Sleepless in Midland

Could the U.S. be like Sweden?

To rephrase the question, could a Swedish style socialist system work in the U.S.? No, says the American Enterprise Institute. Here's why:

1. Sweden is small enough that money on social causes isn't wasted like it would be in the U.S.

2. Sweden spends a tiny amount on defense. Americans couldn't live with that.

3. Until recently Swedes were more homogenous which makes for an easier consensus.

4. Sweden has several political parties that form coalitions as opposed to the two party system in the U.S. The author contends that that "promotes the election of a government that advocates for an array of lines of thought, to the greater support of a larger portion of the people."

5. Most importantly, Swedes trust their government.

Sweden: a nice place to visit, but we wouldn't want it to live here. Read the whole thing at American Enterprise Institute.

Meanwhile, the Obamacare debut can serve as exhibit "A" on why socialism won't work here.

Amazon.com sneaked in a price hike

Technically, it wasn't a price hike. Prices at Amazon.com fluctuate quite frequently. It seems random, but at least one variable is the time Amazon has stored the merchandise before it gets sold.

However, on this occasion they sneaked in a price hike by requiring buyers to spend more money before getting free shipping. Last week the minimum was $25. Today it's $35.

See their explanation here which reads more like a pitch for the $79/year Amazon Prime.  Hmm, didn't that use to be $75?

Has the Obamacare cover girl gone into hiding?

If you go to Healthcare.gov, the Obamacare enrollment site, an attractive lady graces the front page as if to say, "Come on in. You'll waste a lot of time here, but what else do you have to do, play video games? Work at some crumby temporary job?"

Who is that model? The background image is at this URL which carries the name Adriana.jpg. So maybe Adriana is her real name.

Both BuzzFeed and Who Is That Hot Ad Girl are searching.

She may not have to go under cover, but that gig sure won't look good on her resume.

Editor's remark:  Maybe she's not a real person at all but a composite, like Obamas' girlfriends from his autobiography.  -- Robo-ed.  |  Good point, Robo.  Note also that it's a solo woman with no man in the picture which may be designed to reach single women, one of Obama's constituent groups.  -- Sleepless.

Universal truths updated -- Doctor's Law

Old: Doctors’ Law – If you don’t feel well, make an appointment to go to the doctor, by the time you get there you’ll feel better. Don’t make an appointment and you’ll stay sick.
Via 16 Undeniable Universal Laws.

New: Doctor's Law -- If you are young and healthy you'll *avoid enrolling in Obamacare insurance and try to avoid the fine. If you are sick or need expensive care you'll grab it like a life preserver.

*When there aren't enough people paying the insurance premium to cover their health care costs, that's called "adverse selection," or to use a synonymous phrase more appropriate for Obamacare, death spiral.

 

Fox Friday 10-25-13

Here are some pics of the urban foxes for the week.

They look very much alike, but I believe this is the youngster. Look at that tail. Straight as an arrow.

You should be fox food.

I put up some markers to get a sense of size. The lowest black lines on the poles are 12 inches from the ground. Then next ones up are 24 inches.

There's Old Crooked Tail. Looks like his back is about an inch above the lowest mark making him about 13 inches tall.

Can't tell which one this is, but he/she is alert and looking toward the pathway they use to enter the area.

Whoa! What was that!

The gang's all here. I believe that's Old Crooked Tail on the right, the Missus in the background, and Junior on the left.

Local vehicle crashes - causes and locations

Tailgating, day dreaming, and speeding. These were the top three causes of vehicle crashes in the city of Midland, Texas, between July, August and September of this year, according to a news release from the city information desk.

And it pretty much puts a lie to the theory that red light cameras would contribute to driver safety rather than city coffers. I wish some watchdog would obtain copies of the correspondence among red light camera companies and city staff, mayor and council members. That might shed some light on the reason the idea gets floated so frequently in non-election years.

Here's the full text of the city's news release:

News for Release 10/22/13

Quarter 3 Crash Analysis Shows Driver Behavior as Major Factor in Accidents

The Midland Police Department's crash analysis results from the third quarter of 2013 show that driver behavior was the most prominent factor in accidents happening across Midland in the months of July through September. This analysis is regularly pulled from police data to ensure proper distribution of law enforcement resources in Midland.

