This is what some unknown number of Mohammedans want to explode in the immediate vicinity of you, your family, your friends, your co-workers and people you’ve never even met. And they want to do it over and over and over again, until you submit. Yet there are still people who believe that we can reason with them. Un-piss them off, if you will, and they’ll go away.

Well, no. They won’t.

Heard while waiting on hold to clear up a bank problem: “Thank you for holding. Your current estimated wait time is greater than five minutes.”

Note that there is no indication how much greater. Assholes. This has been going on for 10 minutes, too.

Uno:

As a result, EOG has drilled 18 wells in Johnson County this year, fewer than originally planned, according to Papa.

Even so, EOG’s Barnett Shale production is expected to average about 50 million cubic feet per day this year, down slightly from the previous estimate of 60 million cubic feet. EOG has eight drilling rigs working in Johnson County and one in Hood County.

Hmmm…50,000,000 / 18 = 2.8MM per well X 1031 (BTUs per cf) = 2,900MM BTUs X $7.647 per MMBTUs = $22,000 per day, per well. I think. If my math is right, and it almost never is. But if it is, the next story is why I’m slowly rapidly going crazy

Two-o:

Demand for drilling rigs, led by activity in the Barnett Shale natural gas field near Fort Worth, has caused a 10 percent rise in rig costs this year and will push rates up higher through the end of 2005, the chief executive of Patterson-UTI Energy of Snyder said Thursday.

“The demand for drilling rigs is as high as we’ve seen since the 1970s, and the heaviest demand is in the Barnett Shale, followed by the Rockies,” said Cloyce Talbott, chief executive officer of Patterson-UTI.

Patterson-UTI owns and leases 398 land-based drilling rigs, about one-third of all rigs now operating in the continental U.S.

The Barnett Shale has become Texas’ largest natural gas field, with about 90 drilling rigs operating in Wise, Denton, Tarrant, Johnson and Parker Counties.

The lack of Somervell County in that list is one thing, the scarcity of rigs is another. No pipeline activity on this side of the river that I know of is the third. I don’t think I’ll be able to relax until we start turning right.

BaloneyMachine:

There isn’t a duller politician in America, not even in Indiana.

Quick show of hands here — who really & seriously want’s exciting, sexy, controversial, newsmaking politicians? OK, yall can go pick up your lifetime pass for free Jackass DVDs over there.

NB Jeffro: nobody cares if yall have to go out and cover park board meetings because the governor isn’t whooping it up in titty bars. That’s a YP, not an MP.

I admire your attempt to stay somewhat relevant, though. Rage, RAGE, my friend, against the dark night of sober-minded, serious civil servants!