Food Subsidies to the "Poor" Farmers

Guess what it is time for a new farm bill. And guess what, they have subsidies for farmers. Legislators advise that any farmer whose adjusted gross income is above 750,000 dollars will not be eligible. Major reform, we are not just subsidizing the poor farmers, the ones that don't make close to one million per year.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

The arguments;
1. Europe subsidizes their farmers even more. Okay, lets let Europe pay their farmers to go food for us. That works for me.
2. Farmers have a lot of equipment/expenses. Guess what, most farmers incorporate their business. Their AGI , adjusted gross income, is what a farmer gets paid by his corporation, after the bills have all been paid, and after his personal exemptions and deductions have been made. So guess what, I wish I had an AGI so the government wouldn't send me any more subsidies. Oh wait, they don't send me any subsidies. I have a small garden.
3. We don't want farmers to go out of business and depend on foreigners to supply food to us -- just like oil. Guess what, subsidies do not make our farm industry stronger. Over the long term, subsidies make it weaker. It keeps the weaker farmers from going out of business. It is also an industry that can ramp up and ramp down as required in a reasonably short period of time. In short, as an industry, it can adjust just like other industries. And guess what, many Americans have the option of planting gardens; we are not helpless, or perhaps, I overestimate us? Food is not like oil with a limited supply that is controlled by a few people on the planet. It is a stupid argument recently made by the sponser of the agriculture bill before congress now.
4. Poor farmers need the help. The help does not go to poor farmers; poor farmers don't have lobbyists, duh.

And finally, we are already indirectly subsidizing farmers. It is called "ethanol". ADM, Archer Daniel Midland, a big farm corporation is mopping up. I own the stock, I have held it for ten years waiting for this point in time. Its great for me and the big farm companies in this country. It is not clear to me who else it is good for. It is not really lowering our energy costs which are being offset in part by higher food costs. And of course, they don't help the Brazilians that make cheaper ethanol than us from sugar cane but that are not allowed to sell here without paying a tariff. It doesn't help anyone except the farm companies and the lobbyists that support them and the politicians that pay off the lobbyists / supporters with laws such as these. Farmers, lobbyists, politicians its a threesome that we are not part of -- no fun or profit for us.

China Long Term vs. U.S. Short Term

Comment below from my good friend Bob Brown At a time when our politicians are talking about a roast in every pot and a car in every garage, redistribution of wealth, new programs to help the poor. (Jesus said they will always be with us). Our guys say, we can solve all these problems, we just have to get more taxes for more and better welfare...Here is an interesting thought. Think about it. We are already pleading with the Chinese to change their long term strategic goals in order to help us as a country survive. Part of our problem is the exchange rate between the Yuan and the Dollar, we say. Like this country that has been in existence for over 4000 years and has had a banking system for much of that time...does not know what they are doing. We now need strong leaders with an understanding of what is happening long range. Our congressmen think in two year spans, our senators in 6 year spans and our presidential candidates in four year spans. What is a span?? The time that they have to face an election to maintain a personal life style which is infinitely better than anything they had ever hoped for as young struggling whatevers. This translates also to local politicians. They also love their jobs and the only way to keep them is to get votes, which they have learned to buy with government money (translate taxpayers money). They never get enough. But as they think in short term segments, the long term planning of our adversaries for world dominance goes along with little understanding of our leaders, who think only in how to get elected by promising more and better to each and every one. Hopefully, there is no copy write problem here using Helprin's article below to which Bob refers: OPINION

The Challenge From China

By MARK HELPRIN
May 13, 2008; Page A17

Even as our hearts go out to the Chinese who have perished in the earthquake, we cannot lose sight of the fact that every day China is growing stronger. The rate and nature of its economic expansion, the character and patriotism of its youth, and its military and technical development present the United States with two essential challenges that we have failed to meet, even though they play to our traditional advantages.

The first of these challenges is economic, the second military. They are inextricably bound together, and if we do not attend to both we may eventually discover in a place above us a nation recently so impotent we cannot now convince ourselves to look at the blow it may strike. We may think we have troubles now, but imagine what they will be like were we to face an equal.

AP

Beijing: Delegates from China's military attend the annual session of the National People's Congress.

China has a vast internal market newly unified by modern transport and communications; a rapidly flowering technology; an irritable but highly capable workforce that as long as its standard of living improves is unlikely to push the country into paralyzing unrest; and a wider world, now freely accessible, that will buy anything it can make. China is threatened neither by Japan, Russia, India, nor the Western powers, as it was not that long ago. It has an immense talent for the utilization of capital, and in the free market is as agile as a cat.

