House of Eratosthenes

Canada’s economy grows, while America’s sputters.

The difference?

Drill, baby, drill.

From the Wall Street Journal:

OTTAWA—Canada’s economy expanded at a 3.9% annualized pace in January through March, the fastest clip in a year and more than double the rate in the U.S., as businesses replenished inventories and boosted investment spending and exports rose while consumer and government spending stalled, Statistics Canada said Monday.

Gross domestic product growth was marginally below the consensus call of 4%, and also undershot the Bank of Canada’s 4.2% forecast.

GDP growth accelerated from a downwardly revised 3.1% in the fourth quarter, which was originally reported at 3.3%. The economic performance was the reverse of the U.S. where growth decelerated to 1.8% in the first quarter from 3.1% previously.

From Bloomberg News:

Canada’s current account deficit (on a seasonally adjusted basis) with the rest of the world declined for the second consecutive quarter to reach $8.9 billion in the first quarter, led by a larger goods surplus. The $1.4 billion decline in the current account deficit was largely attributable to strong export volumes of energy products.

In the capital and financial account (unadjusted for seasonal variation), the purchase of Canadian securities by foreign investors slowed in the quarter, but continued to account for most of the inflows to Canada. These purchases, almost equally split between Canadian bonds and stocks, were the lowest recorded in a year.

The overall surplus on the trade in goods widened in the first quarter to $1.7 billion, up $1.3 billion from the previous quarter. Trade with the US accounted for all of the gains, as the goods deficit with other countries increased in the quarter. The goods surplus with the US expanded to its highest level since the third quarter of 2008, notably on much higher exports of energy products.

Canada drills for more oil than it needs, the United States does not drill for enough oil to meet its name.

A world power does not remain a world power long under those conditions.

Much has been said about how this-or-that candidate for the Republican nomination would be a substandard contender because President Barack Obama, with all His debating skill, would mop the floor with ’em.

But has anyone given any thought to what He Who Walks On Water would actually say? How many issues are there? Every single molehill that was made into a mountain over the last three years…the “Beer Summit,” oil-in-the-gulf, Libya, Egypt, taking a zillion weeks to decide what to do in Afghanistan…and then the stupid issues like gay marriage and legalizing pot. Iran and North Korea, and then you have things like this drill-or-don’t-drill that cut right to the heart of the matter of whether Americans are good enough to have claim to the things we need. Whether we count, whether we matter, whether we should apologize to the rest of the world wherever we go…

What would the transcript to a debate look like, between Obama and X? Correct me if I’m wrong, we’ve not seen Him participate in an old-fashioned, off-the-cuff Reagan/Carter debate have we? I saw him participate in one of those “joint press conferences that are called debates” once three years ago.

Does Obama have the talent to think up, on the spot, an answer to pointed criticism about His own record after He’s been managing something?

And won’t it be tedious listening to ninety solid minutes of “I’m still working on cleaning up George Bush’s mess”…especially in regard to situations, like this one, where that obviously is not true?

Mister Wonderful couldn’t argue his way out of a paper bag, when set against a decent GOP candidate, then or now. But as several columnists have pointed out, the real problem isn’t this president. It’s an electorate which is willing to tolerate his sort of incompetence in the Oval Office to start with. It’s the voters which send such a candidate in there to begin with, despite his complete and total lack of coherent solutions to our nation’s problems.

THAT’S what I’m afraid of – tens of millions of fellow voters who can’t tear themselves away from “American Idol” or “Dancing With the Stars” or their inane fantasy sports leagues long enough to inform themselves about what’s going on in presidential politics…but who still feel qualified to step into a booth in November and cast a ballot regarding the future of this nation.

The frame of mind of the people I work with, kind of tells me all I need to know. I’ve no reason to think their attitudes and levels of thought process are at all atypical among the average American voter. This region strikes me as about as average and middle-of-the-road as it gets out here in the hinterlands. It’s not that they think Obama is as wonderful as the media and Hollywood does, it’s that they are way too inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt, and way too quick to dismiss people like Palin and Bush as “idiots,” when they’ve read anything written by Palin or Bush, never spent five minutes listening to them, much less met them personally.

I mean, I thought Palin just completely wiped the floor with Gaffe Machine duringthe veep debate…but America didn’t agree. My countrymen were too busy mouthing off on blogs about what a “dimbulb” she was supposed to be, even though it should have been clear to all that she was actually one sharp cookie.
- cylarz | 05/31/2011 @ 10:17
…tens of millions of fellow voters who can’t tear themselves away from “American Idol” or “Dancing With the Stars” or their inane fantasy sports leagues long enough to inform themselves about what’s going on in presidential politics…but who still feel qualified to step into a booth in November and cast a ballot regarding the future of this nation.

Yeah, like this guy.
- mkfreeberg | 05/31/2011 @ 10:23

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“The Price of Not Driling”Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

“The Price of Not Driling”
Tuesday, May 31st, 2011