A little more about how to make energy production less stressful to the populations who have to live close to it. Keep in mind that the THUMS Islands enhance Long Beach Harbor (excuse me: “Rainbow Harbor,” after the colored lights on the petro-islands), and provide a huge chunk of change to the California State budget, [...]

Posted in Attila, Girl Reporter, Economics, Energy Issues, Energy Policy, Golden State, Offshore Technology 11 Comments »

Bartender/writer Andrew Bohrer discusses Tom Waits’ song “Down There by the Train”: “it is fairly obvious that this is a song about death . . . In a less dramatic way, for me it is just a song about being done, and being tired, [of] needing relief and forgiveness. Cocktails are liquid forgiveness.”
Bohrer’s post [...]

Posted in Ain't This the Life?, Americana, City Life, Music, Whine and Spirits No Comments »

And very nearly free of Roger Taylor, for that matter . . . there was nothing for him to do.
I assume you are all aware that the guitar Brian May usually plays is the one he and his father built in their garage when he was a teenager? They were accomplished engineers and craftsmen; the [...]

Posted in Music No Comments »

Because I’m totally not obsessed with Freddie Mercury. Freddie Mercury is not singing on this video.

Posted in Music 3 Comments »

He addresses the idea that increasing unemployment benefits will stimulate the economy, which could be argued either way. In a sense, I think there is a stimulative, “trickle up” type of side-effect of unemployment, but there’s never enough of the money in one place to actually create jobs: it mists the plants, which is better [...]

Posted in Economics 3 Comments »

From a Jane Van Ryan post at Energy Tomorrow:
On May 27, President Obama instituted a six-month moratorium on all drilling in water depths greater than 500 feet and stopped work on 33 Gulf deepwater exploration rigs, except under special circumstances.
Several organizations have offered estimates of the drilling moratorium’s impact on consumers, the U.S. oil and [...]

Posted in Economics, Energy Issues, Energy Policy, Offshore Technology No Comments »

I’m a Runaways fan. It begins today, boys and girls. Wake up and smell the rock and roll.

It’s rock and roll: they tore each other apart. For a time. (There are exceptions: see Ford, Lita, whose beauty was more conventional that that of the front girls. And her music? Much less, thank you very much.)
Showtimes [...]

Posted in Americana, Music 9 Comments »

This one, however, has Beyonce in it. I kind of like it, though of course YMMV. It’s a bit S&M-ish, and just a tad murderous.
Definitely not chidren’s viewing, whatever that means. However. Not only did I see Reform School Girls in the 1980s—I also saw Born Innocent on television in the 1970s. Though they [...]

Posted in Americana, Crime, Cultured, Like Yogurt, Entertainment, Mass Murder, Music 6 Comments »

Here’s your quiz for the day: Without checking, can you tell me what group did the original that this is a cover of?
If you can do that, and you’re younger than, say, 47 years old, I will be very. Very. Impressed.

Posted in Music 8 Comments »

VDH has a cheery little essay up about the fun times ahead in my beloved Golden State.
Don’t look at me like that! It’s a fun article. It’ll make you whistle a happy tune!
Come on. Trust me, Charlie Brown. This time, the football stays in place right till your foot hits it way up into [...]

Posted in Absolutely Academe, Americana, Economics, Education, Golden State No Comments »

The original Gay Patriot weighs in at Big Journalism on the sea change at CPAC this year. He’s got both of the infamous videos up: the pro-GOProud cheering of Alexander McCobin and the pro-GOProud booing of Ryan Sorba. Bruce was the first one to point out that it was probably Sorba who provided the outnumbered—but [...]

Posted in CPAC, Civil Liberties, Economics, GOP, Gay Marriage, Gay Rights, Media, Organizing No Comments »

. . . and natural gas. And petroleum.

This can’t be gotten around. He promised to decimate the energy industry, and he’s on the road to doing it.
h/t: Ed at Hot Air.

Posted in Coal, Economics, Energy Issues, Energy Policy No Comments »

This time it’s those who use coal—and those who depend upon coal, natural gas, petroleum, and the generation of electricity for their livelihoods.

Posted in Coal, Economics, Energy Issues, Energy Policy No Comments »

Plausible deniability at the Department of the Interior, and outright stalling by the MMS: Governor Palin has the story.
Most Americans want more energy independence, even if it means production of petroleum and natural gas, while we continue to work on the renewables—none of which are quite ready yet to step into the breach.
We don’t like [...]

Posted in Economics, Energy Issues, Energy Policy, Offshore Technology, Sarah Palin, Virginia! 5 Comments »

Miss Fine Blogthang would like you to think that she resisted the temptation, but of course she did nothing of the sort.
Though I’m not sure I see any sort of connection to J.D. Salinger, unless one wants to posit that extreme reclusiveness is one solution to living in a celebrity-drenched age—or that being a hermit [...]

Posted in Entertainment No Comments »

Jack Gerard has issued a statement of support for the notion:
We are encouraged by the President’s words that decisions need to be made about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development.
These are important and necessary decisions for the American people and the American economy. Greater access to America’s vast oil and natural gas [...]

Posted in Economics, Energy Issues, Energy Policy, Offshore Technology, Virginia! No Comments »

Vaya con Dios.

Posted in Economics, Obama Administration, politics No Comments »

Right now:

Did you want more whimsy based on economics? Try this:
A Pimlico dream
Of the Bloombury Group
May have made Mayfair
A Keynesian Soup.
—The Space Child’s Mother Goose
(That is from memory, since I never had a copy of that book; I had to borrow it from Greg Turk and David Linden. Doubtless that particular poem stuck in my [...]

Posted in Economics 2 Comments »

Her name ain’t Rio, but she sure does know her way around the sand. Watch out for coffee with that almond-like flavor, though . . .

Via Treacher, who is getting a lot of pleasure out of the fact that the gang at Huffington Post seems to genuinely believe this is going to hurt Scott Brown’s [...]

Posted in Americana, Around the 'Sphere, GOP, Girlz, Music, New England, Scott Brown, Sex Is Necessary, politics 18 Comments »

Lady Gaga - New Music - More Music Videos
Lady Gaga is amazing, and an astonishly talented woman. She is less beautiful than Madonna, but a deeper thinker, and just as good a dancer and singer. Her idols are my idols: Freddie Mercury, David Bowie.
Remember when Brian May suggested that he was a bit uncomfortable [...]

Posted in Music 8 Comments »