Time to think back to out most recent election. What was the most important issue on voters’ minds? Was it the War on Terrorism, Environment, or Race? Surprisingly, no. It was THE ECONOMY.

Under the Bush administration, the economy was headed southward, employment was higher than we all would have liked, and gas was fast approaching $4.50 on average throughout the country. Many people wanted all of that to change.

Thankfully, Senator Barack Obama stepped up to the plate and made many promises of “change” to fix just about everything. For the record, every opinion cited came from ontheissues.org . .

President Obama has said many things and, unlike many politicians, has actually been fulfilling his campaign promises. The biggest problem with that is that many of his campaign promises lacked detail and were only for “change”. To what? Your guess is as good as mine. However, nebulous the promises may or may not have been, the President brought a strong hope to a country in need… and is currently in the process of flushing it down the toilet.

Whether or not you agrre with the President’s political views, some of what has happed must alarm you. Our country was already functioning in a deficit. Barack even called out the Bush administration for squandering the surplus left over from the Clinton years. So how does our all-knowing President attempt to fix this problem? Drop $700 billion dollars buying, uh, I mean, bailing out banks and the auto industry. Oh wait, that was meant to “stabilize the economy. Silly me. So now you can get paid to fail.

Any behavioral psychologist will tell you that when a behavior in an animal or human is given positive reinforcement (i.e. money), said animal or human is likely to repeat said behavior. After the first bailout, everybody gets in line to get their “free” money from the government. Maybe I’m just pessimistic, but doesn’t that sound kind of familiar?

Also, it seems that our beloved president got a D in his college level logic class at Columbia. He claims that he has “created or saved” X number of jobs on a given day or that a given piece of legislation will “create or save” X million jobs. Tell me, please, how do you come up with that number? There is no feasible way to measure it. If I am wrong about the President’s collegiate academic record, I guess he just thinks we are all just stupid.

Our President became an idol during election season and, apparently, continues to coast on that wave of popularity. I can only hope that this does not keep up. If Barry stays too enthralled with himself, we will find ourselves picking up the tab. After all, where doesthe government get all of this money? From the taxpayers. Who knows how long things will continue to worsen. Soon we may be reliving the Carter years.

In the past few weeks, there have been many positive occurrences in the gas problem in the United states. On July 14, President Bush lifted the executive ban on offshore drilling. The price of a barrel of crude oil dropped 6% and gas is now at its cheapest since June 5 at $123.29 per barrel. Now, before you start writing your congressman in a tizzy about the little fishies and bottom feeders who are going to have a massive hole drilled through their habitat, realize this. President Bush’s actions actively DO NOT DO ANYTHING. His gesture was enough to ease the minds of speculators and, therefore, the price drops. If you want to even greater results, bug your congressman to support lifting the congressional ban on offshore drilling. Of course, there are a number of governors who, even if the ban is lifted, will refuse the drill (The Govenator is on the record saying this) and effectively butcher his (or her) state’s economy.

Another eeason prices are slowly dropping is because the American people, is of the ridiculous gas prices, have been conserving gas. Everyone gets to keep a little bit of extra cash and it helps limit harmful emissions into the atmosphere. Everyone wins, right? HA!

About 18.4 cents out of the 4 or so dollars you pay for each gallon of gas go to the government (a.k.a. TAXES). People buy less gas, and the government (Congress) makes less revenue.  With less money, Congress cannot afford to move forward with the plethora of programs to “raise the lifestyle of the common American”. One would expect that Congress, especially the Democrats (remember, the oneswho have been pushing conservation for decades now), would re-evaluate the necessity of some of the programs and cut a few to make up for the cut in revenue… but that would make too much sense. Your buddies (you know, the Democrats) want to raise the Gas tax around 5 cents more per gallon to makeup for lost revenue.

