Oil & Alternatives, Hybrid Cars, Port Infrastructure, Demanding the Truth, Eternal Values & Rome, Fighting Same Sex Sex?

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Oil Prices, Hybrid Cars

Oil prices too high? Get used to it -- The world will need a new Saudi Arabia every two years Diane Francis, Financial Post, April 7, 2005

Where are oil prices going? Guess whether Saudi Arabia's corrupt regime will last beyond a year. A meltdown there would spark massive, permanent price increases. [. . . . ]

Search: underperform its potential due to corruption, China, speculated a base case price (Note discrepancies in forecasts.), wage and price controls, Ottawa's ruinous National Energy Program, contango, seeds for higher prices have been partially sown by

Combine this with yesterday's Diane Francis column and the future does not look promising for most who won't be able to afford new hybridized or otherwise altered enviro-friendly cars.

But wait a minute, all is not glum -- for a few. A Canadian just happens to have a business connection to China's relatively new hybridized car industry, in the form of a vehicle for sale now--or soon--in North America -- and he is the mentor of our ditherer -- who now is trying to arrange Kyoto so that we pay China for pollution credits -- or something like that -- and then, we will buy enviro-friendly cars to take the 'one tonne challenge', or is it all to enrich what has now become a global network?

Bah! Humbug! "Them what has, gits!", as some of my favourite rednecks say.




Oil and what to do about it

"Washington need only do two things that will keep prices down, protect economic growth, save their auto industry and help solve their trade deficit problem:"

Politics trumps oil prices -- Governments need to act now to protect their economies Diane Francis, Financial Post, April 05, 2005

Politics always trumps oil prices and at a forecasted possible price of US$105 a barrel in a few years, Washington should, and will, impose draconian action by mandating the use of hybrid cars and trucks.

Such hybrids cut fuel consumption in half or less and, if universally used, would keep oil prices at a reasonable level. [. . . . ]

Search: hybrid vehicles only, a floor price

Read her whole article; it makes sense. It is just that I feel that those in the know who get to make the rules on pollution can arrange it so certain companies can make a lot of money out of the pollution solution. Remember the special tax agreements with only a few countries such as Barbados. This favours companies that register their ships abroad, for example.

Can't Canadians develop something from grains or other plants that would run a car? We have to do something but it would be nice to see the local lads make a few bucks.




Greet the hydrogen economy Alastair Gordon, Financial Post, April 04, 2005

Alastair Gordon is president of the Canadian Coalition for Democracies, Toronto

Re: Terence Corcoran, Hydrogen Bomb; Jon Hykawy, Why It Won't Work, March 24.

Terence Corcoran and John Hykawy are correct that hydrogen will be a bust if, as they suggest, it is extracted from natural gas. However, hydrogen offers a future of clean vehicles and greater global security if it is created using nuclear energy.

Small, intrinsically safe Candu reactors could produce an infinite supply of hydrogen through electrolysis, with absolutely no emissions and no depletion of natural gas.

The same reactors could provide the energy for compressing the hydrogen to a density where it would be a viable fuel for vehicles. The whole notion of "efficiency" becomes moot when nuclear energy is used. [. . . . ]

Link for the rest.




Why do I think Canadians are being softened up for more "investment initiatives" in port facilities -- Vancouver? Prince Rupert? -- Think imports from China -- $$$ -- needed to accommodate whose ships?

Maybe I would not be so jaundiced in my view if our PM did not have a shipping company and have business interests in China -- Oh, I almost forgot; his sons own CSL -- no problem -- no business connection at all.

Port of Seattle's ship has come in -- Container traffic spiked 44% in first two months of year John Greenwood, Financial Post, April 05, 2005

VANCOUVER - Helped by investment in infrastructure by importers, the Port of Seattle increased its lead on rival Vancouver this year, posting a whopping 44% hike in container traffic in the first two months.

"It's just been going really strong," said Mick Shultz, a spokesman for the port, who credits the growth to the recent construction of huge warehouses by importers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp. and Home Depot Inc. that increase the efficiency in the flow of goods.

[. . . . ] The Port of Vancouver handled 265,463, up 8% from last year. For the whole of 2004, Canada's busiest port reported an 11% increase in container traffic, slipping behind Seattle, which chalked up 18% growth.

