Summer Story Chapter 3 Harold and the Big Ball of String
As a summer relief from the normal subjects of Buck Says I am telling the tale of an important summer of my childhood. There are links to Chapters 1 & 2 ar the bottom of this chapter if you are interest in catching up.
Chapter 3
By the time the 4th of July rolled around we were well into a summer routine of bay and beach activities. My father would announce at breakfast on the 4th that, “today’s the 4th of July and the summer is almost over”.
His announcement every year brought howls of disagreement from me and my younger brother. We pleaded that his statement couldn’t be true since we were just polishing off a tan and settling into our routine. On this, the year of my solo street crossing permission, I showed my new maturity by ignoring my Dad’s yearly, end of summer, agitation at breakfast on the 4th.
My brother howled his protest and I simply responded with a smile and thought about the races that I would be sailing from the yacht club later that day. Sailing was becoming a bigger part of my summer and a few of the older kids at the yacht club had sort of adopted me to teach some of the finer 
points of racing a small sailboat.
My Dad announced that he would be watching the races from the public dock and was never going to set foot in the club again after the way they treated Harold. Harold was the same Harold who made every donation of string to his collection a special event.
My mother hushed my father and said that it was not a subject for the children at breakfast.
Not only did my father watch the races from the public dock but he gathered a group of other club members to join him watching from the town dock rather than the observation deck of the yacht club.
In a small beach community this event became the talk of the town and the reasons for my father’s action filtered into the community of kids with my father receiving different descriptions of his action. Many were less than flattering.
It turned out that the admission committee of the club had turned down Harold’s application for membership. It was rumored that my father had stormed into a directors meeting and was less than kind in his comments to the committee as to their action concerning Harold. My Dad was not a mild type of of guy and apparently he had some effect since Harold’s son was permitted to join the club as a junior member and race his boat with the rest of us.
As a kid I didn’t completely understand the issues in play but knew they were a big deal with the adults. With hardly a bump my summer returned to a smooth series of enjoyable days with a few community members now absent from our company. The kids pretty much remained in the same routine oblivious to the adult problems.
The group watching the weekend races at the end of the public dock was pretty sizable. Harold was an honored member of my Dad’s ad hoc club. I won my first race in July as the youngest junior competing and the adults on the dock made a much bigger deal of that event than did my beach buddies.
Almost every day I found some string to contribute to Harold Steinberg’s big ball and always got a big thanks for my contribution. The summer moved along and the string was part of it but the use was not much of a concern. It was just a part of an event filled summer and not yet a big deal. I had no clue as to what I would learn from that big ball of string later in the summer.
Chapter 1
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Obama & Immigration at Long Range
A long, long time ago when I was a real person out in the world working like a devil for my pay,
a few associates called me the LONG Ranger. I predicted a few national trends correctly and placed my company in an advantageous position which attracted some attention.
The Long Ranger quip was made more of, than was deserved, but it was flattering and was somewhat true. Living in the mountains for a decade where I don’t see the homes of my neighbors makes those adventures of prediction and advantageous actions seem to be part of someone else’s life.
Obama has stirred the old juices and has me using those six ( 50 year old) college credits in psychology once again predicting what he might be up to as a next move.
Predicting his course of action is a lot easier than those predictions that were needed in business 4 decades ago. I wrote a Post predicting his next move to be a push for blanket immunity for eleven million illegal aliens. His speech on immigration today is the first step in his effort. Others have similar thoughts to mine and are proof that long range predictions are not needed with Obama. The concerns with him and his administration are what they are going to do tomorrow to move Americans away from expecting individual liberty and a voice in government to be part of our rights.
Obama’s speech today was designed to sway the hearts and minds of people in joining his vision of a new deal. He is indefatigable in pursuit of a Statist future for our country.
The quest for blanket immunity for the eleven million lawbreakers is seen by him and Rahm Emanuel as providing the margin for continued power and ability to pursue HIS vision for America.
