18 Comments

1. Dale Gribble:

Still looking for that 150mpg carburetor ‘eh,Roger?

Aug 18, 2006 - 6:58 am 2. Ron:

The Iranian choke point for their terrorist activities is the oil processing and shipping centers in Iran. Iran supplies the world with 5% oil and probably 95% of its terrorists, take out the distribution points until sanity reins once more. Take out the nuclear facilities while we are at it. We are funding our enemies, not to smart. Japan and France are about 75% self sufficient for energy because of their use of nuclear generation and using the technology that the United States developed.

China has started to drill in the Gulf of Mexico while our Senate precludes that option to us. We can’t build nuclear facilities while everyone else in the world uses our technology. Could the Arabs possibly be funding our “conservationists” in order to drive oil prices higher, could they be paying into senatorís war chests for the same reason? A little money in the right places could bring tremendous rewards couldn’t it?

Aug 18, 2006 - 7:05 am 3. Lem:

“Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is alchemy’s First Law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we really believed that to be the world’s one, and only, truth.” – Alphonse Elric, from Fullmetal Alchemist.

The cash handouts are a tacit admission of guilt on the part of the Mullahs. This is similar to Saddam’s blood money to the families of suicide bombers, and the virgin offer to the suicide bombers themselves. The “cause” absent these banal, mundane offers would undoubtedly fail.

BTW. I wonder what the offer was to a female Palestinian SB not long ago.

I can’t decide what is more incongruous

Their “leaders” willingness to sacrifice as many as it would take of the own people for the death of one Jew, or the apparent unwillingness of the victims to connect these suicidal dots.

Of course this is all based on the highly speculative premise that not even SB want to die, maybe.

Aug 18, 2006 - 8:33 am 4. plain guy:

Was the cash US$. If so, real or counterfeit? I think another step in the battle is to find ways to limit the terrorists’ access the US$. They are using our own currenty to finance the war to destroy us.

Tim

Aug 18, 2006 - 9:43 am 5. Fausta:

In yesterday evening’s France2 news:
A man, identified only as a homeless victim, says “The party will give me a year’s worth of rent money, and money to buy furniture.” Dr. Zineb Haibar, says, “we trust Hezbollah to keep their promises”. Cheikh Mounir, Hezbollah spokesman in charge of that district, says Hezbollah will deliver on what it promises because “Hezbollah has money”.
“From where?”, asks the reporter.
“It’s no problem. Hezbollah has money”.

http://faustasblog.com/2006/08/hezbollah-beeb-vs-france2-who-do-you.html apologies for the shameless self-promotion.

Aug 18, 2006 - 11:58 am 6. exguru:

There are a lot of sunni between Iran and Lebanon. Dethrone Assad and the mullahs will have a difficult time supplying the Hez in Lebanon.

Aug 18, 2006 - 1:48 pm 7. LTEC:

What is the source for this information about all the reconstruction that Hezbollah is doing? Why should we believe any of it? The PLO got a following not by doing reconstruction, but by keeping people in a perpetual state of misery that could be blamed on Israel.

Aug 18, 2006 - 4:44 pm 8. MikeD:

Well, we obviously can’t win their hearts and minds now. And probably never could have. The only solution is to kill very large numbers of them. We don’t have the will to do that yet; we think we are too civilized. But we will get to that point, and then there will be a solution to the problem.

Aug 19, 2006 - 7:25 am 9. Syl:

I don’t think Iran is really rolling in dough. As I understand it, this war has been very expensive for Iran. One of the reasons they want nuclear power is so that they can sell more of their oil. Also, as I’ve read, they pretty much believe sanctions will be imposed and cost them dearly.

But they won’t give up their uranium enrichment.

Pakistan has the bomb and Iran wants it too…no matter the cost.

Another little war or two and Iran could go bust. Already 20 per cent unemployment.

Ideology is a bear to finance.

Aug 19, 2006 - 7:37 am 10. syn:

Speaking of conversion, how is the entertainment industry and Hollywood going to convert their oil-based plastic industry to some alternative form of amusement?

Since the entertainment industry is built on oil it will be interesting to see if this industry can survive such a conversion.

Aug 19, 2006 - 8:01 am 11. themarkman:

Welcome to the real ugly world of Democrat politics, Roger.
Do you really think that Blacks are so stupid as to not know that the Dems were the roadblocks to civil rights?
The way that the Democrats found to corner their votes was asimple “Hearts and Minds” strategy Called “The Great Society.”
It doesn’t matter that Hezbollah is actually bad for the Lebanese (just as Dems are actually bad for Blacks), what matters is how much money is in your pocket on election day.

Aug 19, 2006 - 8:04 am 12. Tully:

It’s rather ironic that US dollars are usable and desired in Lebanon, whereas the Lebanese currency is not. And as plain guy Tim noted, that money they’re using might not even be real.

Aug 19, 2006 - 6:51 pm 13. Olde Dog:

I too question whether the money is authentic, or indeed, if these mainstream media stories can be believed. We have read stories of US cash being counterfeited by Middle Eastern regimes, is there any way to check?

