Opinion

There’s a new horror movie out, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, the third in in The Conjuring franchise. Consumer fixation on the paranormal (disembodied spirits, spooks, talking dolls, etc.) has become a lucrative business that preys on a fear of the dark and things that go bump in the night and promotes a Halloween theology centered on the forces of evil that never seem to be a problem during daylight hours.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas urged Texans to cut back on power usage last week when an unusually large number of power plants shut down for unexpected repairs as temperatures soared. ERCOT officials announced Friday that Texans could resume normal levels of electricity use, however.

Joe Biden set the stage for the G-7 by announcing an end to his opposition to Russia building an under-sea energy pipeline to Germany and through Germany to the E.U. That move was concerning since he has stopped construction on our own pipeline from Canada and since Russia will be greatly enriched and have increased leverage over the E.U. if it has the pipeline. Russia has been known in the past to shut down its current pipeline and raise prices in the dead of winter to extort money from countries along the pipeline’s route. The current pipe, incidentally, goes through Ukraine, and the alternate line would allow Russia to freeze Ukrainians to death in the winter.