Preach it!

Today I heard a CBS radio news report about the ban expiring today and felt obligated to set the record straight for benefit of folks in the anti-drilling crowd.

During the CBS radio news report [to which, unfortunately, IÂ’ve been unable to find a link] the reporter spoke with a woman described as a resident of Santa Barbara, Calif., who shared her disdain for the prospect of drilling taking place off the California coast.

Recalling personal memories of a 1969 oil spill off the Santa Barbara coast, the lady in Santa Barbara cited the prospect of another environmental disaster as the primary reason behind her opposition to a resumption of offshore drilling. Secondarily, she cited the threat drilling poses to the pristine beauty of the California coast. Understandably, her concerns are based upon personal experience.

In my estimation, however, both of these arguments are non-starters today, especially when one considers the many ways offshore drilling during the past 40 years. I say, “They’re obsolete” and industry experts agree.

“Surprising to many, offshore oil and natural gas production actually puts less oil and gas into the environment than natural leaks, transportation and shipping,” said Ford Brett, president of OGCI PetroSkills, during a guest appearance on Energy Tomorrow Radio Aug. 28. His company is the world’s largest petroleum technology training organization that trains geologists and engineers on how to find and retrieve oil and natural gas from the ground.

The strong likelihood that most of the offshore drilling platforms will be placed, at a minimum, 12 to 18 miles from shore, renders the other aspect of the “pristine beauty” argument moot. Because of the curvature of the earth, people standing on the California coast — or, for that matter, any other coast — will not be able to see platforms that far out. Even people viewing the ocean from the upper floors of office building along the coast will have a hard time distinguishing the drilling platforms.

That it, in a nutshell; people assume that any new rigs or platforms will be built with technology/engineering/architecture from the 1960s, and will be just as close to shore, and just as likely to spill.

What they don't get is that there is more danger of oil spills from the tankers we use to ship oil than from state-of-the-art installations designed to extract them.

And the next time I hear someone say that this country only has 2-3% of the world's oil reserves (based on obsolete measurement techniques from the 1980s), I'm going to scream.

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It seems to me that Methodists rarely file suit against markets over having to stock alcohol on grocery shelves.

Perhaps I'm wrong about that.

Admittedly, passions ran higher among temperance true believers on both sides of the Atlantic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. See Nation, Carrie, and the entire American temperance movement which went so far as to bring us a law that in turn begat the Mafia (speaking of unintended consequences).

As far as England is concerned, one of Jill Paton Walsh's Lord Peter/Harriet Vane mysteries is set in WW II, and makes the point that a small country town's main bomb shelter is under the pub, but the town's Methodists do not want to look at the barrels of wine stored underneath, and so they have a separate bomb shelter of their own.

Back to this side of the Atlantic:

(1) Are Mormons in Utah given special permission not to have to handle liquor if they work in casinos?

(2) How about Mormons in Utah itself?

The most absurd example I've ever seen of Islam stubbornness on the issue of alcohol has to do with a friend who was a nurse telling me that Muslim visitors refused to use hand sanitizers in the the areas of the hospital that required it. After all—it contains alcohol. (Where in the Koran does it forbid topical application of alcohol to kill germs?)

Seriously: Muslims must not get any concessions on this issue that devout Methodists do not. And given the fact that there have been Methodists in Britain for a long time, there have to be legal precedents that can be applied here.

Please do not bring all Mark Steyn's nightmares come true.

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on the glorious history of our economic problems:

h/t: Moe at Red State.

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Let me know if I need to downsize the video still further; is it screwing up the format of my page?

h/t: Flopping Aces

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Hat tips: Darrell, my husband (who was watching it when I woke up this, um, what I mean to say, hold on a minute . . . this afternoon), and The Anchoress, where A the H happened to find it. Oh—and that Dave Burge guy.

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The webcast with David Zucker on An America Carol, [link is sound-enabled!] which opens this Friday and is required viewing for everyone?

The productive conference call we had a couple of days ago on energy issues with the folks at API?

The bitchin' car show in Santa Monica on Saturday that featured some really innovative transportation options?

The article I'm working on that discusses discrimination in Hollywood against centrists/right-wingers/people who don't hate the military?

The economy? (That one is easy, though: you know what they say in the Pacific Northwest: "if you don't like the weather, wait ten minutes. It'll change." The same thing applies to the stock market.)

