Can You See The Hand of God?

I can.

This is my cousins truck following it hitting a pole at 60 MPH. She was driving home from work late the other night, got too close to a curb, over corrected and hit a pole. (She had not been drinking.) The officers on scene said had she been just inches more to the right it probably would have killed her.

See where God laid his hand?

Hmmmm... Something to Ponder

I know I have said a few times before that I am not a political person. I truly believe that is so. That being said I keep finding very interesting and at times disturbing tidbits in my hours of insomnia. Some I don't even bother posting because of the fear that this friendly and light-hearted blog becoming serious and heavy.

So I keep hearing about this debate over off-shore drilling. One guy says its the solution to all our problems, another says it will be the demise of our ecosystems or something (did I mention I think I have ADD? yeah - can't make it though most articles or anything else for that matter. Good times.) So I did a search on it which sent me to a bazillion different places and articles but this is the one I had not heard much on and found the most interesting and believable (and it was pretty short - relatively. Yea for me!)

To be transparent I want to add that I am an Obama supporter but willing to be open-minded to all the issues out there. I went into this search of mine looking for the truth behind this issue/debate, not to find material to support one candidate over another. I think that is why I like this article - it does not let either candidate or their position appear flawless or perfect.

The Truth About Off-Shore Drilling by Michael Schwartz
Dean Baker of Truthout recently published a wonderful article about McCain's plan for oil drilling off the Florida coast.
Baker makes three very important points about this plan.
First, there is simply not enough oil there to make any kind of difference in terms of the energy crisis: "The Energy Information Agency (EIA) projects that if we go the drilling route, we could hit peak production of 200,000 barrels a day by 2030." This is a trivial quantity, amounting to about 0.2% of the world's production at that time, and about 1% of the U.S. consumption right now. It would increase domestic production by less than 3%. So offshore drilling would do nothing at all to reduce the price of oil or to "reduce dependency on foreign oil," to invoke everyone's favorite slogan.
Second, Baker makes the point that the media has severely distorted the debate between McCain and Obama:
"The media have portrayed the disagreement between Senators Obama and McCain as to whether to allow drilling in the currently protected offshore areas as a question of values. Senator Obama values the environment, while Senator McCain wants to bring down energy prices and promote economic growth."
This portrayal of the debate is a complete misrepresentation, since "McCain's plan will have no measurable impact on the price of oil or on economic growth. In other words, Senator McCain is willing to jeopardize the environment in these protected areas for nothing."
Finally, Baker makes this telling point, that there are easy-to-execute conservation measures that would do far more to reduce the oil crunch:
"There are alternatives to drilling for oil in environmentally sensitive areas that can produce real results. Conservation is the most obvious.... Suppose we raised average fuel efficiency to 40 MPG by 2030; this would save us more than 5 million barrels of oil per day, 25 times as much as we would get from Senator McCain's offshore drilling. Since many cars sold today already get more than 40 MPG, this is hardly an unrealistic target. Wherever we set our targets, the simple arithmetic shows that it is far easier to have an impact on oil markets through conservation than drilling in environmentally sensitive areas."
Baker did not, however, ask this question: Why would McCain advocate such a plan, instead of the straightforward conservation measures that are much better?
There are two answers to this question.
First, though McCain's plan for off shore drilling will not ease the energy crisis, it is a dandy piece of patronage for the oil industry. Halliburton and other oil service companies will get huge contracts to drill there, while the big distributors (Exxon and the gang) will be able to make very nice profits from extracting and selling the 200,000 barrels per day. (Profits from this amount of oil could easily exceed three billion dollars per year). The fact that taxpayers will foot the bill for government support of the project (including guarding the platforms, protecting them from weather, etc) and then pay the environmental price of its impact is of no never mind to McCain, since he can depend on the media to portray these expenses as the price we pay for alleviating the oil crisis.
Second, McCain does not want to impose 40 mpg on auto manufacturers because this would cut into their profitability by forcing them to develop hybrid and alternate fuel automobiles. These are expensive and problematic projects that the manufacturers know would cut into their already fragile profits. McCain, for his part, does not want to make the already struggling auto manufactuers "take one for the team." The same goes for all the other conservation measures (like cogeneration, which would reduce manufacturing profits, or insulation, which would reduce housing contractor profits).
The big point is this. During the energy crisis, Washington is conducting "politics as usual": exploiting public alarm to enact destructive policies that are profitable to a key corporate clients, and avoiding constructive policies that would probably reduce the profits of key corporate clients.
And let's keep this in mind. Though Obama has demurred on the off shore drilling scam, he has signed on to many others, including subsidizing shale oil extraction that could take down the Rocky Mountains, while remaining totally silent on key conservation measures.
What can we learn from all this? One lesson is that policies relating to the big problems facing our country turn out to be deeply entangled with the loyalty of government officials to the short term profits of the biggest corporations. Another lesson is that government officials can depend on the media to help them "justify" their service to industries by concealing the real impact of their policies.