Several readers of Buck Says are in a minor conflict over the ultimate direction of Obama being towards Socialism or Fascism. The growing point of unity is that whatever the Obama philosophy, it is not good for America. Not good is too mild. He is bad, bad news for us all. This administration does not need long range predictions as to the harm they will be doing to our country and our lives down the road.
Elena Kagan his latest appointment to the Supreme Court testified that our rights to life ,liberty and the pursuit of happiness as defined in the Declaration of Independence meant nothing to her since it was not law. She clearly is geared to support the Obama vision for America. Kagen will join the gathered Obama appointees in driving America to a government controlled society.
We need an immigration policy that will provide a sensible reaction to the current situation. Citizenship for 11 million law breakers is not sensible for anyone but Obama and his supporters. No one with a brain is suggesting that we round them all up and ship them out. Obama has said, that is the desire of those who are opposed to a program that includes blanket immunity. He further cast a net, labeled racist, over any opposition to his desires concerning immunity.
The first step in any plan concerning immigration is to secure the border. Without a secure border we will not be a nation for long enough to worry about long range effects of any policy. Obama and Rahm are not interested in a reasonable solution. They are after one thing and that is total control. They are playing for the 11 million chips that are illegally spread across our country and then they will go “all in” with absolute control as the jackpot.
Obama describes the illegal aliens as the tired , the hungry and the poor with our door open to receive them as part of our mission as a nation. “Baloney” These people even if tired and poor are no more to Obama than poker chips in his plans for change of America to his vision
The 4th of July is a day we can use for more than a celebration of our Nations birth. It can be a day of rededication to the Declaration approved on this day in 1776 that said there was a natural law that entitled us to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Who is happy with Obama on this National Birthday?
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Jobless Recovery- Oil Protests & Obama Magic
In Canada this week there is a G20 meeting of the finance ministers representing the 20 most prosperous nations. The Obama administration is encouraging the world to increase spending to support the economic recovery that they say is taking place. Tim Geithner is preaching increased spending and avoidance of prudent government budgets as the path to economic recovery.
Several nations have proposed reducing deficits as a path to recovery. Obama using Geithner as a spokesman has opposed such an outrageous idea. Restricting spending to what a nation can actually afford is incomprehensible to Obama and his financial team.
Obama keeps talking about the recovery that is taking place. He must have started to believe in fairy dust or magic incantations because his stimulus program certainly shows no evidence of important success. Last month the new jobs were mostly census jobs and most of them were a one day hire with little additional census taking required,
The recovery is an example a expecting a magic potion to work. It must be faulty magic because the reality of private sector jobs has not yet appeared. Obama is weaving a Fantasia like tale. He is a reincarnation of Mickey mouse as the Sorcerers Apprentice with few skills in the use of an economic magic wand. Like Mickey, every move he make causes the flood of America’s economic problems to rise.
The housing situation remains stagnant. Mortgage money is almost free and there still is no appreciable recovery beyond those home sales that included government tax credits. With mortgage interest in the mid 4% range it would appear reasonable to expect home sales to be booming. New home construction is not booming and a matter of fact is barely breathing as a provider of jobs. With unemployment close to 10% and underemployed raising the troubled workforce figure to 15 or 16 % a housing boom is in a misty distant future.
It is becoming even clear to many one time supporters of Obama that a generous description of his administration skills is that he really doesn’t know what he is doing. A less gentle, but perhaps more accurate description of Obama, is that he knows exactly what he is doing and is following a plan that is alien to the America tradition, as a land of private enterprise, with individual opportunity at it’s core.
He seems to be driving successfully towards a goal of changing America to a land governed by this alien philosophy in which he strongly believes. His known background is grounded in Socialism and belief in government control of our lives and liberty
I am becoming convinced that the oil spill is looked upon as an opportunity by Obama and his cohorts to pass additional legislation that will place another industry under his control. The regulations that will be imposed on the ol industry will go far beyond issues of safe drilling practices. The crippling of the oil industry will be used to promote his plans for alternative non-fossil power sources to become a major part of our lives.in the near future. The fact that there are no non-fossil energy sources available at this time to replace the fossil fuels seems to be of little importance to Obama.
