Just like most people I know, I hear things from authority sources and do not question accuracy. News presented to us in major media is given automatic credibility, even as I know that it is that credibility that allows lies to own us. I have read and heard repeated stories that fracking technology has opened up new strata previously inaccessible, and that we now have a century of natural gas under our feet. Similar claims are made about oil, especially the Bakken reserves in Montana, North Dakota and Alberta.

Not so, says F. William Engdahl in a very long article at Voltaire. He says it is hype, another bubble, and that smart investors are waiting to pounce when the gas frenzy subsides. Fracked gas reserves are just like those developed by older technology – they decline at an exponential rate, so that a drilling frenzy is required just to stay even on production. But they cannot keep up, and eventually we will realize that that far from a century’s worth of reserves, we have more like 10-25 years supply. At that time prices, currently in the $3-4 range, will bounce back. A few will be ready for this as they buy up existing underpriced reserves.

The 100-year figure, often repeated, is nonsense, and anyone famliar with oil and gas jargon should know that it came from adding together “proven,” “probable,” and “potential” reserves. It is that last word, “potential,” that is the kicker, as these reserves are better called “speculative.” Together with decline rates even steeper than gas produced under older technology, is creating the false confidence that we have solved our domestic energy shortage.

The desert air in the morning is cool and clean. Birds are everywhere. Occasionally the coyotes sing, and they can be very close to us without being visible. It is early in the year, but some snakes are out, we are told, so to be careful.

We went to the Musical Instrument Museum late last week, just on a whim. A friend of a friend suggested it. What a delight! I thought of Ed Kemmick, who is a musician in addition to his other life’s pursuits. We spent over five hours there, and even as museums for me are automatic sensory overload, I could not get enough. They have managed to provide a small venue for every political boundary on every continent on the second floor. We were equipped with a hands-free headset, and just walking near an exhibit triggered its music as it was shown on a video. They have on hand over 10,000 musical instruments, and just the guitar exhibit on the main floor is enough to keep one occupied for an hour.

Because we did not know what lay in store, we did not spend enough time in the North American and European rooms upstairs, but I love drums and spent a few minutes with Keith Moon and Buddy Rich and a couple of others. Man what a rush!

On the main floor are various tributes. Currently on display is Taylor Swift, not my flavor. But there are dozens of others – famous jazz men and singers, a corner for Leonard Bernstein, Duane Eddy, and one for the Ventures. My musical tastes are pedestrian*, as I just have not traveled and lived enough, so I nearly cried standing next to the John Lennon Steinway (encased in plexiglass) on which Imagine was recorded and listening to an international musical montage performing it.

This was an unexpected day, an unexpected pleasure. We originally came here on a brief trip to take in spring baseball several years ago. Shortly thereafter two sets of friends from Bozeman purchased homes down here, and another couple comes here to stay with us in our rental. Each year now is more adventure, less baseball, more desert, from Sedona to Nogales. It’s a big beautiful state that happens to host Spring Training.

The view from the back patio is shown here. On seeing it our son-in-law (Portlandia) asked why we vacationed in Afghanistan. But the desert holds many charms, and in March is a delightful respite from the recent two feet of new snow in our driveway in Colorado.
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*I just learned that my ring tone is a piano introduction to George Thorogood and the Destroyers’ Bad to the Bone. Who knew?

I have seen the tactic of obfuscation via diversion used against Chomsky so often that I take it for granted. It was gratifying to read this essay by Glenn Greenwald confronting the tactic head-on and dispensing with one of the more churlish critics.

I do remember watching evening TV once years ago when Chomsky’s name was actually mentioned. I do not remember the context, but remember Jeff Greenfield saying that he’d debate Chomsky anywhere, anytime. It was an easy thing to say, as Greenfield surely knew he’d never actually have to debate Chomsky anywhere, anytime.

I had a dog like that once. She would snarl and bark at other dogs, as long as they were on the other side of a fence.

