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by William Homolka, Editor & CEO Since last November's election, many Americans are depressed and lack optimism for our future. Understandable. But gloom and doom accomplishes nothing except assuring the beholders of not being disappointed. What is happening under the radar is that American oil production is substantially up and growing. No, Obama did not become intelligent and gave the order to drill. What's happening is no thanks to his regime of American Bolsheviks, but the result of good ol' Yankee free enterprise whereby our oil companies are "fracking" out tons of oil on leased private lands. The states of North Dakota and Montana are booming! Texas, Pennsylvania, western New York, among other states are being drilled via a new technology called "fracking" - drilling vertically and then horizontally through shale formations and liberating trapped oil between layers of rock with the injection of water or gas under high pressure. The crude oil is separated from the water and mud and sent to the refinery for processing. We must stress: American oil production is up with no thanks to Obama. He's sent his EPA Gestapo Goons out to the fracking sites to sniff around, but so far there's not much he can do to stop the drilling since it's on private lands. The Left is starting to cry out that "fracking" contributes to pollution, but so far it is only their breaths doing the polluting. The U.S. Geological Service (that's a government agency) issued a report in April, 2008, which was revised and upgraded from original estimates in 1995, on how much oil was in the ground in western North Dakota, South Dakota and eastern Montana. This area called The Bakken is estimated to hold 3 to 4.4 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil, up from the old 1995 estimate of 151 million barrels of oil . The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates it at 503 billion barrels, where they conservatively estimate that 10% of the oil is recoverable - or about 5 billion barrels - which is close enough to the figures published by the U.S. Geological Service. Most of this oil is on privately owned land that the oil companies lease in order to drill. Also, in 2006, the Stansberry Report Online (4/20/2006) reported that "hidden 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the Rocky Mountains lies the largest untapped oil reserve in the world (emphasis added). It is more than 2 trillion barrels." To put this into perspective, we have more oil inside our borders than all the other proven reserves on earth (emphasis added). We have more oil inside our borders than all the proven reserves on earth: 8 times as much oil as Saudi Arabia; 18 times as much oil as Iraq; 21 times as much oil as Kuwait; 22 times as much oil as Iran! Unfortunately, most of this is on federal land. Additionally, along with the crude, comes loads of natural gas. What is coming is that some of this this natural gas will be converted to liquid natural gas (LNG) and used as a fuel in lieu of diesel by trucking fleets. This changover is already taking place as fleets such as Wal-Mart, Fed Ex and United Parcel are preparing their trucks to use LNG which is 50% cheaper than diesel fuel, and burns far cleaner with negligible pollution (sorry Lefties - can't cry pollution or global warming on this one!). LNG fueling stations are being planned along major interstate highways, so this infrastructure is being put into place now. At crude oil prices of $100 per barrel, the value of the oil that might be recovered from federally owned land is over $60 trillion. The public wealth embedded in our oil shale lands is staggering. The current national debt - staggering in itself - is about $16 trillion, or a little more than one fourth of the $60 trillion that might be derived from federally owned shale oil deposits. So, by developing this natural resource of ours, we can jump-start the economy with increased jobs, start lowering gas prices and become independent from OPEC, and pay off the national debt. And there are more Bakken formations located in Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York which means more oil! I don't know about you, but I am very excited and optimistic about this news and it's pretty much running, unstoppable, on its very own. We do, however, have to make a few changes in our country. Let me digress for a moment with the [maybe] third reason for optimism which is still in the process of unfolding. It's not likely that Obama will have a sudden change of heart and start to love America. So, his removal seems to be the only option. Our readers know about his fraudulent "birth certificates," his fraudulent social security number(s) which failed to pass e-Verify checks, and his fraudulent selective service application. This is all starting to catch up to him. Add to that the growing Benghazi scandel, Fast & Furious, his chummy relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood, etc., etc., and the fact that he is Constitutionally ineligible since he is not a natural-born citizen, and quite possibly not even a U.S. citizen. Forces are in motion to bring criminal charges against him. That's all we are at liberty to say at this point. We are praying for the best for our country and our countrymen. We'll keep our readers posted. Another "movement," which really isn't a movement, involves a segment of the American people who chose to be ambassadors of goodwill around the world. Personally, my wife and I are proud sponsors of this organization. What we do is financially sponsor children and elders in poor countries in order to help them raise themselves out of poverty. Our monthly contribution is small, but the returns are priceless. We, inadvertantly, are showing people in other countries the beauty, caring and generosity of the American people. Last month, we travelled to the Dominican Republic with a very special group of American sponsors. My wife and I sponsor five children there. These