Fear

I just can't let this one go. I was in an email discussion a long while back. We were discussing the war in Iraq, terrorism and so on. Then someone said "Be afraid is good, The bottom line up front. If we as a people are not safe and secure in our lives, then nothing else matters." I don't want to be deliberately obtuse, so I am sure the original intent the author was going for was coming from more of a survivalist attitude. And that goes more along the lines of someone is trying to kill us, so we need to defend ourselves. So you put up the fences, buy the guns, and question everyone in the neighborhood passing through. The intent is that you can use fear as a tool to inspire better protection. Protection and security is the goal, so if fear is the tool to get it, then fine.

The problem I have is just that I don't like the idea of fear being the source of anything. It's almost like a politician taking bribe money to spend it on helping the homeless. Sure it's a good cause, but you took a bribe. It's tainted money, and now your honor is forever tainted. That's the real basics of why you can never do evil so that good may result from it. It's why the fellowship can't use the One Ring to fight Sauron. And because fear is most often used as a tool of manipulation, anyone that causes or benefits from fear is someone I don't trust.

Here is a random selection of quotes about fear that I found...

* Nothing is more despicable than respect based on fear
* Fear is not the natural state of civilized people
* Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd
* Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live
* The most destructive element in the human mind is fear. Fear creates aggressiveness
* Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem to be more afraid of life than death
* Worry gives a small thing a big shadow
* If a man harbors any sort of fear, it ... makes him landlord to a ghost
* Hate is the consequence of fear; we fear something before we hate it; a child who fears noises becomes a man who hates noise
* He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life
* Ultimately we know deeply that the other side of every fear is a freedom
* Ignorance is the mother of fear
* No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices
* Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets
* Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely
* The wise man in the storm prays God, not for safety from danger, but for deliverance from fear
* We fear things in proportion to our ignorance of them
* There is nothing to fear except the persistent refusal to find out the truth, the persistent refusal to analyze the causes of happenings
* Only thing we have to fear, is fear itself
* Remember that we are not descended from fearful men
* You see what power is - holding someone else's fear in your hand and showing it to them
* Fear is the tax that conscience pays to guilt

After reading a lot of fear quotes, I found two things to be true about almost all of them. First fear is the enemy and is to be Conquered. Two, fear comes from ignorance. I don't find quotes, proverbs, or bits of wisdom that say fear is good, fear is used to do good, or that fear is anything other than something that needs to be overcome.

I don't understand the fear of the borders. None of the hijackers snuck in through a hole in the fence from Mexico. None of them came from Iraq, or Afghanistan. But because of fear, we got the Patriot act. From fear we have a near insane TSA checkpoint at the airports. We have military units acting as border patrol. We have immigration checkpoints inside our borders (remember probable cause?) The TV tells me all the time that terrorist want to spread terror. If that's the case, then hasn't the goal been achived? Has anyone asked how we got along just fine without a Department of Homeland Security? Why do we need one now? "The threat is real" I'm told. "You haven't seen the things I've seen", or "I have a friend in the super secret government agency and it's a real threat". Wheather deserved or not, the Isralies live under constant threat of attack (from people with a legitimate grievance against them), yet people still get married, go to the store, go clubbing, and just live life.

If no other point is taken or understood, then just take this. Fear is the enemy of liberty. You can't be both free and fearful, but you can be free from fear.

Foreign Oil

I recently got into a little bit of an argument about foreign oil with my dad as we were waiting for lunch. We did not get into it very far because lunch came, and I gotta eat! The basic argument from my dad was that the United States should not import so much oil. We should use the abundant oil in our own country instead. We should be drilling ANWAR. If we didn't have to import the oil from war torn areas, then oil would not cost so much.

It's been burning me up that I wasn't ready to argue this, and that lunch came so I didn't get to really dig into this subject. Also, my mom and my kids were at the table so the discussion wasn't really something for everyone. This was something to be done over rum and coke after dinner out on the porch, or the back deck of a boat.

