(Disclaimer: this blog mainly addresses the auto and transportation industry, but the concepts apply to those in the energy industry (coal and electric power) as well)

I get it, I really do. People want to save the planet, clean up the ozone, cease pollution and save the whales. It's a noble cause, for sure, but at what price? At what point should we interrupt the natural ebb and flow of industry to push for completely green solutions? I don't disagree that they need to occur, but thanks to demands by environmentalists, lobbyists, and congress, we are pushing this agenda way too hard and way too quickly. I agree, let's make it happen, but let's make it happen on a timeline that doesn't do more harm than good.

Industry and technology is an ever-growing beast, developing new solutions to old problems everyday, and incorporating and retrofitting those solutions so that today's industry can produce tomorrow's standards. That's natural, that's healthy. Creating the microwave didn't do away with the stove...it just gave another, more efficient option to cook. Engineering working-class sedans in the 70's didn't do away with the raw muscle of the big block motors of the 60's, it simply created a more economical option..and from there it snowballed, so that now, 40 years later, we have the option to buy a big-motored sports car, a tiny electric smart car, or any number of options in between. Developing the smart car didn't put Detroit muscle out of business, it simply threw another option into the free market.

But that's changing, and its not change I can believe in. There's nothing negative about pressuring auto makers to meet a higher MPG rating - but there is something negative about REQUIRING it. And there's something VERY negative about requiring it on a very quick timeline. The government (and EPA) is essentially forcing companies to abandon their business models for the sake of achieving government compliance, and in doing so, they are putting a bullet through the very heart of the free-market economy. By striving to "protect" the environment they are ripping the seems out of industries that have naturally developed for almost 100 years. The auto industry will no longer be allowed to develop "newer, cooler" technology to impress customers, it will be forced to engineer vehicles that meet the standards of Uncle Sam, and in doing so quality and design will suffer. The art of automobile engineering is a thing of the past, as we push quantity (of gas mileage) over quality (of vehicle). Of course it will get 80mpg - but it's made of plastic, has 15 horsepower and weighs the same as a Radio Flyer wagon. And it looks as ugly as, well, a Prius, or a Smart Car, or any number of hideous looking machines that are starting to come out now. But that problem would only be a small problem if it stopped there....unfortunately it doesn't. That problem is about to become a disaster.

In an effort to "save the planet," the government, lobbyists, and environmentalists are pushing for more than just the murder of free-market American ingenuity, they are also pushing for the destruction of millions of American jobs. I mentioned before that industry has a natural ebb and flow - it progresses on its own and builds on its foundation. When the air conditioner was invented for vehicles, they didn't stop installing windows that rolled down, they just added the technology. That's changing though. With the pushing of "green energy" the powers that be are hoping to shut down the use of "dirty energy." This dirty energy however, is responsible for 9 million US jobs around the country. It would be one thing if we could just slowly incorporate clean energy into our economy, but there will be nothing slow about it. The goverment has created immediate deadlines requiring astronomical changes in technology. These speedy requirements will not simply allow engineers to develop new technology to retrofit, they require all new companies, machinery, and employees - essentially a whole new face of the industry. The advocates tout that use of clean energy will create thousands of jobs, and that's true, but they fail to mention the MILLIONS of people that will be out of work - people that have grown up, lived and worked in this industry their whole lives. You think the unemployment rate is bad now? Just you wait - its going to get worse if this agenda is pushed through. You see, these new clean energy requirements can't be met by everyone in the auto industry, so companies will fall. New ones will be created with the sole purpose of green energy, sure, but only a fraction of those put out of work by this agenda will recover.

So, I ask, is the speedy push of green energy worth the cost that it will require? Will the millions of jobs lost be justified by less pollution? Or, would it be wiser (although, I'll admit, far less "hip") to encourage the industry to create and incorporate clean energy the way it has for 70 years - slowly, with purpose, and without destroying an industry that is one of America's economic backbones?  You decide.

Dear Tulsa World:

For months you've been my primary source of news. Every morning when I wake up, I login to your website to check out what's happening in my local world. If its a particularly interesting day, I'll swing by a QuickTrip on the way to work and pickup a physical copy of your paper. At lunch break, I check back in to see what else has gone on. I'll even log on one more time before bed at night, just to make sure I didn't miss anything. On Sunday morning, I'll often head into town to grab a sunday paper while running errands.

The convenience of having local news at my fingertips can't be measured. I depend on Tulsa World for restaurant reviews, upcoming events, local news, weather, and more. It has truly become a daily thing for me. When I got my iPhone 4, the Tulsa World app was the first thing I installed. Being able to call up what I was looking for at a moment's notice was invaluable, and I was impressed that when so many other news outlets refused to spend the time and money on an app, Tulsa World would.

