Languages ​​have become more dynamic, they are in a state of flux, acquiring new vocabulary from other cultures. English is particularly adept at borrowing from other languages.

There are more foreign loan words in German than the other way around: computer, car rental, fast food, to name just a few. They are often elements of everyday life with practical use.

Even some innocent of the French survive as a restaurant, though one got rid of the fries that were politically corrected to fries of freedom.

The English language already contains a number of words that originate from the German language: Blitz, Lebensraum, Zeitgeist, Schadenfreude, and Gestalt (some are more respectable, some less tainted than others). All are abstracts, their concepts are better understood in their original coinage than the English equivalent.

I am propagating another. The timing is correct. Daily political events and their reports in the mainstream media are clamoring for Volksverdummung. For once, the German word is shorter than its translation: deliberate deception of the public.

Let me give you a few examples that, coincidentally, all have to do with record levels of gasoline. In their latest segment on how to survive the creak and shock at the gas pump, CNN and its medical guru whom I adore advises to walk more: save gas and lose weight. What a novel idea! Smaller cars need less gas. Plain! Drive slower to reduce gas mileage. Are all the gratuitous comments and consumer insults, or are Americans still asleep and totally ignorant?

A week or so ago, the prevailing wisdom emanating from the White House was a gasoline tax break to lighten the burden on consumers. It’s not a big deal for people like Bush and McCain, since they have their own oil well, free use of cars, or access to a money-minting press.

Now Bush and his political twin, McCain, had a great idea. Offshore drilling, ruled out since disasters like the one off the Santa Barbara coast in 1979, could be the answer to the current oil price debacle. Florida Governor Crist, elected on a promise not to drill in the Everglades, etc., turned a corner so as not to ruin his chances as McCain’s running mate.

Chevron spokesman Mickey Driver, speaking to NPR today about the challenges of building offshore oil rigs, admits that we won’t see a price drop anytime soon because of this. Neither politicians nor oil companies have yet answered the question why the millions of acres (approximately 68) that are already leased are not being drilled to increase production.

However, just last year, the Department of Energy (DOE) reported that lifting the moratorium on drilling on the outer continental shelf (OCS) “would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas prices before 2030 “, long after investments in alternative energy sources would have a much greater impact on lowering consumer gasoline prices:” Projections in the case DOE OCS indicate that access to the Pacific, Atlantic, and Eastern Gulf regions would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030 … determined in the international market, however, any impact on average wellhead prices is expected to be negligible. ” (Quotes taken from the official press release: http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/fl20_schultz/DrillingFacts.html).

In the years that followed the disastrous predictions of the Club of Rome (1970s), that oil resources would be depleted in a few decades, we consumers heard the litany prayed by both oil producing companies and their cronies, that is , politicians of the stature of Bush and consorts that one would begin to look for alternatives to our dependence on oil. Hydropower, solar power, wind turbines, all great, but unfortunately not yet feasible as gas prices weren’t high enough. How high is high enough exactly? Answer: To justify investing and making money with these alternatives. This mantra has been repeated over the years. Now having reached approx. $ 140, no convincing attempt has been made here yet.

You hear about dark little countries like Iceland and Denmark that are quite oil independent and dependent on turbine power. Solar energy is a great Germany that is a technology leader in the field. Where is the United States, Florida? Where I live, they have enough hours of sunshine to contribute to the power grid. Rather than perpetuate oil subsidies worth billions, the Republican Party still doesn’t talk about energy conservation, but wants to waive the moratorium on drilling.

Nobody in the Republican Party listens to NPR? Their engaging, unbiased and non-derogatory discussions with experts they invite on topics like offshore drilling today are easy to follow and excel in their depth of information. Many politicians, who are not bribed, assigned and pressured excessively, would benefit from listening.

Perhaps another example from Volksverdummung would have been more convincing, for example, the reasons that led Americans to believe that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and that we would be received as liberators, that the war would pay for itself; ironically because of the oil. I hope the concept has overcome the language barrier.