WHEN ITS BLOOD is running hot, the Houston Chronicle editorial board rips and shreds and rants and snarls and demands thus and so. But that's only for the important stuff. When it comes to stuff like the Obama administration's death grip on offshore drilling or the coming bankruptcy of the U.S. of A. -- mildness ensues.
On drilling, which has more than a bit to do with the economy of Houston and Texas:
We take the word of those in the oil and gas industry who say lifting of the [deepwater drilling moratorium] is mostly symbolic because it hasn't been followed up by approvals for new deep-water [read deepwater] and shallow-water sections of the Gulf, where the permitting process also has been sclerotic. It still needs to be stepped up.
(Editorial, "China and energy: Linking the gulf moratorium's end and the Chinese energy play in South Texas," Houston Chronicle, October 26, 2010)
So does the editorialist then bang tables and slam doors and display the same contempt and disdain for the administration as it regularly does for, say, the medical insurance industry.
Silly question.
The editorialist says, predictably and mildly, "we will need to build a clean, dependable bridge" to the energy future, "and that means more reliance on domestic sources of natural gas. . . . We hope the administration [gets it]."
That's it? Hope?
(Notice how liquid fossil fuel is tossed under the bridge.)
Now that little matter of the bankrupting of America:
For the most part, Americans have been able to look on [as Great Britain cuts its government budget and France raises the national retirement age, setting off riots in the streets], but not with detachment or a sense that it can't happen here. It very well could.
(Editorial, "Coming soon? Britain and France offer previews of tough decisions that will face the United States," Houston Chronicle, October 28, 2010)
Indeed, it could. So what should we do about it?
Nary a word of advice. Just two slices of milquetoast, lightly buttered with irrelevance:
Great Britain and France offer us a vivid preview. Americans will be facing similar decisions about government budgets, taxes and retirement benefits -- and soon.
Gee, thanks.
What the Chronicle should have said, for starters, was "sorry." "Sorry for cheering on every last dollar of the the administration's promiscuous spending and borrowing that are bankrupting America."
After that, the editorial board should have said what is obvious, even to the French: "So how about let's stop spending money we don't have?"
How hard was that?
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