OPEC announced today that it was tightening oil production by 1 million barrels a day.  Some folks have speculated that gasoline prices jumped today because of an explosion at a BP refinery, but I would bet the OPEC announcement carried greater weight.  The BP plant explosion only offered a chance to jack up pricing earlier rather than later.

 

But the money in oil isn’t just from sales of the stuff; it’s in the handling of the monies surrounding oil.  It’s not as if oil = money literally, but it’s damned close.

 

So follow the money; is it really that demand will outstrip supply, or that the folks who manipulate the market are working the system, gaming it to push up the yields not only oil but on the cash behind and around it?

 

Yeah.  I’m betting there’s a war for oil on, too, and it’s not the battle for Iraq.  Or at least it’s not just about Iraq.  It’s about real wealth and who will have more of it.  It’s about amassing enough of it to make unilateral preemption unnecessary because of the preponderance of wealth on hand.

 

I’ve made comments before about the issue of economic war; specifically, I believe we are in the midst of an asymmetrical, unrestricted war.  The weapons aren’t obvious to the average Joe, but the combatants rely on him.  The oil the average Joe consumes, the microeconomic decisions he makes, the investments he does/doesn’t make are all predicated on conditions set by those prosecuting this war.  Joe is pushed and pulled and manipulated until he caves in and does the bidding of one of the combatants.

 

The average Joe continues along in oblivion, bitching about the price of oil – but never realizing it’s not about the gasoline he uses, that it’s about the flow of money in quantities so large that he'd only scratch his head in confused wonder were he ever to grasp the concept.  He’ll keep scratching his head until a formerly impoverished country becomes the heir presumptive to the right of unilateral preemption.

 

But by then it will be entirely too late to clue in.

 

  10:45:53 PM    comment []

Just an FYI -- the Salon Blogs are migrating to a new and hopefully peppier server on 31-MAR-04.

Hope any disruptions are minor and brief; check back again on 01-APR if you have any difficulties.

Thanks!

 

  11:51:53 PM    comment []

A shout-out to all my friends, some of you here and some of you there, contacting me in comments or by phone or by email.  You've all been so supportive; I appreciate it greatly.  Maybe that last post was a bit more powerful than I intended...

No worries, really, nothing we can't somehow wade through here.  It's not fun stuff, a very high stress level here in the house, but there are far worse things that people could have to deal with any given day.  I want to vent about the situation but I can't -- not divorce, not health or immediate family issues -- but it does affect my household and I don't know what will come of it.

If I say too much, someone might misunderstand the context and could be hurt -- not necessarily emotionally or physically, but in some other manner.  There may also be some boundaries related to legal or fiduciary responsibilities; I really don't want to talk with anyone at the SEC any time soon.  At least not unless I'm the one placing the call.

It'll be okay.  It's just crazy-making.  I'm going to be undercover, incognito, pseudonymously yours for a while longer.  Maybe by the time I "come out", this fork-in-the-road will be nothing but an amusing anecdote that I can blog about.

Thanks ever so much, really!

 

  11:49:20 PM    comment []

 

There have been days when I’ve come very close to leaking out the truth.  Not that I don’t write truthfully here; if anything, this blog is some of the most honest stuff I’ve done in my life.  I’ve completely let my hair down here, bared much of my soul.  It’s been cathartic to have a place where I can pad about in the fluffy bunny slippers of my soul, not be bound to social norms of propriety and stuffiness.

 

No pantyhose here, no high-heeled pointy shoes with the accompanying stilted and formal attitude.  Kick off the shoes and put your feet on the coffee table here.  Loll about, make slurpy noises with your beverage of choice.  Simply be.

 

But there are things I keep to myself that I’ve not shared here.  The risk of hurt to others keeps me from being entirely candid.  I’ve probably stepped over that line a few times already; I’ve found myself lying in bed in the deep of night wondering whether somebody has found what I’ve said and taken it too seriously or misinterpreted it or simply taken it too personally.

