The weekend, warnings, Widmer & wins

Full slate today, but I'm going to try to keep it short. I have a big decision to make regarding basketball at Clark and need to spend some more time thinking. It's hard to turn your back on something you've built up from nothing, but there is also a time to move forward knowing you did everything in your power to make it work. Pondering pondering. On to the good stuff.

This weekend I met the smartest man ever ... at least in my presence. I'm sure Stephen Hawking could give him a run (not literally people!!) for his money, but this guy was freakishly smart. His interests were as eclectic as his intellect, ranging from parrots (3 foot tall parrots!) to tattooing to car building (yes I said building ... he has two CNC machines and just builds car/engine parts to his liking). He makes his $$$ in the oil business .. and by $$$ I mean racks to the 4th power (you do the math) .. engaging in fracking. Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is en vogue currently for it's ability to extract oil and natural gas from shale formations. Technological advancements have created a fracking boom and no where is the boom bigger than in North Dakota on the Bakken Shale Form. Estimates on the amount of oil in this shale form vary as wildly as Lindsay Lohan, from 6 billion barrels of oil to as much as 24 billion barrels of oil. If you take the median number of 13 billion barrels of oil, there is enough oil in this shale formation to fill all U.S. needs for almost two years. The high end pushes it out to almost four years. There are another 10 billion barrels of oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, untapped due to environmental concerns. Five states (state abbreviation test: TX, CA, AK, NM, OK) currently have a stable production of 2.5 million barrels of oil per day (with exploration of several large shale oil formations in Texas still to come!). Why am I telling you this? To emphasize a point I made a couple of weeks ago: WE DO NOT HAVE AN OIL SUPPLY PROBLEM IN THIS COUNTRY. WE HAVE AN OIL REFINING PROBLEM IN THIS COUNTRY!!! Oil prices around $100 per barrel put some pressure on gas prices, but refining production is what keeps gas at $3.50 a gallon .. which is exactly what ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, BP, Shell and Chevron need to keep making $137billion in profit (which is what they did in 2011). With a puppeteer's (or Warren Buffet's) skill, oil companies can easily manipulate the refining capacity (turning crude oil into gasoline) to keep the price of gas high, which in turn means more profit. More profit for the Big 5 means more money to bribe lobby our representatives to protect their $4billion in tax breaks. Well played Big Oil, well played indeed.

Another round of storms are due to roll into the Cincinnati area this afternoon and the amateur stormchasers are ready to tweet or mobile upload photos of everything they see. (BTW .. When did stormchasing become the cool thing to do? Why would I trust someone who has no formal training in meteorology to alert me to Mother Nature's danger? I love storms, but I can read the warnings plastered in the corner of my TV and tweet them out too! Oh .. that makes me a stormchaser? Cool!!!) The hype has started already, and I'm sure there has been a run on bottled water at Kroger's. I know I'm a bigger buzz kill than projectile vomit, but I don't buy into the culture of fear preferred by our mass media. When the ish really hits the fan, there is a tornado siren in my backyard so please stop clogging my Facebook and Twitter timelines with your 'analysis'. I prefer my Mother Nature to imitate the spirit from the Ark of Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark - beautiful at times, and a killer when she turns on you (luckily for me, I'm not a Nazi or I would be melting using primitive special effects!).  When she does turn on you, channel Indiana Jones and hold on tight with your eyes closed. In the meantime, spare me your untrained storm path predictions and let me listen to Tim Hedrick. Unless you have Super Accu-cast HD Doppler radar strapped to your car .. then pick me up!

Ryan Widmer's lawyers have filed another appeal to his conviction for murdering his wife. For those of you hiding in your tornado proof safe rooms the last five years, here's the Spark Notes version of events: Sarah Widmer found dead in bathtub, Ryan Widmer drags her out, calls 911, paramedics arrive and attempt to resuscitate in vain, two days later Widmer charged with murder, trial 1 found guilty but overturned on juror misconduct, trial 2 declared mistrial after hung jury, trial 3 found guilty. The Killing has fewer false red herrings than this case, and this new appeal will keep the smell of fish hanging over this case even longer. The new appeal centers around the case's lead investigator, Jeff Braley, whose character resembles a dog's hind leg. Braley was a member of the same police department which just settled a lawsuit stemming from busting up a party using a fake noise complaint anonymously called in by an officer's wife who was 20 miles away. Braley pulled a Scott Thompson/George O'Leary and fabricated parts of his resume, overstating his qualifications to be a detective like an amateur stormchaser. The judge in Widmer's third trial wouldn't allow the defense to bring up the problems with Braley's qualifications to the jury which is akin to forgetting to tell your birthday guests that you spit in the cake mix!! Enjoy!! Too many things don't add up correctly for me to say guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. No one will ever know exactly what went down on the night of Sarah Widmer's death. Hopefully there isn't an innocent man in prison. Question of the day: How hard would you fight if you were convicted of a crime you didn't commit? When would you know you were beaten? Discuss.

The Reds took care of business in Pittsburgh over the weekend winning two of three games. Johnny Cueto and Mat Latos played wiffleball against the Pirate swingers hitters, and the Reds bats showed some potency. The Reds head to Milwaukee for a crucial series against one of the other two major league franchises in the National League Central (seriously .. you can't count the Cubs, Lastros and Pirates as major league teams any more than the silver screen Cleveland Indians in Major League). It will be interesting to see how the Reds play against a good team, but not as interesting as the next big storyline on the season. "Down goes Frazier" will be the most unpopular phase in Redsland since Mondale/Ferraro in 1984 if Dusty and Walt decide to send Todd Frazier back to the minors when Miguel Cairo comes off the DL. The more deserving choice to be demoted or Trumped - you're fired - is Willie Harris. Willie is a doubles machine!! Half his hits are doubles!! I know he only has four hits on the season for a .086 BA, but he's a doubles hitter!! When the temperature starts to rise so does Willie's average and it's been so cold and damp so far this season. Just give him time!! Frazier meanwhile is hitting a measly .389 with two doubles, two triples and a home run. Plus he's virtually a rookie, and Dusty Custer no like rookie!! Sit tight Reds' fans, Dusty Custer's Last Stand has some drama in store!!

Tomorrow Arsenal, Mad Men and whatever else pops into my head. Gotta go!!