trips, or Mission Awareness Tours (called "MATS"), take us around the country into neighborhoods to actually visit the people in their homes and communities. I'm always touched by the enthusiasm displayed by the children and their families when we arrive, but perhaps it is the gratitude and hope I see from the elders that is most touching. I've experienced their joy in Chile, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic, and it never fails to bring tears to my eyes. These people see Americans first hand and on a personal basis. The bonding between us is indescribable. Two years ago, my wife and daughter went on a MAT to Guatemala. On that trip was a man who described himself as a Vietnam veteran. My wife told me that this man was crying every day as he met and bonded with the local children, their families and elders. I can understand his emotions being a veteran myself. War is a journey through hell that brings out some of the most negative emotions and experiences. The MAT experience is just the opposite: it is relations between human beings as they should be, and for someone who has gone through the hell that is war, the emotions experienced during a MAT are profound. Last summer, in Costa Rica, I visited a school for teenagers who, in spite of their poverty and difficult lives at home and in their communities tempted by crime and drugs, were excelling in school and were determined to succeed. Their personal stories, related in front of our group of sponsors, were touching and inspiring. Many cried as they related their stories to us, and I cried too. Outside, many saw my moist eyes and came over to hug me. The feelings were indescribable - it was the purest and most honest form of bonding between strangers one could ever hope to achieve. The same with the elders in these countries: I've rarely seen a happier, more content group of elderly people. I wish that I could have somehow packaged this experience or captured a video of it and sent it to the American Left, Obama, and Planned Parenthood. But then, they would never understand it. Never, perhaps since the Peace Corps, has there been anything like us who go out into these countries and bond with the local natives where we exchange so much joy, and give so much hope to people struggling with poverty. We cross ethnic, racial, and religious lines. Most of us are Caucasian middle class. One Caucasian couple will be assisting their sponsored youngster, a nineteen year old Haitian young man, with his college tuition. And the people in these countries are seeing that, with Americans, race is not an issue. We are part of a movement of nearly 300,000 American sponsors showing people around the world, first hand, who we are. We are the counter force to Obama and his apology tours that try to disparage America. But the children, families, elders and support staff - as well as the hotel staff and merchants who come in contact with us - who meet us are getting to know Americans first hand. And we're not the boogymen, warmongers, or selfish capitalists Obama is trying to make us out to be. On the contrary, we are showing the world that Americans are caring, generous, tolerant and helpful. And there's nothing that Obama can do about that. I am proud to be a part of this group, this organization, and being an American. It was an honor to have shared the company of the President and founder of this organization on our MAT to the Dominican Republic, along with his lovely wife. One day, I casually asked him if, during the past decades of their operation, if anyone had nominated him for the Noble Peace Prize. He smiled and replied, "Not that I know of!" I wondered out loud that, "How is it that this man has been serving humanity for decades without some sort of formal recognition, and Barack Obama was given a Noble Prize for doing nothing?" Clearly, there are many things that must be rearranged in this world to restore sanity again. Anyone interested in learing more about us can click on the link below. Until next time, take care and keep the faith. http://www.hopeforafamily.org |
Rather than reinvent the wheel, when we discover an article covering a subject we can't improve upon, we print it with full credits. This one which appeared in our colleagues' publication, Tea Party Nation , is superb and confers full honors upon the "Iron Lady." The Slacker/Stoner Culture Versus Margaret Hilda Roberts by Robert J. Mack Copyright 2013. All rights reserved Our current culture in America is dominated by a slacker/stoner mentality, meaning one that endorses self-indulgence, self-aggrandizement, and self-centeredness surrounded by the haze and odor of a pungent hallucinogenic weed. This can be seen every minute of every day in the media, especially the social media. The fact that we have Facebook and Twitter is a glaring example of the glorification of the self to the exclusion of everything else . Over 615 million people use Facebook on a daily basis, many but not all writing about the mundane aspects of their lives. Do I really want to know what you had for breakfast this morning? Apparently, many millions do. As far as the odiferous haze is concerned, Washington state and Colorado citizens, in their stoner wisdom, have legalized marijuana in 2012, making marijuana legal for adults over 21 and establishing regulations for businesses to cultivate and sell the addictive plants. Similar legislation has been introduced in 2013 in Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Vermont are expected to introduce the same kind of legislation soon. The U.S. is rapidly becoming a country of confused thinking and limited ability. On the inflated ego front, Hollywood and TV, cash cows for the politically liberal elite, contain glowing examples of self-appointed "stars" who expect everyone to give them everything because they are beautiful, desirable, and because, damn it, they are "stars." The Keeping Up With the Kardashians show on cable TV is all you have to say to demonstrate the narcissistic