Oil Field Math

Just received this via email from a friend...

Oilfield Math


Sad but true:


Working in the oilfield with others such as myself and a wealth of
combined experience we understand the accuracy of the following.


Think of it this way:
A clunker that travels 12,000 miles a year at 15 mpg uses 800 gallons of
gas a year.
A vehicle that travels 12,000 miles a year at 25 mpg uses 480 gallons a year.
So, the average Cash for Clunkers transaction will reduce US gasoline
consumption by 320 gallons per year.
They claim 700,000 vehicles so that's 224 million gallons saved per year.
That equates to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil.
5 million barrels is about 5 hours worth of US consumption.
More importantly, 5 million barrels of oil at $70 per barrel costs about
$350 million dollars
So, the government paid $3 billion of our tax dollars to save $350 million.
We spent $8.57 for every dollar we saved.
I'm pretty sure they will do a great job with our health care, though.

Mr. Tiger... (not Woods)

There used to be a thought among other citizens of the world that Americans were arrogant. That when we visited other nations we thought ourselves superior. To me, that would be like a caged tiger complaining that the free tiger walking by is arrogant. In other words we carried (yes I am using the past tense) our selves differently because we were free(yes, again, I am using the past tense). We have lost most if not quite all of that freedom over the past 30 or so years.
That was the premise behind American Exceptionalism. It is not that we are a different, more superior race of man. We have the same genes, same abilities and the same short comings as people everywhere. The difference was that we were free. Only here did it not matter whom your parents were, if they were rich or had connections. None of these mattered. What really mattered is what you achieved. That is what made us unique. We were the first and only place that was a meritocracy and we were proud of it.
The current crop of Progressive Politicians trade in Class warfare. They sell victimhood to the ignorant and they have been since the early 20th century. The sales job went into overtime in the 1960s. What they haven't been telling their stooges is what is contained in the fine print of the contract. When they are done with the establishment of their "Classless" society, yes there will be no "Rich" or "Wealthy". There will still be classes, just as there was in the Soviet Union, as there is in Cuba or any other Communist or Socialist society. The Masses and the Ruling Elite. The Ruling Elite will bestow favors upon the connected. The irony of the Communists/Socialists is that they originated in order to overthrow the Monarchies of Europe. They merely renamed the system and do not allow a merchant class. In the Communist system there are only Serfs/peasants (masses) and the Nobility (Ruling Elite). Depending on the abilities of the General Secretary (Monarch), the position can be hereditary (North Korea, Cuba) otherwise, like some of the old European Monarchies, which were mostly oligarchies of several powerful families, a select group of the Elite (politburo) select the General Secretary from their own ranks.


 The Chinese have modified their society to allow a merchant class as did England in the 16th and 17th centuries. Like England that conquered the less free world, they are now conquering the formerly free world. Including the U.S.. They are beating us at a game we invented. Not unlike our inability to win world competitions in Baseball.

 I find it ironic that the system which finally freed human kind from thousands upon thousands of years of subjugation is being demonized as subjugation.
No Mr. Tiger, you aren't really free because you have to hunt for your food. If you have bad luck or get hurt you can starve to death. Come into this pen and be safe. You will be provided with food and shelter. Then and only then, you can really be free.

 I would rather starve...

Little Johnny and His Barrakness...

A teacher asked her 3rd grade class how many of them were Obama fans.. Not really knowing what a Obama fan was, but wanting to be liked by the teacher, all the kids raised their hands except for Little Johnny. The teacher asked Little Johnny why he decided to be different... again.. Little Johnny said, 'Because I'm not a Obama fan.'    

The teacher said, 'Why aren't you an Obama fan?' Little Johnny said, 'Because I'm a Republican.' The teacher asked why was he a Republican.. Little Johnny answered, 'Well, my Mom's a Republican and my Dad's a Republican, so I'm a Republican.'

The teacher asks, 'If your Mom was a moron and your Dad was an idiot, what would that make you?'

With a big smile, Little Johnny  replied, 'That would make me an Obama fan.'

I always liked Little Johnny

The gift of music

I am very Musically inclined.. Not that I can sing or play an instrument. I have just, for some reason, assigned popular songs to periods, moments, or people in my life. I have a large CD collection and a large numbers of Itunes Downloads. Although I have downloaded several "Albums" and multiple "Singles" from I tunes I really still prefer having a physical CD in my hands or collection.
These songs I have mentally assigned to the aforementioned instances sometimes are deliberate, but many times they aren't. I am unsure if this is unique to me or if allot of people have a tendency to do it. What it has done is given my children an appreciation for music much broader than their peers. My 12 year old daughter knows who Buddy Holly is and mentioned him one day in Social Studies during a discussion of 50's music. All of my children know for instance that the song "The Day the Music Died" by Don McLean (they know the song and artist) is about the airplane crash that killed Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, and Richie Valens. In fact all of them hated the remake of the song by Madonna.  My 16 year old daughter plays two musical instruments with skill. She came home one day excited to show me that she could play the Cello part to "Eleanor Rigby" by the Beatles.
 Each of my children have at least one song that is "their" song, my Wife of course has multiple songs because we have been "together" for 31 years now (married for 25). When ever these songs play, I can remember vividly the first time I heard them or the instance they were 'assigned' in my mind.

