Just heard one on Fox. He was saying, "We don't get our oil from the Persian Gulf, so we can let the Iranians close the Straits of Hormuz and it won't make any difference to us."
Right. That's a chucklehead. Of the brain dead variety.
The people that do get their oil from the Persian Gulf will do anything to keep their houses heated and their motor vehicles running. They will start buying oil from all over the world. Suppliers all over the world will start rationing by price, i.e. they raise the price to reduce demand to what they can supply.
$200 a barrel oil. $10 a gallon gasoline and furnace oil. We can't afford that.
We can keep the straits of Hormuz open. The Navy will have no trouble sinking anything Iranian that floats or flies. For good measure they can take out Iranian nuclear facilities and anything else of enough value to be worth the cost of flying the mission against it. The Straits of Hormuz are an international waterway which makes it just like the high seas. Interfering with shipping on the high seas is an act of war, and has been since Thomas Jefferson's time.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Words of the Weasel Part 25
Impact, used as a verb. On NPR this morning "The tornado impacted Joplin Missouri". Proper English is "The tornado hit (or struck) Joplin Missouri".
Impact is a noun (the impact of a bullet) or a condition of teeth (the dentist extracted four impacted wisdom teeth.)
Bureaucrats love "impacted" because it sounds so benign. "The regulations impact business" sounds so much better than "The regulations hurt business."
I dislike people who say "impacted". I figure they are attempting to conceal something unpleasant from me. The common word for people like that is "liar".
Impact is a noun (the impact of a bullet) or a condition of teeth (the dentist extracted four impacted wisdom teeth.)
Bureaucrats love "impacted" because it sounds so benign. "The regulations impact business" sounds so much better than "The regulations hurt business."
I dislike people who say "impacted". I figure they are attempting to conceal something unpleasant from me. The common word for people like that is "liar".
It's still COLD
It's four below zero F this morning. Colder than yesterday. If I have four below up here, then it will be 8 below down in the valley. Fortunately the cars have gotten much better at starting in cold weather and my car is snug in my garage where it's always 20 degrees warmer than outside.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Federal Flood Insurance
Way back when private companies used to sell flood insurance. After loosing barrels of money, private companies stopping writing flood insurance and changed home owner's insurance to exclude flood damage. Floods are not insurable because they are predictable. Any place that flooded in the past is bound to flood again in the future. Since the hazard is predictable, only people in flood prone areas buy flood insurance. People with hilltop lots don't buy. This results in a situation where EVERY policy holder is going to make a claim. Nobody can afford that. And so no private company will write flood insurance.
This resulted in a hue and cry from waterfront voters for the government to do something. And so Uncle Sam offers flood insurance. And looses barrels of money doing so. Tax money paid by everybody is going to rebuild the property of the few.
Truly we ought to get Uncle out the the flood insurance business. Unfortunately we don't have the votes to do that.
What might work, is a "one-flood" policy. Once property suffers a serious flood, Uncle pays off and then refuses to renew the policy on that property for ever. The owners get paid once, but if they rebuild in the same flood prone place, they do it at their own risk. They ought to rebuild on higher ground so they won't need flood insurance.
Keep this up for long enough, and we won't be insuring flood prone construction and reconstruction.
This resulted in a hue and cry from waterfront voters for the government to do something. And so Uncle Sam offers flood insurance. And looses barrels of money doing so. Tax money paid by everybody is going to rebuild the property of the few.
Truly we ought to get Uncle out the the flood insurance business. Unfortunately we don't have the votes to do that.
What might work, is a "one-flood" policy. Once property suffers a serious flood, Uncle pays off and then refuses to renew the policy on that property for ever. The owners get paid once, but if they rebuild in the same flood prone place, they do it at their own risk. They ought to rebuild on higher ground so they won't need flood insurance.
Keep this up for long enough, and we won't be insuring flood prone construction and reconstruction.
Friday, January 13, 2012
Taking down the Christmas Tree
Well, you gotta do it sooner or later. But taking it down is never as much fun as putting it up. Then there is the "which ornament goes in which box" dilemma. I've begun labeling each little box. Then there is a flimsy box problem. The ornament boxes are ultra cheapo with huge cellophane windows and they just sort of disintegrate sitting in the attic waiting for Christmas again. Egg cartons last longer. How do I know? Simple, a fair number of my boxless ornaments now live in old egg cartons, and have been living there for several seasons now.
Then the light people need to sharpen up. The damn things come with a 10 conductor cord thick enough to moor a cabin cruiser. Even though it's tastefully dyed green, it still looks humungous up on the tree. Sort of "Santa comes from PSNH" looking.
Then we have the bubble lights. My grandmother gave us a couple of bubble lights for Christmas back in the dawn of time. We kids loved them. Mother thought they were tacky and plastic and she made them disappear. Years later I see boxes of bubble lights in the store and buy a couple for old time's sake. Trouble is, the lights only bubble when they are straight up and down. The cheapo plastic clips on the sockets are mostly busted off, and this year the lights hung every which way and didn't bubble at all. Next year either no bubble lights or I make some kind of clips (twisted paperclip wire?) to hold them in place.
Then the light people need to sharpen up. The damn things come with a 10 conductor cord thick enough to moor a cabin cruiser. Even though it's tastefully dyed green, it still looks humungous up on the tree. Sort of "Santa comes from PSNH" looking.
Then we have the bubble lights. My grandmother gave us a couple of bubble lights for Christmas back in the dawn of time. We kids loved them. Mother thought they were tacky and plastic and she made them disappear. Years later I see boxes of bubble lights in the store and buy a couple for old time's sake. Trouble is, the lights only bubble when they are straight up and down. The cheapo plastic clips on the sockets are mostly busted off, and this year the lights hung every which way and didn't bubble at all. Next year either no bubble lights or I make some kind of clips (twisted paperclip wire?) to hold them in place.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Snowmageddom
They put on a winter storm warning for midnight last night. Things sounded so scary that they cancelled a session of the state legislature in Concord. They predicted three to six inches. So far we got 3/4 of an inch and the snow has let up. The town snow plow went by once.
What they will do for a real snow storm?
What they will do for a real snow storm?
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