How much longer till AKC comes clean on Rotties and Pit Bulls?

Yet another tragic story of child killed by family pet..

Mom: Baby Attacked, Killed By Dog

Police are investigating the death of a 7-month-old baby whose mother said was attacked by the family dog.

Katrina Mitchell called 911 Tuesday afternoon saying her infant daughter had been attacked by the family's Rottweiler.

This is a tragic story, yet anecdotal, and we only hear about these things because of the ubiquitous capacities of the internet. But one thing is clear when you read enough of them; you never hear that the family Jack Russell Terrier, or Labrador Retriever attacked the baby. Last one I recall that was not a Pit Bull or Rottweiler was a Great Dane. And while it MAY have happened, I cannot remember a family German Shepherd (Alsatian} attacking a child.
Dog 'Experts' explain the attacks by those two ferocious breeds away by saying they were improperly trained or socialized.
Sorry but Bullshit! We all can't ship our puppies off to Cesar Millan to be trained properly.

Reporter Snookered by Warmists?

WUWT: Fish carried up a mountain on backs of llamas to escape global warming

The endangered vendace, that has been in Britain since the Ice Age, is in danger of dying out as lakes and rivers warm up because of man made global warming.
.....
Lord Chris Smith, Chairman of the Environment Agency, said British species have to be protected from climate change.

"In addition to the anticipated warming of lakes and rivers, we may also see an increase in the occurrence of extreme weather events such as floods, droughts and heatwaves.

"All of these could have an impact on much of the native wildlife in England, especially aquatic species such as the rare and specialised vendace, so we are taking action now to conserve the existing populations."

Emph mine.

Now comes the determination: Is the reporter just stupid/incompetent or a liar.

Her own readers took her to school in the comments, here
If you notice, her readers are better at research vetting the facts than she is.
And what will she write if the colony fails because water temp is too low?

I'll go easy on her: She is probably one of those who labored away in J-school 'to make a difference'
- so she is just an idiot, trusting in 'EXPERTS'. Experts at getting funding for their organizations.

New Improved Federal Budget Pie Chart

User Friendly Pie Chart

- Townhall: Michael Ramirez

This was done just prior to the 'agreement' but I guess you can see the 'crumb factor', right?

As it turns out, those crumbly 'cuts' weren't all that, anyway. CBS NEWS:

Many of the cuts appear to have been cuts in name only, because they came from programs that had unspent funds.
For example, $1.7 billion left over from the 2010 census; $3.5 billion in unused children's health insurance funds; $2.2 billion in subsidies for health insurance co-ops (that's something the president's new health care law is going to fund anyway); and $2.5 billion from highway programs that can't be spent because of restrictions set by other legislation.
About $10 billion of the cuts comes from targeting appropriations accounts previously used by lawmakers for so-called earmarks - pet projects like highways, water projects, community development grants and new equipment for police and fire departments. Republicans had already engineered a ban on earmarks when taking back the House this year.
Republicans also claimed $5 billion in savings by capping payments from a fund awarding compensation to crime victims. Under an arcane bookkeeping rule -- used for years by appropriators -- placing a cap on spending from the Justice Department crime victims fund allows lawmakers to claim the entire contents of the fund as "budget savings." The savings are awarded year after year.

Read more about it at AoS:
Suckers! We were fooled again.

The total amount appears to be somewhere between $8 and $14 billion actually cut.

That's out of $1,650 Billion shortfall this year.  Genius!

Note: Comments disputing the numbers will be accepted and researched and corrected if need be. Comments pointing at something else - like 'Soze yer mom!' will be sent where they belong: the shitcan.

Trump and the Birther Nonsense

Just a few weeks after Hawaii's Governor said he was going to end it once and for all, then didn't have anything new to offer, Trump has restarted the controversy. .
It's ridiculously distracting.
But let's put the blame for this where it REALLY belongs: On the State of Hawaii's stupid privacy laws. Only the subject can see the original certificate.

The records dept, as directed by state legislature, of Hawaii skates around the issue here:
Dept of Health faq on Obama's vital records

The pertinent clause is

2 Index Data

Haw. Rev. Stat. §338-18(d) states, “Index data consisting of name and sex of the registrant, type of vital event, and such other data as the director may authorize shall be made available to the public.” Refer to link above for HRS §338-18.

