Saturday, December 29, 2007

The Ethical Aspects Of Corn Based Ethanol

For some there is no ethical problem at all. The reason is a completely divergent view of what is 'good' from what has been traditionally understood in the annals of human ethical development. In the new view, what is good for the 'market' and the corporate entities associated with it is considered the greatest good. This has not always been the case in democracies. In Greece, the birthplace of democracy, "The Greek word demokratia is a marriage of demos , the people, and krateein, power or rule." This means that the people rule and have the power. Is that the way it is in the United States?

Of course not. So why all the talk of building democracies? There's a reason and we'll figure it out as this blog runs its course.

The ethanol initiative is completely at odds with every major humanitarian theme revealed in traditional religions and humanistic philosophy. It is an inimical concept when applied to what the American experience is said to be. It is at odds with the values that are found to arise naturally in the seat of human self knowledge.
It is a pernicious undertaking that seems to be hell bent on the destruction of the human being as we have always known him / her.

The abandonment and replacement of traditional moral / ethical constructs allows people to make administrative decisions such as the ethanol scam. For Christians, Jesus' idea was to treat others well, to seek their good. Buddhists have developed 'compassion' for others as the logical consequence of their way of life. Judaism requires that 'the stranger' you meet should be treated well, because his needs require it. It is often stated in the Old Testament that you should do well to 'others' because you were in the same boat at one time and God had mercy on you. Read the way this new, political morality plays out.

Compare it to the traditional views that have been with the human race from time immemorial.

This is a good video on the topic and shows you that you have a right to speak up.

The poor, of course, will always be hurt the most by this novel moral paradigm that has taken over the processes of the world.

There's more and it's not nice.









Thursday, December 27, 2007

Bio-Fuels

There are some fuel alternatives that do not represent a boondoggle the way that ethanol does. But this is a boondoggle and I've seen this kind of thing happen before. I remember a long while ago in 1965 or so, that local farmers in nearby Montezuma were cajoled by large investment promises to plant ...



'Sugar Beets'

Sugar beets would be the thing to grow. I have forgotten what industry was associated with the need for these sugar beets. My gut tells me it was the soft drink industry. It had something to do with U.S. foreign policy regarding Cuban imports as well. Sugar beets were, at that time, being talked about as the greatest possibility of making money in agriculture in these parts. The large investor (big money to Montezuma NY.) built a huge industrial complex. (Large for the rural area it was situated in.) And then left. A lot of people ended up with sugar beets they needed to find a market for.

Many food producers had switched to growing sugar beets because of governement and capital assurances that this was a really wise thing to do. I imagine they were also told that they would be helping to fight communism too. Today it would be involved with Homeland Security or something along those lines.

They all got left holding the bag in Montezuma NY. The governments misguided foreign policy created hardships for its citizens. What do you do when you have no market for your crop? A bio-fuel primer. This link has nothing to do with sugar beets but it will introduce you to a source of energy that has the possibilities of revolutionizing your life.

The sugar beet scam has made its mark in the region of Montezuma and is now sung about in songs recording the folk lore of the area. At this link you can read a little history and hear a song written about the Sugar Beet Scam of Montezuma


There is more to come concerning bio-fuels.

This site is dedicated to removing the invisible chains. We'll look at more alternative sources of energy as the time allows.






What Does A Scam Look Like?

Scams involving politics follow a narrow path. They end up generally, with a politician being influenced by the money of a corporation to behave a certain way. A way favorable to the corporations interests. Click here for a video detailing the anatomy of the ethanol scam.

Click here for a video discussion of the inherent difficulties with bio based fuels:

Questions raised in video on Fox News.



Following are a number of interesting resources to aid your understanding of what is being done to you and the future you might expect to reap from this activity by the federal government and global corporations.

This is a tremendous website that gives a historical overview of government scams dating back as far as 1795.

