Saturday, August 4, 2007

A Good Point From Newt Gingrich

You should read this story.

Newt Gingrich is criticizing Republicans and the "war on terror" -- and with good cause.

Basically, as you'll read in the story, Gingrich says that it's silly to go and fight terrorists while still funding them through the purchase of their oil.

The terrorists can only be defeated, he says, by starting here at home, not sending money there, and working on our defense.

It's a good read.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Al. I had no idea Gingrich could make so much sense. I hope his idea for energy independence couples the search for new reserves with investment in energy R&D. What we really need in this country is a "Manhattan Project" aimed at developing new energy technologies.

I also liked this:

We have got to get past this partisan baloney, where I'm not allowed to say anything good about Hillary Clinton because 'I'm not a loyal Republican,' and she's not allowed to say anything good about me, or she's not a 'loyal' Democrat. What a stupid way to run a country.

Al said...

Glad to hear you enjoyed the article, Elvis. Yeah, I really never bothered to listen to much Gingrich said, but then once he was out of office he seemed to become a little more logic-based than right wing. Partisan politics is just silly, because there are always going to be good ideas from both parties, and it would be a shame for those ideas to never come to fruition simply because of who suggests them.
As far as energy, I'm with you - It's amazing that America can gripe about oil/gas, yet strive to drive massive SUVs and Hummers and fly private jets all over the place. I feel bad driving a 6-cylinder Accord when my old 4-cylinder Nissan Sentra did just fine and got much better gas mileage (almost double, actually), but I was petrified on the highway because of the size, compared to the minivans, trucks and SUVs ... it felt like a deathtrap when in traffic. I only have a 1.5-mile commute to work, though, so it's OK, but if I had to travel far I think I would go back to a 4-banger or a hyrbid.
I'd like to see more wind farms and solar energy, and maybe more combination water-power systems that incorporate filtering the water to kill 2 birds with one stone.