Monday - June 23, 2008

If the Saudis say it, it must be so

NEW YORK - Oil prices rose Monday on disappointment over Saudi Arabia’s modest production increase and concerns that output from Nigeria will decline. Retail gas prices, meanwhile, inched lower overnight, but appear unlikely to change much as long as oil prices remain stuck in their recent trading range.

Saudi Arabia said Sunday at a meeting of oil producing and consuming nations that it would turn out more crude oil this year if the market needs it. The kingdom said it would add 200,000 barrels per day in July to a 300,000 barrel per day production increase it first announced in May, raising total daily output to 9.7 million barrels.

So the Saudis agree to pump more oil, and the price goes up anyway. Their production is now up half a million barrels a day compared to a few months ago. 500,000 is about a quarter of a supertanker’s cargo capacity worth of crude. Go figure. Actually, don’t. Conveniently not mentioned in this article (which I’m not linking to just in case AP is feeling testy today) is what the leader of their tribe, King Abdullah, said yesterday:

Earlier Sunday, King Abdullah said Saudi Arabia is not to blame for soaring oil prices, blaming speculators and surging demand in such developing economies as China and India.

“There are several factors behind the unjustified, swift rise in oil prices and they are: Speculators who play the market out of selfish interests, increased consumption by several developing economies and additional taxes on oil in several consuming countries,” King Abdullah said in speech.

Naturally, oil baron T Boone Pickens disagrees (while likely making another fortune off of the speculative market maybe?):

(he called) the Saudis’ additional production “peanuts” and said at least two million additional barrels per day are needed to make a meaningful dent in oil prices.

He said blaming speculators for higher prices is “silly” and told the U.S. Senate last week that global oil production has peaked at 85 million barrels per day.

Meanwhile, the Gulf is becoming a floating oil storage yard, with more than a dozen ships, possibly a lot more than that, filled up with oil just hanging out. Making money by just sitting around I guess?

Iran has 13 to 15 supertankers idling in the Gulf with capacity to hold as much as 30 million barrels, the ship-tracking data shows. Iran has not said how much oil is in the tankers. Hojatollah Ghanimifard, executive director of international affairs at National Iranian Oil Co., said June 2 that some vessels were storing crude while refineries carried out annual repairs.

Maybe there is nowhere for the ships to go ... if pumping capacity exceeds refining capacity, what other choice do they have?

King Abdullah is not the only one blaming speculators. And I’ve read elsewhere too that there is actually a temporary oil glut.

OPEC President Chakib Khelil said the Saudi initiative would fail to lower prices, blaming oil’s climb above $130 a barrel on speculation, rather than a lack of crude. Saudi Arabia’s output increase is ``illogical’’ and may do nothing to lower prices, he said after the meeting in Jeddah.

Also, if the oil is of ``poor quality,’’ it would have little effect on prices, Thierry Lefrancois, a strategist with Natixis in Paris said last week.

Oil prices rallied to a record $139.89 in New York on June 16, five times the average six years ago. World oil demand will rise 800,000 barrels a day, or 0.9 percent this year, according to the International Energy Agency.

This is looking like one of those Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t situations. I think it’s past high time to put the brakes on the speculation market. Now, just who is in charge of that again?

UPDATE: Here’s a laugh. Shows you how fast things change ... this is from 2005.

“[I]nstead of a crest being reached sometime this decade, an inflection point in world oil output will occur sometime beyond 2020, after which production will plateau for several more decades.

“[A]s a result, supply could exceed demand by as much as six million to 7.5 million barrels per day later in the decade” that will lead to an extended period of lower prices beginning as early as 2008.”

This article is actually pointing out the foolishness of that kind of forecasting. And it goes on to make a very telling point, something that most of us dumb consumers don’t really know about:

Currently, the world does not have adequate refining capacity for even the slightly more heavy, sour conventional crude that constitutes our present supposed “excess capacity” of 1.7 million bpd. Refiners, particularly those in China, will have to invest billions of dollars in sophisticated refining equipment before they will be able to process even these heavier conventional oils.

