Fight for Liberty

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Excerpts from Subsidies: A Big Culprit in High Gas Prices

About half of humanity, from India to Chile, now benefits from cut-rate petroleum prices. In 2008, these countries will account for all the growth in world oil demand, or an additional one million barrels a day, according to Deutsche Bank. Their consumption will be the highest in eight years.

And these subsidies will cost as much as $100 billion in 2008, or twice as much as last year, estimates the International Energy Agency. That would be money better spent on reducing oil use – what's called "demand erosion" – than encouraging it. And sadly, it is the rich who benefit the most. The IMF says the top one-fifth of households in income receive 42 percent of fuel subsidies because they are the heaviest users.

Shielding consumers from the real costs of an oil-based economy only makes it more difficult for them to face the coming end of the oil era.

For wealthier nations that generally shun subsidies, the price of oil – still over $130 a barrel – is quickly altering lifestyles.

As onerous as it is for Americans to bear $4-a-gallon gasoline, the results are encouraging. Mass transit use is way up and oil demand is falling. For the first time since 1979, the number of miles driven has dropped. And General Motors is weighing an end to production of the Hummer as buyers flee such gas-guzzling vehicles.

A few nations that do subsidize fuel are feeling the financial pinch on budgets and moving to reduce subsidies or end price caps, despite street protests against such moves. Most of them are in Asia, the region that will account for 70 percent of the increase in oil demand this year.

In China, oil demand is estimated to rise 5 to 10 percent this year, but the government has resisted calls to end price controls. A few other countries – Chile and South Korea – are now moving toward subsidies to appease political pressures.

In Europe, political pressures are building to reduce fuel taxes, similar to a call by John McCain to suspend the federal gas tax for the summer. Such moves would be a mistake. Fuel taxes help send the right price signals for conserving oil as well as reducing greenhouse gases that cause climate change.

In Congress, bills to combat global warming would raise costs for oil users, even possibly adding a dollar to gasoline prices. But proposals by lawmakers to relieve those costs with subsidies to consumers would only defeat the purpose of reducing oil demand.

Governments that try to create a false economy for oil are not revealing the truth to their people.

I wish we could become Oil Independant sooner than later. If we wait too long, we won't be about to become Oil Independant. We need the energy produced by Oil to help us create the infrastructure of our Alternative energy source. We need to get on it.

I have been reading a site "www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.com" for about 2 years now.. It is very doomsdayish.. but seems to be very accurate and sources are well documented.

I am rambling now.. but I read about "Greedy Americans, and our Fuel Guzzling Lifestyle," and I think, I'll take responsibility for my consumption. But I feel some what duped. Until very recently, American lifestyles are lauded and envied around the World. We in America are advertised to all day long. Buy, buy, consume, consume. To be anyone, you must have a bigger home, a bigger car, more, more, more.

Our government, nor our media, nor big business has never said "Whoa! We need to slow down, think about what is important to us. Stop spending, stop consuming." Ha, they even give us tax incentives to spend money..

I haven't bought totatlly into that lifestyle. I am not in debt. I try to teach my children and myself about needs over wants. I live well below my income and I save a lot towards my retirement. But it isn't enough apparently.

Unless we find this Alternative Energy source quickly... life as we know may indeed come to a halt sooner than later.

We need our Congress and President to get moving. I am sure they can get just as wealthy on the new alternative fuel as they did on oil.

While at Planet Lotus..

I ran into a posting by Jerry Carter at Datatribe Software.

Just figured I post a link to it.. as I felt he voiced my thoughts to a tee.

Usability Question..

So, we were showing a Notes client application to some Requirement's gathering analysts. One of the analysts says, the users need a way to delete documents. And I say, they can. They just click the Delete key on the keyboard, or click on the delete SmartIcon, or select Delete from the Menu choices, or about 3 other ways to delete a document.

The analyst says, the user didn't know they could delete documents. It isn't "intuiative" enough.

I think, that is how users always delete documents in a Notes database.

The analyst say that the users need to have a "Delete" action button that is their face.

And also, when a user deletes a Parent document, the children should be deleted as well, in order avoid orphans.

I think, well the Standard Lotus discussion template doesn't have a Delete action button and it doesn't remove the children when a parent document is deleted. And if Lotus doesn't do it, it must be the way... I don't think any of the templates provided by Lotus have an "intuitive" delete functionality. If it is what Lotus provides, isn't that good enough?

So, I asked Nathan Freeman what he thought, and he agreed it that the way documents were deleted in Notes databases was poor UI design. Ugh, that wasn't what I wanted to hear.

Oh well, it make sense to make a more user friendly database deletion functionality.

Why the US is going broke?

I know people think Ron Paul is a loon. But when I listen to him, he makes so much sense to me.

Announcing...

My eldest sister, Kathi, has just started a Jewelry Business. She has created a web site to promote her business..

Here is the link. Check it out. She is very talented.

KathiBeadzBeautiful

Ron Paul! Still hanging in there?!!

The HPV Vaccine: Preventive Care or Human Sacrifice?

The HPV Vaccine: Preventive Care or Human Sacrifice?

Reports of adverse reactions to the new HPV vaccine Gardasil are escalating. One particularly heart-wrenching example is the story of 12-year-old Brittany who lost all feeling in her leg and collapsed two weeks after receiving the Gardasil vaccine.

Adding insult to injury, people who are injured by the vaccine cannot even sue Merck, the maker of the Gardasil vaccine, because it is part of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund.

While the FDA claims adverse reactions to Gardasil are rare, a review of the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) data shows that several thousands of adverse reactions have been reported in the United States alone. And hundreds of Australian girls have experienced side effects like paralysis, dizzy spells and seizures, but Australia's Department of Health and Ageing refuses to release any details.

Further, The European Medicines Agency reported that two women died not long after they received the vaccine, one in Austria and one in Germany. The Financial Times also reported that there have been 11 deaths and a wide array of other adverse reactions, including:

• Bells Palsy
• Guillan-Barre syndrome
• Seizures
• Blood clotting and heart problems
• Miscarriages and fetal abnormalities amongst pregnant women who received the vaccine

Sources:

• Natural News April 22, 2008