Index data consisting of name and sex of the registrant, and type of event is made available to the public. The director, in accordance with HRS §338-18(d), has not authorized any other data to be made available to the public.

Once the election was over it's done. Unless there's absolute outright provable fraud, and there's no real indication of it, the whole thing is moot. What's important is that it doesn't happen again.

But dont hold your breath... you're going to just have to trust authority.

Long, Long Ago...

Reminisces of youth, and other disjointed crap.

I just turned 68 and of course got a lot of congrats and remarks on my facebook page.
To all those peeps, thanks. I understand. I also got asked why I missed our fiftieth reunion which most celebrated this year.

FIRST, I happened to have been called to Canton in August and September, to assist my youngest on a major renovation on his twenties vintage Sears house. This consisted of lopping off everything above the 2nd story ceiling joists and building all new from there up. The crew consisted of me, him, his two teenage boys and their friends. In other words, he did the work and I helped. And they mostly watched, humped some lumber, and swept up now and then.


- I did make it to Homecoming though. There's that.

No Comment needed...




heh...

Dumb Soccer Apology of the Week

Every World Cup Brings out the grouches who don't understand the game, think it's boring and just as soon as their baseball game is over or while they wait for the latest Pro Rasslin' PPV, sit down and dash off a letter to their local paper telling us exactly how boring it is.

Sadly some papers let someone who ALSO doesn't really get it handle the response. That's case this week with an editor of the Columbus Dispatch:
Soccer takes a few kicks from guilt-ridden uncle

Mr. Stein: It’s nice to see that there are others (Mailbox, last Sunday) who find soccer a bit yawn-inspiring.

I think the last sentence in your reply best made the point: “Soccer is an equalizer; anybody can play it.” It does even the playing field, I suppose. But in this case, it seems to flatten it.

Bravissimo? For most, I’m sure this is true. “Boringissimo” is what guiltily comes to mind for me, even as I dutifully watch my nieces play it.

— Ron _____ by e-mail

Ron: Soccer is not for everyone, obviously, but it sure seems to me that the World Cup is strong enough that even the staunchest blue-blooded American sports fan would find reason to tune in. Do your nieces know you’re a closet hater? Bad Uncle Ron.

Since I can't get to the original letter, we have to refer to that. The 'Soccer is an equalizer' statement obviously means that all you need is a ball or something that looks something like a ball, some open space and you can play soccer.

Sadly some take it to mean that anyone can play the game and equate that to the excitement factor. As I said, some of these guys are baseball fans.. Do you know what the average Brit or European soccer fan says about baseball? That it's 'a game for English schoolgirls (Rounders) and boring as hell.'

Here's some more ideas:
- Golf is a great equalizer, anyone can play it.
- Chess is a great equalizer. Anyone can {try to} play it.

And how about 'Basketball is the Great Equalizer'....

Well, I'm sure you get the idea. Come ON!!! It's NOT like soccer is sucking up hours and hours of sportcenter every week. And someone please ask me what I think of Ultimate Fighting as a sport.

Whither Neanderthal?

The advancement of human civilization is owed to TRADE. Period.
- With a hat tip to Bishophill blog

It's been proposed for some time that the Neanderthal died out because the Human understood, and perhaps invented, the concept of barter.
Free trade may have finished off Neanderthals

Shogren tested his theory with simulations of population growth. He even gave the Neanderthals, who were larger than Homo sapiens, a head start by assuming they were better hunters and individually brought home more meat - which may or may not be true.

But because humans were allowed to trade, in two of three similar simulations, they overcame this initial handicap and ousted the Neanderthals within 7000 years. In the third simulation, the two ended up co-existing.

Now, Matt Ridley has come out with a book: The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves
in which he proposes that progress is based on expansion of the concept of free trade.

Over 10,000 years ago there were fewer than 10 million people on the planet. Today there are more than 6 billion, 99 per cent of whom are better fed, better sheltered, better entertained and better protected against disease than their Stone Age ancestors.

