Tag Archives: Energy

February 20, 2013 · 8:48 pm

Changing Energy

I debated which of my blogs to post this on, but I think it’s more about being “Lost in the 21st Century” than “My Southern Gothic Life”….

Or maybe it’s more about finding our way in the 21st Century…

Bear with me, as this one’s a little out there….

So far this year, my partner, Steve, and I have lost at least 3 major figures in our lives. Friends who personified different eras in our lives. People who were part of our growth, our development and who meant too damn much to us to lose them so soon…

People we hadn’t talked to a lot recently…..

But still, they were still key parts of our lives.  Life moved on and we were just too caught up in the moments and minutiae of day-to-day living…

We were still aware of them, but somehow took them for granted.  But, we still felt better about life knowing they were a part of it. We thought that we were still moving forward, maybe in different places at different paces, but still all on the Journey.

If we were not physically together, we were still psychically together. We still shared our collective pasts and the energy that our shared pasts generated.  We just assumed we would touch base and catch up again sometime soon….

We always thought there was time…

I lost so many of the key figures in my birth family back in the 1980’s.  I once joked that we spent so much money at the local funeral home during that decade, that they should name a wing after us. Since then, I’ve been much closer to my friends and built a family of choice. I realize now, I have always done this… So all of these people were family. Mine or Steve’s and, thus, ours together. They were part of the energy of our lives….

They were, in that way, family.

You see, I just can’t separate close friends, or friends who were once close, from family. Family is a fluid concept for me. I don’t believe in the “standard” definition of family. To me, family is a kind of shared energy between people. God knows, it can be either positive or negative energy, that sometimes changes over time, goes back and forth from one kind to the other, but is always there.  Our energy is shared and connects us….

Some people, be they by birth or by choice, are family of a time and place because of energy that is shared in that moment. Some people, who become so much a part of our own energy, are family forever, no matter what…

And when we lose them, maybe it’s the energy we miss as much as the people….

Or maybe the people are the energy and the energy is the person…

The people we have lost recently were admittedly family of a time and place.  They were a part of times of incredible shared energy. I think that’s what makes mourning them different and difficult.  But it does pull us together again with those who remain who shared those times.

Maybe we don’t so much mourn the people we’ve lost as we mourn the times they represent in our lives. And the fact that the energy of that era is no longer part of our daily lives…

But the funny thing is, as they die, the past becomes more real and alive. We remember who we were, who they were and how special those times in our lives were. The energy returns and intensifies….

Maybe we aren’t losing their energy, but feeling it transmute into something different. Maybe they aren’t really dead as long as we remember them and what they and the times we shared meant and signified. Maybe their energy- our shared energy- is just shifting….

I’m not a classically religious person, but I am spiritual.  I feel energy….

There is a law of physics that says energy can’t be created or destroyed, it can only be changed….

And the older I get, the more I believe in that law….

6 Comments

Filed under Religion, Scott's Commentary

Tagged as , , , ,

May 11, 2011 · 10:30 pm

An Average American Pays A Higher Income Tax Rate Than ExxonMobil

An interesting fact that I’ve pointed out before…

Bears repeating…

All around the country, Americans are feeling the pinch of high gas prices. Yet one group that is not only not feeling the pain of these prices but is profiting off of them are the big oil companies.

In fact, ExxonMobil, “the largest American oil company,” raked in $30.5 billion in profit in 2010, “making it the most profitable Fortune 500 company for the eighth year in a row.”

The Center for American Progress’s Valeri Vasquez has put out a new report titled “Exxon Mobil Dodges the Tax Man,” which finds that the effective income tax rate for the average American is higher than the effective rate for the oil giant over the past few years. The effective tax rate for the average American in 2007, the last year for which data is available, was 20.4 percent. The annual Exxon federal effective rate between 2008 and 2010, meanwhile, was 17.6 percent:

via ThinkProgress » GRAPH: An Average American Pays A Higher Income Tax Rate Than ExxonMobil.

Leave a comment

Filed under Energy, Politics, The Economy, Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , ,

May 9, 2011 · 6:34 pm

Renewable energies could supply 80 percent of world’s demand by 2050: UN report

If the Oil Companies didn’t own our government, we would be moving faster to recognize this and prepare for the future….

Our oil dependency is rapidly making us a third world country….

Think of all the jobs we could create if we really dedicated ourselves to oil independence and clean energy…

Governments approved on Monday a U.N. report projecting that renewable energies such as solar, wind or hydropower could leap to supply almost 80 percent of the world’s demand by 2050, with the right policies.

The study broadly matched a draft written by scientists before the meeting, but environmental group Greenpeace said some findings were watered down due to opposition by OPEC heavyweight Saudi Arabia and also by Brazil.

The report by the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) also said that a shift to cleaner energies would help cut greenhouse gas emissions, which it blamed for climate change including floods, droughts, heat waves and rising sea levels.

“Close to 80 percent of the world energy supply could be met by renewables by mid-century if backed by the right enabling public policies,” it said in a statement after government delegates approved a special report at talks in Abu Dhabi.

“This will be the standard book for renewables,” said Sven Teske of Greenpeace, one of the authors.

He said he was happy with the overall report but that the summary for policymakers had toned down, for instance, formerly clear statements that renewable energies were often already cost effective.

“Parts have been watered down,” he said of the report, which was agreed at the IPCC meeting in Abu Dhabi which began on May 5. The final session lasted through the night.

via Renewable energies could supply 80 percent of world’s demand by 2050: UN report | The Raw Story.

