Saturday, February 18, 2006
WHAT ABOUT ATHABASCA?Your initial reaction to such a question will, no doubt, be what mine was -”What is Athabasca?” If you happen to be a Canadian, you known the word to be that of a large area of Canada mainly located in Alberta and, to a smaller degree, in and under the province of Saskatchewan. It is, mainly, in the upper north-eastern corner of Alberta and it contains one third of the Earth's entire supply of oil deposits. Your next logical question might be: if that is true, how come we don't hear about the Athabasca area rather than Alaska's North Slopes again-and- again? We hear about the fact that Venezuela has “one third”of all the liquid gold and Saudi-Arabia has the other other The problem with Canadian oil is sand. Most people will agree with you of observe that Saudi Arabia seems to have sufficient amounts of sand as well. You will also find that the celebrated Orinoco oil deposits on the northern slopes of the South American continent are located in sand pits. Accord to figures set forth by the Albert Energy and Utilities Board, the that the Athabasca sands area hold the largest deposit of oil in the world, with estimates in of about 1.6 trillion barrels of oil. Why is we never hear of this fabulous supply? Why are we dependent on oil supplies from the Far East and subject to their price-fixing policies? Other questions come to mind by the score and it would seem it is time for someone to get busy doing everything possible to market these stocks. Some technical questions are involved, I understand. Although it is still a cause of some disagreement and still under discussion, there is a theory which holds that the creation of the area came about when highly Cretaceous shales were exposed to extreme pressure and the oil was absorbed into the soil. Every effort should be made to overcome problems. It could be an international effort if financial problems make it too much of a task for Canada alone. Some research work has been done and drilling by J. D.Tait, of Vancouver has reached depths of a thousand feet. More such work is urgently needed, but, initially, we must clear up whatever difficulties cause Canada and the world of oil-starved nations to keep the Athabasca secret. The first Tait wells were drilled in 1915. The initial surveys were done in 1913 and Sydney C. Ellis,of Canada's Mines branch visited ten plants it the U.S. Seeking methods of extraction. What did he learn? Certainly, we should find out more about this of such promise. The potential value goes beyond dreams because independence independence from Far Eastern oil would affect other aspects of East-West relationships vitally calling for major social adjustments on all sides. A.L.M. February 18, 2006 [c486wds]
Thursday, February 16, 2006
WAVE MAKERS A spacious, new water park is being built a the present time on the down Massanutten Mountain near the town of Penn Laird, Virginia. It promises us all the many wonders associated with water in movement, and among them will be a super-sized pool which will be bring us a regular series of ocean-like waves machine-made waves. It won't be ready until Spring, of course, the folks here in the valley will have to be content with a wave making machine which is functioning here and throughout our country making maximum use of political currents coupled with a plentiful supply of hot air. We have been experienced some wave-making of a political nature. Those persons who have oppose the Bush Administration as a normal reaction were anticipating a time when their spin on the news would be overshadowed in the news by reports from the in Winter Olympics Games from Turin, Italy. It came as a totally and unexpected shock just a day into the opening of the Olympic games get the members of liberal press were listening to their more conservative member -Fox News, precisely, were on the air interviewing the Vice-President of the United States describing a hunting accident in which he had peppered a fellow bird hunter with shotgun pellets. To make maximum use of incident critics centered on an alleged “delay” in calling the media to tell them about the happening. My personal memory of what news reporting tells me this is a sort of story we would have been expected to “dig out” and we would not depend on handouts or await someones call. Normal contacts a the sheriff's office and at the local hospital's emergency unit would tell us that a well known lawyer who had been hunting on a nearby ranch had been admitted to the hospital with gun shot wounds. Chaney withheld such an announcement, thinking it to be proper for the lady who owned the ranch on which the hunters were guests, might wish to inform the local press. Chaney then arranged to talk with Britt Hume at Fox News. Since that time we have been deluged with a fanciful array of wild stories, fabrications, fanciful theories and views beyond the usual reactions. One holds that the same big conspiracy to destroy the nation. Another wants Bush to fire him, and “the drunken hunters” have been documented. My favorite among all of this in will of God bringing shame and disgrace on our wanton leaders who we see as example – purposely killing God's birds for pleasure and enjoyment. Certainly, we ,as a nation of millions, can conduct our political affairs on a higher level than we have this week. I sit here this evening not being proud of “my” generation. It is “your” generation as well. “ “Ours.” A.L.M. February 1, 2006 [c487wds]
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
GETTING ABOUT Sooner or later each of us will reach a physical stage in which we find we can not “get around as well as I used to”. It, of course, alludes to conditions which are perfectly normal. I some rare cases, we see a person who defies all set notions about, growing old other than adding to the number of years one can claim. I have been one who has had that advantage until. Until recently I have had that advantage. It has not been unusual for people to say I did not look as old as I admitted to being. That gave me a good feel, of course,but I maintained no illusions about staying that way for anything but a short span of time. I, over a period of several months, became more more dependent on my trusty cane. It ceased being just a tripod/lever arrangement used to facilitate getting up from seated position and standing firm, and because a questing gadget used to pre-judge any pathway I intended to take. We all seem to have a bit of W.C. Fields in us, when we reach this stage of age. He did it so often when he feigned close association with John Barleycorn and needed to firm up his steps that twirling cane of his seemed to provide him with a third leg or arm and ready access to unusual places. In my cane-use period, I ,too, learned to pick up articles of clothing from shelves, hangers, or wherever I had dropped them. That's one of the first things you will learn to do...pickup just about anything by cane power alone. I quickly found how I could put my sock on using cane-power after having showered, shaved and be ready to move to the kitchen and get the coffee supply perked. Watch some TV news to see if we are still here. If not, go back to bed.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