The top three contribution factors to crashes during these months were:

Following too closely - 174 crashes
Driver inattention - 156 crashes
Failure to control speed - 104 crashes

The five intersections with the highest number of crashes during these months were:

Midkiff Drive and Interstate 20 - 21 crashes
Rankin Highway and Interstate 20 - 17 crashes
Andrews Highway and Loop 250 - 16 crashes
Midland Drive and Loop 250 - 14 crashes
Midkiff Drive and Loop 250 - 12 crashes

Between 15 and 18 percent of the crashes occurred each weekday, with 14 percent of crashes occurring between 7 and 9 a.m. and 26 percent of crashes occurring between 4 and 7 p.m.

Post Script: Click on the thumbnail to see the five hot spots with the accident numbers in red. Note the one thing all five have in common: A street intersects the interstate or the loop. If anyone is serious about reducing the accident rate those intersections need some analysis.

Post Post Script: The morning paper yesterday reported this news release with the byline: From staff reports. So now we know what that phrase really means: Here's a press release someone sent us.

Robert Higgs clarifies "regime uncertainty" -- doesn't mean gov shutdown

Robert Higgs coined the phrase "regime uncertainty" in his work explaining why the Great Depression lasted so much longer than it should have. In short, Roosevelt was such a rabid regulator that he made businesses afraid to invest. Thus the depression went on and on.

More recently, the Obama administration has done the same thing with his drive to regulate or tax so many things. For one example, take Obamacare. Businesses are preparing to minimize the deleterious effects and workers are fearing the high cost of mandatory medical insurance or the fee for foregoing said insurance. All of this curtails growth.

Here's Mr. Higgs' own explanation of the current regime uncertainty.

In contrast, I consider regime uncertainty as a form of uncertainty related to the public’s—especially the private investors’—confidence in the future security of private property rights, which can be impaired by future regulatory changes (e.g., Dodd-Frank and Obamacare regulations), court decisions, administrative twists and turns, tax increases in various forms (e.g., Obamacare penalties enforced through the income-tax system), monetary-policy changes that threaten the dollar’s purchasing power and distort the allocation of credit, and personnel changes in the government’s corps of executives, judges, and assorted capos.

But apparently some Obama fans have tried to distort Higgs' concept to include cutbacks or interruptions in government spending and thus spread the blame to those who think reduced government spending is a good thing. Not so fast. Here's Higgs again:

... For the overwhelming majority of the people, reduced government spending is a godsend, even if many people do not know that it is, because it helps to reduce the scale and scope of the government’s destructive involvement in economic life and because it reduces the crowding out of productive private activities, such as private provision of education and of assistance to the poor and others in economic distress. Shifting resources from the government to private individuals is always a beneficial development, given that the government not only wastes many resources, but actually employs resources in destructive ways that harm the welfare of the general public.

Insert knife,

Mainstream commentators seem to get their knickers in a twist especially when government employees are furloughed or some sort of government handout is temporarily suspended. In anything but the shortest-term perspective, however, these developments are positive, not negative. It is good to get people off the dole, and if budgetary mismanagement brings about this result, so much the better for the mismanagement. ...

then twist:

If only people could bring themselves to see the government for what, all in all, it is—a force for plunder, waste, and destruction—they might then have the wit to worry less about government spending cutbacks and to worry more about the manifold ways in which the government generates what I call regime uncertainty.

Read the whole thing at Government Spending and Regime Uncertainty—a Clarification.

Pop Quiz -- Which Republican Governor has a 66% approval rate

Answer: It's New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez. According to Hot Air, she gets approval from 62% of men and 70% of women.

It's not entirely clear why a Republican gets such good ratings in a state whose electoral votes went to President Obama. But recall that Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson once held that governorship.

And Martinez has been trying do some good things there, such as improving the economic climate by lowering the corporate income tax rate and holding the line on TV and Movie subsidies.

Maybe the main stream media in New Mexico aren't as quick to pummel conservatives as they are elsewhere.

A color fun run in Odessa 11-16-13

If nothing else it should be colorful. It's a five kilometer fun run in Odessa, Texas, scheduled on 11/16/13 -- click for details.

Here's how it works. The race begins at 9:00am with waves of runners starting every five minutes. Along the way are stations where volunteers throw colored power at the victims runners. The still shot below is a screen capture from this Youtube video which should give a taste of the event.

If breathing colored powder sounds like fun, imagine the joy you'll experience as you gasp across the finish line.