He is ideologically driven and the private sector, people, the Constitution and opposing views are not any part of his governing strategy.
The criminalization of the oil industry has started. I have wondered where all the war protesters that were present during the Bush administration had gone. They have not picketed Obamas’ failure to end the war or close Gitmo Their unexplained absence has ended.
The pickets have joined hands across Gulf beaches protesting the oil spill and the oil companies. No one seems to be protesting government ineptness. They are focusing on the oil companies. Like the vapid actions of war protesters there seems to be no idea or interest in finding a way to protect the beaches or stop the oil as part of the hand holding protesters program. The protest is against oil and is promoting non fossil answers for energy.
The media is covering the hand holding beach protesters with a sense of relief since they now have visual replacements of the war protesting. The protesters need a bit of coaching in their effort . The hand holding protest is facing inland in every TV shot I have seen. They are not facing the problem out on the water or by taking action to help protect the beaches in any meaningful activity.
Inane protest is enough for the hand holders
The next 5 months seem like an long long time to wait for the start of real changes that we need. I hope there is meaningful opposition organized by then.
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Obama Appoints Bush’s General
If it were not such a serious subject concerning the McCrystal firing and his replacement, Obama and his media supporters would be laughable subjects
Follow this: President Bush appointed General David Petraeus to head the surge strategy in Iraq. Petraeus was called General Betrayus by the Bush haters and treated shamefully by the major media outlets and the Left side of Congress. Petraeus silenced his Left Wing detractors by brilliant leadership and strategic deployment of forces.
Petraeus was a Bush appointee and a brilliant choice for the job.
Obama appointed General Stanley McChrystal to head the military effort in Afghanistan.
McChrystal made some early bonehead comments about the troops needed to succeed in Afghanistan. The biggest bonehead act he committed was to give interview permission to Rolling Stone Magazine and to have a reporter in his headquarters for a month talking to his staff.
Rolling Stone is no friend of the military and an article was written that got McChrystal axed by the President. Obama replaced him with General Petraeus, the Bush General who was vilified by the Obama supporters when appointed by Bush.
Obama appointing General Petraeus is now being hailed as a demonstration of brilliance and leadership skills by Obama. The same media and “Progressive” Obama cheerleaders who labeled Petraeus as Betrayus now herald his appointment by Obama and proclaim the move as a demonstration of Obama leadership as Commander in Chief.
The reporting on this matter has reached new levels of duplicity.
I have a few thoughts on this matter. McChrystal needed to be fired. He should have first resigned and written a book. The President is still the Commander in Chief( I tremble a bit when I write that fact) and Generals can’t give interviews to magazines criticizing him.
The Obama appointee, General Stanley McChrystal, may be a warrior but he is not a smart one.
Obama remains as the same inept leader despite the media blowing trumpets of praise for his appointment of Petraeus, which is really a confirmation of a Bush move copied by Obama. This President is not qualified for leadership or crises management. Anyone who has had any leadership training and experience recognizes that fact. He combines that lack of qualification with an arrogant demeanor that thankfully is being recognized by the general public and his support is sinking like a stone in a pond.
November can’t get here soon enough.
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Blanket Amnesty- Perhaps Obamas Next Move?
There is currently a discussion in DC about the Obama Administration’s development of a plan to grant blanket amnesty to at least 10 million illegal aliens currently residing in the United States.
It is a not a well kept secret that there is a serious exploration going on as to how the Department of Homeland Security could provide such a directive. It has further been reported that a study is being made of Presidential amnesty being used for the purpose of simply granting amnesty. Such action would circumvent Congressional action ( or inaction ) on this controversial issue of dealing with the illegals.
Do not make a mistake of dismissing these creditable rumors circulation in the Capital. There are seven senators who have sent a letter to the administration questioning plans for such action by Obama and the Department of Homeland Security. There has been no response to the Senators letter.
A Presidential grant of amnesty could easily be called an act of despotism by some with the avoidance of Congressional participation. The recent action of the President in coercing BP to escrow 20 billion dollars for his use in the Gulf is an indication that the Constitution and it’s limited permissions for Federal actions is not a guideline thought important by the President and this administration.
