‘No one goes full retard’ edition

August 24, 2008

I dedicate this post to the fringe political movement against the movie, “Tropic Thunder,” who want to ban the movie not because it is lame but because it uses the word, “retard” too much. Organizers of the boycott say it is hate speech. I say it is the market force of 12 year old boys whether they are that way chronologically or behaviorally.

The odd thing is that this protest will bring out people in droves because Americans are ape-wild over this type of humor. Without this protest this movie may or may not have done well, now it will be huge.

“Going full retard” will enter our lexicon and maybe it should with the current presidential administration (although the mentally challenged are have far more sense than Cheney & Company).The mentally or developmentally challenged human beings deserve dignity, compassion, and respect. Retards are willfully, gleefully, and belligerently ignorant and incompetent.They deserve our scorn and a swift kick in the butt.

Going Full Retard: Drilling Off-shore

No one goes full retard? I disagree. Drilling off our shores will be truly “going full retard.” According to the Department of Energy, it will be about 10-20 years before oil can result. Industry experts say 12 or 15 years. Of course, the oil companies will tell us there are gazillions of oil in the ground and they can have cheaper gasoline in America’s gas pumps in a couple of years if not months. Anwar has about 1-2 years worth of oil and then we are back where we started from. Domestically, we only have 2 or 3% of the world’s reserves while we use 25% of the world’s reserves. The Federal Mineral Management Services estimates that unexplored areas offshore of the U.S. that contain roughly 18 billion barrels of crude oil. We can drill everywhere and we will soon be exactly where we are right now. The problem is that we haven’t drilled enough, the problem is we consume too much and are not willing to push for renewable energy technology now.

Gas prices are going down, because Americans are using less and that was accomplished without one additional hole in the ground.

The oil companies don’t bother to tell us that most if not all of what they will pump will go directly to our Chinese overlords who are hosting the most excellent of Olympic games (Why is it that it is always the most oppressive of totalitarian regimes put on the most spectacular games? Boggle. Yo, NBC. Next time layoff the beach volleyball. Okay?m).

The oil companies will also try to tell us that it will take forever to develop renewable energy. The point is they do not know how much oil they will find and they are lying to us. It is more likely that they will ruin our coasts for little gain for the American people. These people do not care about our coasts and they do not care about the average American. Drilling will not stop people from hurting from high gasoline prices and heating costs. It just won’t. As long as Americans cling to their addiction to fossil fuels, the oil companies will take every last cent they have and make them grateful to them for it.

The oil market is international and drilling domestically will do squat. Conservation and using renewable alternatives are the ONLY way to make energy less expensive for the American people. The ONLY way to true independence is renewable energy sources: wind, solar, biomass, wave power, algae fuel, hydrogen, and other methods of energy. We need to have the equivalent of the Apollo or Manhattan project towards these and other technologies.

We need distributed power instead of the old model of big oil rigs and power plants because they are too vulnerable to man made or natural disaster. Oil rigs off the coast are these big targets that can be taken out and disrupt our economy. If we conserve energy, we can generate enough power through renewable sources.

Americans consume so mindlessly and rather than change their bad behavior they want to ruin our coasts because they do not think long term effects of their actions. Americans demand larger and larger houses. 1,500 square feet to 2,266 square feet between 1970 and 2000 to 2495 in 2005

According to the Department of Energy, it would take 20 years to bring new leases into full production, and even then the impact on gas prices would be negligible.

Caught in an irrational panic loop, Americans are willing to ruin our coasts to benefit the Chinese and the Indians who are about to copy us in our mindlessly retarded consumption. That is going full retard.

There is Global Warming and the role of fossil fuels play in making it worse. Almost everyday we see effects of climate change on societies across the globe as 5000 year old weather and growing patterns have been disrupted. It is retarded, knowing that fossil fuels are making our planet less able to support us living here and insisting we expend any resources at all in looking for it. Given that we are in an era of extreme weather events, our coasts are vulnerable to hurricanes like Katrina, which caused damage to drilling platforms and pipes.

Drilling off the California coast is retarded. We and entire West Coast are a part of what is called “the ring of fire.” We have faults that can create very large and dangerous earthquakes which could wreck havoc on any pipelines or drilling platforms which would create an ecological disaster. Drilling off our coast has already resulted in ecological disasters.

Furthermore, oil companies already have 7,000 leases to drill offshore, but only about 20% of those leases are currently producing oil.

Coastal drilling also heightens environmental risks and jeopardizes tourism to the beaches of Florida – a $50 billion industry. Hurricane Katrina, for instance, destroyed 123 oil platforms, sending 9 million gallons of oil into the Gulf and covering parts of New Orleans in a mix of crude and mud.

Drilling advocates would have us believe that not drilling is un-American and we should thank our lucky stars these oil companies are willing to drill for oil. Allowing offshore drilling is simply give-away to bloated oil companies who have never given back to our country and at every chance have bilked Americans. Notice when the price of oil goes up a couple of cents, the price of gasoline zooms up immediately. When price of oil goes down, it takes relatively forever to see the price go down. Little by little they are conditioning us to accept $4.10 per gallon as cheap, and inching it ever higher so eventually we will say to ourselves how 5 bucks a gallon is a deal.

As it is the oil companies have been allowed drilling leases up the yin-yang and we have yet to see any real controlling of costs.

Allowing offshore drilling off our shores “goes full retard” no matter how you look at it. Tell our representatives to protect our shores and demand real energy independence or be voted out.