Tuesday, July 29, 2008

The Bible and the United Nations

A few years ago, I read the Bible from cover to cover.. something I had not done in the previous half-century. I took 41 pages of notes. Several themes stood out in sharp relief.. issues seldom, if ever, discussed in the mass media echo chamber. For example, throughout the Old Testament there is a vigorous debate over these primitive questions: 1) Is God our special tribal god, or is He a Univeral God?, and 2) Does God eat meat?

The Old Testament, to my astonishment, did not settle these questions. In fact, those who doubted that God was a voracious carnivore, like King David, found themselves at odds with the Temple Elders.. and forced to recant. One cannot help but suspect that the Cohens and the Levites, the priestly castes, worked overtime to preserve their meatpacking monopoly. I also suspect that Jesus' condemnation of the moneychangers at the Temple was a renewal of King David's challenge to animal sacrifice.. a much more determined challenge. Jesus never backed down, not even on the cross.

The condemnation of Nationalism is another major Biblical theme which never pierces the echo chamber. Verse after verse equates Nationalism with polytheism and idolatry.

"All the gods of the nations are idols." (Psalms 96:5)

"I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people: I will sing unto thee among the nations." (Psalms 57:9)

"Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice: and let men say among the nations, The Lord reigneth." (Chronicles I 16:31)

"O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon the earth." (Psalms 67:4)

"The Lord hath a controversy with the nations." (Jeremiah 25:31)

"Put them in fear, O Lord: that the nations may know themselves to be but men." (Pslams 9:20)

"All the nations compassed me about: but in the name of the Lord will I destroy them." (Psalms 118:10)

"Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations." (Psalms 82:8)

"And nation was destroyed of nation, and city of city: for God did vex them all with adversity." (Chronicles II 15:6)

These very verses, so plain in meaning, are often turned upside down by National fetishists to condemn the United Nations.. the very institution which must unite all of God's children.

P.S. The capitol will be at Jerusalem.

"At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it." (Jeremiah 3:17)

Friday, July 4, 2008

The Seven Sisters try to Rope a Dope

I am not unalterably opposed to drilling for oil in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge. I am willing to accept the oil gurus' argument that they can drill cleaner and smarter. (Though I must admit that, if I owned beach front property in Florida or California, I would not be such a soft touch for that argument.) Nonetheless, I am skeptical that more drilling will lower the price at the pump. And I bitterly resent how the oil gurus have pulled out the same rope a dope strategy that was used to drive us into the dead end of Iraq. I see another dead end ahead.

Once the oil companies obtain the oil (from land and continental shelf leased from the United States government), it is their property, not the American people's. They have a fiduciary responsibility to their stockholders to sell that product in the most remunerative market. That oil, on the world commodity market, would be just a drop in the barrel. If we were to succeed in pumping enough to affect the Equilibrium Price of that commodity, oilfields with higher fixed costs, like the Alberta tar sands, will fall out of production. Thus, the price would start rising again.

In other words, the impact on the Equilibrium Price of American petroleum in the global marketplace is subject to such a multitude of offsetting factors as to be negligible. On the world market, the Saudis hold the trump card. Saudi petroleum, still rising to the surface under Artesian pressure, will always be the cheapest. That geologic fact gives them enormous leverage upon the Equilibrium Price of oil. If they want to offset the (hoped for) price impact of American production upon the global market, all they have to do is cut production to the point where the price rises. Drilling our way out of this problem only keeps us in the same humiliating position - with our collective tongues buried deep in the collective Saudi rectum osculating the collective Saudi sphincter.

If we wish to reduce our exposure to external forces operating upon the Equilibrium Price of petroleum, we must insure that every drop of oil produced in America is consumed in America. To do that, we must either nationalize the oilfields; or, place a protective tariff upon foreign oil: or, impose an export fee on American oil shipped overseas. Do you see any other measures we could take to achieve that goal?

Under such a policy, the price of gas at the pump would be determined by the production cost of the American oilfield with the highest fixed costs. That price would still be quite high, if not higher than what we already pay - given our absurd rate of consumption.

Under NAFTA, of course (assuming we, wisely, don't breach the treaty), Canadian and Mexican petroleum greatly augment supply. Though we cannot force the Canadians or the Mexicans to sell their entire supply solely to us, it is in our interest to keep our market open to all producers in North America.

