Seriously, fuck those guys. I've read a ton of books in the last several years that have some touch point in the Middle East, mostly from a "war on terror" perspective. Iran comes up a lot in those, natch. However, this book for me really crystalized that amount of malarkey the Iranian government drops across the region. Directly or through proxies, Iran seems to responsible for at least 81% of the troubles in the region. Weº know they hate usº, this is understood, but let's not loose sight of how much Iran seems to hate every other ME government.
Aside 1: Who knew that Houthi isn't an ethnic minority group, but an Islamist rebel group named after their former leader who was vaporized by the Saudis? I did not. Just from snips and headlines covering SA's actions against them, I had the impression that Houthis vs. Saudis was something akin to Shiite vs. Sunni. Nope, Iranian backed guerrillas.
Aside 2: What a clusterfuck de-Baathification was in Iraq. Terrible decision.
Not all books are necessarily good and not all of them are unharmful, some books are harmful! This book is greatly harmful!
Like poisonous, dangerous and addictive drugs which are not available for everyone without restrictions so should be books! Publisher, librarian or an official in the book industry, we don't have the right to make this available to those without knowledge.
@GrundleStiltzkin, @DerekJohnson: We should provide members of online message board community with healthy and good books.
Seriously, fuck those guys. I've read a ton of books in the last several years that have some touch point in the Middle East, mostly from a "war on terror" perspective. Iran comes up a lot in those, natch. However, this book for me really crystalized that amount of malarkey the Iranian government drops across the region. Directly or through proxies, Iran seems to responsible for at least 81% of the troubles in the region. Weº know they hate usº, this is understood, but let's not loose sight of how much Iran seems to hate every other ME government.
Aside 1: Who knew that Houthi isn't an ethnic minority group, but an Islamist rebel group named after their former leader who was vaporized by the Saudis? I did not. Just from snips and headlines covering SA's actions against them, I had the impression that Houthis vs. Saudis was something akin to Shiite vs. Sunni. Nope, Iranian backed guerrillas.
Aside 2: What a clusterfuck de-Baathification was in Iraq. Terrible decision.
Not all books are necessarily good and not all of them are unharmful, some books are harmful! This book is greatly harmful!
Like poisonous, dangerous and addictive drugs which are not available for everyone without restrictions so should be books! Publisher, librarian or an official in the book industry, we don't have the right to make this available to those without knowledge.
@GrundleStiltzkin, @DerekJohnson: We should provide members of online message board community with healthy and good books.
I am 80% through the book. I have found it to be eye-opening in spots and somewhat sobering a depressing. You get a strong sense of how mighty and powerful the US economy was pre-covid and we were headed for mightier heights. And with a combination of the Covid and the Biden admin working to shut down fracking, etc. we are making inexplicable decisions to hand our affluence and power away.
Seriously, fuck those guys. I've read a ton of books in the last several years that have some touch point in the Middle East, mostly from a "war on terror" perspective. Iran comes up a lot in those, natch. However, this book for me really crystalized that amount of malarkey the Iranian government drops across the region. Directly or through proxies, Iran seems to responsible for at least 81% of the troubles in the region. Weº know they hate usº, this is understood, but let's not loose sight of how much Iran seems to hate every other ME government.
Aside 1: Who knew that Houthi isn't an ethnic minority group, but an Islamist rebel group named after their former leader who was vaporized by the Saudis? I did not. Just from snips and headlines covering SA's actions against them, I had the impression that Houthis vs. Saudis was something akin to Shiite vs. Sunni. Nope, Iranian backed guerrillas.
Aside 2: What a clusterfuck de-Baathification was in Iraq. Terrible decision.
Not all books are necessarily good and not all of them are unharmful, some books are harmful! This book is greatly harmful!
Like poisonous, dangerous and addictive drugs which are not available for everyone without restrictions so should be books! Publisher, librarian or an official in the book industry, we don't have the right to make this available to those without knowledge.
@GrundleStiltzkin, @DerekJohnson: We should provide members of online message board community with healthy and good books.
I lobbied Grundle hard for us to read It's Good to be Gronk.
Seriously, fuck those guys. I've read a ton of books in the last several years that have some touch point in the Middle East, mostly from a "war on terror" perspective. Iran comes up a lot in those, natch. However, this book for me really crystalized that amount of malarkey the Iranian government drops across the region. Directly or through proxies, Iran seems to responsible for at least 81% of the troubles in the region. Weº know they hate usº, this is understood, but let's not loose sight of how much Iran seems to hate every other ME government.
Aside 1: Who knew that Houthi isn't an ethnic minority group, but an Islamist rebel group named after their former leader who was vaporized by the Saudis? I did not. Just from snips and headlines covering SA's actions against them, I had the impression that Houthis vs. Saudis was something akin to Shiite vs. Sunni. Nope, Iranian backed guerrillas.
Aside 2: What a clusterfuck de-Baathification was in Iraq. Terrible decision.
Not all books are necessarily good and not all of them are unharmful, some books are harmful! This book is greatly harmful!
Like poisonous, dangerous and addictive drugs which are not available for everyone without restrictions so should be books! Publisher, librarian or an official in the book industry, we don't have the right to make this available to those without knowledge.
@GrundleStiltzkin, @DerekJohnson: We should provide members of online message board community with healthy and good books.
I lobbied Grundle hard for us to read It's Good to be Gronk.
Looks like I've run through my bullet poonts. Sad.
