Exodus 35:2
For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a day of sabbath rest to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it is to be put to death.
My working today is as bad being teh gay. Lordy, Lord! So, is it work punishable by death to be a tech or engineer working the teevee broadcast for the Rev Dr Hagee and his ilk? He gets off, but they’re not priests, and if they’re like ushers or choirmasters they wouldn’t be drawing pay. Where are the stones?
2
Mark Centzspews:
My working today is as bad being teh gay. Lordy, Lord! So, is it work punishable by death to be a tech or engineer working the teevee broadcast for the Rev Dr Hagee and his ilk? He gets off, but they’re not priests, and if they’re like ushers or choirmasters they wouldn’t be drawing pay. Where are the stones?
3
Roger Rabbitspews:
Maybe executing people for working on the sabbath isn’t such a bad idea. In fact, it may be such a good idea that it should be extended to the other six days of the week, too! Let’s face it, you humans have a pronounced tendency to fall into mindless ruts, and sometimes your behavior becomes so habitual that it takes drastic measures to reprogram you. You continue to live in rust-belt towns, drive cars that cost more to repair than payments on a new one, stay in bad marriages, and continue working long after the economy has left the whole concept of work behind.
Let’s look at the hard cold facts: Our rich class is being given huge tax breaks to create jobs in China, India, Mexico, and Bangladesh. Unions are becoming extinct, the new workplace ethic is bullying bosses and speedups, employer-provided pension and health benefits are all but gone, wages are being slashed, and the tax code continues to slew in the direction of only wage workers having to pay taxes while everyone else gets a free ride.
Workers are not only overworked and undercompensated, they’re also disrespected. People who work for a living are considered socially inferior and looked down on. Doesn’t this tell you something?
Of course it does! Social values always wrap themselves around what societies considered useful and valuable. Social norms reject that which is useless and a drag on the common well-being. Workers, you no longer have any economic or social value. Accept it and move on.
What society embraces now is not your work ethic or sweat and labor, but a faculty for creative theft. That’s right, the producer and consumer economy is history; the oil that lubricates the gears of the New Economy is people stealing from each other. It’s this constant churning of money that nobody owns for very long that makes the Brave New World go ’round!
So, don’t be a sap, be a banker or a corporate lawyer or a mortgage broker or a doctor! Position yourself to filch from your neighbors! Don’t worry, you won’t hurt anybody, because they’re going to filch it right back from you! This way, everyone will end up rich and happy, and nobody will have to produce anything or do any work anymore. This is the economic utopia that everyone from Adam Smith to Karl Marx to Milton Friedman had wet dreams about, and we should honor the people who invented it!
But old habits are DAMNED hard to break, so to get people to stop working, not only on Sundays but also on the other six days, we may have to execute a few of you to shake things up and get the rest of you to shift into the new paradigm. That’s just the way human nature works.
4
Roger Rabbitspews:
As long as we’re discussing Scripture, let me bring this topic up. What we Democrats need to do is stop being so damned Christian in how we treat Republicans. Seriously. We’ve been way too kind and accomodating to these heathens, and it’s time to do some serious ass-kicking. Republicans, despite spending more Sundays in church than anyone else, know less about Christian principles and behavior than anyone else, so obviously going to church is a waste of time for them, and they need to be educated some other way. They clearly don’t understand King James English, so we need to talk them in a language they do understand. In other words, we need to start leaving footprints on their asses.
Bill Clinton said as much yesterday at the Aspen Ideas Festival. Clinton, who has some experience in dealing with Republicans, told the attendees — who are people looking for ideas on how to clean up this mess that Republicans created for us — said that President Obama should stand up to the Teahadists and hold firm on tax increases. The White House shouldn’t blink, he said.
Clinton also poked holes in GOP Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget scheme. Ryan has things backwards, Clinton said. He blames government for rising health care costs, but the reverse is true: The private sector is driving government’s health care costs higher.
“Medicare premiums are based the costs of private-industry premiums, Clinton explained. Thus, the Ryan plan could actually increase Medicare expenditures. ‘This country cannot afford to mess up this debate,’ Clinton passionately said. ‘There’s a lot of stuff out there that is pure bull.'”
That’s right, and all the bull is coming from the GOP side, so we need to start kicking this Sunday churchgoers in their asses to knock the wax out of their ears and some sense into the vacuum between their ears. Less Christian-like behavior from us will elicit more Christian-like behavior from them, get it?
And that’s your Roger Rabbit Sunday School lesson for this weekend.
Bill Clinton also has a fair bit of experience raping women and lying under oath, not at the same time, of course. What exactly was your point in using him as an example?
@7: That’s bullshit and even so, it’s a flight of steps up from the goats you fuck.
10
Zotz sez: Teahadists are Koch suckers!spews:
@Roger: Nice little rants! Made my day so far.
11
Zotz sez: Teahadists are Koch suckers!spews:
@HA: Why isn’t Roger a Front Pager?
