COLLECTIVE MADNESS
“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
Prologue.
ReplyDelete- Trial Lawyer Bonanza -
ReplyDeleteShe Really Did this, Ya know?
ReplyDelete"If the Chinese stop taking dollars , the US will simply stop buying Chinese goods. "
ReplyDelete---
WHY does that necessarily follow el-Deuce?
Persistence Furthers, ya know.
ReplyDelete- Fabulous year for Crawford Perspectives -
ReplyDeleteCrawford is famous for his frank use of astrology, and he seems more open than usual in rationalizing his investment conclusions in astrological terms.
He continues to be very interested in an arcane interpretation called the Bradley Model (he says its "SIDEREAL POTENTIAL LINE takes into consideration EVERY one of the classical Ptolemaic harmonic angles between any 2-planet pairs").
Well, I think that if the Chinese wanted to be paid in Mexican pesos, then Walmart would pay them, with pesos.
ReplyDeleteSeems to me.
I mean other country's business men do business in currencies that are not native to their lands, why would US businessmen not be as agile?
Palin Could Be Next Reagan, Says Coulter
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the article.
Alan Page To The Rescue In Minnesota?
Page The Purple People Eater
Well, the fact is the bankers of the world are lining up around the block to buy U.S. bonds with incredibly low yields. 1.58% on 5 year, 2.46% on 10 year, and 3.09 on 30 year.
ReplyDeleteAnd, enough with the (insert hand-waving, and shouting here) trillion dollar deficit, nonsense. When a bank borrows a trillion at incredibly low rates, and loans it out at a very positive spread we don't gnash our teeth, and wail about "deficits." We say, "Wow, Great Business."
We're running a "true" deficit; but it's about 2%, or so, of GDP. It'll be fine. Meantime, the banking system is solvent, and starting to function, again; and we're Not in another Depression. Oh, and some European countries would kill for a 7.2% unemployment rate.
We'll be out of recession by the 3rd (if not the 2nd) quarter. In the meantime, enjoy the cheap gas. It won't last forever (That's the real problem.)
Page Rules!
ReplyDelete---
DUH!
They smashed a hair salon, a pharmacy and several restaurants. Police in riot gear tried to control the crowd, but some people retreated along 14th Street and bashed cars along the way.
The mob smashed the windows at Creative African Braids on 14th Street, and a woman walked out of the shop holding a baby in her arms.
"This is our business," shouted Leemu Topka, the black owner of the salon she started four years ago. "This is our shop. This is what you call a protest?"
Wednesday night's vandalism victims had nothing to do with the shooting death by a BART police officer of Oscar Grant on New Year's Day - but that did little to sway the mob.
"I feel like the night is going great," said Nia Sykes, 24, of San Francisco, one of the demonstrators. "I feel like Oakland should make some noise. This is how we need to fight back. It's for the murder of a black male."
Sykes, who is black, had little sympathy for the owner of Creative African Braids.
"She should be glad she just lost her business and not her life," Sykes said. She added that she did have one worry for the night: "I just hope nobody gets shot or killed."
"Bell, 42, came out to find that almost all of the car's windows, including the front and back had been smashed and it appeared that someone had tried to set the car on fire.
ReplyDelete"I'm for the cause," said Bell, who is black. "But I'm against the violence and destruction."
Nearby, Godhuli Bose stood near her smashed Toyota Corolla as a man walked by, repeatedly called her a misogynist slur and then added, "F- your car."
Bose, a high school teacher, said: "I can't afford this."
"The core group of the mob appeared to be about 40 people, several of whom were with Revolution Books, a Berkeley bookstore. A man distributed the "Revolution" newspaper - whose tagline is
ReplyDelete"voice of the Revolutionary Communist Party, U.S.A."
- as he shouted "This whole damn system is guilty!"
Soo Jung Sung, an Asian American, didn't understand why she was to blame. She wept as she looked at the shattered front windshield of her Nissan Montero.
