Concerning the return to the upward climb of crude oil/gasoline prices, I think I have at least a partial solution. The reasoning behind this comes from Peter Beutel. He is the founder and president of Cameron Hanover, an energy risk management firm in New Canaan, Connecticut. He was a guest on a local talk show in mid-2008 (when oil was hitting its all-time highs). His contention, at that time, was that crude oil and gasoline were becoming more and more “commoditized” and thus, they would behave as other commodities such as soybeans, international currency, precious metals, etc.

Commodities fluctuate more due to perception and speculation, rather than reality (soybean prices spike during forecasted drought, gold prices spike during perceived inflation, weakening of the dollar, etc). My suggestion to Mr. Beutel, during that radio interview, was for President Bush to issue an Executive Order stating that the United States would immediately begin exploiting our domestic oil reserves in Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico, and along the Pacific Coast. I also proposed he should include in this announcement that we begin building nuclear power plants and oil refineries in the effort to not only reduce our dependence on foreign oil, but increase our ability to keep up with demand until such time as viable alternatives become a reality. I told him that such an announcement, in my humble opinion, would cause crude prices to fall by at least $30 / barrel and quite likely more (at the time crude was approaching $140/barrel and gas $4+/gallon).

When I suggested this idea to Mr. Beutel, he said that it was the first time, in his 30-year career, he had heard of such an idea. He also said it was a good one and, more importantly, just might work. My idea was borne out when President Bush rescinded the moratorium on offshore drilling. Oil prices fell by $20/barrel by the end of that week. The decline in the price of oil didn’t reverse itself for nearly 8 months when it bottomed out under $40/barrel. I find it extremely suspect that gasoline never did fall by the same percentage.

Since it is a foregone conclusion and a known fact that conservation by itself will not work, we need to be ever increasing our supply. More importantly though, we need to increase our refining capacity to sufficiently deal with our growing population.

Oil is again pushing $90/barrel and gasoline $3+/gallon. IF Mr. Obama was serious about relieving the burden on the middle class, instead of bailing out multi-billion dollar corporations with OUR TAX DOLLARS, he’d ease restrictions on developing our proven resources of oil, coal and natural gas. He’d also support policies that would encourage the construction of refineries and nuclear power plants in the effort to reduce the financial burden of the cost of energy on the public.

I don’t know about anyone who may be reading this, but I’m sick and tired of being held hostage by OPEC, Big Oil, environmentalists, politicians, and the like, who only have increasing/retaining their power at heart, rather than the best interests of the entire country. If you ask me, the government – a corrupt entity that does NOTHING to facilitate oil production – shouldn’t be able to profit more from a barrel of oil/gallon of gasoline than those who extract/refine it. If “Big Oil” gets ostracized for making a 4% profit margin, it is absolutely obscene (and ought to be illegal) for the government to make 3-4 times as much in taxes (if not more).

It is said there are clear warning signs leading up to the death of a civilization. From When Nations Die, by Jim Nelson Black, ten warning signs of a culture in crisis are:

(1) Increasing lawlessness;
(2) Loss of economic discipline;
(3) Oppressive bureaucracy;
(4) Decline of educational excellence;
(5) Weakening of cultural foundations;
(6) Loss of respect for tradition;
(7) Gross materialism;
(8) Gross immorality;
(9) Decay of religious belief; and
(10) Devaluing of human life

Let’s address these one by one and evaluate whether or not the United States is a culture in crisis.

Increasing lawlessness: Quite honestly, you’d have had to have been in a coma for the past 3 years not to recognize the lawlessness in the country…Harvard educated Amy Bishop’s shooting rampage at Alabama-Huntsville in February of 2010. Andrew Joseph Stack III flying his plane into the IRS building in Austin, Texas. Major Nidal Malik Hasan (Army) shooting up his own base killing 13 wounding 31 others. Jared Loughner, in the process of shooting US Representative Gabrielle Giffords kills 6, wounds 13. Gangs. Columbine. “Going Postal”.