12
Michaelspews:
Irony FTW!
ONONDAGA, N.Y. (AP) – Police say a motorcyclist participating in a protest ride against helmet laws in upstate New York died after he flipped over the bike’s handlebars and hit his head on the pavement.
13
Roger Rabbitspews:
@7 You actually believed Paula Jones?
14
Roger Rabbitspews:
@10 Thankew! It doesn’t even take any effort on my part to dream this stuff up! It just pops into my head as I read the morning news headlines. It all seems so obvious. The only big mystery — the thing I can’t figure out — is why anyone still votes Republican. I thought all of you humans were smarter than that. Guess not.
15
Roger Rabbitspews:
Well this guy just met the Bible’s author(s):
“A motorcyclist participating in a protest ride against helmet laws went over his handlebars, hit his head on the pavement and was killed, police said Sunday.”
@18
A simple crash investigation is a lot cheaper than a death investigation as well. That was one of the points the state patrol made when WA passed its helmet law.
21
Roger Rabbitspews:
Get Ready For $170 Oil In 2012
You think gas is expensive now? Don’t be fooled by last week’s mild retreat in oil prices. The 60 million barrels that governments pledged to release from their strategic reserves amounts to only two-thirds of one day’s global oil consumption.
If you think this comment is a Dubyew bash, you’re right, but I’ll get to that later. If you think it’s off topic, you’re wrong, because if you drive a gas guzzler you’d better start praying right now. Just for practice, because the oil price spike is still several months away, but believe me that motherfucker is coming.
Barron’s magazine says so. (Sorry, no link, because that’s subscriber content only; you can read the hard copy version in the public library, like I do, or buy the magazine for 5 bucks at your local grocery store, which I don’t, because I’m a fucking freeloader just like the Republicans are. It’s in the July 4 issue, page 19.)
But aren’t oil futures backing off, and aren’t hedgers shorting oil? Yes and yes. Which is why you should buy oil futures cheap, if you know how to play commodities, have several million dollars to invest, and own an oil storage terminal. I don’t, so I’m simply going to hang onto my oil stocks, or maybe sell them over the next few weeks then buy them back later this year after Greece’s debt crisis and a U.S. Treasury default crash the stock market.
Here’s why Barron’s thinks oil is going to $170 next year.
There are two kinds of oil producers, OPEC and non-OPEC. All of the reserve production capacity is held by OPEC; there is zero reserve capacity among the non-OPEC producers. And OPEC’s reserve capacity has been steadily trending downward and is expected to hit zero next year.
The executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), the organization that represents the oil-consuming nations, recently said in very veiled/couched/parsed/shaded language (of the sort the Federal Reserve uses), recently (translated into English) “warned” (my words, translated into layspeak from Barronspeak) that the world is facing an oil price spike next year. And a Wall Street analyst (doesn’t matter who; I never heard of him either) was quoted by Barron’s as saying the world faces an “extended plateau” at the $170 a barrel price level starting next year.
The reason he chose that number is because oil demand is being driven primarily by developing countries and that’s the level where “demand destruction” takes place in those countries. In other words, they’ll keep paying higher and higher prices for the oil their growing economies thirst for, until prices reach that level, which guarantees they will in a constrained-supply environment, which is what we’re going to have in 2012 and going forward.
Now let me reiterate a statistic I posted above: The recent release of oil from government reserves is enough to supply global demand for only 16 hours. That’s right, that’s what I said, the world will go through that 60 million barrels of government-owned oil in only 16 hours. After that, it’s gone, and the markets will resume doing their thing. So what do you think our government — and our allies’ governments — will be able to do to keep oil from spiking to $170 a barrel next year? Nothing.
In 1980, crude oil consumed 9.5% of U.S. GDP. At $170/bbl in 2012 dollars, crude oil will consume about 7% of U.S. GDP next year. So, things won’t get as bad as they’ve been in the past. Things will get bad, though. At that price point, you’re well over $5/gallon at Washington State gas pumps.
The U.S. doesn’t get hurt quite as badly from high oil prices as we used to. That’s partly because we’ve gone more to a service economy, and it takes less oil to produce services than goods. It’s also partly because we’re using less oil for heating and electrical generation. With the more diversified economy we have today, our non-transportation consumption of oil has dropped from 44% of our total oil consumption in 1980 to 30% today. That helps the broader economy, although it doesn’t help drivers caught owning fuel-thirsty vehicles.
Which brings me to George W. Bush. One of the reasons the U.S. is better off today than in 1980 is because the fuel efficiency of our vehicles has improved. But under Bush’s no-regulation-no-fucking-way-no-fucking-how political and economic philosophies, further advances in CAFE standards came to a screeching halt and there has been ** ZERO ** advance in the fuel efficiency of the U.S. vehicle fleet (of 250 million vehicles) in the last 10 years. And that stupid policy of the Bush Administration/GOP Congress made us needlessly vulnerable to the coming 2012 oil price spike.
