Archive for July, 2008
I recently returned from a fantastic trip to the Arctic Circle. It was a trip of a lifetime and am very thankful that I was able to go.
The USGS (United States Geological Survey) just released a report, 90 Billion Barrels of Oil and 1,670 Trillion Cubic Feet of Natural Gas Assessed in the Arctic, about undiscovered and technically recoverable energy resources in the Arctic.
90 billion barrels of oil represents approximately 13% of the worlds undiscovered oil reserves.
After meeting many of the local people in the Arctic Circle, it is a fairly safe generalization to say that they want to see that oil discovered and recovered. They are deeply family-oriented people and they want to turn that oil into educations and futures for their children. Through their ANC (Alaskan Native Corporation) system, they have created incredible investment vehicles to protect and nurture future generations.
Luddite “environmentalists” worry about how oil and gas recovery will hurt “the environment.” I was able to tour the Red Creek mine in the Arctic Circle — the worlds largest zinc mine. Before the mine was built, lead deposits were seeping into the water supply. The water was unsafe to drink and even fish could not live in it. Now that the mine is in operation, the water is safe to drink and the river supports a healthy fish population. The operations at the mine did not seem to bother the caribou who stopped to observe the humans at work. We humans are a part of nature. It is only the naive and arrogant “environmentalists” who see themselves as “above” nature and separate from it.
The downside is that these 90 billion barrels of oil represent only 12 years of United States oil consumption. We currently produce 8.322 million barrels of oil a day and consume 20.8 million barrels of oil a day. Even added to our current domestic production, this new oil will fuel our economy for less than two decades.
Clearly, this is a stop-gap measure. John McCain has promised that his administration will put into motion a plan to build 45 new nuclear power plants by 2030. This oil can help get us to that point.
If we don’t use our own natural resources, we are forced to buy oil from fascists regimes like Iran, Venezuela, and Saudi Arabia. We are, in effect, supporting despotism and the enslavement of our fellow human beings by these fascist governments.
Nuclear power is the only reasonable future, but oil is the only actual present. We must act now to protect the present and the future.
Rudy works the counter at the Pizza Patron in Denton Texas, but 17yr old Rudy Sandoval is a real American hero.
A couple of Friday’s ago, Ben Ramirez walked into the Pizza Patron wearing dark sunglasses and a wig and carrying what appeared to be a handgun. Ben demanded the money from the cash register and slapped Rudy in the face.
Rudy responded to the affront by fighting back. He struck his assailant several times — until Ben lost consciousness. Ben woke up a few minutes later, before the police had arrived. He immediately ran from the restaurant and got into a black pickup truck where two of his accomplices were waiting.
Another brave Texan was outside and noticed what was going on. He convinced two more Texans in an automobile to follow the black pickup truck. They identified the truck and it’s location to police and Ben Ramirez was arrested.
In total, four brave Americans helped that night to preserve all of our liberty. As John Locke wrote hundreds of years ago, “Where there is no law, there is no freedom.” These individuals acted, at risk to their own persons and property, to uphold the rule or law and to protect the freedom of Americans to enjoy pizza in peace.
NASA hasn’t been in good shape for years. After NASA’s initial years of stunning success, the agency became bogged down in the same bureaucratic nonsense that makes a trip to the DMV take three hours. When NASA’s major cultural problems killed the seven astronauts in the Challenger, people began to believe that change was possible. When the space shuttle Columbia was destroyed on re-entry, it became obvious that change was necessary.
Unfortunately, that change has not happened. NASA engineers and contractors who present data which is not aligned with bureaucratic priorities are ignored, demoted, transferred, or fired. Unfortunately, this ignored data has on many occasions included important safety warnings which could have saved the lives of the Challenger and Columbia astronauts.
Finally, NASA engineers are taking their story public. NASA is moving forward with the development of a complex architecture for returning to the moon known as “Ares.” Concurrently, a team of over fifty NASA engineers has developed a competing architecture called “Jupiter” which promises to get us back to the moon sooner, cheaper, and safer.
Jupiter is part of the Direct 2.0 project. For more information on the Direct 2.0 project, visit DirectLauncher. DirectLaunch is an incredible example of American ingenuity and the power of both volunteerism and free enterprise.
NASA is an unfortunate example of overgrown government bureaucracy. The communist Chinese have beaten us in terms of commercial space missions, because they have privatized their space program. America is years behind the communist Chinese in terms of bringing the power of privatization to our space program.
I urge you to call your senators and representatives today and ask them what is their position on the Direct 2.0 project. I am betting that they won’t have a clue. That oversight failure is costing you, the American taxpayer, tens of billions of dollars a year.
The Statue of Liberty contains a bronze plaque inscribed with the poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus.
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Apparently a married 23 year old librarian from Massachusetts doesn’t count under the current definition of “your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”
Marzavi Angel Martinez was brought to the United States by her parents when she was 3 years old. The United States is the only country she has ever known.
The mindless bureaucrats of the Federal government are now deporting Mrs. Martinez, because she was born in Mexico.
How was Mrs. Martinez caught? She was caught because she was attempting to pay her taxes. We are now deporting working taxpayers from our country. What does our nation need now more than working tax payers?
Mrs. Martinez is married and has a 15 month old son. The authorities have no power to deport her husband or her baby — they are ruthlessly and mindlessly attempting to break up the family.
Now is the time for principled members of the Republican Party to stand up and say “We support family values.” Separating a 15 month old child from his mother is not a family value.
The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution states “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
In response to a Supreme Court ruling against them, the fascists in the District of Columbia Council passed new legislation infringing the right of the People to keep and bear Arms just a little bit less.
The soulless bastards have replaced their old unconstitutional statute with a new unconstitutional statute.
