Monthly Archives: April 2011

Smoke(stacks) and Mirrors

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“At a time of high gas prices and massive oil industry profits,” Mr. Obama has renewed “his call to end the $4 billion-per-year subsidies for oil and gas companies and invest in clean energy.”

Let us remember that the heavy “subsidies” are actually the tax breaks they get at virtually every stage of the exploration and extraction process rather than cash the taxpayer hands them at the pump. It’s also worth remembering that the oil business just happens to invest more in “clean” energy than any other industry.

Americans consume about 322 billion gallons of crude oil each year. Some of that goes to plastics. Some goes up the smokestacks heating our homes and making electricity. And about half, 146 billion gallons, is gasoline.

Oil producers pay on the order of $90 billion in income taxes each year and, in fact, pay a higher percentage of their earnings in taxes than most other American corporations. Obama wants to take $4 billion more in taxes from them. That translates to around 1.4 cents per gallon of crude or, if you want to assess it all on gasoline, about 2.7 cents per gallon at the pump.

2.7 cents per gallon.

Speaking of the pump, We the Overtaxed People pay 18.4 cents per gallon in Federal tax on gasoline so that not-quite-3 cents is really coming from our driving.

Do you think Mr. Obama will drive the price at the pump down or up?

And do you really think Mr. Obama has an energy policy here or a political platform?

In the interests of full disclosure (regular readers know this), I do own ExxonMobil stock. I remain disappointed in their performance. I dislike subsidies but I despise political poseurs.

Prempte Peeves

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The latest Dairy Queen advertising blitz sells us on the “mini-Blizzard,” a newer, smaller version of the thick shake for $1.99.

Great. That’s just great. DQ spins up a smaller product for more money and makes us like it with flaming  rainbows and shaving bunnies.

RiDQulous.

Religious Argument

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Religion! religion!
Oh, there’s a thin line between Saturday night and Sunday morning.
Here we go now.
Alright, altar boys.

Mea culpa mea culpa mea maxima culpa
Mea culpa mea culpa mea maxima culpa

Where’s the church, who took the steeple
Religion is in the hands of some crazy-ass people …
[thanks to Jimmy Buffett for Fruitcakes]

“Once you go Mac, you’ll never go back,” my friend Nola ‘Fanny’ Guay told me.

Microsoft is for Repuglicans because they like the illusion that they can change their desktops.

Apple is for Demorats because they are used to having the government do everything for them.

But Little Jimmy Did It!

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goodmorningkeywest.com “We’re gonna just love this campus!”

Work on Key West’s new Horace O’Bryant Middle School began in October; the magnificent first building quickly rose to 56 feet at the peak.

Too bad the Key West City Commission has a teeny little zoning problem. The as-yet-unfinished school project violates the city’s building height restriction. Land development regulations limit building height in that zoning district to 25 feet. Errors in oversight may be involved.

Errors in oversight?

“How do you put up a building that is twice as tall as allowed without somebody noticing?” Rufus asked.

We-ll, several officials have pointed out that the relatively new Key West High School, Marathon High School, Coral Shores High School and Sugarloaf School all violate height regulations in Key West, Marathon and the unincorporated areas.

Heh.

“Ah hah! The old Little-Jimmy-did-it-too defense,” Rufus said. Except the Board used the old “it’s-OK-because-we-did-it-all-these-other-places-too” defense.

Nearby residents think the solution is to tear it down.

Key West finally issued the Monroe County School District a “notice of non-compliance” for the ongoing construction at HOB as the locals call it.

conchscooter.blogspot.com Good plan.

The district doesn’t have to respond to it or even explain why it’s not compliant with city rules. See, the district is its own permitting agency.

The KW mayor also opposes any solution that includes tearing down the building. “We’re trying to work it out with officials from the School District,” he said.

Construction on the five additional buildings — each of which exceeds the height cap — continues. The city’s acting planning director will meet with the school board’s architect in Tampa to go over the plans.

“They’re going to try to come into compliance,” the mayor said.

Uh huh. I’m not sure even Mr. Obama could spin this one.

“Let’s see, now. Let’s see,” the president said when questioned by Faux News’ Sergeant Watchtower. “We have five buildings that stand just two and a half stories taller than anything else in the neighborhood but it’s alright because we created six new jobs with this construction and we painted the roofs green!”