Is Bush a Retard? Chinese Oil and Gluttony in America

Let me start by saying that, no, George W. Bush is not retarded. I would imagine that there are a number of liberal retards out there that would take offense to that characterization. Anyways, I just have to say; Mr. President I think you should avoid two wheeled transportation. First the segway, now a bicycle? Good grief!

OK, so here we go with my first official blog post, at least that I wrote myself. To the viewers out there I will add that opinions are mine. You are always welcome to share your thoughts with me, but if you are seeking to change my mind… well… smarter people than you have tried and failed.

When trying to decide what I was going to write about today I was kind of torn. Ordinarily I will pick one topic per day and stick to that, but today there were just way too many interesting options from Chinese anger over failed oil deals to government intimidation of the press and of course the G8 summit in Scotland. Today I will focus on the Chinese oil deal gone bad!

In the news over the last several weeks there have been a number of interesting articles regarding the Chinese company CNOOC’s attempts to buy Unocal. Well, it seems the U.S. House of Representatives took offense to that effort and voted 333-92 to block the Bush administration from approving the $18.5 million deal. I’m not sure that they can do that, but I’ll assume that the legal minds in Washington have considered that. Some may wonder why Congress would be so up in arms over this. It turns out that CNOOC’s largest shareholder is, well, the Chinese government. Congress probably feels that it is bad enough that China is our largest debt financer; it might be dangerous to allow them to control our oil supply too. Do you think?

The Chinese government didn’t react well to this move. In a strongly worded statement, the Chinese Foreign Ministry demanded that Congress take steps to correct its ways in “politicizing economic and trade issues and stop interfering in the normal commercial exchanges between enterprises of two countries.”

I know that the Chinese are relatively new to the world economic stage, but they have, assumedly, been watching from the sidelines. One would think that they would know that oil is political. This is especially the case when we have a semi-literate failed oil prospector from west Texas in the White House. President Bush does not take action on any policy issue from energy to foreign affairs with considering the ramifications that it will have on our steady and gluttonous supply of oil. Of course, that doesn’t mean his considerations always lead to the “right” path. As examples I would simply point at our quagmire in Iraq, drilling in the ANWR, or (perhaps closer to home) his family doing business with despicable people like the Saudi royal family and the Bin Ladens).

There is something horribly hypocritical in hearing the Chinese complain about U.S. interference in this market. Are the Chinese not the ones who peg their currency to the dollar as opposed to letting it float on its own?

In the end, it sounds like a colossally bad idea to allow a Chinese government controlled entity to exert influence over our oil supply. But, then again, without a drastic occurrence, like $6/gallon oil or short supply, this country will never adequately address our disgusting over-consumption. It is time for us to get serious about addressing the gluttony that is rampant in our society and is evidenced by our belief that we are entitled to drive car that get 10 mpg., be over 100 pounds overweight and pay the same for air travel as everyone else, smoke and pay the same for our health insurance as everyone else.

We are pushing a belief and philosophy of individual responsibility on the people of this country. I think that we should be pushing a belief and philosophy of community responsibility. You can’t do whatever you want. You do not exist inside a vacuum. Your actions have consequences to those around you, so stop being so goddamn selfish and self-righteous!