A Source of High Oil Prices

My undercover investigation found this to be a key source of the conspiracy that has led to $115/barrel oil prices:

What is this?  It is a picture of some of the typical vehicles parked outside my local fitness center on a beautiful Spring day.  A Yukon, a giant Ram truck and the smaller SUV is a 4Runner.  When we drive on a beautiful day to go get exercise , there is no one to blame for oil prices other than us.  Folks; try running, jogging, power walking or even just strolling there!  I know it’s radical.

Trust me, I see hundreds of these 12 MPG monsters every workday, being used to crawl through long commutes with just the driver.  The pickup’s bed showed absolutely no sign of usage for real work and it’s rare I ever see one of these SUVs with more than 4 people in them, even on weekends.  Couple that with our energy-devouring McMansions (the new home average size has grown 250% in two generations) and our personal energy consumption has gotten absurd.

Of course, instead of burning our grand-children’s chemical feedstock, we can burn today’s food (via biofuel), so we can keep driving to the fitness center. To heck with starving a few million people (including the orphans at the orphanages I support, who lost World Food Program support because of the rising food prices.)  

GET.THIS.BOOK!!

Michael Yon’s “Moment of Truth in Iraq“

A great piece of work by the Ernie Pyle of our time (Michael strongly contested that comparison, but it’s true). This is a different kind of war and Michael brings to life the issues, the problems, the missteps and the triumphs to be found there. And through it all, he honors the service and sacrifice of the American (and British) military in the field. Through him, you will understand the ‘Devil in the details’; the frustrations and the hopes of Americans and Iraqis alike. And you will have pride in the humanity shown by the vast majority of both. No one portrays it better and there is not a dull moment to be had in this book.

The contents within the book match the photgraphic excellence on the cover. If you see that picture and want to know the whys and wherefores, GET THIS BOOK!

The ‘Only the Good Die Young’ Gene

My 91-year-old mother, who smokes over a pack a day, has been repeatedly told by her doctor that she’s living proof only the good die young.  Also, that’s she’s too mean to die.  It turns out there might be a genetic component for that:

“…smokers who possessed one copy of either variant were 28% more likely to develop lung cancer, while those with two copies were at a stunning 81% increased risk for the disease.”

It they keep digging, they might find an ornery gene that explains how she refused chemotherapy after nearly bleeding to death from colon cancer 25 years ago and is still around.  My own scientific thought is that she smoked the rest of the cancer to death; after all, as she says ’smoked meat last longer than fresh’.

Her remaining living brother (merely a kid at 81) has a more religious explanation; their 7 departed siblings have decide not to let in the family troublemakers to wherever they went.