 

Hence the continuing anonymity.

 

Unfortunately, I’m at a fork in the road right now.  My life has come to something of a halt, hovering between going to the left or to the right.  It’s awkward, messy, indeterminate – and I’m not one to revel in ambiguity.  At some point, things will move solidly one direction or the other and forward we’ll go.

 

In the mean time, I resist the intense urge to lay this all out, outline all the conflicts, the painful issues, point out all the balls hovering in the air waiting to drop.  I hold back the pain of frustration, fighting the urge to reach for the catharsis of writing.  There won’t be any resolution here, until the fork has been made, the turn has been taken.

 

I try to tell myself in the mean time: there is no spoon.  It’s all an illusion that we were ever headed any particular direction, that here and now is all there is, that there is no spoon to be bent or fork in the road to negotiate.  I’m consoled for a moment.  Only for here and now.

 

But damn that fork anyhow.

 

  7:07:34 AM    comment []

 

>>

* Throughout the spring and early summer of 2001, intelligence agencies flooded the government with warnings of possible terrorist attacks against American targets, including commercial aircraft, by al Qaeda and other groups. The warnings were vague but sufficiently alarming to prompt the FAA to issue four information circulars, or ICs, to the commercial airline industry between June 22 and July 31, warning of possible terrorism.

 

* On June 22 the military's Central and European Commands imposed "Force Protection Condition Delta," the highest anti-terrorist alert.

 

* On June 28 National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice said: "It is highly likely that a significant al Qaeda attack is in the near future, within several weeks."

 

* As of July 31 the FAA urged U.S. airlines to maintain a "high degree of alertness."

 

* One FAA circular from late July noted, according to Condoleeza Rice, that there was "no specific target, no credible info of attack to U.S. civil aviation interests, but terror groups are known to be planning and training for hijackings, and we ask you therefore to use caution."

 

* Two counter-terrorism officials described the alerts of the early and mid-summer 2001 as "the most urgent in decades."

<<

 

-- Excerpt from the testimony of Kristen Breitweiser, a 9/11 widow, speaking before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

 

(Bold emphasis mine.)

 

 

  6:19:20 PM    comment []

 

 

This repast brought to you by YouSaidIt.

Bon appetit!

[Note to Condi: watch out, I think they're on to you.  That glare isn't going to scare them off your trail this time.  For a smart person you sure don't do your homework; there most certainly has been precedent for an NSA to testify before Congress. And frankly, for more chickensh*t reasons than the failures of National Security which led to the deaths of thousands of citizens.]

 

  10:32:09 PM    comment []

 

So I lolled about in bed sipping coffee and watching Clarke on C-SPAN.  Damned good stuff.

 

Unbeknownst to me, Clarke was being interviewed by Pumpkinhead Russert on Meet the Press.

 

Looks like I missed a good one, too.

 

Wow, how often does that happen on a Sunday morning?

 

  7:22:49 PM    comment []

 

To C-SPAN, a very happy 25^th anniversary!  Who’da thunk all these years later that what once seemed as stimulating as watching paint dry would make it to this venerable age?

 

And who’da thunk that all these years later I’d actually be looking forward eagerly to spending a Sunday morning in bed, curled up with a hot cup of coffee and C-SPAN?

 

Hard to believe, huh?  This former party animal has grown up and so has C-SPAN.  Check out their website if you haven’t already, it’s chockfull of goodness.  Really, it is!

 

And tomorrow, instead of the usual Sunday morning circuit of This Week on ABC and Face the Nation on CBS and the usual drive-by raspberry blown at Pumpkinhead Russert on NBC’s Meet the Press, I’m going to settle in and watch Richard Clarke’s testimony on C-SPAN at 10:00 am EST.

 

Want to join me?  Do you take your coffee black or no?

 

  8:51:21 PM    comment []

Leah's mulling over keeping or not keeping the cleaning lady.

