More Tax Holiday Nonsense, Obama Foils McCain-Hamas Plot, Hollywood Stars Come Out
Stafford Williamson
May 12, 2008
"The twenty-fourth of May is the Queen's Birthday,
If we don't get a holiday, we'll all run away."
What "queen" do you mean? Well, it's a long story and a short one. The quote above is a little snippet or a song my father used to sing to me as a child. Like many a children's rhyme it had a purpose, just as the ABC song is actually a rhyme teaching
children to recognize letters of the alphabet, this one was to remind children that is was Queen Victoria's birthday which had been declared a public holiday Now in those days when my father was just a schoolboy, school always lasted will into the month of June, especially in the northern climes of Canada, so the likelihood of a boy forgetting that they were due a holiday from school seemed unlikely, but perhaps the 24th of May was not all that memorable a date. It does seem like the right time for a holiday though. Cinqo de Mayo is celebrated in Mexico, Memorial Day in the USA, May Day in Russia (or do they, that was related to the "Glorious Revolution" as I recall and it may not still be celebrated officially, though I doubt the old party officials lack for vodka on that day). At any rate, even though there was fresh, new snow in parts of Canada just a couple of weeks ago:
"Spring is sprung.
The grass is riz.
I wonder where the birdies is?"
I was reminded of the Queen's birthday rhyme today because I came across the web site of a company that one might hardly associate with being a "trendy" kind of organization, and yet, a substantial portion of their web material was all about how they were leading the charge toward biodiesel. It was the name of the company that struck me. I was looking for wind turbine company's website the other day and there were tons and tons of names that came up in my searches that were similar or contained similar terms, all of which were very much related to wind and energy, which is why this company struck me as the epitome of "not-trendy", and yet, for all the diversity of their overall capabilities, they were selling the "biodiesel-related" aspects of their skills and capacities above virtually everything else they could do.
Now, all of that is not intended in any way to diminish this company,indeed I was fairly impressed. I believe I have even seen them exhibiting at an alternative energy trade show I attended, although the name has such a familiar ring to it that I may be confusing its "deja-vu" quality with a lumber company that I do remember from my childhood that later merged with Zellerbach to form one of the worlds largest forest products companies. But before I digress too far from my point, I will tell you that Crown Iron Works Company has an impressive array of accomplishments and capabilities. This isn't a paid endorsement. I genuinely just stumbled upon them (though I must say I have been calling my form of ,"web surfing",
"stumble upon" for a lot of years before the social bookmarking site "stole" the expression from me). :o[b......
Just briefly, I "stumbled upon" another interesting fact that I interpret as a "trend", which was, that while I was looking at an article about biodiesel, one of the Google ads that appeared along the side of the page was from petroleum giant, "BP". And not only that, but the link led to the main homepage of BP USA where several stories featured in prominent locations on the page ere about 1) biodiesel, 2) wind power, and 3) solar energy, plus another on a Biosciences Institute focused specifically on energy related fields, and a "carbon footprint calculator". Since BP is also the major multinational petroleum company working in partnership with DuPont to develop biobutanol in Britain, whether or not they are doing ALL that they can to prepare themselves (and us) for a world in which biofuels play a very substantial role, they unquestionably are doing a very good job of publicizing what efforts they are making. As you may have noticed they are not being stingy with their television advertising dollars either, specifically as related to being a "green" company (and I mean more than just their logo).
There is a delightful story in the Manchester Guardian this week, or rather, I assume it is the same organization that publishes the highly respected Manchester Guardian, though this is at the online site which just calls itself "guardian.co.uk" (without the "Manchester" bit, so presumably trying to "globalize their image", though frankly I wonder if it is worth it to shed the mantle of respectability and trustworthiness in the era of so much internet flimflam). At any rate, guardian.co.uk reports that there is a "growing'" trend for British motorists to brew their own biodiesel. In particular they tell the story of 79 year-old Gordon Elliot who toddles down to the pub to collect a barrel of used cooking grease from his stepdaughter, hauls it home and puts it into a processing unit in his own garage that will automatically transform it overnight into biodiesel. Not so surprising, really, since the report says Mr. Elliot calculates his costs about about 15p per litre as compared to £1.25p per litre at the local supermarket, which Mr. Elliot says saves him just about £100 a month in fuel bills. The article also mentions that the machinery should be paid off in a year from now, but fails to mention if that is fully amortizing the cost in just one year, or how long he has already been making payments. Mr. Elliot enjoys the fact that greenhouse gases are reduced by some 90% (he says) but he seems to get a special pleasure from avoiding paying the taxes on fuel if he had to purchase it.