This kind of reminds me of when the US supply of hard coal started to run out and we had to switch to soft coal. Yep. The world’s refineries are set up for the “light sweet” crude oil. The easy to refine stuff that gives you high percentages of gasoline per barrel. A lot of the easy oil is gone now. Time to figure out a new approach; all that oil-shale oil is the heavy sour stuff, high in sulfur content and thick as tar.  But it can be refined and some refineries are already set up to handle it. There is a lot more to the oil equation than just how much can be squeezed from the ground.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/23/2008 at 10:16 AM   
Filed Under: • Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices •  
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Busy busy

Not getting much chance to post. Been getting quite a bit of work, which kept me going all weekend. I’ve got another window job today, even though it looks like rain. Right now I’m waiting on the chimney guys who are fixing that pipe with the bee’s nest in it for my neighbor. But since we share an attic, I’ve got to stick around in case the sweeps need to get up there from my end. The good news is that I was up at 6:30 doing housework, oh joy, so at least the place is tidy. For now.

My brother in law is in the hospital. I think he may have had a stroke. He’s only 43, in great shape, not an ounce overweight, doesn’t smoke, only drinks light beer, works out, has a very well paying, secure, almost no-stress job (he’s an indoor cop - the guy who escorts the prisoners from the holding cell to the courtroom and back. Full cop salary, but no patrols and no chance of getting shot at. Plus regular hours). Living the perfect life. So he’s at the beach Sunday, and complains to his sister that his arms and legs feel tingly. Sis looks over at him and says “why is one side of your face sagging?” Uh-oh. Off to the hospital. Hopefully we’ll find out what the problem is today. I hope it’s nothing major; John’s a great guy and he grills up the greatest chicken on the barbecue. Bells Palsy? He was fine Saturday. Lyme disease maybe? This is New Jersey after all. I doubt if it’s Guillain-Barre. But I’m no doctor so what do I know. We’ll see.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/23/2008 at 09:42 AM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life •  
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Britain’s oldest and prettiest council house

Well now, it’s cute okay but I don’t know about prettiest. On the other hand wait a minute.  They are saying council house huh?  And those are generally houses that fall into the subsidized catagory.  So maybe in this case it’s accurate. 
Whatever, the hard copy photo which I don’t have anymore, shows how nice and how much room there is inside.  Of course, it’s up to date in there.
But I can’t imagine living in it even if it were free.  Read on and find out why.

So, for a change here’s somethin’ different to look at and read.

Britian’s prettiest council house goes on the market for £75 a week
By Rupert Neate
Last Updated: 11:47PM BST 20/06/2008

However, the new occupiers of the Dutch Cottage, a 17th century octagonal thatch in Essex, will have to show parties of school children around their home once a week.

The listed cottage, which was built in 1621 by Dutch settlers who helped to drain the nearby marsh land, is one of only a handful of the tiny quaint buildings left - and the only one owned by the council.

Despite looking like a doll’s house, the 20ft cottage in Raleigh, Essex, has all mod cons including a fully fitted kitchen and shower room.

Tamara Burton, a spokeswoman for Rochford Council, said: “Although this is a private property is opened to the public so we are looking for a tenant who is not phased by having a class of children looking around.

“The weekly rent is £75 because the tenant will be bound by a tenancy agreement to conduct tours.

“The person we are looking for will act as a steward for the cottage and will have a knowledge of its history to pass on to other people

“We believe its the oldest and most unusual council house in Britain,” she said. “We have already had quite a lot of interest.”

Ann and Derek Jolly who lived in the house for 20 years decided to move on after difficulty climbing the steep ladder to the bedroom in the roof of the cottage.

Mrs Jolly, 71, said: “We loved it because we felt very close to Rayleigh’s history. It was a privilege to have something beautiful to look at.”

http://tinyurl.com/4nwsqr

Posted by Drew458     on 06/23/2008 at 08:57 AM   
Filed Under: • UK •  
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The Google Earth gatecrashers , kids will be kids

I guess one way to stop this before it goes too far, would be to toss a radio or some electric appliance into the pool after the little shits go in, and claim it was an accident.  Betcha others might think 2wice before pulling this stunt.
btw ,,, It isn’t merely the invasion and use of a pool.  Generally these “youths” utterly destroy the properties they invade.

The Google Earth gatecrashers who take uninvited dips in home-owners’ swimming pools
By Luke Salkeld
Daily Mail

Would-be revellers are using satellite images on the internet to find houses with swimming pools - and then turning up uninvited for an impromptu dip.

The craze involves using the Google Earth programme, which provides high-quality aerial photos of Britain and other countries.