Remember when HUMMERS were all the rage of the moneyed hipster set? How much are those $120,000 MSRP vehicles worth on the used car market now? And last I heard, General Motors was trying to sell the Hummer brand, but couldn’t find any takers.
Well, what do you suppose happened when gas prices backed off with the onset of the Great Recession? People who still had any money went out and bought big pickups and other gas guzzlers again. Believe me, American consumers are STOOPID! And these aren’t people who have money or who can afford these vehicles; they bought them with money they don’t have by taking out loans they can’t pay. That’s the American Way, and it’s still deeply entrenched in our culture.
Man, are these dummies ever going to regret owning those vehicles next year.
Mrs. Rabbit and I own two cars, and they’re both about 10 years old. Mrs. Rabbit’s 10-year-old car still has less than 25,000 miles on it, so we’re probably going to own it for a while yet. I generally buy a new car, on average, once every 20 years. My next new car, which is still some years away, probably will be an ELECTRIC car, which is enough time for them to work the bugs out, and for the prices of electric vehicles to come down. Why electric? Because, at today’s electricity rates, the fuel cost for an electric car is equivalent to paying $1 a gallon for gas.
WANNA BUY GAS FOR A BUCK A GALLON???
There, I thought that might get your attention. Thank Dubya for the fact your present car is 35% less fuel efficient than it should be, which is the same thing as paying 35% more for gas at the pump. Why the hell would you vote for somebody with a political and economic philosophy like his? My suggestion is, when you hear some Republican bitching about $5.50 a gallon gas at your local filling station around this time next year, you should give him/her a dirty look and say, “Maybe you should’ve voted Democrat.”
22
Roger Rabbitspews:
Let’s see them drill their way out of this.
23
Roger Rabbitspews:
Please God, dear God, when I pray to You, I usually don’t ask for much, but this time I’m asking! Please please please MAKE THE OIL RUN OUT SOON so we’ll get those stupid humans off this planet and make this place inhabitable for inoffensive creatures like cute furry rabbits again!
Better yet — to speed this process up — how about laying on the Rapture? Really, God, you’ve been promising a Rapture for 2000 years and we’re still waiting — WHERE IS THE FUCKING RAPTURE??! True, a Rapture will only rid the Earth of Republicans, but that’s really all we need, because Democrats aren’t the problem here. If we can get rid of the Republicans that will solve most of our problems, and we can handle the rest in our Democratic caucuses.
So, God, I’m praying to ya, let’s have a fucking Rapture but if we can’t have a Rapture then let’s dry up the oil, so we can get rid of the Republicans who are fucking up this planet. I’m begging you!
24
Roger Rabbitspews:
@10 re #20-22: See what happens when you give me encouragement? Enjoy!
25
Michaelspews:
@20
Oil’s going up, the money available to fix up road is going down, and we’re still building more roads. Roads that go unmaintained start to degrade rather quickly and require more and more expensive work be done on them. It’s not a very good equation for the car lovers and the long commuters out there.
I’ve got another 5 years or so of life in my car and by then I’ll hopefully be able to go car free. If something happens to the car I might just try and jump-start the process.
26
LDspews:
$170 oil couldn’t happen at a better time….2012
“It’s the economy STUPID”
27
Roger Rabbitspews:
@24 It’s amazing how little Mrs. Rabbit and I have used our cars after we retired and no longer commuted. Basically, the new car you buy when you retire might last the rest of your life. Or, as you suggest, maybe you won’t even need one (although we do, to get to medical appointments and Drinking Liberally).
28
Roger Rabbitspews:
I want to visualize a future America in which there are little self-contained communities of picturesque cottages clustered around shops, with ponds and cobblestone walks and shade trees, and almost everything you need is right there so you don’t even need a car. There would be a bus stop out front and a shuttle to the light rail station for when you want to go downtown or to the airport. If our existing grid-square neighborhoods were replaced with these “cluster village” developments our cities would become much prettier and more livable.
29
LDspews:
My God Utopia
Obama’s Economists: ‘Stimulus’ Has Cost $278,000 per Job
In other words, the government could simply have cut a $100,000 check to everyone whose employment was allegedly made possible by the “stimulus,” and taxpayers would have come out $427 billion ahead.
Lets let Obam design those little shovel ready buros and we’ll all just wait for our $100,000 check!
30
proud leftistspews:
Like Thomas Jefferson, I cut out those parts of the Bible that just ain’t right. The Old Testament spoke to people of a different time. At the same time, I don’t believe an all-loving God could possibly have ever advocated for the death penalty. So, I’ll just believe the Bible,like the Constitution, evolves.
31
W. Klingon Skousen's log removal servicespews:
re 8: I think the best name for a Republican offender was Bob ‘Packwood’.