Which brings me back to the "gas-tax holiday" issue. Maggie and I seem to watch entirely TOO MUCH political coverage on the media. Not only did we understand the reference Chris Matthews made to David Gregory just spontaneously inventing a nickname for political analyst Michael Smerconish by the handle "Smirk", but we were watching the original event with David Gregory hosting a program in which Mr. Smerconish was a guest. Now Mr. Smerconish may well deserve the appellation of "Smirk" for his loose comments on a variety of topics, though I have to say that I do agree with a portion of a point he made in an April broadcast of 2006 in which, "Smerconish claimed that political correctness has made the United States "a nation of sissies," though not with his overall point that political correctness had crippled the US ability to win the "war on terror", since as you probably know if you have been reading my columns, I think the fundamental problem with the so-called
"war on terror" is a complete failure to understand the causes, motivations and objectives in most cases. But I have wandered far from my point. Allow me to refocus my aim to turn to the "gas tax holiday" now.
Among this spate of programming and host of hosts and analysts, general consensus is that jumping on the Summer Gas Tax Holiday band-wagon has significantly hurt Senator Hillary Clinton's campaign to become the Democratic Party presidential candidate nominee. As I pointed out the FEDERAL tax on a gallon of gas is just US$0.18 in total.
Rolling back the price of gas by that amount would have the effect of putting the price back to what is was just a few months ago, and that will only hold true if world oil prices don't continue to climb over the next several months. After all we saw new record closing prices for a barrel of oil again this week. US$125 ++
What is so unusual in this case is that normally when a politician offers a short term, quick-fix solution that goes directly to the voters pockets, normally they are the one perceived as keeping the public interest uppermost in their minds. In this case, however, it appears that public perception that Senator Clinton is just saying what people want to hear in order to get elected, and that, people interpret as being less trustworthy. A recent poll (sorry, I don't remember which one was being cited) had "trustworthy" and "not trustworthy" ratings for Senator Clinton tied at 49% on each side. Of course the truly remarkable things seems to me to be that the better reasoned argument that Senator Obama made that this was a trivial political ploy and that what we need is a "real" and "long term fix" for the problem of runaway fuel prices and oil dependency was actually seen as the more appealing by the voters surveyed. In this case, I have to say kudos to Senator Obama for standing on the higher moral ground, and HURRAY for the public, too.
Okay, I can't place that on the table without some quick mention of how Senator McCain's campaign tried to interpret Senator Obama's remark that Senator McCain had "lost his bearings" (and I am SURE beyond all doubt that he was not making a pun about "bearings" as in "ball bearings" versus "lost his marbles", although I am not so sure about some of his campaign workers in the way they handled his response). The McCain camp came out with a statement that Senator Obama should not be attacking Senator McCain's advanced age. I would point out that three-year-olds "lose their bearings" just as often and probably more easily than 71 year olds, barring Alzheimer's problems, and no one is accusing
Senator McCain of that yet, especially when you see how sharp is 90-something year old mother still is. No, what Senator Obama said was that for the "clean" campaign promises Senator McCain had made, including naming his campaign bus the "straight talk express" that he had clearly lost his MORAL bearings by implying that a radical
Muslim spokesman, Hamas vice-leader in Palestine, "hoped" Obama would win the election, which made Obama the "preferred" candidate of radical Muslim party Hamas. And remember this is in the context of Senator McCain the day before bringing up the Reverend Wright as a scare tactic, even though he put it into a statement that he did NOT believe that Senator Obama shared the views of his former minister. If he keeps this up, Senator McCain should rename his campaign bus the "Dirty Pool" that transports the amoral "Shark".