Once a target is chosen, the organisers use social networking sites such as Facebook and Bebo to arrange to meet, say police.

Officers said that residents have woken up to find youngsters ‘dipping’ in their back gardens, or have come home from work to a swimming pool full of beer cans.

One group has already boasted on the internet that it held an event earlier this week.

Sixteen people are said to have gatecrashed two pools near Bournemouth.

The rules of ‘dipping’ often include wearing fancy dress and participants are urged to ‘bring a bike’ to escape if discovered.

There are fears that the craze could spread across the UK as the weather improves and pool owners leave their homes unattended while on holiday.

A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall Police said yesterday: ‘We are advising owners of swimming pools to be on their guard.

‘We would also warn prospective swimmers that using someone else’s pool is trespassing and therefore illegal.’

The group responsible for organising Monday’s ‘dipping’ session listed a specific meeting place, a midnight to 3am duration and mobile telephone numbers for the organisers.

Although there were only 16 confirmed participants at the ‘event’, invitations were sent to more than 500 users on Facebook.

Comments left by admirers of the group suggested that the craze could be spreading.

One message reads: ‘You crazy lot and your crazy antiks (sic). Don’t think I can make it but maybe I can do it on my own in London.’

Social networking sites such as MySpace have previously caused trouble for families after private parties advertised online have been gatecrashed by hordes of unruly teenagers.

A £4million mansion in Marbella last month became the latest home to be invaded by uninvited guests, when they gatecrashed a girl’s 16th birthday party.

http://tinyurl.com/45h279

Posted by Drew458     on 06/23/2008 at 08:42 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime • News-Briefs • UK •  
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History will say that we underestimated George W Bush

I haven’t a clue if that’s correct and won’t be around to find out. But this fellow believes it to be so.
He’s a noted historian and writer, so maybe he has something valid here.  I hope so.  Some do argue with him however, as you may note from the comments that follow his remarks in the link below.

By Andrew Roberts
Last Updated: 11:01pm BST 21/06/2008

Read comments: link below

As he leaves the White House at the end of his second term, the President has a poll rating of only 23 per cent, and is widely disliked and even despised. His foreign policy has been judged a failure, especially in view of the long, painful, costly war that he declared, which is still not over.

History may place President Bush in a far better
light than he currently enjoys

He doesn’t get on with his own party’s presidential candidate, who is clearly distancing himself, and had lost many of his closest friends and staff to scandals and forced resignations. The New Republic, a hugely influential political magazine, writes that his historical reputation will be as bad as that of President Harding, the disastrous president of the Great Depression.

I am writing, of course, about Harry S Truman, generally regarded today as one of the greatest of all the 43 presidents, and the man who set the United States on the course that ended decades later in the defeat of Communism.

If the West wins the modern counterpart of that struggle, the War Against Terror, historians will look back in amazement at the present unpopularity of George W Bush, and marvel at it quite as much as we now marvel at the 67 per cent disapproval rates for Truman throughout 1952.

Presidents are seldom remembered for more than one or two things; the rest slip away into a haze of historical amnesia. With Kennedy it was the Bay of Pigs and his own assassination, with Johnson the Great Society and Vietnam, with Nixon it was opening up China and the Watergate scandal, and so on.

advertisementGeorge W Bush will be remembered for his responses to 9/11 in Afghanistan and Iraq, but since neither of those conflicts has yet ended in victory or defeat, it is far too early categorically to assume - as left-wingers, anti-war campaigners and almost all media commentators already do - that his historical reputation will be permanently down in the doldrums next to poor old Warren Harding’s.

I suspect that historians of the future will instead see Bush’s decision to insist upon a “surge” of reinforcements being sent into Iraq, combined with a complete change of anti-insurgency tactics as configured by General Petraeus, as the moment when the conflict was turned around there, in the West’s favour.

No one - least of all Bush himself - denies that mistakes were made in the early days after the (unexpectedly early) fall of Baghdad, and historians will quite rightly examine them. But once the decades have put the stirring events of those years into their proper historical context, four great facts will emerge that will place Bush in a far better light than he currently enjoys.

The overthrow and execution of a foul tyrant, Saddam Hussein; the liberation of the Afghan people from the Taliban; the smashing of the terrorist networks of al-Qa’eda in that country and elsewhere and, finally, the protection of the American people from any further atrocities on US soil since 9/11, is a legacy of which to be proud.

