REPLIES ON GAS AND ETHANOL
Jack,An independent Ph.D. energy economist disagrees with your dismissal of LNG (liquefied natural gas). He claims "it's economic to transport LNG at $3-3.50 mBTU [million British Thermal Units]," and that "if the world price is high enough, it will make economic sense for producers to liquefy it and send it to China." In other words, natural gas (NG) is not "de-coupled" from the world market as you say. He asserts that natural gas is "just as fungible as oil."
John M.
Reply:
John,Could this fellow be shilling for Chevron or some other outfit hyping LNG?
PORTER AND CASEY
No, not Bill Casey, Ronald Reagan's DCI. Casey Stengel. After winning 10 pennants in 12 years including 5 straight World Series managing the New York Yankees, Stengel spent 3 dismal years trying to manage the hopeless New York Mets. They were so inept that at one point, Stengel blurted out the immortal line, "Doesn't anyone here know how to play this game?"
Porter Goss asked the same question of the team he was managing, the CIA - and the team owner fired him.
The saga of the sacking of Porter Goss is one of such gargantuan incompetence on the part of the Bush White House that it finally tears any loyalty conservatives have to this presidency.
THERE IS NO RIGHT TO MEDICAL CARE
In the advertisement "A Renewed American Agenda" (USA Today, May 4, 2006) - placed by The Bedell World Citizenship Fund of Spirit Lake, Iowa - the organization urges us to "Recognize that All Americans Have A Right to Medical Care."
I suppose they mean well but in fact they are perpetrating a gross misunderstanding about individual rights.
Medical care is a value doctors, nurses and other medical professionals would, if they were free men and women, provide to those they would choose as recipients, on terms they regard as acceptable.
These provisions are not owed to anyone. Doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals may not be placed into involuntary servitude to those needing their services. The relationships must be voluntary, no matter how vital those services are to the recipients.
The belief that others may justly be placed into involuntary servitude so as to secure funds to pay medical professionals - who then will service those who need their work - is a gross moral error.
THE NATURAL GAS SOLUTION
This week we're going to refine the argument for natural gas as a comprehensive solution to high energy prices, energy pollution, and energy dependence upon foreign producers outlined last week in What Bush Can Do To Get Cheaper Gas.
To summarize: the solution is for Bush to allow oil & gas companies to extract the vast amounts of NG we have within American boundaries, cut state residents in on the royalties, provide tax credits for folks to run NG in their cars, and before his presidency is over the equivalent cost of driving a car will be less than $1 a gallon.
Now for the refinement - of the argument, not NG, which unlike crude oil requires no refining.
Seen those full page newspaper ads placed by Chevron trying to frighten you with the claim that the US only has three measly percent of the world's natural gas supply? Whatever the Chevron's agenda is, it's not about telling you the truth.
MEDIA LUNA: SOUTH AMERICA’S NEWEST COUNTRY
Well, not quite yet, but soon. The funniest headline of the week was "South American Leaders Support Bolivia Gas Nationalization." Yesterday (5/4), at Puerto Iguazo, Argentina, Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Argentine President Nestor Kirchner met with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Bolivia's Evo Morales and promised to "respect" Morales' nationalization of Bolivia's natural gas.
Only folks who are interested in buying bridges in Brooklyn are going to believe that.
As we discussed over a year ago in Bye Bye Bolivia, Brazil gets 60% of its natural gas from Bolivia. Argentina gets 200,000 cubic yards of Bolivian gas a day. Lula and Kirchner are going to tolerate a threat to this from Morales-Chavez about as much as a capybara will let himself be swallowed by an anaconda.MACS, PERIPHERALLY SPEAKING
There's one (and most probably last) thing I want to say about the new Intel powered line of Macintoshes - and that's compatibility with the rest of the Intel-compatible hardware out there.
It stands to reason that if the processor in the new Macs can support popular operating systems, like Windows and Linux, which describes how Macs have been successfully booted using three operating systems), then they should be able to use printers, scanners and other desktop appliances that until now have been available only to Windows users.
However, most Mac users, even the ones with Intel processor computers, can't use PCI cards - because...
VIRTUAL OSAMA
A number of perceptive folks on Capitol Hill have noticed some very odd things about OBL's latest audio tape. The principal eyebrow-raiser was his call to take the Jihad against the Crusader-Zionists away from Iraq and into Darfur, Sudan.
Normally it takes at least some time for the CIA to claim an OBL audio tape is authentic. This time it was almost immediate: "Yep, it's him, no doubt about it."
Putting the weirdness about Darfur-focus (aren't there a lot more "Crusader-Zionists" in Iraq than in the central Sahara Desert?) and Langley's over-eagerness to authenticate together, and you get the latest Capitol Hill buzz:
The voice on the tape wasn't Osama but an Arabic-speaking CIA impersonator. Agents slipped the faked tape to al-Jazeera which cooperatively broadcast it, then the CIA authenticated its own tape.
WHAT IF ALLAH WAS JEWISH?
People are always telling me, "Hey, Allah, you should write another book. All the books you've written before were very popular; I'm not sure if anyone actually read the whole megillah, but everyone has to have one."
It's not like I'm out to make some gelt, though, and I thought I already wrote everything I need to say. Plus, it's not like I have the time to write; if you could even understand how much I have to do each day, you'd plotz.
Still, I thought it would be a real good chochmeh to write a column to go over a few points since so many people seem to have some facacta ideas these days.
THE FAT LADY IS WARMING UP FOR AL QAEDA IN IRAQ
Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the al Qaeda chieftain in Iraq (or maybe not, see below) is changing tactics, says London's Sunday Times (4/30).
Mr. Zarqawi "is attempting to set up his own mini-army and move away from individual suicide attacks to a more organized resistance movement," writes Michael Smith.
Col. John Gronski of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard indicated Monday (5/1) why the change in tactics isn't such a good idea. Col. Gronski is commander of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the Pennsylvania Guard's 28th Infantry Division, stationed in Ar Ramadi.
Iraqi troops supported by Col. Gronski's soldiers killed more than 100 insurgents in a battle last week, Col. Gronski told CNN. Two Iraqi soldiers died in the battle. No Americans were killed.PUTTING OUT THE RECONQUISTA FLAMES
While Neil Cavuto was very cordial when I was on his Fox news show recently, he was nonetheless startled to hear me claim that Mexico is the greatest national security threat to America, more than Iran, China, or Moslem terrorism. He suggested my prediction of a possible Second Civil War could be "inflammatory."
How inflammatory, then, would he consider these public statements?
Excelsior, the national newspaper of Mexico: "The American Southwest seems to be slowly returning to the jurisdiction of Mexico without firing a single shot."
Jose Pescador Osuna, Mexican Consul General: "We are practicing 'La Reconquista' in California."
Augustin Cebada, Brown Berets: "Go back to Boston! Go back to Plymouth Rock, Pilgrims! Get out! We are the future. You are old and tired. Go on. We have beaten you. Leave like beaten rats. You old white people. It is your duty to die . . Through love of having children, we are going to take over."
America is not in a struggle regarding "illegal immigration." America is in a struggle for its physical existence.