Judges And Travel And Crude And Crud.

       There are two interesting items in the news today. Why is it that our Supreme Court Justices get reimbursed for trips to foreign countries and weddings? Aside from a salary of around a quarter of a million per year, and book royalties and speaking fees, the nine justices are reimbursed for travel including to foreign countries. One even turned in travel expenses to a wedding. I'm just not sure we need to pay for our Supreme Court Justices to go all over the world. Do they need to see how other countries handle their laws? I thought our judges decided cases dealing with our laws, not Norway's or Uruguay's or wherever's laws. I think it's fine if a Supreme Court Justice wants to visit Italy or Japan, but do we have to pay for them to do it.
       Then for the first time in four decades America will begin to export oil. Really? Well yes, but we've been exporting gasoline and other oil products all along. So the real question is; are we or are we not already energy independent? I mean, if we stopped exporting oil or it's refined products, would we then have enough oil to meet our own needs? And if we would, then why do we need the Keystone XL pipeline? From everything I've read, and with all the hype about needing that pipeline to provide oil for our needs, and the fact that if the XL is built, most if not all of that oil is already spoken for. And that 'spoken for' oil will be shipped over seas. So that the result of the pipeline would mean that America would be left with none of that oil, but all the crud removed from it in the process of cleaning and refining it would be our gift.
       Don't we have enough problem getting rid of the crud we generate with our own oil? Why do we need Canada's crud? How does that help us? Oh I understand that a few international corporations will make a ton of money off this project. They may call themselves American companies, but really they're far more international than just national. They're AINO (American In Name only) and while they do generate lots of jobs, they're not gonna quit generating those jobs if they don't get their way on the Keystone XL pipeline. They still want to sell our oil.