Unlike the U.S., which governs itself almost unconsciously, reactively and primarily for the short term, China has plotted a long course, in which with great deliberation it joins economic growth to military power. Thirty years ago, in what may be called the "gift of the Meiji," Deng Xiaoping transformed the Japanese slogan fukoku kyohei (rich country, strong arms) into China's 16-Character Policy: "Combine the military and the civil; combine peace and war; give priority to military products; let the civil support the military."

Japan was able to vault with preternatural speed into the first ranks of the great powers because it understood the relation of growth to military potential. A country with restrained population increases and a high rate of economic expansion can over time dramatically improve its material lot while simultaneously elevating military spending almost beyond belief. The crux is to raise per-capita income significantly enough that diversions for defense will go virtually unnoticed. China's average annual growth of roughly 9% over the past 20 years has led to an absolute tenfold increase in per-capita GNP and 21-fold increase in purchasing-power-parity military expenditure. Though it could do more, it prudently limits defense spending, with an eye to both social stability – the compass of the Chinese leadership – and assimilable military modernization.

As we content ourselves with the fallacy that never again shall we have to fight large, technological opponents, China is transforming its forces into a full-spectrum military capable of major operations and remote power projection. Eventually the twain shall meet. By the same token, our sharp nuclear reductions and China's acquisitions of ballistic-missile submarines and multiple-warhead mobile missiles will eventually come level. The China that has threatened to turn Los Angeles to cinder is arguably more cavalier about nuclear weapons than are we, and may find parity a stimulus to brinkmanship. Who will blink first, a Barack Obama (who even now blinks like Betty Boop) or a Hu Jintao?

Our reductions are not solely nuclear. Consider the F-22, the world's most capable air dominance aircraft, for which the original call for 648 has been whittled to 183, leaving, after maintenance, training, and test, approximately 125 to cover the entire world. The same story is evident without relief throughout our diminished air echelons, shrinking fleets, damaged and depleted stocks, and ground forces turned from preparation for heavy battle to the work of a gendarmerie.

As the military is frustrated and worn down by a little war against a small enemy made terrible by the potential of weapons of mass destruction, the shift in the Pacific goes unaddressed as if it is unaddressable. But it is eminently addressable. We can, in fact, compete with China economically, deter it from a range of military options, protect our allies, and maintain a balance of power favorable to us.

In the past we have been able to outwit both more advanced industrial economies and those floating upon seas of cheap labor – by innovating and automating. Until China's labor costs equal ours, the only way to compete with its manufactures is intensely to mechanize our own. Restriction of trade or waiting for equalization will only impoverish us as we fail to compete in world markets. The problem is cheap labor. The solution, therefore, is automation. Who speaks about this in the presidential campaign? The candidates prefer, rather, to whine and console.

We must revive our understanding of deterrence, the balance of power, and the military balance. In comparison with its recent history, American military potential is restrained. Were we to allot the average of 5.7% of GNP that we devoted annually to defense in peacetime from 1940-2000, we would have as a matter of course $800 billion each year with which to develop and sustain armies and fleets. During World War II we devoted up to 40% of GNP to this, and yet the economy expanded in real terms and Americans did not live like paupers.

The oceans have been our battlefields since the beginning; we invented powered flight; and our automobiles still await us on the surface of the moon – our métiers are the sea, air and space. Thus, we have been blessed by geography, for with the exception of South Korea our allies in the Pacific are islands. With Japan, Australasia, our own island territories, and Admiral Nimitz's ocean, we can match and exceed indefinitely any development of Chinese strategic power – which, by definition, must take to the sea and air.

* * *

And there we will be, if we are wise, not with 280 ships but a thousand; not eleven carriers, or nine, but 40, not 183 F-22s, but a thousand; and so on. That is, the levels of military potential that traditional peacetime expenditures of GNP have provided, without strain, throughout most of our lives. As opposed either to ignominious defeat without war, or war with a rising power emboldened by our weakness and retirement, this would be infinitely cheaper.

And yet what candidate is alert to this? Who asserts that our sinews are still intact? That we can meet any challenge, especially when it can be answered with our historical strengths? That beneath a roiled surface is a power limitless yet fair, supple yet restrained? Who will speak of these things in time, and who will dare to awaken them?

