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closePut profit caps on oil companies
Monopoly economics are driving the gasoline prices in America, not free-market, supply-and-demand economics. Without competition, there is no free market!
The fundamentals of capitalism drive businesses to seek ultimate profits; however, just as in the game, when a clear monopoly is established, everyone else goes bankrupt. That is what is happing to our economy today!
Oil companies, as they should be, are salivating at prospects of more record profits if they are allowed to raid our remaining oil deposits. It is up to the owners of those oil reserves, i.e. the American people via our government, to be the adult in this global get-rich-quick game and set some rules that prevent us from getting raped of our own resources. The answer has to be profit regulation, not the notion of taxing the oil companies in a political ploy to reap financial gains off of an out-of-control industry that is pillaging the American economy.
Before Congress turns loose of oil reserves offshore and in ANWR, they need to establish reasonable profit caps and require that the oil from these American oil deposits are only sold domestically. If these steps are not taken, then the domestic oil will be sold on the world market to the highest bidder for the profit of the monopolies and not for the benefit of the American people.
Why is no one on any news or political forum talking about this? Profit regulations were always part of antitrust regulations before the deregulation meltdown under the Carter administration. If someone doesn't wake up and address this very real problem, "record profits" will be the gas on the fire that burns up the American financial engine.
Forest Morris
York
Bombing hurricanes wouldn't work
Concerning Franklin Whittlesey's idea of using a bomb to snuff out a hurricane -- it just won't work.
The largest conventional (non-nuclear) bomb in the world is the BLU-82B, which is in the U.S. arsenal. Due to the size (141.6 inches long and 54 inches in diameter) and weight (15,000 pounds) of this bomb, it can only be dropped from an MC-130 aircraft, which is used in Special Ops. This is a dumb bomb only; it cannot be laser-guided. In fact, it is supported by a parachute as it falls; its drop must be precisely calculated because, once released, cannot be remotely directed or detonated.
Having been developed for use in Vietnam to clear helicopter landing zones and artillery emplacements, it produces an overpressure of 1,000 psi near ground zero, tapering off as distance increases. It is triggered by a 38-inch fuse extender, which extends out from the bomb, causing detonation on contact with a surface. It has a kill radius of 300 to 900 feet. This bomb is about one-one-thousandth as powerful as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, which was approximately 14 kilotons.
Even if a BLU-82B were successfully detonated in the center of a hurricane, whose eye may range from 20 to 60 miles wide, and whose cloud tops in the eye-wall may range from 40,000 to 60,000 feet, the effect would be negligible; you would have just as much success by huffing and puffing at the hurricane in an attempt to disrupt it. Even the blast from a B83, the largest nuclear weapon in the U.S. arsenal at 1.2 megatons, would be ineffective at interrupting a hurricane. Hurricanes are some of, if not the, most powerful forces on earth; a bomb simply will not suffice in destroying one.
This information was obtained from the Federation of American Scientists Web site; it is not classified.
Chris Harris
Great Falls
Memorial was a success
I would like to thank everyone who took time to come out to the seventh annual 9-11 Remembrance Program at the Fort Lawn Community Center on Sept. 11. I would also like to thank all those who helped make the night a success.
Lt. Richard A. Hulse
Fort Lawn Fire Department
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