32
Blue Johnspews:
Rabbit, you read stuff by Howard Kunstler? He’s been talking about post Peak Oil for a long time. http://www.kunstler.com/
33
Puddybud, identifying northwest liberals who elected an underexperienced man to the presidency weighed down by an oversized egospews:
@7 You actually believed Paula Jones?
Just like libtardos believed Anita Hill.
34
Puddybud, identifying northwest liberals who elected an underexperienced man to the presidency weighed down by an oversized egospews:
The Old Testament spoke to people of a different time.
Oh really proud leftist…?
“For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law” – Jesus Christ
35
Puddybud, identifying northwest liberals who elected an underexperienced man to the presidency weighed down by an oversized egospews:
Since we’re discussing the Bible… here is a Bible claiming person discussing another Bible thinking person
“I’ve been watching her [Bachmann] speak at some of these conventions on ESPN, you know, she comes across as a real person. The story that they tell is pretty compelling, all those foster children she’s taken in, and children she’s raised and the work she’s done,” William Jefferson Clinton
Looks like Bill Clinton likes how Bachmann implements her religion seven days of the week.
“For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law” – Jesus Christ
So why are you not an observant Jew?
38
Politically Incorrectspews:
Whoever does any work on it is to be put to death.
Another good reason to not take the Bible seriously!
And another good reason to abandon the Abrahamic religions entirely.
39
Puddybud, identifying northwest liberals who elected an underexperienced man to the presidency weighed down by an oversized egospews:
So why are you not an observant Jew
Because Observand Jews reject Jesus Christ as God’s Messiah!
40
Roger Rabbitspews:
@29 No, I haven’t been reading Kunstler (although I’ve heard of him); and I don’t totally subscribe to the “peak oil” mantra, at least not the conventional manifestation of it that says oil production will soon begin to decline.
The probably reality is that there’s enough oil in the ground for our lifetimes and some future generation will have to deal with the exhaustion of earth’s oil supplies.
Although America is by far the most intensively explored and drilled oil province on earth, we’re still one of the world’s top oil producers. The reasons for this are that the original production technologies left the majority of the oil in the ground, and with newer technologies we’re now going back and recovering that left-behind oil; that new technologies are opening up previously inaccessible oil deposits; and that higher oil prices have made it economically feasible to recover oil that previously cost more to recover than it could be sold for. All of these factors have expanded America’s economically recoverable reserves.
Elsewhere in the world, the combination of improved technologies and higher prices that make it economically feasible to extract hard-to-get oil in remote areas, deep seabeds, and arctic regions are expanding world in-ground reserves.
And then there are the Canadian and Venezuelan oil sands and oil tars, which contain several times as much oil as the world’s original liquid petroleum reserves.
So, there’s a lot of oil still out there.
Several years ago, in an article on the end of the cheap-oil era, National Geographic quoted scientists as saying, “We’re going to run out of atmosphere before we run out of oil.” So the problem is not limited fossil fuel reserves, it’s the planetary damage that will be caused by burning the fossil fuel reserves that still exist.
41
Roger Rabbitspews:
@33 Lots of people have nice tits but that doesn’t make them nice people.
Puddybud, identifying northwest liberals who elected an underexperienced man to the presidency weighed down by an oversized egospews:
SJ when not playing “god”
How many wives do you have? -UNO
Do you eat shellfish? – NOPE
Where a Talit? – No need Jesus fulfilled the LAW
Fast on Yom Kippur? – Jesus fulfilled the LAW
Manumit your slaves every seven years? – Don’t own them and rujax would have been rejected at the slave auction as being too stupid.
Keep Pesach? – Not a Jew but a Gentile
Drive on Shabbat? – Sure. That was one of the oderous laws Jesus claimed the Pharisees and Saducees placed on people for a Sabbath’s day journey.
Cook on Shabbat? – Heat food up.
Forfend uttering the name of God? – Absolutely. Notice who does though.
Lay Tefilin? – If they are written in the heart why does one need to wear them on their head?
Read Hebrew? – Not good at it. Google helps.
45
Zotz sez: Teahadists are Koch suckers!spews:
@40:
You’re correct that the there will be a lot oil (and other fossil fuels) left for some time. Peak Oil should more correctly be thought of as Peak Production in which EROEI is the limiting factor.
When we first started using (that’s an intentional use of “using”) fossil fuels in a big way 150 years ago or so, Energy Returned On Energy Invested was 100s:1. Now it’s approaching 1:1.
It’s all about Net Energy. And we’re about to run out of that soon.
Mark Centz spews:
My working today is as bad being teh gay. Lordy, Lord! So, is it work punishable by death to be a tech or engineer working the teevee broadcast for the Rev Dr Hagee and his ilk? He gets off, but they’re not priests, and if they’re like ushers or choirmasters they wouldn’t be drawing pay. Where are the stones?
