Jalpuna! | Fuel And Futility

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Fuel And Futility

I live in one of the most mass transit friendly cities in America. I live in a city where people walk. I live in a city where people bike to work. But even here in Portland, cars are still by far the norm. That's fine. But as gas prices climb higher and higher & we find ourselves in a war that's really more about oil than weapons of mass destruction, there's still little change on our part.

Take a look at the other cars when you're on the road and you'll see they're mostly filled with one person - the driver only. So much for carpooling.
Bus & light rail ridership has probably increased less than 2% since the price of gas climbed over $2 a gallon. So much for mass transit.
As of today, you cannot buy an American made car that doesn't run on gas. Hybrids are on the way - but even here, foreign automakers are leading the way. Worse still, there's very little demand for them. Their total sales next year is predicted to be less than 01% of all car sales in the U.S. So much for moving away from dependence on foreign oil.

Not only are we not moving away from our dependence on oil - demand for it is increasing here in the U.S. and exploding worldwide. Look at these pictures and see if you can spot a local problem:

Here's a hint: I took those pictures three years ago in China. As capitalism takes hold in the planet's most highly populated country, roads are filled with cars where they'd previously been filled with bikes. The price of gas in Portland Oregon will keep going up as demand increases in places like Beijing, Xi'an and Guangzhou, China. Guess what's happening in India, Africa, and... well... just about everywhere else?

So - what are we doing about it? Nothing.

There's little to no demand for more mass transit. Los Angeles is the second largest city in the U.S. and its mass transit is piss poor. Houston is our fourth largest city, and its mass transit is even worse.
There's little to no demand for hybrid vehicles. Right now there's not a single American carmaker with a hybrid for sale. "They're on the way." why weren't they on the way ten years ago?
There's little to no demand for alternative sources of energy... but man oh man, we can't get enough of that middle eastern oil.

And speaking of middle eastern oil - how goes the war in Iraq? Talk about a lesson in futility.

3,000+ people died on September 11th as airplanes became weapons and skyscrapers fell to the ground in New York City. As if there's anyone who doesn't know that.

Meanwhile, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft says: "disturbing intelligence indicates al Qaeda's specific intention to hit the United States hard,"

Really? I had no idea. It's a good thing we've been so focussed on Iraq then, isn't it? Right - except that Iraq had nothing to do with Al Qaeda until WE turned it into an Al Qaeda breeding ground. Well that was a good plan, wasn't it? Now, we're locked in a quagmire of our president's making while Al Qaeda recruits. We should have been focussed on defeating Al Qaeda. Instead, we've strengthened it.

We know Al Qaeda is beefing up it's resources while our attention is elsewhere, and we know that Al Qaeda is using Iraq as a way to recruit, under the guise that the war is really against Islam.

I simply cannot fathom how Iraq became more urgent than Al Qaeda. Maybe after the next attack on American soil we will put our focus back where it belongs.

Dependence on foreign oil is IGNORANT.
Losing our focus on fighting terrorism is ASSENINE.
Regime change begins at HOME.