Todd, I'm glad I brightened your day. There's nothing like a good laugh..........
As I get older (these days, I'm 46), I have found that I'm losing patience with any sort of politics. In my mind, both the government in general, and most, if not all, "ecology" groups fall into the realm of "politics". My definition of politics? Spend a lot of time, and piles of money to do nothing. Years ago, a much loved high school teacher jokingly told us that, in Latin, the word "politics" translated, meant "many liars". It doesn't, of course, but the point was made. The same outspoken teacher sent us off to graduation ceremonies by telling us "You can't make chicken salad out of chicken shit". Years later, I met this man on the street, and he asked me what the most important lesson I had learned in his class. He was surprised to find that I still remembered the "chicken salad" comment. But, It applies well to most, if not all situations. That is the problem with the "ecology movement" today-it is all politics, and chicken shit. We, as humans, have taken much from our environment, and put back little, and most of what we put back has been toxic. In the last 30 years, we have all been made painfully aware of this, but not a lot of progress has been made to improve the situation. The small improvements have come at horrible cost-look at the prices of cars, or home heating units. There has to be a better, more effective solution, in both cost, and ecology. Biodiesel is one of those "more effective" solutions, but I doubt that government will see it for that. Instead, short-term oil company profits will intervene, and billions of gallons of WVO will be flushed down the drain. It has been proven that we can live well, and conserve our natural resources at the same time. The technology exists, and it is cost effective, for the most part. To use it requires a bit more effort on our part, and big business sees it as a threat to their exorbitant profits, therefore, it must be made illegal, or unprofitable. Lets forget about the pollution-we have been pouring this crap into our environment for centuries. A few more decades can't hurt......... As far as the Sierra Club goes, I really don't know much about them. What I do know is that they are famous for proposing "preposterous" solutions to "save the earth". Now, I've worked too hard in my life to be told that I have to freeze in the winter, roast in the summer, and starve to death year 'round, to save the ecosystem. I doubt that any of them are setting an example for us to follow. Closing public lands, and national parks is another ridiculous solution they have proposed. Punish all of us, for the unthinking actions of a few.....that's the ticket. I lay awake most nights, thinking about all the damage the mountain bikers are doing.......NOT! I'm sure there are a few irresponsible ones out there. I'm just as sure that, after these folks use a tree to stop, or face plant themselves into the ground, most decide the pain and suffering that results is not worth it, and become a bit more sane. In the same light, fools that drive off-road vehicles in a careless/thoughtless manner, are usually rewarded with huge repair bills, and fuel bills to match. I've rescued a few of these, from places they had no business being, doing things they had no business doing. Paying big $$$$ to get their vehicle removed from wherever they put it, and repaired afterward, generally deters most from repeating the program. There are always a few that don't/won't learn-for those, we have more than enough laws in place. My point: Let's do what is logical, sensible, and cost effective, with an eye on developing new things to continue the process. The Sierra Club point: Close everything, to everybody. Sit in your cold, dark cave, and starve. They can-I do not intend to. It's been a tough week-thanks for listening to me rant, and rave....... E.J. On Fri, 6 Jul 2001 01:44:11 -0400 "Appal Energy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Todd, you should expect this, and worse from the Sierra Club. If they > had their way, we would all live like savages, in caves, without heat or > light, because this causes the formation of "greenhouse gases". Each of > us would also have a catalytic converter welded to our ass, as well as > would every other mammal in the world, for the same reason. [snip] E.J. That catalytic converter crack is about the best belly laugh I've had all week. Thanks. Actually, I was kind of eluding to the fact that the Club Sierra mouth pieces are all sounding more and more as if they all own stock in the Exxon Valdez. I tend to agree with Harmon Seaver's statement in an earlier post: "The Sierra Club has been a sell-out group for a long, long time. I'd say they certainly look to have been taken over by the oil/chemical industry, not a farfetched idea at all given the general make up of the group -- they never were a grass-roots organization, mostly country club types with fat stock portfolios, making "envionmental" pronouncements geared to greasing their gross revenue." I have yet to figure out how they can discount either biodiesel or ethanol, in favor of natural gas and gasoline without ethanol. Every time I get past the first corner of any of their "arguements" their rationales just start falling to pieces. Todd Appal Energy [EMAIL PROTECTED] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Please do NOT send "unsubscribe" messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
