COMMON SENSE From OZARK COUNTRY

Blogs Below Include: Conservatives Should Give Santorum Second Look The Hottest Escorts on the River Stand-up For Freedom America's Energy Independence Future

Alice and I and our friend Dianna were the final checkers during the last eight hours of the last checkpoint 27 miles from the MR340 finish line. We obviously missed (by almost two days) seeing the first place go thru, but we saw the last. But believe me, these too were certainly winners. Never in real life have I seen such a great example of the biblical truth that "...the last shall be first". The final two boats were two canoes with solo paddlers. Neither one had started out solo, but fairly early in the race the partners of each had given up and called it quits. But these two young men were not quitters. They completed the race as solo paddling their canoes meant to be paddled by two. A safety boat followed behind the final paddlers all the way from KC and that means that they were behind these two much of the later part of the race. Two young ladies "manned" that safety boat and they told us that they had come to admire these two young men as the gutsiest in the race. They also observed that the young guys had become the closest of friends during their joint forced solo journeys.

They left our check-point simultaneously with another young man who was solo in a kayak. He had been at the check-point for almost an hour and had come in so exhausted that it was questionable whether or not he would continue. But all three left smiling and laughing as they waved to us from the pulling current and yelled back, "We've got the hottest escorts on the river!”

It was truly a wonderful experience for us.

Stand-up and Be Heard At Camdenton Tea Party Come To Camden County Courthouse on Sept 17 at 5pm See camdentonteaparty.org

The other day I heard a lady say, wreathing her hands, “What can we do about the direction the country is heading?”.

A lot of us are asking ourselves that question today. For my part, I’ve decided to speak out at every opportunity when I see our freedom under attack. One way we can do that is to join in public demonstrations which broadcast our displeasure with the direction being taken by government. Another is to let our lawmakers know our views when we have concerns about an issue.

One such issue of concern to me and should be to those of you who have the privilege of living in the Lake of the Ozarks area is the potential harm that could be done to the lake by the quarry proposed by the Magruder Company. But an even bigger concern and one that should be shared by all who love freedom is the domination by state government in their favoring of the mining industry over the rights of citizens.

I attended one of the court hearings in the legal battle between Concerned Citizens and the Magruder Company and was appalled to see that the lead attorney for Magruder was an attorney representing the Bureau of Land Reclamation (a part of Missouri’s Department of Natural Resources). But I guess I should not have been because the DNR Hearing Officer in all the proceeding hearings had been so obviously biased against the citizens that it was an embarrassment to those in attendance.

The Concerned Citizens and the local government lost in the DNR hearings in their appeal to have the Magruder permit rescinded. But they have since won in four successive judicial rulings that have resulted in the reversal of the permitting of this quarry.

But Magruder has not given up and, with the help of the Missouri State Attorney’s office, have filed yet another appeal to have their permit re-issued. Why in the world is the State of Missouri providing free legal services to private industry? This is a costly battle for the private citizens who have banded together in the battle and for the city of Osage Beach which has joined them in these efforts to protect the Lake of the Ozarks.

Mayor Penny Lyons of Osage Beach voiced her concern which you can read in the article which appeared in the May 8, 2009 issue of the Lake Sun Leader.

Our legislators and governor need to be urged to change the current laws and regulations which favor this industry over the welfare of citizens of the state. Ted Windels of the Concerned Citizens Group has provided a list of Needed Changes

In addition, you can find a list of who to contact and How to Contact them here.

Let’s all stand up and fight for the values and freedom upon which this nation was founded.

By: Lake of the Ozarks Freedom Fighter

America’s Energy Independence Future

Memories of Long Ago.

I remember spending several weeks as a ten year old child with my favorite cousin, aunt and uncle on their farm in southwest Missouri, near the little town of Liberal. That would mean the year was 1947 and about a year before I would subsequently destroy my eyes in that same small town. But that’s another story.

Uncle Clyde and Aunt Maybelle were like my second parents and I loved them dearly. Cousin Charles was like my big brother but close enough to my own age to be a good buddy. Even though I was a city boy I delighted in following Charles around and helping him with the many chores that fell on the shoulders of a farmer’s son. I took even greater delight in “helping” Uncle Clyde with his work and he would let me ride along with him on the tractor as he toiled the fields.

