Thursday - May 22, 2008
This is what you get when lawyers run the government
The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation on Tuesday allowing the Justice Department to sue OPEC members for limiting oil supplies and working together to set crude prices, but the White House threatened to veto the measure.
The bill would subject OPEC oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela, to the same antitrust laws that U.S. companies must follow.
The measure passed in a 324-84 vote, a big enough margin to override a presidential veto.
The legislation also creates a Justice Department task force to aggressively investigate gasoline price gouging and energy market manipulation.
Are they out of their ever loving minds? How terminally stupid can you be and not fall over dead? Yes, OPEC is nearly a monopoly. We’ve known that for 35 years. So what? Yes, they are a massive cartel that has the world by the nadgers. This is news? Of course they are fixing the prices and fixing the amounts delivered. You can’t do anything about it, other than invading their countries. That’s it.
And just how do you think “our friends the Saudis” are going to react to being sued for price gouging? How about “Ok, never mind, we’ll sell our oil to someone else.”?
This is another example of our do-nothing government wasting time and money just for appearance’s sake. It’s bad enough this utterly useless measure was even considered, yet alone worked on. But when it came down to voting, an awful lot of “Conservative” Republicans went over to the other side and supported this “We’re all victims, let’s sue somebody to make things fair bill. Hope you clods are wearing comfortable shoes in November, because it’s walking time.
The way to energy independance is two-fold. First, you move heaven and earth to maximize your own production. Second, you do whatever you can to eliminate or minimize aspects of your own economy that run on imported fuels. It isn’t that hard to figure out. Yes, it’s going to require some sacrifices. Tough. Fucking. Shit. And it might cost you some money. Too bad. And you might rail against it like a cranky 2 year old because it’s an evil Socialist Agenda Taking Away Your Rights. Well, there may be some truth in that. But one thing you can say for Socialism is that it gets things done much faster. And we need solutions. In place. Yesterday. But let’s keep things in balance too; we just might have to put up with a bit more pollution for a few years. An endangered specie or two might go bye-bye. Again, that’s just too bad. Let’s shoot for “good enough” instead of only be willing to accept perfection.
- No new private vehicles that run on gasoline should be for sale that don’t get at least 22mpg around town. RVing just became a thing of the past. Too bad. So did mongo truckasauruses. Also too bad. Better buy your 0-60 in 4 seconds hot rod now too.
- No new private vehicles that run on diesel should be for sale that don’t get at least 25mpg around town. You’ve been spoiled thinking that your desires are your needs. Playtime is over; it’s time to grow up. Think of it as a sacrifice you have to make for the national good.
- Not a watt of electricity should be generated using oil. That’s what nukes are for. Use them. Sure, give wind and solar a try. Keep the hydroelectric we have. But build 200 more nuclear generators, right now, until 90% of all electricity is generatred by “mostly green” sources. We need 5 times as much electricity as we currently have.
- No home should have oil heat. Period. We have lots and lots of natural gas and propane. And electricity. Here’s a tax credit to offset a third of the changeover cost.
- Let’s find a balance point with automobiles. Sorry, but you can’t have it all. Today’s darling vehicle, the Toyota Prius, doesn’t get any better mileage than the 1990 Geo Metro. Yes, safety is important, but today’s cars are overbuilt little tanks. I think better driver training and better traffic enforcement would more than offset “less safe” cars. We are a nation of poor drivers, isolated and innattentive to our surroundings. That stops now. While we have made cars so much more crash resistant, nowhere near enough has been done to make cars crash avoidant. And 95% of the time you can avoid the crash if your car can handle and if you are paying attention.
- Establish minimum braking standards and set the bar high. All new cars must be able to stop in 180 feet or less from 70mph, 10 times in a row.
- Establish minimum handling standards and set the bar at a decent height. All cars must be able to pass the cone test at X mph, and hold at least Z g on the skidpad.
- Establish a common bumper height range. Super lifted pickup trucks are no longer street legal. Too bad.
- Go back to the giant brake lights we had a few years back. It’s a good idea.
- The downside to the recent trend of high sided vehicles is poorer visibility. Figure out some standards: any driver has to be able to see this close around their car while driving.
- Design cost effective adjustable seats and pedals so that short people can be raised up to a proper height for better visibility, and so that they can stay a safe distance away from the steering wheel airbag and still work the foot pedals.
- Cup holders, iPod holders, TVs in the dashboard, and cellphones in your car. GONE. Pay attention to the task at hand. If you need to eat, talk, or entertain yourself, pull off the road.
- Start handing out tickets for super loud car stereos in use while driving. Hearing what’s going on is a good part of driving awareness.
- Massive nationwide campaign to stop tailgaters. Big fines. On any given morning New Jersey could garner $10,000,000 in fines for this one. Tailgating is probably responsible for a huge percentage of rear-end accidents, especially on the highway. You don’t drive NASCAR; you don’t draft on the street.
- For the millionth time: drill, drill, drill. Screw NIMBY, screw your view of the ocean, screw the polar bears and the caribou and the endangered wiggly bugs. Drill. But try to do it without spilling, m’kay?
Posted by Drew458 on 05/22/2008 at 08:58 AM
Filed Under: • Government • Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices •
• Comments (4) • Trackbacks(0) Permalink •
Five Most Recent Trackbacks:
Once Again, The One And Only Post
(4 total trackbacks)
Tracked at iHaan.org
The advantage to having a guide with you is thɑt an expert will haѵe very first hand experience dealing and navigating the river with гegional wildlife. Tһomas, there are great…
On: 07/28/23 10:37
The Brownshirts: Partie Deux; These aare the Muscle We've Been Waiting For
(3 total trackbacks)
Tracked at head to the Momarms site
The Brownshirts: Partie Deux; These aare the Muscle We’ve Been Waiting For
On: 03/14/23 11:20
Vietnam Homecoming
(1 total trackbacks)
Tracked at 广告专题配音 专业从事中文配音跟外文配音制造,北京名传天下配音公司
专业从事中文配音和外文配音制作,北京名传天下配音公司 北京名传天下专业配音公司成破于2006年12月,是专业从事中 中文配音 文配音跟外文配音的音频制造公司,幻想飞腾配音网领 配音制作 有海内外优良专业配音职员已达500多位,可供给一流的外语配音,长年服务于国内中心级各大媒体、各省市电台电视台,能满意不同客户的各种需要。电话:010-83265555 北京名传天下专业配音公司…
On: 03/20/21 07:00
meaningless marching orders for a thousand travellers ... strife ahead ..
(1 total trackbacks)
Tracked at Casual Blog
[...] RTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPL [...]
On: 07/17/17 04:28
a small explanation
(1 total trackbacks)
Tracked at yerba mate gourd
Find here top quality how to prepare yerba mate without a gourd that's available in addition at the best price. Get it now!
On: 07/09/17 03:07
DISCLAIMER
THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.
Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:
It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.
- Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
- Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
- Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
- Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere
THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.
Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner
Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.