About
Captain Ed is a father and grandfather living in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota, a native Californian who moved to the North Star State because of the weather. He lives with his wife Marcia, also known as the First Mate, their two dogs, and frequently watch their granddaughter Kayla, whom Captain Ed calls The Little Admiral.
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The Crows Nest
Rule 1: Drag The Corpse On Over First
If I've learned anything in four years of blogging, don't try to be out in front of the death rumors, especially with the villains of the world. Saddam died a hundred deaths before we caught him alive in his spider hole, and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi almost as many before his demise last year. Osama may or may not be alive, but everyone's avoided speculating on his fate for a while now. Maybe Val at Babalu Blog will get luckier with his "Castro Is Dead" story. We all hope so. I'll wait for the announcement ....
Hobbs Choice
Volunteer Voters is holding its annual "Best of Nashville" on-line polls, and one of the categories is for the best political writer. Our friend Bill Hobbs, now posting at Newsbusters, and he'd like his on-line fans to cast their votes. Drop by and put one in for Bill if you get a chance!
Murtha Getting Backlogged On Apologies
Gary Gross of Let Freedom Ring sees another case collapsing on the Haditha charges. He's called for Murtha to apologize earlier, and adds another reason to the tally.
No Such Thing As 'Moderate' Islam?
Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan told a television interviewer that he finds the label "moderate Islam" offensive. Shrink Wrapped has a lot more on this, but at least in the same interview Erdogan acknowledged that "radical Islam" exists, and that it's been a catastrophe. Be sure to read the whole post.
MS-NBC Gets Punk'd
Power Line has a great post on a lack of journalistic effort on the part of MS-NBC. In covering the Michael Vick story, they reported on what they thought was Al Sharpton's website proclaiming Vick's innocence. I guess Alex Johnson and two other MS-NBC reporters couldn't bother to read the title bar of the site, which proudly proclaims it as a "parody site".
New Instapundit Podcast On Pharmaceuticals
I just caught this e-mail from Glenn Reynolds about his new podcast with Richard Epstein, the author of Overdose: How Excessive Government Regulation Stifles Pharmaceutical Innovation. Haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, but the topic is important enough to make sure I carve out time for it tomorrow. Get their first and tell me what I'm missing ....
Fed Trying A 'Stealth Easing'?
The Federal Reserve seems to have conducted a quiet campaign to steady markets that started spinning out of control, according to King Banaian at SCSU Scholars. He thinks that the Fed has conducted a "stealth easing". Be sure to read his explanation and follow his lnks.
A Shameless Bit Of Sel-Promotion
Gateway Pundit and Val at Babalu Blog note a crass PR move by Hugo Chavez. Venezuela has responded to Peru's eathquake disaster with food shipments -- and with Hugo's smiling picture on the cans. He also uses the tuna-can label to undermine President Garcia of Peru, who narrowly defeated Chavez' pal Ollanto Humalla, whom the labels extol for his "solidarity" with Chavez.
Tacky beyond belief.
Bush Going After Palestinian Terror Financing?
George Bush's new orders to USAID forces them to review the executive management of all NGOs to ensure that they have no terrorist connections. Carl in Jerusalem says at Israel Matzav that the order specifically intends to target Palestinian front groups for terrorists. Let's hope he's right.
Slow Start!
Yes, I'm off to a slow start today, thanks to some scripting issues, a bad back, and an alarm clock that needs replacing. Bear with me -- I'm ramping up, I promise...
And Now, In Little League Action Last Night ...
I once played in a Little League game where we lost, 30-1, obviously before mercy rules came into being. The only comfort during that shellacking was that 13-year-olds don't have to justify their salaries for being on the field. You have to wonder what the Baltimore Orioles have to feel without that caveat today, after losing 30-3 to the Texas Rangers. Sixteen of the runs came in the last two innings .... (via TMV)
Bush Speech On Iraq
I got a couple of e-mails wondering why I haven't linked to George Bush's speech today. I liked it; I just didn't have much to add. Rush Limbaugh covered it well on his site, and Power Line also links approvingly but has nothing much more to say. Michael Goldfarb notes that the Weekly Standard had made a similar argument regarding Vietnam a year ago.
Rove Fears Me -- No, Really!
Hot Air notes the latest fundraising letter from John Edwards. No longer content to indulge his paranoia when Ann Coulter mentions him, now he wants to indulge it when Karl Rove doesn't. Has any candidate seemed this desperate before now?
Racism Or Hard Truth?
