Be a hero, give an innocent little animal a home.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
What You Need To Know About Oral Sex And Oral Cancer
What You Need To Know About Oral Sex And Oral Cancer!
It seems like just about everyone I know either has cancer or knows someone who does. Cancer has become an epidemic in America with no end in sight.
Up until now, most people tried to protect themselves from cancer by not smoking, cutting certain foods out of their diets, and trying to lead a healthy lifestyle. NOW, we are going to have to alter our sex habits too, in a most profound way.
I think just about everyone under the age of 60 has engaged in one or more forms of oral sex. Most Americans have a liberal view of sex, if both partners agree, anything goes. We know STDs are out there, but we think it can't happen to nice, hetero sexual people like us. Mostly, if you want to have sex with a stranger, a condom will take care of any problems with STDs.
BUT NOW THE BOMB SHELL HAS EXPLODED. ORAL SEX CAN CAUSE ORAL CANCER! Obviously it is mostly men who are becoming afflicted.
If you had more than 5 oral sex partners, you have a 250% greater chance of getting an oral cancer, compared to someone who had no oral sex partners!
Even more shocking,....smoking and drinking only cause a three fold increase in oral cancers. Clearly, cancer from oral sex is much more likely. Hard to believe, but these studies are backed up with evidence of young men with no history of smoking or drinking becoming afflicted with various forms of oral cancer.
And what causes these oral cancers?? The human papilloma virus (HPV), the same virus that causes cervical cancer in women!
Genital HPV infections are extremely common. At any given time one third of all 25 year old women are infected! Of course not all these infection will lead to cancer, but the point is... some will.
When we are seeing such a high rate of cancer we need to do everything we can to halt its progress. Young men who never drank or smoked are now getting cancer of the throat, tongue and tonsil. Oral cancer will kill half these men within 5 years. For those who survive, the aftermath of oral cancer can be devastating. Imagine life with half your tongue removed, and the over all consequences of a battle with cancer.
What can you do to protect yourself? Other than the obvious, ask your dentist for a Brush Test, which looks for abnormal cells. Have your dentist do an exam of your mouth that looks for any abnormal lumps or bumps. The reason so many people are dying from oral cancer is because it is not detected until it is in later stages.
HPV virus can also cause genital warts, and cancer of the penis and anus.
Other hazards of oral sex involve a yeast infection of the tongue known as thrush which is easily treated, but there are other forms of yeast infection contracted through sex which can lead to a yeast infection of the lungs which can be life threatening and difficult to treat.
All and all we will have to reexamine our sexual preferences and habits. HPV can kill you just as easily as AIDS or Hepatitis C.
We all know how it is when you are young and looking for adventure. We feel so great, we think we will live forever. We look at older people, or our parents, and think we could never end up like them. Twenty years later we are older and wiser, and we may have even had some major health problems by the time we are 40. We know that bad things can happen to good people. We realize that if we want to be around another 20 years we are going to have to work at it. Young people are dying everyday from cancer, we cannot afford complacency.
Puritanical ideas about sex died with the 60s, and I think that is a positive thing, although we must be careful. While it is not right for us to impose our morals on others, Christian values may have a place in our lives today. Certainly it would be ideal to fall in love with just one person and stay faithful to that one person. We all know that is not how relationships work.
I think the solution is to be a lot more picky about who you go to bed with. As a nurse, I have even advised my friends to have potential partners tested for STDs. No matter how well you think you know someone, you really don't, especially when emotions and hormones are running at full speed ahead. If they really love you and care about you, they will be happy to comply, and if they are against getting tested, then it might be a good time to move on. Remember, your health is more important than any sex partner you may ever have. After all, sex partners come and go, but you have just one body. If you plan to live into old age, you have to take care of what you have.
We also have a responsibility to others. Only you know how many sexual partners you have been with. Could you really live with yourself if you knew you were responsible for the cancer of another? Go to your doctor and get tested, abstain from sex if there is even a shadow of a doubt you could be passing something on to your partner. Even a simple case of yeast infection in a woman can have life threatening ramifications for her oral sex partners. Is it worth it?
We also need to talk to our children at an early age about sex. Did you know that many teens practice oral sex over all other forms of sex? They could be setting themselves up for some serious health problems which could forever affect their futures. We need to tell our children that sex is a beautiful, sacred act between two people who love each other. It is too precious to give away or throw away or to share with just anyone. It is a very personal and private act between two people who deeply love each other, and should be conveyed as such.
The free love of the 60s has come full circle, and in the end we have found there is no such thing as "free" love. Indeed, sex is anything but free. All of us pay for the sexual relationships we get involved in and sometimes we pay with our health and our lives.
They say the strong survive, but I think it is the smart who survive. I guess time will tell.
It seems like just about everyone I know either has cancer or knows someone who does. Cancer has become an epidemic in America with no end in sight.
Up until now, most people tried to protect themselves from cancer by not smoking, cutting certain foods out of their diets, and trying to lead a healthy lifestyle. NOW, we are going to have to alter our sex habits too, in a most profound way.
I think just about everyone under the age of 60 has engaged in one or more forms of oral sex. Most Americans have a liberal view of sex, if both partners agree, anything goes. We know STDs are out there, but we think it can't happen to nice, hetero sexual people like us. Mostly, if you want to have sex with a stranger, a condom will take care of any problems with STDs.
BUT NOW THE BOMB SHELL HAS EXPLODED. ORAL SEX CAN CAUSE ORAL CANCER! Obviously it is mostly men who are becoming afflicted.
If you had more than 5 oral sex partners, you have a 250% greater chance of getting an oral cancer, compared to someone who had no oral sex partners!
Even more shocking,....smoking and drinking only cause a three fold increase in oral cancers. Clearly, cancer from oral sex is much more likely. Hard to believe, but these studies are backed up with evidence of young men with no history of smoking or drinking becoming afflicted with various forms of oral cancer.
And what causes these oral cancers?? The human papilloma virus (HPV), the same virus that causes cervical cancer in women!
Genital HPV infections are extremely common. At any given time one third of all 25 year old women are infected! Of course not all these infection will lead to cancer, but the point is... some will.
When we are seeing such a high rate of cancer we need to do everything we can to halt its progress. Young men who never drank or smoked are now getting cancer of the throat, tongue and tonsil. Oral cancer will kill half these men within 5 years. For those who survive, the aftermath of oral cancer can be devastating. Imagine life with half your tongue removed, and the over all consequences of a battle with cancer.
What can you do to protect yourself? Other than the obvious, ask your dentist for a Brush Test, which looks for abnormal cells. Have your dentist do an exam of your mouth that looks for any abnormal lumps or bumps. The reason so many people are dying from oral cancer is because it is not detected until it is in later stages.
HPV virus can also cause genital warts, and cancer of the penis and anus.
Other hazards of oral sex involve a yeast infection of the tongue known as thrush which is easily treated, but there are other forms of yeast infection contracted through sex which can lead to a yeast infection of the lungs which can be life threatening and difficult to treat.
All and all we will have to reexamine our sexual preferences and habits. HPV can kill you just as easily as AIDS or Hepatitis C.
We all know how it is when you are young and looking for adventure. We feel so great, we think we will live forever. We look at older people, or our parents, and think we could never end up like them. Twenty years later we are older and wiser, and we may have even had some major health problems by the time we are 40. We know that bad things can happen to good people. We realize that if we want to be around another 20 years we are going to have to work at it. Young people are dying everyday from cancer, we cannot afford complacency.
Puritanical ideas about sex died with the 60s, and I think that is a positive thing, although we must be careful. While it is not right for us to impose our morals on others, Christian values may have a place in our lives today. Certainly it would be ideal to fall in love with just one person and stay faithful to that one person. We all know that is not how relationships work.
I think the solution is to be a lot more picky about who you go to bed with. As a nurse, I have even advised my friends to have potential partners tested for STDs. No matter how well you think you know someone, you really don't, especially when emotions and hormones are running at full speed ahead. If they really love you and care about you, they will be happy to comply, and if they are against getting tested, then it might be a good time to move on. Remember, your health is more important than any sex partner you may ever have. After all, sex partners come and go, but you have just one body. If you plan to live into old age, you have to take care of what you have.
We also have a responsibility to others. Only you know how many sexual partners you have been with. Could you really live with yourself if you knew you were responsible for the cancer of another? Go to your doctor and get tested, abstain from sex if there is even a shadow of a doubt you could be passing something on to your partner. Even a simple case of yeast infection in a woman can have life threatening ramifications for her oral sex partners. Is it worth it?
We also need to talk to our children at an early age about sex. Did you know that many teens practice oral sex over all other forms of sex? They could be setting themselves up for some serious health problems which could forever affect their futures. We need to tell our children that sex is a beautiful, sacred act between two people who love each other. It is too precious to give away or throw away or to share with just anyone. It is a very personal and private act between two people who deeply love each other, and should be conveyed as such.
The free love of the 60s has come full circle, and in the end we have found there is no such thing as "free" love. Indeed, sex is anything but free. All of us pay for the sexual relationships we get involved in and sometimes we pay with our health and our lives.
They say the strong survive, but I think it is the smart who survive. I guess time will tell.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Are You Being Haunted By The Dead?
Are You Being Haunted By The Dead?
Paranormal activity is on the increase. And is it no wonder? Everywhere you look you see things which involve the occult. We have become so used to it, that we no longer realize the danger that lurks for the unsuspecting victim.
With TV programs such as “Psychic Kids” which proclaims that seeing demons and spirits are a “gift” from God, to free online Tarot readings, to Yoga and Meditation, all these activities are labeled as “occult activity” in the Bible, and God warns us to stay away from all of it. But do we listen? No, and when we get more and more involved with the paranormal, we are inviting demonic harmful influences into our lives.
So, how do you know if you invited something bad into your life? Following are a list of signs that something could be haunting you or your loved ones. This is for real, and more and more people are becoming the victims of occult activity.
1. Feeling of being watched, or feeling there is a presence
2. Odors when there should be none, like cooking odors or a perfume odor
3. Cold spots or hot spots that cannot be explained
4. A sudden feeling of not being able to breath
5. Dizziness
6. Your pets act strangely
7. Red, white, or black mists and lights
8. Streaks seen out of the corner of your eye
9. Things that go bump in the night, and other strange noise which there is no explanation for.
10. Everyday items around the house go missing and end up in strange places, for example a hammer was found in the refrigerator, and a photo album was found inside the stove
11. Plumbing and electrical problems which happen over and over again, and which there is no way to fix, for example a toilet would constantly overrun, even after a new toilet was installed
12. All the cupboard doors are standing open when you get up in the morning, or the front door of the house stands wide open in the middle of the night
13. Unexplained fires
14. Even new batteries go dead within a few minutes or hours
15. TV or radio turning on/off all by itself
16. Unexplained depression
17. Unexplained mood swings, family members not acting themselves or out of character, for example someone who never drinks starts hitting the bottle
18. Unexplained insomnia when there was never a problem with it before
19. All the lights and electrical devices turn on all at once by themselves
20. Waking up around 3am over and over
21. Feeling as if someone was talking or whispering in your ear to you to make you wake up
22. Strange dreams which seem very real
23. Odd mist, orbs, blobs or streaks on family photos or photos taken in and around the home
24. Small children who talk about imaginary friends, or small children who are unusually frightened for no reason
25. Anything that happens in 3s
There are excellent sources online which can help you with your problems, just make sure they are completely based in the word of God. If you hire psychics or other occult services to come and clear your home, you could be asking for more problems yet.