While of course every individual death is a tragedy to the bereaved families, these great achievements have been won at a cost in human life a fraction the size of any past world-historical struggle of this magnitude.

The number of American troops killed and wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan is equivalent to the losses they endured - for a nation only a little over half the size in the mid-Forties - capturing a single island from the Japanese in the Pacific War.

British losses of 103 killed over seven years in Afghanistan bears comparison to a quiet weekend on the Western Front in the Great War, or the numbers the Army loses in traffic accidents in peacetime. History can lend a wider overall perspective to what are nonetheless, of course, immeasurably sad events.

History will also shine an unforgiving light on those ludicrous conspiracy theories that claim that the Iraq War was fought for any other reason than to implement the 14 UN resolutions that Saddam that had been flouting for 13 years.

The CIA and MI6 believed, like almost every other intelligence agency in the world, that Saddam had WMD, and the “Harmony” documents seized and translated since the fall of his regime make it abundantly clear that he was also supporting almost every anti-Western terrorist organisation imaginable.

Historians will appreciate how any War Against Terror that allowed Saddam to remain in place would have been an absurd travesty.

When the rise of al-Qa’eda is considered by historians like Philip Bobbitt and William Shawcross, it will be President Clinton’s repeated refusal to act effectively in the 1990s, rather than President Bush’s tough response after 9/11, that will be held up as culpable.

Judging by the rise in the value of the Iraqi dinar, the huge drop in the number of Iraqi deaths in the insurgency, the number of provinces now cleansed of al-Qa’eda, and the level of arms confiscations by the Iraqi Army in Sadr City, the new American “clear and hold” tactics have succeeded far better than the cynics ever thought possible even 12 months ago.

Give Iraq five, ten or twenty years, and Bush’s decision to undertake the surge - courageously taken in the face of all bien pensant and “expert” opinion on both sides of the Atlantic - will rank alongside some of Harry Truman’s great decisions of 1945-53.

If that happens, the time will come when George W Bush will be able to say what Lord Salisbury called the four cruellest yet sweetest words in the English language: “I told you so.”

http://tinyurl.com/3rjps6

Posted by Drew458     on 06/23/2008 at 08:24 AM   
Filed Under: • History • UK • War On Terror •  
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French first Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has admitted being “instinctively Left-wing”

Gee, and she’s so pretty too. Oh well.
Drew will enjoy this I know and I post it because I find it very interesting in a so-what kind of way.
It’s just different from all the mayhem and crime stuff I’ve posted.  You might find it interesting as well. 

She says that the French are not musical.  Well, I wouldn’t know if that’s true or not but, while I confess to being enamored somewhat with her looks, I have heard her sing and I really don’t think she should say the French aren’t musical.

Cheers.

Carla Bruni admits she ‘has problems’ with conservative Sarkozy
By Henry Samuel in Paris
Last Updated: 7:01AM BST 23/06/2008

French first Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has admitted being “instinctively Left-wing” and having a problem with “conservatives” despite her husband’s Right wing politics, in a frank newspaper interview.

The Italian supermodel turned singer expressed relief that her husband, President Nicolas Sarkozy, had toned down his “bling-bling” love of chunky watches and Ray-Ban sunglasses in favour of her “more austere tastes.”

She also admitted organising dinners with artists to “cultivate” her husband, a TV-addict whose musical tastes stop at Elvis Presley and his French equivalent, Johnny Hallyday.

“Perhaps I can help him to enable him to better communicate on the things that he loves, to give more room to culture,” she said.

The glamorous 40-year old said she was aware that her own record label wanted to put a sticker on her album cover reading “You can like Carla Bruni without liking her husband” - apparently to distance the artist from her deeply unpopular husband.

“I can understand why they wanted to cut the grass from under the feet of this confusion,” she told left-wing daily newspaper Liberation, in a lengthy interview.

“My instinctive reflexes are Left wing ... I am not joined at the hip with (my husband’s) politics,” she went on. “I get the impression that people who are completely one side or another only think with one part of their brain.”

But despite their political differences, she added: “If he ever stood for election again, I would still vote for him.”

The woman who once famously declared her aversion to monogamy said she had enlisted the help of an advisor to help her avoid shocking “conservative people,” who came from “a world that is completely alien to me.”

“(They) were deeply shocked by the arrival on the scene of a girl who is not French, not married, free to have been what she was, with a child,” she said.

