ExSoldier

From the horses mouth so to speak:

American capitalism gone with a whimper - Pravda.Ru

__________________
Former Infantry Captain; 20 yrs as an NRA Certified Instructor; Avid practitioner of the martial art: KLIK-PAO.

Hopyard

SD wrote:

"We have plenty of oil and coal. Enough to last for many decades without a single drop from our trading partners. People make a big deal about oil, but even the 'peak oil' crowd have been shown to be wrong. "

That, even if correct, doesn't change the fact that presently we are vulnerable to oil blackmail and have been for 30 years, and we have done nothing to prevent it. We are our own enemy here because we have failed to do what needed to be done.


SD wrote:

"Of course, that still exists. If we really had a crisis, which Obama is leading us towards, we will not be held hostage to overpaid union members. The unions will rightfully be crushed (think the air traffic controlers...) and America will do what needs to be done."

Uh huh. Blame the wage earner for GMs management errors and hubris. I guess you never owned a lemon like my 1986 Buick, or my 1988 Tempo. What a relief it was when I finally bought --against my emotions as to what was patriotic-- a Japanese manufactured vehicle. Tell me again, how producing crapola products is the union's fault? Every design flaw was the fault of management decision making.

SD wrote: " We are dependent on no nation. We have the people, the resources, and the technology."

Yet somehow almost every product for consumers is made in China. That doesn't compute with your statement that we are dependent on no nation.

And if you look at the country of origin labels at your grocery store you will see where your food actually comes from.


SD wrote: "So you are a proponent of offshore drilling, coal mining and building nuclear power plants? Deep down you are a conservative!"

I am a proponent of a rapid move to a hydrogen/electric energy supply. I don't care if the electrons come from fission, fusion, wind, solar, geothermal, or magic.

SD wrote:
"We import food because of government regulations! "

Ridiculous.

We are on the verge of being a third world country unable to feed ourselves. And we are dumb enough to burn our food for fuel as well.

SD wrote:
"Exactly. There is no population issuel we have more than enough space. Try Hong Kong if you want to see what population density is all about. Or India."

Yes sir SD. That is surely the quality of life I want for my grandkids. Crammed up in slums like in India. Not such a good model for the American dream eh?

You haven't done the math yet. How many people here per sq mile? How many acres available per person? And then, how does that compare to what it takes to sustain a population.

SD wrote:
"We should encourage our people to be fruitful and multiply."

Why? So they can live lives of poverty and hunger.

Be fruitful and multiply made sense 3,000 years ago. It won't cut it today. Not for the US and not for any other place.

SD wrote:
"Limit government as the Founders inteded and the free market will solve all the problems. "

If the free market were capable of solving our problems we wouldn't be in the sad shape we are in right now. The free market is too inefficient as readily seen by the violent fluctuations in commodity prices, housing prices, stock prices, labor costs, and so on. The free market has destroyed our industrial base in favor of false productivity in the form of a bloated "financial services industry," in the form of a bogus notion that we can have an economy based on "information technology." We need industries that actually produced stuff, instead of mirages. There is a reason this country has recently lost 30 trillion in national wealth.

Well at least we agree on the conspiracy stuff which started this thread.

Free American

The first 2 were excellent, now I must order the third...

__________________
They who give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Benjamin Franklin


Previously known as "cjm5874"

United93

Whoa! You really put your foot in it there, my friend . The sad shape we are in now was not caused by the free market, but by government intervention in the free market. It is this sensless and arbitrary regulation of the free market that causes economic problems, not the free market itself. And now, of course, the same people who got us in this mess pretend to be able to get us out!

BTW, Hopyard, for some facts and logic addressing population concerns, I suggest you visit the following site: www.pop.org

Sig4life

In 1984 there was a movie put out called "Red Dawn". I can't help thinking if that movie wasn't a preview of what may come to pass.

__________________
If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.
Sun Tzu

Sig4life

SD wrote:

"We have plenty of oil and coal. Enough to last for many decades without a single drop from our trading partners. People make a big deal about oil, but even the 'peak oil' crowd have been shown to be wrong. "


The top oil experts such as Ken Deffeyes, Richard Heinberg and old time oil men such as T. Boone Pickens all agree that we have reached Peak Oil and have been declining ever since. Through they can't seem to agree when this happened, they all agree it has.

As for your comment that the "Peak Oil Group" has been shown wrong, I would like to know where you got this from? I follow Peak Oil very closely and everything I have read has indicated that it has happened.

__________________
If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.
Sun Tzu

Hopyard

I don't know if you are old enough to remember what a pleasure it used to be to get on an airplane--when the airline industry was still regulated.

