HALLIBURTON, BIG OIL & THE BP MESS

Do I really need to say more?

I will explain to those of you who have not already leaped to the answer.

The BP oil rig that was gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico was originally approved during the Clinton administration. However, the rig missed 16 inspections, mostly during the Bush administration.

Geo. W. Bush was an unsuccessful oil man who was financed in his oil business by big oil. (It helps to have an important Dad.)

Dick Cheney used to work for Halliburton. During the early Iraq war Cheney steered much of the reconstruction money to Halliburton.

BP, being a politically wise company, gave Halliburton a large portion of the work being done to drill oil on the infamous rig.

Halliburton was the company that was in charge of putting in the cement to plug the oil well just prior to the rig blowing up.

You can connect the dots, but I believe it will never be proven in a court of law. (Venue and jurisdiction are in the South, where most of the judges support big oil.)

No wonder the Republicans want to blame the spill on BP and want to involve BP in Scotland's decision to let a sick terrorist go home. They want you chasing lies rather than trying to find out the truth.

IMMORTALITY

"I am immortal because I have not yet died," is an illustration of a logical fallacy.

Unfortunately, teenagers often feel immortal. They are young and full of energy and love of life. Sometimes teenagers take REALLY STUPID risks, like driving at high speeds or driving after drinking.

We make this worse because modern city life keeps us shielded from death. Often, a teenager will not know anyone who has died.

It can be a lifesaving insight to realize one is mortal.

One of the best ways to teach at-risk young people of their mortality is to take them on a tour of the coroner's office, including the morgue. A first hand look at a body pulled from a car wreak can be more effective than a thousand lectures.

It is sad that the Santa Clara County program set up to take young people on these lifesaving tours has been cancelled due to lack of funds. The price now being charge for a tour of the coroner's office makes these tours too expensive for the non-profit groups organizing teen tours.

My friend says that most Californians think they are immortal, so maybe the coroner's tours need to be expanded for all persons arrested for first time drunk driving.

NEED A JOB?

My prediction is that the Republicans will continue to try to trash the economy as their only hope for winning in November. The Republicans will also continue to repeat the incorrect statement that the economy is all Obama's fault, as if it had been Obama who let people like Madoff run amok.

Republicans believed that regulation of business was wrong. So con men got really rich, while trashing our economy.

Now Republicans are saying that the stimulus must stop because we might be like Greece.

Excuse me? Poor Greece is a very small economy which was ripe for bond and currency market manipulation.

Why is someone not investigating Standards and Poor's? A junk bond rating after Germany backed Greece seems WRONG.

Anyway, ECONOMISTS, you know, the guys that STUDY these things, have said over and over again to keep the stimulus going or risk another longer recession.

But, hey, winning an election is SO much more important than jobs for "the little people." (Yes, that was a sarcastic comment.)

PERSONAL FREEDOM

I am willing, but not anxious, to be tortured, imprisoned and/or die to defend my personal freedom and the personal freedom of others.

I choose my friends, my work and where I live. I obey the law because I helped to make the law by voting.

However, I deeply resent laws that stop me from doing things because the things might harm me.

NO ONE stops idiots, even crippled idiots, from climbing a mountain in a snow storm. Rescuing these numskulls can be REALLY expensive.

But use an herb that has NEVER proven to have killed a single person and you can be sent to prison. WORSE anyone who helps ill people be able to use an herb that makes them feel better can spend up to 20 years in prison.

ALL adults can chose whether or not to use alcohol, which kills thousands of people every year. NO adult can legally possess marijuana as it is STILL a federal schedule 1 drug.

I am not the only person who deeply resents the illogical control of my personal freedom.

Sending medical marijuana suppliers to prison for long terms is incredibility expensive. No wonder we can not afford good schools. The US has a higher percentage of people in prison than any other industrialized democratic nation.

And STILL illegal drugs are easily available to any person, no matter their age, who has the money to purchase the drug.

A SAFE PLACE

I have often thought that monasteries and convents must have been, historically, a safe place for gays and lesbians.

There is a tone of contempt in the words, "Oh, he's for the church.," when said by a military man in the old novels.

It is really interesting that the two most effective and respected fighting forces in Christendom during the Crusades were the Knights of St. John and the Knights Templar, two monastic orders.

The Knights Templar were so respected that they are part of the Holy Grail (the cup Jesus drank from at the Last Supper) legend. In the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the knight in the temple was a Knight Templar.

It should also be remember that all knights were from the upper class. A peasant could not become a knight.

Did you know that the whole thing about Friday the Thirteenth may have come from when the King of France arrested the Knights Templar on Friday, October 13, 1307?

The King tortured the Grand Master of the Knights Templar until he confessed to blasphemy, whereupon the Grand Master was burned to death.

The King said they were practicing perversions, but most historians think the King actually wanted to seize their assets. The Knights Templar were very rich due to having invented modern banking. (It is interesting to note that the Nazi also seized the assets of Jews.)

Using prejudice to steal from the people who are different from the norm has been done throughout history. The leaders say, "But they are ___________, we need to kill them and take away everything they own." Then the leaders smile as they pocket the money.

The US has civil rights for a REASON. It is necessary to treat everyone equally. We do not always manage this, but we do try.

GENGHIS KHAN

Genghis Khan makes Alexander the Great a distant second place for conqueror of the world. Both of them were successful because of organizational behavior. They got their troops to work as one unit, a unit who WANTED to win.

Temujin also made laws. Some of these laws were new ideas which the US still follows: freedom of religion, and "Kings do not kill envoys of other Kings."

He also said lawyers did NOT have to pay taxes! Great man! Great, great, man! &>)

There is credible scientific evidence that the Khan is the ancestor of 1 out of 200 men alive today. Explains a lot, doesn't it?

IS IT 1984?

The "1984" Apple super bowl ad was a statement that Apple stood for free spirit. Yet the flood of overseas manufacturing has forced Apple to contract with a company that uses concentration camp physiological methods on its workers.

It is also REALLY STUPID to have our complex electronics manufactured by someone who does not share our belief in freedom and democracy. (This is because it is possible to put "back doors" into complex chips. The more complex a chip, the harder it is to know that it is made "to spec".)

We need to bring the manufacturing of complex chips back to the US. We are going to have to pay more for our electronic toys, so we are going to need to be well paid.

The economic boom that will happen after you end drug prohibition will make it possible to do all of this.

This is because you can bring the money from a HUGE underground economy into the world wide markets. Ask a economist. I bet I am right on this one also.

Did you know that there is a well regarded rumor that President Kennedy's father was a bootlegger? A bootlegger is someone who smuggled a prohibited substance, alcohol.