“Strategic” Oil Reserves

Funny, but the word strategic leaves me with the impression that the oil reserves would be used to avert a disaster, not to keep us paying $3 a gallon while the middle east has an upheaval.

Perhaps it’s time Congress codified the use of our oil reserves so that they can be reserved for ….well, let’s codify it….what do we want?

Use it during a sudden unexpected stoppage?
Keep it safe for during a shortage during an attack on US soil?
Open it up if a shortage is to be short term (ie big storms in Canada slowing down production) and prices have gone to $200/barrel at 2011 dollars?

We’ve been at $100/barrel before and yes we can do it again. Cripes it might even get the government more money as they collect the taxes.

Thank you to Energy Secretary Mr. Chu who says:

“We don’t want to be totally reactive so that when the price goes up, everybody panics, and when it goes back down, everybody goes back to sleep,” he said.

But maybe it’s time we wrote down when we actually want these reserves opened so that they can’t be used to save an election….

Thought Processes

Ok, bear with me today….

I know we all wonder “How on earth can they think this way?” when it comes to some of the conclusions on the left.

Well Philmon of The Clue Batting Cage has a theory that I is looking pretty sound to me. It concerns the “role of abstract thought in the life of the affected”.

In a normal, healthy human being, one balances the capacity for abstract thought with experiencial moorings in reality. …….We build these often useful models of reality – abstractions of experience … and … abstractions of abstractions. And thus we can build layer upon layer of abstraction. The ability to do this is useful, it’s interesting, and like I said demonstrates an agile and flexible intellect……… One should understand that the more layers of abstraction one constructs over reality, the farther from reality it becomes. But many people do not understand this…………… As such people engage in this activity they begin to confuse rationalization with reason.

And they become Progressives.

Read the whole post for clarity, but let’s take a look at today’s example from Small Dead Animals. They link to this news item about Rep Ed Markey of the US House Natural Resources Committee. He wants to:

imposes new fees on energy companies for failing to produce oil and gas on federal lands they lease.

Here’s the (and this is a simple example) thought process:

If you charge fees for not producing, the energy companies will be encouraged to produce more oil and gas from these leases that they are letting sit idle. And if that doesn’t work, it’s still a win because the US government will have more money to spend.

“It’s as if the oil and gas industry first asked for dessert, then ate one-fourth of their dinner and then complained to the manager about the service,” Markey said Thursday during a hearing of the Natural Resources Committee.

Let’s go with that analogy. You go to a restaurant and pay for a 4 course meal and eat dessert first. Then you only eat 1/4 of the rest of your meal and complain because you are so full. In Rep Markey’s head, the fix for this is to charge you for 2 meals. This will encourage you to eat dinner first and if it doesn’t, well, the restaurant is still ahead.

Tangent: Years ago I respected Ken Salazar.

Salazar said the Interior Department “would be happy” to help Markey develop the legislation.

Anywho…..did you get that abstraction?
Oil companies first pay the government to lease land.
It lays idle so rather than cancel the lease, or even re-lease the land thus “punishing” the lessee for mistreatment of the lease, they figure it will work to charge a fee.

In the real world, oil companies will just no longer buy all these xtra leases that they are not quite ready to start working or exploring yet. The government will lose out on the lease money AND there is still no incentive for energy companies to “work harder”.

Back to Kate at Small Dead Animals:

I Wish I Owned All The Oil Companies In The World
So I could go to Washington and announce my retirement.

Health Care

I’m in the midst of dealing with an insurance company screwup in a company that is self insured.

May I too suggest the “Road Not Taken”. Free Market Health Care.

This is why I call free market health care the road not traveled. There are many ways we could have helped the poor secure basic health coverage (e.g. through vouchers) without destroying the entire industry with third-party payer systems. Part of the problem in the public discourse is that few people alive today can even remember a free market in health care, so its impossible for some even to imagine.

Imagine away. The snafu above gets fixed and then anybody and everybody who this employee has complained to goes out and finds a new insurance company that has not screwed up simple dates. That incentive would probably make the insurance bureaucracy a bit more easy to deal with along with being cheaper.

Friday Photo

Welcome to philmon who has a good blog over here with a decent name.

I can’t find my card reader so you get an old photo today. Yellowstone with a pack of wolves in the foreground.

Cool

It’s Friday fluff and I have no new photos…..maybe later…but I do have Charles Krauthammer agreeing with me on the “Bush Doctrine”.

That’s just fun stuff.

The Press

During a press conference with President Calderon of Mexico, President Obama has a couple of very choice quotes (bold is mine):

“The U.S. and the entire world continue to be outraged by the appalling violence against the Libyan people,” Mr. Obama said in a news conference Thursday. “Moammar Gadhafi has lost the legitimacy to lead, and he must leave.”

(uh did he ever have the legitimacy?)

The decision to use military force would be “based on what’s best for the Libyan people,” he said, with an emphasis on “minimizing harm to innocent civilians.”

(uh – and Iraq? Kurds? Marsh people?……)

And then finally a quote about “bringing the full weight of law” upon the one man arrested for the killing of the US agent in Mexico.

“We expect the full weight of the law to be brought against this perpetrator,” Obama said.

Calderon said he was not yet willing to comply. “We have to review what the law stipulates,” Calderon said, saying he wants to “reserve his opinion” on sending the alleged assailant, Julian Espinoza, to the U.S.

Part of the reason may be because Mexico does not have the death penalty, and it would want assurances from the United States that if Espinoza is tried in this country, the U.S. would not seek his death. Complicating the matter, Calderon said, is that Espinoza has already confessed.

And the press:
Mr. President, Mr. President,
If the NFL goes into lockdown, will you do anything about it??

effing idiots.
Between the lies and the bias and the morons who can’t think through a straight line it’s a sad thing that we still have to rely upon the press for news.

Double Counting at HHS

The USS John Kerry

I swear the USS John Kerry would be far less insulting to service men/women than the USS Murtha, because at least when he was accusing these folks of murder he was young.

You KNOW someone has some money in this.

Wildlife Services

This is for the right to keep in mind when discussing budgeting and “needs”….go, read the Ace link at needs, it’s a good one….he’s talking about the most recent court decision on Obamacare, but it works here.

1. The mandate is not necessary at all. There is a difference between “necessary” and “politically useful” or “politically expedient.”

The taxpayers do not NEED to pay for a department to kill wildlife under the name of “Wildlife Services” in order for ranchers to live in complete safety on public lands.

(There is a cut in the Obama budget. I’m not sure if it’s there in the House version.)

(ht Ralph Maugham)

Matt Drudge

This sentence gave me a chuckle this morning:

The blunt truth is, Matt Drudge has probably had more influence deciding the political narrative in Washington than any individual in America, except President Obama in 2008 with his “hope and change” agenda that has largely disappeared.

The Hill thinks “hope and change” was more influential than Drudge. The Hill apparently forgot that Drudge was never a big fan of McCain.

Sorry dudes, Drudge rules. And part of that means that the gory, the Hollywood and the bizarre rule too!