All Aboard!

Last week E and I got to have our special Mommy & Me Date, or as E calls it, our "play day." I think she means play date but leaves off the "t" and since she is my youngest and I am not ready for her to grow up anymore I refuse to correct her speech. Or let anyone else correct it for that matter.


So the two of us went to spend a day with Thomas the Tank Engine, one of her favorites. She is my only child who has gotten into Thomas and His Friends and I have to admit I have really enjoyed this with her. So last Sunday the two of us headed off to the Colorado Railroad Museum to ride Thomas and meet Sir Topham Hat. Sadly Sir Topham Hat had left for the day by the time we got there. What's up with that? She did however get to ride a big bus from the parking lot to the rail yard which was very exciting. Here are some of the other highlights for us.

Seeing Thomas for the first time

The train conductor

A picture with Thomas!!!

OK so this one needs some explaining. As we waited to get the above picture taken E asked if she could take a picture of Thomas. I handed her my camera thinking she meant the big engine we were about 4 feet from. Nope.

Playing, er I mean working on the big engine

How she does her "worker"

My favorite

What is Going On????

Obama Waffles? Seriously?! Have you seen this? This has my blood boiling and my mind racing. It is all over the news and Internet so I am sure you have seen it by now.

Not only is this disgusting, offensive, bigoted and sets our society back about 50 years, but it further perpetuates the belief that Christians are all of these things because these horrible things were sold at Focus on the Family's Values Voters Summit in Washington, DC this past weekend. Values? Really? These are not my values! I am so infuriated I cannot hardly put my thoughts together.

I am not a political person. I learn what I need to know to vote for the candidates and issues I care about but I do not have the mind or patience get too in-depth. Shallow maybe. Please don't lynch me!

I am however a human and a Christian. There is nothing more important in my mind than being kind and caring for the other humans who share this earth with us. If I remember right the Bible tells us God created each of us equally. He loves each of us? Judge not least you be judged? Any of this ringin' and bells?

Regardless of your beliefs or whatever no one has the right to be so cruel. I expect more, much much much more than this from the religious leaders in our world. They are to be examples right? The ones we look to? The ones who represent us to the world? Or is that too old fashioned? Does that only apply to non-election years? Or just for the ones who look and talk like us? Give me a break.

This is How I Roll

Check me out.

I am so gangsta. In my minivan.

I think its a good look for me.

whadya think?

In case you cannot read it, my bling reads "50 cent." Do people still say "bling?" And it spins like those spinner hubcaps! It really is something to behold. You would have to see it in person to truly appreciate its beauty.

I am obligated, er I mean proud to wear this fine piece of jewelry because it is a gift from my son. He and his dad had their boy's date the other night and went to a restaurant/arcade where my son won this for me in one of those claw games. He was so proud of himself for winning me this amazing prize. I wish I could have captured his face as he gave it to me and told me how he won it - it was priceless! To make me even more proud of him, he used the majority of his tickets won from his games on matching stuffed kitty-cats for his sisters, each in their favorite color and only got a couple very small trinkets for himself. I do not know what we have done right. This kid is awesome.