The promoter is TheColorRun.com, a for-profit event organizer which helps some charities raise money. The charities that are supposed to benefit from the Odessa run are the United Way of Odessa and Global Citizen -- an organization which takes a vague but noble stand against injustice and poverty.

ColorRun.com has offered me two free pass codes to the event if I write a blog post about it. Well, here it is. If they follow through with that, then the pass codes will go to the first person who emails me asking for them.

Hold your breath!

Psst. To get $5 off the full ticket price use the code: COLOR5OFF. And for tips on cleaning the powder off afterward -- now there's a first world problem! -- see Cleaning Up.

the Texas Size Garage Sale -- My favorite event of the year

Midland Senior Services puts it on each year, and it's a bargain hunter's delight each time. It truly is a Texas Size Garage Sale that fills a large warehouse with cast off merchandise.

Whether its kitchen appliances, computer parts, or possibly rare antiques, this is the place.

It's a great way to get rid of stuff, too. I'm proud to say that a book shelf I donated to them appears to be a fixture there for displaying fine glassware.

Last year I gave them a suit from Neiman Marcus that I bought for my late father. On the first day of the sale I saw it hanging on the shelf with a price of $6.00. I was struck with a bit of nostalgia and regret and decided to come back the next day and buy it back if it was still there. But it wasn't. Some lucky buyer got a nice suit for practically nothing, and I sincerely hope he enjoys it.

As the old saying goes, one man's trash is another man's treasure. And there were lots and lots of treasures at the Texas Size Garage Sale.

Cats and dogs escaping together

A great escape. The dog knows what to expect. Watch him hop around in anticipation as the cat wrestles with the door knob, finally using two paws to open it. Youtube link.

It wasn't exactly the ideal spot to put a cat tree.

Via Arbroath.

Fox Friday 10/18/13

We missed Fox Friday last week, so let's get started.

First up, obligatory cat blogging. The one on the left gets points for the Halloween pose. And here he is in the daylight.

Here's "Old Crooked Tail" on the left. I believe he's the old male. They showed up as a pair the next morning.

Peek-a-boo. Why aren't you fox food?

It was a very foggy morning on the left, but the eyes caught the light. I believe the photo on the right is of the youngster due to the blur. He/she won't sit still for the camera. Notice the tail -- almost straight but with a hint of the old man's bump.

Bait car and green dye

This story comes out of Britain from dailymail.co.uk -- Caught green-handed: How a man who stole from car fell into a booby trap. The bobbies set out a bait car armed with a SmartWater trap which sprayed paint that was invisible without a black light, but under the black light it glowed green. Very clever. The perp ripped off a laptop and other items and left with a green look.

 
Odd that it seems to be around his mouth and in his eyes. In the U.S. that might invite a law suit.

It's worth noting that the thief, Yafet Askale, was found guilty and sentenced to "49 hours of community work and £400 costs." Oh well, maybe the public shaming is what deters thieves in London. Ya think?

Those spray bombs don't appear to be available for sale to the public, however SmartWater does sell a coding solution with which individuals can mark their property. It's a bit pricey at $99, but that's a one year subscription fee which includes the testimony of an expert witness for criminal prosecution.

DIYers might just want to mark their property items with a cheap paint that looks invisible but shows up under a black light.

Better yet, just write down the dang serial number!

How about those Washington Whiteskins?

The English language is constantly evolving, and words come in and go out of fashion all the time. But sometimes it isn't a natural pace, especially when the grievance committee fixates on a word they don't like. The current word in the bulls eye is "Redskins," as in Washington Redskins.

There are those who want to move the word "redskin" into "N" word status even though most people think the current usage as a team name is OK.

But, we can't stand in the way of progress, or to put a finer point on them, progressives. So let's come up with a new name for the Washington Redskins.

The name should be similar enough to Redskins so as not to confuse too many people, so we'll try to keep one of the syllables. Personally, I like "Whiteskins." White people are seen as the great oppressors, so maybe that's an intimidating enough image.

Or maybe just "Skins." Every male over a certain age was probably a "Shirt" or a "Skin" in some school yard game.

Perhaps a more appropriate name would simply be "Reds." The "Washington Reds." Yeah, that would work. The current administration has accelerated the nation's pace toward socialism, and although "Reds" is more closely associated with communism, it's close enough.

