The World Protests Against Israel

[pfife]

Carter offered up a road map of sorts. I used it as an example of what you could do besides just flap your gums.

at least you gave me the choice of accepting an argument that isn't mine this time.

 

[pfife]

I've always said becoming oil independent so they couldn't fund terrorists is a security issue.

The flip side of that is that we lose influence we've got because we fund them with our demand for oil. Not that I necessarily agree with this, and feel oil independence is a good thing, but I thought this was an interesting article... just some food for thought.

The Seven Myths of Energy Independence

Myth #1
Energy Independence Is Good

On February 1, 2006, Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington, arrived at the White House in a state of agitation. The night before, in his State of the Union address, President Bush had declared the United States to be "addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world." He had announced plans to "break this addiction" by developing alternatives—including a multibillion-dollar subsidized ramp-up of biofuels—and had boldly stated that by 2025, America could cut imports from Gulf states by three-quarters and "make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past." "I was taken aback," Prince Faisal later told cnn, "and I raised this point with government officials."

Two years on, anyone who's been to a gas station or a grocery store knows the prince had very little to worry about. Despite supposedly bold initiatives such as last year's Energy Independence and Security Act, America is no freer from foreign oil: Since 2006, imports have remained steady at about 13 million barrels every day, while the price for each of those barrels has jumped by $30. And though federal efforts to encourage biofuel production have significantly boosted output, our heavily subsidized ethanol refiners now use so much corn (closing in on a third of the total crop) that prices for all grains have soared, sparking inflation here at home and food riots abroad.

Okay, so maybe ethanol's critics are right, and turning food into fuel isn't the smartest way to wean ourselves from imported oil. But the deeper lesson here isn't that Washington backed the wrong weapon in the war for energy independence, but that most policymakers—and Americans generally—still think "energy independence" is a goal we can, or should, achieve. Nine in ten voters say the country is too dependent on foreign crude. Every major presidential hopeful formulated some kind of strategy for energy liberation (Rudy Giuliani unveiled his at a nascar race), and between 2001 and 2006 the number of media references to "energy independence" jumped by a factor of eight.

And on the surface, the argument seems solid. Imported oil, some 60 percent of the oil we use, exposes our economy and politics to stresses halfway around the world (bin Laden calls it "the umbilical cord and lifeline of the crusader community"). It also increases our already massive trade imbalance, which must be corrected by ever-greater federal borrowing, and funnels tens of billions of dollars to the likes of Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Venezuela—countries that are unfriendly and, in some cases, actively anti-American. What's not to like about energy independence?

In a word, everything. Despite its immense appeal, energy independence is a nonstarter—a populist charade masquerading as energy strategy that's no more likely to succeed (and could be even more damaging) than it was when Nixon declared war on foreign oil in the 1970s. Not only have we no realistic substitute for the oceans of oil we import, but many of the crash programs being touted as a way to quickly develop oil replacements—"clean coal," for example, or biofuels—come at a substantial environmental and political cost. And even if we had good alternatives ready to deploy—a fleet of superefficient cars, say, or refineries churning out gobs of cheap hydrogen for fuel cells—we'd need decades, and great volumes of energy, including oil, to replace all the cars, pipelines, refineries, and other bits of the old oil infrastructure—and thus decades in which we'd depend on oil from our friends in Riyadh, Moscow, and Caracas. Paradoxically, to build the energy economy that we want, we're going to lean heavily on the energy economy that we have.

None of which is exactly news. Thoughtful observers have been trying to debunk energy independence since Nixon's time. And yet the dream refuses to die, in no small part because it offers political cover for a whole range of controversial initiatives. Ethanol refiners wave the banner of independence as they lobby Congress for massive subsidies. Likewise for electric utilities and coal producers as they push for clean coal and a nuclear renaissance. And it shouldn't surprise that some of the loudest proponents of energy liberation support plans to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other off-limits areas to oil drilling—despite the fact that such moves would, at best, cut imports by a few percentage points. In the doublespeak of today's energy lexicon, says Julia Bovey of the Natural Resources Defense Council, "'energy independence' has become code for 'drill it all.'"

