So the major obstacle to the development of new supplies is not geology but what happens above ground: international affairs, politics, investment and technology.
If there is a ground zero in the cultural wars, it is Missouri, a state where pro-life groups are strong and well organized and their agenda dominates local politics.
I have been a practitioner of tough politics for many decades. There is little that amazes me and even less that shocks me.
I think I could argue that the press has more impact on politics than corporations.
What matters most in politics is personality. It's not issues; it's not image. It's who you are and what you represent.
Beyond politics, the West is suffering from what can be called a crisis of brokenness - broken institutions, broken families and broken souls.
I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.
I learned early on, stay away from politics, stay away from religion and don't talk about sports. Those three right there will get you in trouble.
Set politics and party aside: If it's not right for Michigan's small businesses and middle class, it's never been right with me.
I have to have an emotional connection to what I am ultimately selling because it is emotion, whether you are selling religion, politics, even a breath mint.
After much prayerful consideration, I feel that I must say I have climbed my last political mountain.
Digitization is certainly challenging the old ways of doing things, whether that's in publishing or politics. But it's not the end. In many ways, it is just the beginning.
I think that you can disagree with people and debate over their positions with issues without engaging in the politics of personal destruction.
I've often thought that the gauntlet of American politics is more individualistic, more expensive, more unpredictable than in many other democracies.
As politics is disconnected from its ethical and material moorings, it becomes easier to punish and imprison young people than to educate them.
I learnt more about politics during one South Dakota dust storm than in seven years at the university.
I don't want to express my opinion about actual politics, because if I do, I have to be responsible for my decision.
Whenever a technology enables people to organize at a pace that wasn't before possible, new kinds of politics emerge.
Possibly the fact that I was physically quite feeble, a relatively short little fellow, attracted me to that idea of a very authoritative and aggressive version of Conservative politics.
Participatory complexity may well be the key descriptor of the 21st century - in our economies, in our politics, and in our everyday lives.
As I became very defined in my personal politics, I turned down some films that I slightly regret now; I'm not going to say what they were.
