SAR #11147

Our lives are prone to repetitive stress injury.

... and The Doctor Said: Continuing their all out assault on women, the Republicans in the House passed a measure that would prohibit medical schools that receive any federal funds from teaching doctors a number of basic gynecological procedures that might – just might – be used to perform an abortion. Are we back to the 12th Century yet?

Coals to Newcastle: The permanent disaster at Fukushima is being considered as a site for an international nuclear graveyard.

Observations: Blaming speculators for the price of oil may be emotionally satisfying, but it does not account for all of the facts. For example, speculators cannot be blamed for the last 5 years of flat production. Nor are they responsible for the enormous increases in the cost of wresting the harder to find petroleum from the ground. Nor was it speculators who forced oil exploration into deep off-shore drilling or the mining of oil sands or trying to grow gasoline in corn fields. The one thing that can be said for blaming the price of oil on the speculators – it is easier than facing reality.

Gasp! In a comment that shook euro-area markets, Jean Claude Juncker – who heads a group of euro-area finance ministers – said the IMF may withhold further aid payments to Greece if prospects for repayment do not improve.

If... Then... Else... If the Ryan version of Medicare/Medicaid becomes law, do you have $4,000 a month to keep Mom in the nursing home? If not, have you got a spare bedroom?

Dry Me a River: The worst drought in 50 years is forcing the release of massive amounts of water from the Three Gorges reservoir into China's Yangtze river – sacrificing hydroelectric generation in favor of irrigation and drinking water. The Yangtze delta supports 400 million people and 40% of China's economic activity.; The electric power will be sorely missed because of shortages caused by cutbacks in coal-fired generation due to high prices for coal.

Mirror Image: Maybe it is that Germany is too strong to stay in the eurozone and not that Greece (and Ireland and Portugal and Spain and ….) that is too weak to stay.

Ticket To Ride: The nation's two previous depressions – the 19th century's Long Depression and the 20th century's Great Depression – were not a pure downward plunge, but rather a series of descents and rallies much like a roller coaster. Both had periods of economic growth followed by relapses. We seem to be on the same sort of ride once again - long, severe, and scary.

Timing Is Everything: If you are going to use a headline like “Gas Prices Fall” you had better be quick about it.

Right On Schedule: While the Republicans keep sharpening their knives and salivating over Social Security and Medicare, yet another analysis concludes that our massive budget deficits and burgeoning national debt are the result of George W. Bush's tax cuts for the rich and his useless wars. The idea was to so burden the country with debt that it would have to reverse all of the social gains of the last 100 years. And it's working.

Theater of the Absurd: House Republicans announced yesterday that they would bring a "clean" debt ceiling to the House floor next week. ... by allowing members to vote against it now, the leadership will also be making it easier for some of them to vote for a debt ceiling increase later this summer.

Pick Up Sticks: Global Sticks, a Chinese maker of wooden ice cream sticks is abandoning China for Ontario, Canada. Why? Because the uncertain electrical supply in China and its soaring costs make the abundant, cheap electrical power in Canada more important than the increase in wages. All those Canadian trees are just a bonus.

Porn O'Graph: Size matters.