If you want me to buy from you…
Then don’t make me use PayPal. I got so fed up with them today, I cancelled my account.
Require costumers to use PayPal, and I won’t be your costumer. Nothing personal, but that’s how it’s going to be. No more PayPal for me.
Friday, September 30, 2005
A Long Cold Winter Is Coming.
I’m writing this as a service to you, kind reader . . . especially ifyou are a Yankee live in a Northern climate.
(By the way, although I'm not an energy industry insider, much of my family's income comes from oil. So I know a bit more about how the energy world works than your average guy.)
Your heating bills will be double last winter’s – if you’re lucky. Rita and Katrina really has put that big a hurt on our energy situation for the next few months. You see, this time of year, between Labor Day and Thanksgiving, is when energy companies increase their inventory of winter heating fuels, such as natural gas and heating oil.
But instead inventories are shrinking because of most of the Gulf of Mexico’s oil and gas production is shut in from the two storms. Not only that, but a number of damaged refineries are not producing either. And this situation will persist. The Gulf energy complex is a logistical mess right now. Here’s one report yesterday from the very level-headed Christopher Edmonds over at RealMoney.com:
100% of oil production and over 80% of natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico remains offline as of mid-day Wednesday. I continue to hear that it is nearly impossible to get transit back to platforms and rigs, as helicopters and boats are booked and refueling is a challenge. So, look for these numbers to remain surprisingly high for the next several days as the task of repopulating the GoM is more difficult than most pundits thought.
Again, this is happening at a time when inventories normally are increasing. Not only that, but gasoline inventories need to be rebuilt in Texas after the Rita evacuation mess. That will also take away from building heating inventories. There just won’t the normal inventory build this Fall. If this is a cold Winter . . . well, you get the picture.
I like you . . . well, most of you people. So please get prepared for the consequences to your utility bills, and, yes, your investments, too. I might be wrong that this situation will hurt stocks, but I’m getting ready to do some selling myself. Ruinous energy bills and possible fuel shortages don’t a good economy make.
But there are two things that you must NOT do:
1. If you have either directly or indirectly made it difficult to build needed refineries and increase energy production outside the Gulf Coast area, then ABSOLUTELY NO WHINING FROM YOU! TheYankee, Left Coast people who make it difficult to do something about our energy situation are the very same people who whine the most when their energy bills go up. Don’t be one of them, or I will laugh at you as you freeze this Winter.
2. You all cannot come to South Texas to live with me this Winter. Sorry.
I’m writing this as a service to you, kind reader . . . especially if
(By the way, although I'm not an energy industry insider, much of my family's income comes from oil. So I know a bit more about how the energy world works than your average guy.)
Your heating bills will be double last winter’s – if you’re lucky. Rita and Katrina really has put that big a hurt on our energy situation for the next few months. You see, this time of year, between Labor Day and Thanksgiving, is when energy companies increase their inventory of winter heating fuels, such as natural gas and heating oil.
But instead inventories are shrinking because of most of the Gulf of Mexico’s oil and gas production is shut in from the two storms. Not only that, but a number of damaged refineries are not producing either. And this situation will persist. The Gulf energy complex is a logistical mess right now. Here’s one report yesterday from the very level-headed Christopher Edmonds over at RealMoney.com:
100% of oil production and over 80% of natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico remains offline as of mid-day Wednesday. I continue to hear that it is nearly impossible to get transit back to platforms and rigs, as helicopters and boats are booked and refueling is a challenge. So, look for these numbers to remain surprisingly high for the next several days as the task of repopulating the GoM is more difficult than most pundits thought.
Again, this is happening at a time when inventories normally are increasing. Not only that, but gasoline inventories need to be rebuilt in Texas after the Rita evacuation mess. That will also take away from building heating inventories. There just won’t the normal inventory build this Fall. If this is a cold Winter . . . well, you get the picture.
I like you . . . well, most of you people. So please get prepared for the consequences to your utility bills, and, yes, your investments, too. I might be wrong that this situation will hurt stocks, but I’m getting ready to do some selling myself. Ruinous energy bills and possible fuel shortages don’t a good economy make.
But there are two things that you must NOT do:
1. If you have either directly or indirectly made it difficult to build needed refineries and increase energy production outside the Gulf Coast area, then ABSOLUTELY NO WHINING FROM YOU! The
2. You all cannot come to South Texas to live with me this Winter. Sorry.
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Rita evacuation killed 107.