Then, it started. A quiet little notice on my iPhone app that stated that I would soon have to pay to see the news on my app. I was pretty frustrated. I was a loyal reader who depended on news from Tulsa World and I felt fairly violated. It's not like the app has the full versions of all stories - I would still need to go online or purchase a paper to view everything, so what was I really paying for? I'm too busy to read the entire paper every day, or I would subscribe to it. The online and app versions were just enough for me to stay connected to Tulsa, and I would reward you by purchasing a paper every now and then.

Today I logged on to Tulsa World to new popup. Apparently I've viewed too many articles and now will have to pay to see my news. Well, that my friends, is NOT going to happen. I willingly purchased a paper when larger articles appealed to me. I frequented your site and clicked on your ads as a customer, which directly ads to your revenue. But forcing me to pay for news that I can get from no less than 20 other outlets is completely outrageous. Not only are there several other local news outlets who happen to have fancier sites, better running apps and more coverage, but I can go to any of several national news sites and narrow my search to Tulsa. Congratulations, Tulsa World, you've now become irrelevant. 

All of these other news sites that I've mentioned somehow manage to keep their website and apps open and free without forcing a subscription from its viewers. Why can't you? Why can't your advertisements on your website and app be enough to fund you, like the rest of the industry? Do you really think that you offer better or more complete news than any of your competitors? I'll tell you, you do not. The reason I frequented you before was out of convenience. I'd started viewing news with you and stuck by it. Not any more, though. You are no longer convenient for me - you're a frustration. So, I'll tell you what I won't do. I won't pay to view my news online. I won't make that extra trip to the corner market for a paper in the morning or on the weekend. I've deleted your app from my iPhone and won't be redownloading it. I've changed my browser homepage and deleted the bookmark to tulsaworld.com. Because you obviously can't get your business model together, you've lost a loyal reader. And, as someone who works in the media field, I can tell you this: you've officially started down the path to company destruction. Without radical change, there's no coming back from this.

I'll say it today, April 27, 2011, if Tulsa World doesn't change its subscription-only policy, it will go under.

You've refused to recognize the times, where people can get what they want instantly, for free, from any number of sources. Either you figure out a different way to make money, or you're toast. Your lack of ability to adapt shows that you no longer desire to be a contender in the new market that is broadcast media.You could revamp the way your ad sales work, or hire some new blood for your marketing teams. Bring in some talented web designers that bring your site into the new millenium, or make your mobile apps so over the top, that people would be begging to purchase them. Hear that? People purchase apps...not the content in them. You're about 20 years late in your business-structure.

So, Tulsa World, what will it be? Will you accept that things have changed and you need to change with them, or will you stubbornly hold onto the illusion that people will one-day decide that widely available news is worth paying one source for. Don't say you weren't warned, though....

Sincerely,

An Ex-Reader

Here's the deal: President Barack Hussein Obama was born in the United States of America. I firmly, firmly believe that. Believing that doesn't make me like him or agree with him, but at the end of the day, I believe its the truth.

Let's use simple logic here. If he was, as stated by the Birther movement, born in Kenya, SOMEONE would have proof. A picture. A certificate (they may not be as technologically advanced as we are, but they aren't in the stone age, people.) Heck, there would be friends coming forward saying "I grew up with him." A nurse or doctor would take advantage of the fame angle and admit that they delivered him. SOMETHING. But for all the hundreds and thousands of people that have looked, for all the millions of dollars spent on research by people hell-bent on disproving his eligibility, absolutely nothing has been proven. As a matter of fact, what HAS been proven, is the exact opposite.

The state of Hawaii has validated his birth certificate. The hospital he was born in has acknowledged his birth. People say that they knew him as a baby. There's photographs of him as a baby in Hawaii. There is actual proof. You don't have to like it, but you can't deny it.

Now, why has Obama and the Hawaiian government only issued a certificate of Live Birth? I don't know. Apparently, that's how they do things. It's the beauty of States being able to make their own laws. The Certificate of Live Birth has been validated by the State and the Federal Government and is genuine. But that's not enough for people, apparently. I get slightly erked by the fact that Hawaiian officials have claimed that they have the actual certificate that everyone wants to see, but its in a vault and they won't release it. That just sucks, and at the end of the day, feeds into this hysteria that something is being hidden from America, but thats the way things are.

Now, people claim that if Obama would just have the State of Hawaii release that exact certificate, all of this would go away, and in fact it might. But we're overlooking one major thing - Obama and his administration don't want this to go away. After all, who are the headliners of the birther movement? Radical Republicans. And since birthers are in the minority in this country, what does this movement make these Republicans look like? Absolute idiots. And THAT is exactly what Obama, one of the most partisan Presidents in history, wants. Sure, he could just call up the State of Hawaii and say "release it," but why, when he can encourage the whole country to laugh at this group of people bent on proving him wrong? This movement is exactly where he wants it - on the fringe, making people who disagree with him look like fools. It's a bigger statement than he could ever make from a podium.