It's going to be a long day, isn't it? Stay tuned; I'm back on the job; I'll be alternating today between catching up here and taking care of a few RL issues that hover around me like mosquitoes in the Indiana woods in the middle of a humid summer.

Suddenly, the Topic Turns to Food and Sex

I shall begin with last night: I had dinner with Professor Purkinje, who is in town giving a lecture at UCLA about . . . neurons or some goddamned thing like that. What did this mean to me? Well, dinner at the Palamino, one of Westwood Village's best restaurants.

Prof P. was full of stories about human physiology, his next book—which touches on the nature of addiction—and whatnot, and I was full of . . . myself, as usual. (No room for anyone else in here; I'm a small person.)

So it was important to fortify ourselves with a bottle of wine. We ordered soup instead of appetizers, since it was butternut squash and it would have been irrational to order anything other than that. (The good doctor ended up finishing mine, with complaints about how I'd "defiled" it with black pepper. That's like suggesting that someone has "defiled" my checking account with money, and I wish to Gosh that they would. Where is that editing check, by the way? I'd better call to verify that it's on its way.)

Neuron-Boy ordered lamb, and I got ravioli made with Kobe beef. They serve two of these fabulous raviolis on each plate: one is covered in cream sauce, and the other is a spicy version in a fresh tomato salsa. Both made me remember that food is just as good as sex, if it's done right.

"Do you want some of my risotto?" he asked.

"No, no," I responded. "I'm having a perfectly nice monogamous relationship with this ravioli. Are those asparagus spears over there on your plate?"

He forked over two of 'em, and I continued to eat my amazing beef ravioli for another few minutes. Professor P. told me he'd figured out the cool thing about a "Palin Administration." (Isn't it cute how everyone's forgotten that she has a running mate?—that legislative dude with white hair, a shockingly decent sense of humor, and a wicked temper?)

"Mmm?" I asked. (By that I meant "this is the best ravioli I've ever had, or am ever likely to have; take your best shot, Buddy: I won't even notice.")

"I hear that she'll have the concentration camp for bisexuals right next to the one for Jews," he responded. "We'll be able to pass notes over the wall."

"Excellent," I replied. "Keep those missives entertaining, and don't discuss molecules unless it's absolutely necessary. See if you can make 'em rhyme. Speaking of Jews, I passed a gallery along Westwood Blvd. on my way here that sells Judaica. I was considering stopping by and getting one to take to the condo complex. We need someone to help around the pool area, and . . . you and the rest of the Tribe as just such good talkers. I really like that. I mean, why hang around with people who aren't good talkers? Life is so short."

I reached my spoon over and snagged some of his risotto. "Oh, my fucking God," I exclaim. "Let's trade plates for a minute. How do they do this? The creaminess of it, yet every grain of rice so discrete?"

"I don't know," he tells me as we swap the plates and he takes over ravioli duty. "I've never conquered it. I have a good friend who makes excellent risotto. He showed me how to do it, but mine still turns into a gluey mess. And, yes: I am using the right kind of rice. I'm not an idiot."

He probably isn't. People wouldn't buy his books if he were an idiot. And they certainly wouldn't fly him across the country to talk about brain functions at other institutions' medical schools.

The waiter stops by to ask if we are discussing medicine. "We touched on it," Prof P. responds, because that sounds better than "we were talking about food, architecture, our favorite writers who've killed themselves, and what constitutes a good blowjob."

So our waiter, whose father is a doctor, briefs us on his convictions about how important continuity of care is—having one doctor in charge of each patient's case, which of course we agree with— and we go on that way for a while after he leaves the table again. This respectable chatter doesn't last very long, of course.

By now we're arguing about (1) whether the distinctive taste of the risotto—which I'm busily finishing on his behalf—has to do with a mushroom stock, as Mr. Neuron supposes, or (2) whether it's because the marrow from the lamb bones has seeped into the broth, to give it a meatier flavor, as I theorize. We conclude that both techniques were used.

We also have a spirited discussion about fellatio, and whether to-the-hilt penetration is as important as pivotal works such as Deep Throat might suggest, or whether it's the "intangibles" that make oral sex good for a man, as Dr. P thinks. I tell him that the main travesty I've seen in my admittedly limited exposure to porn is that women are so busy with the deep throating that they forget to use their hands and tongues, and it seems to me that this is a crime. After all, one's vagina doesn't have a tongue, or at least mine doesn't. One ought to take advantage.

Dr. P looks up at me then. "I have it!" he exclaims.

