberties be not-so-quietly spirited away.

Just think.  How many in our government in any party you pick are career politicians?  They've nary worked a day in their lives, they've just been face-first in the public trough their entire adult lives.  They figure they will always have unlimited energy, unlimited access to gas-guzzlers and private airliners, because they are the ELITE. 

Well folks, this energy stuff is about control.  If a public is controlled by the amount of energy they can use, the distance they can travel and the amounts they have to pay for just the simplest things, they are very easily controlled.  Remember the old Soviet Union and other "Socialist" or Communist nations?  You always read of bread shortages, meat shortages, gas shortages.  It wasn't so much about not being able to produce, it was about controlling production to control a public.  And make sure you belong to the correct political party, or good luck with even the bare essentials.

Anyway, I encourage everyone to read Ayn Rand...an anti-communist atheist who wrote Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead and Anthem.  Great reads.  A great look into mankind, all three.  As a Christian, I once struggled with the fact I so enjoyed an atheist's works.  Then, as I look into her characters, her "good guys" are filled with a certain, spirit I guess.  She might rally in the wonder of man's own spirit, I look at that spirit as the spark given by an amazing creator.  The spark all of us have, to use for rising up and out, the creator's very desire for us to use all the God-given talents we have to achieve for ourselves and to serve  each other.

Hey!  Join me and my atheist friend Ayn Rand and motivate that spirit within you to do something good, or noble, or selfless, or gallant.  Good night, my friends.  Take control of your life with the spirit that dwells within you.  Keep the ELITE from shepherding your lives.  Dare to be great.  God Bless.