Blind Squirrels

Last year I wrote about the newfound respectability of Michael Moore. While I thought him to have once been a big, fat slob, he seemed to have cleaned up his act and toned down his rhetoric to promote his healthcare propaganda film.

On Larry King today, Moore was back to his unkempt shenanigans. Touting anti-Bush blather and other socialist talking points. However I want to highlight one point he made.

In a discussion on gasoline prices, Moore rightly dismissed our obsession with fuel prices to focus on a seldom discussed topic: the other uses of petroleum. Plastics may, as the commercial goes, make is possible, but what makes plastics possible? Hmmmm. That would be oil. Everything from clothing to eyeglass frames to shampoo bottles rely on petro-chemicals: i.e. substances derived from and dependent upon oil.

But this can be taken-- and Moore did take it-- another step. Most agriculture fertilizers are petro derived. That's right. The most common source of our most common fertilizers is natural gas. In fact, a major shift has occured under the radar as fertilizer production has shifted offshore to low-cost natural gas markets. We now import natural gas derived fertilizer rather than producing it in North America. By the way, I know this not because M.M. says so, but rather because I worked in the industry for 6 years.

For those who are not familiar with the industry, natural gas-- being a gas-- tends t0 be less fungible than oil-- a liquid (really a goo). Therefore, natural gas has tended to be far more local in production, price, and delivery. An easy demand destruction has already taken place in the fertilizer industry. Becasuse natural gas is now so valuable, shifting fertilizer production to overseas sources was an easy fix.

This avoids the underlying issue: the primary source of fertilizer for our domestic agriculture comes from a diminishing global petro-based product. As oil and natural gas become more expensive to recover-- if not outright more scarce-- we do not endanger simply our transportation fuel, but our food source and our source of one of modern societies most important materials. We may replace oil with nuclear or solar power, but where is the replacement for plastic? How do we grow food-- or make ethanol!!!-- without petro based fertilizers?

There is no easy answer. Michael Moore emphasized this very point on national television. While I continue to loathe his political views generally, even a blind squirrel finds a nut occasionally.

Taxing Time

I thought from the time of my waking today, that I owed an obligatory blog on the onerousness of the tax code: It is April 15th. I am anti-tax. Connect the dots. My concern was that I couldn't think of anything worth writing about.

Now, it will be necessary to betray an uncomfortable truth in order to get to my point. I expect you will all overlook this transgression and focus on the object of my compelling argument.

Thank you.

Today on "The View", the topic of taxes was of high interest. Whoopi Goldberg, as moderator, brough the topic to the fore. She lamented the dozen or so taxes and fees affixed to the typical cell phone bill, and she lamented the injustice of paying more in taxes simply because she is famous (by this she means rich).

According to Whoopi, it is unjust that someone who makes $1 more than someone else should pay a higher tax burden. I was highly attentive and on the edge of my seat. What would the bleeding hearts on the panel say to this most conservative of tax arguments?

Joy attempted to subvert Whoopi's argument by maintaining that she had called the "Danish Consulate" and learned that the Danes pay 50% in taxes, but unlike Americans receive a host of social benefits not worth repeating. Her fundamental comparison was that Whoopi pays 50-60% in tax and so do the people of Denmark. Why then, she asked, do we get so little in return?

Of course the answer is that in Denmark 50-60% is the average, while here Whoopi is in the top eschelon.

The important take-away for me is that all is not hopeless. Everyone seemed to "get" Whoopi's point about the injustice of paying more just because you make more. They also were sympathetic to her cell phone illustration of tax nickel and diming. From this I have to believe that the American People remain fundamentally fair-minded and apoplectic as regards the tax code. The idea of a flat tax was unabashedly advocated by Whoopi Goldberg on "The View" whether she realizes it or not, and I find this very heartening on this tax day.