GETTING IT STRAIGHT

Let's get a few things straight - once and for all.

© 2006 Chuck Klein

Attention newspapers, cable companies, TV guides: There is no such time as 12:00 a.m. or 12:00 p.m. - it is a physical impossibility. The correct terms are 12:00 NOON and 12:00 MIDNIGHT, just plain Noon - Midnight or military time: 1200 hours - 2400 hours.

If it wasn't for American know how - the Arabs wouldn't know how to extract the oil under their land, much less that it was there in the first place.

Hybrid/electric cars are not the answer to reducing oil consumption for the following reasons - all of which the press, proponents and government seems to ignore:

1) When the batteries begin to wear out, where are we going to dispose of this toxic waste?

2) Our electric power grid is now at capacity (with black/brown-outs during peak times); just where is the extra power coming from to charge all these battery powered cars?

3) The proponents of the hybrid/electric claim these cars can go 50-100 miles between charges. What they don't tell you is this is under ideal conditions with a relatively new battery. How many miles do you think you can go if most of your commute is spent in bumper-to-bumper, rush hour traffic with the headlights, windshield wipers and heater/AC fan on?

For the long term it is NOT Iran, Korea, China…that is our greatest worry:

* Depletion of the ocean's fishes;

* Global warming from the consumption of fossil fuels;

* Pollution from the residue of wars, pesticides, herbicides and human waste;

* Viruses and diseases that can jump from animal to human;

* Devastating hurricanes, blizzards and tsunamis;

* Continent wide droughts and famine just might be:

G_d's message to us to Get-it-Straight - OVER-POPULATION is our biggest problem.

If all the guns in the world could somehow be magically removed; the weak, frail and vulnerable would have no way of protecting themselves from the thugs with bats, clubs and knives.

All Americans have the inherent and constitutional right to be free of fear from armed citizens. However, this right does not extend to usurping or disparaging other American's inalienable, 2nd and 9th Amendment rights to be free of fear from thugs intend on doing them harm.

Muslims who don't, won't or can't renounce their fellow Muslims for committing and/or preaching violence are wolves in sheep's clothing.

Speaking of wolves: President Bush might know something the rest of us don't know, but until he divulges the strategy behind assigning port functions to the UAE, he might consider applying a little common sense to the issue, i.e., Just because the UAE appears in sheep's clothing, doesn't mean they're NOT wolves.

Finally, and once and for all: We are NOT fighting in Iraq because of WMD (real or not), oil, Israel, Sadam's bad acts, etc. We are OVER THERE because if we pulled our troops out the insurgents/terrorists would carry their attacks OVER HERE or other places where it is not as advantageous to wage this war that has been declared on us. It is a tragedy that we have lost a few thousand soldiers, but they have lost 10s of thousands. Just think how many innocent AMERICAN men, women and children would be "lost" if the war was fought OVER HERE.