[Dialogue] Fundamentalists court disaster

opossum2 at att.net opossum2 at att.net
Wed Aug 2 08:20:11 EST 2006


Colleagues,

I meant to respond to this last night, but Jim beat me to it, and I second his comments heartily.  Bryan was not just opposed to Social Darwinist principles, he was also a highly moral, well-meaning close-minded religious conservative who prosecuted John Scopes in the infamous "Monkey Trial" in Dayton, Tennessee (county seat of Rhea County, named for an ancestor of mine).

Bush, and more importantly, the neo-Cons who pull his puppet's strings, may occasionally actually address a real social need, but they are mostly guilty of the double-speak that clothes  the destruction of an important part of the social fabric in high-minded prose.  ("No Child Left Behind", etc.).

And I emphatically disagree that their Middle East Policy is a long range diplomatic plan to benefit from Middle East Oil.  Bush I may have been smart enough to keep Iraq fom occupying the Kuwaiti oil fields, but Bush II and company have totally destabalized the MidEast by the occupation of Iraq.  Disenchanment overthis has had a lot to do with the rise in power/prestige of Hamas and Hezbollah, and Iran is making huge local capital out of it and filling the power vaccuum.  I have been working as a geoscientist since I graduated from college in 1970, and for the last 30 years I have been exclusively involved in petroleum exploration.  No one knowledgeable in the petroleum industry seriously thought that the Iraq war would give us control of some cheap, easily maintained fields.  Besides, the major push for the next big fields is turing to the "'Stans" - the Central Asian Republics, and since Libya is being friendly again that is a major plus.  Also, despite their dislike of his poli
cies, most of Big Oil will be happy to deal with Hugo Chavez if the price is right.

Over and out.

Steve Rhea
Houston, Tx.

OE 1968-'77 and still counting.
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