Yeah, I think #1 is a foregone conclusion

Loss of economic discipline: If I even have to give you examples of this, you’ve been living in a cave for 20 years…or at least for the past 36 months…

Oppressive bureaucracy: EPA, TSA, OSHA, multiple levels of progressive AND regressive taxation, FedGov not “allowing” us to develop our own resources while wasting what resources we DO have on “green” tech. Yeah, that’s strike 3…in baseball, we’d already be out. Shall we try for the second inning?

Decline of educational excellence: The United States once led the world in math and science. We currently rank 21st in the world in science and 25th in math. Trying to make heads or tails out of what passes for intelligent conversation in high school would drive the Pope to alcoholism. That’s not just a “decline”, it’s called “falling through the basement floor”.

Weakening of cultural foundations: The destruction of the nuclear family, reparations to those who were never slaves, feminization of our youth, taking God out of society, redistribution of wealth and the trending to socialism, exalting laziness and out-of-wedlock birth, diversity and tolerance of damned near anything and everything…as long as it isn’t Christian. Our foundations aren’t being weakened, they’ve almost been destroyed.

Loss of respect for tradition: Homosexual “marriage”, divorce on demand, gender-neutral Bibles, living on borrowed money rather than living within one’s means, defrauding voters to insure victory…the list is a mile long and growing.

Well, we’re 0 for 6 (or 6 for 6, depending on how you’re keeping score), bottom of the second…before we forfeit, let’s see about the 3rd.

Gross materialism: Our “poor” have more riches than the wealthy in some counties…they own their own homes, have internet, cell phones, THREE TVs, TWO cars, wear designer clothes, and yet, they use FOOD STAMPS to buy top of the line groceries and have the gall to complain that so-and-so “has more than I do”. Well, get off your lazy friggin’ backside and go make a living. As an aside, we also buy houses we can’t afford, spend money we don’t have for shit we don’t need…just to “keep up with the Joneses”…and wonder why we can’t “get ahead”. Go figure.

Gross immorality: Abortion on demand up to and ON the day of birth, queers in the priesthood, somewhat rampant pedophilia, kids having kids…and the government paying for them, push to legalize drugs, bestowing rights on animals to the point it compromises the standard of living of humanity. We allow CEOs to suffer no consequences for bankrupt their companies and screwing their investors. We allow our elected officials to rob the rich in order to “help” the poor. We covet what the rich have, but ignore what they had to do to achieve their success.

Decay of religious beliefs: This one isn’t even up for discussion…any society that considers calling the Bible “hate speech” is already lost. This one’s a foregone conclusion…and finally…

Devaluing of human life: I’ve listed example after example already, but we now find our leaders in DC talking about “end of life counseling” in the context of universal “health care reform”. Abortion and euthanasia are nothing more than legalized murder and we have the balls to call them both “a choice”. In contrast, New Orleans didn’t have the proper protection against Katrina because of something called a “snail darter”…I don’t even know what the hell that is.

When I think about the 50 years I’ve been around and the degeneration of our society that I’ve witnessed, it makes me physically ill. In the summer, my friends and I used to leave the house at noon, bike to the neighborhood pool or play “war” or cowboys and indians, spend the day and get home just in time for supper. Mom & Dad didn’t have to worry. As far as my friends went, we were colorblind and didn’t care whose dad made more money. If you kissed or were kissed by a girl before you were a junior in high school, you got “cooties”. It was shameful to shack up, hook up, or get knocked up. Your word was your bond…deals were made on a handshake and a promise.

Culture in crisis…hell’s bells…we’re way past crisis. This country is on life-support and the jackasses in DC didn’t just get us in the hospital bed, they are doing all they can to pull the plug. We had better get back to the roots of our humanity and take our country/culture back from the elitists in DC or we may as well plan the funeral for the greatest experiment in human history.

I must say I have about had it with lying progressives on the left, their willing accomplices on the right, and their obedient lap-dogs in the “mainstream” media in placing this recession at former President Bush’s feet.

Let’s be clear. That claim is a big steaming pile of something you don’t want to step in.

George Walker Bush was elected our 43rd President November 7, 2000 and inaugurated January 20, 2001. His tax policies caused the recession (a mild one to be sure) he inherited from Clinton to reverse itself. By mid-term of his second term (2006), we were pretty “flush” financially. I don’t know about anyone reading this, but MY investments were sailing along just fine.

