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REQUIEM

Below are the two final essays to be posted on Allegiance and Duty Betrayed. The first one is written by a friend -- screen name 'Euro-American Scum' -- who, over the past four years, has been the most faithful essayist here. He has written about everything from his pilgrimage to Normandy in 2004 to take part in the 60th–year commemoration of the invasion, to his memories of his tour in Vietnam. His dedication to America’s founding principles ... and those who have sacrificed to preserve them over the past 200+ years ... is unequaled. Thank you, E-A-S. It has been a privilege to include your writing here, and it is a privilege to call you my friend.

The second essay is my own farewell. And with it I thank all of the many regular visitors, and those who may have only dropped in occasionally, for coming here. I hope you learned something. I hope a seed or two was planted. But, even if not, I thank you for stopping by ... 25 March, 2010

5/23/2008

Congress: Oil Execs
Pot: Kettle

oil_crisis.jpg

Oil Crisis:

A lot of folks can’t understand how we came to have an oil shortage here in our country.

Well, there’s a very simple answer.

Nobody bothered to check the oil.

We just didn’t know we were getting low.

The reason for that is purely geographical.

Our oil is located in:

-- Alaska --

-- California --

-- coastal Florida --

-- coastal Louisiana --

-- Kansas --

-- Oklahoma --

-- Pennsylvania --

-- Texas --

Our dipsticks are located in Washington, D.C.

______________________________

Just once, just once, I'd love to see a congressional hearing where congressmen do the hearing.

No speeches. No finger-pointing. No made-for-TV broadsides.

They just sit. They just listen.

For once, just once, I want to see this ritual of dragging oil executives to Capitol Hill an informative event, and not a media one.

For once, just once, I'd like the witnesses treated like professionals, and not like piñatas.

And for once, just once, I'd like to see the tables turned.

Let the witnesses question the questioners.

The piñatas, the politicians.

Let them demand of Congress:

You think we're making too much money? What are you doing with all our money?

You won't let us explore for more oil here, but you're ripping OPEC for not producing more oil over there? Who's the bigger hypocrite? Or the more sanctimonious ass?

And year after year, you repeatedly reject the president's energy plan, then have the temerity to complain he has no plan?

Frankly, senators, you have no soul.

You'd sooner point fingers at us, than get down to work for us.

Just like you'd sooner rip successful American companies who refine that pricey oil than the slippery folks at OPEC who provide it.

Just whose side are you on ... the folks who want to get that oil here ... or the thieving bastards you kowtow to over there?

Then for once, just once, I'd like the oil guys to stand up in unison and say, ‘Senators, we have companies to run.

We're sure you have press conferences to conduct.’

We've got to wake up here, folks.

And fast.

We have to drill.

And we have to drill this simple point through some environmentalists' thick skulls.

If we do it now, we can look forward to having it soon. Not real soon, but sooner than if we do nothing at all.

Pity is we could have had it much sooner had we explored much earlier.

When we had the chance, and the legislation, and the opportunity.

But we nixed the chance, and rejected the legislation, and blew an opportunity.

Now, we're blowing our future.

Because this isn't about protecting polar bears.

This is about protecting us.

And our very economic future.

Look, I'm not saying oil is the answer.

But I know, not getting so much oil from guys who'd sooner wish us dead isn't the answer.

So look for alternatives here.

Look at solar here, and wind here, and nuclear here.

And yes, look for oil here.

But for god's sake, do something here.

Because it ain't getting any friendlier there.

So here's what stops now.

The blame game. The press conference game. The kangaroo court parading oil execs game.

The whole 'I'm outraged' game.

Because you know what?

I'm outraged that you, Congress, keep sayin’ you're outraged, but don't do a damn thing about it.

So stop talking, start doing.

Stop blocking, start exploring.

And while you're at it, start looking for the backbone I know you hide.

It's just above the ass I know you have.

Common Sense, with Neil Cavuto

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cavuto may not be the most eloquent pundit around, but he has more common sense than all the others combined.

Anonymous said...

Love it!

Anonymous said...

#1: LOL!
#2: Kudos to Cavuto!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for ending my day with a good laugh and a good dose of healthy sarcasm. ;)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the chuckle, and Happy Memorial Day to you and yours, Joanie!

Anonymous said...

Awesome!

Anonymous said...

I agree with Freedomson. Neil Cavuto is rarely profound, but he's honest and perceptive- which is why he's one of my favorite commentators.

Anonymous said...

Just a reminder to everyone here: Every neighborhood has a Memorial Day service. Attend yours!

Anonymous said...

The oil companies do have some things to answer for, but in general the demonization of the oil companies is just another prong of the anti-capitalist crusade against all business interests. The drug companies and insurance companies are high on the list as well.

I like what Cavuto says about turning the tables on Congress but it'll never happen.

Anonymous said...

Forget the car sales. Forget the department store madness. Forget the barbecues. Remember our troops, past and present.

Anonymous said...

In 1971, Ayn Rand published The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution

The essay begins with a description of what daily life might be like for an American couple after a “return to nature”. She then continues, writing "That, of course is fiction."

As you read the rest, in your mind, substitute the word "oil" for "technology".
~~~~~
"In real life, there is no such thing as a gradual descent from civilization to savagery. There is a crash - and no recovery, only the long, drawn-out agony of chaos, helplessness and random death, on a mass scale. There is no such thing as retrogressing “a little.” There is no such thing as a “restrained progress.” You are hearing many voices today that object to an “unrestricted technology.” A restricted technology is a contradiction in terms.

What is not fiction, however, are the countless ways in which your life - and any meaning, comfort, safety or happiness you may find in life - depends on technology. The purpose of the far too brief example I gave you ways to prompt you to make a similar, personal inventory of what you would lose if technology where abolished - and then to give a moment’s silent thanks every time you use one of the labor- and therefore, time- and therefore, life-saving devices created for you by technology.

If someone proposed to reduce you to the state I described, you would scream in protest. Why don’t you? It is being proposed loudly, clearly and daily all around you. What is worse, it is being proposed in the name of love for mankind.

There are three major reasons why you, and most people, do not protest.

(1) You take technology - and its magnificent contributions to your life - for granted, almost as if were a fact of nature, which will always be there. But it is not and will not.

(2) As an American you are likely to be very benevolent and enormously innocent about the nature of evil. You are unable to believe that some people can advocate man’s destruction for the sake of man’s destruction - and when you hear them, you think they don’t mean it. But they do.

(3) Your education - by the same kind of people - has hampered your ability to translate and abstract idea into its actual, practical meaning and, therefore, has made you indifferent to and contemptuous of ideas. This is the real American tragedy.

It is these three premises that you now have to check.

The attack on technology is being put over on you by means of a package deal tied together by strings called “ecology”.
~~~~~
--Ayn Rand, The Anti-Industrial Revolution, January-February, 1971

Anonymous said...

Interestinger and interestinger.