Following this link to find out more about this problem and how to get expert help.
http://www.srealities.com/
There are very real evil forces in the world wanting to destroy you. Only God can help you with this kind of problem, therefore choose your help wisely. If you think moving away from the haunted house or location is going to make it go away, you are mistaken. Things like this have been known to follow families wherever they go.
I have first hand knowledge of this. My grandmother lived in a haunted house when she was a child. It became so bad that the house was burned down! Unfortunately, that did not help, and many years later and until they end of her life, my grandmother felt as if a negative supernatural force was in her life. It was a very frightening situation. All I know is…I sleep with my lights on and my Bible next to me.
Paranormal activity is on the increase. And is it no wonder? Everywhere you look you see things which involve the occult. We have become so used to it, that we no longer realize the danger that lurks for the unsuspecting victim.
With TV programs such as “Psychic Kids” which proclaims that seeing demons and spirits are a “gift” from God, to free online Tarot readings, to Yoga and Meditation, all these activities are labeled as “occult activity” in the Bible, and God warns us to stay away from all of it. But do we listen? No, and when we get more and more involved with the paranormal, we are inviting demonic harmful influences into our lives.
So, how do you know if you invited something bad into your life? Following are a list of signs that something could be haunting you or your loved ones. This is for real, and more and more people are becoming the victims of occult activity.
1. Feeling of being watched, or feeling there is a presence
2. Odors when there should be none, like cooking odors or a perfume odor
3. Cold spots or hot spots that cannot be explained
4. A sudden feeling of not being able to breath
5. Dizziness
6. Your pets act strangely
7. Red, white, or black mists and lights
8. Streaks seen out of the corner of your eye
9. Things that go bump in the night, and other strange noise which there is no explanation for.
10. Everyday items around the house go missing and end up in strange places, for example a hammer was found in the refrigerator, and a photo album was found inside the stove
11. Plumbing and electrical problems which happen over and over again, and which there is no way to fix, for example a toilet would constantly overrun, even after a new toilet was installed
12. All the cupboard doors are standing open when you get up in the morning, or the front door of the house stands wide open in the middle of the night
13. Unexplained fires
14. Even new batteries go dead within a few minutes or hours
15. TV or radio turning on/off all by itself
16. Unexplained depression
17. Unexplained mood swings, family members not acting themselves or out of character, for example someone who never drinks starts hitting the bottle
18. Unexplained insomnia when there was never a problem with it before
19. All the lights and electrical devices turn on all at once by themselves
20. Waking up around 3am over and over
21. Feeling as if someone was talking or whispering in your ear to you to make you wake up
22. Strange dreams which seem very real
23. Odd mist, orbs, blobs or streaks on family photos or photos taken in and around the home
24. Small children who talk about imaginary friends, or small children who are unusually frightened for no reason
25. Anything that happens in 3s
There are excellent sources online which can help you with your problems, just make sure they are completely based in the word of God. If you hire psychics or other occult services to come and clear your home, you could be asking for more problems yet.
Following this link to find out more about this problem and how to get expert help.
http://www.srealities.com/
There are very real evil forces in the world wanting to destroy you. Only God can help you with this kind of problem, therefore choose your help wisely. If you think moving away from the haunted house or location is going to make it go away, you are mistaken. Things like this have been known to follow families wherever they go.
I have first hand knowledge of this. My grandmother lived in a haunted house when she was a child. It became so bad that the house was burned down! Unfortunately, that did not help, and many years later and until they end of her life, my grandmother felt as if a negative supernatural force was in her life. It was a very frightening situation. All I know is…I sleep with my lights on and my Bible next to me.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
The Devil In Disguise: Why late Night Food Commercials Should Be Banned
The Devil In Disguise
You know how it is, we have all been there. You have been sticking to your diet for the last month and you are seeing wonderful results. You are feeling better and better about yourself, you look better too and people are beginning to notice. It’s a Saturday night at 10pm. You ate a filling low fat, low carb, low calorie meal, around 5pm. You are not hungry, but lets be honest, you are craving things.
That’s when it hits! The late night food commercials. Visions of pizza, and succulent burgers dance across the screen. Huge juicy steaks, golden stacks of French toast with maple syrup and whipped cream, butter dripping and oozing from every little curve and indentation, not to mention the sour cream topping baked potatoes. Mmmmm!! You moan and flip the channel and there it attacks again, more late night food commercials, this time it is KFC chicken and Taco Bell fare.
It’s enough to make you cry, or run to the phone and call the nearest Pizza Hut. Or even worse, out of sheer frustration you take that big bucket of your favorite ice cream out and sooth your frazzled taste buds with a big creamy cool portion, only to return again and again out of guilt and frustration over the entire diet dilemma you find yourself in.
The next morning you wake up bloated and miserable hating yourself more than ever. You get on the scale and it groans ominously. You are afraid to look. Just like a bad car wreck you don’t want to look but something compels you to do so. You peek between your fingers only to find you gained four ugly, fat drenched, pounds. Could that be right? Is it possible to gain four pounds of fat from a half a bucket of ice cream? Did that entire bucket of ice cream even weigh four pounds to begin with? How can this be? Once more you shake your head and vow never to have a bucket of ice cream in the freezer again, but you know that sooner or later, as if by magic, the ice cream elves will sneak in another bucket when you are not paying attention.
We live in a time when food is plentiful and cheap. Never before have so many people had so much to eat. When food was scarce, being plump was considered a sign of beauty. However, our idea of plump and the definition of plumpness years ago are two different things. When most women were starved and looked like the gaunt super models of today, normal weight women were probably considered “plump”. So you see, fat has never really been accepted. In the end what was most accepted was a healthy weight. Not starved, not overfed, but healthy.
Starved super models are not healthy, and the big beautiful women, BBW, are not healthy either. Healthy is what real beauty is and was through out the ages. Take any time in history and you will see the ideal feminine beauty represents this. We are naturally attracted to what is most healthy. Why? Because a healthy woman has the best chance to reproduced successfully and raise their young to their own reproductive age, insuring the continuation of the species.
All this is interesting, but it does not help much when we want to stay on a diet and late night TV commercials ruin it for us time after time. Many people are not even aware of why they overeat. They are just caught up in it like a big fish in a net, and like that big fish they feel helpless. We can find one excuse after another, but in the end your degree of fatness is no ones fault but your own. No one else can eat for you, and no one else can lose the weight for you. That sounds unsympathetic but its true, and one needs to see the problem to get to the cure.
If it were up to me, late night food commercials would be outlawed, but I doubt that will happen. There is no reason why a healthy adult needs to be eating late at night, and nothing packs the weight on faster than eating and going right to sleep. So, what I do is tape my favorite shows ahead of time and fast forward the commercials. That way I am not tempted. I need every bit of help I can get. Out of sight is often out of mind.
America is struggling with an obesity epidemic. We have to change the way we think about food and eating if we are ever to get a grip on the problem. Outlawing late night food commercials should be seen in the same vein as outlawing cigarette commercials. Billions of dollars are spent every year to treat fat unhealthy people. The biggest heartbreak of all is how being overweight impacts daily life. No one who has a fat problem can enjoy life the way a person of normal weight can. Indeed, the thing loved best, food, is not even enjoyed in the end. For the overweight, food becomes nothing more than a constant source of guilt and frustration.
There are millions of diets and diet plans out there. Tons of pills and potions and weight loss exercise equipment. Almost all of them are useless. Ask yourself this question, “If there really was a weight loss pill out there that worked, why would Oprah still have a weight problem”? That’s the question I ask myself before I spend money on weight loss products and in the end I usually past them up, because no pill can do for you what you must do for yourself.
At least one can take comfort in knowing there are millions of other people out there trying to lose weight. It is a struggle that many of us will have to contend with the rest of our lives, unless science comes up with a pill that really works, but I am not holding my breath. Twenty years ago it looked like there would be a pill coming out any day that would put an end to the weight problem for good. Twenty years later there are more overweight people out there than ever, and more late night food commercials too.
I don’t know who is responsible for those food commercials, but I wonder how they can sleep at night. Like the cigarette commercials of old, these late night food commercials are creating a world of pain and suffering for millions of people.
You know how it is, we have all been there. You have been sticking to your diet for the last month and you are seeing wonderful results. You are feeling better and better about yourself, you look better too and people are beginning to notice. It’s a Saturday night at 10pm. You ate a filling low fat, low carb, low calorie meal, around 5pm. You are not hungry, but lets be honest, you are craving things.
That’s when it hits! The late night food commercials. Visions of pizza, and succulent burgers dance across the screen. Huge juicy steaks, golden stacks of French toast with maple syrup and whipped cream, butter dripping and oozing from every little curve and indentation, not to mention the sour cream topping baked potatoes. Mmmmm!! You moan and flip the channel and there it attacks again, more late night food commercials, this time it is KFC chicken and Taco Bell fare.
It’s enough to make you cry, or run to the phone and call the nearest Pizza Hut. Or even worse, out of sheer frustration you take that big bucket of your favorite ice cream out and sooth your frazzled taste buds with a big creamy cool portion, only to return again and again out of guilt and frustration over the entire diet dilemma you find yourself in.
The next morning you wake up bloated and miserable hating yourself more than ever. You get on the scale and it groans ominously. You are afraid to look. Just like a bad car wreck you don’t want to look but something compels you to do so. You peek between your fingers only to find you gained four ugly, fat drenched, pounds. Could that be right? Is it possible to gain four pounds of fat from a half a bucket of ice cream? Did that entire bucket of ice cream even weigh four pounds to begin with? How can this be? Once more you shake your head and vow never to have a bucket of ice cream in the freezer again, but you know that sooner or later, as if by magic, the ice cream elves will sneak in another bucket when you are not paying attention.
We live in a time when food is plentiful and cheap. Never before have so many people had so much to eat. When food was scarce, being plump was considered a sign of beauty. However, our idea of plump and the definition of plumpness years ago are two different things. When most women were starved and looked like the gaunt super models of today, normal weight women were probably considered “plump”. So you see, fat has never really been accepted. In the end what was most accepted was a healthy weight. Not starved, not overfed, but healthy.
