Kudos to Al Gore. He won the Nobel Peace Prize to go along with his Oscar for his movie about global warming called "An Inconvenient Truth." And you just know it's got to be true judging from all the people screaming like 5-years olds with their hands in the cookie jar that it's not true, you're not seeing what you're seeing. I haven't seen such hysterical reaction to a movie since that other great documentary made back in the 1970's, "Deep Throat," perhaps a tad more entertaining than Al's movie but not nearly as thought provoking. Well, maybe it is just as thought provoking, but the kind of thoughts it provoked were quite different from those provoked by "An Inconvenient Truth."
So I'm sitting in my yard in late October wearing shorts and a t-shirt wondering why so many people are screaming that Al Gore's a liar. Usually this time of year it's pretty cool and all the trees are bare. Not this year. The many maple trees lining my block are not ready to give up their foliage until it gets a lot colder than it's been. So while I'm not a scientist and don't play one on TV I can observe what's in front of me and I can read and understand plenty. And one thing I'm pretty good at is reading people, been at that quite some time.
And when I see and hear the people denying Al Gore's message I see a bunch of petulant 5-year olds who want to keep their hand in the cookie jar until the end of time, never thinking that no fresh cookies can be placed in that jar while they are industriously emptying it. Step away from the cookie jar, junior, and let's talk about where a those cookies came from in the first place. Besides, sooner or later you're going to have to eat your vegetables, whether you like it or not. Talk about your inconvenient truths.
We here in America have been hogging the cookie jar for decades, burning more oil than anybody anywhere. That's not an anti-American statement for those of you looking for those sentiments to use to argue against my point of view. Let me say this plainly and get it out of the way: I love America with all my heart and think it is the best possible country on this troubled planet. So if you want to argue any points you're going to actually have to rely on facts and logic and not take the easy way out of attacking my patriotism. Besides, even if I didn't love my country, would that be any reason to disagree with me if I told you that geese fly south in the winter?
They sure do and pretty much anyone can point that out and it would be just as true or false of a statement as the facts bear out and the politics or lifestyle of the person pointing out the obvious has no bearing on any arguments or facts or theories. But just the same, I am proud to be an American but not so proud to have to point that out. I wonder if in France when somebody criticizes society or their government they are dismissed and branded as"UnFrench?" Or in other nation, UnRussian, Unchinese, UnEnglish , UnSwedish and the like. It seems like only over here to we try to tell our own citizens that they're not Americans. What the hell else could i possibly be. I was born and raised here and a product of my nation. Why can't I just be wrong if I'm wrong, or dumb if I'm dumb? And whatever happened to "I may not agree with what you say but I will defend unto death your right to say it?" That's American.
So I'll say again that America has been wasteful in our use of the finite cookie jar that is the world's supply of petroleum and that means me too since last I checked I'm as American as a reality game show. Now we're a nation that put a man on the moon when I was 16 years old, an incredible accomplishment given the available technology of the time. So why can't we figure something else out to power our enjoyable lifestyle other than burning the substance of our planet and choking one another with the resulting fumes? Just for the stink factor alone we ought to at least try. Smog is no joke for people's lungs. What makes us think that it doesn't affect our host planet when you look at all this acrid smoke on a global scale?
America lives a very technology intense existence, all micro-chips and fiber-optic cables, i-phones and lap-tops and the like, but at the bottom of this space age technology it's all powered by the 19th century technology of burning dirty fuel and letting the resulting fumes eat away at our upper atmosphere as well as our sensitive membrane tissues and inner organs. In the past 15 or more years our national response has been best characterized by Humvees, possibly the most ridiculous vehicle ever devised. So all the talk about conservation and fuel economy has been just that, talk.