Keep her -- that's my two-cents.

But not because somebody made a less-than-charitable comment about your housekeeping skills.  If somebody ever said that to me, I'd be sorely tempted to whack them.  Or laugh in their face.

You see, I'm absolutely certain that no one will carve on my headstone, "She was a paragon of housekeeping."

So help me God, if anyone did that, two or three things must have come to pass.  I must have become incredibly mentally ill before my death, or I must have really pissed someone off.

And I must already have come back as a vengeful wraith to wreak havoc with the author of that stone-set eulogy.

Housekeeping is simply not that important in the big scheme of things.  Cleanliness?  Okay, I?ll give you that; there is a strong relationship between health and infection control practices.  Beyond that, being too clean may actually result in increased susceptibility to allergens in children.  A little dirt and dog dander is far better than none.

But housekeeping?  Give me a break.  I'd rather people sought me out in life for something more than the shine of my floors or the neatness of my pantry; I'd rather be remembered for things of far greater value.  Did I take the time to work with my kids on their homework and projects?  Did I help my friends and neighbors when they needed an extra hand?  Did I write something that moved or stirred anyone to positive action? 

When a woman runs a vacuum in the forest, does anyone hear it?

I'll remember my hard-working housekeeper many years from now for her ability to keep us in line with her ever-other-week spic-and-span routine.  But nobody around here would remember if it were me wielding the dust mop; it would simply have been something I was expected to do, nothing above and beyond the call of duty, nothing that only I could contribute uniquely.

Frankly, I think being more concerned about cleaning would send the wrong message to my kids; it's far more important that they spend time reading, playing in the fresh air outdoors, crafting some new artwork.  Why would I expect of myself anything I wouldn't expect of them?  It's important to set the example; housekeeping is simply not the stuff of their lives, at least right now.

Not to mention that I'm outnumbered; with two kids trashing a room faster than I can clean, it's an exercise in futility.  No sense in teaching them how to be resigned and tortured at such a tender age; far better to teach them that bringing in reserves may be a smart move.

Don't get me wrong; I'm still a Martha-phile.  I thoroughly enjoy the little things of life done well.  There's a certain zen that comes from being in the moment when one engages in home arts.  There is a difference, though, between being able to create a perfectly seasoned seven-course meal, and dusting the bookshelves.  The same difference lies in sewing a charming outfit for a child and in fluffing the drapes.  Some tasks require a certain artistry, yes?  But then they're typically the tasks of choice; choice comes from the heart and soul.

Yeah.  Screw the housekeeping, leave it to a professional.  Outsource the soulless, artless, repetitive work, keep the economy running smoothly.  (You may well be giving someone else the work of their desire.)

And keep the home arts of choice for yourself.

 

  11:58:50 AM    comment []

 

Sumbeeyatch.  Clarke pants’d the Bush Administration this week with his testimony before the 9/11 Commission.

 

Now the Administration's in a big, fat hurry to find some way to hunt him to the ground.

 

Note the length of time it takes this Administration to react to this week’s testimony; it takes but mere hours for *sshat Cheney to try his case in the court of public opinion on Limbaugh’s program, only hours for Condi to come out and question Clarke’s credibility from inside the cone of silence wherein she resides.

 

In spite of having three months to review the book, having months to prepare for this, they wait until this week and until the hearing before the 9/11 Commission.

 

Yeah.  Timing is everything, isn’t it?

 

So what’s this got to do with Project Frog Walk and the underlying Plame Affair?

 

Note how long it took before the Bushies got on the stick – it took them hours to go after Joe Wilson after he came out on the yellowcake story.  It took the wheels of justice months to go after the leaker, and we still don’t know the truth.  Who outted Wilson’s wife?

 

Note the parallel modus operandi?

 

Hours to attack.

 

Months of foot dragging.

 

And in either (and other) cases, no intelligent and effective rebuttal to the truth, only a barrage of character attacks.  In the Plame Affair, not just a character attack but an offensive against collateral parties.  Disgusting.

