Lower Energy Costs

Wow, ask and ye shall receive. It was just yesterday that I asked for guest bloggers. This guest post comes from a reader named Jim Everett. The post is a little more political than I would normally publish but I think the subject is relevant to us all given current gas prices. It is definitely opinionated so I would expect some controversy over this one. At least he didn't bash pizza.

I've intended to write a letter on this subject, that could be forwarded to our representatives in Congress and the Senate, but hadn't gotten it done. Energy prices are hitting everyone's pocketbooks hard on a personal level, and strangling our economy as a whole. It's hard to believe that no action has been taken by our lawmakers. All they have done is drag the oil company executives in to grill them on national TV, about why their companies are making so much money. This deflects the attention away from them(the lawmakers), and their lack of action, by pointing all the blame on the "big, bad, greedy oil companies".

It's true, Exxon does make a lot of money - billions of dollars. But they are also one of the world's largest corporations, with millions of stockholders - including many 401k plans. 1st Quarter 2008 sales were $116.85 billion, with a profit of $10.89 billion. That's a 9.3% profit margin. Microsoft by contrast, had sales in the 1st Quarter of $13.76 billion, with $4.29 billion in profit. That is a 31.2% profit margin!

Why isn't Congress bringing the executives of Microsoft in front of the TV cameras, to chastise them for their "outrageous and unconscionable" profits??? Oil company profit isn't the problem - Congress is!!!

We need both a short term and a long term energy policy. The long term has to pursue alternative energy sources - wind, hydrogen, nuclear, etc. - we can't be dependent on fossil fuels forever. But in the short term, we need relief from the current dilemma we're in. We have many oil fields in this country, and in our coastal waters. The problem is that regulations pushed by extreme environmental groups and enacted by Congress, are severely limiting access to this resource and to the ability of oil companies to be able to build and get permits for new refineries. We're not talking about allowing belching black smokestacks, but a reasonable approach to allow some increased refining capacity.

Pricing is based on supply and demand. If we increase our supply of oil and refined oil products from our own country, pricing will go down. We need to let Congress know that they are the problem, and they need to act NOW!

If you agree, the National Association of Manufacturers has an easy way for you to get on a petition that will be sent to Congress. There are over 300,000 signatures already. Please sign yourself, and pass on to everyone you can. Let's show our lawmakers that we want action!!!

Thanks for your help!

Jim Everett

 

Children With Cell Phones

What is with 10 year olds kids with cellphones?

I have to admit this has been a very irritating concept to me. Especially when most of the time the kids don't even talk on their cell phone, they just send text messages. Can someone tell me why a 10 year old kid needs a cell phone?

I know a lady that bought her 12 year old girl a mobile phone for her birthday and evidently didn't understand the plan she paid for. To make a long story short, the daughter ran up a $1200 bill due to the massive amount of text messages sent. She couldn't pay the bill and had to go to another provider. I don't think that a 12 year old can really comprehend a $1200 cell phone bill for one month.

Up until now, I have been in the "no cell phone for kids" camp. BUT then I got to thinking after talking to several people. Here are some of their opinions on the subject.

• "A cell phone is the greatest leash I can have on my child. If I am calling they better answer and if they don't, it gets taken away."
• "In this day and age, I feel good that my child has a cell phone and can get in touch with me if they are in trouble."
• "My son is involved in a lot of school activities, he can call me when they are ready to come home or let me know what they are doing at any time."

Ok, fine. I can see where they are coming from. I guess I was stuck in the old school mindset that a cell phone was for conducting business. I just needed to shift my thinking and to look at cell phones as toys or objects of entertainment. I asked myself how a cell phone was different from walkie-talkies when I was a kid. Ahhhh, a monthly service fee you say. Ok, do we not subscribe to other monthly services for our kids? How about XBOX Live? That is another piece of technology or "toy" that we pony up big bucks for. I guess you can say that I am now seeing the light. See, you can teach an old dog new tricks.

However, the one thing that I still can't get past is kids having the phones in school. I have a couple of friends that are teachers. They say that it is pretty disruptive AND some industrious individuals have been caught texting the answers to tests. According the people that I have spoke with, most schools have rules regarding cell phone use on school property, yet it continues to be a problem. The last thing that our kids need are more distractions in school. Educators have a tough enough job teaching our children and we need to do everything in our power to help them with their jobs. This includes backing up the school when they enforce policy and take away cell phones.

So what's your thoughts on kids with cellphones? Do your kids have phones? What age do you think it is appropriate for children to venture into wonderful world of mobile madness?

 

The Meaning of Life

I was going to title this post "Britney Spears Doesn't Know What I Know" because I wanted to see if Britney still has the drawing power that she once did when I wrote the Britney Spears article a while back. That one was good for a nice little traffic spike. Obviously, I decided against the linkbait.

Anyway back to the actual meat of this post. I really don't know what the meaning of life is (in a philosophical sense), I haven't got it figured out yet. However, there are a few things that I have learned along the way that I don't mind sharing. They may not be profound or enlightening, but I think they are worth conveying. So here they are in no particular order.

1. Time always moves the slowest when you are sitting in church.
2. Time always move the fastest when you are with the love of your life (or when you are playing video games).
3. NEVER take a laxative and a sleeping pill at the same time.
4. Trust is earned
5. The only one you can count on to do the right thing is you.
6. Give 10, save 10 and live on the rest.
7. Do stuff with friends. Memories are built through adventure. No one ever reminisces about the time you were sitting in the recliner with the remote (unless of course you soiled yourself in the process).
8. Pick your battles.
9. Develop a passion for something.
10. Surround yourself with people that are smarter than you.

There you have it. I think I may be able to come up with another 10 but I will save those for another post.

So what have you discovered in life? Don't be shy, share with Big Pops.

 

Here's An Opinion Fer Ya.

Someone emailed this link to me. Take a few moments to review this video and let me know what you think about it. It seems that you never see anything that could be considered a strong opinion from anyone in the UK. However this gentleman has something to say.

I wonder how many people in the UK share his opinion but we just never hear about it.

Your thoughts?