Economic malaise and shooting yourself in the foot

Howard has been watching (and commenting, sometimes profanely, on) the economic impact of our present regressive.inflation and the falling dollar, but for a post that ties it all together read this Round-Up from "MaxedOutMama."  "The Whole Thing," as they say, but for me these sentences jumped out:

Energy costs are far and away the largest contributor to inflation, no matter how adamantly it is officially ignored....

The strategy of a weakened dollar accelerating US manufacturing will only work well if we can boost internal energy production, especially electricity. The renaissance of the 80's was really due to a massive shift in energy consumption and production which boosted our oil production greatly. Until we correct our energy imbalances, the domestic economy will continue to suffer and consumers will take the brunt of it. Basically, we are being politically correct at the expense of the lower 40% of our society. A more regressive, vicious set of policies can not be imagined.

We urgently need to expand domestic production of all sources of energy, but oil, coal and nuclear power are the most important. Manufacturing is energy-intensive, and unless you have internal production to meet the demand rise in manufacturing, you don't really get much of the benefit from the weakened currency.

So to relieve our economic problems, we need more energy.  But not just energy, we need more domestic energy. Given the present state of the technology that means: Oil/gas, coal, and nuclear.^[1]  Each is unpopular with various noisy factions of the Luddite crowd (and their enablers in the press).  But despite the unpopularity, somebody needs to lay out the choices and point out the consequences.  Maybe create some consequences for those whose obstructionism blocks benefits for everyone else.

But again, we've found yet another issue on which our two political parties are hopeless.  The Republicans (probably out of fear of being attacked by the media or of angering their off-shore patrons) are asleep, as usual.  And any prospective Democratic administration would do no better:  For the Democrats to encourage energy  development, they would first have to overcome their internal  greenie/socialist/anti-business/ NIMBY/BANANA constituencies.  Not likely. 

Instead of development, look for new taxes, rationing (except for "essential" industries like the television networks, Hollywood, and the New York Times), "conservation" programs (except for Al Gore), and mandates.  These will do what socialists always do:  Spread the misery-- to everyone but the nomenklatura.

The rest of us will get to freeze in the dark because we can't afford the Dem's taxes and Saudis' oil.  Better start praying for warm winters. 

UPDATE 071019 14:26:  Here we go!

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^[1] The agribusiness driven ethanol boondoggle is a net energy loser, and it raises food prices!

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Unpopularity contest

Bush's rating sets new record low, still twice that of Congress.

Deepening unhappiness with President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress soured the mood of Americans and sent Bush's approval rating to another record low this month, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday...
Bush's job approval rating fell to 24 percent from last month's record low for a Zogby poll of 29 percent.  A paltry 11 percent gave Congress a positive grade, tying last month's record low. -- Reuters report posted at yahoo! news

(Data from 991 likely voters.  Margin of error was ±3.2%.)

Later: Don Surber cautions.foreigners Guardian columnists not to make too much of this sort of thing.

We’re Americans.  You want national loyalty and patriotic parades, visit Pyongyang.

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Round and round and round she goes, but which way?

Which direction does she turn for you?

more...

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Wednesday Squirrelly Poetry

(Another example of what you miss if you don't read comment threads: Tim Blair put up a post that begins

A friend’s wife can’t pronounce “squirrel”. It comes out as “skirrel”. Just imagine going through life with that sort of handicap....

In the comments, “Sonetka's Mom” noted

“Skirl” is more interesting than “squirrel” anyway. According to Webster’s it means (1) to utter or emit a shrill tone or (2) to play the bagpipes. Does your friend’s wife do either of these?

Thus inspired, Lyle offered this.)

My squirrel plays the bagpipes;
   He keeps them in my car.
He plays those nasty bagpipes
   Wherever squirrels are.
Colt forty-five, meet bagpipes
   And blast them all to hell.
Though squirrel plays the bagpipes
   He does not play them well.

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Tales from the Cultural Revolution

Chinese Scholar's Ring / Agate Buttons and Torn Silk

(Sometimes the sheer randomness is what I love most about the web. If Kay Kirscht hadn't posted a comment at buzz.mn, I probably never would have run across her journal, and thus would never have read this.)

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Hollywood's Anti-Communism

"Hollywood's Anti-Communism" might seem an oxymoron, but it did exist (at least on occasion) between the end of World War II and the mid-1950s.  Over at American Thinker, J.R. Dunn offers a list of films, and proposes a box set.

I'd buy one.

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Clipfile: October 16, 2007

"The real reason that we can't have the Ten Commandments in a Courthouse is because you cannot post "Thou Shalt Not Steal, Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery & Thou Shall Not Lie" in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians. It creates a hostile work environment."-- Molly Ivins (from "Ms. Cornelius," who says she got it from "Mike in Texas")

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"How many lawyers does it take to rescue an American soldier?"

Answer: Don't be silly. Lawyers don't rescue soldiers.

Starting at 10 a.m. on May 15, according to a timeline provided to Congress by the director of national intelligence, lawyers for the National Security Agency met and determined that special approval from the attorney general would be required first.

For an excruciating nine hours and 38 minutes, searchers in Iraq waited as U.S. lawyers discussed legal issues and hammered out the "probable cause" necessary for the attorney general to grant such "emergency" permission. -- New York Post

This astonishing story will be fodder for arguments on all sides of the wiretap issue. But it makes one thing clear: Nobody is taking this war seriously.

Faced with a soldier in enemy custody, the commanders, the Pentagon, the NSA lawyers, and the rest of the "intelligence community" all played cover-your-ass. No one said, "Run the damn tap. I'll take responsibility." After all, it might have been a "career limiting move."

Of course, getting killed by your al-Quada kidnappers is a career limiting move, too. Nice to know that if you get captured, the whole force of the United States government will be right behind you-- provided the lawyers say it's OK.


Via: IP

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Next time take the bus - redux

Did lousy business practices by US Airways and its minion Mesa Airlines pave the way to Carol Anne Gotbaum's death while in the hands of Arizona police? Why Flying Now Can Kill

UPDATE 071020 02:37: US Airways responds (link via Consumerist)

Meanwhile good ol' Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) got together with good ol' Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to insure that the law doesn't infringe the privileges of our betters in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body (spit!):

Together they put language into a defense appropriations bill that would keep legal the practice of some senators of booking several flights on days they return home, keeping the most convenient reservation and dumping the rest without paying cancellation fees -- a practice some airlines say could violate the new law. -- Washington Post

Via: Insty

Previously:

• Could have driven it faster
• Related: Anyone surprised at this? Anyone???
  

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"But all those conservatives look alike"

In our print edition, several captions for the photographs accompanying this report were inadvertantly transposed. Martin Kramer's photograph is identified as Norman Podhoretz; Daniel Pipes's photograph is identified as Kramer; Peter Berkowitz's photograph is identified as Pipes; Nile Gardiner's photograph is identified as Berkowitz's and Podhoretz's photograph is identified as Gardiner's. NEWSWEEK regrets the errors.

Scan and snarkage at Daniel Pipes' place.

Elsewhere, later: Martin Kramer says it's all part of the Devious Neocon Conspiracy:

One of our occult powers is our ability to assume the physical traits of one another. This makes it much easier to elude our pursuers.

Via: Power Line

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