Anyway, here are a few more suggestions:

Washington Bureaucrats;
Washington Regulators;
Washington Tax Collectors;
Washington Bullies;
Washington Tape Worms;
Washington Goal Post Movers.

Editor's input: If the objective is to put fear into the hearts of opponents, why not name them the Washington Killer Robots? - Robo-ed.  | That'll happen soon enough, Robo. Let's not rush it. Meanwhile, Washington Spambots might fit. - Sleepless.

Editor's second input: Krauthammer wrote a post dated 10/17/13 that said some of the same things you did. Is he stealing your ideas? - Robo-ed. |  Well, I doubt if Karuthammer reads this blog, so maybe the points and analogies were so obvious anyone could come up with them. - Sleepless.

When it comes to voting, free stuff trumps everything else

We've all heard the story by now about how a computer glitch at the Walmart in Springhill and Mansfield, Louisiana, removed the limitation on EBT card expenditures which resulted in a mob of card holders clearing the shelves. Americanthinker.com tells the story, but KSLA.com gives some on-the-scene details of just what people did.

It's hard to get judgmental about the people who did this. When you condition people to be dependent on the government it generates a reflex to get all they can when the opportunity arises. And that desire overrides any moral code that might have otherwise held them back.

The people who created the dependency are the ones who should get the blame.

There have been share the wealth proponents since at least the 1930s. And there has always been a large segment of our population who would eagerly vote to take money away from another segment of the population to give to themselves. There shouldn't be much doubt about for whom the Walmart raiders voted in the last presidential election. Democrats woo those votes in the only way that works. Remember Obamaphones?

Welfare reform of the 1990s worked. But there has been a continuous erosion of that reform, and it takes constant diligence and uninterrupted effort to battle that erosion. Maybe someday we'll have elected officials who will endeavor to do that.

If you don't have an EBT card but want one, you're out of luck. The USDA site is shut down because of the Obama government shutdown.

Aside: The store shelves shown in the photos at the above linked KSLA.com site look like they would during a natural disaster. It's a good reminder for the rest of us to stock up ahead of time in the event we get hit with some calamity, another EBT computer glitch, for example.

AirSho rain out

The forecast called for rain. The sky looked like rain. And anyone with a lick of sense stayed home. Only an idiot who lacked the sense to get in out of the rain would go to an air show on a day like that. But you didn't come here to read about me.

While we waited for the 2013 CAF AirSho to start a very unusual could formation passed overhead. Waves and waves of cloud waves floated overhead. It was quite a site. Maybe these photos will give you a flavor.

Click on thumbnails for a bigger picture

The CAF AirSho in Midland, Texas, has a long tradition of not refunding tickets not canceling a show. But yesterday was an exception. The show got canceled after the preliminary acts but before the WWII warbirds got to put on their awesome demonstration.

The AirSho was scheduled to start at noon. However, the MC announced that the ceiling had to be at least 1,500 feet but that we only had 1,000 feet between the ground and the clouds.

We caught a break, the ceiling lifted to 1,200, they got the go-ahead from the FAA, and the aerobatics began. But then the rains came. And the pilots and crew who man the warbirds -- the planes that survived bullet holes, flack damage and all sorts of enemy inflicted injury -- declared they didn't want to get wet. And they bowed out.

However, Blastards gotta blast. They had prepared for a war worthy pyrotechnical demonstration, and not wanting to waste an opportunity to put on a good firework show, they blew up about an hours worth of air show ordinance in under four minutes.  It was sectatular!  A few pics:

If it looks like an oil well blowout fire, remember that the main ingredients were diesel and black powder.

Nanny state alert -- postage stamps no one will use will somehow inspire kids to do something they wouldn't otherwise do

First off, few people actually use postage stamps any more. Email, social media, and cell phones are killing the post office.  The USPS is searching for ways to stay afloat, and their knees weaken at any claim of politically incorrectness from politicians.

Their mistake here was thinking Michelle Obama might help them roll out a line a cute stamps that promoted exercise. See Dailycaller.com.

Officials raised objections to a stamp depicting a man doing a cannonball into a pool, a stamp showing a child doing a handstand without a helmet and a stamp with skateboarder no wearing kneepads.

The horror.

Come to think about it, the proper nanny could find some danger in all of those activities.

Perhaps they should lower the bar and focus on getting the kids to sit up straight while they play video games.

