Educating Family...Harder than Educating Strangers

My Aunt sent me the following e-mail. Now mind you, this IS a popular thought process in this nation. Without getting political, and stereotypes exist for a reason, this is the belief system of many of the folks who voted McPalin.

If the article becomes overbearing, you can scroll down to my row of asterisks. That's where the next level to the story ensues.

By the way, the entire following e-mail was written in GIGANTIC HUGE RED AND MAROON font.
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FIRST E-MAIL FROM MY AUNT TO A WHOLE LIST OF PEOPLE

Subject: This will tick you off! Tree huggers are at it again.

Check out the link in the last line of this email.

The U. S. Geological Service issued a report in April ('08) that only scientists and oil men knew was coming, but man was it big. It was a revised report (hadn't been updated since '95) on how much oil was in this area of the western 2/3 of North Dakota ; western South Dakota ; and extreme eastern Montana ..... check THIS out:

The Bakken is the largest domestic oil discovery since Alaska 's Prudhoe Bay , and has the potential to eliminate all American dependence on foreign oil. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates it at 503 billion barrels.. Even if just 10% of the oil is recoverable... at $107 a barrel, we're looking at a resource base worth more than $5.3 trillion.

'When I first briefed legislators on this, you could practically see their jaws hit the floor. They had no idea..' says Terry Johnson, the Montana Legislature's financial analyst.

'This sizable find is now the highest-producing onshore oil field found in the past 56 years.' reports, The Pittsburgh Post Gazette. It's a formation known as the Williston Basin , but is more commonly referred to as the 'Bakken.' And it stretches from Northern Montana, through North Dakota and into Canada . For years, U. S. oil exploration has been considered a dead end. Even the 'Big Oil' companies gave up searching for major oil wells decades ago. However, a recent technological breakthrough has opened up the Bakken's massive reserves..... and we now have access of up to 500 billion barrels. And because this is light, sweet oil, those billions of barrels will cost Americans just $16 PER BARREL!

That's enough crude to fully fuel the American economy for 41 years straight.

2. And if THAT didn't throw you on the floor, then this next one should - because it's from TWO YEARS AGO!

U. S. Oil Discovery- Largest Reserve in the World!
Stansberry Report Online - 4/20/2006


Hidden 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the Rocky Mountains lies the largest untapped oil reserve in the world. It is more than 2 TRILLION barrels.. On August 8, 2005 President Bush mandated its extraction. In three and a half years of high oil prices none has been extracted. With this motherload of oil why are we still fighting over off-shore drilling?

They reported this stunning news: We have more oil inside our borders, than all the other proven reserves on earth. Here are the official estimates:

- 8-times as much oil as Saudi Arabia
- 18-times as much oil as Iraq
- 21-times as much oil as Kuwait
- 22-times as much oil as Iran
- 500-times as much oil as Yemen
- and it's all right here in the Western United States .

HOW can this BE? HOW can we NOT BE extracting this? Because the environmentalists and others have blocked all efforts to help America become independent of foreign oil! Again, we are letting a small group of people dictate our lives and our economy....WHY?

James Bartis, lead researcher with the study says we've got more oil in this very compact area than the entire Middle East -more than 2 TRILLION barrels untapped. That's more than all the proven oil reserves of crude oil in the world today, reports The Denver Post.

Don't think 'OPEC' will drop its price - even with this find? Think again! It's all about the competitive marketplace, - it has to. Think OPEC just might be funding the environmentalists?
Got your attention/ire up yet? Hope so! Now, while you're thinking about it .... and hopefully P.O'd, do this:

3. Pass this along. If you don't take a little time to do this, then you should stifle yourself the next time you want to complain about gas prices .. because by doing NOTHING, you've forfeited your right to complain.
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Now I just wonder what would happen in this country if every one of you sent this to every one in your address book.

By the way...this is all true.. Check it out at the link below!
GOOGLE it or follow this link. It will blow your mind.

http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1911
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The propaganda overwhelmed me. It's amazing, and people fall for it. This peaked my husbands curiosity so he did a little research.

Yes there is "oil". I use the term oil loosely because the "oil" is referred to as shale oil. Now without going into the entire diatribe of the evils of oil (some of that comes a bit later), I did a reply-all and sent the following e-mail to everyone on her list.

REPLY E-MAIL TO MY AUNT AND THE ENTIRE LIST OF ORIGINAL RECIPIENTS

If you are really interested in this topic, you may want to read this:

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3868

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Well, it's obvious that my aunt did not take the time to read or even look at the article, because this is what she replied back thinking that I was one of those people who were ticked off that our God given right to drill for that oil on US soil was being blocked by those environmentalist wacko tree huggers. (Yes, she wrote her e-mail in CAPS.)

REPLY E-MAIL FROM MY AUNT TO ME

YES, I HAVE A FRIEND IN W.VA. WHOSE SISTER-IN -LAW LIVES ON THAT LAND AND THEY ARE STILL WAITING TO BECOME RICH, BUT IT LOOKS LIKE ITS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. SHE SENT ME A NOTE ALSO.
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It is a bizarre oxymoron...my aunt is a gardener and an encyclopedia for holistic health. She is highly religious. Doesn't drink nor smoke. She is extremely frugal and doesn't throw much away. She is a talented rug maker. She buys and sells at flea markets. If you sat down and had a conversation with her about natural things, you would think that she could slip into the "tree hugger" category. I truly love my aunt. I love hanging out with her and talking holistic health. She knows so much, and my cousins don't take her seriously. She and I will talk for hours. We have a lot in common. Yet, I think she is also the perfect example of the type of person that has been created/molded by propaganda.

REPLY E-MAIL TO MY AUNT TODAY

It doesn't tick me off that it is not drilled. It ticks me off that people WANT to drill.

It's not as easy as it sounds. Some of the "oil" comes from shale rock which is extracting oil from rock. It is highly destructive, poisons the water and creates huge amounts of air pollution.

Even if "drilling" did occur, at best, there is only a 6 month supply over the course of twenty years. So, if there are about 180 days (in a six month time span...30 days x 6 months) that's less than a ten day supply for each of the twenty years at the modern rate of US oil consumption.

The entire ordeal is a farce and a scam to further pad the pockets of big oil business. Why would you want to support something like that? So your friend's sister-in-law (someone you don't know) can be rich? For money that doesn't benefit humanity as a whole, a part of this beloved United States and Earth gets to become a toxic waste pit? That ticks me off.

Why would I give a holy crap about other people's wallets? I'd rather change my lifestyle and leave a healthy clean planet for my child and future grandchildren to enjoy life on as I (and YOU) got to.

People need to change their lifestyles. Because at the US consumption rate of oil, even alleged "trillions" of barrels will NOT make us any less dependent on foreign oil.

To desecrate the Earth is a direct abomination of our holy Creator and a direct sin to our future generations.

Safe travels.

Love you,
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And my final comment on this is that if people don't like being dependent on foreign oil, why don't they just STOP using oil?

Using oil is a choice, and you can choose NOT to use it. That is one sure way to stop dependence on foreign oil.