The availability of almost everything a person could want or need has been going erratically upwards for 10,000 years and has rapidly accelerated over the last 200 years: calories; vitamins; clean water; machines; privacy; the means to travel faster than we can run, and the ability to communicate over longer distances than we can shout. Yet, bizarrely, however much things improve from the way they were before, people still cling to the belief that the future will be nothing but disastrous.

In this original, optimistic book, Matt Ridley puts forward his surprisingly simple answer to how humans progress, arguing that we progress when we trade and we only really trade productively when we trust each other.

Think about all ancient civilisations that you've read about. Isn't it true? The Roman Empire - trade. The Chinese: trade (Remember: they were initially just a bunch of feudal tribes.)
One can easily assume that the Neanderthal were 'self-sufficient' hunter gatherers, much like the Australian aborigine, and had no need to trade other than with the next group. They instead migrated to follow the resource.

And let's look at what happens when trade is restrained. Ever wonder why the Pacific is full of 'Polynesians'.. EXCEPT for Australia? Why there were no Abos in New Zealand and no Maoris in Australia? To this day, the Australian native race follows a different path; The path of nomadic self-sufficiency.

And why did Columbus sail west? Because Italy insisted on controlling trade with China. Why did the US break from Great Britain? Restraint of trade.

Why did the German, French and even Spanish colonial systems fail? Restraint of trade.. in order of naming them, there, the trade was all one-way.
Why did the Japanese Empire rise and fall so spectacularly? Restraint of trade and Elitist hubris in the course of it. If the Japanese had even offered the appearance of equal and fair trade for goods and services, the populations in their expansion might have reacted differently. But they all hated the Japanese and some do to this day.

Alternatively the English had a benefit, they moved to the colonies and molded their lifestyles to suit. Same with the Dutch. There's notable exception available there for debate, but you can't deny the home population ended up absorbing the best of the conquering culture.

Now this brings us to the uncomfortable realizations of the above concept, which is:

Trade or be Traded.

If we could take the way-back machine and somehow do away with the African Slave Trade and instead, only admit to Western Expansion, it seems to me that the African Negroid race might be in danger of extinction. I don't mean just the English part of the human trade, I mean going back millennia and stopping Bedouin cultures from dealing in it.

This is 'controversial', to say the least, but this is what maddens me when I hear Reparationist babblings. If there had been no slave trade.. meaning no value in their lives.. the frank alternative would have been to isolate and decimate the population. That's what the Japanese would have done. And the Chinese before them. It's not conjecture, it's empirical fact.

But that didn't happen and there is no possibility of the black race dying out. Society and Culture evolves and with that comes the much ballyhooed 'Diversity'. Never mind it had to do with slavers.

So.. that connects us with the fate of the Neanderthal. That's all good, in the end, right?

Not according to Libtards like Georges Monbiot. Here's what he has to say about Ridley and his book:
The man who wants to Northern Rock the Planet

Brass neck doesn’t begin to describe it. Matt Ridley used to make his living partly by writing state-bashing columns in the Daily Telegraph. The government, he complained, is “a self-seeking flea on the backs of the more productive people of this world … governments do not run countries, they parasitise them.”(1) Taxes, bail-outs, regulations, subsidies, intervention of any kind, he argued, are an unwarranted restraint on market freedom.

Then he became chairman of Northern Rock, where he was able to put his free market principles into practice. Under his chairmanship, the bank pursued what the Treasury select committee later described as a “high-risk, reckless business strategy”(2). It was able to do so because the government agency which oversees the banks “systematically failed in its regulatory duty”(3).

On 16th August 2007, Dr Ridley rang an agent of the detested state to explore the possibility of a bail-out. The self-seeking fleas agreed to his request, and in September the government opened a support facility for the floundering bank. The taxpayer eventually bailed out Northern Rock to the tune of £27bn.

So.. there you have it. Monbiot does what Moonbats ALWAYS do: they excoriate the messenger rather than debate the concept.

NEVER MIND that Northern Rock was put in the same position as financial institutions in the US by the same government meddling in financials.

To wit: creating the bags of soon to be worthless instruments and encouraging trade in them.

