Here I go again about speculative investors ratcheting up the price of oil. The thought is that prices will soon break, if for no other reason than "the fund managers who have ridden oil higher have an economic incentive to sell soon, Ritterbusch said, because they need to book profits before the end of the year to boost their bonuses". Keep in ( Read more... )

I never expected to see Pat Robertson backing Giuliani. His announcement has no influence on my as-yet un-made-up mind, but it's got to be doing something to the hard-core evangelicals - either they're falling in line like expected, or smoke is pouring out their ears from this does-not-compute situation (played out several times in the original ( Read more... )

I've never been a believer of 9/11 "conspiracy theories". I'm still not - but I'm more open to it than before.

I think there's a huge disillusion coming to the American people over the next decade regarding their leadership. Not mistrust, we've already had that before. We have that now. This will be different. It will be disheartening, demoralizing ( Read more... )

The long-discussed rise of China is no longer a thing of the future - it is here.

They've long been the most populous country on the planet. Now they've expanded their military and economic capability at a ferocious rate. PetroChina just became the world's first company worth over $1 trillion, surpassing ExxonMobil. This year Chinese exports ( Read more... )

I've been fortunate, though not without some effort towards due caution on my part, to have avoided any bicycle accidents as an adult. But there's a first time for everything, and that time, unbeknownst to me,  was today.
Yet even so, if one was going to fall, this would be one of the better ways: I was coming to a stop and got my left foot out of ( Read more... )

I'm not sure that making up stories about a gay wizard is really going to "make wonderful strides in tolerance toward homosexuality" any more than other existing romantic fiction makes wonderful strides in making all relationships sweaty-romantic or preventing abusive men from beating their female mates. After all, it's only fiction. But I guess it ( Read more... )

I wasn't actually planning on getting up (or staying up for that matter) to see the Orionid meteors - it just worked out that way. Since the end of Daylight Savings Time is now later in the year, it's surprising how dark it is around 5:30 am. In fact, it's still quite dark by 7 am. At any rate, I did catch 4 Orionids over about 20 minutes, which ( Read more... )

A certain political party has for the most part been able to cash in on religious conservatives over the last 25 years. However, as mainstream candidates become more socially moderate (due to society as a whole becoming less socially conservative?) religious conservatives are left floundering and squandering votes on un-electable candidates. I ( Read more... )

We've got a weird situation going on with oil now. What's driven up the prices lately are not consumer consumption, but investor consumption. This is the same thing that drives up the price of gold (and you thought it was brought on by spending sprees amongst the gangsta rappers). How do you lower the price of gold? By buying fewer necklaces and ( Read more... )

Orthopedic appointment this afternoon for the foot. It didn't hurt much at all when I went to bed, but... been up since 3 am in pain. That seems to be the pattern, hurting like mad in the morning and tapering off by evening. The ibuprofens aren't doing all that much... I see some sweet prescription pain-killers in my near future.

"...pill me up!" - ( Read more... )