If you read that last part and the next words out of your mouth were “W.T.F.” you officially have more Common sense than at least half of Congress. It makes no sense. We do what politicians ask of us to help relieve the pressure of the gas prices, and we are punished by it. Thankfully, this tax increase has yet to be voted through and, with any luck, will die…a fiery painful death.

Keep things like this in mind when you go into the voting booth this novermber (or mail in your absentee ballot like me). If your senator or congressman is up for re-evaluation, please make sure he has taken Econ 101. Electing people with little to no knowlege of basic economic concepts to a body that affects our economy so greatly is like asking for Brittny Spears to perform quadruple bypass surgery on you. Every election always brings us painfuly close to oblivion (or so it seems based on the News). Don’t be responsible for it.

But how was our planet? And how long ago was it when the environment was better? Disregarding the terrible grammar of that last sentence, the point still stands. The consensus of the general public is that the environment is in a terrible state and the planet is headed for oblivion, but can anyone remember when that wasn’t true? Now, the problem is Global Warming, but back in the 1970′s and  1980′s, it was the coming of a second Ice Age. Interesting progression, isn’t it? It is like we are trying to balance on a solo stalagmite rising out of a dark abyss.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is call “alarmism”. In the media business, it has been used for decades if not centuries. It makes sens if you think about it. News stations get funding from companies paying the station to run their ads. The more people who watch Channel X News at 4, the more valuable the air time is during that news segment. How do the news media attract more views? The answer is simple: by scarring them. It’s the same concept as a car crash, it’s terrifying and an awful occurrence, but as long as it didn’t happen to you, it is captivating.

Getting caught up in the hysteria is normal. Most people are unaware that they are and it happens to all of us at some point in our lives., just do not let people use it to take advantage of you. Recently, a bill known as the Lieberman-Warner Bill came before Congress. This bill was supposed “to establish the core of a Federal program that will reduce United States greenhouse gas emissions substantially enough between 2007 and 2050 to avert the catastrophic impacts of global climate change”  (See Bill here). It really was a fancy way of introducing government control into the economy. That is a bad thing. Thankfully, the bill was defeated. It would have allowed the government to auction of “Greenhouse Gas Credits (GHG’s)”, thus turning carbon into a commodity. I’m sorry Ladies and Gentlement, but the economy does not work like that.

Now, as for you carbon footprint, Steve Boler’s article from The American Thinker website, explains it best. My big problem with the whole issue is people are starting to treat carbon like a poisonous chemical. Unlike Arsenic, Mercury, and certain forms of Chromium, which appear in very small amounts in nature but are lethal, Carbon is just the opposite. If you ingest arsenic, you can die. If you are exposed to mercury, you lose you hair and experience severe dementia (hence the concept of the “Mad Hatter”). If you inhale too much carbon, you yawn.

On another point, if we reduce the amount of carbon in our atmoshpere, there could be unintended consequences. In 7th grade biology, kids learn about plans and photosynthesis; the process all members of the Plantae kingdom use to convert water, light, and CARBON DIOXIDE into glucose and OXYGEN to survive. (I know this is a review and almost infintile for about 99% of my readers). If carbon dioxide goes down too much, we will start to see stunted plant growth. This would affect the out put of food growth and production worldwide. Domino effect blah blah blah… I think you see where I am going with this.

Again, we arrive on top of our stalagmite. What do we do? My advice is “Don’t be stupid.” Burning vegetation just to put more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is not the way to go, but neither is trying to force a complete 180 on our lifestyle because the sirens and flashing lights of the environmentalist alarm disorient us. After all, it’s just a passing fad.

Gas prices suck.

WIth the average cost of a gallon of REGULAR gasoline approaching $4 (as of 6/2/08 it was $3.97 according to the department of energy) we can all agree that something needs to be done. Some common approaches that have been suggested in the past:

Solution 1) Use less gas.