I mean to say, this resulted in a de-facto restraint on trade by over-governance. The inevitable result is same as happened centuries ago, the Tea Party.

You see, the educated and informed always believe they are educating and dealing with Neanderthals, that we are unable to grasp nuance and needful of enlightened guidance.

Thank God ancient humans didnt have the time for that. They were busy trying to negotiate with the people over the horizon.

Signs 'I'm past it' - selling my Mustang 'SVO Convertible'

A 1988 Mustang "SVO Convertible". Born in my own driveway/garage.


Yes, that's a custom grill opening treatment, cut out the LX bar.
I took pride in the fact that it looked so familiar but no-one had ever seen one just like it before. Double takes from other Mustangers were precious!

This car was my last car freak effort, after I'd built a couple XR4 ti's for my two oldest sons and put together at least 4 79-85 heaps for other kids.

I mean I used to be able to ID really small differneces and models easily. Now I find I cant ID the latest Mustangs on sight.. couldn't even tell the diff between and 09 and 10 without 'em side by side. That sux.

I modified the original LX with
Rear Running gear from a 1984 SVO (anti-wrap bars) and a Front full K-member from 1986 SVO
(Obviously 5 lug)
Aftermarket 15" wheels

86 TC Engine and ECU, Short Block needs rebuilt. Who cares, though... When someone answers the ad, I'll throw in extra TC/XR4 engine running fine when pulled, plus another cracked-seat head from 86 SVO, both stored in-gar ten years. Crap 'shrouded chamber' head for 88 2.3 N/A is in car.
I paid a 'pro speed shop $750 to redo the short block and they eff'ed it up royal. NEVER go to a 'speed shop that adverts on regular local tv. That's why I'm throwing in the extra 'good engine' free.

Turbo spins but needs rebuilt, var 2.3 turbo-FI parts includ orig 84 SVO turbo. Various Intercooler and turbo parts and extra SVO IC body. Several ECU's.

Several T-5's from 2.3's includ original from 84 SVO with bad 2nd gear synchro included.



Scoop orig, grafted from deer-hit 84 hood.

This car is a full resto-project, though it should be streetable with engine change and new fuel pump, started okay till fuel pump quit running key-on, relay engaged. Rust condition when stored was fair to moderate, by current standards for 88 vintage for SW OHIO. IOW, passenger/driver floor to firewall transition probably needs attention. Trunk lip bad.
Driver side doorskin, rocker panel and rear fender flare was replaced by me, thus not professional, Body work over that was by pro, but he didnt rustproof the trunk lip, and he radiused the scoop graft part line (against my wishes) to factory appearance, thus it cracked.

Interior: Stock LX Red, 'fair'. Carpet needs replaced. Top Fair, pads discolored, original - not repl'd with top.

Also have var wire harness from XR4/TC's.

Throw in Flowmaster stk# 42553, NIB.

All stuff listed obviously sold as-is. The car and stuff has been stored over ten years. I guess I'm never going to reaquire 'the jones'. Coming back to 'car freak status' only happens once in life, I suppose. Or twice.. for me; from early twenties to late thirty's, then after ten years off, to late forty's early fifty.

Dont respond here... this isnt an ad. It's a statement of pride in what I've done AND that I've lost interest in fixing up this stuff.
Look up Mustang club adverts in SW ohio to get contact info.
I dont want to haggle. Dont want to catalog and list everything. Dont want to drag car out of shed and photograph everything.

I'm only gonna ask $1000 for all the above. If that's really too much, guy better make a case for his offer.

Any idiot just saying "What will you take, cash, right now?" will be asked to leave premises. Those guys piss me off royal. Last two times I sold cars, I did state selling price and that happened. Both times the idiots showed up later and asked where the car was. I just smiled.

Anyone showing up without trailer will be asked to put up $100 earnest money cash to hold it for ten days, N-R of course. Ever have someone ask you to hold something 'till tomorrow? Yeah.. right.

Also will discount 79-86 Fox dashpad, NOS never installed but out of box, and correct for SVO, for $150 to car buyer.
$250 otherwise.

I'm a prince among men!

What they're saying...

