I first started donating to the Republican party when Ronald Reagan ran for President. I was in college then at Stony Brook. From the fall of 1977 through 1982. The pathetic can’t do attitude of the Jimmy Carter 70’s was also part of my formative years. The misery index, double digit inflation, the odd-even day gasoline ration lines, Ayatollah Khomeini and the overthrow of the Shah of Iran and of course Walter Cronkite’s nightly news broadcasts where he kept the mounting daily tally of the humiliating 444 days of the Americans being held hostage by Iranian terrorists.
1980 was the first time I was able to vote in a presidential election. Despite the fear mongering media at the time trying to scare us all that Ronald Ray-Gun would start WWIII, somehow their Cool-Aid didn’t affect me. I saw Ronald Reagan as a man of vision, whose principled beliefs in individual freedom and achievement and uniquely American values inspired me to the very core. I believed the Republicans were the party that got it. The party that fought to uphold our freedoms, our Constitution, and the founding principles that made the United States the envy of the world. And I would show my support at the polls and with $25 contributions, even an occasional $100 when I could afford to.
Throughout the years, the RNC, the Republican Congressional Committee and even Republican organizations at the state were all beneficiaries of my modest donations.
It was important to make sure the Republicans had the tools to hold off the insidious encroachment of socialist policies of the Democrat left.
However after a great start with the Contract with America, Republicans began to lose their way. I started to notice that Republicans were often more interested in holding on to power than on operating on principle. Republicans became the party that would reach out with the olive branch and try to befriend the other side. Soon Congressional Republicans were opposing tax cuts, supporting illegal immigration and padding their budgets with pork and even proudly buying into the Global Warming hoax.
So last year, I decided that my donations would stop. I will no longer donate one red cent to the Republicans until they have demonstrated by actions that they are worthy of my after-tax dollars.
The money I used to give to Republicans, now goes to select organizations who have proven to me time and time again, that they have stood up for and will tirelessly continue to fight for their causes. So i donate to the NRA and the Heritage Foundation. The NRA does not sell out, or come up with bipartisan compromises to the 2nd Amendment. The Heritage Foundation dedicates itself to promoting Conservatism.
I’m not leaving the Republican party. You have left me. I’m still here, meanwhile I’ll leave on a Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb you have helped mandate on me, for you to find your way, in case you come back.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Oil is not a sin.
So you’re paying $100 to fill up you car and you want to blame the oil companies right? And how dare they make all this profit off of us hapless consumers! Most politicians will stand by you and point that finger at Exxon for your misery.
Once upon a time, a few years back, the actual cost the gasoline and breakdown of taxes was clearly displayed next to each pump for all to see. Today you just see the final price to you-the-consumer. And that price soon approaching $4 to $5 gallon is a pretty tough experience every time you go for that fill up. Now if the old law requiring gasoline taxes to be displayed by the pump were still around today, you’d probably woulda realized that the biggest profiteer is NY state and it’s Tax Gouging policies. That’s right while the oil company makes a healthy profit of about 9 cents/gallon for all the hard work of researching to find oil, drilling it, transporting and refining a product you need, in NY (check your local state government taxes here:http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/1054.html), our government is Tax Gouging us over 63 cents a gallon plus an additional 8% sales tax. So the more gasoline prices go up, the more NY state rakes it in. And for the tax profiteering of 63 to 87 cents tax per gallon , the government does nothing and provides you with nothing except the sheer pride of knowing NY State has the highest gasoline taxes out of all 50 states in our Union! No wonder the taxes aren’t displayed at the pump anymore!
Perhaps, if we complained loud enough we could stop the tax gouging by pointing the finger at the NY State tax mafia instead of attacking the oil companies.
NY Taxes aren’t the only reason gasoline is going up. Nationally, ridiculous environmental regulations require refiners to make more gasoline blends than Baskin Robbins has flavors. So all blends of gasoline are always in tight supply adding to the cost.