Guns and immigrants

Alan Korwin has raised an issue that many immigration reformers have not likely thought about. Of if they have, they wouldn't want to talk about it. That's the possibility that if those 11 million or so illegal immigrants currently in the U.S. are awarded citizenship status -- the desired goal of many of the reformers -- those new citizens will not only get the right to vote, they'll also get 2nd Amendment rights.

Mr. Korwin speaks of it in The Amnesty Surprise as well as in the November 2013 issue of The Blue Press (page 20).

This might throw a wrinkle in the amnesty plan as Democrats salivate over the possibility of 11 million new Democrats but then have to grapple with the prospect that many of them might like to go out immediately and buy some handguns and an AR-15.

Should immigration amnesty come about Democrats will be working hard to garner the new citizens' votes. However, Mr. Korwin suggests that gun rights groups should prepare to help new citizens assimilate. He has a good point. But it sure is fun to imagine the look on the amnesty-now crowd's faces as they eventually realize the unintended consequences of their actions.

Side note that's sort of related: http://247wallst.com has a list of the top eight Countries With The Most Immigrants, as follows:

8. Canada -- 7.3 million
7. France -- 7.4 million
6. United Kingdom -- 7.8 million
5. United Arab Emirates -- 7.8 million
4. Saudi Arabia -- 9.1 million
3. Germany -- 9.8 million
2. Russian Federation -- 11.0 million
1. United States of America -- 45.8 million

We're number 1!
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

That's part of the inscription at the Statue of Liberty. Click on the link during this current period of budget negotiation and see a Barack (Make'em-hurt) Obama shutdown notice.

Garage door opener safety sensors -- are they really necessary?

Is it the nanny state or the plaintiffs' lawyers that require safety sensors on new garage door openers?

This past weekend I installed a new Chamberlain garage door opener to replace an old Overhead Door brand opener. The old one worked fine, but the plastic housing of the remote controls was deteriorating from old age. Sure, duct tape works just fine, but sometimes a redneck simply wants to go the extra step and upgrade to new stuff.

So I spent all weekend measuring, drilling, lifting and bolting to finally get it in place. It had a pair of safety sensors -- (cheaper here) -- which I figured I would omit. But dammit, the machine would not close the door unless the sensors were hooked up and aligned.

So after another few hours of work and another two trips to the hardware store they were hooked up and pointed at each other. Only then would the garage door not only open but close, like it's supposed to.

But why did it require the sensors? This particular garage has been on location with the same electric opener and no sensors for at least three decades, maybe longer, and not one single child was crushed the whole time. But it was installed in another era when kids were supposed to be able to watch out for themselves. They could walk all over town if they had a mind to. They could ride their bicycles to school without helmets!

But I suppose the world available to modern kids has shrunk to the house, the yard, and the garage. They can wipe out half the universe in a video game, but they can't play in a garage without getting crushed by the door. Violent mayhem in Grand Theft Auto, but overly protected in an ordinary garage. It's a strange world we've designed for the children.

By the way, the garage door opener has been in place and operational with the safety sensors for two days. Let's assume a death rate of one per day attributable to an unsensored garage door. Yes, that takes some speculation, but if we accept that then the lives of two youngsters have been saved. No thanks necessary.  It's for the children!

HHS website hacked -- became Ugg boot ad

Hackers turn US health services site into online Ugg boot store.

Seems that a government health service website got hijacked by hackers who replaced the government web pages with ads for Ugg boots and NFL jerseys. This is both funny and sad. It's funny because the affected websites were run by the same government outfit that is supposed to implement and run Obamacare. And it's sad because the people at that agency are probably doing the best they can do.

Weekly Standard broke the story. And it was the section of HHS afflicted was the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Native American Center for Excellence subsection (nace.samhsa.gov.) Today, four days later, the website says it is undergoing maintenance. See screenshot on the right.

It must take constant vigilance to ward off hackers. But it must be done. And if this incident shows how vulnerable the HHS system is then it demonstrates the regard the leaders of our government have for the people on whom they've foisted a healthcare overhaul all for the purpose of fulfilling their imagination of a utopian empire filled with subservient subjects.

Via Naked Security where their very first commenter is such a tool that she tries to blame Republicans.

Mt. Rushmore still visible from road despite shutdown

President Obama famously shut down some government functions that will most likely hurt the most people so as to bolster his case for a large, intrusive government. National park visitors were the first to get locked out.