Anyway, there was an airline named Braniff Airlines which lobbied heavily to get the government to deregulate the airline industry. They were in a bit of financial difficulty, and they insisted that if only they were deregulated they would be profitable. "Get the government off our backs" was basically the mantra. Their CEO went on all the Sunday talk shows to argue that if ONLY they would be profitable.

The airline industry was deregulated. Down went Braniff in quick order, followed by Eastern, by Pan Am, United (through reorganization), and other the same.

Everyone, employee, stockholder, and passenger was better off prior to this particular deregulation cycle. And this is just one example of the failure of unregulated markets and industry. There are many others.

Free enterprise can work great, if there is a cop in the board room.
Take the cop out of the picture and you get the mortgage/banking mess we have, brought to you by none other than my former Rep and later Senator, --"deregulatin Phil Gramm."

As for population issues, you and SD assume I am necessarily talking about birth control; and you react as I would expect from folks with your particular view. But population control is much more than what you are thinking. It includes border control as well, and in this aspect we have failed miserably--I think you would agree.

BTW, you don't seriously think I am dumb enough to accept that the site you suggested I look at is in any way unbiased and accurate in its presentation. It only took a few seconds to see who it is behind it and the perspective it wishes to push.

Oh, and the site you suggest as a reliable source on population is rather transparently promoting a far from unbiased viewpoint. One only need look quickly at their own description of who they are to figure that part out.

United93

The mortgage/banking mess we have was caused by, among other things, the Federal Reserve System (yes, you read that right) and the Community Reinvestment Act. These are both forms of government regulation of the economy.

As for border control, we are certainly in agreement. That is a terrible situation that is fast becoming worse. I hope, anyhow, that the website I provided a link to will serve to dispell some of the myths that surround the issue of so-called 'overpopulation'.

ExSoldier

T. Boone Pickens is pushing an alternative energy agenda that will make him BILLIONS of $$$ (more).

How do you explain the oil field discovered just a few years ago that covers most of the Gulf of Mexico? That field alone increased our reserves by over 75%!

Of course the democrats won't let the drillers drill for their own nefarious reasons, but the oil is there. They said it would take ten years for the oil to reach the pumps, but they said that ten years ago and still they refuse to drill.

There is even a shallow blister close to the panhandle of florida which could have oil on the way to the refineries (which haven't been built new since 1975) within 18 months.

How do you explain the fact that even depleted oil fields from long ago are refilling? In the 1950's the former Soviet Union was considered a non oil producing country.

Then Stalin saw a report on ultra deep oil drilling. He ordered a huge effort and today, RUSSIA is the #1 or #2 oil producer in the world.

I remember back in the 1970s when the Peak Oil crew were bleating about how we were going to "run out of oil" within 10 years. They have to keep pushing that timeline back.

Peak oil, like global warming, is a fiction invented by the left and reinforced by globalist corporations and a marxist media to engineer massive societal change with basic freedoms suffering eradication.

Supply isn't the issue. THE OIL IS THERE. WE CAN DRILL OUR WAY OUT OF THIS MESS, but we lack the political will.

Please don't raise the image of environmental catastrophe. The technology is there to make drilling far more safe and productive by way of horizontal drilling techniques so that platforms won't have to be moved too much.

Then there is the SHALE OIL advances in technology. Shell Oil Co just completed a secret project in this area, releasing the results to the public recently. They created an experimental site just 40'x40' in size. Sinking three steel probes into the shale oil bed, the below ground area was heated to a temperature of over 600 degrees F. The result? The oil separated from the shale and was liquid enough to be pumped at a rate of approximately 600 barrels per day on that tiny footprint.

In terms of Shale oil, the United States has 3 times the oil available to all of OPEC combined. The technology is there and the cost to produce is coming down, fast.

Don't get me wrong, I'm 100% in favor of alternative energy. I personally plan to get into the biodiesel business when I retire. Just for personal consumption. Biodiesel Kits - Biodiesel Processors - Making Biodiesel

I also favor green construction: Green Home Building: Index

MY personal dream home: Hurricane proof, disaster proof, Earth sheltered homes that are environmentally friendly.

With a bit of whimsey: HiddenPassageway.com - Hidden Secret Passages, Hidden Doors, Safe Rooms, Secret Vault Doors

I also favor alternative transportation: Aptera Motors

Fly the Road

Carver

My personal favorite diesel vehicle and one I hope to purchase:

Sportsmobile Custom Camper Vans - Sportsmobile Ultimate Adventure Vehicle Biodiesel works.

__________________
Former Infantry Captain; 20 yrs as an NRA Certified Instructor; Avid practitioner of the martial art: KLIK-PAO.

SelfDefense

ExSoldier and I are in complete agreement for maybe the first time.

T. Boone Pickens reminds me of an old time medicine man, selling worthless junk to make a profit for himself. He is the ultimate mountebank.