The "last word" (I hope) on the accusation that Senator Clinton is "playing the race card" to her own detriment, which is probably true, but all the comentators who are jumping all over the phrasing the other day when she said that she had the support of "hard working Americans, white Americans", let me acknowledge that to me, at least, it sounded as I heard the sound clip play that she was reluctant to say "working class Americans" (which might have been a phrase her campaign staff had supplied) as well as not being entirely comfortable with the phrasing of "hard working white Americans", which caused her to stumble over whatever came out. The unfortunate juxtaposition was being interpreted not only as raising the race issue (which it was, but sadly the fact is true that working class Americans are not inclined to take as "enlightened" a view of a black man as president as are younger, better educated Americans who form a significant slice of the Senator Obama's suppport), but to maximize the "newsworthiness" of the incident the media was eager to give air time to those who would twist the interpretation of the words into some implication that African-Americans are NOT hard working, and thus that Senator Clinton was also perpetuating the stereotype of "lazy blacks". I strongly doubt that, and I, for one, would call to task any so-called "journalist" who gave any credence to that perverse logic or gave a platform to anyone who wanted to express it. The Clinton's have always been friendly toward and supported by the African-American community in general, and even though recent polling data indicate that Senator Obama has been winning up to 92% of "black votes" especially in North Carolina), is not an indication that there is not still great affection for their longtime friends on both sides.
Enough politics for today, let me turn to a pair of cheerier topics, a new movie and a not-so-new movie.
We enjoyed an outing to see What Happens in Vegas starring Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher. Dennis Miller is subdued as the judge deciding if he will grant them a divorce after a drunken night in Vegas find the unhappy couple married with little or no recollection of how it happened. The comedy is always charming, and the leads are both extremely charming personalities to watch. (Not to mention not hard to look at in both cases.) Dennis Farina did his usual in the supporting role as Diaz' boss, "Dick Banger", who surprisingly seems to prefer a "fun" employee to a more serious one, but no real standouts among the supporting cast. On the other hand, Krysten Ritter the beautiful original girlfriend of Kutcher's character is certainly considered "hot" by Hollywood these days. She has four movies in production or in post-product at this time. Considering how terrible I thought Ashton's acting was back in 2003 in Just Married I must give him credit for SIGNIFICANT improvement. I really enjoyed the whole movie.
Michelle Pfeiffer and Paul Rudd star in I Could Never Be Your Woman which if I tell you I "enjoyed" It Happened in Vegas on the relative scale, I'd have to say I "loved" this one. The 2007 film,. now available on DVD is just delightful. Michelle's single-mother character meets a "too young" bachelor, and falls in love anyway in this delightful romantic comedy. Stacey Dash, another "hot property" in Hollywood has 5 projects coming up soon, but was not such a much in this film, nor was she as glamorous as the script implied. However, Sarah Alexander, is stunning in appearance, as well she should be after he co-starring role with Michelle Pfeiffer as one of the movie Stardust hag witches seeking to rejuvenate themselves (along with another beauty Claire Danes as the third witch). Paul Rudd is thoroughly goofy, and yet not immature, just charming and that's what makes this movie work from beginning to end. But the real credit goes to director Amy Heckerling (who first came to prominence as director of Fast Times at Ridgemont High and later Clueless (both the movie and the television series)p.s. Don't miss her pictures on IMDB.COM if you follow the link here, she's darn cute of an "old broad" of 50-something). Nobody has a hit 100% of the time, but Amy comes pretty close to a "guarantee" that you'll have some fun when you sit down to enjoy one of her movies. Congratulations, as usual, to you, Amy.
Oh, yes, on another happy note (to end with) my friends at Origin Oil had their stock start trading OTC (strictly speaking that's OTC BB) their symbol is OOIL. Congratulations to Riggs and all the folks who made it happen, I certainly wish them well. The first day of trading went well, I understand and the stock has risen in value quite a bit for such a short period.
