Metaphor Madness

We begin the long march across the foothills of Tom Friedman's limitless range of metaphors:

What’s unfolding in the Arab world today is the mother of all wake-up calls. And what the voice on the other end of the line is telling us is clear as a bell:

“America, you have built your house at the foot of a volcano. That volcano is now spewing lava from different cracks and is rumbling like it’s going to blow. Move your house!” In this case, “move your house” means “end your addiction to oil.”

Hmm, if what the voice was telling us was "clear as a bell", why did Friedman have to explain the message?  I suppose it was because the words were clear but the meaning was not, and don'tcha hate those cryptic 3AM phone calls?  What, was the Arab Street drunk-dialing us? 

Fortunately, we have Tom Friedman to interpret and exhort us, for the umpty-bumpth time, to get off of oil.  His big idea - a big Federal gasoline tax, which has made sense for thirty years and has the same grim political prospects it has had for thirty years (the revenue-neutral version has no traction either).

As for the rest, his theme is that the West has empowered the oil dictators for decades but now History has returned to the Arab world.  I don't recall the West empowering the rulers of Iran or Libya, and he makes no mention of Islam as a force for social conservatism.

Comments

[Blew that all to Hell and gone.]

Heh, his house is too big to move. And I think Madoff made off with some of his wife's money.
=============

[NK]

Who's Tom Friedman, and how does he manage to live en maison grand in Bethesda?

[narciso]

If not the late Eric Breindel, he and Sid Vicious, make me doubt Brandeis grads

[jimmyk]

a big Federal gasoline tax, which has made sense for thirty years

The average tax on gasoline is about $0.45/gallon, or around 15 percent. That makes it more heavily taxed than just about everything but alcohol and cigarettes (and now, maybe indoor tanning centers). I see no "sense" in the government trying to use the tax system to manipulate people's buying decisions more than it already does.

[Rob Crawford]

Friedman has how many years in science and engineering? What? None? Huh. So you're telling me he spouts this shit without any idea of what's involved in it?

I think it's long past time we stop caring what the idiots say.

[Jim Ryan]

What happens to the American economy when gas goes to $5/gallon?

[Jim Ryan]

Another question, is there a reasonable way to get the offshore and Dakota/Montana oil out of the ground, and then keep this oil here and sold at a cheap price? If it goes onto the open world market, it won't bring our gas price down much from $5, will it?

[jimmyk]

And in addition to the taxes already on gasoline, we've got the fact that the price of oil has roughly doubled in the past couple of years. So if gasoline was too cheap last year, is it still too cheap? Why is it to these people that the "right" price of gasoline is always higher than whatever it is currently?

[Extraneus]

Yeah, yeah. No new wells in the Gulf of Mexico. No new wells in Alaska. No new nuclear power plants. No new coal power plants.

Who do they think they're fooling with this "oil addiction" b.s?

Oh, and Friedman's idols in China have something like 85 nuclear power plants under construction, and are bringing one coal power plant on line per week. (The last American coal plant was built in 1983, and we haven't built a nuclear plant since the 1970s.)

[bunkerbuster]

The pan-Arab revolt certainly rhymes with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
While the Cold War conservative establishment banked its entire geopolitics on the idea that communism was a politically potent, militarily ascendant force that could only be confronted by military force, history proved exactly the opposite on all counts. Communism proved politically impotent and in advanced state of military decay. Only when confronted by military force did it thrive. Left alone to its own deserts, communism as in Poland and much of Eastern Europe collapsed under the weight of its own contradictions and at the hands of its own people.
Eventually, the Soviet Union itself fell apart with a single shot being fired, nor even so much as a single special forces brigade from the West to move things along.
And China? What happened to communism there after Nixon succeeded in convincing war lusting conservatives it was strategically smart to let them be?
The revolutions from Tunisia to Libya are now teaching the same lesson about how wrong the conservative worldview has been about the middle east.
The idea that, for example, Iran's leaders would be cowed by the invasion of Iraq has been utterly erased from even the most fevered right-wing discussion. And the ``Bush doctrine'' that removing Saddam by force would lead to liberation of the middle east at large is an even ghastlier and final failure.
Much as the Poles and the East Germans and the Russians liberated themselves -- while the Vietnamese and the Koreans and the Cubans didn't -- the parts of the Middle East that are throwing off despotism are exactly those places where Western intervention has been the least.
The Libyans and Egyptians and Tunisians are not just throwing out their dictators, they are throwing out the whole idea that they're incapable of doing so themselves -- a reality that makes the American conservative geopolitical worldview obsolete.

