That said, it is nevertheless NOT a myth that oil generates wealth.
No doubt.
Professional sports racketeering is one of the things that this country needs to take on head to head, like a contact sport.
Who the hell cares what performance-enhancing drugs are taken by PROFESSIONAL ATHELETES...modern day Gladiators...who are grown people making handsome livings at running/jumping/catching et al. They can sign waivers re: health/insurance, and assume the risk.
Diversion, diversion, diversion. Gettin' the Prudes and the Holier Than Thou's in a dither over DRUGS...NOT DRUGS!!*?@##!#!!...when the real hanky panky is going on, as per usual, amongst the Owners.
It is laughable, in an unfunny sort of way, when people say George Bush lost money on "his" franchise.
Clearly.
I expect if we go back, we'll find some tidy incentives to make that happen. Elsewhere you say that there's more to Texas than oil and I had to laugh remembering a 'live' exchange on another board many months ago. I say live in that the posting was happening as I was reading, between a Texan and Another. Texans ARE a distinct breed, I expect you'll agree.
Another "said" to the Texan, "You know the only two things that come from Texas, don't you?"
"Queers and steers." Once I read it, it sounded familiar but I mean he did not miss one beat. I was thinking oil, Bush, rednecks, Cowboys...anyway, it was funny in a you-had-to-be-there kinda way.
The point I was actually making my way around to is that, whatever else Texas has got going for it, it also has a concentration of shrewd businessmen.
You bet.
If all surrounding commerce is tangential to The Industry...if everyone supplies to and/or buys from and/or works for and/or has a business that is an offshoot of One Company/Industry...obviously, if that Sole Big Shot goes on hard times (OR MOVES TO A COUNTRY WHERE THE LABOR IS CHEAPER AND THEY DON'T KNOW FROM BENEFITS), the whole area goes into depression.
I forget now whether is was Michelle Obama or His Royal Highness Obama who had a role in the closure of the pickle factory in La Junta, Colorado. The town was devastated. The community-activist oriented Obama's are doing quite well, though, so that's good. It would be a shame for EVERYONE to go under.
They're doing something different, that's for sure. I can't speak to the means by which they achieve they're ends to know whether they are doing things in Capital-B Better ways but, for sure, Texas is producing some results that are flat-out better than the nation as a whole. Your roads are like glass.
Not quite. Not yet.
Which is to say that, in spite of being long deadly years at war and in spite out our knowledge that oil's days are numbered OR OURS ARE, we are still barking up the same Giving Tree.
I don't buy that this is the End Of Times. I think the greedy fucks who contrived this whole goddamn mess for their personal gain are greedy enough that they want the whole shebang to fall on their shift. Many of our Robber Barons have one foot in the grave. Note how many of our problems are attributable to a handful of Bad Guys contriving to have such a large share of the pie that the rest of the economy can no longer sustain its hustle and bustle on the slim serving that the Conscienceless Uber Rich would leave to the masses. They want it ALL. They cannot BEAR that life will go on without them. I say go with 85% Estate Tax after the first hundred million. Who could grip about that?
Where was I going? Oh, yeah. THIS point is that the same bastards who have been fleecing us over oil for DECADES have no intention of switching up their game plan into long-range, visionary, do-gooder stuff in the last few years of their reign. Think of the headaches and disappointments that await us in our Quest For Energy Independence...what do they need with that? They won't be alive to reap any of the benefits. This is a very quid pro quo crowd.
They aren't MOTIVATED to Change. If you're making money doing something the way you're doing it, why would you do anything else? Because you have lost favor with the public? Please.
And yet, curiously, there is resistance to downward revision of pricing of the many, many, many goods and services that attributed their price increases to the increasing price of oil.
A miilion years ago, there used to be a rickety old "roller coaster" at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk called The Wild Mouse. Even then, before our helmet/shoulder strap/elbow pad/airbag Protectionism kicked into the high and oh-so-profitable gear we know today, it was clear even to an adolescent that going on The Wild Mouse pretty much constituted putting your life up for grabs. I forget whether someone finally was killed or whether it was "only" such injuries as might be sustained by a mouse shaped car simply failing to make that 90-degree turn atop roughly three stories of, basically, scaffolding.
I think it's gonna be like riding The Wild Mouse.
Absolutely.
But we need to decriminalize marijuana and hemp, and use hemp oil RATHER THAN A FOOD STAPLE in ethanol. I am told that hemp can also be used in resins and bonding agents, among other things.
WE ARE NOT ONLY FOREGOING HUGE REVENUE, WE ARE THROWING HUGE SUMS OF MONEY OUT THE WINDOW WITH THE CONTRIVED ILLEGALITY OF MARIJUANA AND HEMP.
Capital letters not for you, but for the MORONS AND THIEVES that DARE to say they represent my interests and then DARE to make me pay for their abuse.
You've got the Bushes, for starters.
Granted, Texas is Affluent...Uber Rich compared to some states. Are the Texans who say there is no difference between the badness of McCain and the badness of Obama prepared to share their wealth with the rest of us in the same way that Obama proposes to distribute the wealth of those Americans who are Affluent, Uber Rich compared to some?