Yet it isn't only the hacks for old energy and Archer Daniels Midland who are to blame. Some proponents of good alternatives like solar and wind have also harped on fears of foreign oil to advance their own sectors—even though many of these technologies are decades away from being meaningful oil replacements.

Put another way, the "debate" over energy independence is not only disingenuous, it's also a major distraction from the much more crucial question—namely, how we're going to build a secure and sustainable energy system. Because what America should be striving for isn't energy independence, but energy security—that is, access to energy sources that are reliable and reasonably affordable, that can be deployed quickly and easily, yet are also safe and politically and environmentally sustainable. And let's not sugarcoat it. Achieving real, lasting energy security is going to be extraordinarily hard, not only because of the scale of the endeavor, but because many of our assumptions about energy—about the speed with which new technologies can be rolled out, for example, or the role of markets—are woefully exaggerated. High oil prices alone won't cure this ill: We're burning more oil now than we were when crude sold for $25 a barrel. Nor will Silicon Valley utopian*ism: Thus far, most of the venture capital and innovation is flowing into status quo technologies such as biofuels. And while Americans have a proud history of inventing ourselves out of trouble, today's energy challenge is fundamentally different. Nearly every major energy innovation of the last century—from our cars to transmission lines—was itself built with cheap energy. By contrast, the next energy system will have to contend with larger populations and be constructed using far fewer resources and more expensive energy.

So it's hardly surprising that policymakers shy away from energy security and opt instead for the soothing platitudes of energy independence. But here's the rub: We don't have a choice. Energy security is nonnegotiable, a precondition for all security, like water or food or defense. Without it, we have no economy, no progress, no future. And to get it, we'll not only have to abandon the chimera of independence once and for all, but become the very thing that many of us have been taught to dread—unrepentant energy globalists.

There are other myths about it at the link, but are not pertinent to this discussion...

 

[Ravi]

The Jews that speak out against Israel are morons, the Muslims hate them regardless of their viewpoint. Just like we had to kill innocent Nicaraguans to defeat Communism, we're going to have kill innocent Muslims to defeat Jihadism. If Jews and American liberals want to go soft and get all Jimmy Carter-like about this, then you can not only kiss Israel goodbye, but can expect Islamic hatred for freedom and democracy to enter this country.

Jimmy Carter isn't a liberal. In fact, you won't find a liberal supporting Hamas. You will find the far left socialists (like BAC and Midcan) and the far right white supremists (like AmericaFirst and SunniMan) supporting Hamas. I know it doesn't make sense that white supremists would support Hamas, but they do because they hate Jews so much.

 

[slackjawed]

Inocent people get killed in wars, it's too bad but it happens.
We should blame this war on GWB, if he had started the war on terror with the palestinians they would be gone, or at least defeated by now and then we could have moved on to iraq or afghanistan. It would have been a big feather in bush's cap if he had been able to kill yasser and would have been a lesson to the rest of the arab world. In the long run it could be argued that lives would have been saved. No matter what else, at least by now we wouldn't have the palestinians as a problem......

 

[RodISHI]

Dumb.

 

[toomuchtime_]

Dumb.

You appear to be a dog of few words.

 

[RodISHI]

You appear to be a dog of few words.

Some things only require a few words.

 

[toomuchtime_]

Some things only require a few words.

Woof woof to that.

 

[WhiteLion]

Oh sure .. everybody on the planet is "anti-semitic" and the protests, which includes many Jews, has nothing whatsoever to do with Isreal's behavior.

It's time to stop asking .. boycott the US and Israel is the solution.

Listen here Isreal has been more than patient with these islamic asshole radicals next door bombarding the living hell out of their neighbors. Its high time Isreal started really doing something about it instead of meandering with political heads that are bargining off more and more of their land and driving them streight into the Mediterranean sea. Isreal has the means to completely decimate all in the region, its totally beyond me whats taking them so long to utilize it. As far as the crackheads in europe protesting, let them kill each other as its no real consulation to Isreal or the USA, the jews if any that do protest, do so out of the fear instilled in them by the radical islamic mafia in their region, in which is the whole bases of Islam "FEAR". HAMAS nor any other radical islamic group doesnt want peace or cease fire, they want Isreal gone obliterated period.
Simpler solution boycott Europe, Palestine and Syria and nuke the living hell out of Iran........
PS. Dont start name calling, if you do, i can hurl some pretty fowl shit myself???

