I'm talking about V.D. Hanson, the mad prune farmer of Modesto, and his latest editorial saying we can drill and mine our way out of the current oil crisis.
Uhm, no. We already drilled everywhere on the continental U.S. that's drillable. There's still offshore off the West Coast and East Coast but that's less than 5% of the area of the United States and at most we'll get 5% of the oil out of'em that we got out of the rest of the United States. Sorry, that's just the facts. There's more oil out there, but it's in places that are currently pretty inhospitable politically speaking, or just damned remote (e.g. the Amazon basin, the Congo River basin).
But V.D. Hanson whines that "salt of the earth" types in the "heartland" are hurtin' because of the fuel prices. Oh waaah! I have no sympathy. *NONE*. Jimmy Carter had the solution for that problem back in 1976 -- fund alternative energy so that when the oil ran out, we'd already have a solution ready to go, rather than leaving it to some future generation, plus fund real mass transit that could eliminate the need for most folks living in cities and large towns to have a car. Guess what. These "salt of the earth" fucking dumbasses voted for Ronald fucking REAGAN because he promised to end "alternative energy" and cut their taxes. So now they're gathering what they fucking reaped, and they're going to whine about it? Oh waaahhh! Stupid motherfuckers, nobody wants to take responsibility for their own actions anymore. The stupid motherfuckers voted against alternative energy for the past forty years, and now they wanna go wah, wah, wah because their own stupidity resulted in high oil prices? Fuck'em.
Yeah, not bloody well diplomatic. But I just get fucking sick of all these goddamned crybabies out here whining that they don't like the consequences of their own actions. These are the stupid motherfuckers who voted for Ronald Reagan and ended alternative energy research in the United States for a generation. And they don't like what they voted for? Well fuck them. Fuck them good and hard. Well, OPEC is doing that for us, but so it goes.
-- Badtux the Unsympathetic Penguin
I've been callin' him "Raisins' Hanson. I'll switch to "Prunes".
ReplyDeleteMy bad. You're right, he's a raisin farmer, not a prune farmer. Oh well, they're both wrinkled dry fruits!
ReplyDeleteYou know, I was afraid I'd offended you with my response to your comment on my blog post, "Degassing over gasoline." I couldn't agree with this post more. Do I feel bad for those whose situations make it impossible to find alternatives, and who are forced to make hard choices between, say, driving to work and eating wholesome, nutricious food? Absolutely. Do I feel sorry for society as a whole, when we were told by a meddling southern peanut farmer that our habits and choices were not sustainable more than 30 fucking years ago? No. I was just leaving high school at the time, and paying for my own gasoline. That period had a strong impact on my subsequent decision making. As a result, I spend between 20 and 25dollars a month for all my energy consumption. I don't expect others to emuate my lifestyle, which is pretty spartan. But I have no sympathy for McMansion and Hummer owners. We have known since the early seventies that this was coming toward us. Our delay in taking it seriously has only made the reality worse. On the upside, I do believe we can work through this current crisis. It's just going to be painful for a while.
ReplyDeleteAgain, great post, BadTux.
I go up a four lane road to get to town..and both lanes are blocked by big-assed SUVs driven by silly idiots who had to have the biggest shiny chromed guzzler on the showroom floor. They are going 37 MPH in the 50 MPH zone because the pain at the pump is theirs.
ReplyDeleteMuwahahahaha. Yeah, I'm a bitch that way.
From VDH's column: "The wealthier and better educated seem less concerned about the price of gas."
ReplyDeleteMan, I had never thought of that before - rising prices are of less concern to the wealthy. Damn, the man's a freakin' genius!