SAR #13232

Efficient markets produce minimal profits.

The Best Defense: Saudi Arabia, which fears democracy nearly as much as it fears the Islamist terrorists it finances, says it will step in and replace any funds the West withholds from Egypt. 
 
"A huge amount of radiation:" A storage tank is leaking highly contaminated, highly radioactive water at the Fukushima nuclear disaster site. The 300 ton breach is separate from the ongoing 300 ton a day leak previously reported and is so contaminating that a worker near the leak would develp radiation sickness withing 10 hours.

Markdown: JCPenny's same-store sales fell 11.9% in the second quarter, with a net loss of $586 million. It ain't over 'til it's over, but it's getting pretty damned close.

Cornucopia: One of the basic concepts in the oil and gas industry is called 'profit'. The general idea is that oil companies look for places where they can acquire drilling rights, drill and extract hydrocarbons and sell them profitably. Shell has joined BP in tossing in the towel on their fracking operations because fracking has managed to produce so much natural gas that it cannot be sold for a profit given the low price, the cost of drilling and the disappointing life-span of productive wells. 
 
Now It Can Be Told: The CIA now acknowledges that it “was involved” in the overthrow of Iran's Prime Minister Mosaddeq “after he sought to nationalize the Iranian oil industry.” Who would'a guessed?

Politician: For wholly inexplicable reasons (political payoff is the only thing that comes to mind) the Obama administration wants the Trans Pacific Partnership freedom to loot agreement to specifically give tobacco companies zero tariffs, expanded investor rights, and greater limits on regulation of tobacco advertising. It would also give these merchants of death the ability to render null and void any and all state and national regulations and legislation that would hamper their harvesting of profits by killing their customers.

Scouting Report: A couple of confused Christian radio guys who don't quite get the concept are telling their listeners that the Boy Scouts are now offering merit badges in sodomy, incest and cannibalism.

One Size Fits: Have you noticed on the evening news that SWAT officers in a growing number of cities and states are wearing the exact same combat gear as US troops wore in Iraq – with different colors for flack jackets and helmets and in urban, not desert camouflage? And they are doing things the way the military does – from task command organization to pre-positioning standardized equipment. what we’re doing, is we’re building a military force for deployment against US citizens. But just because the police departments have weaponry more suitable for Iraq than “the land of the free” doesn’t guarantee them victory here any more than it did there.

Noted: Technology has to be economically feasible or it doesn’t matter.

Short Form: ACA/Obamacare rests on three rather clear principles: Everyone gets coverage. Everyone pays for coverage. Those that cannot afford coverage will get support/subsidies from the government. Now that wasn't hard, was it? And no it does not require “an abortion in every household.”

Non Sequitur: Using fossil fuels is anti-social, investing in them is unethical. So? What's that got to do with me?

Over Diagnosis: What if you were irradiated, sliced and diced and saturated with chemicals because a scan or a biopsy picked up a cancer that was either slow moving or not life-threatening? Perhaps people survive early-stage cancers not because they’re treated in time, but because their disease never would have become life-threatening at all. The question is how many 'some' is, and whether you are in the 'yea' or 'nay' cohort. Early diagnosis may lead to prevention, it most certainly can lead to health-threatening and quite possibly unneeded treatment. It is entirely possible to be a cancer-treatment survivor without ever having had cancer.

The Parting Shot:

Look at me! Look at me! Passiflora incarnata