We went to a ball game last night, the A’s and White Sox at Phoenix Memorial Stadium. I didn’t think tickets would be a problem, but the place was packed. We ended out far down the right field line in a section with many young people. I could not help but notice as I watched them moving about that they were carrying in mountains of bad food – chips and soda – and that most of them were overweight, many morbidly so. And so young. As I looked at the food I thought the hot dogs were the least of the problem – it is those massive sodas. They serve that stuff in buckets, and it makes them fat.

New York Mayor Bloomberg has taken a lot of heat for his soda proposal but it is the right thing to do. Fuck so-called “freedom of choice.” We need information before we can make a smart choice, and some powerful force does not want us to have that information. They just want us to choose Coke or Pepsi and call it freedom. Just like our elections, it’s not choice. It’s just an illusion of choice.
Continue reading “Real public policy in fake free markets” →

I’ve been doing some interesting reading these mornings down here in the desert and for quite a few months. I’m not going to link or name books and all of that, as people who are interested will find their own way. And anyway, the books I have read are quite a few and the conclusions I draw involve much speculation. Each reader would have to travel this path alone.

But first came important piece of knowledge from many months ago about how events like assassinations or 9/11 are pulled off – people automatically say that the government cannot keep secrets. Oh, but it can, and has many and varied weapons at its disposal. There are careers, pensions, health care plans and all that in jeopardy. People who they fear might go public meet sudden unexpected death, suicide, car accident, cancer or heart attack, small plane accidents and the like. People with inside knowledge who they fear might leave some deathbed information behind are let to know that if they do, their loved ones will suffer. Most people deeply involved might be considered aliens to us, psychopaths who suffer no known emotions, and so have no care or concern. Keeping a secret, for these creeps, is not an issue.
Continue reading “Can you deal with the certainty that we can never be certain?” →

Check out this.

And this.

I was curious about how much self-awareness Brian Williams, NBC news anchor, possessed. He did an hour-long interview with Alex Baldwin on a WNYC radio show called “Here’s the Thing.”

The answer: He’s pretty much, as I suspected, clueless. Television news only requires perceived gravitas. The radio interview was two actors who made the big time.

Williams hopped around colleges, Sarah Palin-style, finally amassing 18 credits before jumping ship to intern in the Carter Administration. His real talent is projection of sincerity as he reads a TelePrompTer. When something really important happens, a demanding part of his job is to stand near where it happened. He likes the camera, the camera likes him.

Williams regards himself as serious news guy because he decides the order of presentation of stories and writes much of his own script (often during commercial breaks!). He reads both the New York Times and Post.

An interesting phenomenon seen when we have a perceived transfer of power in our country is “changing partners,” where Republicans and Democrats reverse positions on issues. When Republicans were the titular heads of the executive branch, for example, Democrats were concerned about deficits, and Republicans silent on the matter. In 2008 they switched partners, and deficits became a matter of serious concern. Democrats used to oppose acts to terrorism like torture and rendition, and are now a fervent and aggressive war party.

Most people just do this blindly, but intellectuals are not so lucky. They have to offer justification. That leads to another phenomenon I call “pretzelling,” where no matter the policy, no matter that it is identical (or more extreme) than that of the other party, they will wrap their brains around it. They find ways to obfuscate, justify, and as seen below, will ridicule those who easily see the contradiction.

Below is a quote from Polish Wolf (see comments below the post in this link), who for five years now has been dissecting US military aggression, finding that under Obama it is being intelligently managed.
Continue reading “People o our sort …” →

As the right wing circus celebrates the passing of the brutal dictator Hugo Chavez, life in the free states under our jurisdiction goes on:

Saudi human rights activists sentenced to 10 years in prison

Two human rights activists have been jailed in Saudi Arabia for inciting rebellion and misinforming foreign media. A Riyadh court sentenced Mohammed Fahd al-Qahtani and Abdullah Hamad to 10 years each. As members of the banned ACPRA pressure group, they had called for the introduction of elections and a constitutional monarchy in a state that forbids political parties altogether.