Re: OT: Anyone have comment on the 60-Minute story about "oil sands" in Canada

Oil production is expensive? No. It's aways entailed costs, some more
than others. Oil production is more or less profitable at certain
price levels, I would buy. Oil sands use up about half of the oil in
energy required to produce product, shale? There is no shortage of
energy, there is no shortage of oil, there is only an huge industrial
community that is in control, who's main interest is in producing
profit in the face of competition for profit. If the Saudis wanted to
wreck our economy, all they need to do is ruin US and Canadian
producers by selling the oil at near cost, about a dollar a barrel or
less considering how long an oil pump lasts. What havoc?

Oil shale is harder to process than oil sands, but it will be
profitable when there is nothing else. We waste more petroleum base
than we actually use, what with throw away plastic everything, and
wasteful heating and air conditioning and personal transport, like
giant unanimous SUVs. Will steel be cheap when shipping it is dear?

Dirty oil is obsolelescent as motor fuel, with ethanol visible on the
horizon. Ahoy! Air Ho! Is the Prez gonna protect this buggy whip
industry, to the detriment of really innovative new industry?

The Prez sez he needs to protect the economy. Well, I think his job is
to protect the people from commercial interests, especially from
monopolistic commerce and the military industrial complex, who's
primary interest is to wage war, at a profit. Remember "Of the people,
by the people, for the people?" Remember Eisenhower?

What pisses me off is there is nowhere I can buy a light, two seat
vehicle with a canvas weather cover and the absolute minimum cost per
mile, subsidized by lower tax, to defend the people's environment, a
bachelor's car I can angle park into half a parking spot on campus, or
at work. Why is that? Protecting the established economy? By whom? For
whom? From whom?

It's the same with restraunts, if you think about it. How to maximise
profit in a restraunt? Sell only big meals is how, charge high prices.
Unfortunately, that business practice costs everybody in terms of
obesity, larger tables, more room to swing stronger chairs, etc. Biggie
size for a buck? How about mini size, for half price, mandated
available, or diet sized, 2/3, plate, for 3/4 price? How about seal
pepper burgers? Yum!

No government has the right to lie to the electorate about matters of
governance, ever. About his gambling preference, brand of whiskey, girl
friends, even boy friends, whatever, doesn't matter, so long as
governance isn't affected. As soon as the lie is about external intrest
interference, it matters. All you need do is ask the right questions.

Elected officials have a binding contract with the electorate, and that
contract is delineated by a constitution. Breaking that contract in
spirit is a high crime, treason. Traitors go to jail, if they are
lucky. Do the rights of the people outrank the rights of the
government?

How can people not know this? Protest your ass off!

Ethanol is made from the agricultural waste you can't make paper bags
out of, or feed to cows. How do you make a 2 x 4 lumber from plasic
bags? Heat, extrude, gasify, cool. At about a hundred miles per hour,
I bet. Using some waste for ethanol instead of mulch may impoverish the
soil.

Small business is the heart of any country. All you need is justice,
and new business will grow faster than mushrooms. Interest on loans is
the main cause of all of our problems. All loans should have a fixed
term, and a fixed fee, with conditions on profit sharing, is all. Some
of the borrowers' or lenders' business profit could even be paid back
to the borrowers or lenders, like reverse interest bonuses.
Computerized loan administration would eliminate many requirements for
labour paid to supervise. Loan supervision should be a fixed fee per
transaction service offered by large and small business, with
underwriting of capitalisation bonds being the only constraint
regarding how much you could supervise. Naturally, the gov would have
the power to finance any project not requiring imports, including small
business, for a small fee. How much does the gov give to small
business as opposed to large, per capita? Why should the richest get
richer?

Who would stop them? So many zeros heaped up in bank accounts,
unspendable in one lifetime, or ten. The government must protect the
people from moneyed intrests. Perhaps by printing new fiduciary
instruments, to prevent counterfeit and laundering? Exchange deadlines,
audit of large conversions? Control of electronic transfers, even to
national portals for the internet?

Why is not all insurance considered disaster assistance, civil defense,
paid and underwritten by the national bank, interest and profit free,
assistance to the few repaid without interest by premiums from the
many, after the fact, intrest free loans, supervised as loans?

Every man is a business, and needs no license, except contracts should
be registered by a witness, for a fee. Do those three automatically
become a corporation? No. It would take four, with registration for
supervision.

Shakespeare wrote of interest and bonds, risks and and remedies. The
merchant of Venice inspired nazism, I suspect, it had nothing to do
with romance. Having to do with LETS, the local money bondage
championed by engineer Turmel, it begs how to collect an hour's wages?
Workhouses and penalties, bonds? These questions have been with
civilisation forever. Only law, contracts, and justice can make it
work, even internationally.

Who to impeach?

The question of energy efficiency, not profit, remains the big issue.
How to encourage thrift?

Sailing? On a surfboard? Why not? A kite to lift a big parawing on a
big boat? Why not? Cheaper cargo vessels? Why not? Ask Paul Martin.
Capital. Profit.

Economy? A small, cheap electric vehicle, a little more commodious
than a bicycle? A Buckmienster Fuller style reverse tricycle kit with
weather canvas, liquid nitrogen air conditioning, one hybrid electric
wheel motor, rechargeable at home, or by small genset, even with
hydrogen as fuel from a giant bag of gas in the attic, made by solar
cells on the roof also good for warm water and air? Self aligning
collectors concentrating solar rays through slits onto cells aligned
with the moving light bars to maximise output voltage, peak to gutter,
cooled by air or water in a black lined box?

Regenerative braking with wheel motors? Often while driving, I coast
toward green lights, not arriving at the stop line until it has gone
red and green again, to save wear on the brakes, and fuel. It might be
a little slow. I could go faster, cheaper, with brakes that recharge
the battery efficiently, without wearing out parts and causing asbestos
dust. How to save on tires?

Who races around town? PWCers?

Who will build such free energy toys?

Sailors?

Terry K

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Relevant Pages

  • Re: OT: Anyone have comment on the 60-Minute story about "oil sands" in Canada
    ... Oil production is more or less profitable at certain ... > profit in the face of competition for profit. ... > Small business is the heart of any country. ...
    (rec.boats)
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    ... Research) on Thursday posted a quarterly profit of $9.9 billion, ... Record profits for Big Oil at a time when consumers are paying sky-high ... lawmakers and consumer advocates have been urging oil companies to expand ... PRODUCTION FALLS ...
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  • Re: {OT:} Record Profits
    ... their hand to understand how a business operates, ... higher rate of return than do ANY of the US oil companies.. ... This all means they're well-insulated for when oil prices eventually ... they had made $10B Profit. ...
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  • OT - Noam Chomsky Connects the Dots
    ... Let's talk about the recently passed Iraqi oil law. ... foreign corporations have control and make huge profits. ... always been control, not access, and not profit. ...
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  • Noam Chomsky Connects the Dots
    ... Let's talk about the recently passed Iraqi oil law. ... foreign corporations have control and make huge profits. ... always been control, not access, and not profit. ...
    (soc.culture.cuba)