Saturday Morning -- April 26, 2014

Top story, Los Angeles Times: Electricity Prices May Be Going Up For Good

Why? Coal-fired plants are being shut down. Nuclear power is reduced. "Consumers switch to renewable energy." And there it is, in black-and-white: all those naysayers who keep telling us wind is free and solar is free and even if they aren't, they are less expensive than fossil fuels, and even if it won't make a difference because China is building a new coal-fired plant, on average, every day, if it makes us feel good, we should switch to solar.  

The Wall Street Journal

That "final" warning to Russia? Not so fast. Friction between allies delays more Russia sanctions. As posted earlier in musings: a) companies won't be coming back to Russia any time soon if they leave; and, b) could be a cold, cold winter in Poland. US president has little support.

Man-made fibers set to topple King Cotton.

Here it comes: California looking at financing high-speed bullet train with cap-and-trade program on carbon emissions. If you thought $4.85/gallon gasoline was expensive, we haven't seen anything yet.

 Portugal set for clean bailout exit.

This really caught me by surprise. It demonstrates what a country can do with the right leadership. Germany considers tax cuts amid rapid rise in revenue. Never, never expected that.

This is interesting. It looks like the Filipinos really did like us after all. The Nobel-Peace-Prize president ready to send US troops back to the Philippines.

Michigan basketball start Mitch McGary is entering the NBA draft. Caught smoking marijuana during the NCAA basketball tournament, he would have face a one-year suspension had he returned to college.

Oil futures sag on record supplies.

Ford profit drops almost 40% on higher costs.

The Los Angeles Times

Favorite story: crying over a 40-year sentence for a non-fatal shooting on USC campus. Gang-banger going to prison; threw temper tantrum on defense table when sentence read, crying that he wasn't a gang-banger. Actually left the party on campus to go home, get his gun, return to the college party (he was not a student at the college) and then fired to shoot his arch enemy, missing, wounding four others in the melee. I infer that Sandy thinks the sentence was too harsh, writing "... our tough-on-crime statutes don't weight the humanity or the potential of criminals."

What, the potential of criminals. He has forty years to work on his potential. He could become a great novelist.

The columnist: "I considered the courtroom scene [i.e., the temper tantrum by a grown man and gang banger] a cautionary message ... You could spend the rest of your life in prison over a stupid vendetta and a single violent act." Something tells me this was not his first run in with the law. Could be wrong, probably am. But in general, most folks don't go to prison after one offense.

Anyway, enough of this, time to get back to the Bakken.

Don't Take Your Guns to Town, Johnny Cash