Starved super models are not healthy, and the big beautiful women, BBW, are not healthy either. Healthy is what real beauty is and was through out the ages. Take any time in history and you will see the ideal feminine beauty represents this. We are naturally attracted to what is most healthy. Why? Because a healthy woman has the best chance to reproduced successfully and raise their young to their own reproductive age, insuring the continuation of the species.
All this is interesting, but it does not help much when we want to stay on a diet and late night TV commercials ruin it for us time after time. Many people are not even aware of why they overeat. They are just caught up in it like a big fish in a net, and like that big fish they feel helpless. We can find one excuse after another, but in the end your degree of fatness is no ones fault but your own. No one else can eat for you, and no one else can lose the weight for you. That sounds unsympathetic but its true, and one needs to see the problem to get to the cure.
If it were up to me, late night food commercials would be outlawed, but I doubt that will happen. There is no reason why a healthy adult needs to be eating late at night, and nothing packs the weight on faster than eating and going right to sleep. So, what I do is tape my favorite shows ahead of time and fast forward the commercials. That way I am not tempted. I need every bit of help I can get. Out of sight is often out of mind.
America is struggling with an obesity epidemic. We have to change the way we think about food and eating if we are ever to get a grip on the problem. Outlawing late night food commercials should be seen in the same vein as outlawing cigarette commercials. Billions of dollars are spent every year to treat fat unhealthy people. The biggest heartbreak of all is how being overweight impacts daily life. No one who has a fat problem can enjoy life the way a person of normal weight can. Indeed, the thing loved best, food, is not even enjoyed in the end. For the overweight, food becomes nothing more than a constant source of guilt and frustration.
There are millions of diets and diet plans out there. Tons of pills and potions and weight loss exercise equipment. Almost all of them are useless. Ask yourself this question, “If there really was a weight loss pill out there that worked, why would Oprah still have a weight problem”? That’s the question I ask myself before I spend money on weight loss products and in the end I usually past them up, because no pill can do for you what you must do for yourself.
At least one can take comfort in knowing there are millions of other people out there trying to lose weight. It is a struggle that many of us will have to contend with the rest of our lives, unless science comes up with a pill that really works, but I am not holding my breath. Twenty years ago it looked like there would be a pill coming out any day that would put an end to the weight problem for good. Twenty years later there are more overweight people out there than ever, and more late night food commercials too.
I don’t know who is responsible for those food commercials, but I wonder how they can sleep at night. Like the cigarette commercials of old, these late night food commercials are creating a world of pain and suffering for millions of people.
Friday, July 18, 2008
America Has More Oil Than Saudi Arabia
The United States has plenty of oil within US borders. We don't have to rely on foreign oil anymore! It is just a matter of drilling and getting the oil out. The oil is there! Remember the song...."America, America God shed his grace on thee"? It is true! God provided this country with more than enough oil for generations to come.
Did you know...
There is a massive 200 billion barrel oil field located in North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana. And it even gets better! Because of new horizontal drilling technology, it is estimated that this huge field may even produce up to 500 billion barrels of oil! The Saudi's are estimated to have only 260 billion barrels of oil, clearly putting America in the cat bird seat! http://www.nextenergynews.com/news1/next-energy-news2.13s.html
But the good news does not stop there! Alaska is just waiting to drill for oil. In fact the governor of Alaska is suing the government for failing to drill for oil. Alaskan oil fields are massive. At Gull Island, Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, there is enough oil and natural gas to keep America going for the next 200 years! Yes, for the next 200 years! http://www.pushhamburger.com/hidden.htm
There is even better news! The US Outer Continental Shelf has 112 billion barrels of oil, not to mention a whopping 656 TRILLION cubic feet of natural gas! WHY are people struggling to pay winter heating bills when we have natural resources like this? http://www.redorbit.com/news/business/1424734/us_should_drill_for_oil_and_gas_in_arctic_offshore
Oil shale is abundant in the US. In fact, half of all the earth's oil shale deposits are located within 150 miles of Grand Junction, Colorado! Shell Oil is working on new technology which will make oil shale extraction financially feasible. They plan to open a shale oil plant in 2010. It will provide a piece of the puzzle toward energy independence for the United States. http://www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/reserves/publications/Pubs-NPR/40010-373.pdf
Then of course, just about everyone knows that the United States is the Saudi Arabia of coal. With 275 billon tons of coal! We have more coal than just about any other place in the world. Enough coal for American needs for the next 250 years! Once again, new technology is underway to make coal burning safe for our environment. http://www.teachcoal.org/aboutcoal/articles/faqs.html#howmuch
So there we have it! It is time for the US to get serious about energy independence and drill for oil. The environmentalists should move to China and India where pollution is really is out of control. With the new technology used in the oil fields of today, the impact on the environment is there but it is controlled. With environmental controls oil fields can be environmentally safe.
When it comes to the environment we need to understand that as long as there are billions of people living on this planet, there will to be a negative impact on the environment. That is just the way it is unless billions of people die, and even then environmentalists would complain about rotting corpses creating a problem for the environment. There is simply no way around problems with the environment when you have billons of people to contend with. The human race needs to protect this planet, yet we have to live too. Living without energy is not an option. Until we have plentiful, green energy we will have to rely on the oil based solutions of old. It will take time to convert to green energy and that quest is just as important as drilling for oil is now. We can't let the ball drop in either arena.
Obviously we should have been exploring our oil supplies 10 years ago. Now it will take at least 2 years before oil and then gas will come back down to a livable price for most Americans. 80% of all Americans claim climbing gas prices are affecting their lives in a very negative way.
And is it no wonder! Food prices go up every time a barrel of oil reaches a new high. Add to all of this are the flood woes of the Midwest which will mean even higher food prices yet to come. This winter will be especially tough for most people as they struggle to heat their homes with the highest projected heating costs of all time, and if that is not enough, they will be hit with unaffordable food prices, making it harder than ever to put food on the table for the family. This is not the America I know, or want to know.
Whoever wants to be the next president can easily get elected if they take the bull by the horns, and start drilling! We need to open the US oil fields in Alaska, Montana, and North and South Dakota as soon as possible. And, once we have that oil flowing all across America, we can tell the Middle East what to do with their oil. For too long we danced to their tune. It was degrading to both President Bush and Americans across the country when he went begging to the Saudi's, hat in hand, pleading for increased oil production, which the Saudi's denied. No American president should ever have to go through that again, especially when we have billions of barrels of oil right in our own back yard.
The next few years will be a time of financial hardship, but once American oil becomes available, it will not take long for the economy to turn around. This time of austerity is beneficial in a way, because it forces us to seek new and better ways to do things. And, new and better ways of doing things.....well that is a lot of what this country is all about! In the face of adversity, we will prevail and prosper in the end! We can do it! God Bless America!
Did you know...
There is a massive 200 billion barrel oil field located in North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana. And it even gets better! Because of new horizontal drilling technology, it is estimated that this huge field may even produce up to 500 billion barrels of oil! The Saudi's are estimated to have only 260 billion barrels of oil, clearly putting America in the cat bird seat! http://www.nextenergynews.com/news1/next-energy-news2.13s.html
But the good news does not stop there! Alaska is just waiting to drill for oil. In fact the governor of Alaska is suing the government for failing to drill for oil. Alaskan oil fields are massive. At Gull Island, Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, there is enough oil and natural gas to keep America going for the next 200 years! Yes, for the next 200 years! http://www.pushhamburger.com/hidden.htm
There is even better news! The US Outer Continental Shelf has 112 billion barrels of oil, not to mention a whopping 656 TRILLION cubic feet of natural gas! WHY are people struggling to pay winter heating bills when we have natural resources like this? http://www.redorbit.com/news/business/1424734/us_should_drill_for_oil_and_gas_in_arctic_offshore
Oil shale is abundant in the US. In fact, half of all the earth's oil shale deposits are located within 150 miles of Grand Junction, Colorado! Shell Oil is working on new technology which will make oil shale extraction financially feasible. They plan to open a shale oil plant in 2010. It will provide a piece of the puzzle toward energy independence for the United States. http://www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/reserves/publications/Pubs-NPR/40010-373.pdf
Then of course, just about everyone knows that the United States is the Saudi Arabia of coal. With 275 billon tons of coal! We have more coal than just about any other place in the world. Enough coal for American needs for the next 250 years! Once again, new technology is underway to make coal burning safe for our environment. http://www.teachcoal.org/aboutcoal/articles/faqs.html#howmuch
So there we have it! It is time for the US to get serious about energy independence and drill for oil. The environmentalists should move to China and India where pollution is really is out of control. With the new technology used in the oil fields of today, the impact on the environment is there but it is controlled. With environmental controls oil fields can be environmentally safe.
When it comes to the environment we need to understand that as long as there are billions of people living on this planet, there will to be a negative impact on the environment. That is just the way it is unless billions of people die, and even then environmentalists would complain about rotting corpses creating a problem for the environment. There is simply no way around problems with the environment when you have billons of people to contend with. The human race needs to protect this planet, yet we have to live too. Living without energy is not an option. Until we have plentiful, green energy we will have to rely on the oil based solutions of old. It will take time to convert to green energy and that quest is just as important as drilling for oil is now. We can't let the ball drop in either arena.
Obviously we should have been exploring our oil supplies 10 years ago. Now it will take at least 2 years before oil and then gas will come back down to a livable price for most Americans. 80% of all Americans claim climbing gas prices are affecting their lives in a very negative way.
And is it no wonder! Food prices go up every time a barrel of oil reaches a new high. Add to all of this are the flood woes of the Midwest which will mean even higher food prices yet to come. This winter will be especially tough for most people as they struggle to heat their homes with the highest projected heating costs of all time, and if that is not enough, they will be hit with unaffordable food prices, making it harder than ever to put food on the table for the family. This is not the America I know, or want to know.
Whoever wants to be the next president can easily get elected if they take the bull by the horns, and start drilling! We need to open the US oil fields in Alaska, Montana, and North and South Dakota as soon as possible. And, once we have that oil flowing all across America, we can tell the Middle East what to do with their oil. For too long we danced to their tune. It was degrading to both President Bush and Americans across the country when he went begging to the Saudi's, hat in hand, pleading for increased oil production, which the Saudi's denied. No American president should ever have to go through that again, especially when we have billions of barrels of oil right in our own back yard.
The next few years will be a time of financial hardship, but once American oil becomes available, it will not take long for the economy to turn around. This time of austerity is beneficial in a way, because it forces us to seek new and better ways to do things. And, new and better ways of doing things.....well that is a lot of what this country is all about! In the face of adversity, we will prevail and prosper in the end! We can do it! God Bless America!
