An Experiment in Scotch

Sunday, January 26, 2003

It's almost time to get ready for Super Bowl XXXVII!!! Woohoo! And the sun is trying to come out, must be a sign from some superior being. . .maybe. . .anyway, I'm ready for the fun to begin. . .oh and the beer drinking too. . .
2:21:20 PM

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Your Internal Editor Good comments on the editor we all employ, or at least most of us, that keeps us from saying inappropriate things. I know a guy at work who doesn't have this switch and he's always entertaining. . .completely inappropriate things just come flowing out of his mouth all the time.

My internal editor tends towards dictatorship as I'm much more likely to not write something as I am to write it, especially if its personal. . .I don't think this is the format for many personal thoughts. . .that's what I keep a regular journal for. . .though more and more I see people who just start writing stuff about their life. . .some of it is pretty scary. . .regardless. . .i'm glad I have an internal editor to keep me in check. . .even if he (or she) is a dictator. . .
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It's not about the Oil: Part One. . .

I especially like this . . .

It ought to be obvious that the United States does not in fact get cheap oil: It gets expensive oil, and it also gets the pleasure of protecting the price-gougers and even of being attacked by some of them. It gets oil at exactly the same price as the Europeans -- who in fact take more Persian Gulf oil than do the Americans. Arguably, the United States gets some degree of influence over the Saudis and Kuwaitis, and therefore may exert a moderating influence on the oil cartel, OPEC. But intelligent oil producers long ago perceived that driving their customers' economies into recession was not rational profit-maximizing behaviour. The Saudis have long behaved like the intelligent monopolist they are, and they don't need the United States to tell them how to do it.

and this. . .

A second and related idea has U.S. policy driven by the interests of oil companies. The accusation has a certain facile credibility for the conspiracy-minded because President Bush used to be an unsuccessful oil prospector, and Vice-President Cheney used to sell services to oil companies. But anyone with the foggiest knowledge of the oil industry would recognize that these two often-conflated accusations -- that the United States wants cheap oil and that it wants oil company profits -- are mutually contradictory. Oil companies make more money when the price is high: The United States cannot want both cheap oil and high prices.

But don't take my word for it, go read the whole thing. . .
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