[Elliott]

But what is the voice saying to China?

[Elliott]

mother of all wake-up calls

The resulting acronym may be euphonious to some ears, but George Allen would be well advised to steer clear of it on the campaign trail.

[Captain Hate]

Does Collins or anybody else edit the garbage that Flathead submits, or is Pinch saving money (LOL) by dispensing with that function. Jayson Blair was fact-based compared to this tripe.

[narciso]

Occasionally there's an interval between switching brain slugs, when a moment of clarity appears, but it's all too brief, in the LUN

[Extraneus]

Wis. Democrats Filibuster to Halt Anti-Union Bill

(That's an AP headline of course.)

Meanwhile, the demonstrations have left the Capitol a mess. The normally sparkling floors are smeared with dirt, protesters' signs cover the marble walls, air mattresses and blankets lay in hallways and state troopers guard every corridor, limiting movement in the building.

[clarice]

Like Kerry Tom's major achievement was getting a rich heiress to marry him.

[Comanche Voter]

Friedman spouts a lot of stuff. The key to understanding Friedman is the recognition that, if you read a year of Friedman's columns [any year, doesn't matter] he will contradict some prior column he wrote. Happens no less than 52 times each year.The poor son of a gun can't remember what he wrote; but he has some sort of lizard brain impulse to keep writing. Someone should intervene and stop that poor man before he writes another column and beclowns himself again.

[BR]

It's an awakening and domino-effect-emboldening to rise up against the political and economic tyranny of ME leaders, secular and Islamic. Nothing to do with the West. Those leaders got rich and powerful off oil and didn't improve conditions for the people.

[DebinNC]

Are rising oil prices among the many pressing issues Obama hasn't publicly addressed? HotAir features this failed Obama "clean energy" project, which sent $535M from Porkulus down the rat hole. Like the fleebaggers, Obama seems to be in hiding, except for scripted sightings like yesterday's bizarre photo op in Cleveland where he seemed divorced from reality.

[Danube of Thought]

If we're "addicted," how have we managed to go thirty years without building an oil refinery anywhere in the US?

[Rob Crawford]

I don't recall the West empowering the rulers of Iran or Libya, and he makes no mention of Islam as a force for social conservatism.

Friedman makes no mention of Islam because he does not think about it. He is a consummate leftist -- the "little brown people" are acted upon, not actors, in his parochial mind.

[narciso]

Sebestyen's book on 1989, which Captain recommended, which took 20 years to get the story right, shows how the last wave, was a combination of affirmative steps, by the dissidents, and the administration that supported them, and misteps by the regimes involved. Bush did tender lines of communications to the former in Egypt particularly despite the opposition of Foggy Bottom's Arabist drones, Obama, lashed him self to the 'Good Ship Mubarak' ever more readily, not realizing it was the Andrea Doria. He denounced Abu Ghraib and Gitmo, without consideration that Egypt in
'Torture Incorporated'

[PD]

In this case, “move your house” means “end your addiction to oil.”

Or, more sensibly, "drill domestically." The stuff is just sitting in the ground, there is no reason not to dig it up.

Aside from our president's fascination with his fantasy that green energy provides a viable alternative.

[clarice]

You can't pay off urban rent seekers with refineries and rigs. On the other hand, the fantasy of unemployables weatherstripping homes and making solar panels has a certain appeal to community organizers.

[DebinNC]

Pic of Friedman's "house"

[narciso]

He has a certain view of Islam, based on one of his advisors in grad school, Hourani, which
follows a certain narrative

[BB Key]

The Mother of all wake up calls is the 3:00 AM call that Obama has failed to answer

[Rob Crawford]

On the other hand, the fantasy of unemployables weatherstripping homes and making solar panels has a certain appeal to community organizers.

Ask the Australians how that went for them.

[Janet]

Like the fleebaggers, Obama seems to be in hiding, except for scripted sightings like yesterday's bizarre photo op in Cleveland where he seemed divorced from reality.

