McCain is Dreadful!

I didn't know the ghastly Phil Gramm was a higher up in McCain's organization.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24844889

Message to America:

Obama may be far from perfect, he may even be subpar, but if you vote for McCain you are absolutely voting for more of the same Bushshit! And the consequences going forward will make what we have experienced to date pale by comparison.

MARK MY WORDS!

Echoes of McCarthyism:

The lunatics will run the asylum if you let them. I offer as exhibit A, the following story:

http://www.boston.com/ae/celebrity/articles/2008/05/28/dunkin_donuts_yanks_rachael_ray_ad/

The Great Filter.

Was there life on Mars? This question is often dismissed by many of us as silly or even irrelevant. However, it is almost a given that most of us assume that answering yes to the question amounts to good news for our species. The logic behind our positive feeling is as follows: If there was life on another planet in our very own solar system, then the chances for life in some other part of the galaxy, let alone in the rest of the universe, must be excellent. Hurray, we are not alone! Unfortunately, according to Nick Bostrom, director of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University, any revelations that life once existed on Mars, especially if that life was advanced, is the worst possible news for our species going forward. For anyone interested in understanding why this is so, (today's blog entry title is a hint) I highly recommend reading the fascinating article at the link below.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/05/25/the_dread_planet/

Take Him Out, Put Her In!

The headline reads, "Mother sentenced to 20 years in jail for keeping son in cage." Upon reading the story, it seems clear that the mother in question is less a criminal then simply off her trolley. Then again, a lot of criminality can be laid at the doorstep of madness. Well, that's my view. So what can we say about a culture that either can't properly understand a crime such as this, or does have an awareness, but chooses to ignore it in sentencing.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080523/ap_on_re_us/caged_teen

$100 Oil?

The worrisome headlines and frightening articles about the present and future price of the second most precious liquid on the planet, oil, are coming fast and furious. Those with a contrarian bent love to see this sort of thing, as it usually portends a top of substantial portions. We'll just have to wait and see if the very alarming but not unexpected trend continues, or if the bull market in Texas Tea, the one being cheerlead to a fare thee well by such dubious Wall Street operators as Goldman Sachs, goes into a serious, albeit temporary, nosedive.

No one should be surprised if somewhere between here and $150 dollars a barrel, oil does decide to take a detour to, oh, say, $100 dollars a barrel. That's what markets do without fail, fool the overwhelming majority at just the point when they are most committed to a trade. One should remember that (fictitious government numbers aside) the nation is in a recession that is bound to get worse, and so there are ample reasons going forward for oil to take, at least, a breather. And should it come to pass that we do see a fast and furious twenty percent swoon in the price of oil, that would likely represent an excellent chance to top off one's tank, so to speak, because the discount probably won't last very long.

Remember Bismarck's Dictum.

"Never believe a rumor until it has been officially denied", said the Chancellor of Germany, Otto Von Bismarck. And then there are non denial denials like the following one issued today from The White House regarding recently alleged military intentions on the part of the Bush Administration towards Iran. The story is at the link.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080520/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_iran

Take a Hike, Mr. President

The Saudis have politely told the The President of The United States to take a hike regarding his request that the House of Saud pump more oil in order to drive down the price. One commentator put it thusly:

"Saudi Arabia does not have customers that are making requests for oil that they are not able to satisfy," Stephen Hadley said on a day when oil prices rose above $127 a barrel, a record high. "What the Saudis wanted to tell us was we're doing everything we can do ... to meet this problem, but it's a complicated problem."

A complicated problem? If one subscribes to the work of historian William Engdahl, at least twenty to thirty dollars of the present price of oil is due to hedge fund activity. His thesis, which you can read over at the financialsense.com website is well thought out and plausible, but then he isn't a Peak Oil advocate. Peak Oil proponents assert that the price of oil is still entirely too low. By their runes the Saudis are likely pumping about as much as they can now since their fields are past their peak rate of production during a time of tight demand. Maybe this is so, but then access to reliable data about the condition of, Ghawar, for example, the largest oil field in the Saudi realm, or anyone's realm for that matter, is, at best, sketchy.

One would like to know more about the particulars of Mr. Hadley's first sentence regarding Saudi Arabia's "customers." That sentence, qualified as it is, has the ring of lawyer/politician speak, and as such, rings as less than forthright. What customers? Given that a lot of nations are said to be getting priced right out of the market, has Saudi Arabia's customer base changed appreciably in recent times? Perhaps customers other than the U.S. have made requests to the Saudis for oil that have not been satisfied and so they no longer are customers. After all, while the Saudis do offer an excellent grade of light sweet crude, they do not offer the only viable grade of crude oil. Perhaps some erstwhile customers are purchasing inferior grades of crude at lower prices elsewhere. One would very much like to get to the bottom of this "complicated problem." In the meantime, as summer driving season approaches, so, it would appear, does four and five dollar gasoline.