 

And now what may be the most egregious part of this mess, from Josh Marshall’s Talking Points Memo:

 

(Bear in mind that top White House aides have told the press that the president personally initiated and is directing this campaign against Clarke. Not outside rabble-rousers, not nefarious aides operating on their own account, but the president himself. This is all his doing, according to his own staffers.)

 

If this the case, we could very well expect to see this same parallel in the Plame Affair; someone at the very highest reaches of the Administration acting out in a fit of malicious pique, demanding retribution against Joe Clark.

 

Bring it on, bozos; the more crap you sling, the more likely it is the stuff will stick to you.  People this malignant and childish, unrepentant and narrow-minded should be impeached at best, voted out at worst.  May their recent demand for the declassification of Clarke’s previous testimony prove out this parallel – and may it prove with no uncertainty how poorly suited to the White House this Administration has been.

 

  8:45:55 PM    comment []

Chuckee Cheese!

No muss, no fuss, no cooking, just a beer with a girlfriend while the kids trash the joint.

Thank. You. So. Much.

Whew!

 

  6:00:59 PM    comment []

Received today:

Rayne, I am writing this because my site and all typepad sites have been banned in China. Another blow to free speech and freedom of information in my country. This is such a sad day.

Damn it, damn it, damn it!!!

How do we want to protest???

 

  7:20:41 AM    comment []

Senator Miller:

Let's dispense with the niceties and get to the point.  Leave already, will you?  You've overstayed your welcome.

You are no Democrat, by any length of Oxycontin-stretched imagination.

Exeunt, stage right.

----

Dear Mr. McAuliffe:

Please find a way to boot his *ss.  Thank you.

~Rayne

 

  7:15:57 AM    comment []

 

Three dreaded letters: P. T. C.

 

They can strike fear – no, angst – into the heart of parents.

 

Parent.  Teacher.  Conference.

 

Gah.

 

I knew exactly what to expect.  His actual grades are fine; he’s nearly pegged all his scores on reading and math.

 

The only ones that are average are the ones where he refused to cooperate.

 

This left the scores related to behavior, and I already knew what she’d say.

 

He doesn’t complete his work, he doesn’t apply himself, he doesn’t like to be told what to do.  He has dramatic pouty fits when he is asked to comply, to conform. 

 

Yup, he’s the same here at home as at school, I confirm.  He’s always preferred to follow the beat of his own drummer.  He’s suited for bankers’ hours; sleep until eight, be to work for nine a.m., maybe take a mid-afternoon siesta a couple times a week.  And he’s always preferred that a task is his own idea rather than somebody else’s; he simply doesn’t take orders from anybody.

 

Unfortunately, school does not permit this.  School starts at 7:45 a.m. and naps were done away with as of the first of the year.  It’s a long, cruel day for a kindergartner, and this one makes it well-known that he’s not going down without a fight.

 

Worse, he complains every day that he is bored, bored, bored.  It’s the same old thing, day after day, the same schedule, the same monotony, nothing new, nothing exciting to look forward to any given week.  Except for the occasional field trip – he looks forward to those weeks in advance, wondering this or that about the outcome of the trip.

 

I suspect I have a gifted child (another one!) on my hands.  Unlike his sister, he’s not going to be upfront with his gifts; he’s going to require coaxing to yield the magnitude of his true capabilities.  He’d tested at age four, coming up a mere five points shy of the benchmark score required for the talent-development program.  They encouraged us to try again at age five because he was so close.  He took the test again but he kind of blew it off, acting blasé and indifferent about it.  I know he didn’t apply himself; a parent knows these things.  Just like he’s not applying himself in class now; he gives only the most cursory effort, affirming he knows the subject but not one lick more.

 

So now to the tasks at hand: do I have him tested yet again, explaining to him that he needs to try harder or he’ll be stuck in the boring, boring class again?  Nah – can’t do that, he could end up there if there’s not enough seats in the talent-development class or if he truly can’t score the additional handful of points needed.

