Energy from Shale

Frontier Drilling fracking unit in Deadhorse Canyon in the land of Thelma and Louise

Have you traveled around the Rocky Mountain area lately?

This summer I had the distinct priviledge of visiting many states in the Mountain time zone.  I saw beauty beyond belief. The western lands of United States of America continued to mesmerize me on my journey with its unsurpassed varied beauty and incredible natural resources.

From Nebraska to Montana to Utah to New Mexico, I saw not only the obvious: the expansive sand hills of western Nebraska, the towering Bitterroot mountains of Montana, the magical canyons of southern Utah, the stunning high desert sky of New Mexico and everything in between.  I also saw hundreds of what is pictured above: drilling stations. 

These drilling stations known as hydraulic fracturing units dotted the western landsape seemingly everywhere I traveled.  These units are drilling way down under almost 5,000 to 10,000 feet to shale rock that is the imprisoned home of huge reserves of natural gas and petroleum. Simply, the 'fracking'  technique is used to release natural gas and petroleum from the shale rock layer. 

The fracking process introduces high pressure water and sand inside a double-encased concrete steel lined pipe casings that "frees" the oil and the gas from the shale layer. The oil and gas is then returned to the surface for collection, transport and refinement. Presently, there are over 500,000 active wells in the United States extracting oil and gas from deep inside the earth.  Supposedly, there is a 100 plus year supply of natural gas reserves buried in shale for generations of Americans.  In fact, presently, there is a glut of natural gas that has caused prices to collapse and its revenues to erode. However, amidst this overabundance of energy produced in our own country, fracking appears to be a growth industry for years to come unless the government shuts it down.

The opposition to fracking comes from the liberal anti-using of natural resources Green Party.  They oppose on reasons ranging from water aquifer contamination to release of methane gas into the atmosphere.   The drilling industry has been drilling these wells for over 60 years and to date there is no evidence of aquifer poisoning from hydraulic fracturing.

Little did I know that after viewing these vertical drill rigs in the open spaces of western America, they were producing the lion's share of usuable energy for our country. With very little visual annoyance above ground, they work miles into the earth securing much needed energy independence from the volatile Middle East.  Let us hope our government continues to allow the safe and efficient energy drilling throughout our country for years to come.

Lord knows we need to be free from the chains of the Mideast and continued fracking is part of the solution.

Obama's Mulligan

The Duffer in Chief, "fore...more years"

In an interview with NBC's Matt Lauer on February 1, 2009, newly-elected President Barack Obama said to the adoring Mr. Lauer that it was up to him to turn the economy around in the next three years and if not he doesn't deserve a second term.

Obama to Lauer:

"Yeah, look, I'm at the start of my administration. One nice thing about the situation I find myself in is that I will be held accountable.  I've got four years. If I don't have this done in three years, then there's going to be a one term proposition."

Fast forward to NOW, here are the alarming Obama numbers for the last 3 plus years:

• 2%, US economic growth remains anemic
• 8% plus, 43 straight months of the highest sustained unemployment numbers since the thirties
• 15 million, underemployed working two jobs to stay alive 
• 55%, of College Graduates cannot find work and/or are underemployed
• $5 trillion plus AND GROWING, has been added to the debt column in 3.5 years, "fiscal cliff" looms, every family owes $55,000 on $16 TRILLION and GROWING
• $743 BILLION, the interest alone on US Debt per year and GROWING.
• 1%,  pays 37% of all income taxes while 50% pay none
• QE3, the FED is days away from a panic buy of billion $ asset purchases to jump start a stalled economy
• $1 in $6, owned by the FED, largest % of GDP in history
• 80.4%, federal debt to GDP ratio under Obama's budget in two years, double since 2008
• 40%, less net worth for taxpayers
• $4 gallon, for gas at the pump
• 1st S&P credit downgrade in 70 years, with threats of more downgrades with no federal budget deal in play
• 22%, of all residential properties remain "underwater", homeowners owe more than what home is worth
• $1 earned on revenue for every $3 spent by government
• 46 million, citizens of food stamps and Americans living in poverty, 16% of the population

