Friday, November 11, 2011

She's right.

From James Delingpole.

A note to Occupy Wall Streeters from the wife of an oil worker:

16 comments:

  1. Michael,

    The trouble is, is that she's right. All of our pharmaceuticals (with the exception of aspirin) and almost all our fertilizers come from oil or natural gas, in addition to the products she also lists, and we are just burning them.

    They're a very valuable resource. They're also a finite resource, and we have already tapped the more accessible half of the oil and natural gas and are now tapping the less accessible resources, with all the risks of further Deep Horizon events.

    And you can't see that there's a problem?

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  2. And you can't see that there's a problem?

    No. God will never give us up. God will never let us down.

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  3. Rick Roll,

    Good one.

    The trouble is that I think that you're right. Mike Egnor and his ilk think that their God is going to recue, similar to the Ronald Reagan cabinet member who stated that there's no need to save the environment because the Apocalypse is coming, or the Ford director who agreed that AGW is real and serious, but that the turmoil caused by it would be aiding the coming of the Apocalypse and confirm biblical prophesy.

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  4. @bach:

    Hysteria over "scarcity" is an old enviro-nut tactic, used generation after generation. You really need to read Paul Ehrlich's crap from the 60's. Just substitute a few resources, and it's the same b.s.

    As an example of the damage that greens have caused, I point out that a major reason that Deepwater Horizon was in deepwater and was so hard to cap when it blew is that oil companies are prohibited to tap oil resources much closer to shore and in many places in as Alaska. Now green nuts are trying to stop fracking.

    The free market deals nicely with supply and demand. It's much more effective and efficient than socialists like you, who have caused immense economic and human damage.

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  5. Mr. Egnor, I wonder why you (and the lady pictured above) are assuming some anti-petroleum ideology on the part of the OWS folks. There's life beyond the Republican-Democrat political "spectrum" (which is a lip service sham anyway.)

    I happen to sympathize with folks who can't find work and are angry at the bankers and politicians who made a profit while causing the economic bust.

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  6. @john:

    I don't particularly like the bankers either. But the OWS rabble are worse than the bankers.

    THe fundamental problem isn't bankers. The fundamental problem is socialism, which sets up an unholy alliance between industry and government. The financial crisis is directly traceable to subprime mortgages which were foisted on the private sector by (mostly) democrats. The incompetence and greed of Fannie and Freddie (very close ties to government and democrats specifically) and their congressional and senate protectors (Frank and Dodd) led to the crash.

    The OWS protestors voted Obama 100%. They are socialists to the bone, and if we listen to them, we'll follow Greece shortly. We may anyway.

    OWS is the problem, not the solution.

    The solution is to dump socialism.

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  7. Michael,

    To use your so charming vernacular, you're talking absolute bullshit.

    'Limits to Growth' were talking about renewable resources such as gold and europium. If you use gold in a computer motherboard, you can recycle the computer and regain the gold to use again (if gold was available in the same concentrations in ores, then it would be highly economical grades). There were fears that the brilliant reds in colour TVs made only possible by the very rare europium would limit the number of colour TVs to just 200,000, but of course alternate technologies such as LCD screens eliminated the need for it.

    Oil and natural gas are different. They are finite, fluid and limited in geographic distribution. They are located in limited reservoir rocks overlaid by impervious capping rocks, otherwise they'd have leaked to the surface and dissipated.

    We are also using enormous amounts of them as an energy source by burning them, and once you burn them you can't reuse them. We are for example using 90 million barrels of oil each and every day. The Athabasca oil sands might contain 200 billion barrels of economically recoverable bitumen, which after processing might supply the world with oil for 2,000 days or around 7 years, perhaps, at current rate of consumption.

    The trouble is that the oil we've accessed so far has been the easier one half. What we are accessing now is the harder half, requiring more energy to get at it.

    If you think that capping Deep Horizon was difficult, the Arctic will be vastly more difficult to stop blowouts.

    Current fracking techniques aren't very good, using water and toxic chemicals to fracture the rocks, with all the risks of contaminating ground water supplies.

    The new technique, if it works, of using just liquid propane, which can apparently be separated easily and recycled, seems promising.

    And I am not a socialist. I have too much money and shares to be that. I'm just concerned that my money will just allow me to starve last if energy and food costs skyrocket with overpopulation and depletion of fossil fuels.

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  8. mregnor "The fundamental problem is socialism, which sets up an unholy alliance between industry and government."
    Hardly. The fundamental problem is that Wall Street (among others) bought the State, privatizing the profits and socializing the losses. "...and frankly, they own the place."

    "The financial crisis is directly traceable to subprime mortgages which were foisted on the private sector by (mostly) democrats."
    Who knew that Carter had so much power? Or Clinton? Or Frank (particularly in the middle of the boom, during the Bush administration when he sat on the Committee on Financial Services in the minority party)?