Totally agree DebinNC. What odd times we are living in.

[narciso]

'divorced' implies that he was ever in contact with reality, Janet, 'facts not in evidence'. With Friedman, I read his first book, which already held Israel to be at fault, despite the fact that they are in the right, and sort of dismissed him there.

[Danube of Thought]

Minus 16 at Raz today.

[DebinNC]

BB's right about Obama not even answering the phone. Here he is in TX 2/08 responding to Hillary's just released red phone ad. Basically, he touts his "judgment" as a nobody IL state senator being against invading Iraq.

[Rob Crawford]

So, what does everyone think about a federal judge saying the Commerce Clause gives the feds power to regulate your "mental activity"?

[narciso]

Obviously she didn't engage in commerce, to reach that result.

[Henry]

Rob, isn't any commerce clause power to regulate mental activity trumped by the first amendment? Do these judges get their law degrees off the back of a Wheaties box?

[Neo]

Tom Friedman missed the memo that says we are supposed to suck the Arab states dry before we end our addiction to Arab oil.

Why do you think Obama is "saving" our domestic energy ? ANWR, Gulf oil, coal ... for the environmentals ? ... Tom, you are a fool.

The Middle East will be peaceful when every last drop of oil is gone.

[Janet]

He is a consummate leftist -- the "little brown people" are acted upon, not actors, in his parochial mind.

So true Rob...it is true about all the leftist constituency. This article at Am Thinker today makes the same point. Radical Suits and Their Suckers

Now some Mass. Rep. is telling his constituents to get "bloody". Why doesn't HE get bloody?
Evil. These leftists are evil.

[Danube of Thought]

Ilya Somin does a nice job on the "mental activity" stuff. Can't wait to see Randy Barnett's take on it.

These judges--and lots of Democrats--honestly do believe that the congress can require you to do whatever it wants you to do. Either the Supreme Court corrects that notion here, or that will be the law of the land.

[NK]

Let's see -- according to Lefty judges the "penubral emanations" of the 4th, 5th and 14th Amendments bar the States and Congress from regulating the "mental activity" of deciding whether to snuff out an unborn child, but the mental activity of deciding whether to buy healthcare insurance does not escape the reach of the commerce clause. Ok, obviously the Left is not concerned with consistentcy of logic-- only results. They are ALL Alinskys now.

[Ranger]

Bubu, you really have absolutely no clue what you are talking about.

The pan-Arab revolt certainly rhymes with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Actually, it looks a lot more like 1848 than 1989-91.

While the Cold War conservative establishment banked its entire geopolitics on the idea that communism was a politically potent, militarily ascendant force that could only be confronted by military force, history proved exactly the opposite on all counts.

Funny, because Reagan was the guy who said the Soviets days were numbered, and all the educated lefties laughed at him when he did. It was the left that was convinced that Communism was a potent force because deep down they actually believed it was a superior way to organize society than the decedent, selfish Western Capitalist model.

Communism proved politically impotent and in advanced state of military decay. Only when confronted by military force did it thrive. Left alone to its own deserts, communism as in Poland and much of Eastern Europe collapsed under the weight of its own contradictions and at the hands of its own people.

Well, only if you start the clock in the early to mid 80s. And do try to remember that Western fears of Soviet expantion were sparked by the Soviet overthrow of every democratic government in Eastern Europe between 1947 and 1949. And there were those periodic military operations to crush resistance to Soveit domination in 1956 (Hungary), 1968 (Czeckoslovakia), and 1979 (Afghanistant).

Eventually, the Soviet Union itself fell apart with a single shot being fired, nor even so much as a single special forces brigade from the West to move things along.

Communism only collapsed in Eastern Europe because the Soviets chose not to prop it up any longer. And it was the "conservative" vision to break the Soviets ecnomicly, rather than enable their broken economic system to limp along by providing economic assistance. It was the left that was convinced the Soviet system was a geopolitical truth and a reality that would never go away.

And China? What happened to communism there after Nixon succeeded in convincing war lusting conservatives it was strategically smart to let them be?

Well, last time I checked the Communist Party was still pretty much running things in China. Did that change some time in the last few hours and I missed it?

