ugh.

Hot. Flat. & Crowded.
Interesting. "Drill Baby Drill" chant @ the republican convention. So why aren't we chanting "Innovate, innovate!" ??? hmmm? It's so crazy to me that we all, at some level, see that the future of energy supply is not in oil. But at another level, the shrivelling of our so plump pocketbooks & wallets level, we say "drill baby drill". How can these two be so incompatible, and yet this is what I see.
So, as Friedman very elegantly put, "it's as if on the eve of the birth of the internet and the personal computer, they were chanting 'Let's stick with ibm selectric typwriters! IBM selectrics forever! type!Type! TYPE!' What a wonderful bridge into the 20th C."

T.B.P. Says, "America uses a lot of oil. Every day 85 million barrels of oil are produced around the world. And 21 million of those are used here in the United States.
That's 25% of the world's oil demand. Used by just 4% of the world's population." Wow.

It seems as though politicians think that we're some of the dullest citizens in the world! Why do we let them tell us that if we drill drill drill today, prices will go down? And anyone who says otherwise is against us, against our prosperity, and against progress... Why do we believe this? It seems to me that a trend has appeared and it's not going away quickly. One that says it's better to stay the way we've always been, don't work together, don't move to change and innovate and think. Just do what we've always done, the ways we've always done them. This is ignorance. And I am not going to pretend that I am not ignorant myself, but does it seem like such a bad idea to pass a plan that's been waiting around to be put into the works for a massive alternative (solar) project? One that would provide hundreds of blue collar jobs? Hmmm.. Maybe this is just because whoever enters office next wants to get credit for it and push it through then? Are they stalling the good stuff for when they get into office? What's going on, and why is it turning out to be nearly as petty as any other political race. Why do we fall for it, over and over. And why don't we tell them to stop, that we're not stupid, don't play to our dumb side, play to our brain, play to the part of us that is thinking and capable, and willing and able to participate in the moving and shaking of this country.
"It's more important to change your leaders than your lightbulbs. It's the leaders who write the rules. They're the ones who pass.. rais lower... the carbon tax, taxes on oil, alternatives to energy." CO2 Tax?
"Tax what we don't want, don't tax what we do want. We don't want oil, tax it, we do want work, don't tax income. Revenue neutral." Taxes and incentives.
Reagan stopped regulatory effeciency, wtf! Tore solar panels off the Whitehouse roof.
*sigh*
Not well formed, but thoughtful. Thinking.

Anyway. NPR is great. We should all listen to it. :)
Rain likely, hopefully will get the inspection!