Some Solutions To Our Problems

As the character in the movie "Night Shift", played by Michael Keaton says, "I'm an idea man." So, too, am I. I think of all the problems facing America, and I don't see hopelessness. I see possibilities to stop the madness which has been created and redirect our energies into policies which will truly make a difference. Our problems are many, so I can't spell out all the solutions in one blog post. So, I will tackle our problems one by one, which is the purpose for creating this blog in the first place.
With this in mind, today I want to talk about solutions for energy. Think about our planet and the resources which it contains. The vast majority of the oil on the planet is controlled by nations which, at their core, hate us. Oh, the Saudis pretend to be our friends, but only because we enrich them by buying our oil from them. In reality, they look on us as a decadent, lazy nation with no morals or values except worship of the dollar. The problem is that our entire economy is based on hydrocarbon energy, and the automobile is essential in our society. What, then, to do?
First of all, I think that the only energy sources which make sense are ones that don't cost us anything. Solar power, wind power, geothermal, and hydroelectric power are all given to us by nature. We should be working with the fervor of a Manhattan Project on perfecting efficient solar cells. Electric cars should be coated with solar materials, or perhaps some engaging entrepeneur will invent a paint product which contains solar power capability. Electric cars shouldn't need to plug in to re-charge, they should only need to be parked in daylight.
Obviously, this kind of technology is a ways away, but perhaps not so far away as we might think. For sure, the big energy companies are not going to like this type of paradigm shift and will throw up whatever obstacles they can to stop it. Why? Because they can't sell sunlight, that's why!
Since this type of technology is a few years in the future, we need to use technologies we control for our short term energy needs. We need wind turbines powering our homes and neighborhoods. We need clean coal for our electrical needs which can't be met by wind and hydro power. We have the filtering and scrubbing technology to make this possible. We need to convert our automobiles to natural gas and wean ourselves from foreign oil. This is something which could be done relatively simply and with minimal cost. We need to get most over the road trucks off of our highways and start to haul freight with trains. We could create hubs where local trucks would come and pick up the trailers carried to the hub by a train, and the trucks would then deliver the goods. Having large rigs driving hundreds of thousands of miles per year, especially when they are dead-heading, is inefficiency at its worst. Changing the way we do things would eliminate jobs in certain industries, such as oil transportation and storage, but it would add jobs in other industries, such as those which would create our natural gas infrastructure.
To accomplish any of this, we must first make our lawmakers immune to the power of the lobbyists and the intoxicating effects of big money. How do we do this? This is fodder for another post, which I will write tomorrow, May 3rd.

Liberal Policies Have Wrecked America

I look at the history of this country for the last forty-five years or so and can't help but become disheartened. Liberal policies have wrecked the America I once knew. The worst part is that most of these policies have been implemented under the guise of fairness and equity, when the real purpose has been to keep those who write the rules in power. Take for instance, our debt. Yes, our debt has been created by both parties, but I would argue that the great portion of it, despite liberal rhetoric, is the fault of liberals. Liberals created welfare. Liberals created Social Security. Liberals created a host of government programs that take money from people who earn it and give it to people who, for the most part, waste it. Liberals controlled the congress for most of the past forty-five years, except for a slight Republican Senate majority for a couple of years under Reagan, and a few years when Bill Clinton was president. Oh yeah, that also happened to be a time period when we actually ran some yearly surpluses. Congress controls the purse strings, remember, and it wasn't until Republicans got control (for a short time) that we were able to run a surplus. However, the left then told all those on the dole that Republicans were taking away their welfare and other goodies, and voila!--they were voted back into power. Of course, Republicans didn't help themselves by trying to act like faux Democrats.
Forty-five years ago we were the greatest creditor nation on Earth. Now we are the greatest debtor nation on Earth, and if Obama's policies continue to be implemented by a Democrat-controlled Congress, our nation will crumble under the load of an aggregate debt which will exceed 20 Trillion dollars by the year 2020. Debt service alone will be in excess of nine hundred billion dollars a year, and that doesn't even include touching the principle.
So, what have we gotten for the trillions and trillions of dollars we have given to the poor of America? A sub-class that has become dependent on government handouts for its existence. A whole generation of people who don't have to work; all they have to do is wait for Friday and the "paycheck" that comes on that day. We have a system now, once again thanks to the liberals, which rewards single mothers and penalizes married couples. Why not have more babies, if each one means you get more money? Who cares about them anyway? It's the check that matters. We have farm subsidies on which we spend billions, a Department of Education which has presided over the collapse of our once envied education system, an IRS which has become a many-tentacled hydra reaching into all facets of our lives, (and which is in the process of adding an additional sixteen thousand additional agents to enforce our newest liberal entitlement program--also known as "Obamacare"). Does anyone but me wonder why we need a Commerce Department, or at least wonder why we need one as big as we have?
Now the liberal establishment wants to cram "Cap and Trade" down the collective throat of the American taxpayer. This will cost over a trillion dollars and, in my opinion, is the height of hubris. We think we can change the world's climate by enacting a few economy-wrecking rules? We're not even sure if global warming is caused by man. The total amount of pollutants released by industrialized man pales in comparison to what the volcanoes do to our climate. If man has caused global warming, why was it much warmer on Earth in the 1100's? Why have we had at least six ice ages and six meltings that we know of in the last 150,000 years? The global warming alarmists base their cries for action on temperature graphs not much more than 100 years old, yet the Earth has been here for four billion. We need to stop the liberals in their tracks. Now. Before they destroy the United States any further.