Add old Donald Trump to the mix and now we have a real party. Obama knows what Trump will find if he actually finds the truth - absolutely nothing, but he's content letting him waste his money and look like a complete moron in front of the American people. Trump thinks that "discovering the secret" will make him more famous, more money, and possiblty put him on a political path, but at the end of the day, its going to be a wild goose chase that just proves that Trump is what everyone already knows he is - a business genius, but bat-s**t crazy.

I'm more perplexed why Trump thinks he could even stand a chance in a political race. You don't get that rich and powerful by being above board. There is, without a doubt, a long trail of questionable ethics, people screwed over, illegal backroom deals and sketchy morals that would follow this man into the limelight. And it would ALL come out. I don't believe Trump is seriously considering a presidential bid for exact that reason. But Trump being Trump, he'll take every bit of publicity he can get - be it political or otherwise. THAT is why he's pursuing this pointless birther consipracy - its all business.

At the end of the day, the one thing that is still encouraging the birther movement is Barack Obama himself. And, while people think he's an idiot for not releasing the real form, he knows his end-game is working perfectly - to drive people's view of Republicans even further down than he could ever do on his own. And everyone is playing right into it.

That's why birthers are crazy.....crazy for not seeing the whole picture.

I get it. I really do. People value honesty. People value trust and want to feel like they aren't being lied to or manipulated. No one wants to believe that what they've held to be true isn't - so to that extent, I get the whole Wikileaks thing. The internet is ablaze with supporters of Wikileaks (here after referred to as WL) most recent threat. After all, if someone knows the truth, isn't it their job to make it known?

No.

And here's why. Because its NOT the whole truth. Oh, in the coming months we might be overwhelmed with information that we can hardly believe, and most of it will probably be true. I'm sure we'll hear about our allies plotting against us. We'll be told about terrorist attacks that we never were told about before. If WL releases its info we'll probably hear about botched interrogations, black ops gone bad, operations in country's we were never supposed to be in, strained relationships with other countries, and countless of backroom deals.  And yes, most of it will probably be true, but that doesn't mean its the whole truth.

Now, its hard to justify alot of this situations. You can't exactly explain away unethical backroom deals. But just because we know about the acts, doesn't mean we know the justifications behind the acts, and THAT is where WL is on thin ice. I would be shocked to find out that my country, who supposedly never negotiates with terrorists, actually paid terrorists off for someone's safe return. I would assume that I had been lied to, and that it was a clear cut case of black and white misinformation. But without all the surrounding facts, which are undoubtedly not in the released documents, I wouldn't know the extreme situation that our country might have been in that forced our hand into making a decision we had previous declared impossible.

For an extreme example: I would be shocked to find out that JFK wasn't murdered by a communist-crazed American dissident, but rather a Russian assassin. However, the controvery, and retaliation that might be brought on by information like this can no doubt be too much information for some normal Americans to bear. Upon news that "middle eastern terrorists" had attacked the World Trade Center, countless mosques, convenience stores and homes owned by middle eastern families were vandalised or destroyed by Americans who took the news very personally. Can you imagine the impact that facts even bigger than those would have on people, esepcially people with less than stable minds? 

I don't want to be in the dark about things, but I will voluntarily stay in the dark if it means that people's lives are saved. Who's to say that information that might be released (or already has) will not endanger lives here and abroad? Can the release of information justify even one death in retaliation? WL isn't just releasing information on America, they're threatening release of info on countless other countries too - what might be the global impact of retaliation when some of this info is put into the wild? Civil Wars might be started. Governments might be overthrown. People might be assissinated. All because of information. It's already been proven that information released by WL previously contained the names of civilians in Afghanistan who have helped NATO forces with information. Don't think for a second that those people aren't already on a Taliban hit list. I'm not even saying that all the reprocussions of this release would be bad - people may retaliate against evil or injustice, but the scale on which these things might happen are so great, that the danger of a massive information dump is just too great of a risk.

Assange (cheif editor of WL) obviously views himself as a celebrity. He wants attention and popularity. But who is he to determine what information is dangerous and what isn't? He's playing God in a game of bribary and blackmail. Similar to a Hollywood celeb who speaks out on issues they have no idea about, Assange goes around making threats without having any kind of qualification that he's capable of handling this information. The man isn't a hero. He's not icon for free-thinkers to support - he's a dangerous threat to international security and he needs to be stopped. WL has done some good in the past - shedding light on abuses, murders and frauds, but this time its gone WAY too far.

No, I haven't drunk the Kool-aid. I have always been against big government and preached personal freedom. I know our government does things behind closed doors that would appaul us, but I simply refuse to believe that by dumping potentially dangerous information into the hands of billions of people worldwide that you're going to achieve accountability. You're going to achieve chaos, without the slightest idea of what that will look like.

Wikileaks can't be stopped. It's servers have been mirrored thousands of times and even if its servers are shut down, it will never die. It might even be too late to stop an information dump, but this fool, Assange, needs to be dealt with. And not by any single government. A coalition of countries needs to handle it. It won't control the initial damage, but it will cause people who think they can blackmail world governments to think twice before they handle information they aren't capable of handling.