arrogance of our culture. That show, no surprise, is one of the most watched on TV. And the Kardashian family has an estimated (Trust Advisor) net worth of 80 million dollars. Recent movies about this slacker/stoner mentality abound and are widely acclaimed. Knocked Up , a 2009 movie by Judd Apatow, is a perfect example. Although, the main character transforms his ways at the end, his life as an irresponsible marijuana enthusiast hanging out with his stoned and enabling buddies permeates most of the film. The monetary success of the Harold and Kumar movies and the recent accolades for the movie Ted are also indicative of the public's love of slackers and stoners. On a political level, the media success of the 2011 Occupy Wall Street (OWS) demonstrations indicate that we are cruising toward a brave new world in which the "entitled" will outnumber the culture's and economy's producers. The producers (called derisively "the one percent" by OWS followers) can be robbed and raped (it happened at various OWS demonstrations across the country) and terrorized (just ask the people who reside in downtown New York City who had to live with the filth and ear-splitting music) and brought down in any way possible. It harkens back to the anarchists at the early part of the twenthieth century. They were similarly ideologically stupid and more dangerous, having exploded a bomb at the front entrance of the New York Stock Exchange on September 16, 1920, which killed 38 people and injured 400. Even though OWS is leaderless and has been silent for more than a year, give the OWS people time, and they may outdo the anarchists. At least we know that there are plenty of "99 percenters," in name only, in the media and in the White House who are encouraging them to spew their hate and demonstrate their despicable behavior, media mogul Russell Simmons (current estimated net worth 340 million dollars) being just one of the multi-millionaire hypocrites who do that. And yet, there is another way, a way that is diametrically opposed to the OWS and slacker/stoner crowd. That way has already been shown to be a success, and it was embodied in one fearless and magnificent leader who bravely showed that way to the world. Her name was Margaret Hilda Roberts, a woman born in Grantham in the eastern part of England in 1925 who married Denis Thatcher and took his last name in 1951. As a member of the Conservative Party, she won a seat as an MP from Finchley, north London, in 1959 when Harold Macmillan and the Conservatives came to power. She advocated and advanced the virtues of self-sufficiency, self-reliance, and self-support, and she wanted to make sure that her countrymen practiced them because if they didn't, she knew that not only would they fail miserably but that the country she loved would as well. She knew about those virtues having grown up in an apartment above a grocer's shop, her father's, and having to work in that shop on a daily basis for what she got. She worked hard, too, to obtain her degree in chemistry from Oxford on a scholarship in 1947 and a law degree from the Inns of Court School of Law in 1953, a school whose alumni include four British Prime Ministers. No one gave her these credentials or honors or bequeathed them to her. She earned them. She became the leader of the Conservative Party in 1975, the first woman to hold that position, and the first to hold the leadership of a major political party in Britain. In a speech that year she said: "A man's right to work as he will, to spend what he earns, to own property, to have the state as servant and not as master, they are the essence of a free economy, and on that freedom all other freedoms depend. She became the first woman Prime Minister of Great Britain in 1979 and won three elections in a row as such. As Prime Minister for little over 11-1/2 years, here is her remarkable record: * When she took office, Britain was an economic mess. Here is author Adam Daifallah's article called The world needs more Thatchers publishd in Canada's National Post of April 8: "Thatcher came to power during a period known as the Winter of Discontent. It seemed all of Britain was on strike. Wages were stagnant, garbage was not collected and unionized grave diggers left the dead to rot in the sun. Out of this chaos, Thatcher inspired her sometimes reluctant party and the whole nation to follow her down a different path.... Her 11-year premiership challenged and successfully reversed the decline that had plagued the UK since the end of World War II." She curbed inflation, cut taxes, and increased home ownership. The Wall Street Journal of April 8 wrote: "During Mrs. Thatcher's decade in power, the economy grew at an average annual rate of 2.46%, above the 2.1% average in the troubled 1970s but lower than some European peers, including Germany and France. Unemployment was 7.5% when she left, in 1990, up from 5.3% in the quarter she took office in 1979. 'On macroeconomic policy, the record was patchy, but the theme throughout had been pro-business, pro-market,' which laid the foundation for later successes, said Ken Clarke, a minister in the current government, who was in Mrs. Thatcher's cabinet throughout her time in power and became Treasury chief under her Conservative successor, John Major." * Under her premership, large segments of the British economy were transferred from state control to private ownership including Jaguar, Rolls Royce, national utilities, and British Airways. Many of those privatizations resulted in more economically viable companies; namely, they became profitable. Her legacy prevailed: When the Labour Party finally gained power in 1997, Prime Minister Tony Blair and his party were forced to end their commitment to nationalized industries and had to embrace free-markets; by the end of 2009, state-run industries accounted for only 2% of the U.K. economy compared with 10% in 1979. * She deregulated Britain's financial industry. Here, again, is The Wall Street Journal of April 8: "Her deregulation