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Natural Flea And Tick Repellent
“All Natural Flea And Tick Repellent That Really Works”
Do you have pets? Do you worry about the fleas and ticks those pets may carry into your home? Would you like a totally natural solution, a totally green solution for flea and tick control? You’ve come to the right place, read on!
Recently I adopted a new baby, not a human baby, a canine baby. When flea and tick season came around I knew I needed to find a natural way to control fleas and ticks. As far as I am concerned, products like Frontline are too harsh for puppies, not matter what they say on the labels. And so the search started.
I was at the local health food store when the conversation turned to flea and tick control on pets and for the home. An older lady told me she swore to the effectiveness of pine tar soap. She told me to simply purchase a bar of pine tar soap, any brand, shave some off with a knife, place the shavings in a spray bottle, fill with water and you are ready to go.
I followed her advice to the letter. It worked! I bathed my pet in pine tar soap and then sprayed her once a day with the pine tar soap solution, and she has not had one flea or tick on her all season. It works better than Frontline, and it is less than 3.00 a bar which is more than enough for an entire season.
We also get ticks in our home, and this is a serious problem. Ticks carry Lyme’s disease, which if left untreated can lead to serious neurological problems. With the pine tar soap solution I sprayed all around the foundation of the house, and then I sprayed the inside of the house, along the floor boards of each room, and also around doors and windows. I did this about once a week, and it has worked great! Even the sugar ants did not make their yearly appearance. Insects of all kinds simply hate the scent of pine tar soap. For the first time ever, my house is tick free. Even the spiders are gone.
Pine tar soap also works well for keeping ticks off humans. Simply use it in the shower, or spray the solution on before going outside, and you are protected against ticks for an entire day. It is especially good for children as commercial tick repellents contain dangerous chemicals.
The effectiveness of pine tar soap is like a small miracle, it simply works, and it works better than any other flea and tick repellent I have ever used, but it does not end there. Pine tar soap is very inexpensive, and it smells good, like pine trees, or a Christmas tree, and I will never be without it again. How wonderful it is to find such a natural
inexpensive and effective product.
Do you have pets? Do you worry about the fleas and ticks those pets may carry into your home? Would you like a totally natural solution, a totally green solution for flea and tick control? You’ve come to the right place, read on!
Recently I adopted a new baby, not a human baby, a canine baby. When flea and tick season came around I knew I needed to find a natural way to control fleas and ticks. As far as I am concerned, products like Frontline are too harsh for puppies, not matter what they say on the labels. And so the search started.
I was at the local health food store when the conversation turned to flea and tick control on pets and for the home. An older lady told me she swore to the effectiveness of pine tar soap. She told me to simply purchase a bar of pine tar soap, any brand, shave some off with a knife, place the shavings in a spray bottle, fill with water and you are ready to go.
I followed her advice to the letter. It worked! I bathed my pet in pine tar soap and then sprayed her once a day with the pine tar soap solution, and she has not had one flea or tick on her all season. It works better than Frontline, and it is less than 3.00 a bar which is more than enough for an entire season.
We also get ticks in our home, and this is a serious problem. Ticks carry Lyme’s disease, which if left untreated can lead to serious neurological problems. With the pine tar soap solution I sprayed all around the foundation of the house, and then I sprayed the inside of the house, along the floor boards of each room, and also around doors and windows. I did this about once a week, and it has worked great! Even the sugar ants did not make their yearly appearance. Insects of all kinds simply hate the scent of pine tar soap. For the first time ever, my house is tick free. Even the spiders are gone.
Pine tar soap also works well for keeping ticks off humans. Simply use it in the shower, or spray the solution on before going outside, and you are protected against ticks for an entire day. It is especially good for children as commercial tick repellents contain dangerous chemicals.
The effectiveness of pine tar soap is like a small miracle, it simply works, and it works better than any other flea and tick repellent I have ever used, but it does not end there. Pine tar soap is very inexpensive, and it smells good, like pine trees, or a Christmas tree, and I will never be without it again. How wonderful it is to find such a natural
inexpensive and effective product.
Friday, July 11, 2008
I Was Homeless And Lived In MY Car
“I Was Homeless And Lived In My Car”
This is a true story. My husband and I were homeless and lived in our car, a storage unit, and a tent for over two years. We were not homeless because we were alcoholics or drug users. We were the average young couple working hard, just trying to make it. Never did we think we could end up without a roof over our heads.
At the time, I was collecting workers compensation due to a back injury. Six weeks after I hurt my back, my husband was involved in a serious car accident, which left him severely injured and unable to work. If only we had disability insurance, all would have been well. However, being young and carefree we laughed at the thought of buying something like disability insurance. Surely, that was for someone older with more responsibilities.
Living off just 300.00 a week, it soon became clear that we could not pay for both of our vehicles and keep up with the other bills too. We quickly sold one vehicle, not making any kind of a profit, and still owing several thousand dollars in the end. Even after that, it was not possible to pay our rent and keep the vehicle we did have, which was a newer used SUV. Not wanting to lose the SUV, we decided to move out, store our furniture, and live in our SUV. It was a gut wrenching decision at a time when the comfort of a home was much needed, but we simply had no choice.
At the time, my back was so bad that I could not even stand up straight. I walked around hunched over in horrific pain. It turned out that I had two herniated disks in the lowest area of the spine. My husband was suffering from severe headaches due to neck and back injuries from the car accident. Even though the accident was not his fault we would have to wait for a settlement before there was even money to pay for medical bills. It was a complete and total nightmare situation. My mind reeled in disbelief. How did this happen? We were HOMELESS, through no fault of our own. I was brought up to believe that if you worked hard and kept your nose to the grind stone this could not happen, but it was happening, and it was happening to me.
With millions of people losing their homes every year, I know that many of those people will become homeless. Homeless through no fault of their own, just like me, but homeless just the same. The good thing is we had no children, just one faithful little dog. I cringe to think of the people who are homeless and have children. Living homeless could scar a child for life.
At first we slept in our SUV, but as winter approached it was becoming more difficult. Then one day when we were visiting our storage unit we decided it would be a safe and warm place to sleep. Our bed was stored there already, so in no time at all, I had the storage unit turned into a bedroom of sorts. It felt so good just to be able to stretch out on a real bed for a change. That night my husband and I slept better than we had in the last few months.
After that, little by little our mini storage unit became our home. We got away with it because it was located in a remote area with few people around. We kept a low profile just the same, and made sure evidence of our existence was not found. As months rolled by and no one became the wiser, we became bolder. We lined the storage unit with insulation, and got a kerosene heater to stay warm. We had to make sure to crack the door, it was probably a very dangerous thing to do, but at the time we were so cold that we threw caution to the wind. The second winter we got an electric heater and plugged it into an outside electrical outlet, praying no one would notice the increase on their electric bill. Before long we even had a mini refrigerator for our food.
As spring turned into summer the mini storage shed started to feel like an oven, we knew we had to find a different place to live. We bought a tent and pitched it in a secluded area, and during the summer months we lived there. It was not as comfortable as the storage shed, but it was nicer to be in, because you could see outside. We bought a few air mattresses to sleep on, and a small grill to cook on. To be honest, I never want to go camping again. When big storms rolled in we had to flee for the safety of our vehicle, and hope that a stray tornado did not come our way. Bad weather is hard on the homeless, no matter if it is summer or winter, one is exposed to the elements.
Little by little we were trying to save money so we could get an apartment again, however there was no place we could afford and pay our bills too. Besides, we were getting used to our lifestyle and it was not all that bad, it was kind of like an adventure. We had a rain barrel and in the morning, summer warmed rain was what I used to wash my face and hair in. We took showers at a local truck stop. No one would have guessed we were homeless by looking at us. Being avid readers, we enjoyed the endless reading hours at our disposal. We hung out a lot at local libraries for a change of scenery and the newest book releases.
You are probably wondering why we didn’t go to family or friends for help. Our families lived in a different state and to this day they have no idea what we went through, and we certainly did not tell them. We were embarrassed. We avoided our friends for that reason also. Besides, our friends had their own financial problems. We knew we made a huge mistake by not having disability insurance, we just had to learn our lesson, live one day at a time, and hope for better things to come.
Our homeless days finally ended when I got on social security disability and my husband
received a settlement for the car accident he was in. We did not rush out and buy a house right away, we took our time and made sure we got a home we could afford if the unthinkable happened. That meant we could pay for taxes, insurance and upkeep, even if we both became disabled.
To this day, I remember my homeless days more vividly than any other event of my life. I remember the total fear and horror of not having enough money to continue in a
lifestyle I was accustomed to. However in the end I appreciate all the lessons I learned from the experience. I see people going out on a limb financially and I just want to shake them to wake them up, but I know this is a lesson that each person must learn on their own. It is very, very easy to slip into a homeless state, more now than ever as the US economy implodes. People have no idea how close to homelessness they really are.
This is a true story. My husband and I were homeless and lived in our car, a storage unit, and a tent for over two years. We were not homeless because we were alcoholics or drug users. We were the average young couple working hard, just trying to make it. Never did we think we could end up without a roof over our heads.
At the time, I was collecting workers compensation due to a back injury. Six weeks after I hurt my back, my husband was involved in a serious car accident, which left him severely injured and unable to work. If only we had disability insurance, all would have been well. However, being young and carefree we laughed at the thought of buying something like disability insurance. Surely, that was for someone older with more responsibilities.
Living off just 300.00 a week, it soon became clear that we could not pay for both of our vehicles and keep up with the other bills too. We quickly sold one vehicle, not making any kind of a profit, and still owing several thousand dollars in the end. Even after that, it was not possible to pay our rent and keep the vehicle we did have, which was a newer used SUV. Not wanting to lose the SUV, we decided to move out, store our furniture, and live in our SUV. It was a gut wrenching decision at a time when the comfort of a home was much needed, but we simply had no choice.
At the time, my back was so bad that I could not even stand up straight. I walked around hunched over in horrific pain. It turned out that I had two herniated disks in the lowest area of the spine. My husband was suffering from severe headaches due to neck and back injuries from the car accident. Even though the accident was not his fault we would have to wait for a settlement before there was even money to pay for medical bills. It was a complete and total nightmare situation. My mind reeled in disbelief. How did this happen? We were HOMELESS, through no fault of our own. I was brought up to believe that if you worked hard and kept your nose to the grind stone this could not happen, but it was happening, and it was happening to me.
With millions of people losing their homes every year, I know that many of those people will become homeless. Homeless through no fault of their own, just like me, but homeless just the same. The good thing is we had no children, just one faithful little dog. I cringe to think of the people who are homeless and have children. Living homeless could scar a child for life.
At first we slept in our SUV, but as winter approached it was becoming more difficult. Then one day when we were visiting our storage unit we decided it would be a safe and warm place to sleep. Our bed was stored there already, so in no time at all, I had the storage unit turned into a bedroom of sorts. It felt so good just to be able to stretch out on a real bed for a change. That night my husband and I slept better than we had in the last few months.