#1 Collectivism speak and the free market
Something I like about Free Talk Live was the awareness of collectivist speech. "We" don't import oil. But who really does? Does the United States really import oil? Last I checked the US has not nationalized it's oil companies. Therefore, it's the companies that import the oil not the country. This is very important to think of it this way (besides being the truth) because when you look at what's important to the companies, they don't care about nationality or nation pride (patriotism). They care about profit and running a business. In fact, they are a corporation which means by law they must care about making money for their share holders (something like that). In this light, we might understand that the oil companies are going to import from where it's cheap to do so. The United States doesn't import oil, the oil companies do. The US buys oil from these companies. There is a middleman that is very often overlooked, but must be taken into account.

#2 Oil Imports
When most people think of foreign oil, they think that we are slaves to whims of the Middle East because the oil comes from this region. That is not actually true. In fact, most of the oil imports come from Canada and Mexico, not the middle east. (REF)

#3 ANWAR is the answer
Actually, -MATH- is the answer. The US demand for oil is 20,000,000 barrels a day. Just for fun, let's assume we can hit the project 780,000 barrels per day projection for ANWAR oil. That' about 4% of CURRENT demand. 4% of the current gas price of $4.00 a gallon, is a savings of $0.16 a gallon. But that does not take into account the time it takes to build the drilling and pipeline infrastucture putting production out to ~2018. The fact that production ramps up, then slides down giving it a nice curve on a chart. The 780,000 barrels a day figure is the peak production, not the begining or end. The oil company that would be in ANWAR would need to recoup it's cost for drilling in such a remote location. They also need to transport that oil, and then refine that oil. That $0.16 a gallon savings gets eaten up pretty quick. Don't forget that projected demand is still going to rise.

#4 Is it the refineries?
Oil companies already said it's not the supply it's lack of refineries. They've been saying this since Katrina. If we get more oil, but can't refine it does the price change? You can't blame the price on lack of refineries and then say that more supply is going to do something about the price.

I read a good piece on ANWAR and how it WOULD reduce the cost of oil even in the near term. When I read it, I actually agree with it. It's from the Mises institute and you can find it here. If I read it correctly, it's saying that what driving up the price of oil is the speculation that we have peaked production and that oil is going to become more scarce. By drilling ANWAR we have more future oil therefore driving down speculation which affects us currently. The only real answer is to simply to learn our lesson and find (and use) an energy source that isn't finite.

PVC Summer Yard Toy

IMG_1917
Originally uploaded by Qfamily.

I saw someone else did this on the Internet and just figured I'd give it a go. It was really easy and the total construction time was like 20 minutes. I needed a little help from the guy at Lowe's to get the 3/4 inch PVC pipe to attach to a 5/8 inch hose.

This is really good compared to using a sprinkler because it barely uses any water (in comparison). The kids can just run through it all they want.

If I could do this again, I would attach the hose on the side instead of on the end. I also might want to drill a couple of holes on the sides to have some side spray, but that might mess up the water pressure on the top pipe.

Day 14: Almost hurled

Day 14: Almost hurled
Originally uploaded by Qfamily.

I did my Monday PT test. I did better on pushups and situps, but got worse on the run. I think it was because it was hot and humid. I just couldn't catch my breath.

Also my morning weigh in was 207, but my end of day weight is at 203. Not sure what that's all about.

Scores:
pushups: 26
situps: 42
run: 20:59

I have to say that my half mile was just over 4 minutes. 1 mile was about 8 minutes. 1.5 mile was 14 minutes. Then on the final lap I ran till I nearly threw up.

Day 11: Painting

Day 11: Painting
Originally uploaded by Qfamily.

I got most of the trim painted today. I decided to not complete the paint job and join the family for a cookout.

Day 10: Hand walking practice

Day 10: Hand walking practice
Originally uploaded by Qfamily.

Before I can walk, I have to stand. Standing is hard!