This is a government which is demonstrating Constitutionally suspect actions on an increasingly regular basis. I believe we will have a move for Blanket Amnesty as soon as the Administration has determined a way in which they think such an action can be accomplished.
If Obama can figure out how to grant this Act of Amnesty through unilateral action it will be a major step towards the end of America as a nation that has thrived through a system of checks and balances.
If Obama pulls this off and adds those millions of illegal aliens as citizens to his support group, prepare to see Presidential term limits lifted and our concerns about who will be the next president eliminated from our considerations for decades.
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Blow Out Preventer and BP
I am learning about some equipment that I never knew existed until BP started putting oil in the Gulf of Mexico rather than in refineries. That was surely not their intention but happened when the supposed Blow Out Preventer(BOP) on the Deepwater Horizon Rig didn’t do the job of preventing the blow out on their drilling operation.
BOP at one time referred to a type of music, not anymore. A Blow Out Preventer is a 5 story part of a deep water drilling operation that costs many millions of dollars to build It sits on the top of a deep water well and does various thing related to the well. One of those operations is supposed to stop a blow out from happening. This part of the BOP is called a Blind Shear Ram. This did not work properly so we now have the disaster of all that oil in the Gulf.
I’m not going to spend time describing the function of the Blind Shear Ram since there are a whole bunch of smart people working on that with greater interest than has been exhibited on that part of the equipment in the past. With time and study the real fault will be discovered as to where the reckless behavior occurred, which currently has been designated by the President to belong solely to BP.
BP obviously is at the heart of the problem since they were drilling and now are spilling. My several hour course in the operation and history of Blind Shear Rams has given me a clear indication of the complexity and shared responsibility surrounding this event
Tests through the years have indicated that the Blind Shear Rams fail about 46% of the time in a deep water situation.. There are various reasons involving hydraulic requirements and placement of the shear on the pipe needing to be cut and sealed . All of these failure problems are exacerbated by the fact that whatever the problem, it is taking place in water so deep that people cannot get there to fix it.
Drilling rigs now are being built with two Blind Shear Rams by TransOcean the owner of the rigs built for deep water drilling operated by BP. The DeepWater Horizon was not equipped with a second Blind Shear Ram.
The President has labeled BP As being reckless. That may be so since the culture of the oil drilling community is not one of a cautious nature. The Reckless charge should be held for a bit until a study is done by people who know what they are talking about .
The Obama Administration has demonstrated reckless behavior recently concerning proposals to expand off shore drilling in sensitive areas. This administration has shown no interest in correcting the laisse faire attitude of their Mineral Management Service in addressing the need for robust regulations concerning deep water drilling operations.
Large spills in the past have been related to Blind Shear Ram failure. The inclusion of a second Blind Shear in BOP’s is an industry addition, not a requirement of MMS or any initiative of Obama people. The failure of the device is clearly related to a hydraulic valve that has no redundant element to overcome a failure. That weak design element remains, but failure can be attempted to be corrected with the second Blind Shear Ram. This is an improvement but not the answer. The aircraft industry would never have grown if they hadn’t understood the need for redundancy in critical elements.
The Obama Administration has failed miserably with the MMS continuing to ignore numerous recommendations in issues of safety from their own consultants. The potential failure of the BOP that is now a reality in the Gulf has been well know to Obama’s administration and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar since they have taken control of the government .The danger and knowledge have not produced regulatory adjustments where the danger existed.
Obama has dictated a course that shows his lack of understanding concerning crises management. He has stopped drilling in the Gulf with potential fiscal damage to all operations. If Obama thinks about it he may stop all air traffic the next time there is a crash.
BP is aggressive operator with a CEO who is a bit clueless concerning public relations. They need to be held responsible for damages but not subjected to a” hold up” for 20 billion dollars by the President of the United States.
Who knows what Obama going to do with the $20 Billion since there is no established oversight provision for distribution? Any guesses? I think he is probably discussing that issue with Rahm Emanuel right now.