  Isn't music a wonderful gift...

Borrowed from Rich Galen

I regularly get a "Internet Newsletter" entitled "Mullings" via email that I have on occaision shared with friends and family. It is written by Rich Galen, former Press Secretary to Newt Gingrich when Newt was Speaker of the House. This is his Thanksgiving Edition...

This is a rewrite of the Thanksgiving MULLINGS first published in 2002.
Please take a moment on Thanksgiving to say a Prayer of Thanks for those brave Americans in uniform, but also the civilians, who are serving in far off places, away from their families, protecting us, projecting America's values while we enjoy our Thanksgiving dinners safe from fear, and from want, and protecting our freedoms of worship and of speech.
In 2003, I wrote the Thanksgiving column from Camp Victory just outside of Baghdad. Please take a look back at the Iraq Travelogue by clicking here: "Good Morning Mesopotamia"
Rich

It was the day before Thanksgiving and I was giving the Mullmobile it's quarterly treat: A professional car wash. At Andy's Car Wash in Alexandria, you drop your car off, then go inside to pay. A woman and a little girl - about three-and-a-half - were paying ahead of me.

It was a cold day, so the little girl was bundled up in the way little girls are on a cold late-Autumn day.

Ignoring the advice of The Lad, ("Dad, just because you CAN talk to everybody in the world, doesn't mean you HAVE to talk to everybody in the world.") I asked the woman what little girl's name was.

"Destiny," she said, beaming. "She's my baby."

In the way of precocious little girls, Destiny asked me where my car was. I told her it was right behind her mom's.

Destiny looked up and me and asked me if my car was going to be a shiny as her mommy's.

I said I hoped so, and I asked her, in that patronizing way that grownups talk to children, how shiny her mommy's car was going to be.

She thought about this, staring off toward the seafood store across the street with that look of deep concentration little girls assume when contemplating great concepts. Then she looked back up at me and said, "Rainbow Shiny."

The magnificence of that phrase took my breath away.

The problem with looking at the world through middle-aged eyes is we can no longer see things as being "Rainbow shiny." Even on those rare occasions where we see things as beautiful as a rainbow, we know from long - and often harsh - experience that rainbows are, like fame and glory, fleeting.

But for Destiny, everything in her world is decorated with the brilliant hues and gentle shadings contained within the infinite colors of her world's rainbow. Her entire future is decorated with vivid thoughts and sparkly dreams.

On Thanksgiving, we should try - just for a few minutes - to look at our world though Destiny's eyes: Look at our world as being "Rainbow Shiny."

Even though we know it won't last, we should enjoy Thanksgiving for this one day while we look around the table eating the wonderfully familiar meal, telling the well-told stories, to the same precious people, remembering fondly, if sadly, any who may be missing from this year's gathering of friends and family.

As her mom was strapping her into her child seat, I caught Destiny's eye and pointed to her mom's clean car and, smiling and nodding, I blew her a kiss.

Destiny, in that way little girls do, hid her eyes and giggled.

This is another kiss to Destiny: Thank you for reminding a grown-up that if we look at our world with the simple trust of child we, too, can see it as "Rainbow Shiny."

That little girl is destiny's child. All children are.

Happy Thanksgiving.

The Best Sounds in the world

1. I love you Daddy/Mommy
2. Hello Handsome/Beautiful
3. Your Plane is now boarding
4. Your significant other saying "I Do"
5. The First cry of your child
6. The Sigh of a loved one whose head is on your shoulder
6. Cowboy boots on a wooden walkway
7. A high school band's drum corp, on a Friday night
8. Football Cleats on asphalt, on a Friday night
9. Crackling of wood in a fire
10. Wrapping paper on a Christmas Morning
11. Bacon Cooking
12. The chirping of birds through an open window on a Summer morning
13. The wind in the trees on a cool afternoon
14. Children playing outside on a summer afternoon
15. A baby's laughter
16. The sound of an infant sucking it's lip/finger
17. Your significant other's heartbeat in the middle of the night
18. the laughter of your children or spouse..

'Nuff Said