The Desert Rat has spoken to the looming trade deficit, the "green" god mania, and energy dependence/slavery to those who really don't like us very much...

... but... I shall let the Rat speak...

The U.S. Trade deficit jumped to $40.2 billion in December 2009.

Why? Because petroleum imports have accounted for OVER HALF our trade deficit since the last quarter of 2007, and the prices jumped last October. We're not running behind just because of "made in China " labels. We're running behind because we won't responsibly use the resources we have right here on our own sovereign territory.

And the people from whom we buy oil aren't our friends.

Sad, and horrifying. Can you imagine the security and economic boost it would be if we started building refineries and/or nuclear plants? Crap, let's build solar panel and wind turbine farms, too - I love the environment. But what in the world are we doing to ourselves by relying on Chavez and the Arabian royal family? Over half the trade deficit is oil? Did you hear me? Why isn’t T. Boone Pickens (not to mention Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, or whoever else) screaming his rich head off about this?

I am a reasonable environmentalist.

I love our National Parks, National Forests, and National Wildernesses. I think 10-20% of the land in every state should be National Wilderness (no roads or motorized vehicles allowed). I think polluters should be held accountable and punished severely. I’m all for a forward-looking exploration of new energy-providing technologies. But what good are these sentiments when we have a trade deficit that means we’re sending more money across the borders than what we bring into the country? It’s horrifying enough that foreign states own so much of our exponentially-growing debt, and therefore are our masters. But we’re not doing the most basic and beneficial thing to look toward a turn-around!

Oh, and a comment to the non-rational earth-worshiper: this cactus-hugger’s taking the term “environmentalist” back.

It doesn’t belong to you, so I’ve got a personal goal of stealing your god and putting it back in its correct place, protected, nurtured, yet dominated place. And another thing: do you think the Middle Eastern countries and the likes of Venezuela are going to be more nature-minded in their petroleum exploration, extraction, and processing? Do you think they care about your earth-god’s cleanliness? Seriously? If anyone is to provide responsibly-extracted petroleum product, it’s the most advanced and morally-sensitive nation on the planet: us. Think of the example we could be to the world in safe and responsible extraction and refining processes. OR we can whore ourselves out to a people that are already laughing at our weakness and enslavement to them.

The next time you fill up, remember. We’re not destroying the environment for that tank of gas: people who hate us are.

And they’ve enslaved us to bankroll that destruction. The next time you get concerned about what “made in China” labels and lost overseas jobs are doing to us, remember that we have huge, wealth-glutted potential jobs sitting under our feet, but we’d rather rely on people content to see our Secretary of State begging them for better prices (I won’t even mention a President that bows to them).

Well, a rare political note from the desert rat.

I’m going to go skulk back into my remote arid canyon and hope you big-city people will wake up and realize what weak, defenseless slaves in denial we’ve become in the name of “green.”