    "The incompetence and greed of Fannie and Freddie (very close ties to government and democrats specifically) and their congressional and senate protectors (Frank and Dodd) led to the crash."
    Obviously. That's why F/F sat out the majority of the boom, only coming back in at the end when the private shareholders (remember, F/F is a public/private corporation) pushed to get back in to regain market share they had lost. And F/F, even with it's mistakes and lowering standards, still had standards. They weren't leading the market, they were chasing it.
    Start here (then, if you want to get really angry, move on to Matt Taibbi)

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  9. Someone sent me this link earlier.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAOrT0OcHh0&feature=share
    I tend to agree with the general sentiment.

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  10. @mocus:

    [The fundamental problem is that Wall Street (among others) bought the State, privatizing the profits and socializing the losses]

    Precisely. Socialism. What part of that don't you get?

    Both parties are to blame, but Dems own socialism, and they are the major culprits here.

    And that a**holes at OWS are spoiled jerks who vote for the crooks who did this to us.

    It's the Tea Party that's trying to set this straight.

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  11. mregnor "Precisely. Socialism. What part of that don't you get?"
    The part where you're conflating oligarchy or plutarchy (with a veneer of liberal democracy) and socialism.

    "Both parties are to blame, but Dems own socialism..."
    Hardly. Dems own Mod Republicanism from twenty years ago. Obama's healthcare reform crossed out Single Payer from the start, the Public Option never really stood a chance (even in the Dems), the Universal Mandate was Orrin Hatch's idea (back when the GOP had to pretend to have an alternate plan to HilaryCare), etc.

    "...and they are the major culprits here."
    You do know that time is a line, not a series of points that you can connect in any order to construct and a false narrative, right?
    The issue isn't government in business; it's business in government. (See, again, privatizing profits and socializing losses)

    "And that a**holes at OWS are spoiled jerks who vote for the crooks who did this to us."
    Yeah! Take that, dirty hippies!

    "It's the Tea Party that's trying to set this straight."
    Obviously. Thank God the Social Conservatives of the GOP rose up to fight for the status quo (and the destruction of the tattered remains of the social safety net, exempt Medicare [unless it's the Ryan Budget]), shrink government spending (unless it's the Pentagon [unless it's in Libya]), with Dick Armey's assistance, FoxNews' advertising and a Democrat who had just moved in to the White House.

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  12. mregnor "The OWS protestors voted Obama 100%."
    {citation needed} (note: recent polling indicates over 2/3rds of them identify as "independent/other", which, if they're left means that they don't vote. The angry Right votes for people whose "jobs program" includes baiting American muslims, reaffirming "In God We Trust" as the motto and trying to make healthcare for the elderly more expensive (while keeping most the "$500B in Obama cuts to Medicare" that they attacked the Dems for in 2010(*1). I guess it's okay when Republicans do it.), while the disillusioned Left stays home on voting day.)

    "They are socialists to the bone, and if we listen to them…"
    We'll have more than one socialist in congress? Golly, then we'd have more people who are for cheaper healthcare, a Federal Reserve audit, less concentration of media, and and who voted against the Iraq boondoggle. Woe!

    "...we'll follow Greece shortly."
    Greece is an interesting tale, actually. Public sector jobs paying 3x that of private sector ones, hiding debt by leaving it off the books, graft and corruption, Goldman-Sachs, and nobody paying their taxes.
    Of that, all the US has is Goldman-Sachs. It did have leaving debt off the books (before Obama put Iraq on-budget) and, with the slow pullout in Iraq there's less money to disappear into Haliburtion/KBR's cost-plus-plus billing maw.

    "We may anyway."
    Pah! Ignore the festering sore of Afghanistan, the self inflicted wound of Iraq, crashing tax revenues, the three decade run of stalled wages for most, lack of economic mobility, and 9% (17%, really) unemployment, healthcare costs (that even with tepid healthcare reform) will continue grow too quickly…in short a lost decade with more to come...the financial sector is booming and corporate profits are sky high! It's the New Guilded Age!(*2)

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  13. Con't
    "The solution is to dump socialism."
    Obviously. Last time Wall Street broke the economy we got the New Deal; this time we've got one party declaring open war on the poor-to-middle class (every budget from 9-9-9 to Ryan's budget raises taxes on most while cutting them at the top) while the other advocates "shared sacrifice" by screwing the poor, sick or old just a little bit less and asking the top to pretty please pay maybe the Clinton rates.



    *1. Well, the more 14% expensive Medicare Advantage, really.
    *2. "A small percentage of the population is in the money!/A small percentage of the population is in the money!/A small percentage has what it takes to get along!"

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  14. Well, that name should probably be "Modusoperandi", vice an email address...

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  15. Michael said: "Hysteria over "scarcity" is an old enviro-nut tactic, used generation after generation. "

    And every generation has to make greater scientific breakthroughs to squeeze more out of our dwindling resources. If not for genetic hybrids or Haber-Bosch, the world would simply not support 7 billion people. Eventually we'll cross a threshold that science can't save us from. Then either this God everybody talks about will bring his supernatural forces to bear, or people will die in wars over food and water.

    Please look at these - pictures of reality in response to Michael's fantasy. It's good for Michael that formerly arable land is now desert sand. While you can't grow crops on it, there's plenty for Michael to bury his head in.

    http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/11/feeding_7_billion.html

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