The revolutions from Tunisia to Libya are now teaching the same lesson about how wrong the conservative worldview has been about the middle east.

Really? Cause I thought a key part of the conservative view was that in the long run, the only way to achive true stability was through establishing modern, secular, democratic states. I would say the unrest in the Middle East right now simply proves that Authoritarian systems are not inheirently stable systems in the long run.

The idea that, for example, Iran's leaders would be cowed by the invasion of Iraq has been utterly erased from even the most fevered right-wing discussion. And the ``Bush doctrine'' that removing Saddam by force would lead to liberation of the middle east at large is an even ghastlier and final failure.

Funny but the two countries that seem to be facing no fear of popular unrest in the region are Kuwait and Iraq. I wonder what those two countries have in common? Oh, and at the moment, the Iranian government seems much more concerned with maintaining their own hold on power than anything else, until this storm blows over at least.

Much as the Poles and the East Germans and the Russians liberated themselves -- while the Vietnamese and the Koreans and the Cubans didn't -- the parts of the Middle East that are throwing off despotism are exactly those places where Western intervention has been the least.

The issue you seem to have overlooked here is that the Eastern Europeans only "liberated themselves" after the Soviets told them they could. Communism in Eastern Europe was never the product of indiginous revolutions, but an outside impositioin. By contrast, Vietnam, Cuba, and North Korea are regiems that were the result of local political struggles, rather than outside ideological impositions.

The Libyans and Egyptians and Tunisians are not just throwing out their dictators, they are throwing out the whole idea that they're incapable of doing so themselves -- a reality that makes the American conservative geopolitical worldview obsolete.

And the idea that they could never do it themselves is mostly in the minds of the Academic Left, who has been telling us for decades that we can not judge the societies by Western standards. As I recall it, they were, and continue to be the loudest critics of efforts to support Democratization in the region. When Obama, took office, his brain trust slashed democratization funds to the region and shut down organizations that were designed to encurage democratization in palces like Egypt and Iran.

Bubu, it must get very tiring for you to keep wearing those ideological filters that make you see the world completely upside down all the time.

[Janet]

Do these judges get their law degrees off the back of a Wheaties box?

No, the back of Organic Flax Flake boxes. Wheaties is too mainstream & it's about individuals striving to win....can't have that. :)

[Walter]

An alternative to drilling is coal to gasification to gasoline/natural gas--big in Eastern Europe and allowed Germany¹ to fight WWII.

Here's a company building a plant in Peoria, using Illinois coal.

_______________
¹Speaking of dictators, how exactly does Mr. Friedman blame the West for Chavez and Putin? Both export more energy than Egypt, Tunisia and Libya combined.

[clarice]

I've known Gladys for over 40 years. She was one of the first women admitted to HLS.

[Captain Hate]

No, the back of Organic Flax Flake boxes. Wheaties is too mainstream & it's about individuals striving to win....can't have that. :)

Breakfast of chumps and community organizers.

[Rocco]

But fasten your seat belts. This is not going to be a joy ride because the lid is being blown off an entire region with frail institutions, scant civil society and virtually no democratic traditions or culture of innovation.

Hmm...how does that square with Obama's Cairo speech?

“As a student of history, I also know civilization’s debt to Islam. It was Islam — at places like Al-Azhar University — that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe’s Renaissance and Enlightenment. It was innovation in Muslim communities that developed the order of algebra; our magnetic compass and tools of navigation; our mastery of pens and printing.”

[RichatUF]

Where would be without Tom Friedman?

[clarice]

She's probably the most political (i.e., leftist) judges in this Circuit. I see the Volokhi have properly fisked her decision.

[Threadkiller]

I quit using metaphors some time ago because I had a tendency to screw them up. That being said, I think it’s time to grab the bull by the tail and look him in the eye.

[Rob Crawford]

Rob, isn't any commerce clause power to regulate mental activity trumped by the first amendment?

Apparently not. The 1st doesn't say anything about your thoughts, just speech, assembly, religion, and the press.

[Rob Crawford]

Bubu, it must get very tiring for you to keep wearing those ideological filters that make you see the world completely upside down all the time.

He's an identity leftist. He can't see it any other way.

