OPEC Slashes Production Again. Big Surprise There!

OPEC, today, in their emergency meeting, decided to cut daily production by 1.5 million barrels beginning next month. The price of oil, since hitting a high in July, has dropped 55%, as of yesteday's closing. OPEC, in their statement today, stated the "The financial crisis is having a noticeable impact on the world economy dampening the demand for oil." Essentially, OPEC is more concerned with their being an oversupply of oil on the market. In particular, supply growth going forward. I seriously doubt OPEC nations are concerned about the short-term supply of their product.

I can definitely understand why OPEC would want to keep the price of their product high. Over the course of the last two years, OPEC nations have been benefiting from high oil prices. Earlier this week, the Iranian oil minister, Gholam Hossein Nozari, boasted that "The era of cheap oil is finished!" Both the Iranians and Venezuelans are in favor of gouging their consumers, specifically those of us who live in the good ole USA, to fill their coffers.

Why should we continue to deal with a cartel, especially a cartel that if it operated in the U.S. would be illegal, to procure fossil fuels? Especially from countries that do not really give two shakes about our country? As of right now, OPEC's move has backfired on them with oil dropping to $64.40 per barrel.

Obviously, OPEC's position is that they do not care about economic conditions. They do not seem to care that if they keep their prices high, they suffer like the rest of us. Instead of taking a longer-term view of their market, they decide they need their money now, which could very well backfire on them, if it encourages their customers to accelerate their research and development efforts for alternative sources of fuel. Regardless, nations, and in particular the U.S. needs to be devoting research money to developing alternative sources of fuel. It's a question of national security. We should not have our national security depend on a cartel of countries who, by the grace of providence, have been blessed with high supplies of a certain natural resource.

We need to be working on this situation now before it becomes too late, and before we become even more beholden to black gold than we already are.

Reference links:

• OPEC Cuts Oil Production in Move to Boost Prices
• OPEC Slashing Output
• Oil Below $65; OPEC Cut Fails to Halt Slide

First Month's Hockey Thoughts

We are now a month into the 07-08 campaign, and I must say, I am quite disappointed in the way the Capitals have started out their season. I was totally psyched, like everyone else here in Washington, when the Caps rolled off to three victories in a row. That hope came shattering down to earth with the Caps going into a funk. After our defeat against the Lightning on Saturday, we are now a dismal 6-10-1 and last in the eastern conference.

The Caps also are having great difficulty in putting the puck in the net. The Caps are also performing worse than they were this time last year! With the talent they have on the roster this season, the record should be improved. As a season ticket holder, I am dismayed by the fact that we keep on finding the same ways to lose games as we have the previous three campaigns. To be honest, I am starting to get discouraged.

The Caps are off until Thursday when they play the Panthers. I hope they take the extended time off to work on the power play and the offense, and hopefully more puck control. The Caps need to begin putting in a full 60 minute effort, or else we will be looking outside in yet again once April comes along. I am getting tired of seeing nothing but losing and uninspired hockey. They better start picking it up soon.

Two More Grades....

After a long second seven weeks, I have received both of my grades for my classes. I received an A in both classes. Obviously, I'm quite pleased with the grades I received in both classes. Fortunately for me, I won't ever have to take two classes again during a seven week session. It kept me so busy that I had very little time for anything else. Now I have a two week break until classes start once again for the summer session. I'm going to enjoy the fact that I received two A's and recharge as much as I possibly can before the 21st.

Caption This! The Queen in Jamestown, VA

As I'm sure we have all seen in the news, Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, is on an official state visit here in the country. She is mainly here for what is the biggest celebration in recent memory for the Commonwealth of Virginia, the quad-centennial of the founding of the Jamestown Colony. The Queen received a great southern welcome upon her arrival in Richmond with her husband Prince Philip.

Obviously, this is a great honor for our Commonwealth, to be hosting the Queen. Today, she was in Jamestown to tour the original site of the colony, and to see the progress made by archeologists digging up remains of the original fort. Which, if you haven't been down there lately, I highly encourage everyone to do so, it's quite a site!

Vice President Dick Cheney accompanied Her Majesty and Governor Tim Kaine on a tour of the Jamestown settlement. You can find VP Cheney's remarks here.

However, what I found most interesting of all, was the picture I have posted with this entry, of the Queen and Cheney. I'm wondering what she's thinking here. One thing is for sure, it doesn't appear to be a friendly look, it more looks like she's glaring at him. This, of course, is perfectly fine, in my opinion, Cheney deserves glares such as this. It just got me to thinking, is this how other foreign dignitaries view Cheney? That, of course, could be the question of the hour.

End of Academic Year

Phew! It's been quite some time since I posted anything, I know. I have been keeping myself quite busy the last several months. Most of the time has been split between work and school. I, for one, am looking forward to the end of the academic year in the next week. It's been a hectic beginning of the year. Well, I should say, it's mostly been the last seven weeks that's been hectic.

I have been taking two classes this seven weeks and it has kept me severely busy. I've had very little time for much of anything else outside of work. This is the main reason why I'm glad I'm just about done with the semester. I'll have a brief two to three week break until summer classes begin in on May 14. During the Summer I'll only have one class, Information Technology for Managers, so I hope to not be as busy. Hopefully I'll be able to take in a few baseball games with my girlfriend and enjoy some of the summer before my trip to Disneyworld at the end of July.