 

[Orange_Juice]

Indeed many Israelis want 'fairness' and 'peace.' Good goals I think we all agree with.

Where are the Palestinians condemning the anti-Semites? Silent.

It's hard to condemn anything when you are terrorized and hiding as bombs go off outside your invaded, terrorized and bombed home

 

[Orange_Juice]

Listen here Isreal has been more than patient with these islamic asshole radicals next door bombarding the living hell out of their neighbors. Its high time Isreal started really doing something about it instead of meandering with political heads that are bargining off more and more of their land and driving them streight into the Mediterranean sea. Isreal has the means to completely decimate all in the region, its totally beyond me whats taking them so long to utilize it. As far as the crackheads in europe protesting, let them kill each other as its no real consulation to Isreal or the USA, the jews if any that do protest, do so out of the fear instilled in them by the radical islamic mafia in their region, in which is the whole bases of Islam "FEAR". HAMAS nor any other radical islamic group doesnt want peace or cease fire, they want Isreal gone obliterated period.
Simpler solution boycott Europe, Palestine and Syria and nuke the living hell out of Iran........
PS. Dont start name calling, if you do, i can hurl some pretty fowl shit myself???

Israel stole their land

 

[FistyTheBadger]

It's hard to condemn anything when you are terrorized and hiding as bombs go off outside your invaded, terrorized and bombed home

Maybe they should remember that the next time they have a hankering to send ketushas in the way of Ashkilon or Sderot.

 

[FistyTheBadger]

Israel stole their land

I see you have no knowledge or understanding of history even at basic levels.

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

Organisers of the London protest said it was "just the start of the campaign"

I forget...did I reply to this shit before?


zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

.

Israel stole their land

 

[Xenophon]

Muslims stole their land

yes...yes they did.

 

[Orange_Juice]

I see you have no knowledge or understanding of history even at basic levels.

Actually, that is a basic fact, even Israeli historians acknowledge it, but of course you hear nothing about that on the American media

Don't believe me? Read for yourself:

Reason Magazine - What Benny Morris Said

 

[FistyTheBadger]

Actually, that is a basic fact, even Israeli historians acknowledge it, but of course you hear nothing about that on the American media

Don't believe me? Read for yourself:

Reason Magazine - What Benny Morris Said

What is it with you and propaganda?

 

[WhiteLion]

Israel stole their land

BS thats your version of it......

 

[Anguille]

Anyone notice that the only ones protesting are Muslims and sympathizers?

Not only that, they continually ignore the fact that GAZA FIRED FIRST!

And.....Islam is a fucked up moronic twisted religion made up by a demon douchebag called Allah.

Know how I know? Well.....first off......the Hebrew religion is the first. Followed several thousand years later by Christianity, and Islam was founded 500 years after Christianity started. This means that they are a derivative religion.

Now.....After Abraham kicked Ishmael and his mother out of the tribe, because Ishmael's mother believed that he, not Jacob should have the blessing. She wandered around through the desert, when (supposedly) she was approached by an angel (although, I believe it was a demon), who created the Zam-Zam well for her to drink. It still exists today incidentally.....maybe someone will dry the fucking thing up, I can only hope.

Another place to notice that Islam is a fucked up belief system, is to notice one thing.....

HaShem is the Creator. Some might know Him better as God. His main way of doing things is life, growth and variety.

Allah, and the Islamic religion states quite distinctly "death to the infidels". Not only that, but they believe that everyone has to be only their way, because they think that they're right.

But......unfortunately, it's a mirror image of what the Jews have. The Jews support life, and Islam only supports death and destruction.

Nope......send Predator drones into the air around Gaza. Have Raptors and Reapers flying alongside 'em. When a missile is fired, empty as many Hellfire pods as required into whatever building it comes from.

Either Hamas dies, or surrenders.

Isn't that what Islam has told other people? Surrender or die? Convert or die?

Like I said......it's a fucked up religion.

What religion do you belong to ? The Church of Hate?