Entries from May 2008

Ripple effect

May 28th, 2008 · No Comments

Ruh-roh:
Dow Chemical Co. will raise its prices by up to 20 percent almost immediately to offset the soaring cost of energy, and the CEO of the chemical giant lashed out at Washington on Wednesday for failing to develop a sound energy policy.
Dow supplies a broad swath of industries, from agriculture to health care, and any […]

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Tags: Energy · Economy

Congestion pricing

May 28th, 2008 · No Comments

Being considered in Montgomery County, Md., near D.C. An idea that might work - on roads like Harrisburg Pike, maybe:
Congestion pricing is a system under which governments charge motorists to use a roadway during peak hours. The purpose is to reduce traffic by encouraging people to abandon their cars in favor of walking, biking or […]

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Tags: Transportation · Lancaster

Where are the wingers now?

May 28th, 2008 · No Comments

C’mon, usual suspects.

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Tags: Conservatism

We can’t handle the truth

May 28th, 2008 · No Comments

Thomas Friedman on what an honest presidential candidate might tell the American public:
For starters, he or she would explain that there is no short-term fix for gasoline prices. Prices are what they are as a result of rising global oil demand from India, China and a rapidly growing Middle East on top of our own […]

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Tags: Oil

Confirmation

May 28th, 2008 · No Comments

All sorts of goodness, really, to be gleaned from McClellan’s upcoming book:
The president’s real motivation for the war, he said, was to transform the Middle East to ensure an enduring peace in the region. But the White House effort to sell the war as necessary due to the stated threat posed by Saddam Hussein was […]

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Tags: President Bush · Conservatism

What “liberal media?”

May 28th, 2008 · No Comments

Via Glenn Greenwald: Did you know Scott McClellan, former Bush press secretary, has a book coming out? In which, he says:
If anything, the national press corps was probably too deferential to the White House and to the administration in regard to the most important decision facing the nation during my years in Washington, the choice […]

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Tags: Media

Israel is not the United States

May 28th, 2008 · No Comments

This came up in the previous thread, and in fact comes up all the time with my winger correspondents, who seem to think that Israel, at some point, became the 51st state.
Israel is not the United States.
Israel is absolutely an ally, a crucial ally. And you may believe we owe some sort of moral fealty […]

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Tags: Middle East · War in Iran

More Fox follies

May 27th, 2008 · No Comments

I’m tempted to say I don’t get this, but in fact I get it perfectly.
So Jimmy Carter “outs” Israel, saying it’s got about 150 nukes. Well, big surprise; Israel has long been thought to have a relatively large stable of warheads, and if you’re Israel, you’ve got to: it’s called deterrent.
But, of course, we’re currently […]

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Tags: War in Iran · Fox News

Homegrown

May 27th, 2008 · No Comments

I’m sort of aghast at the wide-eyed amazement expressed in this Era piece, but then again, over the course of the past couple weeks I’ve had several people say to me - in almost conspiratorial/apologetic tones - that they’re growing some of their own vegetables this year.
Revolutionary!
But apparently it is. Which sort of flabbergasts me; […]

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Tags: Economy · Food · Lancaster

Right turn to Easter Island

May 27th, 2008 · No Comments

And so here we have Ben Stein pontificating in the New York Times about America’s oil addiction, and through most of the piece I’m right there with him:
But we have become addicted to gasoline. (I, of course, include my own bad self.) Even if we all bought smaller cars, we would need gasoline and lots […]

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Tags: Oil

Cantarell and you

May 27th, 2008 · No Comments

We might be interested in the decline of Mexico’s giant Cantarell oil field for any number of reasons. First, as Wikipedia tells us, Mexico is the second-largest exporter of oil in the western hemisphere, behind only the U.S.; indeed, Mexico is our second-largest supplier of oil, and in fact has already declared that it will […]

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Tags: Oil

Jenna Bush backs marriage equality

May 27th, 2008 · No Comments

Jenna Hager these days, actually:
John McCain may disapprove of Ellen DeGeneres and partner Portia DeRossi’s intentions to marry, but there’s another Republican who is only too happy to help with the upcoming nuptials: Jenna Hager.
The first daughter, who herself got hitched May 10 at the Bush family spread in Crawford, Texas, appears with her mother, […]

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Tags: Gay marriage

Three words

May 27th, 2008 · No Comments

And now, one from the grassy knoll.

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Tags: Development · Lancaster

Smart growth vs. stupid people

May 27th, 2008 · No Comments

Via Atrios, this one from the Allentown Morning Call:
For nearly a decade, tax-weary people from New Jersey and New York poured into the Lehigh Valley in search of a bigger home on a bigger lot, and developers couldn’t build so-called McMansions fast enough to meet demand. But as a credit crisis sweeps the nation, forcing […]

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Tags: Development

All hail Techno Viking!

May 25th, 2008 · No Comments

All hail.
Have a funky Memorial Day. Happy birthday to Charlie C.
And Pericles - yer a veteran, ain’t ya? Good show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fvLs5KXWYI

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Tags: Uncategorized

What am I Doing Hanging ‘Round?

May 24th, 2008 · No Comments

Hey, I gotta be here. What’s your excuse on this beautiful holiday weekend?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JAELBIX5vc

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Tags: Uncategorized

Hey Bulldog

May 24th, 2008 · No Comments

Very cool. Very very cool. And then some.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGrEZH7j1bQ

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Tags: Uncategorized

The Hillary fallout

May 24th, 2008 · No Comments

The gaffe of all gaffes, it seems.
I tend to agree with Charlie C. in the previous thread that Hillary didn’t mean it as all that. Well, of course not. And she does, of course, “regret” the whole thing. But it does lend ominous overtones to her whole failure to see the inevitable and act accordingly.
And […]

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Tags: Hillary

Happiness is a warm gun

May 23rd, 2008 · No Comments

Hillary Clinton defends her decision to stay in the race because…
“We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California,” Clinton told the editorial board of a South Dakota newspaper. “ I don’t understand it,” Clinton added, alluding to the calls for her to quit.
Hey - bang bang, shoot shoot - maybe somebody’s gonna gun down Obama! And […]

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Tags: Obama · Hillary

We get off easy

May 23rd, 2008 · No Comments

Had to see the doctor (bronchitis) and get a precription this afternoon. Roads were absolutely jam-packed; Columbia Avenue backed up from Rohrerstown Road almost all the way to Stone Mill Plaza.
Gas at $3.85 per gallon? Pshaw.
Which brings us to this:

This is from Gasbuddy, go to the original here and you can zoom in on Lancaster County […]

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Tags: Driving · Oil