Consumption Has No Victims

We consume and no one suffers. That is what we like to believe in America.

We soak up resources and we like to believe there is no consequence of that consumption.  If we were just consuming our own money, that might be true.  But, we are borrowing money from all over the world, distorting the world's resources, to feed our habit.

But, the way it works is this. We consume stuff, others do without stuff because the world trusts us to pay them back.  It is a trust we took centuries to build and yet we are destroying it in Jehovah Bush's two terms. If you are someone that makes a few dollars per day, guess what. Stuff is food. Food for you and your children. We soak up goods, someone else goes without food. At any moment, the amount of goods and services in the world is finite. One person takes from the pool, someone else does without. In the long haul, this is not true. The amount of goods and services being produced is increasing in the world, but at the moment you buy, they are fixed and interchangeable. In other words, your game box equals so man pounds of rice. And the more game boxes you buy, the more money you borrow to buy game boxes, the more the world tries to accommodate your needs and doesn't loan to the poor man to buy food. If the item you buy is a big ticket item, you probably get a disproportionate amount of the world resources dedicated to you at the expense of someone that just wants food.

Combine our high consumption with our throw-it-away almost before it is used philosophy and I believe we have the potential to waste a lot of resources. Couple that with our I don't care what I drive as long as it is big and I can look down on traffic attitude, and I think we can really burn through the resources. Finally, couple that with a military that burns through money like there is no bottom, and I think we become a sink hole of waste. With our past opulence, that was no sweat. But, that was a generation ago when we were far ahead of everyone, working hard, saving and educating our population. We do none of that well any more and our competition is not sleeping. The housing crisis are some of the roosters coming home to roost.  We are now a poor country.  Wake up America and stop living in the past.

It is still not too late to change our ways. It is a marathon and we out in front at the ten mile pole, however, the race is long and have others tucked in behind us riding in our wake, ready to pass us later in the race. As a first step, we need to review our value system.  We need to pay our debts as individuals and as a country.  Forget the tax cuts.  We need to pay double taxes for ten years to just begin to shrink our debt.  And both parties are still fighting to promise us what we want, less taxes.  We deserve what we get.

Capitalism

Capitalism is a social system based on the recognition of inalienable rights in which people are free to produce and trade and thus precondition an economic system in which all property is privately owned^[1][2] and operated for profit,^[3] and in which investments, distribution, income, production and pricing of goods and services are determined through the operation of a market economy. It is usually considered to involve the right of individuals and corporations to trade, using money, in goods, services (including finance), labor and land.

A relatively simple definition. But, most of us are either very pro-capitalism or against capitalism. The corporation is probably the first thing people think about that are "against-capitalism." The first thing, I think about being a pro-capitalism guy is the entrepreneur. The entrepreneur as a symbol is the "baby" which metaphors into the corporation. All that is good and creative about the entrepreneur is why I hold capitalism dear. It has always been my ambition to be an entrepreneur, to grow a company that is providing a good quality product or service for a reasonable price, making a profit and providing a great place to work. As this company grows, it becomes more powerful - capable of doing more good (or bad) in the world.

To oversimplify things, the government defines the rules for capitalism. And to the extent that capitalism fails to do good for society, it is up to government to redefine the boundaries of fair operation of capitalism, usually this means a fair set of rules for corporations enforced by penalties and incentives to move in the direction that supports our long term goals as a nation.

Ok let's take Exxon. First, as a shareholder I am happy that their stock keeps rising in value. As a consumer of gasoline, you see their profits as adding to the cost of your gasoline. My guess is that their technology and efficiency is holding down the cost of your gasoline much more than their profits are raising the cost of your gasoline. They are the most efficient oil company in the world. Without them in the game, the second most efficient oil company would be making the profits that Exxon is making and would push the price up of gasoline even more. Let's face it, the U.S. is running out of oil that it controls either directly or indirectly. For a long time, companies like Exxon could talk countries out of their oil for a song and dance. Not any more, countries all over the world recognize they are in the driver's seat and now demand blood money even when their oil, like Kazakhstan, is many miles under the land and must be drilled from the ocean at an angle.

