8 Responses to “Murzins Asks For Public Opinon On Oil Drilling”

1. David Huie Green on July 19th, 2010 5:23 pm

   REGARDING:
   “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”
   AND
   “Ideas shape the course of history.”

   Of course, some struggle to go backward or to reach bad goals. (Think Osama bin Laden, Adolph Hitler, the Inquisitors. There’s plenty of good/bad examples.) So struggle doesn’t necessarily equate to progress. .

   And while Keynes is right that ideas shape the course of history, many of those ideas are bad ones and shape history toward pain and suffering.

   Not all ideas are created equal.

   Consider the ideas of Marx and Lenin, or even the ideas of John Maynard Keynes. They all had many bad ideas, verifiably wrong. The first two led to the deaths of uncounted millions and the latter extended the Depression several years beyond what would likely have happened.

   For that matter, consider Andrew Jackson. He thought the Presidency was a prize to be looted and the Cherokee were a source of income to be looted. He paid off the national debt with sales of stolen property. It seems he believed in the idea that might makes right.

   Many are still worshiped as if they were prophets rather than thugs, killers, committers of crimes against humanity.

   David for good ideas, well applied

2. art on July 18th, 2010 5:58 am

   If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
   Frederick Douglass

3. art on July 16th, 2010 6:49 pm

   Ideas shape the course of history.
   John Maynard Keynes

4. David Huie Green on July 16th, 2010 9:20 am

   REGARDING:
   “the American people have a history of doing the right thing,”

   I love America but surely we can be honest with ourselves.

   We Americans stole much land from Cherokees and other Indians, from black people (This is not even counting the history of stealing their freedom. Even black Americans and Cherokee Americans had slaves), from Spain (which enslaved the assorted Indian tribes), from Mexico. We invaded countries and fomented revolutions to build canals or protect corporate interests in bananas. We set up governments friendly to us and supported dictators all over the world. Right now we are bribing Taliban–the people who gave refuge to the people who killed so many of us 9-11-01– in Afghanistan to leave us alone as we prop up their crooked government we set up.

   We are nearly perfect but don’t actually have all that good a history of doing the right thing.

   AND REGARDING:

   Conservation–I am all for it even though our economy is based on consumption and it would shut down our current economy if we went to it, but even if you were extremely conservative with everything you used, you are just reducing the rate of using it. The energy and materials demand required to make it are still there.

   In fact even if we got maximum use of every drop of petroleum on earth, recovered all of it and wasted none of it–it is still a finite supply. It will run out eventually. We need to replace it. We don’t need to replace it right now or maybe even tomorrow, but we will have to replace it eventually no matter what.

5. Jim on July 16th, 2010 2:19 am

   Dear Art: Why wait? There are places that you can live like you wish right now. They are in remote South America, Africa and LaLa Land.

   We have over 200 years of proven oil reserves in our own USA and most likely much more undiscovered. This fact is available to you and anyone that wants to do the research.

   The technology simply does not exist at this time to drastically reduce our need for oil without reducing our living standards to that below third world standards.
   Wind, solar and other types of energy producers all have real problems and are many years away from producing any significant amount of energy.
   People tend to think of electricity as free, it is anything but. Take the highbred or electric cars, the batteries are a huge disposal problem. Windmills are complicated troublesome machinery.

   The current well problems in the Gulf of Mexico were apparently caused by BP taking shortcuts to save money and the Federal agencies assigned to oversee their operation signed off on those cuts. All very preventable.

   If wells were permitted closer to shore, in shallower water it wouldn’t have been such a large problem to cap anyway.

   Misinformed environmentalist and politicians listening to beachfront contributors have kept the wells offshore out of sight.

   How about some oil platforms close to shore where they would make great fish attractors for small boat fishermen? They might even be more cost effective.

   There is nothing that the US can do to stop Mexico and Brazil and Venezuela from drilling in the Gulf, they already are.

   China will be drilling for Cuba within 45 miles of our southern border.

   To forever ban drilling anywhere is to not have any faith in man’s ability to solve problems and a bad idea…..

6. art on July 15th, 2010 10:53 am

   forget the politicians, they stopped listening to us a long time ago. it is up to us to get our butts in gear and do as you propose…first one you mentioned is conservation. get in the mind set that i will use what i have very carefully and not waste…waste not want not should be our motto. and it must include everything we do on a daily basis. get one more shave out of that disposable razor. think of creative ways to reuse those foam trays we get with our meats. i use mine as plant trays. conserve electricity. unplug idle electronics. buy wind up watches. every little bit counts. there have to a million things we can do to conserve. next you mention is securing alternative energy sources. demand homes with solar panels. encourage wind farms. hydroelectricity can be generated from the tide. think of all the new jobs that can be created for the future… i know we can do this and get off the big oil teat. it is a future worth fighting and sacrificing for. don’t let our boys fighting overseas down. what good is their fight if we aren’t fighting for a clean beautiful environment for them to come home to? it’s time for “we the people” to collectively do something, anything. whatever, however small, it all adds up.

7. Bob on July 15th, 2010 8:29 am

   Anyone that thinks we can do without crude oil on this modern age is simply looking at the world through rose colored glasses. Shut the drilling down and you will have massive numbers of people on the government welfare roles, added to what we already have. I think conservation is a must and alternative sources have to be secured. Cool heads are what will get us through this disaster and life will be good and normal in months to come. If the government had kept their nose out of this problem it would have already been resolved. Just think of all the politicians that have visited this area and made promises that none of them intend to keep.

8. art on July 15th, 2010 5:39 am

   our lives will not become impossible without petrochemical byproducts. may be hard at first, but eventually it will become everyday. the american people have a history of doing the right thing, doing the brave thing, for themselves, their children and grandchildren. we must get off the addiction to cheap oil. our lawmakers are giving us the chance to tell them to do the right thing. we must make sure they hear us loud and clear…no no no to drilling in florida territorial seas. sure hope washington pays attention. and if the politicians dont listen to us, then we do have the option to shut down the flow of money to the big oil companies. we can stop buying cheap electronics that break within the year then go to the land fill. we can stop buying commodities like plastic furniture and plastic dishes and styrofoam cups…just notice today how many things you touch today is made of plastic. stop buying plastic bottled water… and we can limit trips to town, ride with neighbors to work, do things at home with the family, heck make your teens stay at home for a mandatory family night one night a week. your teen will secretly love it! there are so many things we can do to tame big oil. but we have to be united. united we stand, divided we fall.