Watching Grumpy Grandpa McCain try to explain how we won the war in Iraq, but somehow failed in Iraq at the same time and now have to go back in and, what, re-win it? It was interesting to watch him try and navigate through that tortured reasoning, even a little bit comical in a dark, cynical way, sort of a crazy neo-con blast from the bloody past. But here's what sets civil war in Iraq apart from Syria or Libya:
Five of the six major fields, together representing several million barrels per day of potential output, went to European, Russian and Asian oil companies. It looked as though not much was going to companies from the United States, the country that took the leading role in the war. But read the fine print of those contracts, and companies more familiar to Americans are now poised to benefit handsomely as the oil business picks up in Iraq.
The oil services companies Halliburton, Baker Hughes, Weatherford International and Schlumberger already won lucrative drilling subcontracts and are likely to bid on many more in one of the world’s richest markets for companies that drill oil wells.
When comparing the cost of alternative energy produced from renewable, green sources to traditional fossil fuels, isn't it about time we start including the two or three trillion dollars we've spent keeping oil flowing from places like Iraq, or the other trillion or two that neo-con fossils would have us spend going forward?
- There's been a debate, at times heated, about dinos: were some hot-blooded, others cold-blooded? The latest idea is they were 'tweeners.
- A new study suggests at least 10,000 people have committed suicide thanks to the Great Recession:
“Suicides are just the tip of the iceberg,” said co-author David Stuckler. “These data reveal a looming mental health crisis in Europe and North America. In these hard economic times, this research suggests it is critical to look for ways of protecting those who are likely to be hardest hit.”
- Before Young Earth old testament literalists have a field days, some sobering facts about Earth's newly discovered "underground" ocean, it's barely even water. It's certainly not an ocean as we know them up here on the surface:
"It's no longer liquid water that we're talking about at these great depths. The weight of hundreds of kilometers of rock and very high temperatures above 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,832 Fahrenheit) break down water into its components. And it's not accessible. It's not a resource in any way," Jacobsen added.