Mark Centz spews:
My working today is as bad being teh gay. Lordy, Lord! So, is it work punishable by death to be a tech or engineer working the teevee broadcast for the Rev Dr Hagee and his ilk? He gets off, but they’re not priests, and if they’re like ushers or choirmasters they wouldn’t be drawing pay. Where are the stones?
Roger Rabbit spews:
Maybe executing people for working on the sabbath isn’t such a bad idea. In fact, it may be such a good idea that it should be extended to the other six days of the week, too! Let’s face it, you humans have a pronounced tendency to fall into mindless ruts, and sometimes your behavior becomes so habitual that it takes drastic measures to reprogram you. You continue to live in rust-belt towns, drive cars that cost more to repair than payments on a new one, stay in bad marriages, and continue working long after the economy has left the whole concept of work behind.
Let’s look at the hard cold facts: Our rich class is being given huge tax breaks to create jobs in China, India, Mexico, and Bangladesh. Unions are becoming extinct, the new workplace ethic is bullying bosses and speedups, employer-provided pension and health benefits are all but gone, wages are being slashed, and the tax code continues to slew in the direction of only wage workers having to pay taxes while everyone else gets a free ride.
Workers are not only overworked and undercompensated, they’re also disrespected. People who work for a living are considered socially inferior and looked down on. Doesn’t this tell you something?
Of course it does! Social values always wrap themselves around what societies considered useful and valuable. Social norms reject that which is useless and a drag on the common well-being. Workers, you no longer have any economic or social value. Accept it and move on.
What society embraces now is not your work ethic or sweat and labor, but a faculty for creative theft. That’s right, the producer and consumer economy is history; the oil that lubricates the gears of the New Economy is people stealing from each other. It’s this constant churning of money that nobody owns for very long that makes the Brave New World go ’round!
So, don’t be a sap, be a banker or a corporate lawyer or a mortgage broker or a doctor! Position yourself to filch from your neighbors! Don’t worry, you won’t hurt anybody, because they’re going to filch it right back from you! This way, everyone will end up rich and happy, and nobody will have to produce anything or do any work anymore. This is the economic utopia that everyone from Adam Smith to Karl Marx to Milton Friedman had wet dreams about, and we should honor the people who invented it!
But old habits are DAMNED hard to break, so to get people to stop working, not only on Sundays but also on the other six days, we may have to execute a few of you to shake things up and get the rest of you to shift into the new paradigm. That’s just the way human nature works.
Roger Rabbit spews:
As long as we’re discussing Scripture, let me bring this topic up. What we Democrats need to do is stop being so damned Christian in how we treat Republicans. Seriously. We’ve been way too kind and accomodating to these heathens, and it’s time to do some serious ass-kicking. Republicans, despite spending more Sundays in church than anyone else, know less about Christian principles and behavior than anyone else, so obviously going to church is a waste of time for them, and they need to be educated some other way. They clearly don’t understand King James English, so we need to talk them in a language they do understand. In other words, we need to start leaving footprints on their asses.
Bill Clinton said as much yesterday at the Aspen Ideas Festival. Clinton, who has some experience in dealing with Republicans, told the attendees — who are people looking for ideas on how to clean up this mess that Republicans created for us — said that President Obama should stand up to the Teahadists and hold firm on tax increases. The White House shouldn’t blink, he said.
Clinton also poked holes in GOP Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget scheme. Ryan has things backwards, Clinton said. He blames government for rising health care costs, but the reverse is true: The private sector is driving government’s health care costs higher.
“Medicare premiums are based the costs of private-industry premiums, Clinton explained. Thus, the Ryan plan could actually increase Medicare expenditures. ‘This country cannot afford to mess up this debate,’ Clinton passionately said. ‘There’s a lot of stuff out there that is pure bull.'”
That’s right, and all the bull is coming from the GOP side, so we need to start kicking this Sunday churchgoers in their asses to knock the wax out of their ears and some sense into the vacuum between their ears. Less Christian-like behavior from us will elicit more Christian-like behavior from them, get it?
And that’s your Roger Rabbit Sunday School lesson for this weekend.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITI.....?hpt=hp_t2
God spews:
BTW
“work” includes driving to megachurches.
I am that I am.
rob spews:
lol. How about driving to regular churches?
And isn’t giving a sermon work?
Bob spews:
@4
Bill Clinton also has a fair bit of experience raping women and lying under oath, not at the same time, of course. What exactly was your point in using him as an example?
YLB spews:
I’ve never seen that proved in contrast to this:
http://republicansexoffenders.com/
Zotz sez: Teahadists are Koch suckers! spews:
@7: That’s bullshit and even so, it’s a flight of steps up from the goats you fuck.
Zotz sez: Teahadists are Koch suckers! spews:
@Roger: Nice little rants! Made my day so far.
Zotz sez: Teahadists are Koch suckers! spews:
@HA: Why isn’t Roger a Front Pager?
Michael spews:
Irony FTW!
Roger Rabbit spews:
@7 You actually believed Paula Jones?