Additionally, thanks to the environmental lobby, and a Congress full of demagogues, the United States has not built a new refinery since the 1970’s. Of course since then, the US population has grown by 75 million. Now these aging refineries are running at full capacity and even have to ship oil back out of the country to reimport it as gasoline. And once again, the additional costs are passed on to you and me. Meanwhile around the planet, we are all competing for the same world oil, as China has traded in it’s bicycles for cars and industry. This global demand has bid up oil prices to now over $110 barrel, cause the whole world wants oil. So China Russia, Venezuela, Cuba, Mexico and countless others are racing to drill the vast untapped oil resources right in our own backyard, in the Gulf of Mexico. But our own government won’t allow American companies to drill there. Up in Alaska, there is believed to be vast American oil resources in ANWR (Alaska’s National Wild Life Refuge). The oil companies only need to do their drilling on about 2,000 acres, which is about 1/20th the size of Disney’s Magic Kingdom (30,000 acres), in a wildlife reserve that is the size of the state of South Carolina. But Congress said we can’t drill there either, cause there is some Caribou that will be in danger if we deprive them of 2000 acres out of a reserve that is over 30,000 square miles large!
If we want to maintain our lifestyle and try to get away from being increasingly reliant on foreign oil, then The United States needs to allow our oil companies to aggressively resume drilling for domestic oil. Oil is plentiful, and our economy, as does the world’s economy, like it or not, depends on it. Oil is not a sin, it is a blessing. Most everything we have in our lives is made from it. From cell phones to saran wrap, milk bottles to MRI machines and even clothing, all are made from oil. And that won’t change anytime soon.
Although ethanol, solar, wind are in now in vogue, the reality is you can’t make plastic from a wind generator, and you can’t power nor even build passenger plane with solar power. These alternative energies will never solve the fundamental issue of satisfying our need for oil, and fantasizing that they are a panacea is a pure waste of focus, time and yes energy. We need more oil to maintain our standard of living, So we’d better start allowing oil companies to do what they do best. Drill for oil.
Meanwhile it wouldn’t hurt to aim our anger at the government for their Tax profiteering and demand that Congress stop interfering and allow the oil companies to get back to work!
Perhaps, if we complained loud enough we could stop the tax gouging by pointing the finger at the NY State tax mafia instead of attacking the oil companies.
NY Taxes aren’t the only reason gasoline is going up. Nationally, ridiculous environmental regulations require refiners to make more gasoline blends than Baskin Robbins has flavors. So all blends of gasoline are always in tight supply adding to the cost.
Additionally, thanks to the environmental lobby, and a Congress full of demagogues, the United States has not built a new refinery since the 1970’s. Of course since then, the US population has grown by 75 million. Now these aging refineries are running at full capacity and even have to ship oil back out of the country to reimport it as gasoline. And once again, the additional costs are passed on to you and me. Meanwhile around the planet, we are all competing for the same world oil, as China has traded in it’s bicycles for cars and industry. This global demand has bid up oil prices to now over $110 barrel, cause the whole world wants oil. So China Russia, Venezuela, Cuba, Mexico and countless others are racing to drill the vast untapped oil resources right in our own backyard, in the Gulf of Mexico. But our own government won’t allow American companies to drill there. Up in Alaska, there is believed to be vast American oil resources in ANWR (Alaska’s National Wild Life Refuge). The oil companies only need to do their drilling on about 2,000 acres, which is about 1/20th the size of Disney’s Magic Kingdom (30,000 acres), in a wildlife reserve that is the size of the state of South Carolina. But Congress said we can’t drill there either, cause there is some Caribou that will be in danger if we deprive them of 2000 acres out of a reserve that is over 30,000 square miles large!
If we want to maintain our lifestyle and try to get away from being increasingly reliant on foreign oil, then The United States needs to allow our oil companies to aggressively resume drilling for domestic oil. Oil is plentiful, and our economy, as does the world’s economy, like it or not, depends on it. Oil is not a sin, it is a blessing. Most everything we have in our lives is made from it. From cell phones to saran wrap, milk bottles to MRI machines and even clothing, all are made from oil. And that won’t change anytime soon.
Although ethanol, solar, wind are in now in vogue, the reality is you can’t make plastic from a wind generator, and you can’t power nor even build passenger plane with solar power. These alternative energies will never solve the fundamental issue of satisfying our need for oil, and fantasizing that they are a panacea is a pure waste of focus, time and yes energy. We need more oil to maintain our standard of living, So we’d better start allowing oil companies to do what they do best. Drill for oil.
Meanwhile it wouldn’t hurt to aim our anger at the government for their Tax profiteering and demand that Congress stop interfering and allow the oil companies to get back to work!
