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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: bentway who wrote (407916)	8/18/2008 6:05:37 PM
From: combjelly	Respond to of 1572777

"It's the only depiction in a movie I can recall where the WAY America was taken was spelled out." You are correct. Usually it is already taken as a given. Not much gun porn in that. "I think that's because, when you start spelling out exactly how America will be taken down, it very quickly becomes ridiculous." No kidding. I got some hard stares when I started laughing. I should have known better, before he rolled the tape he was saying how "it could really happen this way". Well, no, it couldn't. The tanks rolling up from Mexico through Texas was a nice touch. Only about a bajillion military bases here. New Mexico or Nevada, maybe. If everyone was asleep. But Texas? Yep, we would have never noticed the tanks building up on the border. Mexico being flush with T-62s and such. And all of the trees would have made excellent cover so we wouldn't be able to see them...

To: bentway who wrote (407916)	8/18/2008 6:28:55 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1572777

I don't get why crack margins worsen as the summer progresses unless gas prices are artificially raised and so they are higher than heating oil prices. Maybe because there is little competition for fuel? Ugly Thoughts for a Pre-PPI Monday August 18, 2008 By Brad Zigler We've all seen oil prices tank since the Independence Day holiday, hoping that the salutary effect lower crude prices should have on refiners' profit margins would quickly bring relief at the pump. While some easing in retail gasoline prices has occurred, it's coming out of refiners' pockets. Margins, as measured through the crack spread (see "Time For Crack Spreads?"), have shrunk more than 2%, despite a 22% drop in crude input prices. Most of that, true, is due to seasonal factors. At this time of year, refining margins ordinarily aim southward as heating oil inventories are built. Last year at this time, refining margins were a lot fatter. In mid-May, refining margins were mind-numbingly fat, in fact, at 42.7%. By the start of the heating oil season, however, they'd been pared to only 6.7%. There was a similar story the year before. Margins peaked in June 2006 at 31.5% and reached their nadir at the end of October, still in double digits, at 10.7%. This year, margins reached their summer peaks on a much lower plateau. With a good two and a half months to go before the cold season's start, the November/December refining margin is already below 7.5%. It's not just oil refiners getting pinched. On the ag side, soybean processors are feeling squeezed, too. Soybean processing is a lot like oil refining. After taking in soybeans, subjecting them to chemical and physical processing, you produce finished soybean oil and meal. Margins for that business are also in decline (see "Soybean Crush Crushed"). Read more................. seekingalpha.com