Roger Rabbit spews:
@10 Thankew! It doesn’t even take any effort on my part to dream this stuff up! It just pops into my head as I read the morning news headlines. It all seems so obvious. The only big mystery — the thing I can’t figure out — is why anyone still votes Republican. I thought all of you humans were smarter than that. Guess not.
Roger Rabbit spews:
Well this guy just met the Bible’s author(s):
“A motorcyclist participating in a protest ride against helmet laws went over his handlebars, hit his head on the pavement and was killed, police said Sunday.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43.....news-life/
Roger Rabbit spews:
Now I’m gonna sit back and wait for the poster @5 to tell us whether we all get a shiny new Harley when we leave the here and now.
Roger Rabbit spews:
If there’s a Heaven, I’ll bet there’s no helmet laws up there. Why would you need a helmet in Heaven?
Roger Rabbit spews:
If you want to cut Medicaid costs, one way is to reduce the number of indigent paraplegics in nursing homes by enforcing helmet laws.
LD spews:
Down on the Fourth of July: the United States of gloom
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/n.....-of-gloom/
Michael spews:
@18
A simple crash investigation is a lot cheaper than a death investigation as well. That was one of the points the state patrol made when WA passed its helmet law.
Roger Rabbit spews:
Get Ready For $170 Oil In 2012
You think gas is expensive now? Don’t be fooled by last week’s mild retreat in oil prices. The 60 million barrels that governments pledged to release from their strategic reserves amounts to only two-thirds of one day’s global oil consumption.
If you think this comment is a Dubyew bash, you’re right, but I’ll get to that later. If you think it’s off topic, you’re wrong, because if you drive a gas guzzler you’d better start praying right now. Just for practice, because the oil price spike is still several months away, but believe me that motherfucker is coming.
Barron’s magazine says so. (Sorry, no link, because that’s subscriber content only; you can read the hard copy version in the public library, like I do, or buy the magazine for 5 bucks at your local grocery store, which I don’t, because I’m a fucking freeloader just like the Republicans are. It’s in the July 4 issue, page 19.)
But aren’t oil futures backing off, and aren’t hedgers shorting oil? Yes and yes. Which is why you should buy oil futures cheap, if you know how to play commodities, have several million dollars to invest, and own an oil storage terminal. I don’t, so I’m simply going to hang onto my oil stocks, or maybe sell them over the next few weeks then buy them back later this year after Greece’s debt crisis and a U.S. Treasury default crash the stock market.
Here’s why Barron’s thinks oil is going to $170 next year.
There are two kinds of oil producers, OPEC and non-OPEC. All of the reserve production capacity is held by OPEC; there is zero reserve capacity among the non-OPEC producers. And OPEC’s reserve capacity has been steadily trending downward and is expected to hit zero next year.
The executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), the organization that represents the oil-consuming nations, recently said in very veiled/couched/parsed/shaded language (of the sort the Federal Reserve uses), recently (translated into English) “warned” (my words, translated into layspeak from Barronspeak) that the world is facing an oil price spike next year. And a Wall Street analyst (doesn’t matter who; I never heard of him either) was quoted by Barron’s as saying the world faces an “extended plateau” at the $170 a barrel price level starting next year.
The reason he chose that number is because oil demand is being driven primarily by developing countries and that’s the level where “demand destruction” takes place in those countries. In other words, they’ll keep paying higher and higher prices for the oil their growing economies thirst for, until prices reach that level, which guarantees they will in a constrained-supply environment, which is what we’re going to have in 2012 and going forward.
Now let me reiterate a statistic I posted above: The recent release of oil from government reserves is enough to supply global demand for only 16 hours. That’s right, that’s what I said, the world will go through that 60 million barrels of government-owned oil in only 16 hours. After that, it’s gone, and the markets will resume doing their thing. So what do you think our government — and our allies’ governments — will be able to do to keep oil from spiking to $170 a barrel next year? Nothing.
In 1980, crude oil consumed 9.5% of U.S. GDP. At $170/bbl in 2012 dollars, crude oil will consume about 7% of U.S. GDP next year. So, things won’t get as bad as they’ve been in the past. Things will get bad, though. At that price point, you’re well over $5/gallon at Washington State gas pumps.
The U.S. doesn’t get hurt quite as badly from high oil prices as we used to. That’s partly because we’ve gone more to a service economy, and it takes less oil to produce services than goods. It’s also partly because we’re using less oil for heating and electrical generation. With the more diversified economy we have today, our non-transportation consumption of oil has dropped from 44% of our total oil consumption in 1980 to 30% today. That helps the broader economy, although it doesn’t help drivers caught owning fuel-thirsty vehicles.