“But my husband doesn’t correspond to the idea I had of conservatives. He is not conservative at all. Nor does correspond to a large chunk of those people who make up his party,” she said.

Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy also said that even though she had lived in France for 20 years, said she had never wanted to be French, describing her husband’s fellow countrymen as “rather nostalgic, very literary and rather unmusical.”

“I just never particularly wanted to do adopt the nationality,” she said.

She expressed relief that Mr Sarkozy had toned down his showy tastes after aides warned him it was putting off voters.

“I have quite austere taste, and he is more sober now. This is important for someone in his position,” she said. She added that she wanted to follow the first lady tradition of doing charitable work, and ruled out giving pop concerts while her husband is still in power.

Mr Sarkozy, 53, married the stunning brunette in February after a whirlwind romance.

The massive media coverage of their relationship is said to be partly responsible for a sharp fall in the opinion polls that lead to Mr Sarkozy becoming the most unpopular French post-war leader a year into his presidency.

But he appears to be enjoying a slow recovery, which the French press put down in part to the “Carla effect.”

His new wife, whose stage name is still Carla Bruni, will hit the headlines next month with the release of her new album called “As if nothing happened”, in which she sings of drugs, her 30 lovers and her love for the French president.

One song L’Amoureuse (A Woman in Love), about “the exaltation of love” was written before meeting her husband but she said she had “worked on it” since.

http://tinyurl.com/6gb9yy

Posted by Drew458     on 06/23/2008 at 01:44 AM   
Filed Under: • International • Love-Marriage • Politics •  
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Aide resigns over ‘racist’ comment.  Here we GD go again!  Here’s the face of EVIL!

Jesus, Here we go again and me pissed off very first thing in the morning. I haven’t even had time for my coffee or Xanax yet.
It’s just turned 7:15am and here I am bitching. Again.  But honest folks. I read stuff like this in our morning paper and my blood pressure goes up.
Oh, that reminds me.  Have to take the meds.

This really is another one of those damn stupid moves by someone who said NOTHING that should cause his resignation. NOTHING!
But he did and then the mayor (of London) has to state that his now former aide isn’t a racist.  Why, damn it?

OK, here’s the evil white guy.  Lets get it over with.  Anyone bring the rope?

Boris Johnson aide resigns over ‘racist’ comment By Laura Clout
Last Updated: 6:54AM BST 23/06/2008

A key mayoral aide of Boris Johnson has resigned after appearing to suggest that Caribbean people should go home ‘if they don’t like it’ in Britain.

When it was put to him in an interview for a website that Mr Johnson’s victory would trigger a mass exodus of Caribbean migrants, deputy chief of staff James McGrath said: “Well, let them go.”

(Tha-Tha-Tha, That’s All Folks.  cue the looney tunes jingle.  That’s it.  That’s the evil RACIST quote. “Let em go.”)

Mr Johnson, who has previously faced criticism over allegedly racist remarks, said he accepted Mr McGrath’s resignation with regret, but added that the comments had been ‘taken out of context’.

The remarks came after Mr McGrath was asked about a critical comment piece during an interview with Marc Wadsworth, a so-called citizen
journalist.

Here’s a link if you want to read the rest, but the nuts and bolts are up there:^

http://tinyurl.com/5scntb

Yeah, there’s more. But I figured if you really had a deep and burning desire to read the rest of this, you’d click the link.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/23/2008 at 01:10 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous • Outrageous • Racism and race relations • Stoopid-People • UK •  
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   Sunday - June 22, 2008

High school proms take over in UK.  question has become, should they?

This isn’t a particularly newsy item and I was tempted to ignore it till I came to one line in the story.  I then decided to post this.

Not having been a parent I can’t comment from that perspective.  However, there was one line in this story that caught my eye and want to bring the subject up.  Maybe I don’t understand these things too well.

There is a question in one line here where it’s asked and my reading of it says it’s suggested, that these affairs being very expensive may not be enjoyed by the kids of parents who are less well to do.  What about them?

So, I assume from that question that the person asking it is saying that if the less wealthy can not afford it then those who can afford it should do without. ?

Do I understand that correctly?  And if I do, where would that kind of thinking lead? 

By Vikki Miller
Last Updated: 5:21PM BST 21/06/2008

End of year school parties have now become costly and elaborate American-style prom affairs, causing critics to warn that they are spiralling out of control.

