If we're going along with Baudrillard, Ellen, there would be no "real wife" at all. In "Simulacra", B defines it as "the endless replication of something that has no original."

Posted at July 1, 2008 11:10 AM in response to TPM Summer Reading

I look at it this way, MJ. The great schism of Iraq is "to oil, or not to oil." The Neocons really did want to open up the gushers in Iraq, flood the market with cheap oil, and break the back of OPEC - all for the purpose of controlling the energy consumption of China. But they were stopped by Big Oil from doing this: the traditional practice of suppressing Iraq petroleum production won out in the end, thus keeping prices high and even through the roof as we are suffering now.

If that is true, how would that play out in the Neocon war-drumming re: Iran? Iran doesn't have that much petroleum - a significant amount, yes, but it shrinks next to Iraq's potential and proven reserves. Well, the Caspian basin's reserves are in the trillions of barrels, I understand, and production there is severely choked due to geography and political sanctions. The most efficient (cheapest) transport route for Caspian oil and gas is of course through Iran.

Posted at June 27, 2008 12:25 PM in response to Richard Perle is Back (IRAN!!!) and Joe Klein Skewers Neo-Idiots. The Iraq War Gang is Back!

Just off the top of my head it seems like energy spent on the project would be greater than energy gained. Harvesting the plastic looks like a hugh expensive project to begin with. What about the plankton? Much of the plastic has broken down to plankton size, so the seive would catch both.

I was imagining huge factory ships that would collect and compress the plastic into say, building blocks (lego?) or two by fours. Some of the artificial lumber on the market right now contains quite a bit of waste plastic. But it might smell like fish.

What's really interesting to me is that I haven't been able to find any "solutions" or "proposed solutions" to this horrendous environmental problem on the Internet. Glad to see you thinking about it. Hope more people do.

Posted at June 19, 2008 12:11 PM in response to Solar Plastic Oil Wells?

but..but...well, a point well taken. However, I wrote that "mass media culture" is the agent that subverts, not "postmodernism".

Posted at June 18, 2008 11:59 AM in response to Going Overboard on Russert

Ah...yes. A little confession: I'm getting addicted to "Cash Cab" because the New Yorkozoids are such interesting creatures. Seriously....

Posted at June 18, 2008 11:51 AM in response to The Post-Black Man's Burden

MJ - it's the March of Postmodernism. "Self-replication" and "self-reference" are key to the postmodern condition. Mass Media culture incessantly subverts other realities (like the real one) and holds itself up as the true universe. The thing is, no one is in control. Culture always has its way with us.

So all this wall-to-wall Russert coverages forced me to watch Faux-newz. Geraldo Rivera was arguing the Constitution in response to the habeus corpus issue to what seemed like a blonde bimbo commentator. Her response was that the Constitution didn't apply because Gitmo was in Cuba. Geraldo just looked at her and blinked a couple of times.

Travels in Hyperreality. (the title of an Umberto Eco Book.)

Posted at June 17, 2008 12:33 PM in response to Going Overboard on Russert

"I'm still stuck on Baldwin"

Alec? Seriously, I was alive and sentient when "A Letter from a Region of my Mind" was published in the New Yorker (Nov. 1962). I've got to tell you, that was the most-photocopied essay ever (at least in San Francisco.) You couldn't get a copy of the magazine at a newsstand - all sold out by 8:00am. It was phenomenal. "America" had never read anything like that before. Can anyone "get over" James Baldwin once his pandora's box is opened?

Here's a teaser that's up on the New Yorker web site:

"[W]e may be able, handful that we are, to end the racial nightmare, and achieve our country, and change the history of the world. If we do not now dare everything, the fulfillment of that prophecy, re-created from the Bible in song by a slave, is upon us: God gave Noah the rainbow sign, No more water, the fire next time!"

Posted at June 17, 2008 11:55 AM in response to The Post-Black Man's Burden

Great stuff, DF and all. Very interesting points.

But somewhere in all of this the suppression (since 1925) of Iraq's oil production should be accounted for and included in any analyses. The extent of Iraq's oil reserves is unknown, but some experts speculate that it is larger than Saudi Arabia's. At any rate, only 15 of Iraq's 74 known oil pools are being pumped, far below capacity. Of 526 known structures, only 125 have been drilled. There are 3K oil wells in Iraq (there are a million in Texas).

I agree with DF about traders being the principle cause of price inflation. The failing dollar may in fact be a co-sympton of oil inflation, rather than a co-cause. After all, His Highness Alan Greenspan testified the same to congress a while back, and OPEC concurred. The world is being Eronized.

OPEC. Under current US policy, Iraq oil production is being kept under OPEC quota constraints, which are patently unfair. Those constraints are based on Iran's oil, which is far less than Iraq's. Originally it was to prevent war between Iraq and Iran, but it didn't work. During the war, the Saudi's bankrolled Saddam, even giving him 7 billion for his "Islamic Bomb" program, in order to suppress Iraqi oil production.

Credit for this goes to Greg Palast: "Armed Madhouse".

Posted at June 11, 2008 11:31 AM in response to Taking a Look at the Oil Bubble

I find that a very astute observation, AdAbsurdhum. From my own experience in VN (US Army Real Estate, Ist Log) I would say quite a few contractors, who were on the graft and corruption ground floor associated with many contracts, are likely to suffer some kind of psychological blowback. I used to call it the "Milo Minderbinder syndrome" - but now it's the "Haliburton complex." Oh, the stories I could tell...

Posted at April 30, 2008 11:46 PM in response to It Only Gets Worse!

I meant "Stop Loss", of course. My bad.

Posted at April 12, 2008 4:11 PM in response to See "Stop-Loss" And End This Damn War