"Say warning. Live without warning"

When I created this post, originally, it carried a readability rating that embedded an image from another site. That image transmuted into something nefarious. Now, this entry from my first month of blogging is the holding cell for other things.

The title, a lyric from Green Day refers here to the warning that my writing is not for the minimally literate. Now, perhaps, it takes on new meaning. Beware what you embed from the sites of others.

I should write books. Print is stable.

24 August 2009

"Fresh Roasted Martian Coffee" (original draft)

I rarely agree with my Representative in Congress. We do not share the same political commitments, nor the same priorities. Even so, she is among my "friends" on Facebook. As a consequence, I saw the update when she spoke at the ribbon cutting for the opening of the North Spokane Corridor, the first drivable leg of the North-South Freeway first proposed in 1946. She (or a staffer) posted a photo on TwitPic, and her Facebook page offered a link.

I asked a question of my Representative through this social networking site, although I'm skeptical that she will respond.

Cathy, what are you doing to make certain the project gets completed while there is still petroleum on the planet, and to support the development of vehicles that run on other fuels so the new freeway connecting I-90 to Wandermere will not have been an egregious waste of taxpayer money?

IMHO, the ensuing conversation with other "friends" of Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers was interesting, so I'm pasting it here with a few tiny edits to accommodate formatting differences between Facebook and Blogger.

Garlan Cutler

I was not there but I hope you reminded the folks that , President Obama's mandated health care reform, He will make it work. . Seniors Citizens at 68 years of age will be mandated to CHECK OUT OF MEDICARE to reduce the growth in cost of END-OF-LIFE HEALTH CARE SPENDING. If you are still around at age 70 you will be mandated to CHECK OUT OF THE SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM, that is all the longer that he is guaranteeing you to live.

Valerie Brady Rongey

Garlan, you are sadly misinformed, hope you do some more reading to get the reality of health care for all.

Sheri Engelken

Garlan: Some liar has scared you to death. Not to worry. There'll still be medicare. The tough part will be living to 65 to be eligible for it if there is no health care reform and costs of insurance & care continue to spiral.

Garlan Cutler

Just look that the history of the world governments and read between the lines and dont be fooled

Mike Hen

James, do you really think that we will run out of oil? Are you familiar with the new reserves found in Brasil? Are you familiar with the seeps in California (http://geomaps.wr.usgs.gov/seeps/where.html) or the Gulf of California? Do you really think the project will take a couple of hundred years?

Earl Hand

Valerie - I have read and checked it out and it is a disaster waiting to happen not just for seniors but all of America.

James Stripes

Mike, There is no question that we will run out of oil. It is a finite resource of unknown quantity, but not renewable. We can find new reserves, and develop technologies for extending existing ones, but the earth will not create more during the span of humanity's tenure on the planet. There no question of whether, but there are plenty of questions concerning when.

The world that oil wrought was the twentieth century. That twenty-first will differ in the main is crystal clear--just look into the ball ;-).

The North-South freeway meets the needs of Spokane in the 1970s, and it remains a long way from completion, especially since it is not yet fully funded. Even so, it will relieve congestion and serve usefully if completed in the next decade. I think Rep. Rodgers' views on government create ambiguities in her profession of support both for the freeway, and for the transportation nexus it serves.

Ginger Edmonds

Garlan, check out Gayle Ann's link to Louisiana Gun...pretty graphic.

Mike Hen

James, perhaps you'd like to comment on this (http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38645). There are a number of theories out there that might lead to a reduced concern for the future. One of the considerations is that the atmosphere of Titan is chock full of the organics that are being talked about here. (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/science/index.cfm?SciencePageID=75) Nature in the raw as it were.

James Stripes

Mike, thanks for the links, although it would be nice to see a source more credible than WorldNet Daily for the possibilities that science might need to significantly revise our understanding of how crude oil is formed. As for tapping reserves in outer space, the consequences for prices at the gas pump seem likely to be unpopular.

Still, it's something to think about.

James Stripes

http://www.livescience.com/environment/051011_oil_origins.html seems more balanced than WorldNet Daily, and it is a science source rather than an opinion oriented "news" source. According to LiveScience, abiogenic petroleum likely requires thousands of years, just as biogenic petroleum.

Mike Hen

James, an interesting article. The main thing that I came away from it with is 'we don't know how it's done or how long it takes.' It seems the scenario is not quite as bleak as you originally painted it.
BTW, do you have any energy sources that can handle the current requirement without disrupting today's society? If not then I'll have to stick with the current source and I believe that others will reconsider their earlier stand on the green revolution.
BTW 2, I looked at the author not the media presenter, in the WND story. I have no affinity for WND and considered the story in terms of the author's quals.
BTW 3, [;)] Boy do I wish we could drill on Titan, and maybe vacation on Mars.
Enough of my flights of fantasy! Have a good one.

James Stripes

Mike, we seem to view the world, especially the past and future, from substantially different perspectives. I do not see the complete depletion of petroleum as "bleak," nor societal change as disruptive. Society has never been static. To say that the twentieth century was petroleum centered and that the twenty-first likely will not have been so when we are dead and it is history is not to paint a bleak picture of the future, but to imagine possibilities--I'll warrant that drilling on Titan is also imagining possibilities, as is sipping fresh roasted Martian coffee!

My original question to Representative Rodgers might be rephrased thus: Are you pursuing legislation that is not rooted in static notions of twentieth century realities as normative for our future? I hope not, although I fear that such is precisely the case.