53.2 Billion Miles

CNBC has an interesting article about the reduced gasoline consumption in the US. According to it in the last 9 months Americans drove about 53.2 billion miles less than the previous year. Its a good statistic for those who believe that gas prices and consumption are totally inelastic. It also brought up that companies like Amtrak and Amazon.com are doing well as expected and Circuit City isn't. I think that brick mortar stores are going to continue to get hit as more and more people get comfortable buying things online. Lets face it, its hard to beat shopping for stuff sitting on your couch in your underwear.

Border Fence?

Heres a quote by General George Patton:

“Fixed fortifications are monuments to man's stupidity.”

I would include a border fence in this category.

Farmers Can't Keep up with Energy Costs

KSL has a story about how farmers are dealing with higher energy prices. Maybe by getting higher prices for their products.
From the article:

Leland Hogan, president of the Utah Farm Bureau Federation, said, "We can't keep up with the dollars that are necessary to pay the bills."

Really, when you are getting record prices for your corn is not the correct time to pander for even more subsidies.

How 'bout a cold one

What's weird about this picture? If you said the blue cooler on the turret I think you would be right. In any event its a pretty awesome picture.
via

Airline Speculators

Today the airlines are calling for increased regulation of the futures markets especially in oil and gas by asking their customers to mail some canned letter to their congressman. The letter says something about how speculation is whats causing high prices yada yada yada. This is ironic because they themselves speculate all the time. Southwest was one of the most referred to examples of a company that hedges itself well from oil prices.
Besides that people tend to forget that if I'm a speculator I have to re-sale my futures contract. Why? Because an oil futures contract is a contract with an oil supplier to receive oil produced in the future at an agreed price today. That means that by the time a contract comes due an end user has to buy it, otherwise Mr. Speculator would have to take delivery for his oil.
It really is a great tool for airlines and such to reduce the volatility in their earnings and make long term budget decisions but to blame higher prices on speculators and not increased world demand is a pretty blind view.
Lastly I was pretty surprised to see pretty much all of the major airlines on the list. I would have expected a few who were better hedged than their peers to be pushing for higher oil costs. They then could have enjoyed their oil they hedged cheap while their competitors went out of business.

Obama's Experience

I'm sure you all have heard about General Wesley Clark saying that McCain being shot down didn't provide him any real experience. I don't buy that in the first place, but then how about his 20 something years in the senate.
Now lets compare that to Obama: community organizer f0r about 20 years (what does that mean and is that a really a job, how do I apply) and the last four years in the senate. Ya I would say that Obama has WAY more experience.
Seriously though, community organizer. It sounds like a mafia position. Kind of like on that movie Four Brothers. Was that Chicago or Detroit?

DC vs Heller

There seems to be a lot of misconceptions about the second amendment Ive noticed with all this publicity about DC v Heller. While I am glad the supreme court struck down DC's absolutely idiotic law I don't think the second amendment means what they think it means.
When the constitution was written men were stilling dueling to defend their honer i.e. Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton. Certainly in this environment the idea of anyone telling you that you could not defend yourself in your own home was absurd.
I am not a historian but from my own perspective the 2nd amendment means exactly what it says. It grants states the right to raise armed militias. These were militias after the manner of the minutemen. What did the minutemen do? They kicked a repressive government out of their colonies.
I think this because at the time the idea of the constitution was hotly debated idea (see federalists v antifederalists). That is why they worked on it over two months in a room closed to the public. One of the biggest concerns was that of the central/federal governments power versus those retained by states. In order to alleviate these concerns (and get the needed 3/4ths majority of colonies to sign) the drafters of the constitution added the bill of rights. When you look at the list of the 10 amendments as a whole I think you can see the fear of another repressive government shining though.
One must also remember that the government cannot grant rights. It only has the power to restrict them. I believe that regardless of which century you live in the right to defend your family and your home by the most efficient means possible is not only a right but a duty.