The Photo is of the Deepwater Horizon in happier days
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Summer Story Chapter 2 - Harold and The Big Ball of String
A few weeks ago I decide to occasionally take a break from the heavy issues and tell the summer story of an important summer of my childhood. Chapter 1 was posted about 10 days ago and is available in the archives. This is Summer Story Chapter 2- Harold and the Big Ball of String.
The summer routine was established quickly around activity on the bay and the beach. On the weekends sailing was the primary bay side activity. During the week the town dock had a crowd of kids swimming and diving from the pilings when there was a high tide. The beach was typically the 
destination when the tide was heading down.
We played in the dunes and body surfed for hours. Having the freedom to cross streets was like a magic wand of freedom. Parents were no longer determining when I could swim in either the bay or at the beach. Without parents around, exploration could take place in wetlands that involved mud and wading in shallow water. Conversations with older kids about tides, the birds, fish and how to sail faster, was the summer school that I entered that first year of street crossing freedom.
One day a mystery entered the routine. I found a length of discarded fishing line on the dock one day. I was wrapping it around my hand for no particular reason when Bobby McNulty said to me, “Mr. Steinberg would love to have that string”, I asked, why? Bobby was several years older and with a knowing grin said, ”he collects string all summer long “ Harold Steinberg was the father of one of the older kids. He was a lawyer with a big company in Philadelphia but more importantly was a friendly man who always had something nice to say to the kids on the dock when he came down on the weekends. When he was at the beach he would often do a hand stand and walk across the hard sand on his hands with his feet up in the air to the delight of the little kids at the waters edge .
I saved the string and gave it to Mr. Steinberg when I saw him on the next weekend at the dock. He examined the string carefully with exclamations as to its’ quality and thanking me for my generous and important contribution to his summer string collection.
Nowhere in the meeting was any explanation why a Philadelphia lawyer who could walk on his hands on the hard sand was collecting string at the shore. He was so grateful for my contribution that collecting string for Mr. Steinberg became part of my seashore routine. He was always thankful and made my contribution seem to be of great importance. He never volunteered why he was collecting string.
I asked Bobby McNulty and some of the older kids why Mr. Steinberg collected string. The older kids all smiled in a knowing manner and answered “ You’ll see someday, you’ll see”!
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BP Money by the Bucket–Heath Suddleson Guest Post
Heath Suddleson always has useful commentary and today is no exception. Some original thinking is sure to be included when Heath does a guest post—- Buck
Beware the Buckets of BP Money
President Obama and British Petroleum (BP) have agreed to set aside $20 Billion in an escrow account administered by Kenneth Feinberg. Does his name sound familiar? It should, he is the Executive Pay Czar from the TARP Program.
Wait, shouldn’t this be a good thing? BP has set aside funds to deal with the fallout from this spill. Now we don’t have to worry about people being compensated for damages or the cost of clean up. That all sounds good in theory, but let me tell you why this is a disaster in the making with far more impact than the spill itself.
1. The funds are administered by the Government and not BP. This means there is no incentive to keep compensation payouts reasonable. After all, wouldn’t you award someone a huge payout if you didn’t have to foot the bill? Would you be so generous with your own money? Of course not, you would make fair settlement offers because if you don’t they will take you to court where the jury may not be so sympathetic to your case. Still, you would make a fair offer that tries to keep the overall impact down.
2. The funds take away from BP’s capital at a time where they need all available cash to contain the damage and clean up the oil. Imagine trying to do some home improvements while someone else is taking away your readily available cash.
3. The funds take away from BP’s ability to honor its current contractual agreements. Down stream suppliers and even stock holders whose dividends are in jeopardy rely on that income for their own needs. Don’t forget that BP share holders include a lot of retirement mutual funds that are supposed to produce income for the retirees. In fact, 1055 institutions hold BP stock as compared to 0% insiders and 5% owners. That means that the stock holders of BP stock are NOT the corporate executives of BP. BP’s stock has already dropped 50% since the spill and to deny the dividend as requested by Obama is adding insult to injury for all of those who hold this in their pension plans.