TRADE COSTS I am old enough to remember that when we went into debt of any kind we became more cautious concerning what we spent in that area. We set up budgets which caused us to question future expenditures. We often set levels beyond which we might not go. To exceed them was a sure invitation to severe trouble. Should we be thinking along such lines regarding our constantly growing trade deficits with other nations? Are we placing our national well--being in danger when we continue to purchase far more products from other nations? We see the steady rise in both amounts and other costs. I have deep-set feelings which tell me that it is not in keeping with what they logically, ought to be. There is every indication that we might be spending ourselves into a poor house situation from which it will be difficult to free ourselves in the future. We are talking about billions of dollars here, not chicken-feed change. Just this morning I came across a note had written to myself on 4-03-01. In that note, suggesting I write something about the dangers of excess trade debts I was worried. I had come across a chart which showed how imported footwear alone from China and other areas overseas. Our department store shoe sections – with styles for men, women and children – both dress and sportswear types are now door-to-door, mostly wall-to-wall Chinese or Indian. The “Shoe Stores” are going fast. Any one such location looks pretty much like all the others. China has moved in to our markets here in the United States aggressively and if you agree with view you are shocked, puzzled, and in loud favor of our government 'issuing protective legislation” to “put a stop to the invasion.” Others welcome the change with open arms, purses, checkbooks and credit cards. Some the causes of this entire change result from the fact that far too many American manufacturing firms decided to stay with their old, worn, obsolete and inefficient plants, procedures,and physical equipment. The German and Japanese moved into the American market quickly using the modern plants we helped them build. They entered strongly into both light and heavy areas. Latin American nations and other joined in, but the main thrust has been toward Asia. Residents found them familiar, but a visitor just returned from China reports only one of these twenty one remains to be seen in seen in the streets today:”Coke”. Get ready to see Chinese products logo on your store's shelves. They're already here on the Internet. A.L.M. February 14, 2006 [c445wds]
Monday, February 13, 2006
I'M WAITINGThere appears to be no hurry among United Nations members to start some sort of even a modest clean-up of the mess among which they have, plainly, been living for some years now. Months go by without any indication that projected changes be made to bring about some semblance of propriety in the routine management of the organization. It has fallen far short of expectations in many ways. True enough, some disregard for such petty rules set up years ago which now seem to some as being irksome, might well be modified to suit today's needs. Charges, however, which can be called “outstanding” against some UN officials are monumental in size, complex in many inter-social and, inter-social ways and serious enough in the public mind to, if untended, to bring about an end of the U.N. Concept. The most glaring fault might well be gross mismanagement of funds associated with the “Food For Oil” program in Iraq. It has all making of an old-fashioned stinker scandals of our old political scams during the days of ward heel crooks and politicians who knew not the word “truth”. We like to believe that we put a stop to such schemes by subtle use of punishment in various forms. To make this entire U.N. scene more acceptable, we need to revive some of the former ways of making politicians look bad. A widely method used o be to stop voting for them, but you quickly walk around that one by pointing out that we don't vote for U. N. No,of course not, but we do have public servants of our own. What's wrong with letting our own people know we expect them to rev up some their vacuums, get busy with some stiff brooms and huff-and-puff in the sleek presence of these self-appointed potentates of the U.N. other world. The longer we let loose leaders look lousy to the average world citizen, the tougher it is for all of us to maintain stability in concepts of mutual understanding and respect. Now that cartoonists have been tagged so unfairly, we must avoid pointing out how easy it is to show a faltering, falling, failing United Nations by simply reversing the first set of the letters “i” and “t”. A.L.M. February 13, 2006 [c392wds]
Sunday, February 12, 2006
BIG BOY A great grandson of mine sat beside me as we watched the President of our a nation deliver his “State of the Union” message recently. Neither of us expected too much because those annual reports are, usually, pretty much pre-cut and dull. That would hold for a two-year old, I'm sure but he showed interest in seeing which one of the men on the TV screen was “his President.” e really wanted to know,to, because g-grandson Dakota Fulk has a unique sense of possession, I find. He makes no distinction between that which we might call: “our”,“his,” “her” or “their” and “mine”. He put his finger tip on that figure and accepted that image as being “mine”. I has used the word “your” which ,by his system, was to be his - “mine!” henceforth into forever. Our family is, of course, aware of this odd view of ownership rights and different members have, playfully, tried to talk him out of such ideas which adults see as a type of selfishness. It may well work out that all of us will learn a thing or two from this boy and others like him, who take pride in valid ownership and want to do the best the best they can to care for that which has been placed in their hands. That boy has already learned a lesson which usually comes to older youths – when we claim ownership, we also accept new responsibilities. The concept he experienced and the actions he took will all, no doubt, fade away as just another example one of those oft-times silly things grandparents do. I find myself wondering what I might think if on some day in the future little Dakota sees a picture “our president” - points at it and says: “Mine!” A.L.M. February 12, 2006 [c315wds]
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