Ah, living here in The Marcellus, and meeting many new area people, both native and transplants who share the goal to bring the truth about Horizontal Drilling and Fracking to the public.
We have begun the loose forming of or own group to assemble the most knowledgable and vested people to share the story of The Marcellus and the place where the Oil and Natural Gas businesses started.
From pre Oil City, the Native Americans use of Bitumen, the salt mines and wells that encountered oil, Colonel Drake,the first natural gas well in the city of Pittsburgh for the use of George Westinghouse's industries, the first commercial well in Murrysville, PA, and on to the Shale play today, we have been an innovtive, rugged, risk taking people and industry.








Sure it would be nice if everyone had their own gas well royalties coming in, but since that is not impossible, we need to look at the tax dollars, revenues spent with local companies, well paying jobs & opportunities created, and more taxes to help balance the budget and repair the infrastructure.
No average paying casino jobs with the rise in crime, poverty, and bankruptcy they bring, but family oriented jobs, the values PA was founded on and one we here so often from the citizens.
As we comment and share the good and honest news here, we will surely move forth to a better and more energy independent future.

DOE to convert Northeast heating oil reserve to ULSD - Oil & Gas Journal

More good news for the marketers of cheap and efficient natural gas.
DOE to convert Northeast heating oil reserve to ULSD - Oil & Gas Journal

Reflections On A Year

2010 was a very tumultuous year for me with extreme valleys and mountain tops causing a lot of reflection on many personal searches.
Like most people, I am constantly seeking the meaning of life, and each year, as I search, I end up back closer to where I was as a youth, but with a greater perspective of what is important.

Spiritually, having grown up in a pretty fundamental, but not Pentecostal group (Free Methodist), I felt it too restrictive and rebelled as a young teenager. My searches lead me to the occult, paganism, hedonism, and just nothing to believe in.

Life was beginning to be a chore, I settled down a bit, got an education, and a new wife. But there was still something missing, so I searched out some churches, mainstream Protestantism, Pentecostal, and Non-Denominational. After a few years, I realized that none fit, and I started drifting again, went to a few Catholic Masses, some open study groups on Judaism, and even started reading the Quran.

Not finding what I wanted, I went back to drifting, did a lot of Internet searches and read, read a lot.

Recently I realized that my career which has been successful was bound by strict rules to perform the Quality Functions I love to do and get paid well to do. Strict rules, that if were broken, caused the whole Quality to program to collapse.

I realized that I liked the rules and the Old Testament teachings of my youth started coming back to me. I finally found out that in the majority they were based on practical ways of living my, not restrictive rules that limited me to expression, wants, needs, and pride in my accomplishments as the New Testament Non- Denominational churches do. This along with the Wealth, Riches, and Prosperity Ministries, along with the rife judgement so prevalent in these mega and cultish churches caused me to drift away.

I decided that I would check out Quaker teachings, some more about Judaism, and make a choice. Old Testament ways became more important and I reflected more on the Creation/Evolution arguments, make a few other queries, and find out where the Free Methodist church stood today.

As I checked out the website, I found that the spin-off was really more about slavery issues than anything else, the Free Methodists being staunchly anti-slavery. Having traveled the world and seen exploitation at it's worse in sexual slavery (pre-teens), natives being held in virtual slavery or forced to the dangerous jobs for only a few pennies, ex-pat workers being exploited in the ultra rich countries like the UAE, immigrants seeking a future ridiculed, exploited, and arrested in "the super power nations", and even the penal system in the USA being used to fill prisons and work in the prison industries that are owned, controlled by, or having vested interests of the politicians and the ultra wealthy.

So now, I am going to visit a local Free Methodist congregation to see what it is like today. I know that the teachings and the simplicity I seen there is important to me and I wonder if I am the prodigal son, going back to his roots. I do not proselytize, but I hope my search ends as I near my 65th year. More on this later.

Some Of What We Do!

Some Of What We Do!

Allegheny Township Giant Eagle ceases food collections - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Here we find a more local followup to my previous blog about large corporations taking over the sense of community.
I am aware of these local towns and Giant Eagle, the largest grocery purveyor in W. PA and NE Ohio.
Long ago, Giant Eagle was a small local geoup with a strong sense of community, local roots, and a humanitatian outlook.
In fact, 30 or 35 years ago, Giant Eagle corporate owned stores encouraged such drives covering a plethora of causes.
I personally participated in one for the Johnstown, PA flood of 1976 and management was very co-operative in all aspects of the drive.

But, as all good things Giant Eagle became a mega corporation with large overstocked stores that make shopping a dreaded chore with the choices, artfully laid out aisles to induce one to buy, the cooking & baking aromas used to lure shoppers to high priced items & precooked meals that are probably over purchased and wasted, indifferent management & staff, and the privacy killing policy of tracking purchases. Self serve checkouts, which are often proven to be inacurrate & hard to rectify were started, furthur reducing the work staff at a closely held & privately owned business.

The edges lost by these self serving corporate decesions hopefully take the edge off Giant Eagle and other mega stores, returning to the pleasurable and customer service oriented experiences of the smaller locally owned and charitable stores.
Somewhere the mega store concept has to be challenged as it destroys jobs and charity. I for one, a Giant Eagle shopper in the past, stopped shopping there because of over priced goods, poor customer service, and do as much small store shopping as I can, including independently owned stores that purvey fresher meats, fruits, & vegetables, serve with a smile and helpful attitude, and even small stores like ALDI and Save-A-Lot that do not overwhelm me. The selections at the smaller stores change more often and allow me to try different foods that I would not find in the mega supermarkets. And these small stores often offer local products that cannot compete with food manufacurer paid for shelf space at the mega stores, furthuring decimating the economy. It is indecent, immoral, and unethical that manufacturers actually pay for the best shelf space and crowd out the local fresher products.

Think factory farms like Tyson, Smithfield & others and their inhumane treatment of animals, antibiotics, cancerous tumors, and the rest that gets reported. I am not an animal rights advocate, but I believe that we deserve freedom from over medicated sources, freedom from the gross use of antibiotics, freedom from genticially manipulated foods, and just all around cleaner foods that are more often found in community based farms.



Allegheny Township Giant Eagle ceases food collections - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

PittsburghTrib.com

PittsburghTrib.com

Another business that was a participant of the community, not just a distant corporation that takes out the local dollars, sends most away, and contributes little to the community.
How far we have fallen as a people to not patronize our own!

Though I have never been in Lake City or shopped at Weislogel's I see it as I travel the country and now, even in other nations. At present, I am working in Birmingham, Al and find after a 10 year hiatus, the quality of life and social responsibility has fallen to a point I never would have suspected. "Southern Hospitality" is very hard to find here now, but if you want big box stores and chain restaurants with poor service and uninformed staff with no concept of customer service, it has arrived.

Dining, shopping, whatever, I try to patronize the small local establishments, but too many of our locals do not see the ramifications and the degradation happening in our communities and overshop in the chains. Sadly, in Western PA, where I live, I find retirees the worst offenders, shopping instead of socializing and having hobbies.
And this is the generation that fought labor wars for equity in the workplace and once believed in community.

Oh well, another rant here, I hope it strikes a chord with someone.