Swap Blog

As most people know by now, the strategic oil reserves were tapped by W today. This has caused crude prices to drop, but to me the real problem is not one of supply in this case, which the oil from the reserve addresses, but one of refinery capacity.

A large portion of US refiners along the Gulf are down, offline, or underwater. Those plants may not be back online for weeks / months. Unless all the unaffected refineries can combine to pick up the percent of national refinery capacity that is currently offline then having available oil is irrelevant. At this point I have seen no proof that such a increase in the processing capacity from other refineries is possible.

Gas prices locally seem to have skyrocketed during the day. The consensus is that the prices will drop back again in a few weeks after the market levels off, after the labor day weekend, and once distribution is reallocated, but in the end I still think the real oil problem caused by Katrina is not in supply, but in the refiner section of the market/ industry. Reuters has a story along those same lines today.

Full Post Here

To me the situation caused by Katrina is even more reason to push for new refineries throughout the nation. Numerous newer, cleaner, and more efficient refineries scattered throughout the nation avoids issues like this when one section of the nation is devastated. Especially when that effected section influences a vital market segment.

To me the issues that lead to this problem is additional proof that we need to increase the number of pipelines, reducing the possibility of a large part of them becoming limited or broken. The push for ANWAR, Florida coastal, and California coastal drilling should also be trumpeted at this time where we can begin to prepare for the needs we are going to have in the future.

Long term we need to move away from oil dependency, I think most would agree with that, but that time is a bit of the way down the road at best and until then we need to plan for future needs and situations, including natural disasters, that may arise. Maybe one good thing that can come from Katrina is that we will begin to think more long term in terms of our future energy needs and plan for disasters more efficiently.

Bowden McElroy of Counseling Notes has a great post discussing how his therapy practice ebbs and flows based on seasons, situations, and timing. Bowden discusses the increase in clients when schools starts - both student and marriage and the reasons for both -, as well as the increase seen around the time each grade card come out. A interesting focus of the post is how people think summer and vacation will help their marriage yet find out that they come back to the same problems when they come home. Bowden also focuses on how starting school reminds families of their church gaps as well.

Summary quote from the post -

Whatever the reason, my life is busy. And I am once again pondering the strange place God has brought me: a messed-up world, ineffective congregations, and watered down theology all add up to job security.

Full post here

W Kelly from over at View From the Pew as a review of the book - Unlocking The Prison Doors. The book is directed at helping Christians break the cycle of habitual sin in their lives.

This is a book that I have seen in bookstores, seen promoted in a book catalog I get, and I believe heard about from at least one person at church, but I have never explored it in depth. W Kelly does a great job of showing the flaws in the mechanics of the books - grammar errors, misspellings, etc - , but in the end concludes that the book is scripturally sound and valuable to new Christians, but not more mature ones that are likely to have heard these messages before and are likely to have deeper, more seated, issues then those addressed in the book. Good review and very helpful to people like me that hear about a lot of books, guides, helps, etc, but do not have the time to research each text completely.

Full Post here

Boyd’s Creek Animal Hospital is collecting donations for animals lost and injured in Hurricane Katrina. Boyd’s Creek Animal Hospital is on Chapman Hwy in South Knoxville. The deadline for this is this Friday morning, you can also drop off supplies at Hardin Valley Animal Hospital - 10017 Hardin Valley Road - 539-6811. Please see the flyer below for items that are needed. Please make sure everyone you know is aware of this –you CAN make a difference!!

DONATIONS NEEDED FOR ANIMAL RELIEF EFFORT FOLLOWING HURRICANE KATRINA

In response to Hurricane Katrina, BOYDS CREEK ANIMAL HOSPITAL (BCAH) is collecting donations for animals lost and injured in this devastating storm. The following items are desperately needed:

Pet Foods (dry and canned)
Collars
Leashes
Cat Litter
Bowls
Towels and Blankets
Unopened Veterinary Medical Supplies

Monetary donations are also needed and will be given to the AVMA Veterinary Medical Assistance Teams and to the local shelters responding to this disaster. In addition, we need help with the transportation of donated goods and supplies. Please contact us if you can help!