[Danube of Thought]

Despite the Narcisolator, I can clearly see from Ranger's post that that immature fool has let fly with another blast of geopolitical inanity this morning. I am beginning to think there is a mental illness at work.

[Captain Hate]

Damn Rocco, it's rough being downwind from that steaming pile that you quoted from the student of fractured fairy tales.

[Danube of Thought]

It's a hopeful sign to me that all five district judges who have opined on this law have centered their analysis on the activity/inactivity question, which is the way the plaintiffs have framed it every time. I'm not sure how the judges could have avoided doing so, but in any case I think it's a very nice issue for us going forward.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Ooooh, via Insty, Michael Barone rips on the whole public union/Democrats vs. taxpayers thing.

Wow.

[Ignatz]

--The Middle East will be peaceful when every last drop of oil is gone.--

Highly questionable. They'll still be killing each other; it just won't make it more expensive to drive to the store.

[NK]

Excellent catch Rocco. Of course Third World Barry's Cairo speech left out the fact that North African innovation ended almost exactly at the point that Sharia and then the Caliphate became political forces in the region. Speaking of Third World Barry -- Cleveland the 'Tech Belt'. Did the TOTUS break down and repeat his Silicon Valley diner party speech. Third World Barry must suspect he's a one-term failure, and he is. By September when families come back from vacation and send their kids off to school, their house will be worth less (20% less than when Barry came in), inflation will be higher (double or triple the rate as when Barry came in), unemployment stuck at 9% (much higher than when Barry came in at the time of crisis), gas at $4 nationally (twice as when Barry came in), and the country headed for another recession because of high oil prices-- meanwhile Barry will still be on the wrong side of the fight with the States on oil/gas drilling, public worker unions and Obamacare, and the fight with the Repubs on the Federal budget and debt. Barry's Raz negative will be minus 20 (42% strong negative). He will be toast-- who will tell him. Hey-- have the TOTUS tell him.

[Ignatz]

I'm so sick of this "addiction" crap.
Petroleum in it's various uses and forms has saved more lives, created more wealth and improved the quality of life more than any substance in history.
Is there anything even close?
Pesticides, antibiotics and fertilizers have all done great good also, but even many of them depend on petroleum in different ways.

[Ranger]

This is starting to get posted everywhere:

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/260463/breaking-gaddafi-did-it-jonah-goldberg>Breaking: Gaddafi Did It

Ex-Justice Minister says Gaddafi personally ordered the Lockerbie attack.

Looks like this guy is trying to play his "get out of Lybia alive" card.

[Ignatz]

--Of course Third World Barry's Cairo speech left out the fact that North African innovation ended almost exactly at the point that Sharia and then the Caliphate became political forces in the region.--

And a huge amount of what Islam is credited with doing in its "Golden Age" was carried out by dhimmi Christians and Jews living under the rule of Islam but comparatively free of its civilization and inquiry strangling strictures.

[Rick Ballard]

Walter,

Coal gasification works at current market prices but is susceptible to becoming uneconomic should oil fall to its historical relationship with natural gas. It seems to me that compressed natural gas provides a logical intermediate step prior to gasification. Getting to 30-40% CNG usage would involve much less market risk than would gasification.

If we were the least bit serious about cutting oil usage we would nullify the Jones Act and allow foreign flagged container ships to pick up and discharge along the littorals. Heavy truck traffic on I-15 and I-5 could be cut by a very substantial amount. The Teamsters would squeal like stuck pigs.

[Danube of Thought]

The Middle East will be peaceful when every last drop of oil is gone.

Right. It was a regular Garden of Eden up until the internal combustion engine came along. (Where does this guy come up with this stuff?)

[Neo]

Obama is concerned about a potential hostage crisis

I suppose there is a medical school with American students near a Cuban built runway …

[narciso]

Hourani, is my best guess, meanwhile if you wonder why Seif seems like he just came from
the Atheneum club, there's a reason, in the LUN

[Captain Hate]

Hindus too Iggy

[NK]

Re: House photo-- Clarice, are you sure that's not a photo of Tom Maguire's house?

[Neo]

Obama is concerned about a potential hostage crisis

I suppose there is a medical school with American students near a Cuban built runway … wait .. I think I've seen this movie before .. "Heartbreak Ridge" with Clint Eastwood

[Captain Hate]

Cleveland the 'Tech Belt'

He must be referring to all the unemployed IT workers here; anything else is WTF material.

