SAR #9199/Weekender

Unending economic growth is the ultimate Ponzi scheme.

Sad Question: "Is Obama Continuing the Bush/Cheney Assassination Program?" Again, no mater what the answer, it is sad that the question could even be asked.

Shin Bone's Connected to... The general consensus among rational forecasters is that the end of cheap petroleum will arrive before 2020 at the latest. American health care, they say, will not be able to function without cheap oil. The question isn't what sorts of futuristic stem cell cures we will have by then, but how we will manage to continue immunizing children against common diseases. Sounds doomsterish, but we're waiting for someone - you? - to make a valid counterargument.

Man of Steele: RNC Chair Michael Steele plans to attract blacks to the GOP through "fried chicken and potato salad." He forgot the watermelon.

With a Straight Face: The rabid right says we must prevent health reform in order to save the unborn voters. At the very minimum they will insist that a health care reform not include abortion services. They don't want bureaucrats making health-care decisions, unless it's to abolish abortions, when bureaucratic interference in medical care is a Good Thing.

Up Up and Away: The administration is considering allowing homeowners to delay, defer or simply skip their mortgage payments. Well, "considering" is too strong a word. Floating beautiful balloons, more likely.

Say Ahh! The largest Arctic glacier is losing a Manhattan-sized 'tongue' of ice. All part of God's secret plan to rebuild the Garden of Eden in Greenland.

Fixin' To: Pemex 'plans' to recover 48% of the original oil-in-place in its Cantarell oilfield. On average, comparable fields have yielded only 36% - using the best technology available. In Texas they wouldn't be hookin' up the team just yet.

Bailout 2009/The Story Thus Far: “We have saved financial services... without a proven benefit to the wider economy... , we have not created a single job. We are still bleeding jobs.”

Ah, That Explains it: The Boomers, who in 2008 comprised 38% of the US population, eat out four or five times a week. Is that possible? Does that explain the obesity epidemic?

Unscientific Assumptions: It is hopeless to expect a scientifically illiterate nation to understand the threat of global climate change, much less support the efforts needed adequately respond to the danger. A country that rejects evolution and thinks God created this whole mess only 6,000 years ago, certainly isn't going to be convinced by something as flimsy as evidence.

Daily Minimum: When the pill says it has "minimum" amounts of vitamins, sometimes it means they have none. But they've replaced it with lead, at no extra charge.