[geeks] One of the things I love about America

[Kurt Mosiejczuk]

On Thu, 2 May 2002, Eric Dittman wrote:

> > Bullshit.  The drilling in '1%' of ANWR is bogus math.  That's like saying
> > my office only takes up 15 square feet because that's all that's touching
> > the floor.  The '1%' doesn't count the roads and infrastructure to make
> > the drilling possible.

> That still doesn't address the fact that the Alaska Pipeline
> increased the populations of the indigent species.

Then how about this:  Drilling != Pipeline

You are comparing exploratory drilling and then production to an oil
pipeline to transport oil.  Not the same.

[better emissions standards]

> I'm all for that.  The grandfather clauses for old vehicles and
> the monetary limits on bringing non-compliant vehicles to code
> need to be dropped, too, along with emissions controls on all
> engines, whether they are on the road or not.

I don't think outlawing vehicles that were legal when purchased
is: 1)fair or 2) practical.  It seems like an argument to get the
limits shut down to start with.  Who's going to want to buy a new
vehicle because congress made their 6 month old SUV illegal?
Would it help sooner?  Yes.  Would it hurt lots of people in the
meantime?  Yes.

> > The reason why ANWR drilling is wanted is because it'll make more money
> > for the domestic oil companies.  That's it.  It won't signigificantly
> > lessen our dependance on foreign oil.  It's not that much oil anyway.

> Most of the people bitching about the domestic oil companies
> making money and having influence in the White House are
> the same people that said Communist China having influence
> in the White House was no big deal.  I'd rather have the
> influence domestic rather than hostile foreign.

I don't feel either is right.  I feel the voters should be represented.
Maybe I'm old-fashioned.  Our government is not ebay.  Laws and policies
should not be written to specifically benefit the highest bidder.

> This is true, but remember most of Al Queda and Taliban money
> did come from sales of drugs for the west (which they liked
> as they could feed their war against the west by using the
> corruption of the west).

Oh, that's right, because NONE of the Al Qaeda money came from Saudi Arabia.
And Enron wasn't in negotiations with the Taliban to build a pipeline
through Afghanistan only a month or two before hand.

I'm sure Al Qaeda got a kick too out of using the aviation fuel made from
oil their supporters sold to the US to take down the twin towers.

Nobody makes a big deal about the oil connection to terrorism because there's
too much money in it and no one wants to go through the inconvenience of
having to do without.  But drugs have already been labelled "BAD".

Oh, and our big concern about drugs?  The Afghan poppy fields are already
being replanted.  Not a lot of press about that, is there?  After all, the
current government is our friend.

--Kurt