If this President was authentic and true to his words as stated to Mr. Lauer, he would not even vote for himself based on his own pathetic record. But no, this narcissistic left wing international man of mystery, Barack Obama, wants another term so he can "finish the job".  Finish what job?  To file Chapter 11 for the entire country!  OMG. And you know what?  There are relatives and neighbors of all of ours who voted for him 4 years ago based on hope and change and will vote for him again in November because of that slick tongue, killer smile, cocksure gait and sleazeball politics regardless of his glaring ineptitude. Fool them once shame on Obama.  Fool them twice shame on them.  

As showman P.T. Barnum stated in the 1890's, "there's a sucker born every minute", and this country seems to have an over-abundance and patent on suckers aka "dupes", "fools".  Suckers who believe in Obama's vacuous claptrap and those who suck voraciously without conscience from the public trough. 

Are there more suckers out there than doers?  President Obama thinks so.  Suckers are his main constituency.  Suckers may give him four more years. That's why he's running so hard for a second term. We'll find out on November 6.  May God help us all!

WAKE UP  51% or more of AMERICA BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!

PC Hits the Boondocks

 Water Closet "WC" in the Rocky Mountains

OMG,  Political Correctness "PC" in the Rockies too!

WARNING: A true potty story ahead

Sadly, the liberal contagion of political correctness infecting every corner of our United States has now come to the remotest of the boondocks, sticks, hinterlands.

I was recently hiking in a remote part of the Rockies and came upon a welcome site, an indoor potty.  'Doing your business' outside loses its magic very quickly and finding a structure with a roof over your head in the wilds is a luxury of sorts.

As I gleefully approached the wc, I was flummoxed at the head scratching sign on the entrance to the potty: Biological Conversion System, Please No Trash!  Is this a potty or a laboratory? After opening the door, I found our that in fact it was a potty, smelled like a potty but was publicly sanitized by a rather ridiculous entry name, Biological Conversion System.

This wc ceased being a bathroom in my mind but a "biological conversion system."  So, I bought into the new lexicon and released my "biology" into the descending sphere of darkness and then pondered on the potty how far adrift we have become in sterilizing innocent words that used to mean something into language nonsense whose intent is in being safe instead of being real.  And for what?  Made me think of the 'bastardization' of other words or phrases in our vocab into creatures of political glossary re-engineering.  Here are some of those words and phrases from the simple past and now with their modern foggy obfuscations and plunderings:

FAT   now,  obese
GARBAGE MAN  now,  sanitary engineer
GHETTO  now,  economically disadvantaged area
ILLEGAL ALIENS now,  undocumented immigrants
JUNGLE now,  rainforest
HEAT WAVE now,  global warming
SECRETARY now,  administrative assistant
TRAILER PARK  now,  mobile home community
WHITE TRASH, still the same but God forbid if you use the N word
FOUNDING FATHERS,  now,  the founders
BUM, now,  homeless person
BROKEN HOME, now,  dysfunctional family
MERRY CHRISTMAS, now,  Happy Holidays
CHRISTMAS TREE, now, holiday tree
BC (BEFORE CHRIST) and AD (ANNO DOMINI), now, before common and common areas
EASTER EGGS, now, spring spheres

and the number 1 and 2 candidates for political antiseptic silliness are:

LESBIANS, HOMOSEXUALS AND QUEERS, now,  gay (a tragic takeover of such a fine word. When is the last time you heard, I had a gay time?)
BLACKS, now,  African Americans (I'm white but the politicos don't label me an Irish American)

So, after digesting that strange interlude in the biological conversion system structure, I continued on my trail journey and was enlightended by the reality that my hike became so much more complicated and correct than just walking on a path to somewhere but a non-specifically ambulatory exercise to mitigate individual obesity on governmental wildlands.