The Weekly Notes 2008
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to the Weekly Notes 2008 Archives T. Boone Pickens: I believe he is full of
it, not oil, but poop. He is full of it just like the rest of those patch
people. He recommends some of the patches that have already
been tried or are being used. He calls it a new renewable energy
network. Some of his ideas are good, but none of them is a real solution. It’s just a couple of warmed over patches for a worn
out inner tube. Oil, the thing that was once a solution, has become a
problem. That’s how life is. Yesterday’s
solution is today’s problem. We need a new total solution, not a bunch
of piecemeal patches for an old system. It is not just oil. Our entire energy
delivery system is obsolete. Tell me about windmills.
I don’t know. Pickens says we can build a wind
farm over several states that could produce 20% of He also advocates
switching autos over to natural gas. He says it burns cleaner. That is true,
but it still has a carbon footprint. It’s a partial
solution that is still a dirty solution. It has the advantage that
most of the gas we need would be produced in The idea is Pickens
wants us to join in his plan. However, when you do that you should know that
he has huge investments in the production of windmills and natural gas. He
did not get to be a With or without Pickens,
many blowhards will say, we are too careless about our energy use. We could
use a lot less. Sure, I answer and car owners are doing that now, not to save
energy, but to save money. But, let us face it, that
is just another way of hunkering down. Many people now are not doing many of
the things they want and like to do, because they cannot afford it. I don’t think that is a solution. It is a
capitulation. I use less energy than most people I know, but I don’t want to hunker down. Why should we? Why don’t we put our effort into solving the problems
rather that finding ways to cut corners? I do like the statistics
Pickens reveals in his plan. We use ¼ of the world’s productions
of Oil. We are spending 700 billion a year on foreign oil. He points out that
is 4 times the cost of the misshapen fiasco in While we are on Oil: Exxon made almost 12
billion in the last three months. Are they embarrassed? Not
at all! Here is the thing about oil. It costs a certain amount to get
it out of the ground and that is the cost of the oil. When they sell it,
anything over that extraction cost is pure profit and executive bonuses. When
the price goes from 30 bucks to 150 bucks, the difference, 120 bucks is all
profit. Whatever the traffic will bear is the reality. The law of supply and
demand is the chant. Greed knows no limits. Genetic Engineering: On the news, they showed
us the very first test-tube baby born in the ABC News: They pointed out what
most people already know. The big tobacco firms are targeting children in
emerging third world countries using tactics that have been
criminalized in Payroll Tax: It seems someone has
discovered a huge breach in the IRS effort to collect taxes. According to
this report, some employers have been deducting payroll tax from employees
and pocketed the money rather than turning it in. How could this be? The IRS
has the tax returns of those employees. The numbers did not add up. There is
58 billion bucks missing. Someone in IRS should go to prison. All of those
employers should go to prison. Quit picking on little guys
for honest mistakes in their returns IRS. Go after the real crooks. Same Old, Same Old: The political campaign,
as they always do, has come down to Mr. Same old stuff Stodgy vs. Mr. Nothing
new Hot Shot. Oh well, sigh! What did I expect? Integrity: Kellogg and the rest of
the garbage food industry spent 1.6 billion last year marketing nonfoods to
children. Was there ever any integrity in the marketing industry? Was there
ever any integrity in American industry? When? Comic Relief: The boss of the Detroit
Tigers was wearing his stupid hat this week. He traded the best catcher in
the league for a relief pitcher. Is that a relief or what? His argument is
that the catcher was getting old and his contract was about to end. It never
occurred to him to offer a contract extension. Duh! Back
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