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Category: Commentary (Page 22 of 27)

Commentary on most any topic.

Bush’s Argument in Favor of Drilling is Nonsense

President Bush is pushing Congress to drop the ban on U.S. offshore oil drilling.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/19/washington/19energy.html?ref=todayspaper

This argument is nonsense. It’s a red herring. First of all, everyone needs to understand that $130 oil is not due to a lack of supply. Most people automatically assume that the price of oil has been driven up by market forces. If the price goes up, it’s because of demand, right?. Normally this would be true but that is not the case right now. There is plenty of oil in the market. There is no shortage. This is why the Saudi’s have come out and said “there’s no reason for prices to be this high” and they pretended to be puzzled. However the President of Iran put his finger on the real cause, which is the revelation of the long-latent inflation in the U.S. dollar. As the dollar is collapsing one of the first places investors run is oil futures. The run on oil futures drove up the price. It had nothing to do with the oil producers setting the price at $130. They didn’t set anything. The $130 price is set in the commodities exchanges of the world.

Inflation in the U.S. dollar, which has previously been masked by massive foreign infusions of investment capital into the U.S., is now being revealed. This is the reason for the rise in the price of oil. And since much of the world’s economy is tied to the U.S. dollar, the pain is being experienced throughout much of the world.

Now, with that in mind, be very clear that if the U.S. resumes offshore drilling and production, and / or if the U.S. develops the ANWR, since there is no shortage of oil, the oil from offshore drilling and the ANWR will be sold at the market price, which will still be $130. You don’t think the oil companies are going to sell the oil for less than the market price do you?

President Bush’s proposal will give the oil companies what they have been wanting for 27 years but it will not bring down the price of oil. Be very clear on that.

Unpacking my Asus Eee PC

How long does it take to get from sealed box to surfing the net for a beginner who has never seen this machine in person before? I thought I’d video the process and find out. It would have gone quicker had I known that the Eee connects to WiFi automatically and gives no obvious indication of this. I spent time trying to establish a connection when one already existed. Of course I have that locked down now so it does not go fishing for open access points but only connects to my own WAP secured access point.

Food Labeling Discrepancy

About one percent of the U.S. population suffers from a sensitivity to peanuts. Accordingly, foods are labeled to warn if any peanut products are contained. Even packages of roasted peanuts that are labeled “PEANUTS” in giant letters, also include a list of ingredients showing peanuts, plus a warning that says, “Warning: Contains Peanuts”, as though a package labeled PEANUTS might not contain peanuts.

About the same percentage of the U.S. population, about one percent, suffers from a gluten sensitivity that sickens and causes physical damage to the digestive system, yet there is no requirement for food labels to show a warning for gluten or ingredients that contain gluten. Why?

A few specialty food makers produce gluten-free products and label them as such but most mainstream food makers do not. Wal-Mart’s Great Value brand does label gluten-free products, which is great, but products without the gluten-free label are a guessing game. They might or might not contain gluten. Kraft Foods has promised to label anything containing gluten by including “wheat” in the ingredients list. That’s very nice of them still does not provide much comfort since nobody is under government mandate to label foods properly like they are when it comes to peanuts.

Gluten is normally associated with wheat but it’s not that simple. That’s why proper labeling is very important when it comes to gluten. Gluten can appear in foods in unexpected ways. Flavorings such as caramel, stabilizers and thickeners used in ice cream, ketchup, salad dressings, and many other ingredients can contain gluten depending on how they are made. There’s no way for the customer to know. And just because one bottle of A1 Steak Sauce does not make you sick does not mean the next bottle won’t because the source of caramel in the product might change from a gluten-free source to one that contains gluten. Nothing on the label will change to show the difference. There’s no way for the customer to know unless the maker is required to specifically put gluten or “wheat” on the label.

I don’t know why this is not done–why the FDA does not require gluten warnings on foods.

What Does this Label Lead You to Believe?

Ocean Spray 100% Juice

“Ocean Spray 100% Juice” means what, exactly?

Ruby Red Grapefruit, 100 percent juice, no sugar added. And the price is higher than an equivalent amount of refrigerated fresh 100 percent orange juice, so it must be pure grapefruit juice right? Wrong. It does not say “pure grapefruit juice” and it’s not.

If one reads the ingredients one learns that it contains grapefruit juice plus two other juices. Talk about deceptive labeling. I hope you are reading the labels in the “juice” section of the market. The only pure juices one can find these days are certain grape juices and most prune juices. All others, like 95 percent of the “juices”, are blends and “cocktails”, and are also spiked with high fructose corn syrup to help you get fat faster. Why? If I wanted soda pop or candy I can go to the soda pop or candy sections of the market. This is supposed to be the juice section, or it used to be anyway.

Be very careful when buying fruit juices. “Pomegranate juice” is mostly grape juice. “Blueberry” is mostly grape juice. Read the label and you’ll find that nearly all of them except grape and prune are not what they appear to be.

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