Which brings me to George W. Bush. One of the reasons the U.S. is better off today than in 1980 is because the fuel efficiency of our vehicles has improved. But under Bush’s no-regulation-no-fucking-way-no-fucking-how political and economic philosophies, further advances in CAFE standards came to a screeching halt and there has been ** ZERO ** advance in the fuel efficiency of the U.S. vehicle fleet (of 250 million vehicles) in the last 10 years. And that stupid policy of the Bush Administration/GOP Congress made us needlessly vulnerable to the coming 2012 oil price spike.
Remember when HUMMERS were all the rage of the moneyed hipster set? How much are those $120,000 MSRP vehicles worth on the used car market now? And last I heard, General Motors was trying to sell the Hummer brand, but couldn’t find any takers.
Well, what do you suppose happened when gas prices backed off with the onset of the Great Recession? People who still had any money went out and bought big pickups and other gas guzzlers again. Believe me, American consumers are STOOPID! And these aren’t people who have money or who can afford these vehicles; they bought them with money they don’t have by taking out loans they can’t pay. That’s the American Way, and it’s still deeply entrenched in our culture.
Man, are these dummies ever going to regret owning those vehicles next year.
Mrs. Rabbit and I own two cars, and they’re both about 10 years old. Mrs. Rabbit’s 10-year-old car still has less than 25,000 miles on it, so we’re probably going to own it for a while yet. I generally buy a new car, on average, once every 20 years. My next new car, which is still some years away, probably will be an ELECTRIC car, which is enough time for them to work the bugs out, and for the prices of electric vehicles to come down. Why electric? Because, at today’s electricity rates, the fuel cost for an electric car is equivalent to paying $1 a gallon for gas.
WANNA BUY GAS FOR A BUCK A GALLON???
There, I thought that might get your attention. Thank Dubya for the fact your present car is 35% less fuel efficient than it should be, which is the same thing as paying 35% more for gas at the pump. Why the hell would you vote for somebody with a political and economic philosophy like his? My suggestion is, when you hear some Republican bitching about $5.50 a gallon gas at your local filling station around this time next year, you should give him/her a dirty look and say, “Maybe you should’ve voted Democrat.”
Roger Rabbit spews:
Let’s see them drill their way out of this.
Roger Rabbit spews:
Please God, dear God, when I pray to You, I usually don’t ask for much, but this time I’m asking! Please please please MAKE THE OIL RUN OUT SOON so we’ll get those stupid humans off this planet and make this place inhabitable for inoffensive creatures like cute furry rabbits again!
Better yet — to speed this process up — how about laying on the Rapture? Really, God, you’ve been promising a Rapture for 2000 years and we’re still waiting — WHERE IS THE FUCKING RAPTURE??! True, a Rapture will only rid the Earth of Republicans, but that’s really all we need, because Democrats aren’t the problem here. If we can get rid of the Republicans that will solve most of our problems, and we can handle the rest in our Democratic caucuses.
So, God, I’m praying to ya, let’s have a fucking Rapture but if we can’t have a Rapture then let’s dry up the oil, so we can get rid of the Republicans who are fucking up this planet. I’m begging you!
Roger Rabbit spews:
@10 re #20-22: See what happens when you give me encouragement? Enjoy!
Michael spews:
@20
Oil’s going up, the money available to fix up road is going down, and we’re still building more roads. Roads that go unmaintained start to degrade rather quickly and require more and more expensive work be done on them. It’s not a very good equation for the car lovers and the long commuters out there.
I’ve got another 5 years or so of life in my car and by then I’ll hopefully be able to go car free. If something happens to the car I might just try and jump-start the process.
LD spews:
$170 oil couldn’t happen at a better time….2012
“It’s the economy STUPID”
Roger Rabbit spews:
@24 It’s amazing how little Mrs. Rabbit and I have used our cars after we retired and no longer commuted. Basically, the new car you buy when you retire might last the rest of your life. Or, as you suggest, maybe you won’t even need one (although we do, to get to medical appointments and Drinking Liberally).
Roger Rabbit spews:
I want to visualize a future America in which there are little self-contained communities of picturesque cottages clustered around shops, with ponds and cobblestone walks and shade trees, and almost everything you need is right there so you don’t even need a car. There would be a bus stop out front and a shuttle to the light rail station for when you want to go downtown or to the airport. If our existing grid-square neighborhoods were replaced with these “cluster village” developments our cities would become much prettier and more livable.
LD spews:
My God Utopia
Obama’s Economists: ‘Stimulus’ Has Cost $278,000 per Job
http://www.weeklystandard.com/.....76014.html
In other words, the government could simply have cut a $100,000 check to everyone whose employment was allegedly made possible by the “stimulus,” and taxpayers would have come out $427 billion ahead.
Lets let Obam design those little shovel ready buros and we’ll all just wait for our $100,000 check!
proud leftist spews:
Like Thomas Jefferson, I cut out those parts of the Bible that just ain’t right. The Old Testament spoke to people of a different time. At the same time, I don’t believe an all-loving God could possibly have ever advocated for the death penalty. So, I’ll just believe the Bible,like the Constitution, evolves.
