Lake thoughts

As a young man I spent many of my summers at my grandparents house on the lake. I would swim, and fish and would on occasion when my cousin was there to accompany me take the canoe for a spin. I recall how my grandmother, a women who never learned to swim to spite her love for the water, would sit under the shade tree not far from the shore and watch us play.

I am recalling these memories because this last weekend I went with some friends to Lake Michigan. We walked on the trails, climbed the dunes, stood in awe of the majesty of the lake. We kicked off our shoes and walked along the shore ( it was of course to cold for me to swim). I felt the wind on my back and the sprinkling of cold lake water on my face and I couldn't help but think that for all of it's faults, the harsh winters, the constant road construction, and of course the election of democrats to state wide office. This may be one of the loveliest places in the world to live. As one who grew up here It took me leaving and seeing a foreign land to truly appreciate it.

I recall last summer as I sat in a guard tower in Iraq looking out on a land that was flat and lacking in character (geographically of course). Just how much I missed my midwestern home. How much I missed the rustic corn fields and snowy hills. I also missed the lakes and the rivers, it was on there shores that so much of my childhood was spent. Celebrating in the summer time, swimming, fishing, sleding in the winter.

So now that I literally live within a stones throw of many lakes I can appreciate it. I can take in its beauty and be renewed by it's waves. I look forward to the rest of summer, to the days by the lake, to the smell of the water and the battle with the fish. That is my idea of heaven.

10 Ways to tell if your a liberal !

1. Believe that capital punishment it cruel but abortion is compassionate and liberating.
2. Believe that business creates oppression but government creates opprotunity
3. Believe that guns in the hands of law abiding citizens is more dangerious then nuclear weapons in the hands of Iran or North Korea.
4. Believe that art did not exisit before there was federal funding.
5. Believe that global temperatures are less affected by cyclical changes in the earths climate and more affected by soccer moms driving SUV's.
6. Believe that George W. Bush is more of a threat to the world then Osama Bin ladan.
7. Believe that Ben Affleck is more knowledgable on foreign policy then Colin Powell, George Shultz, and Al Haig combined.
8. Believe that taxes are too low but ATM fee's are too high.
9. Believe that standardized tests are racist, but Robert Bryd is not.
10. Believe that the only reason socialism has failed everywhere it has been tried is because it has not yet been ran by the "right" people.

High Gas prices.. Ok now what?

With gas prices now reaching records highs, we I have hoped reached a tipping point on the issue of affordable, renewable, environmentally friendly, energy sources. Now we have with the exception of passing massive regulation done little or nothing over the last twenty-five years to break America's addiction to oil. This is because there has been little or no will within not only the American political class but within society as a whole. This has however changed over the last several years.


The question is what do we do about it. Do we play the blame game as the politicians and some in the mainstream media are doing or do we all come together, each side giving a little bit and start to solve this major problem. I believe that this addiction to oil is holding our society and our race ( humans) back. It is the start of a new century and we are still dependent upon technology and energy forms that have been in use for almost a century.


While my solution is not perfect it is a start. First thing we do is increase the supply of crude oil, this is to be done to bring down the prices and while we transition away from oil because weather we like it or not this is not a problem that can be solved over night and we must be able to heat our home and power our cars while we solve this problem. At the same time we are drilling in anwar, in Colorado and in the gulf of Mexico ( while observing environmental standards) we also commit to build at least three new refineries over the next decade. This will allow us to process more gas and home heating oil, we also make it mandatory that these refineries be able to process ethanol based fuels. We will also need to increase production of clean coal technology. While we are doing this we should also use the vast amounts of land that is empty in the American southwest to deploy solar panels and create the plants to process this energy and integrate it into out power grid. As we do this we should slowly remove the same percentage of power that comes from fossil fuels.


We must also begin to build more nuclear power plants, yes we must get past this myth that nuclear power is dangerous. There has not been a major accident involving a nuclear power plant since chernobly and that was due to lack of maintance and incompetence. Also France which is a nation that is not know for taking risks ( remember world war II) gets a large portion of its power from nuclear power. We could ensure the safety of nuclear reactors by implementing the same standards as the U.S. Navy which has not had a nuclear accident since the inception of nuclear vessels into the fleet in the late 1940's.


We must also seriously implement a series of wind power to spite the objections of the limousine liberals who claim to want clean power but don't want it where they can see it. With the vast miles of coast lines in this nation there is no reason why we can't harness the power of the wind to reduce our need for fossil fuels. We must also get serious about hybrid cars. Start by with the normal tax incentives not only for car company's but for energy company that make fueling available and affordable ( its easy to have a hydrogen car but if you can't refuel it what's the point) we must also increase our production of ethanol and biodiesal by at least 50% over the next five years. These are just a few of my ideas. Now we as the electorate must hold our leader responsible for making these changes. Not just for paying lip service to the issue of clean energy.