No one ever mentions that you can’t guarantee lower gas prices just by drilling.
The only way to guarantee lower gas prices is for the government to tell the oil companies they have to sell the oil in the US and then tell them how much they can charge for the gas.
Are the people who talk about drilling really advocating nationalizing the oil companies?
Monday, March 12, 2012
Thursday, March 8, 2012
And so it goes
I got a call on Wednesday and I wonder how I came off to the person on the other end of the line. I had my car towed to a local repair shop that does adjustment work for my insurance company and the call related to that. I suppose some background info is in order. Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.
I rarely drive my car, but I do occasionally and sometimes I just start it and let it run for a while. This one time I went out and discovered that it was wet inside – as in the seats were wet, there was a puddle on the floor in the back, the condensation had made the mirror fall off of the windshield and the interior had acquired a rather extensive coating of mold.
There were no open or broken windows, but ever since my car was hit the trunk has leaked a little. Apparently that leak got a bit worse and all the rain we’ve had did some damage. I called my insurance company to see if they covered this sort of thing, they do, so off my car went to the shop to be examined.
I won’t be getting it back. An insurance rep called to tell me that my car was totaled because there was just no way to repair all the water damage. I think I said something like “Oh.” What I was thinking was “Oh shit.” I was a little addled because I had never gone through this before, I wasn’t really fully awake, I was looking around for a pencil and paper, and the amount the guy said they were going to give me was considerably more than I expected. It isn’t even enough for a down payment on a new car, which I can’t afford anyway, but it’s more than I expected considering the age and mileage. Overall the car was in good shape, but there is all that water and mold. So I was somewhat stunned.
I may have sounded like I thought it was, if not great, at least OK that I was going to get that money.
But it’s not OK. I loved that car. It wasn’t fancy but it handled well, it had held up great and I had spent a lot of time commuting in it. It was comfortable and dependable and I suspect that were it not for being hit I could have kept it for another 10 years. It only had 150k miles on it.
I couldn’t afford the upkeep on it. I couldn’t even afford the deductible just to get it fixed. But I wanted my car back. I fully expected it to be back sometime next week after a thorough cleaning and maybe having the trunk sprayed with some sort of heavy duty sealant. There was little of luxury about it, but it was my car.
It’s nice to get something for it but I’d rather have the car. Sure, we still have a car and since we aren’t both commuting in different directions we don’t need two cars anymore, but this was my car. Now that I think about it it’s been more than thirty years since I haven’t had a car of my own. I’ll probably save money, and there are certainly things much worse than not having a second car that didn’t get used much.
This is by far not the worst problem to have. It isn’t even close to being my worst problem, but the car came in handy at times and it was nice as a backup.
Besides, like I said, it was my car.
It may be silly, but I’ll miss it.
I rarely drive my car, but I do occasionally and sometimes I just start it and let it run for a while. This one time I went out and discovered that it was wet inside – as in the seats were wet, there was a puddle on the floor in the back, the condensation had made the mirror fall off of the windshield and the interior had acquired a rather extensive coating of mold.
There were no open or broken windows, but ever since my car was hit the trunk has leaked a little. Apparently that leak got a bit worse and all the rain we’ve had did some damage. I called my insurance company to see if they covered this sort of thing, they do, so off my car went to the shop to be examined.
I won’t be getting it back. An insurance rep called to tell me that my car was totaled because there was just no way to repair all the water damage. I think I said something like “Oh.” What I was thinking was “Oh shit.” I was a little addled because I had never gone through this before, I wasn’t really fully awake, I was looking around for a pencil and paper, and the amount the guy said they were going to give me was considerably more than I expected. It isn’t even enough for a down payment on a new car, which I can’t afford anyway, but it’s more than I expected considering the age and mileage. Overall the car was in good shape, but there is all that water and mold. So I was somewhat stunned.
I may have sounded like I thought it was, if not great, at least OK that I was going to get that money.
But it’s not OK. I loved that car. It wasn’t fancy but it handled well, it had held up great and I had spent a lot of time commuting in it. It was comfortable and dependable and I suspect that were it not for being hit I could have kept it for another 10 years. It only had 150k miles on it.
I couldn’t afford the upkeep on it. I couldn’t even afford the deductible just to get it fixed. But I wanted my car back. I fully expected it to be back sometime next week after a thorough cleaning and maybe having the trunk sprayed with some sort of heavy duty sealant. There was little of luxury about it, but it was my car.
It’s nice to get something for it but I’d rather have the car. Sure, we still have a car and since we aren’t both commuting in different directions we don’t need two cars anymore, but this was my car. Now that I think about it it’s been more than thirty years since I haven’t had a car of my own. I’ll probably save money, and there are certainly things much worse than not having a second car that didn’t get used much.
This is by far not the worst problem to have. It isn’t even close to being my worst problem, but the car came in handy at times and it was nice as a backup.
Besides, like I said, it was my car.
