Posts Made By: Jef Spalding

I believe space exploration would be better served at this time through unmanned probes intent upon raw science, like Gravity probe B and Huygens. They are MUCH less expensive than manned probes and would better serve our needs at this point in time. Manned probes should occur AFTER we get our act together on this planet. Our non-renewable petroleum based economy, is resting on shaky ground at best. Lets equally subsidize alternate energy and find a better way to keep our economy strong rather than fighting a war which we can't win.

[QUOTE]Thomas Marxmiller said:

I think it's just too bad that Jon and Les weren't around too help Neville Chamberlain convince us that Hitler was just protecting Germany too!

And the fact that Hitler was marching all over Europe invading all that he sought was also a good reason to start a real war-unlike Bush and his cabinet of oil for profit neo-cons attempting to secure Iraq's oil reserves and call it something else. Just think how strong the economy would be today had we invested the money and lives we've wasted on Iraq on renewable fuel for our aging fossil fuel economy?
The fact is, Thomas, we've permanently destabilized the most volatile part of the world and made a fool of ourselves by not using our intellect to fight this war of sorts - on terrorism. I never thought I would say it, but I would have to agree. Right now, we are now the greatest threat to world peace. Maybe the North Korean madman will force us out of of Iraq into nuclear war-and fulfill Bush's evangelical dream of Armageddon.

There is certainly a lot of truth to your some what out of context ramblings. I also work for the petrochemical industry for over 30 years. The Carter administrations 20+billion investment in synfuels after the 70's oil cartels was quashed simply by lowering the price of crude oil (Somebody sure got rich from that wasteful government spending-including the oil companies foolish synfuel programs). Kind of like what we are seeing now-except the oil companies are just taking a little less profit, not the Saudis. Only a month ago crude was around $10 a barrel more, translating to over a dollar per gallon at the pump?
But the fact remains, easy oil is non-renewable and will eventually run out. At that time atmospheric CO2 will have probably exceeded 1%, and if Armageddon or Ahmadinajad hasn't eliminated homo sapiens, we'd better have a huge, stable source of energy ready to go for the world's energy needs. And as long as oil for profit is the sole motivation of governments in the oil business, there will be little we can do as a consumer to permanently keep the price down. Kum buy Yah oil