Here is an excerpt:



YAZOO LAND SCANDAL (1795)

"In 1795 the state of Georgia sold 35 million acres of western land in an area known as Yazoo to four companies for half a million dollars, about a penny and a half an acre. It was the most corrupt deal in American history. Every member of the Georgia legislature but one accepted a bribe in return for their vote. At the next election the voters tossed out the thieves. The contract with the four land companies was burned. In 1802 the state sold the land to the federal government for $1,250,000. A few years later the Supreme Court ruled that the original deal, flawed as it was, was legal and had to be honored. In 1814 Congress awarded the claimants over $4,000,000.

Click here for another interesting document on scams and scandals by those who run our lives.

There's quite a few more before we get to this century. Check them out at the link above.

At the MSNBC website:



I found this and other scam related items:

"Questionable, unethical – and even outright illegal – behavior extended beyond the boardroom. Boeing CEO Phil Condit resigned after it was learned that the company offered a job to a defense department official who was involved in awarding a $18 billion contract for Air Force refueling tankers. Boeing was already in the Pentagon dog house; in May, the Justice Department launched criminal and civil investigations into whether Boeing gathered sensitive Lockheed documents in the late 1990s while bidding to make the rockets used to launch U.S. government satellites. Boeing may have to pay civil damages in that case.'

This resource, Fairness.com, lists 239 articles and resources on the topic of government scandals and corruption


Here is an excerpt from Fairness.com:

Tales of oil industry's influence in Alaska: As federal investigation continues, and political figures are charged, a new oil-tax bill seeks to undo the industry's influence.


QUOTE: The investigation covers vast political territory, including federal fisheries policies, budget earmarks, federal grants, and even ambitions for private prisons in Alaska – but most of what has been revealed so far involves the staggering amount of leverage the oil industry exerts over fundamental oil policy, including last year's oil tax.







Grain for Gain

We've been driven headlong over the oil precipice. Had the bejesus scared out of us thinking we might run out of gas. Attacked Iraq to make sure we didn't, and now we need ethanol anyway. Ethanol according to U.S. energy policy should be the major thrust of alternate energy development.

Most of us will be hurt by this decision.

This blog will provide energy resource related links for you to read about this and help you make up your mind about what you see going on.


It's one thing when one crackpot with a website gets an idea about something and it is another thing when many diverse people in many different places see trouble coming from the ethanol boondoggle.

Nicholas E Hollis is the President of the Agribusiness Council. He wrote the following article about the ethanol policy that has been shoved down out throats and up other places.

This is an excerpt:



'The old hogwash about getting "energy independent" and helping corn farmers keeps building votes- pushed by an aggressive phalanx of paid association liars and bought politicians. . . . The corn gluten angle and even the fact that ethanol reduces engine life and delivers lower gas mileage than conventional unleaded seems a tad too complicated for the journalists to pick up on.

Just as the ethanol has created massive distortions and dysfunctions in the nation, particularly the farm sector, since its introduction in the late 1970's, we can count on more distortions and nasty surprises in the years ahead if this moves forward. You'd think after all the years of phoney arguments from phoney trade groups established by the Supermarkup to the World [Archer Daniels Midland]—a number of which were cited as facades to cover price-fixing cartels by the Federal prosecutors—that some investigative authority would dig deeper.

Ethanol is the largest scam in our Nation's history—only the controlled media won't report the story—and if Congress rachets the subsidy up anymore, this twisted policy (still largely benefiting one company which holds a near monopoly position in the industry) has the potential of undermining our food security."


Read the rest of the article at this link:

The Rolling Stone Magazine has this to say:

"This is not just hype -- it's dangerous, delusional bullshit. Ethanol doesn't burn cleaner than gasoline, nor is it cheaper. Our current ethanol production represents only 3.5 percent of our gasoline consumption -- yet it consumes twenty percent of the entire U.S. corn crop, causing the price of corn to double in the last two years and raising the threat of hunger in the Third World. And the increasing acreage devoted to corn for ethanol means less land for other staple crops, giving farmers in South America an incentive to carve fields out of tropical forests that help to cool the planet and stave off global warming."

Scam! Do you think Dick Cheney would pass up a good deal? It can't be a scam, it must be good for America? Click the link above.

The Wall Street Journal states the problem very clearly providing the framework in which the scam is set.

Columinist Anne B. Butterfield writes about the ethanol boondoggle

At this link ordinary people discuss the problem.