Cal Thomas promotes bike commuting

Cal Thomas is a syndicated op-ed columnist, about as conservative as
the Pope is Catholic.

Today's column makes the following points:

a) The oil companies are good guys. They should continue to get $17
billion in tax breaks from our government.

b) The US should drill for oil offshore, in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge, etc.

c) "A slow transition [to non-oil energy sources] will also give us
time to consider more fuel-efficient cars and greater use of public
transportation, even bicycles for short trips. Bikes would help more
of us lose weight and get in shape. A friend bikes to work every day,
saving gas, car payments, insurance and repair costs."

The first two points illustrate that he's not turned into a left-
leaning softie overnight. The third point illustrates that it's not
only left-leaning softies that see value in biking.

- Frank Krygowski

On May 14, 9:24 am, Frank Krygowski wrote:

b) The US should drill for oil offshore, in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge, etc.

What are these people smoking?

Drilling in previously off-limits areas will have no significant
positive effect on America's energy dependence or the price of oil or
the price of gasoline. People who believe otherwise, and clearly there
are a lot of them, completely misunderstand the nature of the
predicament, which has become coming down the tracks at us for about
40 years, ever since this country became an oil importer instead of an
exporter. Look: today the US produces about half the crude it did near
our production peak 35-40 years ago. We peaked out at about 10 million
barrels per day -- not for lack of drilling, quite the opposite. Today
we consume more than 20 million barrels per day and manage to produce
only about one quarter of that in the US. People need to put down the
crack pipe and realize there is no way we are going to drill our way
to energy independence or even make a serious dent in it.

Robert

wrote:
On May 14, 9:24 am, Frank Krygowski wrote:
b) The US should drill for oil offshore, in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge, etc.

What are these people smoking?

Nothing, they're Republicans.

SMS wrote:
wrote:
On May 14, 9:24 am, Frank Krygowski wrote:
b) The US should drill for oil offshore, in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge, etc.

What are these people smoking?

Nothing, they're Republicans.

Actually, in my experience they're just more surreptitious about where
they obtain their recreational pharmaceuticals. Well, and they're more
likely to have a prescription addiction if they're not using illegal
drugs.

--
Dane Buson -
"There is no underestimating the intelligence of the American
public." -H. L. Mencken

In article
,
Frank Krygowski wrote:

Cal Thomas is a syndicated op-ed columnist, about as conservative as
the Pope is Catholic.

Today's column makes the following points:

a) The oil companies are good guys. They should continue to get $17
billion in tax breaks from our government.

b) The US should drill for oil offshore, in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge, etc.

c) "A slow transition [to non-oil energy sources] will also give us
time to consider more fuel-efficient cars and greater use of public
transportation, even bicycles for short trips. Bikes would help more
of us lose weight and get in shape. A friend bikes to work every day,
saving gas, car payments, insurance and repair costs."

The first two points illustrate that he's not turned into a left-
leaning softie overnight. The third point illustrates that it's not
only left-leaning softies that see value in biking.

- Frank Krygowski

Sheesh. An affirmation of the bicycle's value as a corollary of
ideology. Must everything be politicized?

On May 14, 5:31 pm, Luke wrote:
In article
,



Frank Krygowski wrote:
Cal Thomas is a syndicated op-ed columnist, about as conservative as
the Pope is Catholic.

Today's column makes the following points:

a) The oil companies are good guys. They should continue to get $17
billion in tax breaks from our government.

b) The US should drill for oil offshore, in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge, etc.

c) "A slow transition [to non-oil energy sources] will also give us
time to consider more fuel-efficient cars and greater use of public
transportation, even bicycles for short trips. Bikes would help more
of us lose weight and get in shape. A friend bikes to work every day,
saving gas, car payments, insurance and repair costs."

The first two points illustrate that he's not turned into a left-
leaning softie overnight. The third point illustrates that it's not
only left-leaning softies that see value in biking.

- Frank Krygowski

Sheesh. An affirmation of the bicycle's value as a corollary of
ideology. Must everything be politicized?

Well, he is a political columnist, you know.

- Frank Krygowski

b) The US should drill for oil offshore, in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge, etc.

Why don't the "conservatives" get it? And by "get it" I mean recognize that
we're better off NOT drilling for oil up there now, but keeping it in the
ground as a strategic reserve, available in the event we REALLY need it, and
then basically stick it to the man.

Meanwhile, we work to hurt those that have the oil by reducing demand, and
freely share whatever technologies to save oil we can come up with. Again,
sticking it to the man.

"The man" being whomever has lots of oil that they sell for lots of money.

--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com
Redwood City & Los Altos, CA USA


"Frank Krygowski" wrote in message
...
Cal Thomas is a syndicated op-ed columnist, about as conservative as
the Pope is Catholic.

Today's column makes the following points:

a) The oil companies are good guys. They should continue to get $17
billion in tax breaks from our government.

b) The US should drill for oil offshore, in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge, etc.

c) "A slow transition [to non-oil energy sources] will also give us
time to consider more fuel-efficient cars and greater use of public
transportation, even bicycles for short trips. Bikes would help more
of us lose weight and get in shape. A friend bikes to work every day,
saving gas, car payments, insurance and repair costs."

The first two points illustrate that he's not turned into a left-
leaning softie overnight. The third point illustrates that it's not
only left-leaning softies that see value in biking.

- Frank Krygowski

Frank Krygowski wrote:
Cal Thomas is a syndicated op-ed columnist, about as conservative as
the Pope is Catholic.

Actually Cal Thomas is very inconsistent in his viewpoints
which is one illustration of why the terms "liberal" and
"conservative" have lost so much meaning. FWIW, almost none
of the Republican politicians on the scene nationally can
make a valid claim to being conservatives either, Ron Paul
being a notable exception.

Today's column makes the following points:

a) The oil companies are good guys. They should continue to get $17
billion in tax breaks from our government.

You might want to research the issue....what the advocates of
windfall profits taxation want to do is tax the profits at a higher
rate so that making a profit becomes pointless.

b) The US should drill for oil offshore, in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge, etc.

The U.S. does not drill anywhere. Companies drill. The U.S.
federal government simply sells leases to
various natural resources. The U.S. government has made some very
bad decisions in the past on such leases, mostly in the area of
timber and mineral leases. If the objection to the oil
companies profits is because the lease price is too low, that would
make sense, but it seems to me that some people just don't want
oil products to be utilized at all.

c) "A slow transition [to non-oil energy sources] will also give us
time to consider more fuel-efficient cars and greater use of public
transportation, even bicycles for short trips. Bikes would help more
of us lose weight and get in shape. A friend bikes to work every day,
saving gas, car payments, insurance and repair costs."

The first two points illustrate that he's not turned into a left-
leaning softie overnight. The third point illustrates that it's not
only left-leaning softies that see value in biking.

That's a real mistake many people make in assigning political
philosophy to issues which are not really political in nature.
Politics is force in a word. Use of bicycles as transportation or
for simple pleasure/exercise represents a potential decision for
individuals to freely make. The only way to make cycling a political
issue is to mandate bicycle use...then of course, we can no longer
even nominally claim to live in a free country.

- Frank Krygowski


--
They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for
one's country. But in modern war, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in
your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason.
-- Ernest Hemingway