Aug 20, 2006 - 9:37 am 14. Ari Tai:

Re: Oil at the root of this evil

Perhaps we should hold their oil hostage. Tell them that until they enter the 1st world in terms of governance, rule-of-law, civil society, respect for women, respect for others, protect free speech and freedom of religion, and recognize (and establish free trade with) the other free democracies (including the state of Israel we will not permit them to harvest their oil wealth (set the bar high). Air power will work just fine. First violation we kill off their shipping facilities and pipelines. Second we dirty-up their oilfields and say, “sorry, try again in 10 years after the radiation dies down,” next offense we rubble their refineries and infrastructure around the oilfields. They need our business more than we need their oil. Note the U.S. gets 2x the product out of every barrel of oil of any other 1st world country (at half the price), and 10x any third world. So we don’t care if oil that remains in production is even 2x today’s cost (because all that matters here is our relative advantage over our competitors and enemies – note that this approach resembles Mr. Reagan’s strategy v. the Soviet Union with it’s sand-in-the-gears command economy that was at least 25% dependent on its slave (gulag prison) production).

This approach implies that we will have a short period of pain and (political / enviro) adjustment while the market determines that there can be / will be a great return (for the next 30-40 years) for alternatives, including opening up the better than a trillion barrels that exist in the postage stamp (the equivalent of 30 mile by 30 miles – 1/10th of 1% of the Great (and soon to be very rich) State of Colorado) oil shale reserves to production (Canada benefits as well). And when these ME (and other) states that have abused their oil resources in the past are judged ready to rejoin civilization, charge them a defense tax of, say, the difference between the $2 it costs to pump the oil and $80 (i.e. guarantee a return for the shale oil companies), leaving them $20 profit per barrel for 20-30 years of “probation.”

So, just shut their oil production down. Let them live in the poverty they deserve until they change their ways and police their brethren. Ditto for any other tin-horn dictators (including dictatorships-of-the-people like the elected Hamas, perhaps countries like Venezuela when/if they lose their bearings and respect for every citizen) that are using their energy resources as a path to power and terror. Better yet, only allow civilized democracies to profit from their natural resource wealth. Everyone else is either embargoed or taxed until they free their people. Who determines? Whoever is paying the defense-of-the-world bill. At the moment this is the U.S., but we’ll welcome others to write us checks (or put their people in harms way at a 1-1 ratio to ours) and vote per their participation.

Perhaps this is already “the plan.” Gasoline at $3-4 a gallon is still significantly less (than half) than other 1st world countries. Perhaps we are just in the process of easing up to it, adjusting our citizens’ expectations while dissipating any shock to the economy‚Ķ Hmm… Well, I can dream.

Bring it on. Seal off all ME production and see which of us can be more patient and bear all the costs. Russia wins as a nominally democratic producer, which now has a real reason to insure (at least the appearance of) regular free elections. China loses and discovers it will be much better off after it liberates the Norks and puts the screws on the Iranians. India and others discover that subsidizing energy is just bad business. Ditto for those who levy outrageous taxes on energy (all of us).

(The cost of) Energy is a first order determinant of every person’s quality of life. The more energy costs, the more we sweat. The less energy costs, the more people I can work for, and the more people can work for me, and the wealthier I am, we all are – the wonder of specialization – aka why markets generate a whole that far exceeds the sum of the parts. Granted, the socialists / maternalists are willing to do without this multiplier in the interest of easing citizens’ pain (to say nothing of their own loss of power and status) due to the creative destruction driven by competition (and emergence of the entrepreneurial wealthy – who do not take from the poor but create it from the void – aka the special-interest called government . Which is why we still have $1 a day crushing poverty in the world. Sigh.

Faster please. I’d like a time machine to jump me forward 30 years so I can see how this current foolishness all works out. This (guaranteed) slow motion is just agony.

Where’s my popcorn ? !

Aug 20, 2006 - 11:34 am 15. photoncourier.blogspot.com:

The biggest thing holding down the development of new energy resources, and thereby keeping the price of oil high, is, paradoxically, the fear that it will soon be very low again. If you’re going to put a billion dollars into an oil shale project, or a coal-to-liquids project, or even a conventional deepwater drilling project, it’s pretty scary to think that crude may go back to $30/bbl and stay there for much of the life of the project.

There are lots of oil industry execs old enough to remember previous boom/bust cycles and the financial and human toll they exacted.

Aug 20, 2006 - 1:28 pm 16. Ari Tai:

re: low (soon) again, boom to bust. (no) more boarded-up city blocks of stores in Houston.

Yes. Granted, it won’t happen unless the U.S. commits visibly to a strategy and takes action (and has the strategy hold across at least two elections). Then either the “defense” tax laid on these countries (assuming they all reform overnight, expel their terrorists and enter probation) can be funneled into alternatives while the tax itself holds up a price floor, and/or the closing of their fields will by itself drive the price up to over $100 bbl.

If the investors are still shy after a show of good faith by the government, we could offer to buy a decade’s out futures contract for, say, a (couple of) strategic reserve’s worth of locally produced oil at (only) $100/bbl. This’ll give the speculators something to gnaw on, too.

Aug 20, 2006 - 2:26 pm 17. photoncourier.blogspot.com:

Ari…it might make sense to put the Strategic Petroleum Reserve partially on autopilot: announce in advance a policy of buying increasingly higher quantities of oil as (if) prices decline.

I haven’t researched whether sufficient storage capacity could practically be created to significantly influence the market price.

Aug 20, 2006 - 4:09 pm 18. Svolich:

It is American currency, $100 bills. A friend of mine got one in Beirute a couple of days ago, he paid 5 $20’s plus a $5 bill for it, just so he could inspect it. NOT a NoKo supernote by ANY means. It’s a fake and not a very good one.

Aug 24, 2006 - 1:27 am

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