[Danube of Thought]

Via Insty, encouraging news about the follow-up to the medical fraud at UW.

[narciso]

You know they don't even avoid telegraphing their intentions, in the LUN

[Pagar]

"(Where does this guy come up with this stuff?)"

From William Ayers, where else?

[Walter]

Rick,

I agree. The plant I referenced above was initially planned when NG was twice its current market price and gasoline was 1/3 its current wholesale price. At that point it was designed entirely for NG, with no liquid component.

Remember the early Naughts when people were saying that the Canadian tar sands were uneconomic because you could not count on oil above $40 for the length of time needed to repay infrastructure investment?

The overall point is that we have the capability and resources to be energy independent. As Adam Smith suggested a few years ago, it is rarely more efficient for a nation to attempt to maximize its wealth in that manner.

I didn't realize that intracoastal container shipping was that much more efficient than rail. Of course, the fact that it is illegal here would tend to obscure it... Is the freeway usage a function of rail capacity?

[Melinda Romanoff]

Fresh from his tour of the Med, Pagar?

[MayBee]

Arab street drunk dialing us. Ha ha ha ha.

Genius, TM

[Neo]

STOCKHOLM -- Swedish tabloid Expressen says Libya's ex-justice minister claims Moammar Gadhafi personally ordered the Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people in 1988.
Expressen on Wednesday quoted Mustafa Abdel-Jalil as telling their correspondent in Libya that "I have proof that Gadhafi gave the order about Lockerbie."

[Rocco]

The agency said none of the doctors involved was representing UW Health at the time.

Then why did UW Health scrub the bio's of the doctors involved?

[Walter]

Right. It was a regular Garden of Eden up until the internal combustion engine Serpent came along.

At least according to some accounts.

[Porchlight]

From Obama's Cleveland remarks:

During a panel on tax policy and access to capital, Obama was asked why he decided to come to Cleveland.

"I just felt bad when LeBron left," he said, referring to the NBA star who left the Cleveland Cavaliers in July to join the Miami Heat.

The WaPo does not seem pleased with Barry.

[Extraneus]

Hey great, DoT. I know I named names.

Staff at the state Department of Regulation and Licensing have begun to review roughly 300 e-mail complaints about doctors issuing excuse notes for protesters at the state Capitol over the weekend, officials said Tuesday.

Complaints that name a specific doctor and the alleged violations of rules covered by their licenses will be forwarded to the Wisconsin Medical Examining Board. Letters specifying the complaint will be sent to the doctors at the start of the investigation.

[Extraneus]

Is that a loophole, btw? I named names, and suggested conspiracy to defraud the taxpayers, but didn't allege a specific licensing rule violation. I hope a bunch of others did.

[Thomas Collins]

For Mass. JOMers tired of Friedman, Mark Steyn is speaking in Stoughton tomorrow. See below link.

http://www.atorah.org/marksteyn.pdf

[DebinNC]

I wonder what the WI teachers would make of this story about Providence, RI firing all its teachers at the end of the year to give them maximum flexibility as the teacher contracts expire the end of June. I've seen "Fire them all" comments, but didn't realize it was a viable option.

[Dave (in MA)]

TC, are you going?

[Janet]

"I just felt bad when LeBron left," he said, referring to the NBA star who left the Cleveland Cavaliers in July to join the Miami Heat.

Good Lord! What an empty suit.

[Ignatz]

If there is a stupider commenter on the scene these days than the big dumb lummox of the flat head, furrowed brow, pursed and pensive lips and thoughtfully conjoined finger tips I can't name him.
Watching him try to feign thinking is excruciating; I almost feel sorry for how oblivious he is to his own cretinism.

[Thomas Collins]

Listen up, you Blue Devil and Tar Heel and Buckeye and Hoya b-ball supporters. There's a fierce new contender for Number One on a roll. See LUN.

If Caltech designed a computer to play some one on one hoops with Watson, I wonder who would win.

[Henry]

Ignatz, in a Turing test between the Won and Watson, which would win?

