What a Pity it is that We Can't Take Advantage of Iran's Inner Turmoil

On Carter's first day in office, January 21, 1977, he fulfilled a campaign promise by issuing an Executive Order declaring unconditional amnesty for Vietnam-era war resisters and pacifists.

And I am right on all the rest of the stuff too.

Ronald Reagan got the country back on track again from the grips of the carter regime.

Here's an interesting perspective on OPEC and Peak Oil:

Peak Oil, the concept of world wide oil production increasing, peaking, and then declining, is based upon the 1956 work of American geophysicist Marion King Hubbert. Globally, Peak Oil is expected to occur for both petroleum and natural gas by the year 2025 with worldwide supplies steadily declining thereafter. As the volume of oil reserves continue to fall, the demand for oil will continue to rise, further enhancing its economical, political, and strategical value. Our planet's population is like an overinflated balloon, one made entirely from petrochemical plastics, and as the petrochemicals disappear, so too will the foundation upon which our lives are built and sustained. When the black gold begins to run out and there is not enough to go around, supplies of black blood will begin to run dry. Of the roughly five billion population increase since Spindletop, many if not most will have to go.

When the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, it did so for good reasons. In terms of national output, the U.S. had already passed its own Peak Oil production point in 1971 and its peak natural gas production in 1974. In addition, in 2003 the U.S. reached the half way point toward complete depletion of its known oil reserves. Venezuela, one of the United States' chief sources of petroleum, is in a similar situation with its Peak Oil having occurred in 1970 while its halfway point to depletion was also reached in 2003. Saudi Arabia, the nation most commonly quoted as being the number one producer of petroleum in the world, is expected to reach its Peak Oil in 2006 with a rapid decline to mid-depletion by 2010. By invading Iraq for the second time, the United States managed to take complete control of the Iraqi reserves, and by 2005 the combined outputs from America's national and occupational oil wells outpaced that of Saudi Arabia. This officially made the U.S. the number one producer of oil in the world and effectively castrated OPEC from ever imposing another oil crisis upon the United States. While this may simply be a matter of moving to higher levels on a sinking ship, the rest of the world is undeniably feeling the pressure of being constrained below decks. As the United States postures under the banners of democracy and world globalization, it is, in effect, positioning itself for a not too distant survival of the fittest. In this struggle, the main challenger comes not from the Arab nations, but from the Far East.

China, America's number one competitor for world oil supplies, is growing at an astounding rate. Meanwhile, roughly three quarters of the world's known oil reserves are in the Middle East. Of that, one third is located in Saudi Arabia with Iran having around half that much and Iraq having slightly less than half. Between them, these three countries represent about fifty percent of the oil on this planet. Given its close ties to the Saudi's and its complete ownership of Iraq, the United States has governing access to almost forty percent of global petroleum supplies (not including Iran). Adding Canadian, Venezuelan, and America's own reserves to the list means that roughly five percent of the world's population is in control of sixty percent of the planet's petroleum. China, on the other hand, with approximately twenty percent of the planet's inhabitants, possesses less than two percent of the world's oil within its borders. So, at the same time that it is being superficially Walmartized into an oriental version of the world's leading superpower, Beijing continues to underwrite the American national debt in the hope that it will be granted sufficient access to the black blood it needs to satisfy its own petroleum addiction. The paying of tribute in precious gems, livestock, and grains, once the basis of the Goryeo-Khitan War in 1018, has now been transformed into the art of underwriting a faltering empire's economy through inexpensive merchandise and secured notes. Yet, when Peak Oil arrives globally and push comes to shove in

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For more about Peak Oil, see topic:

I know I didn't have a decent paying job all the Carter years. It was Reagan's first year in office before I got a shot at a decent job. I couldn't BUY a decent job in the Carter years.

Charles of Schaumburg

Unless you were an air traffic controller, LOL.