Now if we could harness the gas coming from the likes of Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh we'd be getting somewhere. If erroneous assumptions presented as irrefutable facts were convertible to energy, those two alone could probably power a city the size of Baltimore well into the next century. Or how about these computer geeks who make billions inventing gizmos for the internet or home computers. As high tech as their creations are, they are still reliant on fossil fuels to power them. Is the irony of fossil-fueled high tech lost on these guys? You think maybe in five million years the fuel of choice might be the rotting remnants of personal computers and palm pilots?
Why not put those thinking caps back on and see if you men and women can invent something tiny and useful that provides energy instead of drains it? This is still America here, people, the place where cutting edge technology is supposed to come from, not the place that is fast becoming the world's poster boy for gluttony and conspicuous consumption at the expense of the rest of the kids who just want a cookie or two from that jar before it's empty. Let's invent a new cookie jar that doesn't smoke up the whole kitchen every time we reach into it.
I think we're good with the gadgets for the time being. How about supporting that new Apollo Program some people started to support Green Energy. Whether or not you think Global Warning is man made or even real, development of new energy sources makes a lot of sense for our nation. Nobody disputes fossil fuel's polluting properties and most Americans are uncomfortable with our ever-increasing dependence on foreign oil. Already our oil demands have gotten us into bed with some very unsavory "Allies" and costs America a lot of hard currency leaving our shores . Does anybody think for a minute we'd have anything but scorn for Saudi Arabia if not for their huge oil spigot? There isn't a nation on earth less like the United States that that woman-hating, jihad-exporting, freedom-oppressing, playboy prince-producing cesspool.
Does anybody refute the fact that the wars we're fighting in the Middle East are not the result of our quest for oil if not directly then at least indirectly? We would have had no reason at all to have any military presence in that region if not for the vast reserves of petroleum being pumped out from under those sandy wastes. Who would have ever heard of Osama Bin Laden or KIng Faisal or any of the tin pot emirs and mullahs that are world famous only because of their connection to the United States, either as enemies, creditors or dependent allies? Outside of diplomats and students of world affairs, darned few of us.
If we had a different source of energy we could let these dysfunctional malcontents sort themselves out and emerge before the world as responsible nations trying to do their best for their own people and wanting to be good neighbors in the world community. We in America would likely consider that none of our business instead of the national obsession it's become. We might send foreign aid or technical and medical support like we do to a lot of places on earth but it would be just as it is with those other places, no big deal and America lending a helping hand to developing nations, no soldiers or mercenaries required.
We've got the brains and the research centers here in America to make alternative energy work. And it doesn't necessarily have to be super cheap to be viable That would be like insisting on only a free lunch to replace the very expensive one we've been eating every single day of our lives. Maybe it will still cost the same to run our cars and heat our home but if it's an American technology the money spent will remain in this country and a lot of good jobs will be created right here. And who know, we might even be come energy exporters to the rest of the world and reverse the outward cash flow of the past half century? And just maybe the next Bill gates will be the guy who starts the Microsoft of the alternative energy industry.
Like the early opportunities offered by personal computers and the internet, the field is wide open to young entrepreneurs with guts and brains and a belief in themselves and their product. America has always produced such men and women in almost every field you can think of; medicine, railroads, technology, automotive, aviation, weaponry, politics, entertainment, communication, etc. Not only our native sons and daughters, either. We have a rich history of providing scholars and inventors from other shores a fertile ground to plant their intellectual seeds and a free system to pursue their goals and gain recognition and profit from their labors.
Alexander Graham Bell was not born here but came and stayed and flourished and changed the world. Werner von Braun was a native German who once worked for the Nazi regime yet he came here and supervised the exciting first steps of our manned space program culminating on our Moon landing in 1969. They recognized America ads the place to be to develop new ideas and a platform from which op transform mankind for the better.
The time is now and the place is here. Global warming is only one reason to get the ball rolling. We've been giving away he store for a long time to pay for our energy and I suspect the hemorrhaging of our jobs to other nations has a lot to do with hight energy costs. Lets stop choking on all the smoke an gagging on the alliances with odious oil-ptroducing nations and declare our independence once more. Either that or drive our Humvees to the unemployment office.