Right to Chose, a carbon credit
The Supreme Court has recently ruled by a 5 to 4 decision that Carbon Dioxide is now a pollutant. Carbon Dioxide, the principal gas emitted by SUVs, Priuses, Al Gore, and the spotted salamander, is a pollutant. The inconvenient truth is that Al Gore is right, we are destroying the planet, one carbon dioxide laden breath at a time and we need to stop this before it’s too late! The decision by the nation’s highest court means that, by it’s mere existence, all oxygen inhaling life is guilty of polluting the planet as it is carbon dioxide exhaling. And this is propelling us toward an eventual planetary inferno at the alarming rate of 0.3 (zero point 3) degrees increase in the past 100 years! Al Gore said our ‘planet has a fever”. Now I know that assuming that Mr Gore is not ill, his temperature taken by the less reliable oral thermometer should be 98.6 F. But i still am uncertain what the correct earth temperature should be? And how does one measure it? Should the thermometer readings be done in Central Park or along the East River? How many readings across the globe should we take? Are those readings taken in the same places as the ones from a 100 years ago? Were thermometer readings 100 years ago as reliable as today’s? Enquiring minds want to know.
Anyway i digress.....
The facts are undeniable. Human activity is contributing an alarming 4% of the global Carbon Dioxide emissions. (A mere 96% of the worlds C02 comes from non human sources like endangered cuddly polar bears and decomposing plant matter.) The blame America first crowd can take pride in knowing that the Imperialist United States is responsible for contributing staggering 1% of the global CO2 output.
So how do we save our planet from expiring, from all the exhaling?
Although eliminating our own lives would be ideal, Al Gore believes that Carbon credits may hold a solution. Most of us who aren’t that relevant should forgo emitting carbon dioxide. You and I will no longer drive cars and we’ll obtain special exception government permits to walk briskly only when absolutely necessary. The CO2 we consequently wont generate results in net credits. These carbon credits can then be used by important people who need to keep driving, flying and barbecuing. For instance John Travolta, needs 5 personal jets as he is an esteemed celebrity and needs to fly the globe for his acting career. So Mr. Travolta could keep flying guilt free, without any net impact to the planet cause he is counting on you and I to give up our lifestyles. Just one of Al Gore’s homes uses 20x the amount of energy of the average American house. But that’s OK, cause Mr. Gore ‘offsets’ his pollution by purchasing “carbon credits” from a company that he owns. In turn someone will plant some acorns or something to mop up that carbon dioxide. The purchasing of carbon credits doesn’t really reduce the overall carbon dioxide emissions, but it basically says, Al Gore gets to live the life he always has, cause someone else is forgoing theirs. And that’s the point. We are not all as fortunate to actually own our own carbon credit company. So how do we plebes become environmental leaders like Al, and save the planet from ourselves? First and foremost by generating our own Constitutionally sanctioned carbon credits. You see Roe vs Wade, is now more important than ever. In a sense this right should be elevated to a duty. We need to encourage a woman’s right to chose, a carbon credit. This will provide a vast untapped renewable resource of carbon offsets. It may seem drastic but think of it. It takes the all important left wing holy grail, the abortion, and raises it to a matter of global survival. Because there are some 4,000 abortions each and every day to sea to shinning sea. Women choosing to terminate their pregnancies, can now skip the guilt and bask in feelings of environmental empowerment. Now women can use their own power of choice to preemptively abort countless tons of carbon emissions that each non-born will now never generate! The new argument for having an abortion can be to save the life of the mother earth. If women across the United States stand up for their right to chose,(the carbon credit) (patriotic indeed) we can generate enough carbon offsets for Al Gore, and the left to continue living their limousine liberal lifestyle. And the rest of us can die off while taking care not to exhale too much carbon dioxide in the process.
Anyway i digress.....
The facts are undeniable. Human activity is contributing an alarming 4% of the global Carbon Dioxide emissions. (A mere 96% of the worlds C02 comes from non human sources like endangered cuddly polar bears and decomposing plant matter.) The blame America first crowd can take pride in knowing that the Imperialist United States is responsible for contributing staggering 1% of the global CO2 output.
So how do we save our planet from expiring, from all the exhaling?
