Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Told You SoForget the oil prices we’re seeing now or the Cassandras telling us it will never come down again. It’s all BS. Like the people who claimed, after 9/11 that no one would ever build skyscrapers again. Hysterics need to be ignored. Here’s reality.
Since 2003, worldwide oil prices have quadrupled. According to a new study, the price of oil is rising at a faster-than-exponential rate, and cannot be sustained. In other words, we’re in the midst of an oil bubble, say researchers Didier Sornette and Ryan Woodard of ETH Zurich in Switzerland and Wei-Xing Zhou of the East China University of Science and Technology in Shanghai, China.
It’s all about speculators. Like the housing prices of the last six years when money was cheap and everyone was playing the market. Now they switched to energy. Expect a crash in oil prices. Don’t be surprised if you se $2.75 a gallon gas again in a year or so. Especially when these crazy prices force people to go hybrid or use other means to get to work, oil demand will drop and then they will come begging for customers again.
UPDATE: It’s already dropping
Monday, July 07, 2008
End This FarceI knew, I just knew that when the Bush Administration created the monsterously huge Department of Homeland Security it would be a place where control freaks got their jollies and sought more power. Bureaucracies always go that way. Create a huge one, and you create a monster in the making. Now comes this bit of sickening news.
A senior government official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has expressed great interest in a so-called safety bracelet that would serve as a stun device, similar to that of a police Taser®. According to this promotional video found at the Lamperd Less Lethal website, the bracelet would be worn by all airline passengers.
This bracelet would:
• take the place of an airline boarding pass
• contain personal information about the traveler
• be able to monitor the whereabouts of each passenger and his/her luggage
• shock the wearer on command, completely immobilizing him/her for several minutes
The Electronic ID Bracelet, as it’s referred to as, would be worn by every traveler “until they disembark the flight at their destination.” Yes, you read that correctly. Every airline passenger would be tracked by a government-funded GPS, containing personal, private and confidential information, and that it would shock the customer worse than an electronic dog collar if he/she got out of line?
Security is already absurd when you fly. Now They want to make it this much worse?
This is beyond the pale. This “senior official” needs to go. Now. And the government needs to scale down the DHS. If they really want to fix the deficit, they can start by trimming away these absurd agencies, starting with dead weight like this clown.
Obama Jumped the Shark
In his bid to live up to his messianic complex, Barack Obama is going to do a “rock star” acceptance speech. He wants to make it look like the will of the people are on his side (as opposed to the will of the sheeple).
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) will leave the hall of the Democratic National Convention in Denver and deliver a rock-star-style acceptance speech at nearby Invesco Field at Mile High, quadrupling his live audience, the party announced Monday.
The speech, in the stadium that is home of the Denver Broncos, will be on the fourth and final night of the convention, Aug. 28.
Adding to the historic resonance of the first nomination of an African-American for president, that date is the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream Speech.”
The idea is to make it look like the masses are cheering for his ascendancy to the throne, But coupled with his recent presidential seal mistake, the media is starting to turn on him. When someone gets built up that high, the press loves to tear them down. And Obama is really mostly a smoke and mirrors act, It won’t be hard to do.
His support mainly comes from extremely blue states and college towns. But he shows a weakness in carrying the must win states,. While some national polls have him ahead, others have him even. And it’s not unusual for Democrat candidates to be in the lead at this stage, John Kerry was way ahead of Bush this time last election season.
I have a feeling the more people look at Obama, the more his thin veneer will be chipped away.
UPDATE: He’s planning a world tour as if he’s running for world leader. Just a dot presumptuous, no?
Doctor Who’s Best Season
As I may have said before, I’m a big Doctor Who fan. And the new series is such a huge improvement on the old one. Not only are the effects really good now, the acting an the writing are top notch. It’s really become the best Science Fiction show on television, in my opinion. Yes, better than Battlestar. But then, it’s apples and oranges.
I like it so much I download the show on Bittorrent as soon as new British aired episodes become available. So I have seen all the episodes this season, while the SciFi channel has 4 more to air. And I have to say this season has been the best one to date. The current Doctor may be the best. Scots actor David Tennant is one of those rare thespians who can speak volumes with a look, and yet can be all over the map personality-wise yet remain consistent and true to the character. He really makes you believe his Doctor is a real person. It never feels like he’s acting.