This course of action, naturally, would infuriate the Seven Sisters. After all, their self-interest closely mirrors that of the Saudis. We should remain mindful, always, that the oil companies have a huge stake in keeping us dependent on petroleum. That stake, in fact, is so huge that I strongly suspect them of actively sabotaging alternative technologies.

I am put in mind of the Rock Island Bridge case. In the mid-1850's, the state of Illinois encouraged the establishment of the Bridge Company, intent on spanning the Mississippi. Steamboaters - and the mercantile interests in St. Louis - were enraged. On May 6, 1856, two weeks after the completion of the bridge, a steamboat, the Effie Afton struck one of the piers, spun out of control, caught fire and burned down a section of the bridge. Fortunately, there were no human fatalities. All of the nearby vessels started blowing whistles and ringing bells. The news spread up and down the river like wildfire. The steamboaters were ecstatic.

Jacob S. Hurd, the owner of the Effie Afton sued for damages, $200,000, a huge sum in those days. He and his fellow steamboat operators hoped to raise the legal costs of maintaining bridges so high that the railroads would have to come home to Jesus; go back to the old system of offloading freight on one side of the river, ferrying it across on steamboats, and re-loading onto trains on the opposite shore.

Norman B. Judd, general counsel for the Rock Island Railroad, selected an attorney from Springfield, Abraham Lincoln, to join in the defense. Mr. Lincoln prepared thoroughly. In Federal District Court, Associate Supreme Court Justice John McLean presiding, Mr. Lincoln systematically destroyed Mr. Hurd's case. The steamboat companies failed in their attempt to sabotage east-west communication across the United States. The vast resources of the trans-Mississippi region could now flow cheaply to the most rewarding markets.

Today, the oil companies and utility companies are the steamboat companies. Battery makers, windmill fabricators, etc. are the railroads. Two cases highlight my point. Iowa and many windy midwestern states have given tax breaks encouraging farmers to build windmills. An Iowa farmer, Greg Swecker, whose farm sits on the highest point in the state, took the people at their word, and invested $45,000 in a windmill. Soon, the windmill was producing a huge surplus of power. He wanted to sell that surplus onto the grid of his local utility, the Midland Power Co-operative. The utility balked worried, no doubt, that other farmers would make the same investment. Would they be cutting checks rather than cashing them? So, they fought like hell. Eventually, the utility lost - but consider how far that fight set back investment in windpower. Consider how such de-centralization of power production would benefit rural incomes. But the utilities want to keep us on our knees, cutting checks.

The second case is best illuminated by watching the entertaining documentary Who Killed the Electric Car, telling the tragic story of the EV 1. I strongly urge every American to watch the film, then go online and expose themselves to the passionate debate. In 2002, the Bush Administration joined the suit of auto dealers, General Motors, and the oil companies, forcing the California Air Resources Board to back down from its Zero Emissions Vehicle mandate. That decision set back the development of the electric car by a decade. (I wonder whether that was one of the little decisions taken by Dick Cheney's energy task force?)

Management and Labor at General Motors celebrated that decision. No doubt, they sought to protect their Parts Division. Despite the beckoning of a world market, they refused to cross that bridge. They refused to re-tool. And now, they're in dire straits.

Stop, for a moment, to consider the impact of windmills and the EV1 would have made upon the Equilibrium Price of petroleum in the last decade. Imagine modern windmills driving turbines on every farm and ranch across the Great Plains. Imagine every farmer and rancher, not only energy self-sufficient, but producing a surplus. And none of that happened because the utilities want to hang onto centralized collection and distribution of power.

Imagine the full impact of the EV1. How many millions of commuters would have been perfectly satisfied with the 65 mile range between charges. Not a bad trade-off to free oneself of the pump! Imagine the impact upon the Equilibrium Price of petroleum of those millions commuter vehicles bypassing the pump day after day, week after week, month after month. It would have freed up billions of gallons for all the Hummers to waste. But, no! We fell for the childish notion that "real men burn fossil fuels!"

We are our own worst enemies. And now, abject slaves to our oil addiction, turning our backs on our astonishing history of innovating our way out of problems, we are willing and eager to despoil our coastlines in our frantic search for a non-renewable resource. And all under the dreamy delusion that the price at the pump will drop. Rubbish!