Finally there is news that President Obama’s “stimulus” has had some positive effects on our economy. The usually Obama-cheer-leading Associated Press has produced a very deep “news” article boasting the fact that gasoline prices are finally coming down and some predict prices as low as $3.25 per gallon within a month. First I’ll believe and welcome that when I see it. Second there is a rather sinister reason for the recent price drop.
There once was a story about a Gov. named Ed, poor Philadelphia man, mostly kept his state in red, then one day he was spendin’ out his a#%, and out from the ground game a hissin gas…Marcellus that is, natural gas, Pennsylvania cash…
If it helps that introduction sort of goes with the Beverly Hillbillies theme song [a show on TV Land for those of you under forty].
Many articles that are meant to be “sensational” really just convey facts that play on many of our mostly irrational fears or the “gut” reaction described beautifully by author Daniel Gardner in his book The Science of Fear. These articles attempt to grab your “gut” long before providing more rational data (i.e. boring stuff) to your “head” that counters that fear they hope to exploit.
I’ll try to identify the “irrational” fear and please note that some of the fears may be somewhat rational until you look at other risk factors. You’ll have to decide whether the media just wants to attract consumers or have a real political agenda. I’ll opine – you decide.
It seems like the price of gasoline jumps ten to twenty cents between each time I need to fill my tank. I don’t have a particularly long commute and I am able to start work early to avoid most traffic, but between work and play I fill up twice a week. The price of crude oil is again spiking hurtling us ever closer to four dollar a gallon gasoline. Perhaps the bigger story is how quiet Congress and the lame-stream media are on the high prices; I should point out that not only gas prices are skyrocketing – media also fairly silent. It’s almost as if they are trying to protect someone or like the high prices.
Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale,
A tale of a fateful trip
That started from this Mid East port
Aboard a tiny ship
The Obama administration, in yet another example of a long string of leadership failures, has jumped in to the fray to rescue United States citizens stuck in Libya amid the rioting. For this White House the reaction was fairly rapid if not effective as the ship that they chartered to haul away our fellow Americans was far too small to handle the number of people and the rough seas and was unable to leave the port. Could have happened to anyone you say and I suppose that is true, but the Greeks and the Turks had the foresight to get a proper boat. No disrespect to those nations, but we should have done better.
This is not a posting about evolution or intelligent design, but it does contain an element of biology. I wish that I knew more about the brain and critical thinking processes in the human brain. I cannot seem to grasp the way big liberal think. Do they have a part of their brain that is overdeveloped? I suspect it is an underdeveloped are, but wanted to give them the benefit…initially. The progressives see life and American so much differently than I do I sometimes have doubts about my own clarity (only briefly).
Maybe they are right?
Those living in Western Pennsylvania have been the object of a blitzkrieg of advertising about gas. More specifically a very deep natural gas pocket found in the Marcellus Shale Formation. Some estimates put the volume of gas in the formation at 500 TRILLION cubic feet which has fostered a great deal of interest in drilling this formation which is concentrated in the West Virginia-Pennsylvania-New York areas. West Virginia and Pennsylvania seem to have the greatest potential. Capture of this gas found in very deep geologic formations is not without significant costs and risks to both the drillers and the environment. I would rather focus on the financial part, but did not want to overlook this issue.
For those of you who don’t play or watch poker, a tell is something a player does that tips off his opponents to the quality of his hand. A twitch of the eye, becoming too chatty, different breathing, or even becoming quiet all of a sudden can give your hand away. In head to head competition allowing your opponent to know your hand will ensure an eminent loss of chips.
I think that Americans can only hope that President Obama is one heck of a bluffer as he doesn’t seem to be holding his hand close to his vest:
Sorry this is not a baseball post. Those of us living in Pittsburgh with the hapless Pirates; holders of the longest losing streak of all professional sports (17 years and counting) don’t talk about much about professional baseball. Our president gave his first pitch at a State of the Union speech and apparently did not hit the strike zone. I confess to not watching as I could not bear to see Ms. Pelosi popping up every 30 seconds, Obama’s use of the words “I” or “me” a gazillion times or his unusual speech pattern whistling his S’s. The fact that he is on television every 17 hours giving a speech did not weigh in his favor either. I played tennis on our Wii (I achieved “Pro” status during his speech).
