Might as Well Face It, You're Addicted to Oil

Yesterday the President gave his State of the Union speech. You just can't listen to that guy speak; he's every bit as bad as Algore in that respect. Sounds like he thinks he's addressing second graders.

One of the subjects he addressed is one just about all of us consider from time to time: the cost and supply of the petroleum products we like to be able to use.

He said pretty much the same thing as did his predecessor. And his predecessor. We're addicted to oil; we have to conserve. Conserve? For whom? For when?

I'm waiting for some idiot politician to suggest that the Army's humvees and tanks need to get better gas mileage. That the Navy's ships be made of lighter materials for economy. That the Air Force's fighters and bombers burn cleaner fuel.

We who read science fiction and science fact, who attempt to visualize the future often muse about efficient cars and aircraft powered by mini nuke-paks and antigrav devices but we know they're pretty well off in the future. They're not something we can expect to see next month of next year.

Mr GWB spoke of alternative fuels, of hydrogen power and methane, of more nuclear power plants. All well and good, but so did WJC, ad nauseum and for eight solid years. It ain't happening, and I know why.

From about 1880 to 1930, give or take a little, everyone was an inventor, or an inverstor. Everyone whose life wasn't confined to the back of a horse had a little shop somewhere, and was puttering around trying to make something new that would "make him rich."

"Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door." was an utterance that was still being heard from time to time in my youth. You rarely hear it anymore.

People were building bicycles, motorbikes, automobiles and airplanes. Others devised new power plants to drive boats and ships over the rivers, lakes and seas. Chemists were blending up new cures for the ills of the people. Appliances to lighten the housework burden of the housewife. Equipment to make farmers more productive, and to ease the labor and cut the time needed to construct buildings, roads, dams and bridges.

You don't hear about the new moustrap anymore. I wonder why.

During that period, there were no taxes to speak of. Government stayed out of people's businesss. Nobody told the high iron foreman that he had to build handicapped access to the sixtieth floor of the jobsite. If a laborer thought he needed a hardhat, he'd buy himself one. He had the money: there were no taxes withheld form his pay.

A man (or woman) did what he wanted and was prepared to accept the consequences, for good or ill.

Government didn't offer grants to pinhead college presidents to research cures for illnesses; research scientists fronted their own money and that of investors to do the research, some went broke, the successful ones got rich. They could afford to do this; there were no taxes. Either way, the medicine was discovered and put on the market. The consumer bought the medicine and was cured. They could afford to buy the medicine; there were no taxes.

Until we of the productive sector are able to get these civil parasites out of the way, there won't be any new energy panaceae. You want a new nuclear power plant? A minimum of five years before it can be built. Methane? They haven't yet been able to figure out how to get the collection bottles on the cows' asses.

In the here and now, there's a shortage of oil. Much of what oil we have comes from potentially or actually unstable sources--much of that instability attributable to the bungling of government. Then, to add insult to injury, they decree that no oil be extracted from vast areas of US territory.....and if that isn't enough, they tax it!!!

All this before we've discovered and made available alternative fuels!

Is there any question these fools need to be removed from office (physically and even brutally) and left to languish in the prisons they built for dope smokers.

Here's what needs to happen. Ayn Rand once stated that there has to be a separation of economics and state. That's what needs to happen. Taxes have to be eliminated. What government can't do on a fee for service basis, or on voluntary donations, should be done by someone else....or not done at all.

It's time that the productive get full control of their lives and the product thereof, and the non-productive recognize that being productive is fun! Fulfilling! A bloody rush!

Individuals and firms should wildcat, acquire rights from the landowners , drill, pump and sell or refine their oil, according to the ability and inclination of each entrepreneur.

No one has the right to interfere as long as they don't pollute the property of others.

Meanwhile, all those folks with ideas will also have more money (not having had it extorted from them by Ted Kennedy et al.) New inventions will start coming from all the little backyard workshops once again. Some of them will come up with other types of motors and fuel.

One of them will invent a better mousetrap!

Remember, VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California