4. The agreement shows a commitment on the part of the Obama Administration to make BP pay damages as a higher priority to stopping the oil from gushing into the gulf. I work for an international company and our attitude when disaster strikes is, “deal with the issue now and the impact later”. This approach both keeps the focus on the more critical task of rectifying the situation and limits the impact for all concerned. In the 20 minutes that Obama met with BP execs, the focus was on paying and not dealing with the underlying problem.
5. The best thing for America right now is a healthy BP who will still be around to provide jobs and pay damages. This bucket of money sets the stage for the Obama Administration to try and put BP out of business. How long can you milk a cow that is alive and healthy? How long can you milk that cow once you have sent it to the butcher? Even the meat will soon disappear. The right approach is to keep BP around to provide more over the longer period of time.
I do find it ironic that the Obama Administration went to such great lengths to save General Motors at taxpayer expense, but they are already carving the headstone for BP with this agreement. The argument at the time the GM deal was struck was that we needed to save the jobs. Well, BP employs a lot of Americans, too. Are we not worried about those jobs?
Apparently, Obama is more worried about looking good for the downtrodden rather than being a true leader and dealing with the crisis at hand. Rather than looking at long term solutions, he is looking at short term band aids.
I will leave you with this final observation. A friend of mine posted this message on her Facebook account, “I love Barack Obama. He talks about the future and the courage of the American People to face it. I have no use for politicians who are always talking about the past.” The ironic thing about her post is that he and his administration have been blaming the Bush Administration for setting this up to fail (talking about the past) and they are only talking about the future without dealing with the now.
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Oil Being Released & Obama’s Solution?
This President is absolutely predictable in his dedication to the credo that everything about the private sector needs to be changed to government control. He is committed to the belief that with his control we will all be better off when he wrests control of the total economy from the evil grasps of capitalism.
In his speech to the nation there was foreshadowing of his strategy to put BP out of business as the first step in gaining control of the oil industry. He stated that BP was reckless and that their recklessness created the problem in the Gulf.
I knew what was coming when I saw the government estimates of the oil being released increasing every other day. The headlines trumpeted that the early estimates were too low and government experts determined that there was actually twice as much oil escaping than had been originally thought.
A day or two later the government experts were increasing their estimate by thousands of barrels. I got to thinking what is going on here? There is a lot of oil escaping and who are these experts who keep increasing the estimate? Why is it so important to know whether 20,000 barrels a day is escaping or if the figure is 30,000 barrels?. Whatever the figure, it is too much and needs to be stopped.
A short period of research points to the clues as to how Obama’s strategy seems to be unfolding.
After the Exxon Valdez, Alaskan oil spill, penalties were determined concerning oil spillage. The way it currently stands is that if an oil company spills or discharges oil into American water they are subjected to a penalty of $1,100 per barrel of spilled oil. There is a second level fine of $4,300 per barrel if it is determined that gross negligence caused the spill.
Obama has determined that BP recklessness caused the problem. Mistakes were made but were the mistakes caused by reckless procedures and gross negligence. At this point no one is sure, including the President. A full investigation is needed to make determinations, with the primary purpose being to establish safe procedures for deep water drilling. The comments being made at the time as to responsibility are subjective. coming from the personal feelings of Obama and his cohorts. There is no evidence of objectivity in Obama actions or conclusions. Gross negligence will be determined along the way and the financial responsibility will be established after what I am sure will be a legal and political battle.
The President once again has placed his political strategy and Statist goals in the forefront of this situation. His course as designed will create a greater peril for American than the oil on the beaches.
BP is one of the biggest if not the largest employer of British citizens. A Presidential strategy that puts the existence of BP in jeopardy will certainly seriously damage relations with the UK.
The negative effect upon the oil industry by the Obama actions and words is sure to be chilling and a further drag on our economy. There are many American employed by BP and millions of American own the stock individually or in a mutual fund. The President seems not to care about these facts in his quest to give us Cap and Trade legislation using the oil spill and evil companies as legislative motivators.