The average school leaving bash for sixteen-year-olds now involves stretch limousines, hours in a beauty salon and dresses costing hundreds of pounds.

Venues such as Manchester United’s Old Trafford and luxurious country clubs in the home counties are not uncommon.

But there are concerns that this extravagance, based on demand from a generation who have grown up watching American high-school students at proms, has gone too far.

Professor Cary Cooper, a psychologist at Lancaster University, said it was worrying to see kids growing up so fast.

He said: “They may look great in their expensive dresses and slathered in make-up but they don’t look like kids.

“It’s all very well for some parents to spend hundreds of pounds on their kids but what about the single parents who can’t afford it?”

Gerald Haigh, a former primary school head teacher, warned that “families get railroaded into it when they can’t afford it”.

He has also voiced concern that the prom-style party was spreading to primary schools. He heard of one case where a Year 6 leaving party saw four stretch Lincolns, two stretch Hummers, assorted Jaguars, BMWs and Mercedes all queuing to drop off 11-year-olds.

But Kate Sawyer, who works at a school that was the first in its area to develop a prom tradition, defended the idea.

She said: “The boys look like ushers at a wedding and the girls look like bridesmaids. Outside school you are used to seeing them in their hoodies and jeans round their bottoms. Everyone wants to dress up and look wonderful once in their life.”

http://tinyurl.com/4jc79p

Posted by Drew458     on 06/22/2008 at 08:00 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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WILD OUT OF CONTROL BRIT COLLEGE GIRLS MUST BE CONTAINED.  more silly pc stuff

I don’t know if many folks miss this sort of thing by a Sunday posting.  It’s stupidly funny tho.
I don’t know what normal male would be “offended” by the attention of young women.  This really is over the top.

College girls banned from whistling at builders
By Rupert Neate

A further education college is having to protect builders from wolf-whistling girls, in a reversal of traditional gender stereotypes.

(right. those big burly guys on construction sites really wanna be protected from those lascivious, drooling and manipulative hungry oversexed young women. Hear em all cry?  Mommy,mommy. Save me!  Oh thank you NANNY.  Those beastie ladies scared us.)

Officials at West Kent College in Tonbridge, Kent, sent an email to all pupils warning that the behaviour was “totally unacceptable”, and saying any students caught harassing contractors would face disciplinary action.

The email was sent after a demolition team started work on a £94 million, three-year building project at the campus.

The email read: “It has come to the attention of the college that some female students have been making comments to, or whistling at, the builders both whilst on site and as they walk around the campus.

“Although we are sure no offence is meant, this constitutes harassment and is wholly unacceptable.

“We have asked the contractors’ representative to pass on all instances of harassment to the college and we will take appropriate action which may include disciplinary action.”

A spokeswoman for the contractors, Galliford Try, said: “We have no registered complaints on this issue. However we do not condone inappropriate behaviour from any parties on our sites.”

Meanwhile new laws could see wolf-whistling builders placed on the sex offenders register. The Sexual Offences (Scotland) Bill will create a new offence of “communicating indecently”, punishable by up to 10 years in jail.

The legislation is intended to punish sexual harassment by text, emails and letters, but ministers also aim to include sexually explicit comments to strangers. It is expected that the law would only apply to persistent offenders.

At the moment, workmen who repeatedly make obscene comments to passers-by can be convicted of a breach of the peace.

http://tinyurl.com/66xrfm

Posted by Drew458     on 06/22/2008 at 07:11 AM   
Filed Under: • Humor • Nanny State • Stoopid-People • UK •  
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   Saturday - June 21, 2008

An unfashionable PSA

Karl Lagerfeld, the head designer at Chanel with a penchant for ultra-slim suits and black leather gloves, slipped on a yellow reflective vest to convince the French that road safety was more important than chic.

Lagerfeld agreed to pose in the shapeless protective apparel as part of a French government safety-awareness campaign, which was kicked off yesterday. The vest and a reflective triangle will become mandatory for all drivers and cyclists on July 1.

”It’s yellow, it’s ugly, it doesn’t match anything, but it can save your life,’’ says the poster, featuring Lagerfeld wearing the vest and his customary deadpan expression accentuated by dark sunglasses.

The number of traffic deaths in France jumped 10 percent to 346 in May, the highest since the beginning of the year, the Ministry of Environment said on its Web site. Two cyclists have died in Paris since the introduction of free municipal bicycles last year.

