Tuesday, July 27, 2004
A Few Opinionlets
It's getting kind of busy these days. I have hardly time to blog. So I will give a few bloglets that I came up with recently.
A note on the Democratic Convention. I listened to three good speakers tonight. Barack Obama emphasized the unity of all and a caring for the poor, sick, and minorities. Ron Reagan presented his case for stem cell research. Theresa Heinz Kerry, the Democratic Presidential candidate's wife, spoke in five different languages for what made America great - space probes, democratic process, and hope for millions of ex-slaves and immigrants. I did note that Clinton last night claimed credit for the boom of the 1990s, when really the dot-coming of society caused the boom, and the bust that followed. Barack Obama emphasized that this is one America, not a Blue America, or a Red one, or a Black one, and so forth. This calls to my mind the Sixth Unitarian Universalist Principle (World Community), but his constant referring to America came close to being suballegiance. But in general, we have been given a sequence of excellent speakers. This should bode well for them in the election in November.
My three principles for terrorists should apply to drinking and drunk drivers as well. Watch out when you drive to protect yourself from the actions of drunken drivers (#3 - defend ourselves). Set up sobriety check points and arrest these people and get them off the road (#2 - get rid of them). But #1, assuring that there are no drunken drivers in the first place, means changing our culture. Our society rewards drinking and drunkenness, and this has to stop. For example, if you are not supposed to drink and drive, then places for which most people would be expected to arrive there by car should not serve alcohol. Pubs and taverns should be downtown for town residents only.
How's the oil situation doing? This makes me a little skittish of retiring from my workplace. Bad times may be coming. Right now gasoline prices are down but crude oil is back up to a dollar a gallon ($42/barrel). Saudi Arabia promised an increase in production. If they can't do it, then it seems like the turning point of the Hubbert curve may have arrived. I hope not.
Misquote from a former dictator: "I am Saddam Hussein. I'm a bad guy. I'm a really bad guy. But me no uranium from Africa. That must have been some other bad guy that made that story up. He must have pulled it out of his uranium." By the way, this guy is like Ozymandias. "I am Saddam Hussein, the Mother of all Presidents of Iraq! Heed my works and despair!" Nothing else remains. Except court.
Good article on Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 . By the way, I am now calling the terrible events of 2001 September 11 9/11 now, in honor of Michael Moore's movie. To me now, either 9/11 or Planeattack is acceptable as a name for these events, but not September 11. That's a date. To me now, September 11 is a date two months from now.
A note on the Democratic Convention. I listened to three good speakers tonight. Barack Obama emphasized the unity of all and a caring for the poor, sick, and minorities. Ron Reagan presented his case for stem cell research. Theresa Heinz Kerry, the Democratic Presidential candidate's wife, spoke in five different languages for what made America great - space probes, democratic process, and hope for millions of ex-slaves and immigrants. I did note that Clinton last night claimed credit for the boom of the 1990s, when really the dot-coming of society caused the boom, and the bust that followed. Barack Obama emphasized that this is one America, not a Blue America, or a Red one, or a Black one, and so forth. This calls to my mind the Sixth Unitarian Universalist Principle (World Community), but his constant referring to America came close to being suballegiance. But in general, we have been given a sequence of excellent speakers. This should bode well for them in the election in November.
My three principles for terrorists should apply to drinking and drunk drivers as well. Watch out when you drive to protect yourself from the actions of drunken drivers (#3 - defend ourselves). Set up sobriety check points and arrest these people and get them off the road (#2 - get rid of them). But #1, assuring that there are no drunken drivers in the first place, means changing our culture. Our society rewards drinking and drunkenness, and this has to stop. For example, if you are not supposed to drink and drive, then places for which most people would be expected to arrive there by car should not serve alcohol. Pubs and taverns should be downtown for town residents only.
How's the oil situation doing? This makes me a little skittish of retiring from my workplace. Bad times may be coming. Right now gasoline prices are down but crude oil is back up to a dollar a gallon ($42/barrel). Saudi Arabia promised an increase in production. If they can't do it, then it seems like the turning point of the Hubbert curve may have arrived. I hope not.
Misquote from a former dictator: "I am Saddam Hussein. I'm a bad guy. I'm a really bad guy. But me no uranium from Africa. That must have been some other bad guy that made that story up. He must have pulled it out of his uranium." By the way, this guy is like Ozymandias. "I am Saddam Hussein, the Mother of all Presidents of Iraq! Heed my works and despair!" Nothing else remains. Except court.
Good article on Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 . By the way, I am now calling the terrible events of 2001 September 11 9/11 now, in honor of Michael Moore's movie. To me now, either 9/11 or Planeattack is acceptable as a name for these events, but not September 11. That's a date. To me now, September 11 is a date two months from now.