Ok, what gripe to I have with Exxon. Exxon is buying up all its stock. At the present rate it will not exist. Yes, that increases the value of the stock and from a profit motive for share holders is probably the best that can be done with the money. However, I want Exxon to be an energy company and make energy available to its customers. There is not a better management team in the world that is more capable of this than Exxon. I consider it as a moral shortcoming of Exxon not to be investing and developing alternative energy sources like BP is doing. It is true that companies have a legal responsibility to make the most profit they can from the money shareholders invest. But, the question is, on what timeframe. At some point, no matter how efficient Exxon in, the supply of oil from the planet will be too small for Exxon to make a reasonable profit. Perhaps solar panels or even "clean" coal or uranium will make more sense at that time. And, I suspect those that start investing money now will be better positioned, from a profit perspective, to make lots of profits in the future.

The biggest complaint I have against American Industry, against the American Corporation, is their obsession with short term profits. Not just yearly profits, but quarterly profits. I have worked inside of corporate America for forty years. Decisions are made every day to take actions that increase the quarterly profits at the expense of the long term health of the company, which is often tied to the long term health of our nation. Financial tools are available to track every company in the U.S., trying to estimate what is going to happen to their profits next quarter. Stock prices rise or fall by huge amounts when companies miss their earning estimates by one cent. It is stupid and short-sighted. It is also immoral. Wrong. We are selling out our future with the focus on next quarter. Research and development of new products and services, for instance, new sources of energy, require money to be spent today for tomorrow. Money that lowers the profits for the upcoming quarter, and usually many more quarters to come.

We need as a people to turn our sights on how we are going to get out of the energy crisis. My belief is that this energy crunch is the real thing, not a temporary shortage, but the beginning of a global crisis that will ultimately could end in a great war. Over dramatic, perhaps. No one can doubt that part of our motivation in Iraq was to provide stability to the middle east to insure that oil kept flowing, especially from countries that are friendly to the U.S. Most of us doubt that will work and many of us think it was wrong -- but that is not the current theme so we won't go there. But, when cars sit idly beside the road and our houses are cold, what do you think we as a nation are going to do. What do you think our military industrial complex, which has a mind of its own, is going to do.

Is this fate inevitable. No, the Exxon's of the world have the ability, if not the will, to change their narrow focus on oil, to the broader scope of energy. Entrepreneurial startup companies are already creating the concepts and new products to address the energy shortage. As their fruit ripens, the Exxon's of the world can implement the technologies at an astonishing rate. Will they. If they base their decision on short term profits, no. If they base their decision on the imperative for their company to survive and profit long into the future then yes. If they view themselves has agents of change of a new future that does not depend on oil, then good things can happen.

What is the current view of Exxon. They believe there are still large reserves of oil in the ground and that if they were given access to them, we would have plenty of oil. They believe as we run out of oil that we and all other nations will become desperate enough to let them drill for oil everywhere. For those of us that are the have-nots, this is probably true. But for those that have oil in excess of their domestic needs, the opposite is true. As they see oil prices climb, there will be tendency to hoard their oil, to demand more for access to their oil. They will look at oil as a means of modernizing their country, to padding their own pockets and raising the standard of living in their country. Oil becomes the seed money to modernize their own country. We are educating the children of the oil barons at our Harvard's, so what do you think is going to happen.

Oil companies have yet to accept this fact. Exxon is living in the past and for the moment making a lot more profits than they know what to do with. Perhaps, their is another way. We can take the profits we are making as shareholders and invest in energy companies that are investing in solar, wind, etc. Now to wrap up the good and evil theme of capitalism and their agents, the corporations, what is the government's role.

The government should reward companies that are producing energy based on alternative technology, embarking on a go-to-the-moon effort to increase alternative energy supplies. We should recognize that we are falling into a black hole, which is devoid of the energy to insure the prosperity of our children. It is the central issue in America's future prosperity, or alternatively the lack of energy is the one force that can mark the beginning of the end our country and our way of life.

Food Price, Humanity and Free Markets

Don't feel sorry for yourself when you go to the market for food. Yea, it hurts your pocket book some. You might have to drop back on your NetFlix's subscription from 3 people in your family getting all the movies they want to only one movie per family per trip to the mail box. Tragic. Another American consumer gets hit in their religion, "Consumerism".

For millions of people living on less than one dollar per day, it means starvation. Not an inconvenience, it means death to them and their children. Imagine being powerless to do anything, and worse, not having the energy to care as your child dies because you have no way to bring them food. Hard to imagine in a world that has the big Mac, the Whopper, and French fries on every corner. We are pigs and we don't care that others are dying because they don't have access to our scraps. And, we don't give a damn.