After that, little by little our mini storage unit became our home. We got away with it because it was located in a remote area with few people around. We kept a low profile just the same, and made sure evidence of our existence was not found. As months rolled by and no one became the wiser, we became bolder. We lined the storage unit with insulation, and got a kerosene heater to stay warm. We had to make sure to crack the door, it was probably a very dangerous thing to do, but at the time we were so cold that we threw caution to the wind. The second winter we got an electric heater and plugged it into an outside electrical outlet, praying no one would notice the increase on their electric bill. Before long we even had a mini refrigerator for our food.
As spring turned into summer the mini storage shed started to feel like an oven, we knew we had to find a different place to live. We bought a tent and pitched it in a secluded area, and during the summer months we lived there. It was not as comfortable as the storage shed, but it was nicer to be in, because you could see outside. We bought a few air mattresses to sleep on, and a small grill to cook on. To be honest, I never want to go camping again. When big storms rolled in we had to flee for the safety of our vehicle, and hope that a stray tornado did not come our way. Bad weather is hard on the homeless, no matter if it is summer or winter, one is exposed to the elements.
Little by little we were trying to save money so we could get an apartment again, however there was no place we could afford and pay our bills too. Besides, we were getting used to our lifestyle and it was not all that bad, it was kind of like an adventure. We had a rain barrel and in the morning, summer warmed rain was what I used to wash my face and hair in. We took showers at a local truck stop. No one would have guessed we were homeless by looking at us. Being avid readers, we enjoyed the endless reading hours at our disposal. We hung out a lot at local libraries for a change of scenery and the newest book releases.
You are probably wondering why we didn’t go to family or friends for help. Our families lived in a different state and to this day they have no idea what we went through, and we certainly did not tell them. We were embarrassed. We avoided our friends for that reason also. Besides, our friends had their own financial problems. We knew we made a huge mistake by not having disability insurance, we just had to learn our lesson, live one day at a time, and hope for better things to come.
Our homeless days finally ended when I got on social security disability and my husband
received a settlement for the car accident he was in. We did not rush out and buy a house right away, we took our time and made sure we got a home we could afford if the unthinkable happened. That meant we could pay for taxes, insurance and upkeep, even if we both became disabled.
To this day, I remember my homeless days more vividly than any other event of my life. I remember the total fear and horror of not having enough money to continue in a
lifestyle I was accustomed to. However in the end I appreciate all the lessons I learned from the experience. I see people going out on a limb financially and I just want to shake them to wake them up, but I know this is a lesson that each person must learn on their own. It is very, very easy to slip into a homeless state, more now than ever as the US economy implodes. People have no idea how close to homelessness they really are.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
American Life After Peak Oil
The year is 2013, five years after peak oil. Gas is now over 11.00 a gallon. The average American no longer drives a car. Only the government and the military have access to large amounts of gasoline. It is a world none of us could have imagined.
The average American family of four has made drastic changes to survive. It is a cold Midwest morning, the alarm goes off at 7 AM. The family wakes up to a cold, 55 degree house. An electric spacer heater is the only form of heat, and all electric, nation wide, is shut off from 11PM-7AM. Through out the winter months, only three rooms are heated, the living room, the kitchen, and one bathroom. Because of this, all the beds are now set up in the living room. On top of each bed, are sub zero sleeping bags. These sleeping bags are the difference between life and death, as all across the nation people freeze to death every night in their homes. This has become so common that no one even takes notice anymore.
Our family gets ready for the coming day. They eat a meager breakfast of oatmeal, just oatmeal. There is no sugar. For lunch there will be a small portion of rice and beans, for dinner the same. There may be an occasional egg from the chickens they raise, otherwise, they will eat the same thing over and over until spring arrives. Then, there will be rhubarb, asparagus and spring onions from the large backyard garden, however, the garden will not produce substantial amounts of food until late summer. The entire family is very thin, and on the brink of starvation. America no longer has a problem with obesity. Thousands starve to death every year, in American, land of plenty.
The family eats quietly with heads down looking at their small bowls of oatmeal. Depression is a serious mental health problem. People feel desperate, and there is not the faintest flicker of hope there will be change in the future. The suicide rate is high, especially among teenagers and young adults who feel they have been cheated out of an important time in their lives. It is a time of great desperation for all.
Mom turns on the TV to the CNN channel. CNN is now the main contact with the outside world. There are no longer any local channels. Satellite TV is free of charge and like every other existing business it is run by the government. The only private sector store still open is Wal Mart. Every other business went under within the first year after peak oil. Millions of people are now jobless and are kept alive by government food programs. Money is useless and has lost all meaning. The entire economy is based on barter. In the spring dad will go back to work on a large government owned farm. He will be paid in milk, cheese, meat, feed for the backyard chickens and other food raised on the farm. He now listens closely to CNN which announces various job openings and work schedules. There is also news as to when federal food trucks will arrive in town this coming month. Next, the familiar face of Lou Dobbs lights up the screen. He has become a superstar of sorts, and a comfort to millions as he vents his anger at the government for the mess that America is now in.
It is now 8AM, and the house is getting warmer. It is time for the kids to go to school. All schools closed long ago, and children now attend school online. A corner of the living room is reserved for the kids, and they head over to it and turn on the computer. The family has three computers, with the children's computers issued by local government. Obviously not all families across American are as lucky as our family. Local governments in the Midwest were more organized and somewhat prepared for this crisis. Money was set aside for the online school program. In other areas where computers are not available, children simply are not getting an education unless their parents are willing and able to home school.
Mom heads over to her computer. The US Post Office no longer exists. The only way to send a letter is to do it online. The Internet has become a lifeline to many people, and is the one bright spot in a very grim scenario. Many women have learned to sew and alter existing clothes with the help of online classes via the Internet. Mom wants to learn how to make soap, but first she must barter for the ingredients. She knows that she will be able to trade soap for other things her family may need in the future, items which may mean the difference between life and death. There is no formal health care system in place, and she worries constantly that one of her children may become ill. She knows people want soap desperately and may even trade medicine for it. She continues to surf the net, looking at quilting patterns and thinking about the new quilts she is making for the family this coming Christmas. She is forever grateful for the sewing machine she bought many years ago, but never used until the oil crisis years.
Dad is looking out the window. The street is unrecognizable, there is no snow removable of any kind. The path that leads out to the storage shed, now converted into a small barn, must be shoveled out by hand. Snow blowers stand idle next to cars, no longer driven, in garages all across America. There was a big storm last night, and dad wants to get to the barn to feed the chickens. He steps out into the bright , crisp morning and starts to shovel. The chickens hear him and cluck with excitement. Dad just smiles and shakes his head. He used to be a well paid accountant, and now he is a part time farmer of sorts. He worked hard to provide his family with the best, and it was a bright day when they moved into an upper class subdivision, where it was against the rules to even have a clothesline. Now that same subdivision is dotted with makeshift mini barns and coops, and they all harbor a variety of chickens. Privately, dad enjoys this simple way of life, wishing it could have happened under different circumstances.
Now it is noon and the family gathers around the kitchen table for a meal of beans and rice. The children dream about Mc Donalds, and so do mom and dad, but fast food is a thing of the past, along with restaurants. All these places went out of business a long time ago. Every morsel of food the family eats is prepared by mom or dad. Mom worries once again about her children’s health, thinking they look thin and drawn, however the children seem to be happy. They chat about the movie they want to watch this evening. .Like children everywhere, they enjoy the closeness of family life. Because there is no form of personal transportation, the family spends almost all their time in each other’s company. For the people that do have a job, many times it is a job that is performed online. However, most people do not work, and are dependent upon government food programs. When dad works on the government farm come spring, he will not come home every night like he used to. He must walk to the train station, then catch the train which will take him to the farm. He will live there in a barracks, coming home once a week, bringing home precious items that his family would otherwise have no way of getting. Soap and cleaning supplies along with shoes and clothing is what he hopes to attain this coming year through the barter of the extra food and chicken feed he will earn on the farm.
Mom clears away the lunch dishes and sighs, she misses common place things like dish detergent and toilet paper and worries once again over the unsanitary conditions the family is forced to live under. Rumors are all over the Internet, the government is going to start distributing things like toilet paper, soap, bleach and perhaps basic cleaning supplies, but so far it is nothing but rumors and she prays that she will soon be able to make her own soap. Soap, just another thing she always took for granted. She stacks the dishes in the sink. Later she will boil the dishes in a large kettle of water on top of the stove. Some people just rinse the dishes and leave it at that, but this mother is worried that her kids may become ill if she lowers her standards. Once again she is reminded that medical care and medicine is not readily available and many Americans have died as a result.
After lunch the kids head on out to the barn and help dad feed the chickens. The children love this activity and are proud of the animals. They don’t remember much about life before the oil crisis, and they are adapting well to this new way of living. What they fail to realize is that one day the chickens will be on the dinner table. In fact, in other areas of the country people are breeding pet rats for food.
Mom and dad have not adapted as well to the post oil days as the children, they seem to be lost in daydreams and lament, "If only we were more prepared". Dad secretly enjoys the simple life, but mom is more and more depressed. Both know their former lifestyle will never make a comeback. The entire world is plunged into this same nightmare. In third world countries, life has changed little if at all, but everything in the United States is different now. America no longer has an illegal immigration problem. People can see little difference between the way Americans live and the way they live. Now it is all the same.
The cold winter’s day grows dark and more frigid as the sun sets. Because there is very little pollution in the air now, the spectacular sunsets of the oil consuming days have come to an end. There is only a feeble wisp of color in the sky as the sun dips lower. Bare branches brush the horizon like webs of black lace. The wind picks up and howls around the eaves. Before, mom enjoyed these windy winter nights, now she wonders how many more Americans will die because of the cold and lack of heat. She sends up a prayer of thanks again for the sub zero sleeping bags the family purchased for camping trips. Trips made before the oil crisis. The difference between life and death hinges on so many little things that no one gave any thought to. She shakes her head at her own foolishness. Like most Americans she was carefree to so many important things that she should have been taking note of . Now, the lives of her family hang in the balance.
Evening settles over the land. Hard diamond pointed stars glitter in a clear, cold sky. The family gathers for the evening meal, and there is even a surprise! Mom has found a small amount of hot chocolate mix in a back cupboard. It is probably 6 years old, and a bit rancid, but the family mix it with water and nothing has ever tasted so good. For no reason at all, mom starts to cry, and before long the entire family is in tears. Dad reaches over and hugs the mother of his children. The hard times have strengthened the marriage, each partner reaching deep within to guarantee the survival of their children. Never before have they loved each other more, or have been so grateful for the smallest of things, like a weak cup of hot cocoa on a cold winter’s night.