"
I read that story too but don't know how the guy was shot or why or what happened, whether it was any way justified or not.
ReplyDelete---
Bimbo on the Glenn Beck 'trivia morning' program just answered a multiple choice question--which of the following was one of the Founding Fathers--four answers--she picks--
AL FRANKEN!
Yup, says Beck, he discovered electricity too, with that kite, Ben Franken did.
We're finished. The country is finished.
Well, maybe not, maybe she hadn't had the coffee yet this morning.
Constitutional Convention Photo of "Founding Father" Al Franken
ReplyDelete"Waltz With Bashir"
ReplyDeleteThink of the most mind-boggling scene in a war film - say the one in "Apocalypse Now" where a shirtless Robert Duvall proclaims (as bombs fall and fires rage) "I love the smell of napalm in the morning"; or the one in "Black Hawk Down" where a U.S. soldier is pinned down in a deserted Somali street against overwhelming firepower - and recall the ominous feeling that overcame you. Recall the stench of conflict that seemed to permeate your stomach. Recall the edginess that engulfed your brain even as the action segued into less dramatic footage.
Now, ratchet that up 10 times, and that's what to expect from this juggernaut of a film. The best movie of 2008? The most revealing war film ever made? The greatest animated feature to come out of Israel? All these descriptions could apply to "Waltz With Bashir," a confessional account of Ari Folman's experience as a young soldier during Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon.
Less is more here. Violence permeates the movie, but Folman's feature is festooned with long stretches of introspection. In fact, it's the introspection - as much as the brilliant animation, and the unimaginable horrors of warfare - that pushes "Waltz With Bashir" into the category of unforgettable filmmaking. It's not just Folman (or, at least, the animated Folman) who tries to reconcile his time in Lebanon, it's his fellow ex-Israeli soldiers - all middle-aged, all out of the military - who look back and cringe or cry or laugh with nervousness.
"Waltz With Bashir" dramatizes sequences, but the basic facts reflect the hell that enveloped Folman, his fellow soldiers and Lebanon's civilian population, particularly the Palestinians who were massacred by Christian Phalangist forces in Beirut's Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. As a soldier, Folman was on the outskirts of that 1982 massacre - or was he? In the beginning of "Waltz With Bashir," Folman doesn't know what to think. When a friend - also a veteran - describes his nightmares about menacing dogs from Lebanon, Folman's repression comes undone, and he begins to remember faint outlines of the bloodletting that took place 20 years earlier.
Israeli movies are crap.
ReplyDeleteAri Folman belongs in a psychiatric hospital. He should have been put there prior to the Lebanon operation. Those that have the slightest urge to see this crapola, the same. And those that allowed him to pass his psychiatric exam(s) should be put in jail.
ReplyDeleteBlogger rufus said...
ReplyDelete"Well, the fact is the bankers of the world are lining up around the block to buy U.S. bonds with incredibly low yields. 1.58% on 5 year, 2.46% on 10 year, and 3.09 on 30 year."
BEWARE of the next bubble bursting rufus! What value is there in buying an asset that ties you down for those terms for that length of time with the risk of depreciation so high to boot? The only thing keeping that market alive is the perceived liquidity which could seize rapidly leaving those with them waiting for maturity. 30 years is long time...especially at 3% return. If the Fed should happen to achieve their goal and spark only mild inflation then, ouch. If they should overshoot and get an even higher rate of inflation - super ouch.
Joe the Plumber is in Israel, reporting.
ReplyDeleteHe'll do a better job with no experience than that Christiana what's her name bitch that speaks with the phony accent.
Joe the Plumber had it figured out. A vote for Obama was a vote against Israel.
ReplyDeleteThe other day I cut and paste an opinion piece that sent WiO, gag reflex, and others, batshit screaming abuse at the messenger as opposed to the message (he's a Palestinian ect).