And for the small majority that notices, note, I didn't say cares, what do they do. Should we send food. Yes, we can fill up the ships and send grain, even in a time of "shortage" in America. However, if you give food to a country that is starving, what happens to the farmers that our struggling to grow crops in those countries. Guess what. They go out of business, making the problem worse on the long haul. What has to be done. We have to help the farmers to grow more as people starve to save more in the future. You think it is hard to let your children learn from life. Imagine. Letting millions starve. Help me if I am wrong here, because this solution is painful.

I don't know how to go through life without seeing the sorrow, the sadness in every turn. How can Jehovah Bush say we are going to keep making ethanol from grain as people starve. How can we keep a tariff in place against Brazil that makes ethanol from sugar cane, which would free up corn from America, when people are starving. Simple, we don't give a damn in America except for ourselves. Consumerism is all that matters. We have to have our stuff, our next fix. Who cares that our our polices impact the world. America is the greatest.

Witch Hillary Flies Away

Witch Hillary. That's a woman I don't trust. Not to mention her hubby. It is easy to imagine in some dark smoke filled room (from the old days) her making a deal where Obama is booted out and she becomes the darling of the party. She wins the Presidency, because the democrats can't lose unless they kill each other off, proving that Obama couldn't have won.

McCain. I like the old dude. But, I am 60 and understand that unless you are Regan you are going to be falling asleep during cabinet meetings if you are older than 70. Oh yea, Reagan did that. No I liked Reagan, and staying awake is not all that it is cracked up to be. Well, McCain is not going to be our next President.

So, lets look at what is going to happen when the Democrats take power. Medical insurance. National retirement plan. Subsidies for solar, gasoline, etc. Higher taxes on oil companies, which means less oil in the future. More green. No drilling in Alaska, no Nuclear Power boom. Ethanol, no real change, starving people be damned. Social security, the democrats are not going to party up to the bar. Raise taxes, not likely with the recession still in full bloom when they take over. Ok, the big problem, how do you pay for the Democrats?

The truth is you can't. The military runs the country. They were not voted out and they cannot be voted out. You think I jest. Wait and see. The democrats will only cut the rate of increase of the military. Raise taxes, yes, on the rich, but not not enough to make a difference. A cut in the deficit spending to reduce the rate of inflation, not likely. So, what happens. Unbridled inflation, the dollar spiraling downward. And alas, the military starts another war. Where, probably Iran, but don't underestimate the military to capitalize on a new perceived threat and our fear, coupled with a lack of a morality, to redirect American paranoia.

Will the democrats do anything to reduce the number of nuclear weapons in the world. Nope. Remember, the military industrial complex controls that... Hopefully, the brighter ones of you should be recognizing a pattern. The only thing that can pay for the changes that the democrats will bring is a reduction in the military ... and changes in the military are off the table. Where does that leave the country? In the dumpster. Don't say you weren't warned, well to be honest, the young are not listening to the old in this country any more. Sa la vie.

Military -- What % of the Discretionary Budget

What percent is the Military of the discretionary budget of the U.S.? Discretionary means you take out all of the entitlement programs, social security, government retirement, and of course, the big one, national debt. I would guess, and since no one reads this blog I am the undisputed authority, let's say it is 50%.

Guess what, the war is extra. Kind of a bonus plan to poverty for this nation. It will mess up a trillion dollars before it is done.

So, lets imagine that we did not spend more money on the military than all other nations combined. I know, its a silly thought. And, let's imagine that we didn't waste a million killing people in the middle east via our righteous war. Say we could muffle Jehovah Bush for a moment and all those that support the "killing fields." A trillion dollars, 10^12 dollars. That's enough to educate 300 million students for a year. We don't even have that many students. We would have to educate all the Mexican and Canadian children, too. I need a number for our annual military budget so I can estimate how many of the Mexicans we will have to send home after the first year.

My point is simple, until we drop our military spending down to just the total of what all the other nations spend in the world combined, we have no chance of doing much here at home in any other area. Of course, there is no option to drop our spending down to what China or Russia together spend. Who knows what evil they have planned. Paranoia. Actually, they are smarter than us since they realize that each of us, plus a few other countries, already have the power to destroy the world -- so what else can a few trillion get you. We call it the point of diminishing returns in economics. Of course, Jehovah Bush can't be expected to grasp such concepts, not to mention our Congress.

Jehovah Bush when he retires, I hear, is going to help Al Gore explain Global Warming in 2010. By the way, I hear the ocean level has been rising for 18,000 years ... about 30 cm per year. But, that is another subject for another day.