[. . . . ] both the federal and provincial governments have announced plans aimed at helping it grab a bigger share of that lucrative business.

[. . . . ] Earlier this year, TSI Terminal Systems Inc., which operates two of the biggest container terminals in the port, was forced to reduce by 25% the amount of freight it handled in order to get rid of a massive backlog sitting on its docks. [. . . . ]

......and the Truth as it relates to Canada also

'The Truth' -- A simple demand from the Lebanese and oppressed people everywhere. Claudia Rosett, Apr. 6, 05

. . . along the frontiers of human freedom--which over the past few decades have been edging out dictatorships from Asia to Latin America to Eastern Europe.

[. . . . Lebanon] They are demanding, simply: "The Truth."

It bears noting under despotic regimes anywhere, the most common reason for which democratic dissidents are jailed is simply that they have dared to tell the truth. Tyrants depend on fictions, on the lies that all their subjects support them, that they have a legitimate monopoly on power and that what they do is for the best. When that facade cracks, there is an opportunity for genuine liberation. [. . . . ]

Ah, truth. Therein lies the rub. Just think about the media's treatment of certain groups and their leaders -- in the service of political ends, I think.

Consider the agreements with various native groups in the north signed -- and my goodness, guess what? -- mining/oil/diamonds -- who knows what else is up there for "business"? Monkey business, I predict, and only a few will benefit when, if the natives had transparent, accountable governance, they might reap the benefits -- If they were part of the mainstream, even, bad as its governance seems to be, there is some likelihood of information getting out, eventually.




Rome, Fundamental and Eternal Values

Why Rome Still Matters John Andrews, The Claremont Institute -- For the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy

[. . . . ] Ancient, pagan Rome mattered greatly in the American Founding, of course. Not only to Adams, Madison, and Washington, but to their whole generation, it helped teach the meaning of a republic, of law, of civic virtue. It furnished the political wisdom of Cicero and the soldierly example of Cincinnatus. But the heroic life and brave death of Pope John Paul II should remind us that modern, Christian Rome still matters a lot to Americans today.

These are not easy times for the fundamental ideas that sustain our form of government and way of life. Intellectual elites increasingly dismiss them -- the ideas that immutable truth exists and is knowable to the human mind, that all persons are created equal and endowed with unalienable rights.

By contrast, no institution on earth has proclaimed those ideas longer and more faithfully than the Catholic Church. No regime or throne has defended them more steadily than the Popes from Peter's time till now, especially during this 26-year papacy of John Paul II.

[. . . . ]




The Marriage 'Saviours' -- What is his game? Stan Persky, Jan. 31, 05, TheTyee.ca

Be real. They’re not against same sex marriage. They’re fighting same sex sex.

[. . . . ] But if the opposition to same sex marriage isn’t about protecting the sanctity/purpose/tradition/celestialjoys of marriage, then what is it about?
It’s about, sigh, homosex.

[. . . . ] If there’s not really a marriage argument, is there a homosex argument? I’m not the marrying kind, but I’m the homosex kind, so here I have an interest. So far, I haven’t heard the argument, and I’ve been listening for a long time. The argument, given that we live in the kind of democracy we do, would have to show that homosex causes harm, direct and measurable harm of the sort that leads us to criminalize certain acts. If homosex doesn’t cause harm, democratic logic goes, then gays ought to have the same rights as everybody else, including the right to a marriage license.

Of course, so far, nobody’s been able to show that homosex causes harm or is unnatural or warps the fabric of society, or whatever. All that people are able to show is that some people don’t like it, and think that God thinks it wrong. They’re also able to show that statistically it’s a minority sexual passion. But that’s not good enough for winning an argument in a multi-cultural, democratic society committed to constitutionally protected individual rights. In such societies, you can do what you want as long as you don’t cause direct, measurable harm to others. Everything else is a matter of taste. As for maintaining tradition, a vague final cri de coeur by anti-gay conservatives, we’ve altered lots of traditions, such as not letting women or aboriginal people vote, without the country going to hell in a handbasket. [. . . . ]

His whole article is worth reading. There are arguements concerning disease. Check for the research.