The new law unconstitutionally infringes the rights of the People to keep and bear Arms in three ways:
1. It requires the People to apply for permits from the fascist bureaucrats in order to exercise the rights defined to them under the Constitution. This effectively says “You have only the Constitutional rights which the District of Columbia Council sees fit for you to have.” On a very practical level, the mindless bureaucrats have yet to issue a single permit and have no set date when they believe that they might be able to get around to it. In addition, the bureaucrats are charging the People of D.C. a processing fee to be able to exercise the rights granted to them in the Constitution.
2. The legislation infringes on the right of the People to keep and bear Arms by limiting them to 12 rounds of ammunition or less — effectively preventing the People from arming them with the best modern Arms.
3. The legislation infringes on the right of the People to keep and bear Arms by requiring all arms to be kept unloaded and disassembled or trigger locked. You can’t bear an unloaded, disassembled, or locked firearm. This is a bald faced attempt to subvert the meaning and wording of the United States Constitution.
Clearly, these evil and stupud men and women need to be recalled and replaced with the sort of patriots who founded our great nation — if People of that caliber can still be found.
Lanny Davis recently penned Confessions of an anti-Iraq War Democrat for The Washington Times.
Davis is a former special counsel to President Clinton and is a long-time Clintonista. Lanny recently worked on Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the Presidency.
Lanny Davis represents the “center left” in America. The Democratic Party has abandoned the center left, in favor of complete pandering to the furthest left reaches of it’s constituency.
To my mind, this is a very positive sign. This is yet another move by the centrist Democrats away from the anti-freedom clique of people like John Kerry and Barack Obama. This is a move back to the Democratic Party of leaders like John F. Kennedy.
Do you remember what JFK said in his inaugural address? He said “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”
Do you remember what John Kerry said? He said he wanted to reduce terrorism to a “nuisance.” Do you see the stark contrast between those two approaches? One is the strategy of a victor, the other is a strategy of a victim.
The United States may have been a victim of terrorism — but we are not victims. We are victors — for as long as we are willing to pay the price of freedom.
The New York Times refused to print an article by John McCain, partially because Senator McCain’s article did not define troop levels and timelines for withdrawl from Iraq.
This decision to censor Senator McCain was made by David Shipley, and ex-Clinton aide. This is the same person who recently decided to print a similar article from Barack Obama, because he did support withdrawl from Iraq.
Clearly, the New York Times is willing only to print the news that fits it’s far left agenda.
But don’t worry, the old leftist-infested media is dying out. Subscription rates are falling faster than Monica Lewinsky’s panties.
You can read Senator McCain’s article in it’s entirety at The McCain Op Ed The New York Times Wouldn’t Publish.
This is old news, but I just found out about it.
ABC (The American Broadcasting Corporation) has instructed its news personnel not to wear patriotic symbols such as American flag lapel pins or red, white, and blue ribbons.
Quoting ABC “ABC News has asked its staff not to wear American flag pins in their lapels, or even red, white and blue ribbons, in an effort to protect their credibility as objective sources. ”
This is verified at Snopes.com in the article No Flags Please, We’re American.
ABC doesn’t want it’s journalists to appear biased in favor of America, liberty, freedom, or democracy.
As the late great Barry Goldwater reminded us, “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” ABC apparently has no concern either for the defense of liberty or the pursuit of justice.
The mainstream media has left America, and reality, behind. As such, I urge all Americans to boycott ABC and any other news networks which behave in such a shameful fashion.
Republican Senator John Warner of Virginia isn’t acting very Republican. John recently began agitating for the reintroduction of the national 55 MPH speed limit.
It seems that John wants the good people of our nation to save gasoline, whether they want to or not, by driving at 55 miles per hour.
John seems to have been in Washington D.C. too long. Congress critters who serve too long seem to develop the idiotic notion that government can solve any problem with a new law. They also frequently forget the basic laws of economics, such as supply and demand.
If we as sovereign Americans want to save gas by driving 55, we can do that. We don’t need some bureaucratic busybody telling us to slow down in order to save money.
As a Republican, Senator Warner should have a healthy respect for business. As such, he should know that every minute lost in transportation time costs American business real money in terms of lost productivity. It appears that Senator Warner has been in Washington too long to remember what productivity is. Perhaps the good people of Virginia should give Senator Warner some more time at home when he is next up for re-election.
If you live in Virginia, please telephone Warner’s office and tell him to keep his busybody legislation out of your car, your wallet, and your life.
In 1748, Montesquieu noted “Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.”
In 1957, Ayn Rand wrote “There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.”
In 2008, Professor John Baker of the LSU recorded that there are at least 4,450 offenses in United States Federal Criminal Law. The are offenses which are not the normal criminal offenses which one would find in state law. The vast majority of these are offenses which would not even be recognized as crimes by the founders of our great nation.
Worse, the United States Congress is now creating a new criminal offense more than once per week. You and I are legally obligated to understand and comply with each of these new laws — or face incarceration in federal prison.
The Heritage Foundation has created a web site, Over Criminalized, to educate Americans about the damage these laws are doing to our constitutional republic.
One such case is McNab v. United States. David McNab was sentenced to eight years in the federal penitentiary for violating a Honduran exporting regulation. David was accused of exporting lobster in plastic bags instead of cardboard boxes. The Honduran government is not prosecuting David. In fact, the law was never signed into force and is therefore not an active law in Honduras. But under the Lacey Act, David was convicted of violating a foreign law and sentenced to eight years in prison — for using plastic instead of paper.
Visit the site and read some of the other truly insane case studies. You will most likely find yourself shocked at the sad state of American jurisprudence. Then, please, call your congress critters and tell them to fix these travesties against justice.