In 2010, the GOP took back the House with a commanding majority and took away the filibuster-proof majority from the Democrat-controlled Senate.

The people spoke and demonstrated their displeasure about the forced Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and its 2,400-pages long legislative document, which only passed the House by a five-vote majority late in the evening on New Year’s Eve.

Later, not a single GOP senator voted in its favor. The 2,400 or so pages did not deal exclusively with issues of health care; there were articles and sections threatening personal freedom and constitutional rights that had nothing to do with health care.

It was also the year when the Obama administration declared open warfare on the oil and coal consumers and on the petro-chemical industry in general.

The cap-and-trade bill was defeated in the House, and the leader of the Senate did not even put it up for vote. However, the administration had put its jack-booted foot on the throat of BP following the rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico before proper investigations were allowed to establish the questions of guilt and innocence.

Region VI EPA Administrator Al Armendariz  suggested in a training session that the Romans had a wonderful method to put the fear of Roman gods in the inhabitants of occupied Turkish villages: Just single out a few prominent citizens and crucify them, and then the rest will toe the lines. Armendariz’s conclusion: That is what the EPA plans to do with the oil companies.

Every real or imagined violation of the ever-increasing rules and regulations shall have draconian consequences.

Crucifixion existed at the time of Jesus, though the symbol of his punishment is banished from every school and public office. However, as long as the cross is for the oil companies, it is politically correct.

Those remarks were made when the huge Bakken shale oil fields in North Dakota and Montana had already been tapped, or were being explored, and the Marcellus natural gas fields had been found in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

These are just two examples. Estimates are that all the deep petro-chemical treasures could be equivalent to four times the amount in Saudi Arabia. It is, indeed, the most appropriate time to “crucify” the very people that can bring those treasures to the surface.

Then, there is the litigation that a U.S. district judge threw out just a few days ago. Oil companies were sued on the bases that deep-well drilling, horizontal drilling and fracturing (or “fracking” the shale to bring the oil/gas up) contaminate the water table.

Fracking has been in use for 60 years. The defendants produced copious amount of technical and safety records, while the EPA could not show sufficient evidence to substantiate the accusations.

Just a side episode is the question of the Keystone pipeline. I encourage the reader to Google it.

The official unemployment rate is stubbornly above 8 percent in spite of the $1 trillion or so bailout and quantitative easing. The national debt is $15.5 trillion — greater than the yearly GDP. The United States debt has lost its triple-A rating, and the prices are going up every week.

 I note here that the official Consumer Price Index does not include food and fuel prices. Anyone buying gas or going to the supermarket will notice the inflationary trends (the real CPI is up by at least 4 percent since this time last year).

Lately, we have witnessed a disgusting Republican food fight during the primaries. The GOP hopefuls accused each other with everything under the sun short of child sex abuse and wife-beating.

Since Mitt Romney has become the presumed Republican candidate, the Obama machine is working in three shifts. So, now we all know that the Republicans want to ban birth-control pills (not true,) abortions (not true, unless the cost is charged to the taxpayers), Ann Romney never did a day’s work in her life and Mitt Romney was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.

Nero is playing the fiddle while Rome is burning. Will the people speak again in November?

Tom Pattantyus is a retired electronic engineer and can be reached at: tom.pattantyus@sbcglobal.net