SAR #8014

Energy is not “just another commodity” but the precondition
for all commodities, equal to air, water and earth.
- E. F. Schumacher (1973)

Quoted, w/o Comment : "Is there anyone who could make a list of all of the pros and cons from our invasion of Iraq and -- while including the hundreds of thousands of innocent dead human beings and the 4 million who are displaced -- argue that it was worth it? What kind of moral depravity would allow that argument to be made?" Glen Greenwald

Revelation: All our troubles are the result of the sub-prime borrowing of immigrant teenage welfare lesbian mothers on drugs who park in handicap spots. I heard it on the radio.

Goose/Gander? Mike McConnell says that if he were waterboarded it would be torture, and that using pain to force someone to talk is torture. The White House said "We are not going to respond to every little thing in the press." McConnell, Director of National Intelligence, who supervises all US intelligence efforts, was surprised to be labeled "a little thing."

Coals to Newcastle : Imports of foreign coal now account for two thirds of United Kingdom coal consumption. Is nothing sacred?

Echo : The Pentagon so over-reacted to a few speedboats zipping around because that was exactly how "the enemy" sank most of the US fleet in the Persian Gulf during a $250 million war game a few years ago. Of course back then they just ruled such an attack couldn't happen and started the game over.

Fixer Upper : The Government's gone from "the economy is strong" to "we may not be able to prop it up," with no intermediate steps. Now it's: "How deep and how long?"

Past Is Prologue : The well recognized 'long business cycle' is not explicable by economic theory. The cycle's length is simply the lifespan of those who remember the last crash and what led to it. Most of those over 12 in 1929 are gone, as are the regulations we once had to prevent it from happening again.

Gold : The nearest thing there is to a Dow Jones Measurement of Global Misery.

Citation : "Town by town across the country, headlines have been telling similar stories. Lakewood, Wash.: “Family Blames Iraq After Son Kills Wife.” Pierre, S.D.: “Soldier Charged With Murder Testifies About Postwar Stress.” Colorado Springs: “Iraq War Vets Suspected in Two Slayings, Crime Ring.” Individually, these are stories of local crimes, gut-wrenching postscripts to the war for the military men, their victims and their communities. Taken together, they paint the patchwork picture of a quiet phenomenon, tracing a cross-country trail of death and heartbreak." This is the start of a New York Times series on the cost of the war. Go read.