A Trapdoor In The Sun

How many members of the Bush administration does it take to change a light bulb? 1. One to deny that a light bulb needs to be changed. 2. One to attack the patriotism of anyone who says the light bulb needs to be changed. 3. One to blame Clinton for burning out the light bulb. 4. One to arrange the invasion of a country rumored to have a secret stockpile of light bulbs. 5. One to give a billion dollar no-bid contract to Halliburton for the new light bulb. 6. One to arrange a photograph of Bush, dressed as a janitor, standing on a step ladder under the banner: Light Bulb Change Accomplished. 7. One administration insider to resign and write a book documenting in detail how Bush was literally in the dark. 8. One to viciously smear #7. 9. One surrogate to campaign on TV and at rallies on how George Bush has had a strong light-bulb-changing policy all along. 10. And finally one to confuse Americans about the difference between screwing a light bulb and screwing the country.

Houston, We Have an Oil Problem Posted on: Wednesday, 18 June 2008, 03:00 CDT By Steve Huff huff.column@earthlink.net The other day at least three of my patients could not afford the gas to come to the doctor. On the way home I glumly pumped $44.85 into my Mini Cooper. That night I paid $600 for a plane ticket that used to cost $275. It was a flight to Houston where my sister lives. An oil town, new buildings had popped up across the skyline, old buildings enjoyed facelifts, luxury services flourished and Chevy Suburbans ruled the road. Houstonians haven't seen a boom like this since 1982. Clearly, $130 a barrel is not bad for everyone. With profits at record levels, Big Oil feels little incentive to do anything except find more oil. Beyond petroleum? Renewable energy projects have long since degenerated into forays to the Rocky Mountains to wring out shale. That, I believe, is where windfall oil profits become reprehensible. Sure, a profit margin of 10 percent is respectabl...

http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/16/news/economy/oil_speculator/index.htm?postversion=2008051615 Oil prices: Wall Street's game Big fund money is flowing into oil markets sending prices to levels never seen before. Is it profiteering or an essential way to ensure supply? By Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney.com staff writer NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- There's no question about it: A new breed of speculator is pouring money into the oil market. What's less certain is whether this new money is responsible for driving up prices or essential to a healthy market. Many blame record prices on Wall Street investors new to the oil market, saying they're bidding up gas prices to artificially high levels - and soaking drivers. As oil nears $130 a barrel, some say $10 to $70 of that price is due to Wall Street speculation. But that's not the whole story. Nearly everyone agrees that speculators have always been essential to a functioning market and that oil prices could be much higher ...

http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/06/feds-scrape-tog.html The Bush Administration has shown its support for plug-in hybrids by promising a measly $30 million to get them on the road within eight years, a figure and a timeline some automakers and plug-in advocates say is too little and too long. Getting these cars on the road quickly, they say, should be a national priority with the funding to match. The Department of Energy made a big deal of the hand-out, announcing it at a plug-in hybrid conference in Washington D.C., but c'mon -- $30 million? To be spread out among three companies over three years? What'd it do -- scrounge change from couch cushions in the Pentagon? Granted, the award brings to $71.3 million the amount DOE has invested in hybrid and plug-in hybrid technology in the past three years, and EV advocates were quick to thank Uncle Sam for the money. But they said it's going to take a whole lot more than that to wean us from oil -- which, by the way, will co...

With gas at $4.00 a gallon, what is your theory on what has caused the cost of fuel to rise so dramatically? 1. Oil companies (and OPEC) are understating their proven reserves volume to create an artificial bubble in the commodities market - thus greatly increasing their own profit margin. 2. Poor dollar performance along with increased demand from China and India are causing speculative traders to reinvest heavily in crude to greatly increase their profit potential. 3. World oil production has reached peak status and have began the decline period of the bell curve. Increased demand met with a diminishing world supply will bring forth the fall of modern society. 4. It's all the government's fault.

I watched a bio of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain a few nights ago called " About a Son - Kurt Cobain . The movie was a handful of tape-recorded interviews Kurt made, about a year before his suicide, married up with some beautiful cinematography of Aberdeen, Olympia and Seattle. It was quite an interesting film, but it got me thinking: The year was 1994. The moment is etched into my memory still, to this very day. I was working for a department store in the mall. Gottschalks, I believe. I had gone on break that morning and sauntered up to the lunchroom on the administrative floor. I remember looking though the refrigerator for a pop when I heard a news anchor on the television announce what I saw to be the end of the last great music revolution. Kurt Cobain's body had been found in a greenhouse on his property. Police were calling the find a suicide. Something died in me that day. Now it wasn't that I was a Nirvana fan because I wasn't. In my opinion, they had some really g...

http://fridayfivegroup.multiply.com/journal/item/30/Friday_Five_Prompt_for_June_6_2008_Childhood_Entertainment First of all, I must say that my parents were not loaded with money so we kids created entertainment wherever we could, for the most part. There are a few things that stand out though. 1. Star Wars Figures - I remember after Return of the Jedi came out, having this intense love affair with everything Star Wars. My friend Chris and I would get together on weekends after school and set up scenes with our Star Wars figures. Chris had a few of the harder to find characters. One day we chose to recreate the Sarlac Pit scene from Return of the Jedi. We took a pie plate and cut kind of a star shape in the center..then buried it in the sand. We would set up the sail barge along with the figurines right next to it and stage the epic battle from the movie. It was a blast watching Boba Fett fly through the air and then land in the fake pit...to be fake devoured for 1000 years. Later i...