No More Keystone Excuses

After 5½ years of studying (dithering) over the pros and cons of the Keystone XL pipeline, the State Department has issued its 5^th and possibly its final report on the environmental impact of the Keystone pipeline. The report says that the environmental impact of the pipeline will be very small.

Environmentalists argue that the pipeline will release unacceptable amounts of CO₂ into the atmosphere and will cause more global warming. They also complain that the pipeline will contribute to the earth’s warming because it will increase the use of fossil fuels, worldwide. That last complaint is warrantless, because the oil will be extracted from the Canadian oil sands even if the pipeline is not constructed—the oil will be shipped to China or some other overseas consumer.

Presently, Canadian oil from the oil sands fields is being shipped to United States oil refineries on the Gulf coast via trucks or trains. The State Department calculates that if the large quantity of oil from Canada is shipped totally by those routes, there will be 27.5% more greenhouse gas released into the atmosphere than if the pipeline is actually constructed.

Railroad companies are now doing a lot more business transporting Canadian oil than they were in 2009. That year, rails transported 9,500 car loads of oil. In 2012, rails transported 234,000 car loads; and the likely figure for 2013 is 400,000 car loads. That oil is reaching the gulf coast refineries by this less efficient and more polluting way.

State Department says the pipeline would create 42,100 new jobs—jobs the United States could well use.

It seems evident that President Obama is not paying attention to the environmental impact studies or the job creation potential of the pipeline. His main concern seems to be that huge moneyed interests in San Francisco, namely billionaire Tom Steyer, have threatened to cut off contributions to the Democrat Party if President Obama approves the pipeline. Does this sound like the payoff of a hireling politician to you?

If any of my readers are interested in reading the original data on the environmental impact of the pipeline, I would suggest that you read the report of the State Department, called the Environmental Impact Statement http://keystonepipeline-xl.state.gov/documents/organization/205719.pdf.  (If this link does not work, copy it into your browser and activate it.)

What Ever Happened to the America We Once Knew?

America has changed drastically, and these changes are showing unmistakably in the polling reports that show the people do not approve of Congress and the President. No matter how rosy President Obama tries to make the country’s condition appear in his State of the Union speech, the fact is that we, the people, are not satisfied with the results.

It is of great interest that the President’s approval rating is at 81% in the Washington, D.C. area. And…that’s where the unemployment rate is the lowest. It is lowest there because the jobs the government is creating are mostly government jobs.

Why do most people in America disapprove of our government? Well…one reason is that we see the government attacking such organizations as the Little Sisters of the Poor, a Catholic charity that now runs 30 homes for the needy across the nation. The sisters are being targeted because of their refusal to knuckle under to the government’s demand that they give up on their religious beliefs that the use of contraceptives is immoral. It is apparently okay these days for the government to dictate the religious beliefs of our people.

We disapprove of the government because of the attack on quality public education, such as the Justice Department’s suit against the State of Louisiana for running a school voucher program so that students can get out of a poorly performing public school system and into a better performing charter or religious school. The Justice Department says that the voucher system will violate civil rights law by worsening racial imbalances in the public schools. Never mind that the scholarship students are predominantly black. Of course, it is common knowledge that the government program is being run by the teachers’ union, the NEA, which sees vouchers as threatening to public teachers jobs in the public schools.

We disapprove because we don’t like to see the government defining our medical coverage out of existence.

We disapprove of the government because we see the IRS changing from an agency to collect taxes to an organization concentrating on enforcing the 1^st Amendment. They do this be snooping out possible political statements by conservative organizations. Never mind that they do not do such things to left-leaning progressive organizations.

We don’t like our government because we see the government stepping on traditional moral values as exemplified in the Defense of Marriage Act, which the Supreme Court has declared unconstitutional because it offends homosexuals—who make up about 5% of our people.

We don’t like the government because we see it pumping money into the economy which goes indirectly into the pockets of the rich, making a temporary stop in the rising values of the stock market. The market, I believe, is overpriced because the Federal Reserve, by keeping bond prices very low, makes investment in bonds unprofitable. This effect directs private investment into equity stocks.

Oh, how I wish we could have a government we approve of once, again!

Colorado Is Going to Pot!

The country has been watching carefully to see how Colorado’s new law legalizing marijuana for “recreational” purposes is going to play out. The new law went into effect several months ago; and now its effects are becoming evident.

A friend of mine in Denver sent me an account: One Denver newspaper has recently printed 20 pages of marijuana dealer advertisements about the wonders of marijuana use! The paper is even printing an advice column entitled, “Ask a stoner.”

One friend of ours in Denver is a counselor in the Jefferson County school system. He is noting children, even as young as primary grade school students, who are coming to school after eating food contaminated with cannabis, the active ingredient of marijuana. Emergency rooms are seeing young children under the effects of marijuana.

Banks are reluctant to accept accounts from marijuana businesses, so these businesses operate with large amounts of cash on hand. Doing business in cash helps them avoid paying taxes on their income. Muggers who see easy and quick gains from street crime are targeting customers walking around the city with lots of cash in their pockets.

Money laundering is becoming a more common practice among marijuana dealers. (The definition of “money laundering,” for those who don’t know what this means is the practice of thieves, embezzlers, and other criminals designed to make illegal money gains look legal. This is done by sending money to banks and investment interests under assumed names or investing in phony businesses that do not report income to the IRS. Money launderers are prone to do business in cash rather than by checks that can be traced by the IRS.)

The rest of the country should look carefully at the marijuana business in Colorado. Do we really want this kind of thing going on around the nation?