"What?"

"Your newest journalistic endeavor."

"Well," I respond, "I think I've got a full plate right now. Or I would, if I hadn't just scarfed up the last of your risotto."

"Restaurant reviews. But with plenty of sexual innuendo."

"Oh, no." I tell him. "I'm no good at that."

"Sexual innuendo?"

"Restaurant reviews. Sooner or later, they'll want me to review a seafood place, and you know how I am about that."

"You could just specialize in Everything But Fish. With Plenty of Sexual Metaphor."

The man could be onto something, you know. A whole new career direction for me.

So I walk him back to his hotel. "Tell me some more about brain conditioning," I demand. "But not too much."

Back at his room I collect my laptop and hug him goodbye. "You're going to be so sad when you come out to B-More next winter," he remarks in a tone of Deep Regret. "Two months into an Obama administration. The family and I will have to be really, really nice to you."

"Well," I reply. "One of us will be sad. And the other one will be very, very nice about it. I promise."

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We will return you to your regularly scheduled web page this afternoon--or this evening, at the very latest.

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You'll want to make a note of that, Barry.

I know you're a swashbucklin' kind of guy—but personally, I wouldn't fuck with Kissinger.

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. . . is grateful that he insisted that McCain showed up tonight.

Johnny Mac is eating Barry for dinner.

Obama knows nothing about economics, military strategy, reform, or how to control spending.

He does not even seem to realize that Afghanistan is not officially a U.S.-led effort, in the way that Iraq is. Does Obama know that Afghanistan is a U.N. effort, and that this handcuffs the U.S. military to some degree—and that Afghanistan is the closest thing the military world has to an uncrackable nut?

The more AQs we kill in Iraq, the fewer we'll have to take care of Afghanistan (and Pakistan, if it comes to that).

Given the fact that the U.N. has us in handcuffs, we need every advantage we can get when we go to complete the transformation that must occur in Afghanistan.

Which means that we have it wrap things up in Iraq, and we're awfully close to success there.

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The third semi-finalist from Newt's contest! And my favorite.

Okay; it's tough, but this is the one I'm voting for. Vote here; vote now; pay less!

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More from Newt's call to video action:

Well, one cannot argue with the cuteness factor, but make sure to watch all three finalists before you vote.

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One of the three finalists in Newt's contest for videos that promost domestic petroleum/natural gas production:

So go vote!

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Dear China,

I will never forgive you for Tibet. And if you even look at Taiwan funny, we will bomb you back into the stone age. I mean I'll do it fucking personally. (Sure. Taiwan is part of China. Just not one that you are allowed to touch. Or look at. Or think about. Or name.)

But go ahead and unofficially take over North Korea, via your "friendly ties" with its military leaders. Of course I'd rather see the country reunite with South Korea, but that isn't realistic, and in the meantime the people there are living on tree bark; the atmosphere is, quite literally, Orwellian.

Bring the North Koreans food, and that watered-down capitalism you're learning so well. Help 'em put together an infrastructure. Rice in their bellies, bicycles and cars. Air-conditioning. Agriculture. Building codes. And that castrated version of the internet you use.

Later, we'll talk. You can help a few other dictatorships to become merely "authoritarian regimes," and then we can sweet-talk you into setting your satellites free, so they are merely "close allies," and not de facto colonies. (Eventually, you'll see the light: having a colony is like maintaining a vacation home, or an RV—or even a pool, if you don't swim. You don't use this thing much, and it costs a bundle to keep up.)

But for crying out loud: get some food into those people's bellies, a bit of education, and some transportation. Stabilize it as an authoritarian basis for the time being.

I've seen the pictures: China, for all its faults and immorality, is far, far preferable than the slave camp that is North Korea in the present day.

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If McCain is still working on a bailout, and Obama decides to bail out of D.C. alone, and have a "town hall" meeting,

(1) Does his still have his telepromter, and
(2) what happens when and if the format's already determined, and McCain flies into the venue at the last minute, once it's been decided that it will be a town-hall format, which Obama's been refusing to do all along?

Can you say "sudden death"?

Of course, there's one thing McCain can do that would be even more diabolical: send Palin in to sub for him.

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. . . is in Santa Monica today and tomorrow. It looks like I'll probably be going tomorrow, since I have an energy conference today, and then I have to to to court to fix a "fixit" ticket.

