The Elections

Whow, what a choice again. Obama, a little too good to be true. Queen Clinton, a little too scary to be real.

And the republicans. We have a new Jehovah bush in waiting. The baptist preacher. Scary how fast he moved to the top. And the Vietnam guy, hanging around after his time. The Mormon, still an issue 40 years after a catholic became one of America's best Presidents. A mean mayor, who handled the terrorists and 9/11, but who managed a city that kills more of its own each year than the terrorists could ever pull off.

And Ron Paul, who? The guy that just raised more money in one day, $6Million dollars, than any other candidate has ever raised. Whow! And who is he again. He is someone that has friends that understand the power of the Internet.

And what are the issues. When to get out of Iraq. How hard to slap Iran? How long we can ignore Pakistan? How many subsidies can we give for ethanol and slap tarriffs on cheaper ethanol from Brazil? (How stupid can we be ... moron Congress.)

Jehovah Bush is still doing fine. No changes to report. He sees what he wants through his own eyes. The world bows before us. And all is well. Iraq is doing better. Wait until we leave and it shalt return to ways of old.

How will Cuba play out. Castro has said he will not stop new and young power from arising. How is that young Castro to arise. An election, or kill the guys in the part above him. That is not clear. And of course, we continue our support by restricting interaction with Cubans and the effect it would have.

And yes, the Mexicans are still coming across the border. But don't worry, we still plan to build a 750 mile fence. Of course, we need to pass another law that Walmart cannot sell aluminum ladders in Mexico.

I was in Monterray, Mexico in November. Looks like America. A Walmart, McDonald's, Sear's, Kentucky Fried Chicken on every corner. The nicest hotel I have ever stated in my life. Just like on tv. Robes, a huge shower and bath, in different rooms, the toilet in another, and a thousand pillows on my bed. A healthy breakfast, dozens of fruits and coffee Americano (with cream). And food in the hotels to die for, and I do not use that term loosely.

And beautiful women walking about.

I do not understand why we are not migrating to Monterrey. They have congested freeways just like us. They even have a national oil company in decline.

Did you notice Oil Company revenues fell off in the third quarter. Production declined in all major oil companies. There is a theory that we have passed peak production for the world. Could be true. After thirty years, we just raised the Cafe standards for 2020. Is the year right? How dare we raise the gas mileage so fast. To 35 in ten years. By then it won't matter.
Oil will be gone.

Energy

Energy is at the heart of all we do. With it we can do anything, without it, we can't do much but die. We have been lucky until now. It is not so tough sticking a pipe in the ground and either pumping or letting oil come to the surface. Oil refining is not that tough either. Mostly just distillation. Sulfur makes it harder, but not that much harder.

How do we use energy. For heat, for light, to do work, and to travel. Our way of life in the U.S. was built on cheap energy. We are at the end of this period. Cheap energy is history.

All the new forms of energy are more expensive. That's the main reason we are not yet using them, with one exception. Nuclear energy. And we are afraid of the risks. The risks will look better after we realize the risks to our way of life of not having cheap energy. Coal, our last ace in the hole, will be penalized by CO2 taxes. Global warming, that is another issue, but so far we are not having balanced discussions on that subject yet; we will discuss another day. But, bottom line, no more cheap energy.

Good news is that most of us could work from home, or from video centers near our house -- even with today's technologies. And these will get even cheaper via Moore's law. Socially we seem to google at Sally at the water fountain however, not just talk to her on the tube / video. Most work places are not very efficient, and most meetings are not well planned. Perhaps, there is even room to improve things when it is big deal to come in for a meeting. But, as we evolve in this direction, this should make a significant impact on energy requirements. As we build new homes close to our work this should help.

Mass transit could be huge, but we are so spoiled, and that is the only word for it, that this will not take off until the PAIN of expensive energy takes it toil. Anyway, not in my lifetime.

Where does that leave us. With a declining standard of living, best I can figure. Our politicians are too worried out being complete idiots to be as smart as Brazil and seek energy independence. We would rather go to Mars that solve something as fundamental as energy.

