SAR #12125

The validity of a theory is not as important as the power of its adherents.

Both Sides Now: Non-farm employment rose 115,000 last month, not the 165,000 the entrails of goats predicted. Yet the unemployment rate fell to 8.1% as the labor force participation rate declined to 63.6%. The more of us that don't work, the lower the unemployment rate falls. Right on.

After the Fract: A new study has concluded that chemicals used in fracking in the Marcellus Shale will migrate towards fresh water supplies much quicker than the drillers claim. In drilling each of the 5,000 plus wells, up to 4 million gallons of 'fluid' under 10,000 PSI is injected. Exactly what the drillers are putting down there is a secret, but they assure us that it is all perfectly safe. What could go wrong? Oh, well, besides poisoning the water supply.

Cliff Note: Unless the EU abandons austerity and signs up for a some actual growth soon, there will be blood in the streets.

Tone Deaf: Obama says "We did not choose this war," as though the Afghans we've been killing for ten years did. Over 90% of Afghans have no idea what "9/11" means. Somebody chose this war and it wasn't them.

Bigger Fools: Expectations are that Facebook's IPO will pull in over $10 billion.

An Excellent Adventure: Details keep dribbling in about those anarchists who supposedly were going to blow up a bridge in the woods in rural Ohio. Want to bet on who gave them the idea?

Stranger Than Fiction: We are continually disappointed to discover that Apple is just another giganormous corporation intent on making profits, screwing its workers, claiming things that are clearly not true, and dodging taxes both here and abroad.

Reassurance: "Donald Rumsfeld is Still an Insufferable Twit"

Asked & Answered: Is Europe in a depression? Yes, maybe, depends on the definition. But the numbers are less than encouraging in Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary. And Spain and Portugal and England. And Germany. And so it goes.

Inquiring Minds: “Is higher inflation really the answer?” Maybe, but could you repeat the question?

Flexibility, Limited: Republicans want to give the states control over how health care funds are spent, unless the states want to spend some on abortions. The intent is to force states to discontinue programs that help low-income women pay for abortions.

Silly Question: "Is the ‘obesity lobby’ winning?" Look at it this way: Who has all the money?

Rose Is Rose: Okay, so Bin Laden got killed with no pretense of due process. Same for all those killed by drones. So what? Just this, what makes you think it will be any different when they come for you?

Follow The Leader: Bolivia has nationalized the nation's power grid, which had been owned by Spain’s Red Electrica Corp. Two weeks ago Argentina nationalized YPF, the Spanish oil firm. Just taking a little off the top.

Oil Upon The Waters: "The key point about peak oil is not that we are on the verge of running out. The point is that the supply will no longer grow. Fresh water supplies are also about to peak." Same deal. The economy requires energy (mostly fossil fuels) raw materials (mostly mined, transported and processed using fossil fuels), agricultural output (dependent on both fossil fuels and water) and a functioning economy to pay for all this (which requires... ) And so it goes. Until it doesn't.

Swiftly: Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson inadvertently believed he had a bachelor's in computer science, not a bland old accounting degree. The chair of Yahoo's search committee inadvertently thought her business admin degree read “marketing and economics”; it did not. They should have Goggled themselves.