Things That Should Have Been Posts
Snyder v. Phelps: What is it with the recent Court and making really weird decisions on First Amendment grounds? Alito's lone dissent is correct, it's a classic case of unprotected speech mixed with protected speech. The majority argument doesn't suggest that intentional infliction of emotional distress is protected in general, it just makes conclusions on the facts of the case that I find bizarre, e.g. "The 'context' of the speech—its connection with Matthew Snyder’s funeral—cannot by itself transform the nature of Westboro’s speech," (I'd say it obviously does) and, "It cannot be argued that Westboro's use of speech on public issues was in any way contrived to insulate a personal attack on Snyder from liability," (which is in a sense true, but that use is nonetheless intentional).
Japan: Tens of thousands dead, possibly more damage (in financial terms) than has been caused by any previous natural disaster in recorded history. And that's if all the reactors at Fukushima I remain (relatively) contained (the current situation is still a mess, but comparisons to Chernobyl remain misplaced; a little irradiated coolant steam is way less worrying than chunks of reactor core scattered all over your neighborhood). At least the JSDF was prepared for just this sort of disaster (nuclear component aside).
Libya: So we're in another war now. Which is superior to standing idly by while Ghaddafi retakes control by slaughtering half the population of the country, I suppose. Still, It's just the sort of thing that 2007!Obama said was unconstitutional. And it's probably not the sort of thing the country can afford. But what is?
Energy and So On: Oil's at $105. The Japan earthquake wasn't sufficient to collapse Peak Oil Price Spike #2. The destruction of a refinery only brought the price down ~$5-10 for a few days (though that keeps the price of liquid fuel up more than you'd expect from the crude price, for obvious reasons). Civil war in Libya. Civil war in Yemen. The potential of civil war in Bahrain with military intervention from Saudi Arabia. Would predict that an oil price below $140 would set off another collapse, if the assumption is that oil prices were the proximate cause of the last collapse (not necessarily the case). The run-up was quite fast last time after the price got over $100. Also wonder how many US Treasury bonds Japan will sell off to pay for the recovery. That could be a mess, too.
Japan: Tens of thousands dead, possibly more damage (in financial terms) than has been caused by any previous natural disaster in recorded history. And that's if all the reactors at Fukushima I remain (relatively) contained (the current situation is still a mess, but comparisons to Chernobyl remain misplaced; a little irradiated coolant steam is way less worrying than chunks of reactor core scattered all over your neighborhood). At least the JSDF was prepared for just this sort of disaster (nuclear component aside).
Libya: So we're in another war now. Which is superior to standing idly by while Ghaddafi retakes control by slaughtering half the population of the country, I suppose. Still, It's just the sort of thing that 2007!Obama said was unconstitutional. And it's probably not the sort of thing the country can afford. But what is?
Energy and So On: Oil's at $105. The Japan earthquake wasn't sufficient to collapse Peak Oil Price Spike #2. The destruction of a refinery only brought the price down ~$5-10 for a few days (though that keeps the price of liquid fuel up more than you'd expect from the crude price, for obvious reasons). Civil war in Libya. Civil war in Yemen. The potential of civil war in Bahrain with military intervention from Saudi Arabia. Would predict that an oil price below $140 would set off another collapse, if the assumption is that oil prices were the proximate cause of the last collapse (not necessarily the case). The run-up was quite fast last time after the price got over $100. Also wonder how many US Treasury bonds Japan will sell off to pay for the recovery. That could be a mess, too.