Apr
19
2009

URLs du Jour

2009-04-19

  • Max Schulz, writing in the WSJ, notes a tale of "entrepreneurship" gone bad, appropriately near the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa:

    In September, ethanol giant VeraSun Energy opened a refinery on the outskirts of this eastern Iowa community. Among the largest biofuels facilities in the country, the Dyersville plant could process 39 million bushels of corn and produce 110 million gallons of ethanol annually. VeraSun boasted the plant could run 24 hours a day, seven days a week to meet the demand for home-grown energy.

    Today, however, VeraSun is bankrupt, although its managers no doubt still have fond memories of how Obama and the other candidates (except McCain) kowtowed to the industry during the Iowa caucus campaign. The Dyersville plant is shuttered, looking for a sucker buyer. A good article to keep handy when you read thinly-disguised press release "news stories" about your local Congresscritter pointing to the "green jobs" he or she has created with his or her most recent grant/subsidy/gimmick/boondoggle. Guess who won't be eager to accept responsibility when the bubble bursts?

  • For those of us who like to draw deep lessons from baseball: the Washington Nationals are (as I type) 1-10, already 9½ games deep in the cellar of the NL East. And they're not great at spelling either.

  • Which led me to wonder: why is it "Red Sox" and not "Red Socks"? Google, that great satisfier of idle curiousity, found me the answer to that, and a lot more. (Hm, I could have been a Porchclimber-hater.)


Last Modified 2012-10-08 8:40 AM EDT