Former Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Blinder wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal this past  week (6/21) attacking Republicans who have said that more government spending will kill jobs.

In the same vein, my old friend Bruce Bartlett, a Treasury official in the George H.W. Bush administration, wrote an article attacking former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and other Republicans for claiming the Reagan tax cuts paid for themselves.

(Note: Mr. Bartlett used to be a supply-side advocate, but in the past few years, he has become an almost full-time Republican basher and, not surprisingly, now writes for the New York Times.)

Mr. Blinder, Mr. Bartlett and others of their stripe no longer seem to be able to see beyond the first-order effects of an economic policy. That is why they are always dead wrong.

The most powerful Congressmen have, in addition to their regular offices in one of the House Office Buildings (Cannon, Longworth, or Rayburn) on the south side of Capitol Hill, a private office in the Capitol itself. It was in such an office earlier this week that I asked a member of the House leadership about the MSM (mainstream media)/Democrat vendetta against his colleague, Tom DeLay.

“Hillary’s fingerprints are all over it,” came his response. “She has no intention of having to deal with an opposition party controlling the House as her husband did for six years and Ronald Reagan did for eight. She has a very clear plan for seizing control of the entire United States government, which includes orchestrating Democrat control of the House in 2006 so it is firmly in place when she is elected president in 2008.”

It is, then, at Hillary’s direction that the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the entire Liberal Media apparatus are waging a relentless war upon House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

Last week in Part 1 of this series, The Dynamics of Crude, we discussed refineries and products.  Now we move to Logistics of Crude Oil and Refinery Products.

Although Ayn Rand's 1957 novel "Atlas Shrugged" portrayed rail as important, especially for Wyatt's Refinery, rail was on its way out by the end of WWII.  Today's major transportation methods are via pipeline and water (barge & ship).  The reason is quite simple: loading and receiving infrastructure.

Here is a great description of both crude oil and refined product pipelines from 2001:  How Pipelines Make the Oil Market Work.

I have read lots of supposedly learned pundits wailing away how Warren Buffett and BNSF Railroad are going transport all that Canadian crude oil when Obama announced that he was blocking the Keystone XL's construction.  This is impossibly dumb -so dumb that Jack Wheeler is convinced it isn't dumb at all, that it's a crony capitalist payoff to Buffett for his supporting Zero.  Buffett bought BNSF for $34 billion in 2009, counting on graft from Zero to provide his ROI.

After celebrating her 60th year on the throne in style this past week, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II can now look forward to breaking some more records.

She is already, at 86, Britain's oldest monarch (were she to die now, her son would immediately be the 12th oldest). On Sept. 10, 2015, she would pass Queen Victoria to become the longest-reigning monarch in British history. To beat Louis XIV (who succeeded to the throne at the age of 4) for the longest reign in European history, she would have to live to 98.

Elizabeth II is still going strong, but the maximum human lifespan isn't rising at anything like the rate of average life expectancy, which is rushing upward globally at the rate of about three months a year, mainly because of progress against premature mortality.

Indeed, we may already have hit some kind of limit for maximum lifespan-perhaps because natural selection, with its strict focus on reproductive success, has no particular need to preserve genes that would keep us going to 150.

From the founding of the American republic, members of the political class have been caught lying about sex and, no doubt, sex scandals will continue, men (and women) being who they are.

There often are demands that those involved resign - and sometimes they do because they are shamed or pushed. Most often, the real damage caused by lies about sex extend no further than to those directly involved, to their families and, at times, to their co-workers and colleagues.

Far more damaging are the financial, policy and legislative whoppers told by members of the administration and Congress that adversely affect almost every American.

Corporate executives and directors are often forced to resign after making untrue statements about the businesses they oversee and are sometimes subject to both civil and criminal penalties, including jail. Many public officials who engage in far more damaging untruths are rarely forced to resign, let alone face civil and criminal penalties. Is it not time the double standard ended?

My friends at the Wall Street Journal told me that Letters Editor Ned Crabb just couldn’t handle my response to the January 25 WSJ editorial “Quixotic Journey,” celebrating the 400th anniversary of Cervantes’ Don Quixote. “Let’s say it went a little bit over his head, Jack,” was how they put it.

So here it is for your enjoyment.

Dear Ned,

The 400th anniversary of the publication of Miguel de Cervantes’ “Don Quixote” is nothing to celebrate. It would be celebrating a curse.