Potpourri

Fracking has “liberated” an unimaginable amount of oil and natural gas in the United States, with well drilling proceeding at a frenetic pace in states from Pennsylvania to California, putting this nation being on the verge of becoming the world’s largest producer. Meanwhile, gasoline remains steady at near $4 per gallon, and with the recent cold weather natural gas cost has risen from $3.50 per million BTU to $4.35.

A local headline informed us that police had classified a body found in the trunk of a car as a “suspicious death.” My initial reaction was to laugh. It doesn’t really take a rocket scientist to conclude that a dead body in a car trunk is suspicious. Turns out they were saying that they were no longer certain it was a murder, which didn’t actually improve the profundity of the statement all that much.

Some “contributor” on CBS Evening News was describing why he thought Snowden was aided by the Russians (sigh) and said that there were “a couple of things that I can’t talk about” while Snowden was in Hong Kong. He can’t talk about them because he hasn’t invented them yet. He’s working on ideas, but all he’s come up with so far is a chambermaid named Olga, and he feels he needs something a bit more credible.

John Kerry is turning the Syria peace talks into an “Assad must step down” forum, claiming that Assad has "lost his legitimacy," and insisting that no peace treaty can be arrived at that does not include the removal of Assad. Again we are committed to regime change in the Middle East/North Africa, because it worked out so well in Egypt and Libya.

Richard Sherman was, um, a little heated after the 49er’s/Seahawks game Sunday. What do you expect when you stick a microphone in the face of a young man who is still pumped up and filled with adrenaline and who, just a few seconds earlier, made a game winning play on the field? Same thing applies when you stick a microphone in the face of a guy as he climbs out of a race car he has been driving at 200mph for three hours and expect him to say something thoughtful and profound. Don’t be surprised if he uses some really bad language about a fellow driver who tried to wreck him.

Molly is a highly social cat under any conditions but we have come to call one of her medications her “happy pill.” It is for the purpose of increasing her appetite, and we give it to her once every three days. It may make her eat more, I’m not sure, but it increases her sociability by about 1000% or so. She refuses to be anywhere but in my lap, head butting, purring and demanding to be petted. My wife gives her the pill and then blithely goes to work, leaving me at home, alone and defenseless with the damned cat.