If Obama is not brought under reign by Congress we are heading for greater unemployment and gasoline costing somewhere between $5 and $10 per gallon, and serious strained relations with the UK, our best friends in the world.
After thought:
In a recent post I alluded to the possibility that the Obama strategy would benefit bicycle manufacturers, since many of us will need to use a bike to get around rather than a car running on $5 a gallon gasoline.
That possibility remains, but there is an additional fact I failed to mention. There are no longer any major manufacturers of bicycles in the United States. They are pretty much all built in China. If I need to buy a bike it will most likely be from China>
Addition to this Post made on June 16 1pm MDST
The BBC in a report issued at 12:52 Mountain time
This was issued shortly after BP officers met with Obama
“A government panel of scientists now believes 35,000-60,000 barrels are leaking each day, up from its estimate last week of 20,000-40,000.”
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Obama’s Oil Speech
The President will speak to the nation from the oval office about the Gulf oil situation tonight. I am sure that the major purpose of the presentation will be to promote Cap and Trade legislation and call for expenditures supporting alternate energy development.
Using the Rahm Emanuel credo that, no crises should be wasted Obama is sure to make political use of the oil gushing into the Gulf to promote his policy.
The oil problem is obviously serious but is not quite reaching the Biblical proportions that is the description surrounding the crises. There are two things that Obama needs to do.
The first commitment is to give total government support to the people with the capability to find a way to stop the flow. Part B of this first step is to get as many resources on the water as are available to suck up oil
The second commitment required is to organize the program that will restore damaged wetlands and do whatever is possible to protect and rebuild fisheries that have been affected negatively.
Obama needs to take care of the immediate requirements before pumping more costly legislation on the American public. Cap and Trade will reduce employment, raise taxes and give us $5 a gallon gasoline. It all won’t all be bad. Bicycle manufacturers will need to increase production, since this will become the new mode of transport for many Americans.
I am all for finding new, clean sources of energy. I have an idea that Obama might explore. I’ll bet someone could figure out a way to derive power from nuclear energy.
I know that might seem like a radical idea but it even might be a clean source of power.
I understand that we have a lot of coal in the ground. Maybe Obama could find a few dollars to expand research on a clean coal process.
I confess to being facetious? I do confess, but not without some motivation.
A few weeks ago I visited a company that is manufacturing solar panels and installing solar related systems. They are being financially successful and are totally dedicated to the solar concept and working to improve it’s operating efficiency.
I had a conversation with the CEO which helped me understand some of the pluses as well as the problems. If you live in Colorado where we have a lot of sun you will be able to get the best use of Solar. If you live in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago or Seattle Solar is a problematic answer for power for your home and a very expansive contribution to the quest for clean energy.
Even in ideal conditions there can be about a 7 year period needed to get a financial payback on the money invested in a solar system to power your home. This is with the various significant government rebates that are available if you install a solar system.
Think about where those rebates are coming from? Hmmmm!
Wind Power has had a bit of my attention this past winter. There is a large scale wind farm about 12 miles from my home, which I have taken the time to observe about 15 times in recent months.
With the obvious attractive theoretical aspects of wind power there are problems that are not often mentioned by proponents. A farm of giant wind turbines is an ugly blight on the landscape. In all my visits the wind was only blowing hard enough to turn the turbines on two of my trips. It further has been reported to me but not documented that the turbines when working are significant killers of birds.
We have some problems with oil but there are economic and operating problems with the Obama favorites of solar and wind generations of power.
Some smart engineers will make improvements but Cap and trade is not going to help.
We need oil and we need the jobs related to the oil industry. Getting BP to pay for damages is a good idea. Driving them out of business is not such a good idea.
When the President is making his pitch tonight, remember that drilling oil in the Gulf has been happening for about 60 years and this is the first such incident. The focus of great concern should be on the relatively new deep well drilling techniques, not the whole industry.
Afterthought:
Even if a solar panel and windmill can be combined to run my car, what happens on a rainy day with no wind.
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