Tuesday Morning Links, News, And Views -- An Update On Syria

Active rigs: 179

RBN Energy: Nova Scotia natural gas for northeast United States; right place, wrong time?

WSJ Links

There isn't much in today's paper that catches my attention. I posted this story yesterday about point-and-shoot digital camera sales plummeting, due to smart phones and iPads. Here was another bit of trivia I had not thought about:

"It's the classic case of an industry that is unable to adapt to shifts in user demands," said Christopher Chute, a digital imaging analyst at IDC.

While adding Internet connectivity through Wi-Fi has been commonplace in many consumer electronics, digital cameras remain largely stand-alone devices. Only one in six digital cameras shipped this year will be equipped with Wi-Fi, according to IDC.

BMW launches its first mass-production electric car, and it doesn't cost much more than the Volt.

... the auto maker's first mass-production electric car, saying his company would need to boost sales of plug-in and battery electric vehicles dramatically by 2025 to meet regulatory requirements.

The BMW i3 is expected to go on sale in the U.S. in the second quarter of 2014 where it is expected to be priced at $41,350 before federal tax and other incentives. An optional "range extender"—a small gasoline motor—will likely boost the price tag to $45,000.

Personally, I still don't see the market for these high-priced, short-range, automobiles. I think consumers are going to get incredible deals, especially in leasing when these automobiles all hit the market.  Apparently these BMWs will compete with the Tesla S, another hot-selling electric car, priced at $65,000. I honestly don't get it. Of course, I walk or ride a bike whenever I can.

Sitting on the back burner, pun intended, the Mideast may be ready to boil over -- or so reports The Journal today.

The region is much closer to a broad conflagration than most Americans realize, with Sunnis now facing off against Shiites, and secularists against Islamists across a wide swath of lands. The dream of fostering a new wave of democratic, multiethnic governments—embraced by two successive American administrations—may be withering before our eyes.

The problems start with the bloody turmoil in the streets of Egypt, the cornerstone of American influence in the region for 35 years. There, a new military strongman seems more intent on crushing the Muslim Brotherhood than heeding American counsel to find a way to include the Islamists in a new government.

Meantime, Syria has become a proxy war for the entire region, pitting Shiites against Sunnis and drawing in combatants from all over. The nasty Alawite/Shiite axis of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Iran and Hezbollah has fought back to even with Sunni opposition forces, armed by Persian Gulf states and, soon, the U.S.

This now is essentially a sectarian war, and it's starting to spread next door to Lebanon. Sunnis there resent the fact that Hezbollah's Shiite fighters have been using Lebanon as a springboard to enter the fight on behalf of Mr. Assad. Car bombs and street fights between Sunni and Shiite groups are popping up; Lebanon is in danger of sliding back into its familiar rut of sectarian war.

Iraq now also seems infected. While most Americans have largely checked out of Iraqi news, a new wave of Sunni-Shiite violence is building. On Monday alone, 18 bombs exploded, killing at least 58 people. Whatever stability a decade of American military presence left behind seems newly imperiled.

Wouldn't it be interesting if Bakken oil --> undermined Saudi economy --> Mideast conflagration? Ah, yes, "the Bakken has some oil, but not much." I forget who said that. Her blog site is now silent.

But without doubt, this is my favorite (and most humorous) story coming out of the Mideast: watching Washington try to tell us that the military ousting of Mr Morsi in Egypt was not a military coup. Say what? Really? My hunch is that the debate will simply wither away like so many other scandals and, in the end, no one will really care -- as if anyone really cares now.

Lame duck. The president's proposals for helping the middle class are DOA.