I found it disappointing and, worse yet, perhaps unflatteringly revealing of the man himself, that Pres. Obama saw fit to add his relatively senseless apology for America on his inaugural presidential trip abroad that the U.S. is neither crass nor arrogant. It is, of course, very much both, but moreover, and more precisely, it is an ignorant country. (That only 5% of Detroit’s high school graduates can either read or write may not exactly be indicative of the rest of American grads—but it is not far off in revealing the probably irremedial educational collapse here.)

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And Obama’s planned health care system, by insisting it be carried by the current and downright crude health insurance companies (compared to the far better method of the single-payer system employed in Canada and Western Europe, which, for reasons unknown to us, he’s completely ruled out—perhaps questionable reasons, I might add, hinting, even, of purely political considerations, etc.), and, furthermore, by taxing the middle-class (in part through elimination of the mortgage interest write-off available to them in their annual federal tax filings), it will most assuredly lead to a severely compromised (read “costly” and “unwieldy”) operation.

I further believe that “alternative energy” is mainly an almost unnecessary pressure point being brought to bear on the taxpayer masquerading throughout the country and the world, in point of fact, as a proven theory.

It is, in fact, unproven in terms of its expense based on highly increased costs per unit of the various technologies, and, moreover, as having some restorative powers over the effects of “global warming,” which is not only highly controversial, but perhaps even implausible, as in, you can’t fight Mother Nature. In point of fact, the best estimates available place the percentage of total relief provided by alternative resources from the traditional fossil fuels at only 8% of total needs.

I’m afraid we’ll have to ride the horses of coal and oil, and we should be concentrating on the most reasonable means of sequestering coal exhausts, and encouraging the oil companies to leave as small a footprint as possible in the opening of new fields—whether at sea or on land.

This is reality. Oil isn’t going away—until it’s all gone. And in the final analysis if the Greenland Ice Cap and the Antarctic melt away in the next two centuries, or so, it will not be, in the main, the fault of mankind. I say, get the rivers cleaned up, save what we can of the coral reefs, surely stop mountain-top removal—in other words, do all we can to do what we are equipped and knowledgeable enough to do, recognizing the Ice Age has been retreating for 12-thousand years, give or take.

So what of “hope” one might well ask. If we can survive the likelihood of a nuclear exchange somewhere on the globe, and rising water and disappearing coastlines, global pandemics, increased desertification, the 7 Deadly Sins, and our capacity for pure folly, perhaps we can continue as a species. The human organism can transform, and amazingly rapidly.

In the meantime, we will hopefully get by with a modified social democracy, if at all. This might prove, I think, as good a societal and governance “catch-all” as we’re likely to come up with. But we, the people, are going to have to become, as a species, quicker, leaner, and more flexible in our thinking and actions than we now are.