The American Spectator

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Sensible Solutions

6.11.07 @ 12:01AM

(Page 3 of 10)

Now if the American people are, indeed, a whole lot smarter, etc. then the political class, then how come the American people keep reelecting the same unsmart and uncommitted to political virtue politicians to public office? If a clear majority of the "American people" truly wanted workable, albeit unmoderate, solutions, we would elect such politicians and get such solutions. We get only the government that a majority of the actual voting citizens wish to have.

I would submit that a rather large plurality of the "American people" simply do not want to be bothered by such things as government and economics and logic and history and problems needing solutions. They simply want someone else to take care of all that, and let them go about their hedonistic, narcissistic way. After all, American Idol or some other "reality" show is on TV to watch.

And of course their attention span is informed by the TV clock. All problems must be solved in no more than one hour with time out for commercials. That is why no war against any real foe can work anymore. I would also suggest that we are more lucky than we deserve to still be able to find dedicated, serious, young citizens to man our amazingly great military.

Every once in a while, something boils to the surface that so enrages the populace that they awaken from their slumber and force the governing elite to take notice and pay heed. 9/11 was one such something. The immigration mess would seem to be another such something. Americans, it would seem, simply are not going to stand for the illegal alien amnesty that the hoi polloi are determined to shove down our throats.

I would suggest that the path to true problem solving in our society starts with the disbarrment of a minimum of 25% of all lawyers in our country. It should then continue with the firing of 50% of all law professors and the closing of 50% of all law schools. Next a maximum age limit of, oh say 60, should be enforced for the practice of law. This provision could sunset in 50 years. Finally our entire civil legal system must be converted to a "loser pays" system.

Enactment of my idea would then allow a whole plethora of non-lawyers to get together and solve the rest of our problems with a good deal less interference and disruptive hate and discontent from the "I know what is best for you" nags and nannies at the ACLU and other such distructive groups, and a good deal more common sense and sense of what solutions are actually workable.
-- Ken Shreve
New Hampshire, formerly of the Socialist People's Republic of Maryland.

In his article Mr. Henry uses:

"Example? Can we agree that there are policy problems with health care? Its cost goes up at least twice as fast as the inflation rate. If you create a government-sponsored element of health care, like the new Medicare prescription drug entitlement, its cost rises even faster than that."

This legislation was written by a group of Drug Co. policy writers and sponsored and paid for by them. If you aren't allowed to negotiate for lower drug prices, you can see this would be a false example of Government control.
-- Joe Mahoney
Athens,Texas

OIL THE OPTIONS
Re: R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.'s Oil Is Not Well:

I guess if R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. of all people, has accepted Peak Oil, it is time to sell oil stocks short and buy up shares of GM and Ford Motor in anticipation of the next SUV boom. Oil has had boom and bust cycles of price and supply since Edwin Drake drilled the first oil well 150 years ago, and that the especially skeptical are convinced is a sign that the price bubble will pop.

The oil world is divided into Cornucopians, who preach "don't worry, be happy" and Doomers, who congregate at a Web site called The Oil Drum. The Cornucopians at CERA are telling us that there are projects in the works to increase oil production to 100 MBPD by 2010 and perhaps 110 MBPD by 2015, easily taking care of the worrisome increase in demand from India and China. The Doomers tell a tale that the wolf as at the door, only this time for real instead of in the 1970s when they were conducting a practice drill, that of the 85 MBPD world oil production, 10 MBPD comes from Saudi alone and of that, 5 MBPD comes from the Mother of All Oil Fields, an oil patch the size of Southern Wisconsin called Ghawar. There was a recent long and technically-detailed post on the The Oil Drum explaining that Ghawar is nearly filled to the brim with the water that has been pumped into it to drive the oil to the surface, and once Ghawar has been "watered out," not only will this mark the actual peak of oil production, it will be the beginning of the end of civilization as we know it and we will have to revert to growing radishes in the back yard and using horse and buggy to drive to work if we even still have jobs.

This gloomy assessment of Ghawar was marked with hoots and holler and cheers from the comments section. This was happy news for these Cassandras; by golly there are Achean Greeks in that wooden horse and we are all going to die, but at least we have been vindicated!

In away the happy folks at CERA and the gloomy folks at The Oil Drum, along with R. Emmett Tyrrell and Boone Pickens, are all on the same wavelength about peak "oil." The CERA prognostication is that "conventional oil" component will decline by 5 MBPD, but 20 MBPD of "unconventional oil" will pick up the slack; some of this will be Canada's tar sands, but most will be "gas to liquids." There is a lot of natural gas in remote parts of the world, either gas that is discarded by flaring in oil production or "stranded gas" that is not used, and this gas can be converted directly to Diesel fuel by a process that can be used to convert coal to liquid fuel, only it is a lot easier using clean gas instead of sulferous and ashy coal as a feedstock.

To know that world production of 85 MBPD is the peak and that oil prices will only continue to rise is a powerful piece of information to guide all manner of investment as well as economic policy decisions. For all I know, 85 MBPD will be a peak because high oil prices will trigger "demand destruction," which will cause oil prices to collapse, starting the cycle once again until production exceeds that magic number 30 years from now. We can project increased demand from China as far as the eye can see, but high energy prices in the U.S. may depress the consumer market for China's export goods, which could trigger a collapse of their shaky business loan system, which could lead to a collapse in demand and price for oil.

Letter to the Editor

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