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 (8)
Posted by Captain Ed | May 14, 2007 1:30 PM
test for comment posting ...
Posted by Lightwave | May 14, 2007 1:39 PM
Big Oil bought California? Somebody needs to fill in the fact that California has the toughest emissions and environmental laws in the US.
As a result, Californians pay 50 cents to a dollar more per gallon of gas than the rest of the nation. When you have to specially blend gasoline for 1/6th of the country's cars AND you refuse to allow additional refineries to be built, AND you make it illegal to import gasoline meant for the rest of the country, guess what? You create a supply bottleneck. Those costs get passed on to consumers, just like any other commodity.
But gee, with San Fran Nancy getting mauled in the polls because she's making money off of land and tuna deals while people in her district are paying the highest prices in the country for gas (at well over $4 a gallon) SUDDENLY Big Oil is gouging people.
What are the total federal, state, and local taxes on a gallon of gas in San Francisco? I'm willing to bet THAT has NOTHING to do with $4 a gallon gas...
Who exactly is gouging the people of California? Here's a hint: it's not Big Oil.
Posted by mrlynn | May 14, 2007 3:08 PM
Missed the show. Ed, to what did your guest attribute the currently skyrocketing gasoline prices? The heating season is over, and we haven't bombed Iran, so there should be plenty of crude around. I have heard that there are some US refineries down for repairs. Is that it?
BTW, Lightwave, the story about $4+ gas was false; it was one disgruntled station owner who was making a statement; so said Rush, at any rate.
/Mr Lynn
Posted by Lightwave | May 14, 2007 3:53 PM
Speaking of that LA Times op-ed, it ends with the following graf:
"No matter what underlies the current inaction on gas prices, the governor and legislators should understand that consumers' rage may not be fleeting. Former Gov. Gray Davis discovered that in the 2003 recall as the energy crisis lingered in memory. Schwarzenegger is more popular, but he is not immune to the anger mounting over every $75 fill-up of the minivan. "
Really. California's total taxes are over 60 cents a gallon. If Politicians are really afraid of voters and the oil companies, the easy choice is to cut California's gas tax. But nothing will be done, because the politicians know the truth: As long as voters refuse to approve new refineries and America's refineries get older and older without being replaced, refinery capacity will keep decreasing, and gas prices will continue to rise.
Posted by TomB | May 14, 2007 4:31 PM
High prices are not unique for California guys!
Posted by Lightwave | May 14, 2007 4:47 PM
They aren't unique to the Bush years, either.
How quickly people forget that in February 1999 gas prices in the US were under a dollar, but during the last 18 months of the Clinton administration they doubled from around 90 cents a gallon to $1.80 by late summer 2000. You think Al "Earth Boy" Gore's policies weren't to blame for that...and why he lost in 2000?
When Bush took office, gas prices actually went *down* to $1.60 a gallon. It was only after China's economy heated up and demand for oil skyrocketed (as well as state gas taxes) did we see gas prices over $3 a gallon.
And let's not forget the rise of Hugo Chavez. Unlike Iraqi and Iranian oil, the US *does* import from Venezuela, which has been leading the charge in South America to cause damage to the US through strongarm tactics and nationalizing oil, recently culminating in last month's buyout of oil company projects in the country. That's only driven the price up even more.
Bush isn't the man to blame here. And keep in mind if you think gas prices are bad NOW, wait until the Dems force us out of Iraq.
You'll be begging for $3 a gallon gas. Those will be the good ol' days.
Posted by Joehelgerson | May 14, 2007 8:38 PM
What in Gods green earth does the democrats getting us out of the Iraq quagmire have to do with the price of gas? Sometimes I have trouble following the logic of kool-aid drinking neo-cons.
Posted by Joehelgerson | May 14, 2007 8:48 PM
What in Gods green earth does the democrats getting us out of the Iraq quagmire have to do with the price of gas? Sometimes I have trouble following the logic of kool-aid drinking neo-cons.