SAR #8191

"We don't know what we paid for."
US Defense Department

Put Your Hand Down: During the housing mania, you didn't lend money at teaser rates to borrowers who couldn't pay, or buy a bigger house than you could afford. You paid your bills on time. As a reward for that good judgment and restraint, Congress is now going to let you bail out the least responsible bankers and borrowers.

Stirred, Not Shaken: Arctic sea ice is melting faster this year than last.

Air Travel: As airlines elbow each other to mothball older planes, reduce routes and flights, what's happening to the profitability plans of Boeing and Airbus? Are they about to wander down the alley with GM and Chrysler? Is this the beginning of the end of another industry?

The Moving Hand: Economists and free-marketeers hustling globalization have come up against peak oil, a cost they had not included because economists had told them that new supplies of energy would appear. Except they haven't. Instead, transportation costs are overwhelming wage savings - and even overwhelming the cost of the transported: China buys Brazilian coal for $100 a ton, then pays $100 a ton to ship it home.

No Comment: Columnist Sam Whiting, a willing victim, reports that the veggie dog "serves the same purpose in satisfying the palate as a regular hot dog once you add all the condiments."

A Few Simple Facts: If the US opens all of the Continental Shelf to oil exploration and allowed unregulated drilling in Alaska and all the National Parks, the impacat on gasoline prices would be minimal and have no effect until after 2025, when it would knock 3.5 cents off a gallon at the pump. So says the US Energy Information Administration, which obviously didn't get Cheney's memo.

Indirection: The US Fifth Fleet says it would keep Iran from blocking the Straits of Hormuz. They did not explain that they will accomplish this by stopping any Israeli attack on Iran.

Labor Day: Utah is instituting a four-day work week for state employees, in order to save energy resources, and money. Reminds me of the farmer who fed his mule a little less each day; just as it was getting used to not eating at all, it died.

Porn O'Graph: The Dead Zones.