Leave a comment

Filed under Energy, Politics, Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , ,

May 4, 2011 · 9:41 pm

Dems To Force Vote On Ending Oil Subsidies

This should be interesting…

I hope the Dems can continue to “out” the Republicans and their true agenda of supporting the Corporations and the Rich at the expense of the Middle Class…

Or what’ left of the Middle Class after the GOP policies of the Bush Administration….

From the Huffington Post:

Eager to prove that Republicans don’t want to end oil subsidies despite public GOP opposition, House Democrats plan to force a vote Thursday on a measure that would block a major tax break for the five largest oil companies.

As Republicans call for major cuts to domestic spending, Democrats are pushing for tax code changes that would allow the government to bring in more money, particularly from high-profit industries Democrats say do not pay their fair share. President Barack Obama and key Democrats have called for an end to some oil and gas subsidies, arguing gas prices are high enough to sustain industry investment in the United States.

John Hofmeister, the former president of Shell Oil, said in February that major oil companies do not need government help given the high price of gas.

Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) made a similar point at a Tuesday briefing with reporters, shooting down questions about whether ending oil subsidies could increase the price of gas.

“The gas companies are making record profits,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a credible argument that reducing the subsidy on a product that is now getting record prices…will lead to higher [gas] prices.”

House Speaker John Boehner indicated some support for reconsidering those subsidies last week, telling ABC News that they “ought to be paying their fair share.” Obama quickly jumped on the statement, sending a letter to Congress urging an end to the tax breaks.

Boehner quickly walked back the statement, and last Thursday turned down a request by Democrats to vote on legislation to eliminate billions of dollars of oil subsidies.

via Dems To Force Vote On Oil Subsidies.

1 Comment

Filed under Congress, Energy, Oil Dependency, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

April 20, 2011 · 9:29 am

A Day in the Life of Joe Middle Class Republican

There are several versions of this floating around the internet.

This seems to be the original, written by John Gray of Cincinnati, Ohio….

Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards. With his first swallow of water, he takes his daily medication. His medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to ensure their safety and that they work as advertised.

All but $10 of his medications are paid for by his employer’s medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance — now Joe gets it, too.

He prepares his morning breakfast: bacon and eggs. Joe’s bacon is safe to eat because some girly-man liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.

In the morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some crybaby liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained.

Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some environmentalist wacko liberal fought for the laws to stop industries from polluting our air.

He walks on the government-provided sidewalk to the subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work. It saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees because some fancy-pants liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.

Joe begins his work day. He has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some lazy liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Joe’s employer pays these standards because Joe’s employer doesn’t want his employees to call the union.

If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he’ll get a worker compensation or unemployment checks because some stupid liberal didn’t think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.

It is noontime and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe’s deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some godless liberal wanted to protect Joe’s money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the Great Depression.

Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and his below-market federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime. Joe also forgets that in addition to his federally subsidized student loans, he attended a state funded university.

Joe is home from work. He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive. His car is among the safest in the world because some America-hating liberal fought for car safety standards to go along with the taxpayer funded roads.

He arrives at his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers’ Home Administration because bankers didn’t want to make rural loans.

The house didn’t have electricity until some big-government liberal stuck his nose where it didn’t belong and demanded rural electrification.

He is happy to see his father, who is now retired. His father lives on Social Security and a union pension because some wine-drinking, cheese-eating liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn’t have to.

Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. He doesn’t mention that the beloved conservatives have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day. Joe agrees: “We don’t need those big-government liberals ruining our lives! After all, I’m a self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have.”

Leave a comment

Filed under Politics, Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , ,

February 23, 2011 · 8:44 pm

Vision: Why the Mid-Atlantic Can Be the ‘Persian Gulf of Offshore Wind Energy’ | | AlterNet

I wish more people would focus on these positive options for our energy future.

We really need to get moving on– I’ll say it again!- Infrastructure development in order to be energy independent.

But with the GOP- and most of the rest of the government- owned by the Oil Companies, it’s going to be a struggle…

For visions of America’s energy future, we tend to look to the nexus of the current world energy order — the Middle East. That’s how we ended up with America’s worst nickname ever: the “Saudi Arabia of coal.” To the coal-industry shills who coined it, the term was meant to convey ideas of energy independence, security and patriotism. To those of us who know better it means a promise of boiling chaotic doom for the planet, and a future of shattered landscapes and poisoned waters for coal-country communities.

That’s the nightmare energy vision from the Middle East. But thankfully there’s a positive alternative — a vision that goes far beyond rhetoric to encapsulate a future of limitless, clean, healthy, secure and 100-percent American energy. It’s the “Persian Gulf of offshore wind energy” and it describes a little known area of the eastern seaboard otherwise known as the Mid-Atlantic Bight, which runs from Massachusetts to North Carolina.

In the annals of energy discoveries, the discovery of the Bight’s wind energy potential could rank right up there with the discovery of oil beneath the sands of the Arabian Peninsula. A 2007 joint Stanford University-University of Delaware study found that fully developed with over 166,000 wind turbines, the Bight’s waters could produce as much as 330,000 megawatts of power, or effectively one third of U.S. energy demand. Even more exciting, the researchers concluded that full-scale development of the resource was well within the realm of technological possibility. All that was required was the political will to make it happen.

More:   Vision: Why the Mid-Atlantic Can Be the ‘Persian Gulf of Offshore Wind Energy’ | | AlterNet.

Leave a comment

Filed under Energy, Politics, The Economy

Tagged as , , , ,