More drilling is part of a strategy that works

I do not understand how anyone can say that drilling for offshore oil and oil elsewhere will not affect our situation. I also disagree when it is said it will not have an effect for years.

Let’s turn back the clock about 35 years. The oil gangsters of OPEC decided to cut the production of crude oil and drove up the price. The United States then decided to allocate several billion dollars to exploration for oil and for alternative energies. When the oil gangsters realized the United States was serious about this, they opened up the oil faucets and drove the price of crude oil back down, and in the process made that several-billion-dollar investment in new oil and energy sources unattractive.

Read more: More drilling is part of a strategy that works

Vintage BMWs to rumble through county

Aptos will be overrun by vintage BMWs this weekend — 65 to be exact.

The BMW Vintage & Classic Car Club of America is holding a road rally for vintage BMW automobiles and motorcycles through Northern California, beginning Thursday at the Seascape Resort in Aptos.

Sixty-five vintage BMWs, manufactured between 1928 to 2002, are expected to participate in this year’s California Marathon, a rally which covers 2,000 miles of California roads. The rally starts in Aptos, then heads north to Eureka and southeast to South Lake Tahoe before returning to Aptos.

“We wanted to have the rally in California because it’s a wonderful place,” said club president Goetz Pfafflin, referring to the scenic Northern California roads with views of the Pacific Ocean.

This is the club’s first rally in California and its second in the United States. The club was established in 1973, but reorganized in 2003.

Pfafflin said the club’s first rally grew out of a European rally where he and seven others brought their vintage BMWs to Germany in 2001. They drove 2,500 miles through 11 countries before returning home.

Read more: Vintage BMWs to rumble through county

American Airlines waives third bag fee for traveling soldiers

American Airlines Inc. said Wednesday it will waive fees on third checked bags when the passenger is an active member of the U.S. military, effective immediately.

Fort Worth, Texas-based AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR), the parent company of American Airlines, says fees on first and second checked bags have always been waived for active-duty soldiers. The carrier also said it knew soldiers traveling on duty were reimbursed by the military for fees paid beyond the first two bags.

Tom Del Valle, American’s senior vice president-airport services said Wednesday “after recently, hearing of the burden the military reimbursement process put on soliders traveling to war zones, the choice for us to forego payment for a third check bag from the Department of Defense was clear.”

American says the company’s previous policy allowed military personnel to travel with up to 190 pounds of luggage at no charge, which included a 100-pound bag, a 50-pound checked bag and another 40 pound-carry on bag.

Read more: American Airlines waives third bag fee for traveling soldiers

Lights go out in Georgia

RUSSIA’S lopsided five-day war with Georgia was nasty, brutish and short – to borrow philosopher Thomas Hobbes’ view of life. And as Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called a halt to fighting Tuesday, Moscow had achieved its war aims.

Georgian forces were driven from the separatist South Ossetia enclave that wants to join Russian North Ossetia. Georgia’s U.S.-trained military was routed and “disorganized” (in Mr. Medvedev’s words), having fled to the outskirts of their capital, Tbilisi.

The Russians pursued them into Georgia’s undisputed territory, destroying bases, airfields and command centres, bombing urban areas and taking control of the main east-west highway.

Georgia’s ambitions to join NATO and the European Union have been set back and its ability to offer Europe a secure oil-and-gas pipeline route that isn’t controlled by Russia has also been cast in doubt.

By humbling and destabilizing a troublesome U.S. ally, Moscow has shown there are limits to what America can or will do to confront Russia in its old sphere of influence.

Read more: Lights go out in Georgia