Well, the Rules state that “All of Politics is Local”, so this week we are going to read all about it (see refs) and talk local. The mayor’s race plus three members of the council make a ruling majority, or do we need the “clean sweep”? Raise your pints, raise your points, raise your minds, but we don’t raise our voices, at Politics and a Pint at the Contented Cow this (and every) Sunday.
At the last P&aP I talked briefly with John Fossum, recently returned from Afghanistan. He said he had some photos (on a computer) and that he would be interested in showing us some of them and talking about his experiences “over there”. This should be a very interesting evening, in the spirit of an earlier mind-opening presention by Carleton Professor Bereket Haileab , who gave a presentation in December of 2007 (with visuals!) on the topic “The Ethics of Foreign Aid”. Join us for what promises to be an interesting peek behind the headlines at the next Politics and a Pint!
We are still gripped by the chill of winter, but that is nothing compared to the icy feeling in the pit of your stomach if you are trying to do your own income taxes. Obama says the people are bitter and clinging to the guns and their gods. Well, I doubt that the annual IRS ceremonial sacrifice, where we all do a St Vitus dance of forms and free-style, helps much. We will be tax minus two days when we talk about TAXES at the next Politics and a Pint.
Okay, so oil is over $100 a barrel, diesel is $4 a gallon and the Chinese are buying BMWs like there was a tomorrow. Is the sky falling or is it all just marketing hype? In the interest of unearthing some truth, we will visit the topic of “peak oil”. What is it? How do we predict it? How do we avoid it?
Economists tell us that we never “run out” of a resource, it just gets too expensive to be used the way we might have gotten used to. Consider whale oil, which used to be a pretty valuable and increasingly hard to find resource. When’s the last time you felt the pinch of not being able to find good cheap whale oil? This is an example of “substitutability”, which says that expensive goods will be replaced by alternatives. Indeed, while good intentions will put a few hybrids on the road and make some people choose lower life styles closer to work, $10 per gallon gas will really incentivise (!sorry!) the masses. Let oil prices rise! (more…)
