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| Creativity and the more enjoyable side of life are going to be a
central feature for the next few months. I'm going to let details take care of themselves
and take the time to enjoy myself and stretch out both at work and
play. When something feels right, whether it be a new idea or the
opportunity to just have a good time, I'll probably just roll with the feeling and won't
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| DON'T get used to four dollars a gallon - because it's going to get worse. The energy shortage is here to stay.
As a citizen worried about the effect higher fuel costs will have on our transportation dependent economy, I have been contemplating way of solving the energy crisis. Sadly, there are no simple solutions. Some say that if we drill our own oil, we can drive down the cost. It's true that drilling for (more) oil in America will put more oil out on the market, but the overall effect on the price per barrel will be minimal, as American production will only be a drop in the barrel (so to speak), especially in the short term. By the time we are capable of drilling at much greater capacities, the demand will have also increased. Whether we can get ahead of the demand curve (and whether energy companies will want to) is a question that more knowledgeable people can address with greater certainty, but at the present time, I am quite skeptical of our ability to substantially affect world markets in the emerging global economic revolution.
Another issue we should address with much more urgency than drilling is the falling value of the dollar - which is due in large part to our enormous trade deficit. If we could correct that imbalance, the dollar could potential buy a lot more oil than it does currently. I don't see the national getting smaller anytime soon, and judging from the presidential candidates' positions on issues such as establishing national health care and more stringent environmental policies, the debt could get a lot worse, further exacerbating the problem.
Hydrogen fuel does not present a much rosier picture as the end-all of solving the energy crisis. It takes a lot of energy to produce hydrogen fuel, and wouldn't you know - we have to use fossil fuels to do it. Wind, water, and solar energy can shoulder part of the burden, but alone are not enough to sustain growing energy needs.
A much more visionary approach is shifting towards nuclear energy as a solution. Only if we start using nuclear energy as our primary energy source do we secure long-term energy independence. With nuclear energy we can reduce our need for petroleum and realistically pursue hydrogen and electric vehicle usage in significant numbers.
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| A new law passed recently by congress will outlaw incandescent bulbs in 2012. This really grinds my libertarian gears.
I mean, come on. Edison's idea has been golden for a hundred years now, and we are going to let worries about all the polar bears dying dictate what decisions we make about something as irrelevant as light bulbs.
Now I'm all about conservation. It makes economic sense to save energy, because it saves money. I understand incandescents may take more energy than florescent bulbs, but what about the higher costs of florescent lighting? It seems that the poor people will be getting the raw end of this one. Maybe they can use oil lamps instead...oh, wait...we'll be out of that.
The Mayans said the universe would end in 2012. I'm starting to think so too.
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| Pearl Harbor and 9/11 are different. Sure, both were attacks against America, but one was by a foreign nation, one was by terrorists. We ultimately defeated Japan, whereas we have not yet (and probably never will) eradicated terrorist elements.
This fact alone is the reason why 9/11 is so much more important than Pearl Harbor. We don't have to be vigilant against the Japanese; we don't have to remember why we are fighting them - because we aren't. The war against terrorism is still being fought, and we need to remember why we are fighting that. If we don't, there may be many more grim memorials before it's all said and done.
And let us pray for peace, but remember that wherever there are terrorists, that is where we must defeat them; whether it's in Iraq, Iran, or in the United States.
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