AP: Palin would be 'fragile' president

MADISON, Wis. - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin would make a "pretty fragile" president, Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton said Friday as politicians trotted out their talking points on Republican presidential hopeful John McCain's surprise vice presidential pick.

- Then WHY are most conservative bloggers ecstatic? I dont think these people understand exactly how Palin got where she is.

That Includes O'Reilly just now on his show... he thinks she's lightweight. He hasnt watched this clip of her on US Energy Policy, including criticizing Dubya for his plea to Saudi's to increase production:


But then O'Reilly notes this:
Under Breaking News banner on MSNBC: "How many houses does Palin add to the McCain ticket?" Seriously.. video

From OpenLeft

She's appealing and well spoken on TV but she said several times this year it was unlikely she'd be picked as VP... maybe because she knows she's not capable? But she's ambitious and competitive so what the hell why not.

How is she going to campaign full time with a baby? Is that any way to treat your child? Can she handle the VP duties and also raise a baby, a 7 year old, and a 13 year old?

My friends, please welcome the Mayor of Wasilla and her eskimo First Gentleman.

- -- - - -

A Kos Kid says Palin not only wants to outlaw abortion, she belongs to a SECRET SOCIETY that wants to outlaw CONTRACEPTION!!!
- I expect he doesnt think anyone will actually READ the link he provides.
- - -- - - -
Oh, hell... it's too much to keep up with, just check out this google search and wonder if they can spell it "Miss Ogeny"

On Craigslist

Sarah Palin swimsuit

got a be a pic out there somewhere. Will the religious hardliners vote for a woman that was in a swimsuit competition?

Their counterpart taliban wouldn't.

Whooaaaa! First REAL Palin 'scandal'?

On kos:
Palin's faked "pregnancy"? Covering for teen daughter?

Supposedly David Sirota reported it on the Thom Hartmann show. Trying to find some sort of transcript for that.

UPDATE: I just asked David Sirota, in his own diary, whether there was anything to this. He says he never mentioned this to Thom Hartman. Knew nothing about it! Whoa!

Apparently her teenage daughter was out of school, unseen, for months, because she "had mono".

I'm not quite sure what to think of this. Seeing as how she opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest maybe she's actually not a hypocrite.

Normally I'd say this is a totally private issue for them, but seeing as how she's quite willing to butt into the private lives of every other American woman, I think it's fair game.

UPDATE:

Okay, 11 comments in and already some people are crying out to delete this. So I'm adding a poll:

Well, That's somewhat refreshing, coming from kos. But the PREMISE presented is a little troubling.
- - - - -- - - - - -- - - - - - - - -
UPDATE: On Palin's 'Troopergate' investigation as noted in the post below, FloppingAces has the skinny
- Between choices of "Something or Nothing", looks like Nothing.
Bottom line - Palin fired a guy she appointed. Where's the beef? Actually she didnt even fire him; she said he wasnt doing well in that role, wanted to move him to one he was expert in and he declined.

McCain Rolls the Dice with Palin

Gotta admit ... he's still the Maverick.

She has not much more executive experience than anyone else on these tickets. And the pundits are saying that it's a mistake because Biden, in face to face will tear her apart. That remains to be seen; what does McCain know that we don't? I bet she will surprise.

Her baggage is that she's conservative. But that's her strong point too. Ted Stevens and other corrupt GOP Rep are also baggage, but she ran for Gov and won on a 'throw the bums out' platform.

The scandal to uncover.. she's quarreling with the chief law enforcement officer in Alaska about his failure to fire his relative on the AHP. It may be uncovered as a personal vendetta as her sister was involved. Or not.

UPDATE: Time: Dems go after Palin

They'd better watch out... she's no Dan Quayle... or even Geraldine Ferraro. For some reason some Dems say Ferraro was a disaster. I dont recall it that way. I liked her then, I still like her and thought she was the strong suit of that ticket.

Additional points: Palin dismissed her security detail, sold the 'Governor's airplane'. Fought the Oil companies' pipeline plan. Fought the state GOP on several 'old boy' fronts.

But ThinkProgress triangulates on the Brother in Law situation.

