In keeping with my traditionalist philosophy of what news is, I share this evening’s top stories:
- Scientists Create First Synthetic Cell, Opening New Era in Biology (WSJ) — It can reproduce itself. Freaky enough for you?
- Stocks Tumble as Investors See Europe’s Crisis Imperiling U.S. (NYT) — Here’s hoping they settle down tomorrow, because frankly, we’ve got enough economic problems in this country without importing more.
- Fix Border Policy, Mexican Leader Tells U.S. Congress (NPR) — And he doesn’t mean following the lead of Arizona, in case you wondered.
- SC Immigration Hearing Gets Unruly (thestate.com) — Security had to come in to deal with an angry crowd. Which is sort of what you get when you bring up an issue like this for the sake of political theater, with no actual chance of passing anything this year.
- Blanket of Oil Invades Louisiana’s Delicate Wetlands (FoxNews) — Gov. Bobby Jindal says, “The Day We’ve Been Fearing Is Upon Us.”
- US vows punishment for North Korea over ship sinking (BBC) — This seems to be getting nastier by the day. Bears watching.
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Damn oil companies. Damn “drill baby drill” mantra. And yes, damn President Obama. It’s time to stop this insane rush to drill oil in 5000 feet of water, the pristine tundra of the ANWR and virutally everywhere else. We need to build a renewable energy infrastructure and cut waaaaay back on our extravagant use of energy. No president since Carter has put forth sensible energy policy. And Carter is ridiculed as a poor president? My admiration for the man from Plains only grows larger by the day.
The Korean incident is scary. Not sure the media is giving it enough coverage. But it is a pretty big news week. We’ll see how it plays out. My opinion is to let the Koreans handle it.
N. Korea has me worried. I hope we don’t have a new madman, similar to Hitler here.
Bud, If we’d stuck to the energy policy Mr. Carter began, we wouldn’t have the problems we have today.
@ Karen–I fear we may.
I don’t disagree with bud about offshore drilling. To me, it has always been an overly risky way to extract oil. There have been oil spills coming from offshore drilling from the beginning. There are still some remnants of a similar incident that happened over 30 years ago. But, that one didn’t have the impact this one will.
As for onshore drilling, I have been to some oil fields and refineries and know the potential for an environmental disaster. I also know there are enforceable local, state, and federal regulations that are strictly enforced by officials and dedicated employees of the oil companies.
But we are still dependent upon oil and for the present, we will remain dependent for decades to come. Transition to alternate energy sources takes time and to rework or retool our infrastructure to accomodate new technology is not something that will happen overnight, nor should it.
I find it most troubling when we send elected representatives to Washington who still refuse to work for the good of all, not just a few special interests. I find it troubling when progress is delayed because of political infighting and manufactured reasons to oppose reasonable legislation.
We have had the technology for decades that would have long ago reduced the demand for oil to power our automobiles. Lee made light of my comments when I relayed some information from a close family member who actually knew and witnessed some of the technology available that would have had a positive impact on transportation. Lifetime batteries, tires that get 200,000 to 300,000 miles, carburetors and ignition systems that would burn all fuel efficiently and result in 40 to 60 mpg with conventional combustion engines. Safety features that were introduced only AFTER the government forced big auto’s hand.
As a conservative, I do not disagree with the runaway greed of corporations whose only purpose is to enhance the bottom line, to hell with everything else. I have no problem with stricter regulations of industry, Wall Street, and health care reform. In any democracy or republic, there must be rules, laws, and regulations and they must be obeyed and if not, enforced wearing the blindfold of equal justice for all.
There must be a balance in what is acceptable for the government to take care of and everything else left to the individual to be responsible for. Most of us forget, overall, we are a young country and still growing and finding our way. We will make mistakes and try things that will result in failure or less than desired results. One program will step on Joe Blow’s toes and another will step on John Doe’s toes.
We are still a country that does not like radical changes coming too soon and too often. We are still a country that does not like too much intrusion into our private lives by the government, liberal or conservative.
I will stop for now because I have work to do. Forgive my long discourse or rant if you will but over the past few years, I have been going through some changes in thought, perception, and recognition of the reality of life. Age will do that to you.
Agreed that North Korea is scary. Has always been more of a threat than Iran in my opinion, because power is more centralized in NK and at least there is obvious internal dissension within Iran. Bud, “letting the Koreans handle it” sounds appealing, but I think the the real key to containing or solving the Korean problem lies in the long run with China.
But we are still dependent upon oil and for the present, we will remain dependent for decades to come. Transition to alternate energy sources takes time and to rework or retool our infrastructure to accomodate new technology is not something that will happen overnight, nor should it.
-Bart
We’ve already had decades, three to be exact, to accomodate new technologies. Now we need a crash program. Given the current financial environment the government can devote resources in that direction. I’d spend some stimulus money to rework our electric grid to allow it to tap into areas that have good wind resources. Same for solar. We could also build an electric car infrastructure for re-charging and battery swapping. To generate the electricity we need some nuclear, although that is fraught with many of the problems we have with fossil fuels. And we can use a bit more natural gas.
Ultimately though we have to downsize our lives. We can build electric cars that go 200 miles on a charge but only if we reduce the weight of the vehicles and learn to live without AC and maybe even heat. Bicycles are also an attractive way to get around once we have a safe environment for folks to ride.
We can learn quickly to get rid of oil and coal or we can continue to suffer the environmental consequences. It’s high time we got on with this.
Letting the Koreans handle it may be like letting Poland or Austrian, or France for that matter, handle Germany.