Cutting Edge: Tall tales about shale, Castro vs. Iran, exploiting 9/11 and ...
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The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center has begun posting notices on its website called "Tall Tales About Deep Wells." The first one addresses the issue of levying a severance tax on Marcellus Shale gas in Pennsylvania:
"The natural gas industry has argued that Pennsylvania is unique in seeing a surge in Marcellus gas wells and that a tax will impede growth. In fact, neighboring West Virginia is also experiencing significant new drilling activity and investment, while creating jobs. But unlike Pennsylvania, it is also collecting new tax revenue. West Virginia has levied corporate, severance and local property taxes on natural gas extraction for many years, yet production has been higher than in Pennsylvania and continues to increase."
Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic writes up a fascinating interview he recently had with Fidel Castro, the first installment being in part about Iran.
Castro displayed his usual anti-Americanism in objecting to U.S. pressure on Iran to scuttle its nuclear program. He said the best way to stop Iran from getting the bomb would be for Israel to get rid of its nuclear weapons. But Castro went on to excoriate Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his anti-Semitism:
"I don't think anyone has been slandered more than the Jews. I would say much more than the Muslims. ... [Jews] were expelled from their land, persecuted and mistreated all over the world. ... The Jews have lived an existence that is much harder than ours. There is nothing that compares to the Holocaust."
Under the headline, "Good News, If Only for the Moment," the blog A Spork in the Drawer writes:
"Judge rules that 'don't ask, don't tell' has a 'direct and deleterious effect' on the armed services.' This is at the district court level and Obama's Justice Department is expected to appeal. Any guesses how the Roberts Court will decide after it reaches them?"
Spork also takes issue with a billboard erected near the United Flight 93 memorial site in Shanksville that shows a big airplane with a flag motif above the wings and Jesus seeming to hold up the plane from below. It says: "Flight 93 -- Born Heroes -- Gave Their Lives to Save Lives / Life is a Precious Gift -- Save God's Unborn Heroes -- America Must End the Terror of Abortion."
First Published September 12, 2010 12:00 am