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/opinion/08khalidi.html?_r=1&ref=opinion
And yesterday there was an opinion piece in the NYTimes by a pasty white guy which had similar themes:
"The Gaza Boomerang
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: January 7, 2009
At a time when Israel is bombing Gaza to try to smash Hamas, it’s worth remembering that Israel itself helped nurture Hamas.
snip
What we’re seeing in the Middle East is the Boomerang Syndrome. Arab terrorism built support for right-wing Israeli politicians, who took harsh actions against Palestinians, who responded with more terrorism, and so on. Extremists on each side sustain the other, and the excessive Israeli ground assault in Gaza is likely to create more terrorists in the long run.
If this pattern continues, we may eventually see Hamas-style Palestinians facing off against hard-line Israelis, with each side making the others’ lives wretched — and political moderates in the Middle East politically eviscerated."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/opinion/08kristof.html?scp=10&sq=january+08+2009&st=nyt
And a Jew writes:
"Olive oil, opposition and Gaza
RICK SALUTIN
From Friday's Globe and Mail
January 9, 2009 at 12:00 AM EST
On Tuesday, I wrote my friend and sometime doctor, Miriam Garfinkle, to say I'd run low on the olive oil, from Palestine, that she sells. She is normally diligent, even fanatical, about it. It soothes her, she says, as she has grown ever more distressed by Israel's occupation there, and more involved in dissident Jewish actions. I didn't hear back from her.
Then, on Wednesday, I saw in the news that she was among a group of Jewish women who occupied the Israeli consulate in Toronto, in symbolic protest against the reoccupation, or "incursion," by Israel's military into Gaza. The olive oil, too, is symbolic - of the many trees uprooted there and a way of life largely destroyed with them.
Later, I spoke to a Jewish friend who says that, when she reads news from Gaza, she gets sick to her stomach. I asked why. It's a mix, she said: Horror at what is done by Israel to the people of Gaza, and fear that her reaction lends support to a group, Hamas, bent on destroying Israel and killing Jews. I started to say Hamas's record is more complex than that, but it didn't really matter. These are issues where you lead with your emotions, and your reason fills in the tracks that your gut has laid down.
Yet, this kind of Jewish dissent is now widespread. It's no longer just individuals. There is a Canadian umbrella group of groups called Independent Jewish Voices, including Jewish Women Against the Occupation; the well-named NION (Not In Our Name) etc. There is an Independent Jewish Voices in the U.K., and groups in South Africa, Sweden, France, Italy, Germany, Belgium and the United States, which also has a new Jewish lobby in Washington, J Street, founded to counter the mighty right-wing Israel lobby, AIPAC. This level of activity is a stage beyond lone voices such as Noam Chomsky or, in Israel, Yeshaya Leibowitz in the past, and Amira Hass or Avrum Burg in the present.
The brew of emotions is often intense; when it involves your people and your past, it's rarely about taking a simple position. Let me give a personal example. In 1967, as a seminarian in New York, I swelled with pride to hear Israel's United Nations ambassador, Abba Eban, defend Israeli attacks on its Arab neighbours, because they had blocked one of its outlets, the Straits of Tiran. This, he thundered, was universally recognized as an act of war - Israel acted in self-defence! I had been hired to research material for a book Abba Eban planned to write on Jewish history. I never met him but was honoured to think my work passed into his hands.
Now, the same Israel has blocked all access to and from Gaza for a year and a half - land, sea and air - tightening the noose recently, so disease and malnutrition are pervasive and no economy really exists. Surely this, too, is an act of war, directed at civilians, like the rockets fired from Gaza in the past two months, which I also find inexcusable. Whew.
And what about Jewish unity in a time of crisis? I think unity matters when your group is under attack, but what's in question here is whether Israel is under attack or is the attacker. There's no doubt Hamas fires rockets, but who broke the truce? Did Hamas abide by it till Nov. 4, when Israel bombed Gaza, killing six Palestinians, and again on Nov. 17, killing four more, as well as intensifying its siege - and Hamas reacted only then?