Ultimately, it will be an energy that is transported by electricity. Even hydrogen will turn out to just be a way of transporting electricity, as in a fuel cell. I think the ultimate answer will be a mirad of competing technologies, each contributing to the grid. Wind, solar, nuclear, coal with CO2 sequestering, and hydro will all contribute. Power will become more distributed and more shared. Batteries and other means of saving energy or transferring it from one time period to another will be valuable.

The government needs to play a roll to promote new technologies, but this is tricky. Promoting something can increase the scale of production and reduce the costs, it also can just keep a dog, a dead one, alive a lot longer. The reserve psychology of making fossil fuels more expensive, say with CO2 taxes, would probably work best. That makes all other energy forms, not making CO2, or making less CO2, more competitive. Then the market can select which is better instead of Jehovah Bush or Hillary Witch, etc. But, our politicians for all their evils don't have enough courage to consider the impact of anything further away than the next election, so don't hold your breath and expect them to be as smart as Brazil. Even Cuba is at least smart enough to suck up to Venezuela.

But, I do have a lot of faith in the resourcefulness of the American people and American business to succeed even when their government goes in the opposite direction to what makes sense. I guess it is up to each of us.

Religion, the End of the World

The Nature of Belief and Faith

Do you believe in large squid like creatures with large teeth that live in the bottom of the ocean. We have never seen them because they live miles below the surface and when they try to surface, they blow up. That is why we have never seen one. However, you know those big whirlpool that sometimes happens in the ocean. They have them on tv. Well, that is when one of those big creatures implodes, it causes that big circle sucking whirlpool. And if you don't believe, you lack faith.

Where is the evidence you might add.

Well, there is also this story of this guy called god. If you pray to him, a kind of talking, he might answer it or not. If he does, he was for your good, or if he doesn't it was, too. He is all powerful and loving, but either allows all the evil and ugliness in the world, or really is not all powerful or all loving. Those that believe in him are saved, those that honestly don't are to be punished for their honesty. And if you don't believe you lack faith.

Where is the evidence you might add?

Honesty, My God

I made up my mind that honesty is my god, kindness is my religion, tolerance is my faith and compassion is my hope. Of course, I can't really pull it off. I can't lose weight either, but it is still a good thing. My god, religion, faith and hope are noble and I am but an unfaithful servant to simple concepts.

When you see your fellow man, he is on the same journey as you. Someday he will die, as you will. You can either wish him happiness or suffering, or just ignore your fellow traveler. Wishing him happiness is to practice my religion, to wish him less is to lack compassion. There is no saved or damned in my religion. No chosen, no one that gets special favors from his god in my religion. My god knows that life is tough and then you die and my religion makes no other promises that it can't keep.

The Rewards of Faith

Take Iraq. They are fighting because of their religion, ours and theirs. We are run by fundamentalists, so are they. Ours are tempered by education, but deep down they believe the world needs saving. It needs to be protected from the morning afternoon pill, from evolution being taught in schools, from pills that prevent cervical cancer in women, from stem cell research that kills cells that could have in another place grown into a human, from drugs like pot even when used by a cancer patient to keep his last meal down. In short, U.S. fundamentalists know what is best for you and the world. They religion is not compatible with freedom. Try to buy a beer in a resturant in Salt Lake City, or a beer before noon in most of South Carolina. Then you will understand that they control your freedom. They know by faith what is good for you.

IRAQ Gods are Not as Cool

Their gods say all infidels must die. Kind of the like when Jehovah Bush's god told the Israelites they were to kill all the Palestinans and to not leave any man, woman or child alive. Why, was unclear, it was just a matter of faith. So, Iraq god same basic principal, just less cool.