 

And what do I do about the fits of pique?  We’ve tried time-out, still use them, but he actually acts worse while in time-out.  We’ve tried removing privileges; they used to work, but this week the improvement was extremely short-lived.

 

For now we’ve agreed to meet, parent-teacher-child, to consult on what we will do as a team to improve behavior.  I am going to have him checked for sleep apnea; there is a direct correlation with the quality and amount of sleep he gets and his overall mood.  There could be an underlying problem here.

 

And if things don’t improve before the end of the year, I have to seriously consider looking at evaluation for attention deficit and opposition-defiance disorders.  Seems like entirely too much for a little guy to have to deal with, but there it is.

 

Far better to handle this now than when he’s sixteen and armed with a motor vehicle.

 

  6:49:49 PM    comment []

 

So we bundled up in a big flurry, hats and shoes, pajama pants and mittens, then headed out to look at the early evening sky.

 

The little guy was worried about his pajamas; would anyone notice?

No, it’s too dark, I assured him; they only look like pants.  No one will see the pattern of little lizards and frogs all over your legs, I think, only me.  I’d mind them far more if these creatures were enough to stop our mission.

 

There are only a few dozen hazy stars in the sky at 7:45 pm EST as we look up from mid-Michigan.  My breath is taken away by the brilliance of Venus, the complete visibility of the entire new and waxing moon, the surprising brightness of Mercury.  I hadn’t expected these to be so wonderful.

 

Daughter easily picks off the fainter planets, Saturn overhead and Mars just past Venus; Jupiter is a piece of cake, quite bright in its appointed place.  She pivots on one foot as she traces a slow arc over her head from west to east; her arm, wand-like, pausing ever so slightly in the direction of each of six points in the sky.  Mercury.  Moon. Venus. Mars. Saturn. Jupiter.  Like magic.

 

The little guy is challenged, though; I can’t tell whether he can see Mercury or not, low on the horizon.  We must look for it over the end of our street since trees in adjoining yards are too thick to permit viewing of the western horizon.  Streetlights flood the air, the moon’s crescent casting its own bright light, all working against the feebler Mercurial light.  He points in the right direction and describes a small star; I think he’s got it.

 

We talk for a moment about the significance of this display; they won’t see this many planets in the evening sky with the naked eye for another 32 years.  My daughter will be nearly my age.  My son laughs at the idea of being a man old enough to have children nearly grown; at six years of age it seems impossible.  They both laugh at the idea of me being as old as their grand parents are.  I’m glad someone thinks that’s humorous; perhaps it’s just the amusing idea of two grownups and a grandparent standing in a driveway at night looking at stars many years from now.

 

He asks about the other star – no, he says, not the planets, the funny little star by itself. He’d pointed it out earlier on the star chart on the computer, asking about its significance.

 

Oh.  That one.  Sirius, somewhere in the lower southern portion of the sky.  I point in the general direction, but the house obscures the view.

 

Ah, he says, it’s in the back yard.  We’ll look for it there tomorrow night.  He toddles off confidently back into the warmth of the house.

 

I sure hope so, buddy.

 

  7:53:23 PM    comment []

If you are in the Midwest, GO LOOK NOW!!!

There are five planets and a thin crescent moon in the sky, ranging from Mercury hovering over the western horizon to Jupiter at 30-40 degrees above the eastern horizon.

Don't dawdle, catch Mercury before it slips away in the next 20 or minutes!!

(You can check it again each night between now and 31-MAR, but who knows when the sky will be this clear again?)

 

  8:03:22 PM    comment []

On considering the recent presidential vote in Taiwan and the disputed outcome, I wonder whether as a global leader we did not set precedent.

Should we have taken to the streets to demand a fair and impartial recount?

Should we have done more to model what it is to protect democracy?

Hmm.

 

  7:31:13 AM    comment []