So.... if her staff HADNT pushed to fire the guy... it would have also been seen as 'insider corruption', right?

Oh.... you think she will hesitate for one minute to throw Ted Stevens in front of the bus and back over him, herself?

Typical Lefties; grasp at any straw... let's hope they keep doing that.

And.. sigh.. she was FOR taxing 'windfall Oil Co profits'??!! So much for her being in 'Big Oil' pockets. {Sarah.. there's NO SUCH thing as a 'Corporate Tax'!!!!}

Talkleft's Big Tent Democrat is impressed and thinks Obama had better tread lightly

Penn & Teller: World Peace!

In which the "Bullshit!" artists cut away the drivel and drive a stake in the heart of partisanship.. in their own inimitable way!
Linking to the LGF three part embed from Youtube. Dont worry, there's no editorial comment there. It's here:

Got that, you morons?

No subsidies, no tariffs. No tax breaks to 'even things out'. No long lasting sanctions or embargoes... no matter WHO or WHY or how much money their expats piss into your campaign slush funds.
No Diplomatic Immunity for two bit chiselers from half-horse petty fiefdoms. They embezzle from the UN, they go to jail. They rape and pillage the people they're supposed to keep safe, they get turned over to the victims' families in the middle of the night.

Farting Contests can be fun......

But, sooner or later, someone drops a turd and spoils it.

Thus, I've at least temporarily shut down political commenting on a soccer site forum I mod and invited an eclectic group of people from there to post and comment on here.

I have no idea if they will and I have no idea what they're gonna say. Judging from the first couple guys {howdy Paineist and Indigo} who accepted i probably wont agree with 'em all the time, either. But it'll be fun trading the harangues, anyway.

Maybe I'll at least get the blog-ometer back up to ten a day or so.
An open blog for comments on whatever.

Carnival of Cretins

Carnival of Cretins

Well, kids.. today we have a surplus of idiocies to share:

Juan Cole repeats Ahmadinejad's ridiculous claim that the US planned to kidnap or assassinate him on his recent trip to Baghdad.

Even Cole's commenters found that to be just a little too far out.

Pat Buchanan claims the Holocaust was preventable.

If Britain had only not guaranteed Poland's safety, of course. Because then there would have been no larger war. Never mind he had started terrorizing Jews from the outset.

Finally Rep Hinchey retracted what he said here:

Link: sevenload.com

- sorry, I dont buy the retraction. First Maxine Waters threatened it, now Hinchey. When under stress you say what you really mean. I do, dont you?

Ross Perot is Back!

Ross Perot is Back!

Thanks to 'fulhamag' on the FulhamUSA non-soccer subforums, we get to see this little gem of a PowerPoint presentation on the state of our country's economy and dire warnings on the future, if something is not done about curbing entitlement legislation.

Suicidal Spending

- Perot's foreword is here: Perotcharts{dot}com

Watch the entire thing... and please think about what you are seeing there, before you grab onto a single kernel of truth. Consider it in its entirety; The truth is not always able to slap you in the face.
I fully expect some to use that presentation selectively as fodder for their views on particular administrations, but the presentations do not reflect the true states of the economies, should changes not have been enacted.

Example: The late nineties budget surpluses.

This has been used to show that the Clinton Administration with the Republican fiscal conservative congress produced what we all want. True.. and False. Dont forget that a large part of the economy at that point in time was based on speculative gross product...i.e; the Internet Boom which fueled huge growth in the IT and Commercial Real Estate sectors. In the end much of the 'Product' was vaporware, much of the taxable income based on jobs which were a result of that boom.


The conclusions I draw are simple:

1. We cannot tax ourselves out of deficit. It LOOKS like we could if you accept one or two charts at face value, but the entirety of the piece shows otherwise.

2. The proposals for a National Health plan must be very carefully considered in the light of what we can see as a result of current limited programs.

In a practical sense, attempts to curb mandatory Health and Retirement spending growth suffer the inevitable backlash from the 'entitled', who object to any change which might reduce their expected standards of support.

A Milestone Reached

A Milestone Reached

On this father's day, my son and I went to my wife's store to pick her up for lunch. Not finding her, I went to the service desk and had her paged. She didn't respond.