Wow. I sure hope the awful mess that was the Rita evacuation and the lives lost make officials think twice before evacuating an entire urban area in the future. I think both Corpus Christi and Houston area officials should have been much more selective in their evacuation calls. There is a difference between mobile homes, flood prone areas, or beach houses and well built houses on high ground well inland. It is only a very rare circumstance that justifies evacuating it all, and this wasn’t it.
I know this episode will make me even more reluctant to evacuate. Not that an evacuation would ever kill me. But it’s also highly unlikely that a hurricane would ever kill me. Give me the choice between 20 hour gridlock and a hurricane, and I’ll take the hurricane most of the time.
Wow. I sure hope the awful mess that was the Rita evacuation and the lives lost make officials think twice before evacuating an entire urban area in the future. I think both Corpus Christi and Houston area officials should have been much more selective in their evacuation calls. There is a difference between mobile homes, flood prone areas, or beach houses and well built houses on high ground well inland. It is only a very rare circumstance that justifies evacuating it all, and this wasn’t it.
I know this episode will make me even more reluctant to evacuate. Not that an evacuation would ever kill me. But it’s also highly unlikely that a hurricane would ever kill me. Give me the choice between 20 hour gridlock and a hurricane, and I’ll take the hurricane most of the time.
++Greg Venables steps into the gap for Recife.
I haven’t posted about it here, but one of the more blatant liberal purges in the Anglican Communion has been the Primate of Brazil’s defrocking of the Bishop of Recife and most of the clergy in that orthodox diocese.
By the way, a fair question to ask is why does it seem so much easier to defrock the orthodox than to defrock heretics in the Anglican Communion? But I digress.
There have been pleas for relief from this action to both the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Panel of Reference. The response has been little more than silence.
So now the Primate of the Southern Cone, Greg Venables, is stepping into the gap and recognizing the ministry of the good bishop and clergy of Recife.
Read ++Venable’s letter. Having met him and heard him speak at the REC/APA Council, I can tell you he is a very English man who chooses his words carefully and well. Keep that in mind as you read his letter, and you will see just how pointed it is.
I find it particularly interesting the words he chooses in noting “the extremely slow pace at which the Panel of Reference is operating.” I also suspect his choice of the modifier “adequately” in his money sentence is not a trivial one:
To that end, after consultation with other Primates, I am issuing this statement of support to continue to recognize these ordinations and ministries, and provide a special status of extra-provincial recognition by my office as Primate of the Southern Cone until such time as the Panel of Reference, the Archbishop of Canterbury, or the Anglican Communion has, in some way, adequately addressed this crisis.
My translation: “As long as the Panel of Reference, the Archbishop of Canterbury, or the Anglican Communion doesn’t adequately provide for the diocese of Recife, I will.”
God bless ++Greg Venables!
I haven’t posted about it here, but one of the more blatant liberal purges in the Anglican Communion has been the Primate of Brazil’s defrocking of the Bishop of Recife and most of the clergy in that orthodox diocese.
By the way, a fair question to ask is why does it seem so much easier to defrock the orthodox than to defrock heretics in the Anglican Communion? But I digress.
There have been pleas for relief from this action to both the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Panel of Reference. The response has been little more than silence.
So now the Primate of the Southern Cone, Greg Venables, is stepping into the gap and recognizing the ministry of the good bishop and clergy of Recife.
Read ++Venable’s letter. Having met him and heard him speak at the REC/APA Council, I can tell you he is a very English man who chooses his words carefully and well. Keep that in mind as you read his letter, and you will see just how pointed it is.
I find it particularly interesting the words he chooses in noting “the extremely slow pace at which the Panel of Reference is operating.” I also suspect his choice of the modifier “adequately” in his money sentence is not a trivial one:
To that end, after consultation with other Primates, I am issuing this statement of support to continue to recognize these ordinations and ministries, and provide a special status of extra-provincial recognition by my office as Primate of the Southern Cone until such time as the Panel of Reference, the Archbishop of Canterbury, or the Anglican Communion has, in some way, adequately addressed this crisis.
My translation: “As long as the Panel of Reference, the Archbishop of Canterbury, or the Anglican Communion doesn’t adequately provide for the diocese of Recife, I will.”
God bless ++Greg Venables!
Getting my tickets
I’ve got my Britrail pass and a good seat at a King’s College Choir concert at St. John’s Smith Square in London.
King’s and St. John’s Cambridge have posted their service lists for the Michaelmas term, and I’m already inspecting them.
