Jul

8

The Latest Scapegoat in the Oil Price Debate: American Drivers

Filed Under Commentary, National Politics

ScapegoatSeveral states recently called on Congress to reinstitute the national speed limit of 55 miles per hour (Texas was not one of them). They argue that this would reduce oil consumption, pollution, and traffic accidents. According to a story by WFAA News in Dallas, reducing the speed limit to 55 MPH would save an average of $10 on a drive from Dallas to South Padre Island ($14 for pickups and SUV’s), a trip of 560 miles.

However, these arguments are nothing new. After the Carter Administration debacles in the Middle East and Carter’s ineffectiveness with OPEC, Congress instituted this same speed limit. The arguments thirty years ago: it would reduce oil consumption, pollution, and traffic accidents. So now, three decades later, history repeats itself.

The Cowardly Lion Comes Out of Hiding
Read more

May

25

The ‘Big Oil’ Blame Game

Filed Under General, National Politics

Oil derricks in Kilgore, TexasThe Democrat controlled Congress recently began holding hearings into the seemingly obscene profits of the five major “big oil” companies Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, Shell Oil, and BP America. However, the hearings not about elected officials protecting America, but are about politicians trying to protect their power; it’s about politics and nothing more. While the Democratic Party accuses President Bush of lying to America, they use the gas prices to deceive the voters, lying to us so that they can win an election.

The solution advocated by the Democratic Party is to “punish” the oil companies for their greed. In a truly Democratic Party way of doing things, they want to slap on an “excessive profits” tax. That means that the ill-gotten profits will be taxed at a greater rate than other profits. So the Democrats’ method of punishing the oil companies is to force them to share the excessive profits with Congress. Higher taxes: now that is a typical Democratic solution to a problem!

A business exists to make a profit; the larger the profit, the better for the company. When a business experiences higher taxes, the normal reaction is to simply pass the higher cost on to the consumer—that’s you and me—so that the company can maintain its profits. This applies to “big oil” as well. In order for big oil to overcome this new tax, we will pay more for fuel. This way, the oil companies keep their outrageous profits while the Democrat controlled Congress gets their profit . . . a profit that they have invested nothing to earn.
Read more

Jul

27

Staying in the Boat

Filed Under National Politics

The noise seems to be rising to a crescendo. Everywhere I go I am hearing the same cry from long time die-hard Republicans. I heard it from five different people in one week. Maybe you’ve been saying it, too. Here is what I heard from one particular friend: “I have resigned from the Republican Party. I have told them at the national level and at the state level that they can quit calling me for support. I am going independent. They don’t even act like Republicans anymore, so I don’t want anything to do with them.”

He was talking about the immigration bill, or lack thereof. He was also talking about the out of control spending that the Republicans seem to enjoy as much as the Democrats. And through it all, he was talking about the leaders who seem to have stopped listening to the rank and file of the party.

First Century boat reconstructionI shared a favorite piece of Scripture with him. Jesus and the disciples were traveling in a boat across the Sea of Galilee when they ran into a dangerous storm. Everyone was afraid of what was going to happen to them that day… everyone, that is, except Jesus, who was asleep in the back of the boat.
Read more

Jul

10

Looking From the Historical Perspective

Filed Under National Politics

I sat there talking to a teacher friend about the dangers of the Iraq War. “It is terrible,” she said, “that we have so many of our young people who have lost their arms and legs, not to mention the thousands who have been killed there.” Then she said the popularly rising refrain: “I just wish that Bush would get us out of there and just let them all kill each other off if they want to!”

Ruins at Bull Run - US Civil WarMeditating on what she said, I thought about America’s past. I reflected on the disasters we have suffered in previous wars. What would have happened if we had quit after losing a significant number of GIs. Come with me for a short look at some of our great losses.

Following Abraham Lincoln’s election, several southern states seceded from the union. Lincoln would not allow the union to become severed. In response, he amassed the Army of the Potomac and met the rebels in a place called Bull Run. In that bloody battle, the rebels defeated the Union Army. Like today’s followers of war, the people had cheered as the army went off to war and, after the defeat, blamed Lincoln for starting a war when he had no concept of the disastrous result.
Read more

Next Page →