It may be silly, but I’ll miss it.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Grilled cheese
The other day I made grilled cheese sandwiches for my wife and myself. I make a pretty darn good grilled cheese sandwich if I do say so myself – and I don’t have to because other people say so as well.
It reminded me of rehab.
No, I am not that weird – well, maybe I am, but anyway – and this isn’t really one of those posts.
The point of acute in-patient physical rehabilitation is to literally get you back on your feet – assuming that is possible – and to make sure that when they send you home you can take basic care of yourself.
After days of physical therapy to help me move better and manage stairs and other things to make sure I would be OK in a home environment my final exam was to make a grilled cheese sandwich.
It makes more sense than it may seem. It tests how stable you are on your feet (l was still on crutches so this tested how well I did what they call furniture assisted walking), how well you navigate the kitchen and find what you need, how well you can complete successive tasks, not forget to do something – did you put the cheese in the bread and so forth, not set fire to the place, turn off the stove and not hurt yourself while you’re doing all of that.
It’s a pretty clever method. There’s a lot you can tell about a person by sticking them in a kitchen and telling them to make a grilled cheese sandwich.
I did pretty good and I didn’t have to say so myself – I passed, and I had lunch, too.
It reminded me of rehab.
No, I am not that weird – well, maybe I am, but anyway – and this isn’t really one of those posts.
The point of acute in-patient physical rehabilitation is to literally get you back on your feet – assuming that is possible – and to make sure that when they send you home you can take basic care of yourself.
After days of physical therapy to help me move better and manage stairs and other things to make sure I would be OK in a home environment my final exam was to make a grilled cheese sandwich.
It makes more sense than it may seem. It tests how stable you are on your feet (l was still on crutches so this tested how well I did what they call furniture assisted walking), how well you navigate the kitchen and find what you need, how well you can complete successive tasks, not forget to do something – did you put the cheese in the bread and so forth, not set fire to the place, turn off the stove and not hurt yourself while you’re doing all of that.
It’s a pretty clever method. There’s a lot you can tell about a person by sticking them in a kitchen and telling them to make a grilled cheese sandwich.
I did pretty good and I didn’t have to say so myself – I passed, and I had lunch, too.
Oil
There are more than 4 times as many working oil sites in the US now in 2012 than there were in 2009 and US oil production has been rising since 2009. Last year we imported less oil than we have in years – down from 60% to 50%. That’s increases in domestic production right there.
I was told four years ago that domestic production was too low and we needed to drill more here at home in order to bring down the price of gas.
Well, we’re drilling more, domestic production is up, and I still expect gas to hit $4.00 a gallon this summer.
No, I never believed that drilling was the solution. No matter how much we drill we can’t control the global oil market, and all US oil goes on the open market. It isn’t dedicated to domestic use and unless Congress forces it to be sold here and controls the prices, or we nationalize the oil industry, we can’t lower the price of gas by drilling for oil in the US.
Even the people talking about this know – or should know – that drilling more isn’t the solution. If drilling was the answer to our oil problem why isn’t anyone pushing the oil companies to drill? About 75% of offshore leases and more than 50% of onshore leases are not being developed.
Oil companies care about profit, not gas prices. They drill when the profit margin is high enough, and they can make money selling the leases so they don’t really care about production anyway. Of course that doesn’t help bring down the price of gas. Opening more land to drilling not only can’t help the price of gas it doesn’t even guarantee that any drilling will be done.
What we could do is lower demand by using more renewable energy sources, but I guess that just makes too much sense.
And for immediate help we could look at how market speculation, which is not being controlled within existing law, is a factor in all of this. Or is that just too rational?
Yes, I am very annoyed at the lies I have been hearing lately.
I was told four years ago that domestic production was too low and we needed to drill more here at home in order to bring down the price of gas.
Well, we’re drilling more, domestic production is up, and I still expect gas to hit $4.00 a gallon this summer.
No, I never believed that drilling was the solution. No matter how much we drill we can’t control the global oil market, and all US oil goes on the open market. It isn’t dedicated to domestic use and unless Congress forces it to be sold here and controls the prices, or we nationalize the oil industry, we can’t lower the price of gas by drilling for oil in the US.
Even the people talking about this know – or should know – that drilling more isn’t the solution. If drilling was the answer to our oil problem why isn’t anyone pushing the oil companies to drill? About 75% of offshore leases and more than 50% of onshore leases are not being developed.
Oil companies care about profit, not gas prices. They drill when the profit margin is high enough, and they can make money selling the leases so they don’t really care about production anyway. Of course that doesn’t help bring down the price of gas. Opening more land to drilling not only can’t help the price of gas it doesn’t even guarantee that any drilling will be done.
What we could do is lower demand by using more renewable energy sources, but I guess that just makes too much sense.
And for immediate help we could look at how market speculation, which is not being controlled within existing law, is a factor in all of this. Or is that just too rational?
Yes, I am very annoyed at the lies I have been hearing lately.