But no actor would be anywhere without good writing and producer/writer Russell T. Davies has been a real inspiration in many ways. He is a Who fan at heart, so he’s woven all the past continuity into the new and more importantly, creating truly three dimensional characters into his fantastic tales. The old show often had preposterous stories with bad sets and wooden acting. This show has none of that. Well, the stories are often preposterous, but they are made believable through the sincerity of the writing and acting. People expect wacky stories with Doctor who. That’s what makes it fun, and Davies knows how to tell a fun story and still make it scary or thrilling as need be, His cliff hangers have been superb and he really gets the old characters he brings back. His detractors didn’t like his politics (he’s gay) or his focus on more romance than the show ever had. But I think he kept those things in reasonable check. He let his hair hang down in Torchwood which was more aimed at adults. Doctor Who is a kid’s show, that is written intelligently so that adults can enjoy it. In some respects it is more intelligent than most adult shows on TV.
This season is his last on the show, so the three part season finale was an incredible blow out, bringing in all the Doctor’s companions from the last four seasons plus Torchwood and Sarah Jane Smith, one of the most popular companions from the old Doctor Who series. It also had arguably the most devious and brilliant villain of the series, Davros. In his best realization yet. Davies managed to tie up all the loose ends from his four year run in these last three episodes. It was an amazing achievement,
If you’ve ever watched Doctor Who in the past or have an interest in science fiction, check it out on Friday nights on the SciFI channel (if you are in the US). There are four more episodes left. The final three are not to be missed.
Next year there will be four specials, then in 2010 the new producer writer will be Steven Moffat who has written some of the best episodes of the new series. I’d say the Doctor will be in good hands.
Here’s the trailer for the first part of the season finale.
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Presto
Don’t know how long this will be up. But check out Pixar’s latest short.
Put On Your Sunday Clothes
This is the musical number from “Hello, Dolly” that they keep showing in the new movie “Wall-E.” Hello, Dolly was directed by Gene Kelly and came out in 1968. This is the big number, which also has a cameo by Louis Armstrong, who made the song a hit few years earlier. It even beat the Beatles at the time.
Missing from American Newspapers
You would think this would be big news, but...wait, don’t they keep saying there is no left wing bias in the press here? Right.
American and Iraqi forces are driving Al-Qaeda in Iraq out of its last redoubt in the north of the country in the culmination of one of the most spectacular victories of the war on terror.
After being forced from its strongholds in the west and centre of Iraq in the past two years, Al-Qaeda’s dwindling band of fighters has made a defiant “last stand” in the northern city of Mosul.
A huge operation to crush the 1,200 fighters who remained from a terrorist force once estimated at more than 12,000 began on May 10.
Iraq is stabilizing. Companies are moving in. Obama is going to find his withdrawal stance a weakness, except with his radical supporters. But McCain is strengthened by his stance on the war. His arguments are being validated. .
All of this was inevitable, as I have said many times before (I wish my old blog files weren’t wiped, dammit). Iraqis are people and people get tired of war. Most want peace fo some kind so they can live their lives. As long as there is a stabilizing force in the area, peace can be achieved, But if someone like Obama creates another power vacuum by pulling out US tropps, all that effort will be wasted.
As for the American media, it seems they were telling us for years that Saddam had no WMD and no nuclear program and trhe Democrats pounded on this theme over and over again. So then, how do they explain this?
The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein’s nuclear program - a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium - reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.
The removal of 550 metric tons of “yellowcake” - the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment - was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam’s nuclear legacy. It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi authorities who had worried the cache would reach insurgents or smugglers crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions.
Emphasis mine. A HUGE STOCKPILE OF CONCENTRATED URANIUM. Excuse me? And this is just quietly reported so hopefully no one will notice?
One of my problems with the Bush administration is, they made their case and didn’t defend it well at all. They didn’t even trot out stuff like this to show that yes, there was a nuclear program. Here’s the evidence.
The invasion of Iraq was probably a really good thing despite the all the tragedy that came about from it. Most of that was the result of efforts by the very same people the war on terror was designed to fight. Now these terrorists are being put down and another country is out of their grasp. Seven years after 9/11 and no terrorist attacks in the US. The few that happened in Europe were weaker each time.
Say what you want about the war, but we seem to be winning. There’s little to indicate otherwise.
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Michael Bay’s Dark KnightA rejected screenplay. Gotta be a parody, but with him you never know.
McCain’s POW Story
This is a fascinating read if you haven’t read it before.
It’s pathetic of people like Westley Clark to try to dismiss McCain’s military experience when he promoted Viet Cong groupie John Kerry a couple years ago for president. Kerry spent a lot of time bashing the US and accusing them of war crimes duringt the Vietnam war. He promoted fake soliders who told fake stories about government atrocities. All from the comfort of the US. John McCain experienced the real war crimes of the Vietnamese POW prison guards. For six years.
Whether or not McCain would make a good president is a separate issue. But he certainly does not deserve some of the flack he has gotten from some quarters about his military service. Unlike Kerry, he didn’t try to get out at the first opportunity or turn into mouthpiece for our enemies at the time.
Signs of the Times
