Posted by XT on June 24th, 2008 in US News
I’m a day or two late on this, but I couldn’t figure out what I should say. I should have known that the Maestro would have already said it:
There was an illustration on the panel that showed a triptych. On the left panel, there were these names of artistic pursuits. There were poets, painter, [...]
Posted by XT on June 6th, 2008 in US News
Oil prices took off today - more than $10 a barrel. See if you can spot the culprit:
Oil prices had their biggest-ever jump on Friday, after a senior Israeli politician raised the specter of an attack on Iran and the dollar fell against the euro.
The gains on Friday capped a second day of strong [...]
Posted by XT on June 2nd, 2008 in US News
Bo Diddley passed away today at the age of 79.
He joins Harvey Korman and so many others who have made this ragged old world a little nicer place to inhabit for sharing their talents.
We’ll miss ya, guys.
Technorati Tags: Bo Diddley, Harvey Korman
Posted by XT on May 20th, 2008 in US News
The all-too familiar news is that oil is expensive. And, of course, oil prices continue to climb. The price for light, sweet crude stopped just short of $130 a barrel. In the “DUH!!!” news of the day:
Meanwhile, the Labor Department’s producer price report indicated higher energy and food prices might be seeping [...]
Posted by XT on May 2nd, 2008 in US News
I was glad to hear Barack Obama oppose the “gasoline tax holiday“. That is truly one of the dumbest ideas I’ve heard in some time. It isn’t that I wouldn’t appreciate paying eighteen cents less per gallon - it’s just that eighteen cents per gallon isn’t enough to do anything for anyone.
Think of [...]
Posted by XT on April 30th, 2008 in US News
The good news is that the economy is not in a recession - it is just growing at a rate so slow as to be almost invisible. A recession is an economic downturn marked by two consecutive quarters of negative (GDP) growth. For the last two quarters, the growth rate has been only [...]
Posted by XT on April 29th, 2008 in US News
Amazingly, with both crude oil and refined product prices at record highs, oil companies are turning record profits. Here’s a nice little fact tucked away in the story:
Shell’s Chief Financial Officer Peter Voser said oil companies are not to blame.
“We don’t understand the oil price at this stage,” he said. “The fundamentals will not [...]
Posted by XT on April 28th, 2008 in US News
I got a little suspicious when I heard about this trucker’s strike in DC. What did it for me was the group’s demands:
The truckers are calling on Congress to stop subsidizing big oil companies, release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserves, end exports of oil from Alaska and regulate transportation brokers and fees paid [...]
Posted by XT on April 25th, 2008 in US News
A friend over at Blue Jersey drew my attention to the saga of the littoral combat ship (LCS). It’s pretty short and asking for oversight from a South Jersey Republican who is very proud of sitting on the appropriate committee. But the full story from the New York Times gives a lot more [...]
Posted by XT on April 21st, 2008 in US News
When I first began blogging, I tended to cover a lot of developments in New Jersey’s political scene. Since I joined Blue Jersey several years ago, I’ve largely let that be the venue where I speak on that topic (and at NJ Voices, since that feature’s inception). (Anything I write at either site, [...]