Although eliminating our own lives would be ideal, Al Gore believes that Carbon credits may hold a solution. Most of us who aren’t that relevant should forgo emitting carbon dioxide. You and I will no longer drive cars and we’ll obtain special exception government permits to walk briskly only when absolutely necessary. The CO2 we consequently wont generate results in net credits. These carbon credits can then be used by important people who need to keep driving, flying and barbecuing. For instance John Travolta, needs 5 personal jets as he is an esteemed celebrity and needs to fly the globe for his acting career. So Mr. Travolta could keep flying guilt free, without any net impact to the planet cause he is counting on you and I to give up our lifestyles. Just one of Al Gore’s homes uses 20x the amount of energy of the average American house. But that’s OK, cause Mr. Gore ‘offsets’ his pollution by purchasing “carbon credits” from a company that he owns. In turn someone will plant some acorns or something to mop up that carbon dioxide. The purchasing of carbon credits doesn’t really reduce the overall carbon dioxide emissions, but it basically says, Al Gore gets to live the life he always has, cause someone else is forgoing theirs. And that’s the point. We are not all as fortunate to actually own our own carbon credit company. So how do we plebes become environmental leaders like Al, and save the planet from ourselves? First and foremost by generating our own Constitutionally sanctioned carbon credits. You see Roe vs Wade, is now more important than ever. In a sense this right should be elevated to a duty. We need to encourage a woman’s right to chose, a carbon credit. This will provide a vast untapped renewable resource of carbon offsets. It may seem drastic but think of it. It takes the all important left wing holy grail, the abortion, and raises it to a matter of global survival. Because there are some 4,000 abortions each and every day to sea to shinning sea. Women choosing to terminate their pregnancies, can now skip the guilt and bask in feelings of environmental empowerment. Now women can use their own power of choice to preemptively abort countless tons of carbon emissions that each non-born will now never generate! The new argument for having an abortion can be to save the life of the mother earth. If women across the United States stand up for their right to chose,(the carbon credit) (patriotic indeed) we can generate enough carbon offsets for Al Gore, and the left to continue living their limousine liberal lifestyle. And the rest of us can die off while taking care not to exhale too much carbon dioxide in the process.
Conservative Dilemma
Is it better to compromise our conservative principles and support McCain, or stand back as bystanders and watch the election unfold knowing we remained true and didn’t compromise our conservatism?
Now that my outrage and hotheaded emotions have subsided following the perfect storm primary throwing McCain into our laps, I am trying to analyze our options that will best ensure the survival of the conservative principles that have spawned the greatest nation humanity has ever known.
The cold reality is that at some level we conservatives understand the future course of the United States is at a crossroads. It is undeniable, that this November a tectonic shift could very well take place and true European style socialism will sweep the land. In addition the all but certain illegal immigration amnesty that will result combined with the continued refusal of America’s elected officials to secure our borders, means that the United States will have thrown out the melting pot principles that molded us for over 200 years as true Americans, one nation, indivisible under God and forever fragmented it’s citizenry into a myriad of small interest groups that care more about their own issues than about what it means to be American.
I think in analyzing our conundrum, it is best to draw from the experience of time, history and human nature.
Indeed our Founding Fathers had amazing insight into the dangerous human predisposition toward apathy when they wrote in the Declaration of Independence “all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while the evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”
Another human trait that we all excel in, is worrying, even when the object of our concern is something we can do absolutely nothing about. Worrying about the expanding universe, the hour of our death or who will be our political adversary, are all beyond our control and is nothing more than a futile time wasting exercise in masochistic self flogging.
So while time will tell with absolute certainty who will be the Democrat nominee, their ain’t nothing we can do about it for now. And while we all agree that we disagree about John McCain as our nominee, the fact remains immutable, that he is. The question now becomes, as principled conservatives in an unprincipled political world, are we better off throwing the election to Hillary or Obama knowing with certainty the socialistic blueprint they have in store for us, or do we have a better chance with part-time Republican John McCain?
Lets analyze both scenarios. Hillbama is now President. Nationalized healthcare will be become law. 25 million illegals will become citizens over night and be ready to vote Democrat in the 2010 election. 50 million new illegals will be inspired to fill the vacuum and cross over to stand in line for the next Democrat mass voter registration & amnesty bill. Government will expand into every profitable private sector and regulate everything from our carbon emissions to the number of hours we can work. Once these changes have become law they will never be repealed. We will only sink deeper into the mud, pleading with elected officials to save us from the problems they created. Republicans will have no voice for 4 years and even though we will give it our best fight, the fact remains that we will be the party out of power, with no voice and no recourse. With millions of new voters added to the Democrat ranks, the Republican party will be at an even greater disadvantage. Come 2012 even if we manage to regain the Presidency, it will be virtually impossible to reverse the damage. What are the chances we will ever get rid of Social Security, the IRS, the EPA, Medicare, etc.?