Earth Haven - Retake

Well, that went well. Told my wife about Earth Haven and the solar house I lived in. Aside from not paying much attention, she wanted to know why she had to give up everything to go solar. I heard, "why do I have to give up anything to go solar." Hence the biggest problem, "no one wants to alter their life style for what lies ahead."

Also, I realize that converting over to a solar living style would require starting all over with this house and my life. I am returning to accepting the status quo with multiple lights on, the tv on, and the computer on all at the same time, keeping my George Foreman Grill, and nursing along my old inefficient refrigerator and dryer. The transition could be painful. I believe that is where the government has to step in.

When companies buy equipment they are allowed to depreciate the investment over the life of the equipment. This in effect removes this money over time from being considered profits and being taxable. There are also R&D tax credits, subsidies to rich farmers, etc. In addition, we have a long tradition of helping those with good lobbyists to get on government dole in one way or another. And of course, the military no longer need lobbyists since they run the show. Is it too much to expect the federal and local governments to start strongly assisting the transition to an alternatively powered country.

Didn't the government subsidy on solar end. In any case it was too feeble. A solar power system for a home will cost of the order of $20 to $40K. At the bare minimum, this should be a deduction on the income tax, perhaps spread over a decade. Even better, perhaps 10% or so should be a tax credit. The same thing goes for wind power or solar hot water heating. Passive solar should get some boost, although that is more complicated since it is easy to say a house has been designed to be passive. Perhaps, these are best judged by results. This is easily done by escalating the cost of power based on usage. A family of a fixed size pays dearly if they use more than the average power consumption for their zip code. Of course, until America notices the upcoming energy crisis and the impact it is having on our living standards, our ability to do anything else constructive, this will not be popular -- so it won't happen.

I mentioned to my tennis buddies about the solar house and giving up on all the mixers, hair dryers, etc. They were cool with it until one asked if they could gave air conditioning in the summer. I said probably not. Just shade covered houses. Well, that didn't go over well.

Anyway, I lived in a solar house in NC for four days, three of which were cloudy and rainy and my life was okay. Coupled with the other social changes in the community there, it was more fun than I have had in forever. Soon it will fade back into my memories as I get sucked back into the real world build solidly on cheap energy.

Earth Haven - The Energy Crisis

Whow!

I just spent a week living in a solar home and in a community that is trying to be self-sufficient, Earth Haven in NC. Since they are humans, they have a bucket of problems just like the rest of us. Nevertheless, I consider the experience life altering. I feel like Moses when he was given a glimpse of the promise land from high a top a hill.

This Moses is not qualified by his virtue, but by his technical skills. The people in Earth Haven are qualified by their personal courage to run an experiment with their lives for the rest of us to benefit.

I am going to be writing about what I saw and thought for years to come. But just a glimpse. If you live in a solar home on a week when it rains three days a week, guess what. You have to adjust your life and consider what energy consumption is required. Guess what, you turn off the tv, actually they didn't have a tv, but they did have a great system to watch movies on, DVD, screeen, etc. Guess what. We had to talk to each other and play board games. We watched the news from Democracy.Now on a laptop. We turned lights on in the vicinity of where we they were needed, no where else. No hair dryers (use a towel), no toasters, no microwaves, no electric mixers, no Foreman grills. And guess what, it was fine. It was more than fine, it was great. The family actually has to plan and talk to each about their day.

Now this house used propane for their heat. Others used wood stoves. Others did better with passive solar. More on all the technologies at another time.

Guess what. When you have to manage your energy consumption it forces you to make the decisions necessary to alter your lives. Imagine if all Americans had to live for a few weeks with a limited amount of energy coming into their house. Imagine a small wire coming into your house to charge your batteries. A fixed supply of energy to be used as your family deemed important. Most families are dysfunctional at some level, so the initial drama could be huge.

I can hear you now. I am not giving up my living style. Its too good. I am too happy with the life style myself and my family have. I have a right to waste as much energy as I choose. Screw the food shortage, those poor bastards who need the food that we are converting to ethanol be damned. Jehovah Bush just told us it was okay, in fact, it is good for America. If you believe Jehovah Bush, then go find another blog.

This is the beginning of a long journey, first in my mind, then hopefully in my life, to apply what I just learned this week. It is not that I saw a perfect world at Earth Haven, far from it, but I saw the rarest of events, a new concept for my life. Today I felt the first stirrings of that seed, trying to send out a small root into my consciousness. I hope to encourage the growth of that seed until it push a bud right through the top of my thick skull.

