A Three-Link Salad
Jul. 14th, 2009 10:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chris_gerribThey say three things make a post, so here goes:
CIA and Congress People following the news have heard that the CIA has had some kind of super-secret program that Vice President Cheney specifically ordered Congress not be briefed on. Very few details have come out as to what the program is. This link says that the program involved CIA hit teams infiltrating neutral countries and assassinating specific terrorists. Frankly, I don't have a problem with the concept, but the article, if true, points out that you can't just improvise this type of program. Or rather, you can, but the results will not be what you expected.
Bio-Fuels I've long had an interest in alternative energy, and this article has a nice summary of the current biofuels craze. But the important quote is "International Energy Agency estimates that second-generation biofuels currently average out at around $130 a barrel—expensive, given the current oil price."
We can have cheap fuel or renewable fuel but not both. Not that cheap fuel is a God-given right - Europe, Canada and Japan have done quite nicely with $4/gallon gasoline for years now. In truth, if you want Americans to buy small cars, high gas prices are the only way it's going to happen.
Health Care The first line of this Wall Street Journal article says it all: For entrepreneurs trying to start or run a business, the obstacles are huge. But few loom as large as one: health care.
CIA and Congress People following the news have heard that the CIA has had some kind of super-secret program that Vice President Cheney specifically ordered Congress not be briefed on. Very few details have come out as to what the program is. This link says that the program involved CIA hit teams infiltrating neutral countries and assassinating specific terrorists. Frankly, I don't have a problem with the concept, but the article, if true, points out that you can't just improvise this type of program. Or rather, you can, but the results will not be what you expected.
Bio-Fuels I've long had an interest in alternative energy, and this article has a nice summary of the current biofuels craze. But the important quote is "International Energy Agency estimates that second-generation biofuels currently average out at around $130 a barrel—expensive, given the current oil price."
We can have cheap fuel or renewable fuel but not both. Not that cheap fuel is a God-given right - Europe, Canada and Japan have done quite nicely with $4/gallon gasoline for years now. In truth, if you want Americans to buy small cars, high gas prices are the only way it's going to happen.
Health Care The first line of this Wall Street Journal article says it all: For entrepreneurs trying to start or run a business, the obstacles are huge. But few loom as large as one: health care.
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no subject
Date: 2009-07-14 03:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-14 04:43 pm (UTC)High gas prices may have something to do with Japanese owning small cars, but I'll wager a big part of it is that any car bigger than what we'd call 'economy sized' are a pita to operate there.
Urban density in Asia and large, wide vehicles do not mix.
At least, that was my experience driving a GMC pickup all over Okinawa for the better part of a year.