It’s a good idea, but will only have a marginal effect compared to the impact it will have on life as we know it. Though crude oil is a commodity and, therefore, subject to the market forces of supply and demand. The problem lies in the fact that a large percentage of the price of gas is determined based on speculation; what might happen. Also, most of the supply comes from foreign sources (more on that later) and the demand is determined on a global scale. The system of obtaining oil from OPEC with a little domestic production on the side worked fine a few decades ago (1980 aside), but now that China and India have emerged from the 18th century, the demand has skyrocketed. China and India together have a little less than 9x the population.

Solution 2) Have the government set gas prices so gas never gets this expensive.

TERRIBLE IDEA. Need proof? Look back to the economy under President Jimmy Carter. Setting prices will throw a monkey wrench into the market forces and the rules that govern the capitalist system will act with a vengeance. AS of April of 2008, 73% of the price of gas comes from the price of crude oil, 10% is from refining the oil, 6% is based on distribution and marketing, and the remaining 11% comes from taxes. When the government sets the price, do you think the cut comes from the tax portion of the prices.

Of course not.

The price cut will most likely come from the distribution and the refining. That means less gas will be produced from the crude oil, and from the lessened supply, a smaller percentage will be distributed to gas stations across the country. What does this mean for us, the consumer, you ask? If you aren’t old enough to remember, go ask your parents about gas lines in the early 1980′s.

Solution 3) Use alternative fuel sources

AMAZING IDEA … but nit yet. We currently do not have the technology to harness hydrogen energy, and biodiesel fuel does not make economic sense (an issue worthy of its own post). Also, hybrid cars, the “environmentally-friendly” craze that has been sweeping the nation, are actually less energy efficient than one may think. A friend of mine sent me a link to an article in the Wired blog network
( See Here).

Solution 4) Get more domestic oil

Best Idea. There is plenty of oil in the United States and off of the Gulf Coast, but our buddies in Washington, such as Senator Ken Salazar D-CO, don’t want us to drill. They say that the oil reserves are about to run dry. For the record, politicians have been saying that for years and it has yet to happen, but what do I know… If it’s not that then they are saying that it will destroy the environment. I don’t know if any of you are familiar with the children’s TV show, Captain Planet, that has been on since I was a child, but the villans in that show are people who get their kicks off of dumping non-biodegradable waste into ponds just to watch little duckies choke to death. I seriously doubt there is anyone like that on this planet. With all of the restrictions “protecting” the environment, it is almost impossible for oil companies to damage it by drilling, that is IF they are allowed to drill.

Senator Salazar, whom I mentioned earlier, slipped a law into a large spending bill last December that placed a morotorium on shale oil production on federal land. His excuse – to slow things down in order to make sure environmental standards are kept. Sounds responsible, no? What he assumes is that people don’t make the connection that this will raise gas prices because of stunted production while the leftist democrats (not the sane ones) slam oil companies for their ridiculous prices. Jury says: Political play. It’s a power trip. Many people think the oil companies are just “greedy, evil corporations” who are extorting the American people for money. Do you remember the statistic quoted earlier about how the price of gas is determined? 6% is for marketing and distribution. Somewhere in that 6 percent is where the wages for the entire company come from.

Let the oil companies dig in the United States. The world will not tilt off of its axis, the Ice Caps won’t melt, we will be able to live to tomorrow, and, most important of all, gass prices will DROP.

This is one time of year that always gets me fired up and the abundance of ignorant analysts and alarmist attitudes (sorry for the political rhetoric) that plague the mainstream media have do nothing but fuel the fire.

I intend to tackle important issues in today’s society, but not based on gratuitous assertions of my own opinions, but on facts from various scientific journals, the research of published intellectuals (Walt Williams and Thomas Sowell, name just a few), and plain and simple logic.

I hope you enjoy and, if nothing else, learn something new from a point of view you will never see on TV.

Also, they title of this blog “G.Y.I.” is based on the name for my generation, Generation Y. There for G.Y.I. means Generation Y Information.
~ A.J. W