American Politics when America Was Great

Imagine back in the day, when Kennedy ran against Nixon, or later when Nixon ran against Johnson, that no one would talk about Vietnam, or Cuba, or civil rights, or the other problems facing America.

Imagine today, no one seriously talking about the pending energy crisis, the pending inflation of basic commodities like food, or a broken social security system. At least the democrats are talking about the medical health insurance crisis.

One good suggestion for the day. Imagine if when you left a company that you were allowed to keep your medical insurance policy, provided that you paid the premiums -- and the premiums stayed at the same rate paid by your ex-employer. A friend, whose wife got sick right after he got laid off, went broke paying to keep his wife going. He would have appreciated that law.

Imagine being able to carry your retirement program from one company to the next and not losing the money contributed by your past employers, i.e., instant vesting. Having worked for twelve companies that went out of business that kept their contributions, I would have appreciated that law. Now I appreciate that the social security system will probably not go broke until my children need it, which makes me feel great.

Imagine being able to keep your child under your medical policy when she passed twenty one, even though she continues to be sick as she has been all her life. My daughter would appreciate that one I reckon.

New topic. Imagine being able to buy lower cost ethanol from Brazil than America. Of course, it could happen if we canceled the tariff on Brazil's ethanol. Nope, not going to happen. The big farmers have better lobbyists than most Americans. In fact, I don't remember having any lobbyists. Perhaps that is why Americans "be screwed". Let us instead support the middle east, not Brazil ... who needs a neighbor who never causes us any problems.

McCain. Now there is a strange bird. Seems like an honest guy so what is he doing in politics. Of course, no real energy policy or plan. Maybe I should write him one and give it to him. He seems like he could use one. Maybe it would catch on and make it to the top ten important subjects, right behind why Obama's preacher sounds a little racist and divisive. Not like Lou Dobbs who is always so open minded and fair to everyone.

Okay. Tomorrow I start working on an Energy Plan. I will feel so cheated and used if it gives the politicians some cheap buzz words.

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.

Reality Shows

What do the rash of reality shows reveal about our values, our life in America.

Why is Mexico Poor

Answer: They are a struggling democracy. Vicente Fox is the first President that was not part of the PRI, their ruling autocratic party for the last century. Losing half their country to their war-like neighbor might also have some historical bearing.

And the reason we don’t want to help this struggling democracy?
Answer: There is not much in it for us, unless you think:

• It is important to have a strong healthy neighbor to our south.
• Unless you really believe in democracy and what’s left of our principles in the U.S.
• Unless you really want to make a dent in the drug war instead of playing patty-cake.
• Unless you want to have a labor pool to compete against the Chinese.

Do you think building the wall for Jehovah Bush and the kindred simple minds in Congress will help Mexico’s democracy, or us, for that matter? Good, then go support the simpletons that are proposing this solution. If you want to make money on these simpletons, find someone in Mexico that makes lightweight wood or aluminum ladders. If you need an engineer to design a ladder to get over a fence, please give me a call.

The average Mexican family living close to the U.S. border makes about $15K per year. Near Mexico’s southern boarder, the average family income is $5K. Which family poses a greater threat to America and is more likely to come across the border. Hint, only 50% of the million that cross the Mexican/U.S. border each year are Mexicans.

Why do they make more in the North. Duu. NAFTA + transportation costs. The difference in the standard of living and the social stability of the north and south comes down to one simple fact. It costs money to move goods from Southern Mexico through their old roads, through the Mexico City bottleneck, to the market (that would be us). Couple this with even cheaper labor of China and we can begin to grasp the challenge in helping this new democracy. But, the solution is conceptually simple.

Take the money earmarked for building a worthless fence between our country and build instead a four lane highway to southern Mexico. Texas should be smart enough to do this …. Or any other state who could control where the northern part of this highway ended. But, Texas has the Bush deity so there are ineligible.

Politically, of course, it is much too difficult for Jehovah Bush and gang. So, we have to wait and hope for a miracle next election day. And, we have to find a few people who care about a struggling democracy that only has a little bit of oil.