The alt-car people don't list flex-fuel vehicles; I hope that was just an error, since I still think that alcohol-based fuels such as ethanol and methanol could play some role in the future of energy—and no one in his/her right mind would buy a vehicle that only ran on methanol/ethanol right now. (Unless they lived near a race track, and could get methanol locally: race-car drivers use methanol, of course.)

It could be that we will be transitioning to increased use of electric in the future, which would also work, if we can start transporting it more effectively.

Glenn Reynolds points out that the performance is so excellent on the VW diesel that the next step might be a diesel/electric hybrid.

I like those neighborhood electric vehicles that look like futuristic golf carts (the Chrysler GEM being the most popular) though since most of them are open on the side one wouldn't want to use 'em on a chilly evening. Also, they don't go over 25 mph, because they don't have airbags. Their virtues: street-legal in a lot of communities, and they're available with either a bit of cargo space or a second row of seats, so you can take your friends with you on your errands.

Of course, the SmartForTwo is closed-up and will go freeway speeds. Unlike NEWs, however, one is limited to two seats.

GEM has a new NEV that is closed-up an looks very, very cool. I do not know whether it meets the "Joy psuedo-golf cart" minimum speed, however: I'd need one that goes 35-40 mph, even to go to the grocery store five blocks away. Because, um, I can't drive 25.

The perfect NEV-related beast? I vote for the Zap Xebra, which

• Is closed-in, for rainy days;
• Does meet the Little Miss Attila 40 mph threshold;
• Is available as a four-seater;
• Functions as a plug-in, and uses solar panels (these can either be detached, and gather energy while you zip around town, or can stay on top of the vehicle, where they create a slight wind drag, but nonetheless extend your range before you need to charge up again);
• Is legally classified as a motorcycle, but can be driven with a regular car driver's license;
• Has only three wheels, and hovers around the same cuteness level as the Smart Car;
• Is available with a zebra-stripe paint job right from the factory. Who can resist that?

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Even though both the House and the Senate are letting the moratoria expire on offshore drilling, Reid is still trying to insert language into non-energy-related bills that will prohibit the harvesting of shale oil in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah.

Charming. Read the article at Flopping Aces, and call your Senator right away.

The fact that no one in the media seems to have clued into is that energy independence in the United States rests upon having energy production (whether it's the old-fashioned fossil fuels we hope to phase out in 10-20 years, or the renewables we're in the process of developing now) rests on energy production in as many regions of the country as possible. Oil wells in the Gulf shut down when a hurricane is on its way; drilling on the North Slope of Alaska is only permitted five months out of the year. The Atlantic is no stranger to storms, and even the Pacific Ocean isn't invulnerable to extraordinary weather.

Shale oil has to be part of our Phase 1 (petroleum/natural gas/clean coal) strategy. That will buy us time to get Phase II (more versatile means of producing electricity, and innovative liquid fuels such as ethanol and methanol) off the ground.

Again—call your Senator. Explain that there are new technologies for extracting petroleum products from shale, and that you want to see this resource handled in an environmentally responsible manner, but that is a question for the engineers—rather than overzealous legislators who want to take this option off the table entirely.

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I think he might be growing up:

Conservatives love to make a piñata out of Hollywood liberal Tim Robbins, but even they may lower their bats after they see him in "The Lucky Ones."

I thought we were the piñatas, but I'll let that one pass.

Robbins, Rachel McAdams and Michael Peña play soldiers who, on a month's leave from Iraq, become accidental companions on an often-comic road trip across America.

The movie, which Roger Ebert has compared to the William Wyler classic "The Best Years of Our Lives," could have turned into a polemic on the war. But Robbins was attracted to the script, written by director Neil Burger and Dirk Wittenborn, because "it's a story about humanity where the politics are irrelevant.

"What I liked about it was the way it threw together individuals who would have no reason to be hanging out, and showed their bond," Robbins told us at a New York screening the other night.

To research the role, Robbins traveled to Fort Dix, N.J. Not everyone there threw their arms around the man who, like his partner Susan Sarandon, has been a relentless critic of the Bush administration. He recalled, "One soldier said, 'I don't agree with your politics, but I want you to know there was a guy I served with. He and I didn't see eye to eye politically on a damn thing, but I liked his character, and if there was anyone next to me in a hostile situation, it would be him.'

"I wanted to make a picture for those troops, something they could enjoy," added Robbins. "Right now, we need healing. We need to understand the experience of what it's like for the troops to come home."