But, the liberal/progressive wing of the Democrat Party convinced “we the people” that despite our seeming economic prosperity, we were “mired in an unwinable war in Iraq” ~~ a war that we just happened to be winning, DESPITE the obstruction of the left ~~ and that we needed “a change”. Well, a “change” is exactly what we got…mind you, it wasn’t a change for the better…not by a long shot. The newly elected Congress, with both Houses being controlled by Democrats took their seats in January of 2007 (elected in November of 2006).

Here’s where it gets tricky…follow this very closely. CONGRESS controls the pursestrings of the US Budget through the end of September of 2007, we were still operating under a Republican budget (the budget cycle runs from October 1 – September 30). In that year the Dow Jones Industrials hit its historical high of 14,164 (October 9, 2007).

After ONE year of Progressive (socialist) Democrat fiscal policy (October 10, 2008), the DJI was at 8,451 (clue time – that’s a destruction of 40% of the wealth in the country). Five months later (March 6, 2009) it was at 6,627 (that’s a further erosion of 22% in FIVE MONTHS and a total loss of over 53% in less than 18 months). During this same period, the mortgage scandal rocked the country and was largely to blame for the woes in the DJI.

Now, here’s where it gets good.

Who was it that had been warning us about the inevitable housing collapse and the need for more regulation and oversight on at least 5 differnent occassions since 2003? Who TOLD us the housing sector was going to blow up in our faces were steps not taken to reign in Fannie & Freddie?

George W. Bush.

Who joined him in those warnings in 2005?

John McCain.

When did the mortgage troubles start?

In the mid-70s during Carter’s administration (Community Reinvestment Act)

Whose policies exacerbated the Banking/Mortgage sector by forcing banks to give mortgages to people who had absolutely no ability to repay those loans, promising that Fannie & Freddie would buy the “bad paper” from them?

Bill Clinton’s

Who took his seat as a newly elected Senator in January of 2007?

Barack Hussein Obama.

Who obstructed President Bush on reform/regulation, every step of the way while they were in the minority for the first 6 years of GW Bush’s Presidency?

Liberal/Progressive Democrats Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, Kent Conrad, Chuck Schumer, Chris Dodd & last but certainly not least, Barack Hussein Obama.

I should add, there were a handful of Republicans in there, too led by Arlen Specter.

Who continued to poo-poo the CLEAR warning signs of impending disaster, telling us all along that “things are just fine” through 2007 after they took control of both Houses of Congress?

Yup, the liberal/Progressive Democrats led chiefly by Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad and the same handful of Republicans.

NOW, who is attempting to lay the blame for the economic woes we now suffer at the feet of George W. Bush?

The very same liberals/progressives in Congress who actually brought this fiasco to bear, including the sitting President ~~ Barack Hussein Obama.

I know that I’m going to catch hell from those who are enamored with and awestruck by Obama because the DJI is back over 10,000. For those simple-minded people who are obviously not paying attention, I offer the following.

About a year ago, our money supply consisted of roughly $800 billion dollars (the total number of dollars actually circulating in our economy). To “revitalize” and “stimulate” the economy, the Federal Reserve was directed to print a TRILLION dollars and injected it into circulation, effectively devaluing the dollar by 120%.

Would you like to know what a trillion dollars looks like? Click the following link.

http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html ~~ That’s 50 pallets x 100 pallets, stacked 2 high. But, I digress…back to the topic at hand.

This means that each dollar you had last year is now worth roughly 45¢. This also means the 10,000 Dow is really closer to 4500 in real value in last year’s dollars. The sad reality is that, since its inception in 1913, the Federal Reserve has devalued our dollar by over 97%. That means that what costs you a dollar today, would have cost you less than THREE CENTS in 1913.

Obama ~~ or as the Administrator of this site rightly calls him, Obastard ~~ is selling us down the river and doesn’t give a rosy rat’s rear-end WHAT we think of him. He is a Liberal Progressive, cut from the same cloth as Woodrow Wilson, FDR, & LBJ, and despises America. “We the People”, according to the Founders, have the DUTY to throw off the chains of tyranny if/when the government becomes oppressive, restricting the God-given liberties of the people.

I can only ask, “What’s taking so long?”