Losing it

I've been watching a lot of TV since I got laid off. I mean, A LOT. Mostly C-SPAN and PBS. And I'm here to tell you: This is not a big plus for one's mental health.

For example, I could have sworn I heard very strange things come out of the mouths of some highly rated Wall Street Journal commentators Sunday. Granted, it's the Journal. But still. I actually hallucinated a whole exchange applauding China's proposed purchase of U.S. oil company Unocal via its state-owned company CNOOC.

Stephen Moore may (or may not?) have said: "One other quick point about this is, a lot of people were against the sale, the same people who have been saying for the last 10 years, oh my God, what's going to happen when China sells American assets? Well, here they're buying American assets, so you know, you can't have it both ways. You can't say it's going to be terrible when they start selling off the assets that they own a lot of American, U.S. securities, and then at the same time say it's a tragedy if they buy American assets. To me, better that they're buying our assets than that they're selling them."

Surely, he did not equate China's buying U.S. Treasury securities -- that is, loaning us money -- with China buying up U.S.-controlled oil reserves. That didn't happen, did it?

And I KNOW he did not say "I don't think oil is the strategic resource that everyone thinks it is. I would be much more concerned if the Chinese were talking about taking over, let's say, a high technology company or an aerospace company. But oil is just guck in the ground ... " Yyyyyeah. And blood is just guck in your veins.

Now, Paul Gigot DID say, "Let's take this out of economics to the geopolitical argument, because some people make the case that if you allow CNOOC to buy, take control over these Southeast Asian oil and gas reserves, you're hastening the day when their sphere of influence in Southeast Asia will only increase. Their ability to influence, not just economics, but security events in Southeast Asia, in Thailand, Indonesia, that sort of thing. Is that anything we should be concerned about, Dan?" I'm positive I heard that.

But Dan Henninger could not possibly have replied, "Well, you do have the little matter of the U.S. Navy floating around out in those waters," as if we would cheerfully go to war with China if they got to throwing their weight around. Couldn't have happened. Right? Right? Right...