Drill baby, drill ... ?

We've got the natural resources, as news articles point out - including the "Bakken" and loads of natural gas, and coal, etc. too. All we have to do is get it out of the ground (at around $16/barrel) right? Wish it were that simple.

One of (the many, many) problems (besides global warming - which is a big one in itself) is "contracts" made by our country many years ago (notwithstanding the current day contracts by corporate America like AIG and the derivatives security bundling commissions still being paid with our tax dollars). Sadly, it is those "Free Trade Contracts" .... "fast tracked" contracts ... contracts which cannot be guided by or negated by Congress or the current President ... contracts which are now irrevocable by any authority residing in our country ... unless the whole world essentially "defaults" (which would probably not be a good thing for mankind). What a mess we have made! And here we are ... stuck ... in our own mess.

But the reality is that OPEC (who has oil AND loads of money, Russia, and Iran + others (who have oil), and China (who have loads of money and are industrializing at the speed of light) have the ability (through unimpeachable "Free Trade" agreements) to "bid up" the price of every drop of oil we can produce here - any time they want to - and there is nothing we can do about it (with perhaps an exception).

We can convert our energy supplies to alternative fuels (wind, solar, nuclear, carbon captured coal production etc., which are all impractical to export (or way too costly to other countries to be exported). We can use these resources to power America, export the technology, and get our country back on sound financial footings (while at the same time slowing global warming and protecting our natural resources and environment). The solutions are immensely complex. For every "pro" there is a "con". For every right, there is a wrong.

We, politically and collectively, have no idea what it might take to make all of us happy, content, and secure ... except for the grace of God. It seems to me that we each know with great certainty what we don't like, what makes us angry, what scares us, and the sources of our discontent. And as of yet, ... we have not developed our collective "ability" to compromise, to check our anger at the door, to embrace "good will", to nourish compassion for others "not like us", to love our neighbors and "the least of these, our brethren". I don't know, it may not even be possible. It certainly is hard to imagine such a world these days, though I have at various times in my life felt there was great reason to hope ... More often than not, ... I still do.

And so, whenever I hear, or see, or am "advised" that something should make me "mad" - the real effect on me ... is that it actually makes me sad, ... and yes, there is a fleeting "twinge" of anger and frustration that quickly turns to just ... a flatline disappointment.

And yet again, I'm still a news junkie ... hoping (sometimes against hope) that the news ... will be good.