Preemptive Strikes

Once you accept the morality of a preemptive strike, you accept the fact that the concept is now moral for every person on the planet. Under this rule, if anyone believes that their circumstance is threatened by anyone else, they have the moral right to execute a first strike against that other party. This concept, if implemented fully, would make it difficult to run a gradeschool, let alone international relations. Suppose a college kid in Africa invents a new deadly virus. If his favorite news organization says America has caused his nations problems, does that make it morally acceptable for him to use that virus against America? We believe in the freedom of the press, and that is good. But freedom of the press is different from freedom to kill others. The truth is that the policy of preemptive strikes was instituted by people who believed they had the full backing of an unchallengeable military power. Anyone else on the planet would not support such a policy.

I fear military power because I believe that some individual like Hitler or Alexander the Great will gain control and run the whole thing to ruin. The common man during either of those regimes did not benefit from the acts of conquest. Only the arms manufacturers and the ethnic special interest groups with influence did well. Everyone else suffered.

Diesel deserves better

Diesel fuel advances are being slowed by corporate design of the oil companies. The problem is that farm co-ops could produce fuel on their own if diesel engines were widely available in vehicles.
Since the existing oil companies can't profit from local production of biodiesel, the only mechanism they have to slow the development of diesel technology is to price diesel fuel higher than gasoline. I believe this is a conscious decision on big oils' part to influence the future of markets and keep customers in their camp.

Our politicians don't investigate issues like this because there is no corporate constituent big enough to force them to. You could write your representative if you think it would help.

The Real Pirates

We just gave billions to Wall Street interests because they threatened us with Global Financial Meltdown. The media cycle has now changed to concentrate on pirates off the coast of Somalia who are demanding millions. This works because people like stories they can understand. Pirates off Somalia is understandable, and easy to define in black and white. Pirates bad, everyone else good.
If all the Navies of the world can't fix this one, what's the point of Navies? The real problem is that this distracts from the Billion dollar piracy that is taking place in America.