W. Klingon Skousen's log removal service spews:
re 8: I think the best name for a Republican offender was Bob ‘Packwood’.
Blue John spews:
Rabbit, you read stuff by Howard Kunstler? He’s been talking about post Peak Oil for a long time.
http://www.kunstler.com/
Puddybud, identifying northwest liberals who elected an underexperienced man to the presidency weighed down by an oversized ego spews:
Just like libtardos believed Anita Hill.
Puddybud, identifying northwest liberals who elected an underexperienced man to the presidency weighed down by an oversized ego spews:
Oh really proud leftist…?
“For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law” – Jesus Christ
Puddybud, identifying northwest liberals who elected an underexperienced man to the presidency weighed down by an oversized ego spews:
Since we’re discussing the Bible… here is a Bible claiming person discussing another Bible thinking person
Looks like Bill Clinton likes how Bachmann implements her religion seven days of the week.
Rujax! spews:
Dumbass @ 32…
In “Clintonese” that’s him saying she’s got nice tits.
You don’t know fucking anything.
SJ spews:
Puddy
“For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law” – Jesus Christ
So why are you not an observant Jew?
Politically Incorrect spews:
Whoever does any work on it is to be put to death.
Another good reason to not take the Bible seriously!
And another good reason to abandon the Abrahamic religions entirely.
Puddybud, identifying northwest liberals who elected an underexperienced man to the presidency weighed down by an oversized ego spews:
Because Observand Jews reject Jesus Christ as God’s Messiah!
Roger Rabbit spews:
@29 No, I haven’t been reading Kunstler (although I’ve heard of him); and I don’t totally subscribe to the “peak oil” mantra, at least not the conventional manifestation of it that says oil production will soon begin to decline.
The probably reality is that there’s enough oil in the ground for our lifetimes and some future generation will have to deal with the exhaustion of earth’s oil supplies.
Although America is by far the most intensively explored and drilled oil province on earth, we’re still one of the world’s top oil producers. The reasons for this are that the original production technologies left the majority of the oil in the ground, and with newer technologies we’re now going back and recovering that left-behind oil; that new technologies are opening up previously inaccessible oil deposits; and that higher oil prices have made it economically feasible to recover oil that previously cost more to recover than it could be sold for. All of these factors have expanded America’s economically recoverable reserves.
Elsewhere in the world, the combination of improved technologies and higher prices that make it economically feasible to extract hard-to-get oil in remote areas, deep seabeds, and arctic regions are expanding world in-ground reserves.
And then there are the Canadian and Venezuelan oil sands and oil tars, which contain several times as much oil as the world’s original liquid petroleum reserves.
So, there’s a lot of oil still out there.
Several years ago, in an article on the end of the cheap-oil era, National Geographic quoted scientists as saying, “We’re going to run out of atmosphere before we run out of oil.” So the problem is not limited fossil fuel reserves, it’s the planetary damage that will be caused by burning the fossil fuel reserves that still exist.
Roger Rabbit spews:
@33 Lots of people have nice tits but that doesn’t make them nice people.
Rujax! spews:
Rabbit @ 33…
Too true.
SJ spews:
@39
SO?
You could still follow the rest of the law.
How many wives do you have?
Do you eat shellfish?
Where a Talit?
Fast on Yom Kippur?
Manumit your slaves every seven years?
Keep Pesach?
Drive on Shabbat?
Cook on Shabbat?
Forfend uttering the name of God?
Lay Tefilin?
Read Hebrew?
Puddybud, identifying northwest liberals who elected an underexperienced man to the presidency weighed down by an oversized ego spews:
SJ when not playing “god”
How many wives do you have? -UNO
Do you eat shellfish? – NOPE
Where a Talit? – No need Jesus fulfilled the LAW
Fast on Yom Kippur? – Jesus fulfilled the LAW
Manumit your slaves every seven years? – Don’t own them and rujax would have been rejected at the slave auction as being too stupid.
Keep Pesach? – Not a Jew but a Gentile
Drive on Shabbat? – Sure. That was one of the oderous laws Jesus claimed the Pharisees and Saducees placed on people for a Sabbath’s day journey.
Cook on Shabbat? – Heat food up.
Forfend uttering the name of God? – Absolutely. Notice who does though.
Lay Tefilin? – If they are written in the heart why does one need to wear them on their head?
Read Hebrew? – Not good at it. Google helps.
Zotz sez: Teahadists are Koch suckers! spews:
@40:
You’re correct that the there will be a lot oil (and other fossil fuels) left for some time. Peak Oil should more correctly be thought of as Peak Production in which EROEI is the limiting factor.
When we first started using (that’s an intentional use of “using”) fossil fuels in a big way 150 years ago or so, Energy Returned On Energy Invested was 100s:1. Now it’s approaching 1:1.
It’s all about Net Energy. And we’re about to run out of that soon.