The family passes the evening watching free satellite TV. In fact, the family pays no bills at all, everything is taken care of by the government. People talk about the day when once again there will be private sector businesses. That day will have to wait until a cheap replacement for oil can be found by the government. So far, there is no alternative that will provide an answer for the masses. The oil that is left is for government, military, and farming use. Private citizens get a gas ration of a gallon a month for lawn mowing use, but few are able to find a government distribution point that has gas. No one could have imagined the scope and depth of the problem. Every aspect of life has been affected by the end of oil.
Because our family lives in the Midwest, they are in one of the safest areas of the United States. Others are not as fortunate. Every night on CNN, the family hears news of horrific conditions in big eastern cities. Crime is high and there is total lawlessness. People are afraid to leave their homes and apartments and many simply die there, starving to death when there are federal food supplies but a block away. Gangs have taken over, and they have their own laws. Prisons have been raided and the prisoners released. Shoot outs for supplies and food are a common everyday thing. So far, the gangs have been content to stay where they are, but one day, they may decide to leave the big cities and plunder other areas. When that day comes, they will be met with stanch resistance. Citizens everywhere carry guns openly. The old laws no longer apply, it is every man for himself.
In the area where our family lives, the neighbors have banded together to create a citizen’s watch. It is dad’s turn tonight, and he is cleaning his gun and getting out his precious ammo. He also uses his rifle to go deer hunting with the other neighbors. A few years ago deer were still plentiful in the area, but they were quickly hunted out, almost to the point of extinction. And, all across the nation wooded areas have been stripped of wood, leaving little habitat for wildlife. When the oil crisis first hit, people simply burned wood to stay warm. However, like oil, wood, in the end, was not the answer to America's energy needs. It only took a few years before wood supplies grew scarce, or were unattainable due to lack of transportation.
Dad pulls on his boots getting ready to take the night watch. There is a nation wide curfew of 5PM. Other than the citizen’s watch, no one has any right to be out and about, and there is a shoot to kill law. Thankfully, there has been no incidents this year, but the first year after peak oil there where many people killed as they tried to break into homes and steal food. What everyone worries about now are the big city gangs. These gangs make their own drugs, and through the barter of those drugs have more guns and supplies of ammunition than even the government. A few neighbors banded together with deer rifles would be no match for these lethal thuds. CNN reports that the US government is now at war with these gangs, trying to wipe them out. People shake their heads at the place America has become. A place no one knows. A place that has every resemblance of a third world country.
In spite of it all, life continues on. Mom wakes up, it is 3AM. With the electric turned off at 11PM, it is cold enough that she can see her own breath. She struggles to go back to sleep. She struggles not to think too much about the future, because there is very little light at the end of the tunnel at this point. Nevertheless, tomorrow, an Amish woman and some other neighborhood women will be coming over to make quilts. Women across the nation are learning the same skills their grandmothers held in high regard, such as sewing, quilting and rug making. The Amish woman will also give mom pointers on soap making. Mom cannot imagine someone living without modern conveniences by choice, but that is exactly what the Amish have been doing for years. For the Amish, it is business as usual. Mom is looking forward to seeing the other women and sharing any neighborhood news. Neighbors who didn’t even know each others names before now have become a closely knit clan of sorts. There is a sense of belonging . Together, they feel safe, and they know that no matter what happens in the future, together, they will survive.
And so we leave our family. Our American family without oil. I believe this story portrays the best case scenario. The truth, I fear, could be much darker. In the past, when countries have collapsed, starving people have even resorted to cannibalism. Few of us can imagine eating a beloved pet, much less eating another human being. However, when there is great desperation and little hope, people can do unimaginable things. We think these things will never happen here, but, who ever thought that America would be financially raped with ever increasing gas prices?
How grim the end of oil will be, how serious and impacting the consequences, no one knows for sure. If we don’t find a cheap, renewable, clean form of energy in the very near future, we will suffer, make no mistake about it. Much of the problem is our own carefree attitude. We don’t worry about things until they become a major problem. How insane is it to rely on Middle East oil, when we are hated in that area of the world? Every time we buy oil from that part of the world, Bin Laden and his kind are one step closer to bringing America down, perhaps forever!
We should have been addressing the oil problem in the 1970’s. Instead we waited, and now it may be too late. There simply are no easy answers, no easy choices. Our lives could very well slip into a third world like existence.
The average American family of four has made drastic changes to survive. It is a cold Midwest morning, the alarm goes off at 7 AM. The family wakes up to a cold, 55 degree house. An electric spacer heater is the only form of heat, and all electric, nation wide, is shut off from 11PM-7AM. Through out the winter months, only three rooms are heated, the living room, the kitchen, and one bathroom. Because of this, all the beds are now set up in the living room. On top of each bed, are sub zero sleeping bags. These sleeping bags are the difference between life and death, as all across the nation people freeze to death every night in their homes. This has become so common that no one even takes notice anymore.
Our family gets ready for the coming day. They eat a meager breakfast of oatmeal, just oatmeal. There is no sugar. For lunch there will be a small portion of rice and beans, for dinner the same. There may be an occasional egg from the chickens they raise, otherwise, they will eat the same thing over and over until spring arrives. Then, there will be rhubarb, asparagus and spring onions from the large backyard garden, however, the garden will not produce substantial amounts of food until late summer. The entire family is very thin, and on the brink of starvation. America no longer has a problem with obesity. Thousands starve to death every year, in American, land of plenty.
The family eats quietly with heads down looking at their small bowls of oatmeal. Depression is a serious mental health problem. People feel desperate, and there is not the faintest flicker of hope there will be change in the future. The suicide rate is high, especially among teenagers and young adults who feel they have been cheated out of an important time in their lives. It is a time of great desperation for all.
Mom turns on the TV to the CNN channel. CNN is now the main contact with the outside world. There are no longer any local channels. Satellite TV is free of charge and like every other existing business it is run by the government. The only private sector store still open is Wal Mart. Every other business went under within the first year after peak oil. Millions of people are now jobless and are kept alive by government food programs. Money is useless and has lost all meaning. The entire economy is based on barter. In the spring dad will go back to work on a large government owned farm. He will be paid in milk, cheese, meat, feed for the backyard chickens and other food raised on the farm. He now listens closely to CNN which announces various job openings and work schedules. There is also news as to when federal food trucks will arrive in town this coming month. Next, the familiar face of Lou Dobbs lights up the screen. He has become a superstar of sorts, and a comfort to millions as he vents his anger at the government for the mess that America is now in.
It is now 8AM, and the house is getting warmer. It is time for the kids to go to school. All schools closed long ago, and children now attend school online. A corner of the living room is reserved for the kids, and they head over to it and turn on the computer. The family has three computers, with the children's computers issued by local government. Obviously not all families across American are as lucky as our family. Local governments in the Midwest were more organized and somewhat prepared for this crisis. Money was set aside for the online school program. In other areas where computers are not available, children simply are not getting an education unless their parents are willing and able to home school.
Mom heads over to her computer. The US Post Office no longer exists. The only way to send a letter is to do it online. The Internet has become a lifeline to many people, and is the one bright spot in a very grim scenario. Many women have learned to sew and alter existing clothes with the help of online classes via the Internet. Mom wants to learn how to make soap, but first she must barter for the ingredients. She knows that she will be able to trade soap for other things her family may need in the future, items which may mean the difference between life and death. There is no formal health care system in place, and she worries constantly that one of her children may become ill. She knows people want soap desperately and may even trade medicine for it. She continues to surf the net, looking at quilting patterns and thinking about the new quilts she is making for the family this coming Christmas. She is forever grateful for the sewing machine she bought many years ago, but never used until the oil crisis years.
Dad is looking out the window. The street is unrecognizable, there is no snow removable of any kind. The path that leads out to the storage shed, now converted into a small barn, must be shoveled out by hand. Snow blowers stand idle next to cars, no longer driven, in garages all across America. There was a big storm last night, and dad wants to get to the barn to feed the chickens. He steps out into the bright , crisp morning and starts to shovel. The chickens hear him and cluck with excitement. Dad just smiles and shakes his head. He used to be a well paid accountant, and now he is a part time farmer of sorts. He worked hard to provide his family with the best, and it was a bright day when they moved into an upper class subdivision, where it was against the rules to even have a clothesline. Now that same subdivision is dotted with makeshift mini barns and coops, and they all harbor a variety of chickens. Privately, dad enjoys this simple way of life, wishing it could have happened under different circumstances.
Now it is noon and the family gathers around the kitchen table for a meal of beans and rice. The children dream about Mc Donalds, and so do mom and dad, but fast food is a thing of the past, along with restaurants. All these places went out of business a long time ago. Every morsel of food the family eats is prepared by mom or dad. Mom worries once again about her children’s health, thinking they look thin and drawn, however the children seem to be happy. They chat about the movie they want to watch this evening. .Like children everywhere, they enjoy the closeness of family life. Because there is no form of personal transportation, the family spends almost all their time in each other’s company. For the people that do have a job, many times it is a job that is performed online. However, most people do not work, and are dependent upon government food programs. When dad works on the government farm come spring, he will not come home every night like he used to. He must walk to the train station, then catch the train which will take him to the farm. He will live there in a barracks, coming home once a week, bringing home precious items that his family would otherwise have no way of getting. Soap and cleaning supplies along with shoes and clothing is what he hopes to attain this coming year through the barter of the extra food and chicken feed he will earn on the farm.
Mom clears away the lunch dishes and sighs, she misses common place things like dish detergent and toilet paper and worries once again over the unsanitary conditions the family is forced to live under. Rumors are all over the Internet, the government is going to start distributing things like toilet paper, soap, bleach and perhaps basic cleaning supplies, but so far it is nothing but rumors and she prays that she will soon be able to make her own soap. Soap, just another thing she always took for granted. She stacks the dishes in the sink. Later she will boil the dishes in a large kettle of water on top of the stove. Some people just rinse the dishes and leave it at that, but this mother is worried that her kids may become ill if she lowers her standards. Once again she is reminded that medical care and medicine is not readily available and many Americans have died as a result.
After lunch the kids head on out to the barn and help dad feed the chickens. The children love this activity and are proud of the animals. They don’t remember much about life before the oil crisis, and they are adapting well to this new way of living. What they fail to realize is that one day the chickens will be on the dinner table. In fact, in other areas of the country people are breeding pet rats for food.
Mom and dad have not adapted as well to the post oil days as the children, they seem to be lost in daydreams and lament, "If only we were more prepared". Dad secretly enjoys the simple life, but mom is more and more depressed. Both know their former lifestyle will never make a comeback. The entire world is plunged into this same nightmare. In third world countries, life has changed little if at all, but everything in the United States is different now. America no longer has an illegal immigration problem. People can see little difference between the way Americans live and the way they live. Now it is all the same.
