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Sept. 26, 2006 In his recent article—and I’m stretching the meaning of the word “article”—a fellow contributor to this website, Tom Pain, begins his long litany of personal slanders, banalities and sweeping statements by patting himself on the back to say that he has “countered” my accusations and has “shown” that my statements are opinions, when in fact he has done no such thing. This contributor almost never provides links or statistics, basing most of his arguments on self-evident generalizations and platitudes mixed with partisan apologetics posing unconvincingly as incisive political wit. For example, he mentions some “basic facts”, so self-evident and simple-minded that a child might have uttered them. In a nutshell, he says that (1) the US is the most powerful nation, (2) US power depends on its economy, (3) the US has jealous enemies, and (4) the US also has envious allies. Bravo! Pain is a definitely ready for high school! He goes on with his sermonizing, without numbering the other truisms he mouths. He says that the world is a very competitive place, that you can’t operate sophisticated military equipment without oil, and that, if the US wants to stay on top, it must have access to oil. Bravo again! I hate even to have to read this kind of droning and moaning. Contrary to his usual style, Pain presents what he calls a “Fact”, but which is entirely nonsensical. He says, “Which country has the largest proven oil reserves? Russia . Historically our greatest enemy, Russia has all the oil it needs.” This is absolutely absurd and preposterous. According to Information Please Almanac’s 2006 ranking of countries by proven oil reserves, Russia comes in eighth. I will list the top eight right here, to show how ridiculous Pain’s statement is: GREATEST OIL RESERVES BY COUNTRY 2006 (Proven reserves in billions of barrels) Saudi Arabia……….264.3 Canada……….178.8 Iran……….132.5 Iraq……….115 Kuwait……….101.5 United Arab Emirates………97.8 Venezuels……….79.5 Russia……….60.0 http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0872964.html Pain talks about the futility of trying to explain his thinking to the “Great Unwashed” and “Joe American”, as if he, Pain, were speaking from some lofty plateau of understanding. And with reference to me, he uses such terms as “conspiracy theories”, “obsessed”, “bigotry”, “crazed” and “wild-eyed” as if he were the paragon of impartiality and canniness. Pain’s conclusions are utter nonsense. Now, after having said Bush had many reasons for invading Iraq , he apparently sets them all aside and attributes the invasion to oil. But I have pointed out to Pain several times that US consumes 20,731,000 barrels of oil a day, of which 10,088,000 are imported. The imported oil includes only 2,400,000 barrels a day from Persian Gulf countries-- Bahrain , Iran , Iraq , Kuwait , Qatar , Saudi Arabia , and United Arab Emirates , or only 11.6% of the amount consumed. In a word, Pain does not know what the hell he’s talking about. http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/rankings/crudebycountry.htm http://www.ethanolmarket.com/petroleumfacts.html My advice to Tom Pain is to shut up and listen to people who do know what they’re talking about. I notice that Pain always uses words, like "folks," "dang", "gee whiz" and "sheesh" in a sort of patronizing way, as if to suggest that his thinking is so plain and obvious he can use a "down-home" _expression conclusively. However, what will convince me is facts and figures, not "country" talk. ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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