Love,
Stafford "Doc" Williamson
http://winfotech.com/energy/
If we don't get a holiday, we'll all run away."
What "queen" do you mean? Well, it's a long story and a short one. The quote above is a little snippet or a song my father used to sing to me as a child. Like many a children's rhyme it had a purpose, just as the ABC song is actually a rhyme teaching
children to recognize letters of the alphabet, this one was to remind children that is was Queen Victoria's birthday which had been declared a public holiday Now in those days when my father was just a schoolboy, school always lasted will into the month of June, especially in the northern climes of Canada, so the likelihood of a boy forgetting that they were due a holiday from school seemed unlikely, but perhaps the 24th of May was not all that memorable a date. It does seem like the right time for a holiday though. Cinqo de Mayo is celebrated in Mexico, Memorial Day in the USA, May Day in Russia (or do they, that was related to the "Glorious Revolution" as I recall and it may not still be celebrated officially, though I doubt the old party officials lack for vodka on that day). At any rate, even though there was fresh, new snow in parts of Canada just a couple of weeks ago:
"Spring is sprung.
The grass is riz.
I wonder where the birdies is?"
I was reminded of the Queen's birthday rhyme today because I came across the web site of a company that one might hardly associate with being a "trendy" kind of organization, and yet, a substantial portion of their web material was all about how they were leading the charge toward biodiesel. It was the name of the company that struck me. I was looking for wind turbine company's website the other day and there were tons and tons of names that came up in my searches that were similar or contained similar terms, all of which were very much related to wind and energy, which is why this company struck me as the epitome of "not-trendy", and yet, for all the diversity of their overall capabilities, they were selling the "biodiesel-related" aspects of their skills and capacities above virtually everything else they could do.
Now, all of that is not intended in any way to diminish this company,indeed I was fairly impressed. I believe I have even seen them exhibiting at an alternative energy trade show I attended, although the name has such a familiar ring to it that I may be confusing its "deja-vu" quality with a lumber company that I do remember from my childhood that later merged with Zellerbach to form one of the worlds largest forest products companies. But before I digress too far from my point, I will tell you that Crown Iron Works Company has an impressive array of accomplishments and capabilities. This isn't a paid endorsement. I genuinely just stumbled upon them (though I must say I have been calling my form of ,"web surfing",
"stumble upon" for a lot of years before the social bookmarking site "stole" the expression from me). :o[b......
Just briefly, I "stumbled upon" another interesting fact that I interpret as a "trend", which was, that while I was looking at an article about biodiesel, one of the Google ads that appeared along the side of the page was from petroleum giant, "BP". And not only that, but the link led to the main homepage of BP USA where several stories featured in prominent locations on the page ere about 1) biodiesel, 2) wind power, and 3) solar energy, plus another on a Biosciences Institute focused specifically on energy related fields, and a "carbon footprint calculator". Since BP is also the major multinational petroleum company working in partnership with DuPont to develop biobutanol in Britain, whether or not they are doing ALL that they can to prepare themselves (and us) for a world in which biofuels play a very substantial role, they unquestionably are doing a very good job of publicizing what efforts they are making. As you may have noticed they are not being stingy with their television advertising dollars either, specifically as related to being a "green" company (and I mean more than just their logo).
There is a delightful story in the Manchester Guardian this week, or rather, I assume it is the same organization that publishes the highly respected Manchester Guardian, though this is at the online site which just calls itself "guardian.co.uk" (without the "Manchester" bit, so presumably trying to "globalize their image", though frankly I wonder if it is worth it to shed the mantle of respectability and trustworthiness in the era of so much internet flimflam). At any rate, guardian.co.uk reports that there is a "growing'" trend for British motorists to brew their own biodiesel. In particular they tell the story of 79 year-old Gordon Elliot who toddles down to the pub to collect a barrel of used cooking grease from his stepdaughter, hauls it home and puts it into a processing unit in his own garage that will automatically transform it overnight into biodiesel. Not so surprising, really, since the report says Mr. Elliot calculates his costs about about 15p per litre as compared to £1.25p per litre at the local supermarket, which Mr. Elliot says saves him just about £100 a month in fuel bills. The article also mentions that the machinery should be paid off in a year from now, but fails to mention if that is fully amortizing the cost in just one year, or how long he has already been making payments. Mr. Elliot enjoys the fact that greenhouse gases are reduced by some 90% (he says) but he seems to get a special pleasure from avoiding paying the taxes on fuel if he had to purchase it.