So now all fwench drivers are going to have this dashing ensemble in their kits by law. For their own good. Since the few remaining unburned cars in Fwance are either Renaults or Citroens, it makes sense to require drivers to carry this stuff for the frequent breakdowns.

Note also how cyclist accidents are on the rise, after the government started handing out free bicycles. I guess they don’t ignite as easily as the cars do.

Oh, and Karl? There is something else very yellow in Fwance the vest matches perfectly with. And I’m not talking about the cheese.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/21/2008 at 02:40 PM   
Filed Under: • International •  
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A well deserved Darwin Award

A 19-year-old man accidentally shot and killed himself Tuesday morning while he was attempting to rob a Grand Prairie home, authorities said.

Cameron Sands, 19, of Fort Worth kicked in the door of the house and then shot himself in the stomach as he pulled a gun out of his pants to shoot the homeowner, Grand Prairie police said.  The homeowner was not injured.

After Mr. Sands shot himself, he dropped the gun and ran out of the home.  Police found his body around 5:30 a.m. in the driveway of the home in the 2800 block Garden Grove Road, said Lt. John Brimmer, a Grand Prairie police spokesman.

“This is the first that I’ve heard of a robbery suspect killing himself as he is drawing a gun out of his waist band,” Lt. Brimmer said. “The criminal evidence points to that. It certainly isn’t common.”

The Tarrant County Medical Examiner has ruled the death an accident.

And the homeowner didn’t even have to help. Too bad. Guess genius boy here forgot one of the basic ideas behind guns: gently squeeze the trigger after aiming the gun. D’oh!

Posted by Drew458     on 06/21/2008 at 11:46 AM   
Filed Under: • Guns and Gun Control •  
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A Shot Across The Bows … With a BB Gun

Sometimes it’s hard to spot the media bias. Sometimes it’s bloody easy, as this weak attempt shows.

As he tries to woo independent voters, Sen. John McCain is relying on his image as a maverick, making it clear he’s no President Bush. 

But the timing of Bush’s support for offshore oil drilling this week may spell trouble for McCain’s efforts to distance himself from the embattled White House.  The president on Wednesday urged Democratic leaders in Congress to lift the ban on offshore drilling—just as McCain has been making his own energy pitch for the same.

“The next president must be willing to break with the energy policies, not just of the current administration, but the administrations that preceded it, and lead a great national campaign to achieve energy security for America,” McCain said Wednesday in Springfield, Missouri.

“I know the Democratic leaders have opposed some of these policies in the past,” Bush said. “Now that their opposition has helped drive gas prices to record levels, I ask them to reconsider their positions.”

But Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, argues that offshore drilling will not help lower gas prices in the short term.

Congressional Democrats are determined to block the president’s push for offshore drilling, prohibited by a 1981 law and a 1990 executive order.

“When Congress lifts the legislative ban, I will lift the executive prohibition,” Bush said.  The issue also makes for a fascinating family drama since the president’s father, President George H.W. Bush, signed the order banning offshore drilling, while his brother Jeb more recently opposed such drilling when he was governor of Florida.

Florida’s current governor, Charlie Crist, has been an opponent of offshore drilling, but he now has an open mind about it since McCain’s embrace. Crist’s name has come up as a possible vice presidential running mate on the GOP ticket.

Obama’s solution, a push for plug-in hybrid cars and other alternatives to oil, will not give consumers short-term relief either.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/21/2008 at 11:10 AM   
Filed Under: • Media-Bias • Politics •  
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Guns In The Workplace

Hey, sometimes it’s a good thing!  Watch this video and see how cubicle world blows off a whole week’s worth of steam in 5 minutes. Via the good geeks at Gizmodo.

thanks to IT Master DenHaf, who may or may not read this blog from time to time

Posted by Drew458     on 06/21/2008 at 10:43 AM   
Filed Under: • Big Business • Fun-Stuff •  
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She’s baaaack!

Old time member Dottie, once banned but still lurking here from time to time, sent me an email that pointed to two other Allan pics. That was really sweet of her. I found them, and added them to his Gallery.

I hereby remove Ms. Dottie from BMEWS purgatory and welcome her back with open arms and complete forgiveness for any past sins. She is unbanned.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/21/2008 at 09:52 AM   
Filed Under: • Blog Stuff •  
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