I think this kind of debate about Israel is healthy. I don't agree with Robert Fulford, who wrote in the National Post that Israel's Gaza assaults are a clear case of civilization versus terror. That kind of language oddly mimics forms such as anti-Semitism, whose essence is stereotyping large groups with scanty labels: All Jews are evil, or Islam is inherently violent. Reality is usually more mixed. So is Israel. Some of its achievements - like the revival of the Hebrew language and culture - are a marvel. Other elements, not so much."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090108.wcosalutin09/BNStory/specialComment/home
I expect the invective shall fly again attacking the messenger as opposed to the mesage...
Understand all you're saying, Ash. My point is, just, that the savviest investors in the world still run Toward the Dollar when the going gets dicey. They can read a balance sheet, and they realize that the U.S. isn't really running a "Trillion Dollar" Deficit.
ReplyDeleteForget what the hyperventilating heads babble; when you see the 30 year easing up over 4.0% you'll know the "Crisis" is over.
Many of us have been surprised by the recent rise in the US dollar. There is definitely the perception of safety as a factor and T bills are well respected as safe. There are also those that suggest that the de-leveraging has force the buy of US dollars to redeem stocks and make good on the debt calls. It sure is a complex and perplexing beast. I'm guessing the US dollar will fall over the near to medium term with a risk of a rapid, and potentially devastating, devaluation.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't bet on the dollar falling a "Whole Lot" against the Euro, Ash. Maybe back to the $1.55'ish levels; maybe a little less.
ReplyDeleteA lot of the Dollar weakness is/was "Energy/Imports" related, and we were just the first to the party, not the only invitee. Euroland has their own energy/import problems coming down the pike; and WE, actually, have a lot more room for potential savings in that department than the Euros do.
Well then, rufus, you dispute mat's expert, Ellen Brown, who states without equivication that it is the Federal Reserve that has stepped in to buy those T-Bills.
ReplyDeletePrice fixing, she calls it.
... (Federal Reserve Bank - chartered by Congress in 1913) is now buying most of these T-bills and T-notes and putting them on their balance sheet. They are doing so in a scheme to keep the interest rates as low as possible. In other words, they have stepped in front of the market and now ARE the market for T-bills and notes. There are other buyers and sellers of T-notes and bills, but due to the size of the Federal Reserve, and the depth of their pockets, they are elbowing everyone else out of the market.
Now mat puts a lot of faith in Ellen's synopsis of the current situation. He represents her in a way the presupposed that she is a maven of money.
And she sold 258,000 books.
She devotes a Chapter of her book to the Mexican bailout, where, if she is correct in her perspective, Mr Rubin and his cohort stole over $4 bn in value from Mexico.
The Mexican bailout was engineered by Robert Rubin, who headed the investment bank Goldman Sachs before he became U.S. Treasury Secretary. Goldman Sachs was then heavily invested in short-term dollar-denominated Mexican bonds. The bailout was arranged the very day of Rubin's appointment. Needless to say, the money provided by U.S. taxpayers never made it to Mexico. It went straight into the vaults of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and other big American lenders whose risky loans were on the line.9
The late Jude Wanniski was a conservative economist who was at one time a Wall Street Journal editor and adviser to President Reagan. He cynically observed of this banker coup:
There was a big party at Morgan Stanley after the Mexican peso devaluation, people from all over Wall Street came, they drank champagne and smoked cigars and congratulated themselves on how they pulled it off and they made a fortune. These people are pirates, international pirates.10
The loot was more than just the profits of gamblers who had bet the right way. The pirates actually got control of Mexico's banks. NAFTA rules had already opened the nationalized Mexican banking system to a number of U.S. banks, with Mexican licenses being granted to 18 big foreign banks and 16 brokers including Goldman Sachs. But these banks could bring in no more than 20 percent of the system's total capital, limiting their market share in loans and securities holdings.11 They wanted the whole enchilada. By 2004, all but one of Mexico's major banks had been sold to foreign banks, which gained total access to the formerly closed Mexican banking market.12
Which if an accurate description of the situation certainly changes my former opinion of Mr Rubin, even more than it has already been revamped.
