SAR #8188

The bitterest human pain is to know much
and control nothing.
Herodotus.

Dirty Socialist: Chavez is at it again. Now he wants the rich OPEC nations to underwrite the cost of oil for the world's poorest 50 countries. Doesn't he know they'll juusst waste it heating their homes and cooking food, not manufacturing stuff for the American market? Imagine, helping the poor just because it might be the right thing to do. What about profits?

Nostalgia: Remember the good old days when Bush was going to privatize Social Security and we were all going to invest in the stock market and be rich forever? The S&P 500, adjusted for inflation, has lost 32% since then. Can't buy a lot of retirement at that rate.

Volunteers: Three doctors and six nurses face criminal charges in connection with "a number of homeless people" who died after being injected with a vaccine for the N5N1 bird-flu virus. No, not Germany. Poland. The name of the pharmaceutical company will leak out one day soon. It won't be Polish.

Seven and Counting: The head of the UN's IPCC says that carbon emissions must peak by 2015 and begin to rapidly decline thereafter. Put it on the calender: After January 1, 2015 fossil fuel burning must decrease, and with it economies. Less each year. Down the drain.

Timing Is Everything: The new deep-water finds off Brazil will, undoubtedly, save us. Sooner or later. But remember, Kashagan, the giant oilfield discovered in Kazakhstan in 2000, was supposed to begin production in 2005. Production is now expected to begin in 2013, only 8 years behind schedule.

Unmentionable: Atmospheric CO2 levels gets all the attention, but there's an ugly step-sister. A really ugly step-sister; the acidification of the oceans as about a third of our carbon output gets dissolved in the seas. The more acid the seas, the more coral gets dissolved, crustacean shells dissolve, much of life in the ocean ceases.

Fun in the Sun: Tourism is the economy in most Caribbean island nations. As airlines raise prices, cut flights and put signs about mellow/yellow in the lavatories, fewer people are having fun in the sun. What happens when these economies evaporate? How many Hatti's will there be? And how many dictators?