The cold winter’s day grows dark and more frigid as the sun sets. Because there is very little pollution in the air now, the spectacular sunsets of the oil consuming days have come to an end. There is only a feeble wisp of color in the sky as the sun dips lower. Bare branches brush the horizon like webs of black lace. The wind picks up and howls around the eaves. Before, mom enjoyed these windy winter nights, now she wonders how many more Americans will die because of the cold and lack of heat. She sends up a prayer of thanks again for the sub zero sleeping bags the family purchased for camping trips. Trips made before the oil crisis. The difference between life and death hinges on so many little things that no one gave any thought to. She shakes her head at her own foolishness. Like most Americans she was carefree to so many important things that she should have been taking note of . Now, the lives of her family hang in the balance.
Evening settles over the land. Hard diamond pointed stars glitter in a clear, cold sky. The family gathers for the evening meal, and there is even a surprise! Mom has found a small amount of hot chocolate mix in a back cupboard. It is probably 6 years old, and a bit rancid, but the family mix it with water and nothing has ever tasted so good. For no reason at all, mom starts to cry, and before long the entire family is in tears. Dad reaches over and hugs the mother of his children. The hard times have strengthened the marriage, each partner reaching deep within to guarantee the survival of their children. Never before have they loved each other more, or have been so grateful for the smallest of things, like a weak cup of hot cocoa on a cold winter’s night.
The family passes the evening watching free satellite TV. In fact, the family pays no bills at all, everything is taken care of by the government. People talk about the day when once again there will be private sector businesses. That day will have to wait until a cheap replacement for oil can be found by the government. So far, there is no alternative that will provide an answer for the masses. The oil that is left is for government, military, and farming use. Private citizens get a gas ration of a gallon a month for lawn mowing use, but few are able to find a government distribution point that has gas. No one could have imagined the scope and depth of the problem. Every aspect of life has been affected by the end of oil.
Because our family lives in the Midwest, they are in one of the safest areas of the United States. Others are not as fortunate. Every night on CNN, the family hears news of horrific conditions in big eastern cities. Crime is high and there is total lawlessness. People are afraid to leave their homes and apartments and many simply die there, starving to death when there are federal food supplies but a block away. Gangs have taken over, and they have their own laws. Prisons have been raided and the prisoners released. Shoot outs for supplies and food are a common everyday thing. So far, the gangs have been content to stay where they are, but one day, they may decide to leave the big cities and plunder other areas. When that day comes, they will be met with stanch resistance. Citizens everywhere carry guns openly. The old laws no longer apply, it is every man for himself.
In the area where our family lives, the neighbors have banded together to create a citizen’s watch. It is dad’s turn tonight, and he is cleaning his gun and getting out his precious ammo. He also uses his rifle to go deer hunting with the other neighbors. A few years ago deer were still plentiful in the area, but they were quickly hunted out, almost to the point of extinction. And, all across the nation wooded areas have been stripped of wood, leaving little habitat for wildlife. When the oil crisis first hit, people simply burned wood to stay warm. However, like oil, wood, in the end, was not the answer to America's energy needs. It only took a few years before wood supplies grew scarce, or were unattainable due to lack of transportation.
Dad pulls on his boots getting ready to take the night watch. There is a nation wide curfew of 5PM. Other than the citizen’s watch, no one has any right to be out and about, and there is a shoot to kill law. Thankfully, there has been no incidents this year, but the first year after peak oil there where many people killed as they tried to break into homes and steal food. What everyone worries about now are the big city gangs. These gangs make their own drugs, and through the barter of those drugs have more guns and supplies of ammunition than even the government. A few neighbors banded together with deer rifles would be no match for these lethal thuds. CNN reports that the US government is now at war with these gangs, trying to wipe them out. People shake their heads at the place America has become. A place no one knows. A place that has every resemblance of a third world country.
In spite of it all, life continues on. Mom wakes up, it is 3AM. With the electric turned off at 11PM, it is cold enough that she can see her own breath. She struggles to go back to sleep. She struggles not to think too much about the future, because there is very little light at the end of the tunnel at this point. Nevertheless, tomorrow, an Amish woman and some other neighborhood women will be coming over to make quilts. Women across the nation are learning the same skills their grandmothers held in high regard, such as sewing, quilting and rug making. The Amish woman will also give mom pointers on soap making. Mom cannot imagine someone living without modern conveniences by choice, but that is exactly what the Amish have been doing for years. For the Amish, it is business as usual. Mom is looking forward to seeing the other women and sharing any neighborhood news. Neighbors who didn’t even know each others names before now have become a closely knit clan of sorts. There is a sense of belonging . Together, they feel safe, and they know that no matter what happens in the future, together, they will survive.
And so we leave our family. Our American family without oil. I believe this story portrays the best case scenario. The truth, I fear, could be much darker. In the past, when countries have collapsed, starving people have even resorted to cannibalism. Few of us can imagine eating a beloved pet, much less eating another human being. However, when there is great desperation and little hope, people can do unimaginable things. We think these things will never happen here, but, who ever thought that America would be financially raped with ever increasing gas prices?
How grim the end of oil will be, how serious and impacting the consequences, no one knows for sure. If we don’t find a cheap, renewable, clean form of energy in the very near future, we will suffer, make no mistake about it. Much of the problem is our own carefree attitude. We don’t worry about things until they become a major problem. How insane is it to rely on Middle East oil, when we are hated in that area of the world? Every time we buy oil from that part of the world, Bin Laden and his kind are one step closer to bringing America down, perhaps forever!
We should have been addressing the oil problem in the 1970’s. Instead we waited, and now it may be too late. There simply are no easy answers, no easy choices. Our lives could very well slip into a third world like existence.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Can Obama Beat McCain?
The man on the street is pondering that question. Democrats everywhere are haunted by
the Rev Wright controversy. When you get that average American into the polling
booth come November, will the words “God dam America” ring in their ears and sway
them to vote for McCain??
That is the question all good Democrats must ponder in the middle of the night.
When I wake up at 3am and wonder how in the heck I am going to make it another week,
another month, another year.....I wonder what will happen to the country I love if we have
to suffer through another four years of Bush economics. Make no mistake about it, if
McCain becomes our next president it will be business as usual on Capital Hill. Can any
of us afford that??
In the middle of the night, I wake up and wonder what is happening to the America I once
knew. According to CNN, fifteen million Americans are behind on their energy bills.
Fifteen million people!! Utility companies can’t turn off the heat and electric in the
middle of winter, but they sure as heck can do it when the nice weather comes around.
That means that all these Americans will have to pay up NOW, or they will have their
electric and heat shut off, and if they are not paid up by next fall, they will not have heat
or electric for the next heating season! The cost of heating a home has not only doubled in
some areas of the country, it has tripled! I used to pay 800.00 a season to heat my home ,
now I am paying over 2400.00 a season to heat that same home! Just that is bad enough,
but I am also paying a lot more at the grocery store, more for every other service like
garbage removal, phone and electric bill, and yes even cable TV has hiked it’s rates at a
time when Americans are hurting more than ever. The simple pleasure of watching TV
may soon be more than most Americans can afford. Even having a pet is becoming so
expensive that I can barely find the money for vaccinations. Every aspect of my life has
become a struggle due to finances. The stress is just unbelievable, and I know I have it
better than many, many others out there. I have no idea how other people are making it. I
know many are maxing out their credit cards to buy the gas they need to get to work. I
also know those people have no way to pay off those credit cards. What happens then??
I don’t think the people in Washington DC have any idea how much the average family is
hurting. The country is falling apart, and it will continue to fall apart if McCain gets
elected. I believe the situation is so dire and intense that if we pick the wrong person
next fall, there may not even be a United States of America when it comes to the election
of 2012! Or at least there will not be a United States of America that any of us know or
recognize.
Of course all the prices are going up because the cost of a barrel of oil has become more
expensive than at any other time in history. I am just wondering why we are spending three
billion dollars a week on the war in Iraq, and we are paying almost 4.00 at the pump with
no end in sight! For all the money that we spent in Iraq gas should be 25 cents a gallon.
Let’s cut the bull crap, the only reason we are in Iraq is to protect our oil interests. I don’t
get it, but what is even worse, Washington does not get it either, or we would not be in
the high gas price nightmare. The man on the street, here in Wisconsin thinks the
government controls the price of oil, pure and simple. They do not believe for a moment there is even a shortage. That it is a big lie. All a big Bush lie to be exact! People
believe that the right person in the White House will bring those gas prices down again.
So we come back to the question, Can Obama beat McCain? Many people in Wisconsin
think that he should be able to, but they would feel more comfortable if Hillary was
running against McCain instead of Obama. In the end the Democrats of this country will
unite and vote us out of this Bush nightmare. If we stick together, and make our demands
known, and keep the pressure up, we will turn our country around and make
America the bright and shining star, the beacon of hope for the rest of the world that the
good Lord intended it to be.
Americans are strong people, we have been through bad times before, and we will get
through the bad times of the future. We have to go back to our roots, remember our
heritage, and emulate the great Americans that came before us. We have grit and
determination in our blood, we can do anything we put our minds to. This too shall pass.
We will find new and better ways to fuel our world, and one day, we will be free of the
oil demon that threatens to destroy us, but only if we chose our leaders wisely. Now is the
time for every good American to get out there, and chose wisely. We are already on the
comeback trail. Look at the talent at our disposal! Both Barrack and Hillary are way
above average. Both are great Americans, ready to change history. All we have to do, is
make sure we get out and vote for which ever one becomes the presidential candidate.
People of America, it’s in our hands, lets not blow it!
The man on the street is pondering that question. Democrats everywhere are haunted by
the Rev Wright controversy. When you get that average American into the polling
booth come November, will the words “God dam America” ring in their ears and sway
them to vote for McCain??
That is the question all good Democrats must ponder in the middle of the night.
When I wake up at 3am and wonder how in the heck I am going to make it another week,
another month, another year.....I wonder what will happen to the country I love if we have
to suffer through another four years of Bush economics. Make no mistake about it, if
McCain becomes our next president it will be business as usual on Capital Hill. Can any
of us afford that??
In the middle of the night, I wake up and wonder what is happening to the America I once
knew. According to CNN, fifteen million Americans are behind on their energy bills.
Fifteen million people!! Utility companies can’t turn off the heat and electric in the
middle of winter, but they sure as heck can do it when the nice weather comes around.