A few minutes later the girl at the desk went on break and saw my wife in the employee lounge.

"There was a gentleman looking for you to take you to lunch."

"Oh, what did he look like?"

"He was a fairly tall elderly man..."

The wife just couldn't wait to tell me about that.

Added:
I should also have noted that the same kid ALSO gave me my own Domain name.. thus this blogspot based rant-fest also appears on 'Pettyfoggery{dot}com'.

In the future, I'll probably use the Wordpress module he installed as well, but for now the blogger edition is reflected on the site.

Oil: How long till the Europeans get smart..

Oil: How long till the Europeans get smart..

.. and start protesting US oil policies?

Gasoline at $4 a gallon? If only.

As prices across America hit an average $4 a gallon over the weekend, European motorists, truckers and economic planners wrestled with fuel costs around twice as high, blamed not only on the soaring price of oil but also high government taxes levied at the fuel pump.

That has made few people happy. In the latest show of distress, Spanish truckers Monday began a blockade of their country’s border with France, lining up their rigs in a crawling strike to protest the cost of diesel. In France, farmers on their tractors did the same, offering a foretaste of a planned national strike by truckers next Monday.

- from BarcePundit, which adds:

Anyway, those guys should be protesting at the Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, UAE embassies, and not create a mess for everybody, not turning the whole country upside down in the hope thatt he government gives them some subsidies. Why don't they raise their prices, as we all do when our costs raise? Yes, it would hurt the consumer eventually, since the increase would pass along the chain, but it would allow us to either clench our teeth and pony up, or change our habits. Neither of the two possibilities sounds as holding the whole country hostage, does it?

Not very helpful, I'm afraid. Some estimates are that the top thirty percent of the market price per barrel is speculative.

If the Europeans paid attention, they'd recall those taxes were always there and it's not going to help by shifting net tax revenues over to some other economic sector in order to subsidize transportation fuel costs

What they SHOULD be looking at is the failure of the US to address its part in easing the speculation.

Things like this: Fortune: The politics of oil shale

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- You'd think this would be oil shale's moment.

You'd think with gas prices topping $4 and consumers crying uncle, Congress would be moving fast to spur development of a domestic oil resource so vast - 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil shale in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming alone - it could eventually rival the oil fields of Saudi Arabia.

You'd think politicians would be tripping over themselves to arrange photo-ops with Harold Vinegar (whom I profiled in Fortune last November), the brilliant, Brooklyn-born chief scientist at Royal Dutch Shell whose research cracked the code on how to efficiently and cleanly convert oil shale - a rock-like fossil fuel known to geologists as kerogen - into light crude oil.

You'd think all of this, but you'd be wrong.

Last month, the U.S. Senate's Appropriations Committee voted 15-14 to kill a bill that would have ended a one-year moratorium on enacting rules for oil shale development on federal lands (which is where the best oil shale is located). Most maddening of all - at least to someone like myself not steeped in the wacky ways of Washington - the swing vote on the appropriations committee, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., voted with the majority even though she actually opposes the moratorium.

"Sen. Salazar asked me to vote no. I did so at his request," Landrieu told The Rocky Mountain News. A Landrieu staffer contacted by Fortune doesn't dispute this, but notes that Landrieu did propose a compromise which Republicans rejected.

That's good.. blame it on Republicans, without defining WHY they might have rejected it. But that's beside the point... Republicans have shown to not be averse to having their pockets lined with special interest money.
As long as that money doesnt come from ' big oil' which is the 'antichrist'.

For Colorado's Senators, it's easier to figure out WHY they balk.. even if that goes against their state's overall economic interest. Again, follow the money.. not far.. just to Aspen and Boulder.

It's no secret, just under-remarked that Colorado has turned blue politically in the last twenty years and much of that is due to an exodus from California of various blends of the rich liberal leisure class. Oregon doesnt want them anymore and said so at the end of the eighties.

So they move to the next best. In the process, giving credence to a view that Aspen is the center of liberal interests in Colorado and the University of Colorado is their center of 'informed thought'. Which resulted, of course, in such as Ward Churchill.

