Rambling Comments Monday Morning -- Absolutely Nothing To Do With The Bakken

1. Wow, talk about student debt! The Supreme Court refuses to take the case in which a college student was fined $657,000 for downloading 30 -- thirty -- "3-0" -- songs and sharing them on the net.  But:

The judge will have a new opportunity to look at the case and could again order the penalty reduced, using different legal reasoning.

Ah, yes, the legal system ... "using different legal reasoning."

2. Moments ago the CNBC talking heads made a big deal that Eaton, taking over Cooper Industries, would now be moving another company over to Ireland. In fact, Cooper Industries is already incorporated/headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. Eaton buying Cooper doesn't affect the America-->Irish story as far as I can tell. But, I had not realized how huge Cooper Industries was in the energy field until now. Very interesting.

3. Exactly why are Afghanistan and Pakistan attending a NATO summit? I guess NATO is in Afghanistan, but I did not know NATO was in Pakistan. Except for a few hours when NATO helicopters took out bin Laden.  Pakistan certainly doesn't seem to be fighting on the same side as the rest of NATO. [Update: Apparently someone at the LA Times read this note and answered the question. President Obama invited Pakistan to try to get them to open up highway to Afghanistan. The highway needs to be opened if US is to withdraw from Afghanistan next year. Efforts failed.]

4. Apparently the state of Hawaii continues to slow-roll the folks who are looking to confirm birth records of high level government officials.

The Hawaii attorney general’s office has reportedly told Bennett that there are steps he needs to take in order to confirm President Obama’s birth records.

Those steps include Bennett proving that he legitimately needs confirmation in order to update the records at his office.

So, this is just a procedural issue to the Hawaiians? "... there are steps he needs to take in order to confirm .... birth records."

As long as Arizona is looking into this they need to see if the information from Hawaii jibes with the social security number.