Which brings me back to the "gas-tax holiday" issue. Maggie and I seem to watch entirely TOO MUCH political coverage on the media. Not only did we understand the reference Chris Matthews made to David Gregory just spontaneously inventing a nickname for political analyst Michael Smerconish by the handle "Smirk", but we were watching the original event with David Gregory hosting a program in which Mr. Smerconish was a guest. Now Mr. Smerconish may well deserve the appellation of "Smirk" for his loose comments on a variety of topics, though I have to say that I do agree with a portion of a point he made in an April broadcast of 2006 in which, "Smerconish claimed that political correctness has made the United States "a nation of sissies," though not with his overall point that political correctness had crippled the US ability to win the "war on terror", since as you probably know if you have been reading my columns, I think the fundamental problem with the so-called
"war on terror" is a complete failure to understand the causes, motivations and objectives in most cases. But I have wandered far from my point. Allow me to refocus my aim to turn to the "gas tax holiday" now.
Among this spate of programming and host of hosts and analysts, general consensus is that jumping on the Summer Gas Tax Holiday band-wagon has significantly hurt Senator Hillary Clinton's campaign to become the Democratic Party presidential candidate nominee. As I pointed out the FEDERAL tax on a gallon of gas is just US$0.18 in total.
Rolling back the price of gas by that amount would have the effect of putting the price back to what is was just a few months ago, and that will only hold true if world oil prices don't continue to climb over the next several months. After all we saw new record closing prices for a barrel of oil again this week. US$125 ++
What is so unusual in this case is that normally when a politician offers a short term, quick-fix solution that goes directly to the voters pockets, normally they are the one perceived as keeping the public interest uppermost in their minds. In this case, however, it appears that public perception that Senator Clinton is just saying what people want to hear in order to get elected, and that, people interpret as being less trustworthy. A recent poll (sorry, I don't remember which one was being cited) had "trustworthy" and "not trustworthy" ratings for Senator Clinton tied at 49% on each side. Of course the truly remarkable things seems to me to be that the better reasoned argument that Senator Obama made that this was a trivial political ploy and that what we need is a "real" and "long term fix" for the problem of runaway fuel prices and oil dependency was actually seen as the more appealing by the voters surveyed. In this case, I have to say kudos to Senator Obama for standing on the higher moral ground, and HURRAY for the public, too.
Okay, I can't place that on the table without some quick mention of how Senator McCain's campaign tried to interpret Senator Obama's remark that Senator McCain had "lost his bearings" (and I am SURE beyond all doubt that he was not making a pun about "bearings" as in "ball bearings" versus "lost his marbles", although I am not so sure about some of his campaign workers in the way they handled his response). The McCain camp came out with a statement that Senator Obama should not be attacking Senator McCain's advanced age. I would point out that three-year-olds "lose their bearings" just as often and probably more easily than 71 year olds, barring Alzheimer's problems, and no one is accusing
Senator McCain of that yet, especially when you see how sharp is 90-something year old mother still is. No, what Senator Obama said was that for the "clean" campaign promises Senator McCain had made, including naming his campaign bus the "straight talk express" that he had clearly lost his MORAL bearings by implying that a radical
Muslim spokesman, Hamas vice-leader in Palestine, "hoped" Obama would win the election, which made Obama the "preferred" candidate of radical Muslim party Hamas. And remember this is in the context of Senator McCain the day before bringing up the Reverend Wright as a scare tactic, even though he put it into a statement that he did NOT believe that Senator Obama shared the views of his former minister. If he keeps this up, Senator McCain should rename his campaign bus the "Dirty Pool" that transports the amoral "Shark".
