WHAT IS REAL SELF-SUFFIENCY?
by OPOVV, ©2012, Presidential Candidate
(Oct. 20, 2012) — Cures are sometimes painful, just look at me with my hernia operation. I don’t know what was worse: the nurse trying to stick the needle in a vein or the recovery nurse telling me I’ve got to wake up and get the heck out of there. On the other hand, cures can be the panacea of what is truly good in the world, like having an abscessed tooth pulled.
All of our lives we’ve been hearing the same old song every four years and I, for one, am truly exasperated with the whole act. Let’s do a little fact check and see if any oil money has ever found its way into the campaign coffers of one of our stalwart politicians (yes, that was a joke).
Putting comedy aside, there are ways to skin a critter and get all kinds of beneficial side effects, and there’s no better animal to try it on than the “Let’s be Energy Self Sufficient Cow.”
Let’s start at the home. Now we all know that there’s never one solution that fits all, so just bear with me here and imagine a total commitment of our nation to achieve a goal which, in reality, we must win, and to do that we must use our heads and try to be reasonable, sensible, and responsible. Solar water heaters have been around since the sun went thermonuclear, so I would deem it reasonable to require that all building permits henceforth issued require such a unit.
Another thing that our homes may provide is a platform for solar cells to produce electricity. Actually it’s a sensible idea that’s been around for awhile and works, but the energy companies would protest. Alright, let them protest.
Being a responsible citizen is ever-encompassing, but one thing we all can do, starting today, is to mandate a 55 mph speed limit which will, immediately, save googles of barrels of oil. My advice is to leave earlier, take your time, and enjoy the ride.
Our nation’s transportation system is not even rated in the top 100, although there are small pockets of overwhelming success, such as the Burlington Railroad in Chicago and the bus systems in Dallas and Seattle. My proposal is to make our rail and bus system the best in the world: this we can do.
Here’s the point: it doesn’t make any difference where our oil and other forms of energy are derived. If conservation methods are not put into place nationwide, then all we’ll be doing is posturing for the next cover of MAD magazine.
Conservation comes in many forms, and if we’d just bring our own bags to the grocery store to carry our stuff rather than get plastic bags every time we walk into a store (double bag please) our country, as a whole, we’ll be better off.
And none of this ethanol nonsense; I mean, it takes more energy to make ethanol than it’s worth. How ridiculous is that? Besides, my Porsche doesn’t like it.
So, picture all of our railroads as efficient as those in Europe, every government building with solar panels and water heaters, private sector, too, conservation across the board and what do you get? Full employment, for starters. An energy-independent America, let Canada and Mexico and all the others manage their own problems. I say we take care of America first, then go on from there. With me?
OPOVV
HI VET!
I’m Baaack. I agree with everything you propose. It is idiotic to require the use of ethanol. It not only drives up food prices, but, as you said, it requires more energy to produce than you get out of it.
I also believe that we need to use all of our resources that we have right here in the good old USofA.We have enough natural gas (clean), shale oil, products of “fracturing” and old wells and taps that will imediately set us free from outside sources. The quantities of resources currently available will last us hundreds of years. In the meantime, we can develop alternate forms of energy like pond scum and other regenerative forms of energy.
If we take the “internal” path, the economy will rebound imediately. Jobs will be created and we can get back to serious manufacturing in this country. In doing so we will send the rag heads back to the sith century.