In sum, I thought this was a fantastic book. I love big-picture stuff reinforced with individual examples, and this author is outstanding at that in my opinion. A year ago, this was a subject I knew almost nothing about other than skimming the occasional WSJ article. Then on a whim I read Energy by Rhodes (yes, I know everyone is sick of me raving about that book). That book gave me the foundational understanding of the importance—and historical rarity—of plentiful energy for human prosperity. Stacked up on that, The New Map gave me a better understanding of how that is accomplished from the 30K foot view.
If there's further discussion to have with anyone, I look forward to it. Otherwise, thus ends Book Clerb.
Looks like I've run through my bullet poonts. Sad.
In sum, I thought this was a fantastic book. I love big-picture stuff reinforced with individual examples, and this author is outstanding at that in my opinion. A year ago, this was a subject I knew almost nothing about other than skimming the occasional WSJ article. Then on a whim I read Energy by Rhodes (yes, I know everyone is sick of me raving about that book). That book gave me the foundational understanding of the importance—and historical rarity—of plentiful energy for human prosperity. Stacked up on that, The New Map gave me a better understanding of how that is accomplished from the 30K foot view.
If there's further discussion to have with anyone, I look forward to it. Otherwise, thus ends Book Clerb.
Thanks for reading ;-}
I'll probably will be fully done in another 1 - 2 weeks at my snail's pace. But will have some more thoughts to share.
It's cool that @1to392831weretaken is officially our Refining Superiority Guy now.
Before I launch into what I thought of it and respond to other’s observations, here’s a book review by WaPo that picks apart some of the author’s points:
Haven’t read so I should probably stay out...but I won’t. I can say nothing has been a bigger destroyer of capital ($$$) than shale. Not great for oil companies, but it’s been an absolute boon for the US as a whole...yeah capitalism. It balanced out the capital flow for the US, created jobs galore, and given us a shiteton of natural gas which has kept our power/electricity prices low (compared globally) which has been one of the key drivers for manufacturing (don’t discount energy cost in that renaissance...many people ignore it). Economics on shale plays are completely different than as an example deep water drilling...both in upfront CapEx and cycle time to revenues. Doubt you will see much of the high, high upfront CapEx deep water/Alaska/etc drilling until something structurally changes.
Environmentalist are right about shipping oil on rail cars...fuck them (and Warren Buffet and Russia and others) for using these moron environmentalists to fight all the pipelines. That said, some of that pipeline craziness really screws over Canada and Northern US oil plays (Wyoming and North Dakota) and benefits plays down here so I guess I shouldn’t complain too much. Bad for US...good for Texas. Yeah us.
Obviously this one of main thrusts of the book, and one of my big takeaways. I consider myself decently well-read about US news at the topline. I cannot recall reading much if anything about this separate from a partisan view. Plenty of "shale gas will poison water" or "greens are trying to kill jobs." Not much about how impactful this was domestically and internationally. This was a huge eye-opener.
A close corollary to this point, eye-opening reading just how good the US economy was pre-Vid. Wow, just wow.
Question for my oil & gas guysm: The book makes mention of the short-cycle nature of fracking wells, versus the long-cycle of conventional wells like in Middle East or South America. Out of the scope of the book is the pros and cons of that. Anyone care to expound?
Another related anecdote from the: In 2015 (I think? maybe earlier), Venezuela proposed in an OPEC meeting to push propaganda in the US about the environmental horrors of fracking. Fuck those guys.
Before picking up this book, I knew jack shit about shale, fracking, etc. Like Grundle I was spoon fed a steady diet of how evil it was. I really want to read more to understand the science behind it. Whatever the truth of its environmental impacts, I’m glad it diversified our country’s energy portfolio. And as this book so brilliantly outlined, without energy independence you’re vulnerable.
Side note, I had no idea that Standing Rock/Dakota Access Pipeline protest are what set off AOC’s political career.
Should say I’ve always found Yergin exceptional in his historical summation/characterization on things that have happened...can’t always say the same about when he applies it going forward (true of most everyone...I guess I criticize him more because he says it with such authority and it’s given such weight because of who he is). That was always my biggest issue with Commanding Heights.
Comments
Like poisonous, dangerous and addictive drugs which are not available for everyone without restrictions so should be books! Publisher, librarian or an official in the book industry, we don't have the right to make this available to those without knowledge.
@GrundleStiltzkin, @DerekJohnson: We should provide members of online message board community with healthy and good books.
In sum, I thought this was a fantastic book. I love big-picture stuff reinforced with individual examples, and this author is outstanding at that in my opinion. A year ago, this was a subject I knew almost nothing about other than skimming the occasional WSJ article. Then on a whim I read Energy by Rhodes (yes, I know everyone is sick of me raving about that book). That book gave me the foundational understanding of the importance—and historical rarity—of plentiful energy for human prosperity. Stacked up on that, The New Map gave me a better understanding of how that is accomplished from the 30K foot view.
If there's further discussion to have with anyone, I look forward to it. Otherwise, thus ends Book Clerb.
Thanks for reading ;-}
It's cool that @1to392831weretaken is officially our Refining Superiority Guy now.
Before I launch into what I thought of it and respond to other’s observations, here’s a book review by WaPo that picks apart some of the author’s points:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/a-global-energy-study-that-misses-some-climate-change-realities/2020/09/24/1addeb3e-f2b3-11ea-bc45-e5d48ab44b9f_story.html
Environmentalist are right about shipping oil on rail cars...fuck them (and Warren Buffet and Russia and others) for using these moron environmentalists to fight all the pipelines. That said, some of that pipeline craziness really screws over Canada and Northern US oil plays (Wyoming and North Dakota) and benefits plays down here so I guess I shouldn’t complain too much. Bad for US...good for Texas. Yeah us.
Side note, I had no idea that Standing Rock/Dakota Access Pipeline protest are what set off AOC’s political career.