How do you sell this superhighway to Mexico. It can’t be perceived as charity, and it isn’t. It is an investment in mankind, in our brothers to the south. Make it part of an electronic system to get goods and services into the U.S. A truck on this super freeway will have an electronic pass and will be bonded. Put electronic surveillance along this road, whatever it takes to make the paranoid whole. We sell it on the grounds that we build the road, with their laborers, and then we get to set up factories in the south to get low cost laborers … a Maquilidora district similar to that near Ciudad Juarez.

The Great Wall of Mexico & the Iraq Civil War

The great wall of Mexico is in the news again. I have an idea. We need to get the Chinese to help us build it. They have experience building a wall, the Great Wall of China. I believe their wall is thousands of miles long, and our proposed wall is just 750 miles long. Next, the Chinese can hire illegal immigrants to build the wall -- we can look the other way. And just when the wall is almost done we can capture them and put them on the other side of the wall.

Then, we can make money by offering them bus rides to the end of the walls so they can come back in and keep our Border Patrol employed. No one has thought about the Border cops in all of this have they ....

Of course, all of this noise about the wall is just to keep our minds off of the terrible screw-up in Iraq. We have imposed our values and our will on a people with the result that hundreds are dying every day. They loose more people every month than we have lost throughout the entire war. Their country is on the verge of a complete breakdown, a civil war that will consume their lives for perhaps a generation. And we have no plan, now when one is the most needed. We screwed it up, and all we can say is "steady as she goes."

Plan B. Divide the country into three regions. Duh, yea along the religious borders. Divide the oil into three parts. Then let the independent states eventually, if they chose, decide how the states will join to make a country. Give everyone their space and everyone a cut of the oil pie. Of course, the transition from the present one central government that few believe in is the huge challenge. Getting them to change the course and switch to a Plan B, will require some very good diplomacy. Oh yea, I forgot, we in the great country of Jehovah Bush don't need diplomacy. We are smart enough and strong enough not to need the help of other countries. Of course, we are not the ones now laughing in Iraq. But, more likely than make such a radical transition and admit Plan A was flawed, Jehovah Bush will more than likely change Generals or something similar in Iraq. Or perhaps, support a draft. Anyway, nothing significant. We will delay going to Plan C until the next Presidential Election.

Plan C. Walk away and let tens of thousands, perhaps even millions, die in a civil war before Iran slips in and occupies the oil rich Iraq territory. Or, even worse, watch all the surrounding countries go to war to get Iraq's oil. Then let a few of the big energy hungry countries, like the U.S. and China start taking sides. All I can say, we sure our lucky to have Jehovah Bush on our side. Of course, he will be out of office by then, but we can bring him back as our spiritual leader, so he can continue to help us achieve our great destiny.

Destroying The Roots of Military Industrial Complexing

There has been some ranting and raving on this blog, its the bloggly thing to do. However, now it is time to start presenting a plan of action.

Most people agree that our government is now owned by the milatary industrial complex. How do we change that? What are the roots of their power? How do we chop them off at the roots and start again. It has to be a bold plan, small changes are not going to get the job done. There has to be structural changes, but what?

If you have opinions, speak up. I will let you think a while and then give you my opinion.

Iran and Nuclear Weapons

Let's say that Iran is really trying to build a nuclear bomb. Who are we to tell them not to. What gives us the right? We have thousands of nuclear weapons. Was this ordained by God, or Jehovah Bush. I don't think so. What in our history makes anyone in the world believe that all those nuclear weapons are safe with us. How many nuclear weapons does Russia, India, Pakistan, China, North Korea, Britian, France and Isarael have.
Lets say that Iran gets Nuclear weapons. Is the world less safe? Give me a break. What makes you think it is safe now. Russia, China, and North Korea are certainly role models. And of course, we can justify having thousands of nuclear weapons. We set such a great example for the world. We don't have ten thousand nuclear weapons anymore. We could probably only knock out the plant a few hundred times. I wonder if even the cockroach would survive. So, our moral imperative is what again.
And as customary here, all praise to Jehovah Bush.

Who Do We Love

Subsidies to farmers, mostly large corporations, amount to about $20 billion per year. Guess what we spent on upper education. Half this amount. I guess keeping American farm corporations is more important than our children. Or, perhaps, our congressman don't care about what is good for America, all they care about is getting some pork belly for their district/state and getting re-elected.

Perhaps we should limit terms to eight years. Get in and do some good, or get out. Don't let them stay in long enough to buy their future satisfying special interest groups.

What can we do. Not much. The country is not run for us anymore. The only feeble thing we could do is to vote against the incumbents. All Praise to Jehovah Bush and His Noble Band.