Ah, but back to oil... The interview does touch on the nut of the issue:

Quote:

Fortune: Has oil shale development always been a partisan issue or is this something new? Sen. Allard: It is something new. The issue with the Democrats now is they want to cut off any source of carbon. And there are those in the Senate who believe the more expensive you make gasoline, the less driving people do and you force conservation by making driving so expensive people can't afford it.

Well.. the rich will always be able to afford to drive, whatever the price. We arent talking about the guys who live in Aspen.. or in Boulder, either.

We're talking about Joe Sixpack, who works in construction or in factories, or has his own service business. What galls the liberals is that Joe barely made it out of high school and yet has the temerity to own 2.5 cars, a motorcycle, and a boat which he uses to go waterskiing a couple weekends and one week a year.

In any JUST society, Joe would have a delivery truck, used only for business, maybe a motorcycle but a bike would would be better, and all else would ride public transit. His watersports would consist of a picnic on the riverbank and riding the ferry.

While those who invested tens thousands in their academic liberal arts education would have their salaries adjusted appropriately and they would have the toys of leisure. As befitting their learnedness and ability to expound on all things philosophical.

And if we actually started drilling in all the known fields in the US, the bottom would drop out of oil futures, and the powers that be would actually have to raise taxes to keep fuel prices up. Thus be transparent.

For now, they are content to go on pocketing cash from the leisure liberals while paying lip service to green groups.

If only we could figure a way to siphon a percentage of oil revenue from these new fields directly into the politicians bank accounts, the problem would be solved.

hat tip to InstaPundit, twice.

UPDATE:
Well, Look at this... via ProteinWisdom...According to the Guardian the highly educated and informed people at the World Bank have come to the same conclusion I, using only common sense, came to years ago.
Does that make me smart? No... it makes the case for stepping back and thinking about what you are really doing.

Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky

Living proof you don't actually NEED ten thousand monkeys at typewriters. Just one trained as a 'semanticist' will do.
- pettyfog

That's a 'copyright' statement for me, on that. I haven't read that anywhere alse, anyway

What brought it to mind was I just read Charon QC's Blawg Review where he says he found Chomsky's video lecture on the US election system 'fascinating'.

Is that some gentle irony poke at 'quasi-intellectual gibberish'? Dunno.. I've never totally mastered British wit.

Two California Families

Two California Families

Fred Dominguez had moved from LA to Northern California to be near his kids, who lived with their mother, Lisa Sams.
He took the three older ones, 12 thru 18, out to cut a christmas tree Sunday, after church, and they had not been heard from since. The worst was feared as a storm had moved in on Sunday and now another was coming and there was little window for an air search.

Lisa Sams said she had faith in Fred as he was a good dad and wouldn't let anything happen to his kids. Her mother said the same about Fred, but said he had no experience in the wild while the kids did. Nonetheless she was sure they would stick together as a family. A ground search, headed by the local authorities and Fred's best friend who is also Lisa's fiance, had found nothing and the situation was grim

They were found just 24 hours ago (Wednesday afternoon) on the last pass of a CHP chopper as the snow began to fall again; they had taken refuge in a culvert and laid out help messages in the snow.

They were checked out and treated for hypothermia and frostbite, at the local clinic and released a few hours later. Alexis, 15, was treated again for frostbite this morning.

- - - - -- - - - -

Earlier, Wednesday, it broke that Jamie Lynn Spears, 16 year old sister of Brittany, and a role model for sub-teens, as a star on Nick's Zoey 101, is pregnant by her HS boyfriend. She has stated that she is moving back to Louisiana to 'raise her baby in a 'normal environment'.

In related news, it's rumored that a parenting book being authored by the girls' mother has been shelved by the publisher.


UPDATE: The Spears girls' mom wont miss the revenue from that 'parenting guide' as she seems to have sold the story rights on her daughter's underage pregnancy for $1 Million.

Isnt that interesting.

On the OTHER hand, look at the Dominguez story again, the divorced mother's faith in, and support of, the childrens' father. The fact that the divorced mother's fiance is also the divorced father's best friend.

You tell me which family is mature and sophisticated.