The "last word" (I hope) on the accusation that Senator Clinton is "playing the race card" to her own detriment, which is probably true, but all the comentators who are jumping all over the phrasing the other day when she said that she had the support of "hard working Americans, white Americans", let me acknowledge that to me, at least, it sounded as I heard the sound clip play that she was reluctant to say "working class Americans" (which might have been a phrase her campaign staff had supplied) as well as not being entirely comfortable with the phrasing of "hard working white Americans", which caused her to stumble over whatever came out. The unfortunate juxtaposition was being interpreted not only as raising the race issue (which it was, but sadly the fact is true that working class Americans are not inclined to take as "enlightened" a view of a black man as president as are younger, better educated Americans who form a significant slice of the Senator Obama's suppport), but to maximize the "newsworthiness" of the incident the media was eager to give air time to those who would twist the interpretation of the words into some implication that African-Americans are NOT hard working, and thus that Senator Clinton was also perpetuating the stereotype of "lazy blacks". I strongly doubt that, and I, for one, would call to task any so-called "journalist" who gave any credence to that perverse logic or gave a platform to anyone who wanted to express it. The Clinton's have always been friendly toward and supported by the African-American community in general, and even though recent polling data indicate that Senator Obama has been winning up to 92% of "black votes" especially in North Carolina), is not an indication that there is not still great affection for their longtime friends on both sides.
Enough politics for today, let me turn to a pair of cheerier topics, a new movie and a not-so-new movie.
We enjoyed an outing to see What Happens in Vegas starring Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher. Dennis Miller is subdued as the judge deciding if he will grant them a divorce after a drunken night in Vegas find the unhappy couple married with little or no recollection of how it happened. The comedy is always charming, and the leads are both extremely charming personalities to watch. (Not to mention not hard to look at in both cases.) Dennis Farina did his usual in the supporting role as Diaz' boss, "Dick Banger", who surprisingly seems to prefer a "fun" employee to a more serious one, but no real standouts among the supporting cast. On the other hand, Krysten Ritter the beautiful original girlfriend of Kutcher's character is certainly considered "hot" by Hollywood these days. She has four movies in production or in post-product at this time. Considering how terrible I thought Ashton's acting was back in 2003 in Just Married I must give him credit for SIGNIFICANT improvement. I really enjoyed the whole movie.
Michelle Pfeiffer and Paul Rudd star in I Could Never Be Your Woman which if I tell you I "enjoyed" It Happened in Vegas on the relative scale, I'd have to say I "loved" this one. The 2007 film,. now available on DVD is just delightful. Michelle's single-mother character meets a "too young" bachelor, and falls in love anyway in this delightful romantic comedy. Stacey Dash, another "hot property" in Hollywood has 5 projects coming up soon, but was not such a much in this film, nor was she as glamorous as the script implied. However, Sarah Alexander, is stunning in appearance, as well she should be after he co-starring role with Michelle Pfeiffer as one of the movie Stardust hag witches seeking to rejuvenate themselves (along with another beauty Claire Danes as the third witch). Paul Rudd is thoroughly goofy, and yet not immature, just charming and that's what makes this movie work from beginning to end. But the real credit goes to director Amy Heckerling (who first came to prominence as director of Fast Times at Ridgemont High and later Clueless (both the movie and the television series)p.s. Don't miss her pictures on IMDB.COM if you follow the link here, she's darn cute of an "old broad" of 50-something). Nobody has a hit 100% of the time, but Amy comes pretty close to a "guarantee" that you'll have some fun when you sit down to enjoy one of her movies. Congratulations, as usual, to you, Amy.
Oh, yes, on another happy note (to end with) my friends at Origin Oil had their stock start trading OTC (strictly speaking that's OTC BB) their symbol is OOIL. Congratulations to Riggs and all the folks who made it happen, I certainly wish them well. The first day of trading went well, I understand and the stock has risen in value quite a bit for such a short period.
Love,
Stafford "Doc" Williamson
http://winfotech.com/energy/
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