If John McCain becomes President, then we at least have someone who is not a true enemy. He will have come from our party and he does have some occasional, albeit transient positions, that we can rally around. But more importantly we will have a voice. We will have the power of party influence, the power to support him on issues when he is right and the ability to have an effective voice to fight him when he strays. George Bush is an excellent case in point, where we were able to fight his positions on illegal immigration by the shear power of our grassroots unity. We roared and he heard the people and especially his party. And we stopped the disastrous immigration bill several times, the Harriet Myers nomination and other foolhardy proposals that would have undoubtedly come to pass had we not had a voice.
So yes in this time of war, this battle to save our nation, the Arab proverb rings true. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” John McCain is our only option at this time in history. And knowing full well McCain is no natural friend of mine, I recall the wisdom and guidance of Ronald Reagan: “ Trust but verify ”
Now that my outrage and hotheaded emotions have subsided following the perfect storm primary throwing McCain into our laps, I am trying to analyze our options that will best ensure the survival of the conservative principles that have spawned the greatest nation humanity has ever known.
The cold reality is that at some level we conservatives understand the future course of the United States is at a crossroads. It is undeniable, that this November a tectonic shift could very well take place and true European style socialism will sweep the land. In addition the all but certain illegal immigration amnesty that will result combined with the continued refusal of America’s elected officials to secure our borders, means that the United States will have thrown out the melting pot principles that molded us for over 200 years as true Americans, one nation, indivisible under God and forever fragmented it’s citizenry into a myriad of small interest groups that care more about their own issues than about what it means to be American.
I think in analyzing our conundrum, it is best to draw from the experience of time, history and human nature.
Indeed our Founding Fathers had amazing insight into the dangerous human predisposition toward apathy when they wrote in the Declaration of Independence “all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while the evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”
Another human trait that we all excel in, is worrying, even when the object of our concern is something we can do absolutely nothing about. Worrying about the expanding universe, the hour of our death or who will be our political adversary, are all beyond our control and is nothing more than a futile time wasting exercise in masochistic self flogging.
So while time will tell with absolute certainty who will be the Democrat nominee, their ain’t nothing we can do about it for now. And while we all agree that we disagree about John McCain as our nominee, the fact remains immutable, that he is. The question now becomes, as principled conservatives in an unprincipled political world, are we better off throwing the election to Hillary or Obama knowing with certainty the socialistic blueprint they have in store for us, or do we have a better chance with part-time Republican John McCain?
Lets analyze both scenarios. Hillbama is now President. Nationalized healthcare will be become law. 25 million illegals will become citizens over night and be ready to vote Democrat in the 2010 election. 50 million new illegals will be inspired to fill the vacuum and cross over to stand in line for the next Democrat mass voter registration & amnesty bill. Government will expand into every profitable private sector and regulate everything from our carbon emissions to the number of hours we can work. Once these changes have become law they will never be repealed. We will only sink deeper into the mud, pleading with elected officials to save us from the problems they created. Republicans will have no voice for 4 years and even though we will give it our best fight, the fact remains that we will be the party out of power, with no voice and no recourse. With millions of new voters added to the Democrat ranks, the Republican party will be at an even greater disadvantage. Come 2012 even if we manage to regain the Presidency, it will be virtually impossible to reverse the damage. What are the chances we will ever get rid of Social Security, the IRS, the EPA, Medicare, etc.?
If John McCain becomes President, then we at least have someone who is not a true enemy. He will have come from our party and he does have some occasional, albeit transient positions, that we can rally around. But more importantly we will have a voice. We will have the power of party influence, the power to support him on issues when he is right and the ability to have an effective voice to fight him when he strays. George Bush is an excellent case in point, where we were able to fight his positions on illegal immigration by the shear power of our grassroots unity. We roared and he heard the people and especially his party. And we stopped the disastrous immigration bill several times, the Harriet Myers nomination and other foolhardy proposals that would have undoubtedly come to pass had we not had a voice.
So yes in this time of war, this battle to save our nation, the Arab proverb rings true. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” John McCain is our only option at this time in history. And knowing full well McCain is no natural friend of mine, I recall the wisdom and guidance of Ronald Reagan: “ Trust but verify ”
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