So last night I spoke with someone who just returned from a visit to Mt. Rushmore, and she said the monument was visible from the roadway.

In your face, Obama!

Fox Friday

Forget cat blogging. Let's see some foxes. Here's a sampling of some nocturnal visitors who got captured on the critter cam this week.

Momma is looking out while the young'un eats.

Notice that one eyeball peaking under that tail.

OK, one cat, but only because he is giving us a Halloween pose.

Being a Vegetarian -- a statement as much as a diet

There was a South Park episode a while back in which a big dark cloud of "smug" drifted over the continental U.S. It was a clever play on words with a satirical jab at the smugness of environmentalists whose Prius ownership provided a way for them to feel superior to anyone who didn't adhere to all the dogmas of modern environmentalism. (Watch Smug Alert.)

Don't you get it? When people drive hybrid cars they get so full of themselves they spew tons of self satisfied garbage into the air. That isn't smog. It's smug!

This brings us to vegetarians. One reason a person might avoid meat, it would seem, would be for health reasons given some of the bad news that comes out from time to time about meat consumption. But Pacific Standard addresses the statement it makes and asks What Does Being a Vegetarian Say About You? Note that the article is aimed at "you," the vegetarian, suggesting there must be many in their reading audience. And conveniently, the image presented of the vegetarian should be very self satisfying to them.

That they have a liberal world view isn't surprising. But take a look at this excerpt:

Among Westerners, vegetarians (compared to meat-eaters) were “more concerned about the impact of their daily food choices on the environment and on animal welfare, more concerned with general animal welfare, more strongly endorsed values of universalism, and less strongly endorsed right-wing authoritarianism,” the researchers report.

Aw, "right-wing authoritarianism." So it's the right-wing that endorses authoritarianism is it? They've been breathing Smug so long it has somehow blocked out all the authoritarian moves by the left. They must not have heard Jonah Goldberg on liberal fascism. And being way up there in the Pacific Northwest news about the overreaching law called Obamacare must not have reached them yet.

The Smug must be thick up there. Maybe they should eat a Big Mac, lighten up, and quit trying to ram rules down our throats.

P.S. Is Kool-Aid on the vegetarian diet?-- Robo-Ed.  It's a staple.-- Sleepless.

NYPD goes where FBI fears to tread

Islamic groups have been relentless in their claims to be victims of discrimination, and it has worked. Since 2011 Mosques have been off limits to FBI agents. See Obama's Snooping Excludes Mosques, Missed Boston Bombers.

However other agencies tried to be less sensitive to outside pressure and stepped in to fill the void. One in particular was the NYPD, which claims that its counter terrorism operations have stopped 14 terrorist plots since 2001.

But now the Islamists are using the courts to pressure the NYPD to back off. See Federal court reviews legality of NYPD Muslim surveillance program. They dusted off some old laws from the hippie days to try to stop the NYPD from investigating anyone unless there is evidence of crimes, and they seek a court appointed observer to oversee NYPD activities.

They claim that their religion is the basis for the scrutiny. But the NYPD says their investigations are based on evidence of legitimate threats, not religion. Meanwhile, those masses of supposedly moderate Muslims are still taking a passive role in all that terrorism business, perhaps waiting to see who ultimately prevails.

Oil boom -- how long will it last?

Operators have been fracking wells for decades, but lately it's all the rage due to the advent of horizontal drilling and fracking's ability to crack open rocks saturated with oil and/or gas that wasn't previously obtainable.

But how steady is the production stream from a newly fracked well? There's the old analogy that pumping a bunch of stuff into a structure is like shaking up a bottle of hot classic Coke. Pop the top and it spews like old faithful. That sudden gush seems endless, but after the initial spurt the stream dwindles to nothing.

This comes to mind after reading a throw-away line from an abstract of Ed Yardeni's US Oil Production Is Gushing (excerpt). (Via blogs.wsj.com.) He says that America is still some distance from energy independence but that innovative entrepreneurs and new and old technology may make it possible. But here's the line:

The Naysayers say it won’t happen because much of the surge in production is attributable to fracking of old oil wells that deplete in a few months after they are tapped for a second time.

Is that true? All wells will deplete over time, and mature fields like those found in west Texas have produced for decades, albeit at a low rate. But if fracking has given them new life and Yardeni's naysayers are correct, the current west Texas oil boom will last only so long.