I think my first full day in England will be a day trip to Ely and Norwich, ending with Choral Evensong at Norwich Cathedral.
Yes, I’m getting excited about my English pilgrimage already.
I’ve got my Britrail pass and a good seat at a King’s College Choir concert at St. John’s Smith Square in London.
King’s and St. John’s Cambridge have posted their service lists for the Michaelmas term, and I’m already inspecting them.
I think my first full day in England will be a day trip to Ely and Norwich, ending with Choral Evensong at Norwich Cathedral.
Yes, I’m getting excited about my English pilgrimage already.
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
About the DeLay indictment…
It’s not just spin that the D. A. behind the indictment of Rep. Tom DeLay has a history of acting in a highly partisan manner. When I heard the indictment came from Travis Co., a light bulb went off. I looked it up, and, sure enough, the indictment comes from one Ronnie Earle.
Ronnie Earle has a long-standing reputation of being a highly partisan Democrat and of issuing indictments accordingly. Among his targets has been Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, a case that so went down in flames the judge went beyond dismissal to have the jury issue a Not Guilty verdict so Ronnie couldn’t bring the case back.
Not only that, but Earle is in no position to throw stones about alleged corruption. Much more at the Captain’s Quarters.
It’s not just spin that the D. A. behind the indictment of Rep. Tom DeLay has a history of acting in a highly partisan manner. When I heard the indictment came from Travis Co., a light bulb went off. I looked it up, and, sure enough, the indictment comes from one Ronnie Earle.
Ronnie Earle has a long-standing reputation of being a highly partisan Democrat and of issuing indictments accordingly. Among his targets has been Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, a case that so went down in flames the judge went beyond dismissal to have the jury issue a Not Guilty verdict so Ronnie couldn’t bring the case back.
Not only that, but Earle is in no position to throw stones about alleged corruption. Much more at the Captain’s Quarters.
Louisiana Looters
Christopher Johnson is on top of Louisiana’s politicos attempt to loot the Treasury. And he is right – this brazen money-grab is blowing people’s sympathy for Louisiana “into a million pieces.” Whether it’s right or wrong, I know my sympathy, which once was pretty big, is just about blown away now.
Even bleeding heart liberals are getting annoyed. Note this excerpt from the Washington Post:
Like looters who seize six televisions when their homes have room for only two, the Louisiana legislators are out to grab more federal cash than they could possibly spend usefully. For example, their bill demands $7 billion for rebuilding evacuation and energy supply routes, but it also demands a separate $5 billion for road building and makes no mention of the $3.1 billion already awarded to the state in the recent transportation legislation. The bill demands $50 billion in community development block grants, partly to get small businesses going, but it also demands $150 million for a small-business loan fund plus generous business tax breaks. The bill even asks for $35 million for seafood marketing and $25 million for a sugar-cane research laboratory. This is the equivalent of New York responding to the attacks on the World Trade Center by insisting upon a federally financed stadium in Brooklyn.
The Washington Post comparing money grabbing politicians to looters – I've never even dreamed of such a day.
I’ve got a word of advice for Louisiana politicians – stop your looting, or outraged taxpayers will shoot you and your money grab down.
And I’ll be shooting right along with them. You loot, we shoot.
Christopher Johnson is on top of Louisiana’s politicos attempt to loot the Treasury. And he is right – this brazen money-grab is blowing people’s sympathy for Louisiana “into a million pieces.” Whether it’s right or wrong, I know my sympathy, which once was pretty big, is just about blown away now.
Even bleeding heart liberals are getting annoyed. Note this excerpt from the Washington Post:
Like looters who seize six televisions when their homes have room for only two, the Louisiana legislators are out to grab more federal cash than they could possibly spend usefully. For example, their bill demands $7 billion for rebuilding evacuation and energy supply routes, but it also demands a separate $5 billion for road building and makes no mention of the $3.1 billion already awarded to the state in the recent transportation legislation. The bill demands $50 billion in community development block grants, partly to get small businesses going, but it also demands $150 million for a small-business loan fund plus generous business tax breaks. The bill even asks for $35 million for seafood marketing and $25 million for a sugar-cane research laboratory. This is the equivalent of New York responding to the attacks on the World Trade Center by insisting upon a federally financed stadium in Brooklyn.
The Washington Post comparing money grabbing politicians to looters – I've never even dreamed of such a day.
I’ve got a word of advice for Louisiana politicians – stop your looting, or outraged taxpayers will shoot you and your money grab down.
And I’ll be shooting right along with them. You loot, we shoot.
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