of the financial industry helped turn London from an increasingly obsolete financial center into a rival to Wall Street. Known as the 'Big Bang,' for the many changes made at once, the 1987 deregulation moved trading from the floor to electronic screens and blew away barriers to entry, bringing in bankers and businesses from around the world." * Along with Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II, among others (most notably Lech Walesa of Poland and Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic), she was instrumental in the winning of the Cold War and the liberation of millions of Eastern Europeans from the oppression of the USSR without firing a shot. They challenged the moral legitimacy of the evil empire and won. Mikhail Gorbachev, president of the Soviet Union, eventually capitulated to their hard bargaining. Due to her remembrances as a teenager of the brutality of the Nazis during World War II published in the papers she read at that time and the stories of a young Austrian Jewish girl who lived with her family then, Thatcher despised totalitarianism of every stripe. So, in her first meeting with Gorbachev, she told him: "Welcome to the United Kingdom. I want our relationship to get off to a good start, and to make sure there is no misunderstanding between us - I hate Communism." On his website after her passing, Gorbachev wrote this: "Thatcher was a politician whose words carried big weight....In the end we managed to achieve mutual understanding, and this was a contribution to the changing atmosphere between our country and the West, and to the end of the Cold War." * She tried but failed to keep Britain out of the European Union (EU), and after her premiership, bemoaned its entry into that organization. In her book, Statecraft , published in 2002, she characterized the European Union as "perhaps the greatest folly of the modern era." Subsequent challenges to Britain's sovereignty as a nation and to her laws by the EU have proven her prescient and right. Thatcher did, however, succeed in stopping the conversion of the British monetary system to the Euro, which prevented Britain from being responsible for EU economic calamities and bailouts such as the current debts of EU members Greece and Cyprus. * As a commander of Britain's armed forces, she conducted and won the 1982 Falklands War and re-established British resolve and its place in the world. Right after the victory, Thatcher said: "We have ceased to be a nation in retreat." In 1987, she exclaimed: "We have raised Britain in the respect of the world from what it was - broke, bankrupt, unwilling to defend itself properly. We have, I think, transformed Britain." Ken Allard, retired Army colonel and former NBC News military analyst, in an April 10 Washington Times article entitled The Iron Lady's steel resolve wrote this at the end of it concerning her conduct in the Falkland's War: "Lady Thatcher's example should remind us of the elegant simplicity that international conflict is not about gamesmanship and moral philosophy: It is instead a street fight with clear winners and losers." * She broke the back of the coal miners' union in 1984 and saved Britain from the ravages of trade-union socialism. She famously declared: "The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money." * Margaret Thatcher was a true friend of America and supported vigorously the "special relationship" between the two countries. In 1986, she permitted U.S. warplanes to fly from British bases to bomb Libya, and she sent ships, tanks, and troops to fight against Iraq in the first Gulf War, but had resigned before the fighting took place in 1991. More than anything, Margaret Thatcher earned the respect of those who value free-market capitalism and entrepreneurship as the way out of poverty and despair and individual freedom as the antidote to state-sponsored tyranny. When she became Prime Minister in 1979, Britain's trade unions ran the country, being strong enough to destroy political party leaders. In addition, Britains's key industries were state-owned and failing. When she resigned 11-1/2 years later, her principles concerning free-market economics, lower taxes, and deregulated financial markets had been adopted across the nation's political spectrum. Respect for Margaret Thatcher, as in her glory days as prime minister, was only shown by those who know the meaning of the word and the value of what she stood for and what she accomplished. Criticism didn't faze her. She once said: "If you set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing." As for moving to the middle to settle, she often said that those who stood in the middle of the road risked getting hit by traffic coming both ways. In one of her last public appearances in 2007 when she unveiled a statue of herself in the House of Commons, the Iron Lady (a nickname coined by the Soviets) quipped: "I might have preferred iron, but bronze will do." There can be no greater contrast than her life and her positive impact on the world and the corrosive influences of the slacker/stoner culture. The ideological buffoons on the Left, who wouldn't know a principle or virtue or valuable result if it smacked them upside the head, predictably and insolently held parties and danced in the streets at the announcement of her death. But it is for the decent and the intelligent and the lovers of individual freedom and responsibility to mourn her passing and to celebrate her life. She is now with her dear friend Ronald Reagan and her hero Winston Churchill, three extraordinary statesmen who saved and transformed this world for the betterment of humanity. Editor's Note: Our fearless leader, the so-called annointed one, chose not to attend the funeral of Lady Thatcher or send a delegation in his stead. Apparently golf or fund raising took precedence. No matter; his presence there would have been gauche and inappropriate. Lady Thatcher would not have missed him at all. |
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