There can be no doubt that possessive clinging to things is one of the most harmful habits in the Christian life. Because it is so natural, it is rarely recognized for the evil that it is. But its outworkings are tragic.

– A. W. Tozer

I just paid $4.20 a gallon. When we moved here, two years ago, gas hovered around $2.00 a gallon. I am all for drilling!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Bush Says Drill, Drill, Drill — and Oil Drops $9!   Kudlow]

In a dramatic move yesterday President Bush removed the executive-branch moratorium on offshore drilling. Today, at a news conference, Bush repeated his new position, and slammed the Democratic Congress for not removing the congressional moratorium on the Outer Continental Shelf and elsewhere. Crude-oil futures for August delivery plunged $9.26, or 6.3 percent, almost immediately as Bush was speaking, bringing the barrel price down to $136.

Now isn’t this interesting?

Democrats keep saying that it will take 10 years or longer to produce oil from the offshore areas. And they say that oil prices won’t decline for at least that long. And they, along with Obama and McCain, bash so-called oil speculators. And today we had a real-world example as to why they are wrong. All of them. Reid, Pelosi, Obama, McCain — all of them.

Traders took a look at a feisty and aggressive George Bush and started selling the market well before a single new drop of oil has been lifted. What does this tell us? Well, if Congress moves to seal the deal, oil prices will probably keep on falling. That’s the way traders work. They discount the future. Psychology and expectations can turn on a dime.

The congressional ban on offshore drilling expires September 30, so that becomes a key date. A new report from Wall Street research house Sanford C. Bernstein says that California actually could start producing new oil within one year if the moratorium were lifted. The California oil is under shallow water and already has been explored. Drilling platforms have been in place since before the moratorium. They’re talking about 10 billion barrels worth off the coast of California.

There’s also a “gang of 10” in the Senate, five Republicans and five Democrats, that is trying to work a compromise deal on lifting the moratorium. So it’s possible a lot of action on this front could occur much sooner than people seem to think.

So I repeat: Drill, drill, drill. Deregulate, decontrol, and unleash the American energy industry. Those hated traders will then keep selling oil as the laws of supply and demand and free markets keep working.

Bravo for Bush. Bravo for the traders.

07/15 01:07 PM

Well. I simply CANNOT go to bed without brushing my teeth. It is not a possibility. Ever.

We are staying in the world’s most gorgeous bed and breakfast (a blessing from the Lord, really!) an unbelievable mansion in Chattanooga, and we are literally being spoiled rotten. Until I realize I have no toothpaste, and desperately begin calling downstairs to try and get some. But the evening gentleman has left, and the overnight house person is not answering the phone.

I would even be willing to use toxic toothpaste - this is an emergency.

So I put my very elegant B&B robe on that was on my enormous turned down bed (wasn’t going to make them wash it) and I quietly glided down the 120 year old lushly carpeted steps down to the check in lobby, to beg for toothpaste. Not a soul in sight.

But some really, really good banana blueberry cake. But I digress!

So I came back up and ravaged my overnight bag. Three brand new tubes of Jason’s toothpaste are tucked under my sink RIGHT NOW. None are in my bag. Or Emily’s.

So - what does any self respecting, creative, prudent woman do???? Makes her own! I have tea tree oil and coconut oil - that will work. So I put a few drops of tea tree oil on my toothbrush. Then some coconut oil, then more tea tree and scrubbed away.

Not necessarily the flavor I was looking for - but it worked! Sleep! At last!

The moral of the story. If you bring VCO and tea tree oil, you can fix just about anything on the road!

By John S. McCain III, Lieut. Commander, U.S. Navy

Read the whole story here.

John McCain spent 5½ years in captivity as a POW in North Vietnam. His first-person account of that harrowing ordeal was published in U.S. News in May 1973. Shot down in his Skyhawk dive bomber on Oct. 26, 1967, Navy flier McCain was taken prisoner with fractures in his right leg and both arms. He received minimal care and was kept in wretched conditions that he describes vividly in the U.S. News special report:

John McCain lies in a hospital bed in Hanoi, North Vietnam, after being taken prisoner of war.

(Francois Chalais)

Lt. Cmdr. John S. McCain III after his release from captivity in Vietnam.

(Thomas J. O’Halloran for USN&WR/Courtesy Library of Congress)

Related News

• Last Photos of McCain’s POW Cell

This story originally appeared in the May 14, 1973, issue of U.S.News & World Report. It was posted online on January 28, 2008.

As summer goes on, I have really been wanting to work out - but am just not in the mood after another ‘thyroid episode’ where I packed more weight on, lost a bunch of hair, cut 4 inches off what was left and have not been able to control body temps, I just gave up. This is 100% not me - a total anomaly.

After 5 years of working on this whole thyroid thing, after 5 or 6 of these thyroid episodes, I gave up!

So, have been asking the Lord to help me. How do I fix this and get on with life, have energy and get this site launched? While doing some research, I keep coming across the idea of short bursts of super intensive training - like sprinters do. Today, came across a link to a 4 minute workout, billed as The World’s Fastest Workout Video!!! Wow!

We also watched this video on a Tabata workout and Emily and I grabbed cans and did it with her. WOW! It is a tremendous workout, and it says it will burn for 24 to 36 hours.

I am going to go research Tabata.