Well, Tim—there are a lot of people who do understand that. But thanks for listening. Welcome aboard.

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is Senators attending to Senate business.

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Eric Odom on An American Carol, which I haven't pimped in, like, an hour:

I want to help the folks behind the movie as much as possible. Unlike most liberal-directed movies coming out of Hollywood, An American Carol is sort of the first of its kind. Sure, there have been other center-right films to hit the market, but most did not have quite the opportunity this one has . . . .

If An American Carol does well on opening weekend, itÂ’s safe to say that other films with a center-right flavor will follow. This movie, with an all-star cast and a powerful set of directors/producers/writers, can score HUGE box office points and send a message to the Hollywood elites.

The problem is that it canÂ’t do this without our help. While the film isnÂ’t really a low-budget film, it certainly needs the help of the grassroots movement to give it a kick-start next week. The movie will open in more than 2,000 theaters on October 3rd, and we need to get anyone and everyone we know to go see it.
"What [you're asking] can I do to get involved?"

Message, message, message.

(1) Word of mouth is our finest tool in this information war, and we need to put it to work like never before.

PLEASE make sure you tell everyone you know about An American Carol and how it opens on October 3rd. (Opening weekend often being a big measurement of a movie's appeal, by studio execs. --ed) Tell all your friends, family, co-workers, online connections, etcÂ… everyone.

(2) Social Networks
IÂ’ve set up a Facebook group that I plan to use over the next eight days to promote and coordinate grassroots efforts to market the movie. Click below to join the Facebook group.

BE SURE TO INVITE YOUR FRIENDS!

Once youÂ’ve joined the group, please check the news section to see if there is an event planned to see the movie in your area. If there is not, create an event and let me know so that I can add it to the news section.

There is also an official Twitter profile that I am told will be used by the PR folks behind An American Carol. Follow An American Carol there (link below).

(3) An American Carol Action Network

Join the social network set up for An American Carol ["the American Carolers"] by clicking below.

This is our chance to help a conservative movie succeed and show Hollywood what Americans want more of. We must work together as a grassroots movement to help get the word out.

An American Carol on Twitter.

An American Carol on Facebook.

Join the American Carolers! Main site for the movie (sound enabled); become part of the effort!

Works for me! Eric and I are both good people to get info from (we're like little kids—expert shoulder-tappers: we just keep tapping until we get answers), as will be the official Twitter account for AAC.

Personally, I welcome questions from both "consumers" (people who are simply anxious to see the film), and other new-media types who want more info.

Rock the (Capitalistic) Vote!

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Let's see. What are our options?

Well, there's (1) Religulous, which is apparently based on Bill Mahar making fun of people who believe in God. I mean, that guy is so funny anyway! I'll bet seeing him make fun of religion will have 'em rolling in the aisles.

That sounds like fun. Or there is W. (the site has sound enabled!), which I've been told makes G.W. Bush the anti-Christ. It certainly makes sport of the guy who's handled some of the most challenging issues of our time. Imperfectly, for sure. But the timing is interesting: I wonder if the far left is trying to draw the same connection between G.W. Bush and John McCain that they drew between Rush Limbaugh and John McCain on the topic of immigration. (Yeah—no daylight between those two there.)

So I guess I'm on the horns of a trilemma. Is there such a thing as a trilemma? There would be if you crossed a rhinoceros with an elephant. Hey! I'm a trilemma!

Anyway, here's the dishy, talented, Kevin Farley, with Myrna Sokoloff, who's been working with David Zucker for years (ever since their guerilla ads for the 2004 campaign):

I wasn't able to see the whole thing (I need to install two more gigs of memory, on this machine), so I didn't see what Farley's response was to the question about his brother. But whether that question was tasteful or not, I'd love to see people treat Kevin as his own man, rather than an echo of Chris. Unless people are going to start grilling Luke Wilson about the crisis that Owen went through, or every interview with Jim Belushi is going to include a question about John.

Of course it isn't all about prurient interest in tragedy; people are also fascinated by "mixed marriages" and "mixed sibling philosophies." Carville and Matalin are asked about this all the time, and every time I've heard Stephen Baldwin interviewed someone has had to ask him what his brother thinks about [name the political issue].

Call my brother; he'll tell you that I'm a good kid, but kind of a nut. And that my "unorthodox" politics are probably some sort of rebellion thingie. With any luck, I'll grow out of it, steady up, and get a real job.

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