Angela Winters looks at an editorial cartoon and the controvery it has caused in Jacksonville, Florida, especially in the black community. Truth or racism? When rap artists tell young listeners not to cooperate with the police, how much responsibility do they have for the victimization that follows? Read all of the essay at The Moderate Voice.
Support Citizen Journalism
Bill Ardolino at INDC Journal reminds us that there is a reporter shortage on the front lines. The best way to solve that problem? Donate to Public Multimedia, the citizen-journalist organization that supports Bill Roggio, Bill Ardolino, and others. (And a direct donation to Michael Yon would be much appreciated as well.)
Comments (11)
Posted by rbj | May 11, 2007 9:04 AM
Didn't the Democrats used to advocate a $0.50 a gallon hike in the gas tax, in part to make us more fuel efficient (higher prices = lower demand)? Shouldn't they be cheering this, as people aren't buying so many Hummers now?
Posted by RBMN | May 11, 2007 9:05 AM
The way I heard "big oil" explain it, was that their business cycle is on the order of seven to ten years. Large investments they make today don't bear fruit for about seven to ten years. So they can receive several years worth of profit over just two years. That looks like they hit the jackpot, but if they don't take that money and reinvest it in the next source of oil, their business cycle is over. Congress wants to take their seed corn away.
I notice that Congress is not proposing a "windfall profits" tax on voters who sell their house after about ten years.
Posted by ZeteBoy | May 11, 2007 9:30 AM
$3 a gallon....if only. Up here in Canada its $4.21 today when correcting for the US vs the Imperial gallon measurement that we use up here.
Posted by TomB | May 11, 2007 9:57 AM
Market forces? Give me a break! Last time oil was around $60 per barell, the gas at the pump was below $2. It is a cartel of big oli companies at their best (I mean worst). Guess who is pocketing the difference?
Posted by quickjustice | May 11, 2007 10:09 AM
Today's New York Sun has a detailed explanation. We haven't built any new oil refineries in twenty years, and environmental restrictions prevent us from building any more.
Existing refineries are at capacity. If even a single one of them goes down, gas prices rise disproportionately more than the price of crude. Right now, several refineries are down due to lightening strikes and other similar events.
In addition, refineries shift production from winter gasoline to summer gasoline at this time of year for environmental (clean air) reasons, requiring system-wide shutdowns. There simply isn't enough summer gasoline right now to meet demand, so prices are up.
Until we build more refineries, we are vulnerable to these price spikes.
Posted by RBMN | May 11, 2007 10:28 AM
Re: TomB at May 11, 2007 09:57 AM
The gasoline market is not the same thing as the crude oil market. Gasoline has different artificial barriers to lower prices.
Posted by TomB | May 11, 2007 10:34 AM
So why we don't even try to buy the damn gasoline at the "open market"? Somebody? anybody?
Posted by gmax | May 11, 2007 10:38 AM
TomB you seem to have a dense fog enveloping you. I dont know if you will get it until the air clears around you, but it has been explained in some detail to you now at least twice.
Posted by rbj | May 11, 2007 10:52 AM
TomB,
Where, exactly, are we supposed to buy the gasoline (not crude oil) from?
Maybe Mexico or Canada -- but I think their refineries are at capacity too. Anywhere else and you've got high shipping costs. Oh, and their refineries may not be producing the very specific blends that are needed in certain areas of the US for air pollution control:
http://www.engineofthefuture.com/images/boutique2.gif
Not to mention that India and China are now major users of gasoline as well.
Posted by TomB | May 11, 2007 10:53 AM
gmax,
I don't know about the dense fog, I just see two things: Oil prices are consistently down, gasoline prices are consistently (I mean long term) up. No fog here. And than there is a number of lame explanations: The capacity, the fires, the draught, the floods, the environmentalists. The only thing we don't seem to mention is that somebody is pocketing some HUGE cash here. So, where is the free market to my rescue? Where is the competition?, Where is the cheeper foregin gas, if we can't make our own? I don't really care, I bicycle to work in Summer, but this doesn't look like market forces to me.
Posted by docjim505 | May 11, 2007 12:11 PM
I've got an idea for lowering the price of gas quickly and dramatically:
END THE F***ING GAS TAX! If the feds did it and could get that gang of thieves in Raleigh to go along, the price of gas in No. Carolina would fall (IIRC) by $0.42 per gallon overnight!
But, as Governor "Tax Hike" Mike Easley told us when the gas tax was due to be raised last year, the government NEEDS that money to pay for, um, to fund, er... Well, important stuff!