I’ve never pretended to be a wordsmith. I leave that to Webster or Funk & Wagnalls.

This week our top folks in Washington have had difficulty with a few words. One was ‘deter.’ Everyone claimed that deter meant to stop Putin from invading Ukraine, but then we heard from our President it don’t mean that at all.

Then President Biden said yesterday that Putin cannot ‘remain in power.’ Within minutes, some underling corrected the President, “No, no, he didn’t mean to stop him from being the dictator of Russia.” Earlier Biden had called Putin a ‘war criminal’ and a ‘butcher.’ So, I guess if the people in Russia want to be ruled by a butchering war criminal, it’s their choice.

In the Senate hearing for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, she seemed to be puzzled by the word ‘woman’ when asked to define it by another woman. Oddly, the basis for her being nominated is because Mrs. Jackson is a woman. I learned in 1935 to leave that whole argument to women to decide, “Money, horse racing and women: three things the boys just can’t figure out.”

I am concerned to read that a lot of female professors at top universities can’t define ‘woman’ either. These women ought to know because they are professors of Gender Studies. I wouldn’t dare ask them to define ‘man.’

I would never pretend to be an economist either. However, over time, you tend to pick up a few basic rules, especially as it relates to the government. For example, if you want more of a certain product, the government can subsidize it. Generally, the volume will increase and often the price to the buyer will go down.

On the other hand, if you want less of a product, the government can over-regulate it, place restrictions on production, tax it, and simply say bad things about it. As a result, the amount produced will decrease. And if the need for it is still high, the price will go up.

Today, Americans are suffering through high prices for fuel and everything transported by fuel because President Biden signed orders that canceled new oil and gas wells, pipelines, and fuel processing. Instead of continuing a bright future as a net exporter of energy, we are forced to import it. Faced with a short supply and higher prices, instead of changing policies to produce more, the government proposes to print more money and give it to us so we can afford high priced gas. In California, instead of drilling for its own oil and gas, or encouraging more drilling in nearby Alaska, the Governor wants to give people a $400 gas card.

Now, with Europe in a bind, Biden promised to provide them LNG (liquified natural gas) to replace gas from Russia. Do you suppose President Biden will encourage more drilling in the gas-rich region of Ohio-Pennsylvania-West Virginia? Will he order construction of new pipelines to the East Coast for processing to LNG for export to Germany and other European countries? (Two such pipelines were stopped and canceled because of excessive regulations.)

Historic quote by Will Rogers:

“The difference between good times and bad times is gasoline, and what goes with it.” WA #636, March 3, 1935