Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Now is the time...

Today is a perfect opportunity to point out that I was right. A statement from the Iranian government unequivocally shows that the U.S. has serious diplomacy issues. Our outright rivalry with this Islamic government and our unparalleled dependence on foreign oil has doubled the power that their government weilds over us.

According to the New York Times, in a statement to the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Iranian government said, "The United States may have the power to cause harm and pain but it is also susceptible to harm and pain," the news reports said. "So if the United States wishes to choose that path, let the ball roll."

Now more than ever, it should be evident that we should do something, and fast, to wean ourselves of foreign oil. Iran and Venezuela have too much control over our economy, and since our goverment is based on a capitalist model, they have control over our system. It's similar to what business calls a "hostile takeover." An entity with a lot of capital backing buys up shares in a company until they have a majority ownership. Then, since they have more positions on the board and more stake as a shareholder, they can pretty much overthrow the executives and buy, sell or merge, or basically do whatever they damn-well please.

Now, look at how our economy operates. Every time the price per barrel increases sharply people run to the closest filling station like a run on the bank. Today the average price per gallon of gasoline is $2.25 at 8:30 a.m. After this news the price should increase at least 5 cents today alone. If I'm walking to work tomorrow and the price per gallon isn't at least $2.30, I'll be very surprised.

Our addiction to oil makes us so vulnerable, and now is the time for going cold turkey. That means renewed support for mass transit initiatives. That includes expansion and new funds for rail and bus services. Maybe we should take a cue from Europe and Asia and switch to ethanol buses or at least biodiesel. Maybe instead of giving these insane tax breaks to the rich we should more incentives for energy efficiency for corporations and small business, government agencies and individuals.

Now, more than ever, we depend on our government to do the right thing.

4 comments:

Olivia said...

The only things our consumer society goes cold turkey on is fad diets and celebs.

Miss Dallas said...

just to let to you know famulus, as an American that still believes that we have the ability and innovative spirit to do what we need to do, it is so much more depressing knowing that our own government will do any and everything in its power to keep us from doing it. It's just like I was saying before, about the Bush lackey that was trying to censor NASA scientists about global warming... It's like we're fighting against a foreign invader, but that invader is our own, self-absorbed federal government. And the Democrats just point fingers when the Republicans do something wrong... That's not progress, that's a big bowl of injustice...

MattJ said...

Hey Lunar, I am back after a long absence lol! I am inclined to agree with Famulus about the corrupting nature of power. What I find most disturbing is that Bush just went back to the Federal reserve to loan another 800 billion dollars. You're Defecit now stands at a mind boggling 9 trillion dollars! 9 Trillion!

One of the biggest ironies is that a lot of money comes from China, one of the worklds biggest oppressive regimes supporting the worlds biggest democracy?

Personally I think our respective economies are heading wallwards soon....

Olivia said...

Hey Luna, where art thou?