Donated items may be taken to BOYDS CREEK ANIMAL HOSPITAL at 11612 CHAPMAN HIGHWAY in SEYMOUR, TN from 8am – 7pm Monday – Friday, August 29th-September 2nd. You may contact us at 577-2738 for more information. Please make checks payable to the American Veterinary Medical Foundation or the Humane Society of Louisiana. Donations are Tax Deductible. (We would also appreciate checks made out to BCAH to aid with transportation costs.)

The AVMA Veterinary Medical Assistance Teams (VMATs) are teams of veterinarians, technicians, and personnel that are ready at a moments notice to provide aid in the unfortunate event of a disaster. The VMATs were established by the American Veterinary Medical Association and are sponsored by the American Veterinary Medical Foundation.

YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE! PLEASE CONTACT YOUR FRIENDS, NEIGHBORS, SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES, AND LOCAL CIVIC ORGANIZATIONS to CONTRIBUTE TO THIS MUCH NEEDED EFFORT.

Do something to help take care of the injured animals that survived the storm. We can all do a little bit and that will make a big difference.

The Knoxville News Sentinel has a story today with a more complete picture of what was planned to occur at Maury Middle School last week when a student was accidently shot in the bathroom. The three little punks, yes I am called them little punks and that is a kind term for them, wanted shoot a teacher -

Three Maury Middle School students, charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, planned to shoot a teacher because she separated two of them for “horsing around” in physical education class, the school principal said Tuesday.

The teacher also had commented on the danger of one of the student’s untied shoes, said Jim Hodge, who was present while the boys were interviewed by authorities.

Full KNS story here

That is right they wanted to kill a teacher for stopping them from horsing around and for worrying about them hurting themselves due to a untied shoe. That is a RIDICULOUSLY low standard to even consider killing someone no matter what standards you use. It was also revealed that they planned to shoot a second teacher as well.

These kids need to go to jail and stay there until they turn 21 (that is the maximum penalty since they are youth). I do not want to hear about how they were intimidated, from bad / broken home, how they are learning disabled, how some adult is responsible for not properly educating them, or how they did not understand the impact of their potential actions.

They are seventh graders in 2005, they probably know more about the world then most adults did when we were 21, and they MORE THEN UNDERSTOOD what they planned to do. They planned it, they brought the weapons (that is right weapons) and if they had not been stupid with their gun handling they would have likely killed the teacher and probably injured or killed a few others.

These punks need to really understand that there is a result for your actions, and that we can not get away with things by claiming we are sorry, etc. I must also add I am passionate about this story because I have close family that work in the Jefferson County school system, though not at Maury Middle, and I want every kid in that county and every other county to understand you can not plan to shoot a teacher and get off with no punishment.

Neil Boortz the radio talk show personality out of Atlanta has a entry and poll in his Neil’s Nuze section today regarding looters (story here) The post covers the reports of looters from New Orleans, and even includes a quote from a looter that says looting is one of the few means that people have to get back at the society that has oppressed them.

As mentioned above, Mr. Boortz is also polling his site visitors about how looters should be handled - as of the time of this post the poll results were as follow -

Yes, shoot to kill all looters on sight. 34%

Shoot to kill people looting TVs, jewelry, etc. but not people looting food. They couldn’t buy the food if they wanted to. There is no one to take their money. 59%

No, shooting people for stealing is not acceptable. 7%

I am in the second category for those that care. Anyone looting non life essential items should be shot. Natural disasters are not the time to stock up on TV’s, jewelry, CD’s and clothes. Shoot a few and that will reduce looting ASAP.

Scott at The Burr in the Burgh has a post about how Julia Sweeney of SNL fame (her most famous character is the androgynous character Pat) has now become a professed atheist and is doing a play called “Letting Go of God” in San Fran. Scott reports from the recent interview gave to “the Gate” in San Francisco where Sweeney misquotes the ideas of Jesus as being her reason to reject Christianity as well as confusing two of Homer’s works (the Iliad and The Odyssey) she references stories from. I, like Scott, hope that ms. Sweeney sees the errors of her ways and comes to Christ, the real one - not the one that she thinks she mistakenly understands now.

Full Post Here

[H/T to Milton at Transforming Sermons for this one]

It seems that Bob of Mr Steadfast (one heck of a great blog) has a new blog up and running - it is called gratitude & hoopla and I encourage everyone to check it out.

That’s what gratitude & hoopla is all about. God is good. God is strong. God is wise. And God is in control.

Like Milton I figuire this will quickly become a regular read for me.