Seriously!

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Doesn’t reality matter?

Anyone who observes the facts of matter knows that any newly licensed coastal shelf drilling projects won’t come on line for about a decade. And yet McCain and Bush are selling it as if it is the silver bullet fix for the gas price problem. And as far as I can tell, this no results for ten years off-shore drilling proposal appears to be the crown jewel of McCain’s economic plan. This guy has about a fifty percent chance of becoming the next leader of our nation – and that’s the best that he can come up with?

And they are actually phrasing it as “The relief at the pumps that Americans need now”. Well, yes. We do need relief at the pump now. But what about that 8 to 10 year wait for these new drilling contracts to start producing? Not to mention the fact that a few more drops in the bucket wont stop the oil companies from boning us. They know what they can get away with, so they're going to keep on doing it. The all mighty rule of supply and demand is actually much less mighty than the oil industry's proven ability to do whatever the fuck they want. Wake up folks!

This is just another total rejection of reality, that the right wing has saddled onto and won’t stop riding.
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Flag Day

What’s the first thing the wolf will do when you catch him dressed in sheep’s clothing?
…Call you a sheep hater.

I have a five year old son who will be starting Kindergarten soon. With that comes the daily morning tradition of reciting the pledge of allegiance. And that’s cool I suppose. In terms of him participating in it goes, I can take it or leave it. I recited the pledge in school and I really don’t think that the act of doing so harmed me in any way, nor do I believe for a second that reciting the pledge made me a better American than someone who may have opted out of that activity.

What does concern me though, in a general sense, is a young child’s limited ability to fully grasp the weight of the words. To put your hand over your heart and “pledge” your “allegiance” to something…
That’s pretty fuckin heavy. And to have a young child do something like that without at least trying to give them a deeper understanding of what that means and what they are pledging their allegiance to — seems to be a rather un-American conditioning of blind faith which is being thrust upon our children.

Again, I am not against the idea of my children participating in the pledge of allegiance. But I am by all means going to do my best to not only give them a clear understanding of what it means to “pledge” your “allegiance” to something; but also make sure they know what they are pledging their allegiance to. And that it is their choice to make. That even as children, there exist certain things which are exclusively and wholly owned by them. Things like:

Your personal opinion

Your taste

Your feelings toward others

And by God your “allegiance” to something…

These are all things that are yours and only yours to determine for yourself, regardless of your age. To suggest otherwise would be un-American.

And that brings forward another point which I intend to make very clear to my children. Far too many gross misinterpretations of “Americanism” seem to get wrapped in the flag. There is no qualification required to get a flag. It can be attached to anything by anyone. So it’s pretty important for our children and all of us for that matter to remain aware of the fact that a person or thing does not necessarily represent true American values simply because they are dressed in the flag. This is a very important point to me personally, because as an American, I am genuinely offended and embarrassed by the right wing’s relative success at making patriotism synonymous with war mongering. Reasonable forward thinking realists whom have clear sight of the true and very positive meaning of patriotism need to take the flag back from extreme right wing fundamentalist before the stains of what those extremists represent blot out what it represents.

“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross.”

— Sinclair Lewis, The first American writer, to win the Nobel Prize for Literature

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Assuming you’re right…

I was recently having a casual chat with a guy when the subject of current gasoline prices came up in the conversation. This gentlemen went on to very clearly and sincerely express his opinion that it is the environmentalists who are to blame for the price of gas. If only they would stop preventing us from more offshore drilling - and drilling in Alaska…

This guy really thinks that this would be the solution. And it’s not the first time that I’ve heard talk like that. More than a couple of people actually do think that way. Perhaps even you. If so, let us assume that you are right.

Let’s say that everything in Al Gore’s little slide show is absolute fiction – an elaborate hoax on all of us.

Let’s say that there truly is no need to stop polluting the Earth’s atmosphere.

Let's say that nothing stood between the oil companies and every last drop of oil under American soil and territories.

Now, let’s say that we got all of that oil tomorrow – every last drop…

That’s gunna be great! Just like the way that Iraqi oil has paid for the war.…

Oh yeah, I guess it didn’t quite work out that way. Right... The war has actually cost us over a trillion dollars and that Iraqi oil which was supposed to pay for the occupation has well I’m not sure what happened to it, but I keep hearing about the oil companies having record profit quarters. In fact, somehow, regardless of up down forward or backward, every condition of the oil markets and geopolitical events seem to somehow result in higher gas prices for us and record profits for oil companies.

But I guess that’s all going to change now. Tapping all available U.S. oil resources must be the magic event that the oil corporations have been waiting for. This will be the thing which will make those CEOs, Chairmen and board members just stop in their tracks, look at each other and say “Okay fellas… The party’s over. Enough of all this raking in billions of dollars… Let’s dial back gas prices to about a buck eighty a gallon.”

Hmmm… Yeah…

Yep. I’m pretty sure that that’s pretty much how it’s going to go down.

Or reality could happen.
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