Explain something to me
In the past 3 years, corporate taxes have not gone up, income taxes have not gone up, taxes on investments have not gone up, there are no new regulations, profitability has grown so much that corporations are sitting on almost $2 trillion dollars in the bank and the DOW hit 13,000 today for the first time since 2008.
How exactly is the Obama administration anti-corporation or anti-capitalist?
To be honest I'd like to see a little more pro-consumer and pro-employee action from this administration.
How exactly is the Obama administration anti-corporation or anti-capitalist?
To be honest I'd like to see a little more pro-consumer and pro-employee action from this administration.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Flavor
This isn’t about being a vegetarian, I was just reminded me of something by an article I saw online.
I had my first vegetarian meal back in the late 70s. In my perception, being a vegetarian in the 70s was not quite as big a thing as it is today, but it was a fairly widespread and popular way of life. However, there apparently had not been much in the way of work on developing vegetarian cuisine. If there was, it was a well kept secret.
Boiled vegetables – that was the dinner – boiled vegetables.
Somehow herbs were unknown to the person who cooked the meal, as was salt or the idea of roasting or sautéing. Or maybe they just preferred things that way. Maybe they saw being that type of a vegetarian as their way of doing some sort of penance; a gastronomical suffering that was good for their soul. Whatever the reason it was one of the blandest meals I have ever experienced.
Yet that meal has since been surpassed – if that is the right term – by a dish in a specific Japanese restaurant. They had a negamaki entrée, not just an appetizer. Great, I love negamaki. This was some aberrant form of negamaki and in a single bite it eclipsed the bad vegetables by being so devoid of taste that it sucked the flavor from everything else in the room and banished it down a black hole of bland inedibleness. I still rank that restaurant 11th out of the 9 Japanese restaurants I have eaten at.
In comparison the boiled vegetables were simply possessed of a poor flavor. Some form of seasoning would have helped immensely. Maybe a little butter or olive oil and some herbs. These days it seems to be more acceptable to have flavor in a vegetarian meal, which is something I heartily approve of.
We need food to nourish our bodies but we need flavor to nourish our souls. Yes, I did just say that. Food should be a pleasure. You may like mild flavors, but at least have flavor. Of course whatever your preference a meal should be enjoyable. Me, I enjoy flavor.
I had my first vegetarian meal back in the late 70s. In my perception, being a vegetarian in the 70s was not quite as big a thing as it is today, but it was a fairly widespread and popular way of life. However, there apparently had not been much in the way of work on developing vegetarian cuisine. If there was, it was a well kept secret.
Boiled vegetables – that was the dinner – boiled vegetables.
Somehow herbs were unknown to the person who cooked the meal, as was salt or the idea of roasting or sautéing. Or maybe they just preferred things that way. Maybe they saw being that type of a vegetarian as their way of doing some sort of penance; a gastronomical suffering that was good for their soul. Whatever the reason it was one of the blandest meals I have ever experienced.
Yet that meal has since been surpassed – if that is the right term – by a dish in a specific Japanese restaurant. They had a negamaki entrée, not just an appetizer. Great, I love negamaki. This was some aberrant form of negamaki and in a single bite it eclipsed the bad vegetables by being so devoid of taste that it sucked the flavor from everything else in the room and banished it down a black hole of bland inedibleness. I still rank that restaurant 11th out of the 9 Japanese restaurants I have eaten at.
In comparison the boiled vegetables were simply possessed of a poor flavor. Some form of seasoning would have helped immensely. Maybe a little butter or olive oil and some herbs. These days it seems to be more acceptable to have flavor in a vegetarian meal, which is something I heartily approve of.
We need food to nourish our bodies but we need flavor to nourish our souls. Yes, I did just say that. Food should be a pleasure. You may like mild flavors, but at least have flavor. Of course whatever your preference a meal should be enjoyable. Me, I enjoy flavor.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Tar sands
Did you know that the Keystone XL pipeline is being built by a Canadian company to ship Canadian tar sands to refineries in tax exempt zones along the Gulf Coast so that the end products can be exported out of the US and not used here?
So much for it helping the US economy and energy independence.
This does not get more oil into the US. Canadian oil production currently can’t meet the capacity of the existing pipelines into the US so this is only about making it cheaper to export tar sands oil from Canada using the US as a conduit. As a country we get all the risk and almost none of the benefit.
Unless of course you’re a corporation in the oil business, then there will be lots of profit.
Whatever temporary jobs this might create are minimal compared to what could be done putting the money into permanent sustainable energy businesses.
So much for it helping the US economy and energy independence.
This does not get more oil into the US. Canadian oil production currently can’t meet the capacity of the existing pipelines into the US so this is only about making it cheaper to export tar sands oil from Canada using the US as a conduit. As a country we get all the risk and almost none of the benefit.
Unless of course you’re a corporation in the oil business, then there will be lots of profit.
Whatever temporary jobs this might create are minimal compared to what could be done putting the money into permanent sustainable energy businesses.
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