Faith and Logic

Faith is the permission to leave logic behind when it is no longer convenient for one;s argument to be logical. For instance, an all powerful and all loving god that allows all the pain and anguish in this world. That is not logical. But if I had faith, which is the absence of logic, I could accept this as wisdom greater than mine. Of course, I don't believe that anything would make this apparent paradox logical, or even okay. Or a god that sends allows people to go to hell for an eternity. A kind loving god would at least just annilate them. I would do that and I not all that kind or loving. But, I am better at loving and kindness than a god that would do this. Your escape from the logic of this is to invoke faith, which is the grand cope out to escape the fact that such a god does not exist since his characteristics are mutually exclusive, they can not belong in the same set (mathmatics).

The End of Faith

I just read The End of Faith, a great book. I agree with it basic tenant, that as long as we use faith as permission to ignore logic, to do things that our basic instinct says is wrong, then the world is doomed. We have to embrace logic and our humanity and help each other along the way without all the prejudice bound up in every organized religion. Even those that do not practice organized religion carry around a lot of baggage and guilt from religion in their heads.

A Journey Without Faith

You ask, do you think we are capable of this journey. Well, it is not that I think we are going to do great. It is more that I think we can do better than the Pope and others that depend on wisdom that is 2000 years old. And besides, the alternative is not going to be pretty. Just imagine Iraq on a global scale. Well, that is where it is headed if we don't all start seeing ourselves as pilgrims on a long journey with no clue where we are and start seeking the truth about ourselves and our existance. There is no easy way, we must be courageous in the face of globalized religion that will unite on a common foe: honesty.

Our One Faith

Consumerism. We believe we can buy happiness. But, that is a subject for another time and not quite on theme, as in Disneyland.

Nuclear Bombs will be the end of us

Up to now, we have been protected from radical Muslims because their fundamentalism keeps them from developing as persons, technologists, or entrepreneurs. And it is also helps that they have been pretty well occupied killing each other, ones of the wrong sect.

Well, that part of the equation is still the same. However, many Muslims just woke up with oil under their feet. It doesn't take a very advanced person to sell the oil and buy a nuclear bomb. The only real question I have is why they have not yet exploded a few, say, at our secure ports. That was sarcastic about the secure ports.

Of course, the U.S. should set the example of reducing the number of nuclear weapons. Let's say they reduce the number of nuclear weapons to just the amount required to destroy the world and let Russia do the same. Other countries could be issued fractional world destruction permits. For instance, perhaps Britian could keep enough nuclear weapons to destroy half the world. India maybe 25% of the world. Pakistan would want to be equal to India, etc. Of course, we have to figure out how many nuclear weapons it would take to wipe out the world. We could use some more "political science" science to determine the "number". Then we could use the U.N. to sell Wipe the World Out Shares. Kind of like permits to pollute so much. Lets say you start out with only enough nukes to wipe out 10% of the planet, but someone like Britian decides they don't really need 50% with their big buddy having 100% already. I mean, what good is a good jab after the knockout punch.

Well, of course, that is not going to happen. So back to our question. What is keeping Muslim fundamentalists from knocking out NY or LA. Our fundamentalists should edcuate them. They convinced us to go to war; surely they can keep a fellow fundamentalist how to accomplish a simple task of like buying and delivering a nuke.

My guess is that the Nuke has not been delivered because their are just so many targets to chose from. That is the only reason I can come up with. Think of all the good targets, SF, LA, NY, the superbowl, the subway, Niagra Falls, etc. The question is picking one that has the most symbolism. That is tough to come up with something better than the twin towers which really did represent well the U.S. way of life, for good or bad. Anyway, that is my best guess.

While figuring out the Muslims next move is difficult. It is not hard to figure out our next move. We will pick out some country not involved, not sitting on oil, and then drop a half dozen nuclear bombs on them. We will then double our nuclear arsenal and declare the world saver, the battle won. The Jehovah Bush crowd is pretty simple. Not hard to figure out their pattern of thought, although thought is really an inappropriate concept.

My bet then is this. They are waiting until we rebuild something where the twin towers were. We haven't done that yet, have we? I haven't been there for a couple of years. Anyway, that would perfect from their viewpoint. So perfection is probably what they will have.