One day he asked me, “I’m gonna go down to the old creek bed and make a big bang. Want to come along?” “Sure”, I said, not really knowing what he meant. So I tagged along with him as he gathered up some material and took it with him to the tractor; “Why walk when we can ride?” he chuckled as we bounced along on the rocky ground. The destination was only a few minutes from the house, even on the slowly moving tractor. “Looky here”, he said as he pointed to a pool of oily rocks. “Wow!” I exclaimed, “did you find oil?” “Naw, not really, but let’s see what happens when I blow into those rocks.” After he had hacked away for awhile with a pick-ax and then took a stick of dynamite from the tractor tool box, I realized what he had in mind. He pushed the dynamite stick as far into the muck as he could, lit the fuse, and yelled, “Let’s get out of here and over behind that tree.” “Bang!” It was a bang alright but I had expected something a lot more spectacular. I rushed over to the oily rock area, expecting to see oil gushing from the ground.

All I saw were a few more oily rocks and tar than I had seen before. “Do you think there’s real oil down there Uncle Clyde?” “naw, not really. Oil men have been here and they say what’s here ain’t possible to get out. Just part of the rocks.” I was disappointed because I’d had visions of gaining a rich uncle.

Many Years Later.

That day was almost 61 years ago and I have thought little about it since. Until today. Today I came across a web-based press release with the title,“MegaWest Commences Operations of Deerfield, Missouri Enhanced Oil Recovery Project” As the crow flies, Deerfield Missouri is probably not much more than 20 miles from Uncle Clyde’s farm. There is oil there and it has taken only 60 years to make it worth going after. Oil in Missour? You betcha! And lots of it. But the oil in Missouri is barely a drop in the bucket of the heavy oil in all the United States and that is only a drop in the bucket compared to the heavy oil in Canada. What surprised me most about this press release is not that such oil exists in Missouri, but that recovery operations are actually under way and production is expected to commence within the year. Isn’t it amazing what $100 a barrel oil will do?

Heavy Oil Reserves:

It has been estimated that known heavy oil reserves exceed known conventional oil reserves by five to one and that 80% of that heavy oil is located in Canada, Venezuela, and the United States. ( Reference source: Petroleum Equities Inc.) According to this reference, if only half the known reserves reach production, the Canadian and US reserves alone would suffice these two countries’ petroleum needs for 150 years. (Current US usage is about 7.5 billion barrels a year.) Production has become more economically feasible with new technology and the current high price of crude assures a boom in heavy oil recovery.

Oil Shale:

And then, there’s oil shale in Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah. This is also a potential source of new petroleum reserves but technology and economics are not yet available to make this source immediately viable. But it’s there. It’s like money in the bank for our nation’s future needs. The recoverable oil from those three states alone would add more than another 100 years to our nation’s oil supply needs. (Reference, http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2005/RAND_MG414.sum.pdf)

Today’s Faltering Economy

Now, what does Ozarkcountry Common Sense tell you? It tells me that the recent housing bust slowed down the economy a bit. But if it had not been for the sky-rocketing cost of oil the housing problem would have been little more than a blip in our economy. But now our nation is bleeding. And the bleeding is not so much because of the high price of oil, but because those petrol dollars are being handed over to foreign nations, most of which are our current or potential enemies. Well-meaning but misguided environmentalists further aggravate the problem by standing in the way of drilling for conventional oil off-shore and in Alaska. This bleeding of America plays right into the hands of Gore and the sheep that blindly follow his religion of man-caused global warming. Hope For the Future.

Don’t be downhearted, don’t despair. Ozarkcountry Common Sense tells you that the American people are smarter than Gore; those who have been blinded will awaken and see again. They will recognize that the current world’s wheels turn on oil and that there is no quick alternative; time and technology will provide for the future. Meanwhile, once again, the entrepreneurs of the New World will respond to the current oil crunch and this nation will regain its energy-rich prosperity. Unless evil OPEC once again recognizes the threat and drastically reduces its oil prices to discourage our more expensive oil production, we will never again see “cheap” oil. But that’s OK, you’ll get used to it and you and our nation can live with it so long as those new petrol dollars end up in places like Missouri.

Ozarkcountry Man says, “God bless you and God bless America”.