[icesavequakerandshakerusers]

Death to to google,twitter and foreigners!O wont be getting that extra 20 billion from the foreign dogs stealing our oil and ruining the environment.He wont answer the phone again.The foreign dogs got the oil sands,now they want the stock market,the last facade of capitalism in the liberal socialist race to have the resources and destroy the environment.Depart dictator pols who wont leave and take 50yrs of service so the people cant serve!Resign diplomats for the people!

[Rick Ballard]

Walter,

I believe it's a matter of tariffs rather than capacity. ManTran would be the one to ask. What I know is that Maersk (and many others) makes the Long Beach/Oakland/Portland/Tacoma run over 4-5 days with vessels which grow lighter at every stop. It's the inbound/outbound container imbalance which makes the suggestion economically attractive. A shipping line could offer a "$200 any port" tariff and be quite pleased with the consequences.

[Jim Ryan]

OT Mel,

Look whom I played with Saturday night: Hod O'Brien. We chatted about his time with Oscar Pettiford and when I asked if he knew Scott LaFaro he replied that he'd had a trio with him. Gadzooks! Hod is a fine bebop pianist and it was a privilege to play with him. He's only 75, so hopefully I will have many more years to enjoy playing with him.

[MayBee]

Am I remembering correctly that Rev Wright met with Qaddaffi a few years ago?

[Janet]

Another good Bill Whittle video. Obama's Friends & Enemies. His short videos are wonderful. Clear, often with humor, & strong. Wish they could be on tv - like emergency PSAs for our very survival.

[Pagar]

"He has a certain view of Islam,"

"The revolutions from Tunisia to Libya are now teaching the same lesson about how wrong the conservative worldview"

What conservative world view?

There are only a very few sources of info on the horrors of Muslim world view that I currently trust. Pam Geller at Atlas Shrugs
leads the bloggers section.

But the person who seems to be doing the most, to combat those up seek to destroy the US, from a political standpoint is the outstanding Congressman West-R Fl.

"The panel consisted of a number of former military personnel, who fumbled around trying to answer the question. Col. West finally stepped forward answered the question directly and truthfully. Listen to the words of a former military man who understands the nature of the enemy we face:"
That first sentence ought to terrify every American who currently believes the Obama Administration will allow us to defend ourselves against the Muslim Brotherhood threat.

"The panel consisted of a number of former military personnel, who fumbled around trying to answer the question".
LUN
Many of our military are so afraid to upset their leftist overloads that they can't even answer the basic question. What is the nature of the enemy we face?

The Obama Administration has invited the Muslem Brotherhood into every aspect of our lives. Our current military leaders are more concerned about diversity than about protecting US.

Clarice, Please tell Col West he has a lot of people praying that he carries on his lonely fight to save this nation.

I can't seem to find an address to mail a contribution to Col West. Hope we can get one.

[Ignatz]

I'd like to amend my earlier remarks on the wimpiness of Mitch Daniels by noting Avik Roy at The Corner points out that he already decertified ALL public employee unions in Indiana AND rescinded their "right" to collective bargaining.
Here is the original 2005 story detailing Daniels' and other governors earlier "union busting". God bless them.

[MayBee]

Why yes, yes I am remembering correctly. Rev Wright and Louis Farrakhan went to Libya to meet Q'daf'y.

And then there's this apology we made to him in 2010, in the LUN. No wonder Obama is lying low.

[MarkO]

At least some of the CalTech kids could possibly get in to Duke.

[narciso]

You're right, Maybee, 1984 and 1987, that we know, recall the ties to Farrakhan and the
Cuban DGI as well, in the LUN.

[DebinNC]

Jeremiah Wright and Calypso Louie visited Gaddafi in the mid-80s...after BO had become a disciple of JW. Don't know about later trips.

[Ignatz]

--Ignatz, in a Turing test between the Won and Watson, which would win?--

Not sure, but I imagine Watson would win "best personality" going away.
BTW, if it wasn't clear, the big dumb lummox I was referring to was Friedman.

[PD]

"I just felt bad when LeBron left,"

If only Sarah Palin could say smart stuff like that. Then I could really support her.

[Ignatz]

Thanks for that link MayBee.
It reminded me that Barry tried or actually did give $400,000 to charities run by Gaddafi's family. Amazing.