That means that all these Americans will have to pay up NOW, or they will have their
electric and heat shut off, and if they are not paid up by next fall, they will not have heat
or electric for the next heating season! The cost of heating a home has not only doubled in
some areas of the country, it has tripled! I used to pay 800.00 a season to heat my home ,
now I am paying over 2400.00 a season to heat that same home! Just that is bad enough,
but I am also paying a lot more at the grocery store, more for every other service like
garbage removal, phone and electric bill, and yes even cable TV has hiked it’s rates at a
time when Americans are hurting more than ever. The simple pleasure of watching TV
may soon be more than most Americans can afford. Even having a pet is becoming so
expensive that I can barely find the money for vaccinations. Every aspect of my life has
become a struggle due to finances. The stress is just unbelievable, and I know I have it
better than many, many others out there. I have no idea how other people are making it. I
know many are maxing out their credit cards to buy the gas they need to get to work. I
also know those people have no way to pay off those credit cards. What happens then??
I don’t think the people in Washington DC have any idea how much the average family is
hurting. The country is falling apart, and it will continue to fall apart if McCain gets
elected. I believe the situation is so dire and intense that if we pick the wrong person
next fall, there may not even be a United States of America when it comes to the election
of 2012! Or at least there will not be a United States of America that any of us know or
recognize.
Of course all the prices are going up because the cost of a barrel of oil has become more
expensive than at any other time in history. I am just wondering why we are spending three
billion dollars a week on the war in Iraq, and we are paying almost 4.00 at the pump with
no end in sight! For all the money that we spent in Iraq gas should be 25 cents a gallon.
Let’s cut the bull crap, the only reason we are in Iraq is to protect our oil interests. I don’t
get it, but what is even worse, Washington does not get it either, or we would not be in
the high gas price nightmare. The man on the street, here in Wisconsin thinks the
government controls the price of oil, pure and simple. They do not believe for a moment there is even a shortage. That it is a big lie. All a big Bush lie to be exact! People
believe that the right person in the White House will bring those gas prices down again.
So we come back to the question, Can Obama beat McCain? Many people in Wisconsin
think that he should be able to, but they would feel more comfortable if Hillary was
running against McCain instead of Obama. In the end the Democrats of this country will
unite and vote us out of this Bush nightmare. If we stick together, and make our demands
known, and keep the pressure up, we will turn our country around and make
America the bright and shining star, the beacon of hope for the rest of the world that the
good Lord intended it to be.
Americans are strong people, we have been through bad times before, and we will get
through the bad times of the future. We have to go back to our roots, remember our
heritage, and emulate the great Americans that came before us. We have grit and
determination in our blood, we can do anything we put our minds to. This too shall pass.
We will find new and better ways to fuel our world, and one day, we will be free of the
oil demon that threatens to destroy us, but only if we chose our leaders wisely. Now is the
time for every good American to get out there, and chose wisely. We are already on the
comeback trail. Look at the talent at our disposal! Both Barrack and Hillary are way
above average. Both are great Americans, ready to change history. All we have to do, is
make sure we get out and vote for which ever one becomes the presidential candidate.
People of America, it’s in our hands, lets not blow it!
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Was The Rev Wright Firestorm Ignited By The Clinton Political Machine?
What is the average man in the street thinking about in small towns in Wisconsin? From
now until the presidential election I will be posting opinions of average Americans that
are not always aired on mainstream media. Although these opinions can be somewhat
controversial, they are not meant to be offensive in any way.
Do you think the Rev Wright firestorm was started by the Clinton political machine?
People are talking across the nation and shaking their heads. Things just do not add.
Things do not make sense. Why would the infamous Rev Wright want to blow the
election for Obama? Let’s examine the facts and then come to our own conclusions.
Listening to Rev Wright it is hard to believe he is a man of God. Obviously he has a deep
hatred for the United States of America. Although he claims his remarks were taken out
of context, nothing could be further from the truth. When Glen Beck ran the full sermon
on his nightly news program it became clear that Rev Wright’s antics which aired on
CNN were but the tip of the iceberg! If anything he became even more controversial! He
even blames the USA for 911.
Considering that Rev Wright is a millionaire many times over, it seems strange that he
does not realize it was this country that gave him the oppourtunity to become so
successful. I doubt that he would have attained these heights in another country. Yet,
there is not one gesture of gratitude in his rhetoric. Yes, Rev Wright, “God dam
America!”. Such statements make most American’s blood boil.
Up until last week Senator Obama claimed that his church was not all that controversial.
Oprah went to the same church as Senator Obama, and she found it controversial enough
to leave that church. There is a big difference between Oprah and Rev Wright. Oprah
loves this country and she knows that in a large part she owes her great success to it.
When it comes to Senator Obama, from the way he talks about America, we would
assume that he feels the same way, or does he??
If you sat in a church for 20 years and listened to this kind of talk, what would you do??
Most Americas would walk away in disgust, regardless of thier race or creed. Americans
realize that in spite of it’s problems, this country is still the best place on the planet. There
will always be problems, there will always be mistakes, but to say “God dam America” is
deeply offensive to all those people who love this great country.
My ancestors were not always treated kindly by this country either, but they knew it was
the best place in the entire world to make something for yourself . They came to this
country with a humble heart and a strong work ethic, and these values were instilled into
every family member since that time. America was a place where men could be free to
become whatever they wanted if they worked hard to get there. Kind of sounds like the
same things Senator Obama says in his speeches? The only difference here is that my
family lived by those words, as did the church they went to.
And so we come back to the question at the beginning of this blog. Did the Clinton
political machine have anything to do with the infamous Rev Wright shooting off his fat
mouth? It might be a possibility, because they love this country so much that they would
do anything, take any risk, to make sure that the next president of the United States loves
this country above all else except for God. Perhaps Rev Wright was paid to make a fool
of himself, his church and Obama, and if he was, then one has to wonder at the
oppurtunist nature of this man. One has to wonder, what else are we going to find out
before it is all over? If it looks like a duck, and walks like a duck and quakes like a duck,
then dammit, it is a duck!
Where there is smoke there is fire. There is no such thing as a coincidence. Altough Rev
Wright has a huge ego there had to be more in it for him to betray and embarrass Obama
in this way. If Obama runs against McCain in the fall, you can bet that all this nasty stuff
about Rev Wright is going to resuface. That’s just politics. It’s all part of the process.
Obama came to us as a clean slate, but I can guarantee it that it won’t stay that way. That
is simply not the nature of the beast, and thank God that the process all works for the best
in the end.
As for Obama, show you love this country and wear a flag pin like all the other men who
love this country. If you don’t love this country with every fiber of your being, then you
don’t deserve to become our next president.
God dam America indeed!! I hope the good Lord puts Rev Wright in his place once and
for all! If you don’t love this country, leave! Go and see how great it is in some other
country. Rev Wright, we simply don’t need your kind here, and that has not a thing to do
with race, and everything to do with the man that you are!
Please note: The above opinions are mostly from the man on the street. In my corner of
the world these are the topics people are talking and speculating about. Sometimes I
agree, sometimes I don’t. These views are aired here for the benefit and education of
other Americans. It is another source of information other than CNN and the other news
programs. I will continue to post articles of this nature until the presidential election is
over.
now until the presidential election I will be posting opinions of average Americans that
are not always aired on mainstream media. Although these opinions can be somewhat
controversial, they are not meant to be offensive in any way.
Do you think the Rev Wright firestorm was started by the Clinton political machine?
People are talking across the nation and shaking their heads. Things just do not add.
Things do not make sense. Why would the infamous Rev Wright want to blow the
election for Obama? Let’s examine the facts and then come to our own conclusions.
Listening to Rev Wright it is hard to believe he is a man of God. Obviously he has a deep
hatred for the United States of America. Although he claims his remarks were taken out
of context, nothing could be further from the truth. When Glen Beck ran the full sermon
on his nightly news program it became clear that Rev Wright’s antics which aired on
CNN were but the tip of the iceberg! If anything he became even more controversial! He
even blames the USA for 911.
Considering that Rev Wright is a millionaire many times over, it seems strange that he
does not realize it was this country that gave him the oppourtunity to become so
successful. I doubt that he would have attained these heights in another country. Yet,
there is not one gesture of gratitude in his rhetoric. Yes, Rev Wright, “God dam
America!”. Such statements make most American’s blood boil.
Up until last week Senator Obama claimed that his church was not all that controversial.
Oprah went to the same church as Senator Obama, and she found it controversial enough
to leave that church. There is a big difference between Oprah and Rev Wright. Oprah
loves this country and she knows that in a large part she owes her great success to it.
When it comes to Senator Obama, from the way he talks about America, we would
assume that he feels the same way, or does he??
If you sat in a church for 20 years and listened to this kind of talk, what would you do??
Most Americas would walk away in disgust, regardless of thier race or creed. Americans
realize that in spite of it’s problems, this country is still the best place on the planet. There
will always be problems, there will always be mistakes, but to say “God dam America” is
deeply offensive to all those people who love this great country.
My ancestors were not always treated kindly by this country either, but they knew it was
the best place in the entire world to make something for yourself . They came to this
country with a humble heart and a strong work ethic, and these values were instilled into
every family member since that time. America was a place where men could be free to
become whatever they wanted if they worked hard to get there. Kind of sounds like the
same things Senator Obama says in his speeches? The only difference here is that my
family lived by those words, as did the church they went to.
And so we come back to the question at the beginning of this blog. Did the Clinton
political machine have anything to do with the infamous Rev Wright shooting off his fat
mouth? It might be a possibility, because they love this country so much that they would
do anything, take any risk, to make sure that the next president of the United States loves
this country above all else except for God. Perhaps Rev Wright was paid to make a fool
of himself, his church and Obama, and if he was, then one has to wonder at the
oppurtunist nature of this man. One has to wonder, what else are we going to find out
before it is all over? If it looks like a duck, and walks like a duck and quakes like a duck,
then dammit, it is a duck!
Where there is smoke there is fire. There is no such thing as a coincidence. Altough Rev
Wright has a huge ego there had to be more in it for him to betray and embarrass Obama
in this way. If Obama runs against McCain in the fall, you can bet that all this nasty stuff
about Rev Wright is going to resuface. That’s just politics. It’s all part of the process.
Obama came to us as a clean slate, but I can guarantee it that it won’t stay that way. That
is simply not the nature of the beast, and thank God that the process all works for the best
in the end.
As for Obama, show you love this country and wear a flag pin like all the other men who
love this country. If you don’t love this country with every fiber of your being, then you
don’t deserve to become our next president.
God dam America indeed!! I hope the good Lord puts Rev Wright in his place once and
for all! If you don’t love this country, leave! Go and see how great it is in some other
country. Rev Wright, we simply don’t need your kind here, and that has not a thing to do
with race, and everything to do with the man that you are!
Please note: The above opinions are mostly from the man on the street. In my corner of
the world these are the topics people are talking and speculating about. Sometimes I
agree, sometimes I don’t. These views are aired here for the benefit and education of
other Americans. It is another source of information other than CNN and the other news
programs. I will continue to post articles of this nature until the presidential election is
over.
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