The Euro certainly is a fav to compare the dollar to and I agree there are problems in Europe but it does have the potential to rival the US dollar simply because of the size of its 'float'. I'm thinking the Canadian dollar might be a reasonable spot but it often trades depending upon commodity strength though I am guessing we'll see some rebound in commodity prices - the economic decline doesn't seem to match the fall in prices as the rise also didn't match the growth figures (I'm thinking oil prices as a primary example). I'm still concerned that much of the currency trade is surplus, or speculative, money sloshing about as opposed to trade driven trades and hence subject to large moves based on 'emotion'.
ReplyDeleteMs Brown continues in the vien of yesterdays conversation. As to whether contracting the money supply, as in the 1930s or simply not expanding it to an adequate degree, circa 2007, is a manipulation or a mistake.
ReplyDeleteMs Brown seems to favor manipulation, as the motivation.
By 1995, Mexico's foreign debt was more than twice the country's total debt payment for the previous century and a half. Per-capita income had fallen by almost a third from a year earlier, and Mexican purchasing power had fallen by well over 50 percent.14 Mexico was propelled into a crippling national depression that has lasted for over a decade. As in the U.S. depression of the 1930s, the actual value of Mexican businesses and assets did not change during this speculator-induced crisis. What changed was simply that currency had been sucked out of the economy by investors stampeding to get out of the Mexican stock market, leaving insufficient money in circulation to pay workers, buy raw materials, finance loans, and operate the country. It was further evidence that when short-selling is allowed, currencies are driven into hyperinflation not by the market mechanism of "supply and demand" but by the concerted action of currency speculators. The flipside of this also appears to be true: the U.S. dollar remains strong despite its plunging trade balance, because it has been artificially manipulated up by the Fed. (More on this in Chapter 33.) Market manipulators, not free market forces, are in control.
Canada is so dependent upon the US, ash, that it will travel in tandem, with US, like it or not.
ReplyDeleteThe US just represents to much of Canada's economy for that not to be the case.
That is certainly true of our economic course but the relative currency values don't seem to track it. We've seen large changes in relative strengths of the two currencies and if the currency value track the similarities in economic output the reverse would be true. Loads of money, useful for manipulating things, is sloshing about the world looking for return or, in my other phrasing, trading on emotion.
ReplyDeleteWell then, rufus, you dispute mat's expert, Ellen Brown, who states without equivication that it is the Federal Reserve that has stepped in to buy those T-Bills.
ReplyDelete==
Huh? When did she become my expert? I barely read 2 entries on her blog.
Joe the Plumber is in Israel, reporting.
ReplyDelete==
Joe the Plumber would be more useful to Israel if he just turned off this crap from his "news" diet. Israel should make the whole area a closed military zone. It should then go ahead clearing the area using artillery. End of story.
I don't know anything about Ellen Brown, Rat, and won't for a couple of hours (I'm off to take a nap.:) But, I'll check her out when I wake up. It sounds like a grain of truth in some of her stuff, if a bit hyperbolic. It wasn't the fed presenting a 2.5 bid-to-cover at the 10% bond auction a couple of days, ago.
ReplyDeleteMexico IS a mess. It's 40% owned by something like 60 families, or somesuch, as the story (myth?) goes.
I'm afraid of Canada's Looney. It seems to me like it's too dependent on the tar sands. They're an environmental catastrophe, and there's no telling how public sentiment will go on that. "Currencies" scare me. I can't hardly figure out what's going on in Mississippi, much less Canberra. It seems like there's gotta be an easier way to make a living than betting on what the Brazilians, or New Zealanders will do.
Joe will give a better write up than the New York Times, or Pat Buchanan, Mat. Better than Blitzer.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the idea of Incredible amounts of money sloshing around the world looking to "get in trouble."
ReplyDeleteIt "Got in Trouble."
Now, Daddy's gotta go down to the Police Station, take it home, and whip it's ass good; before putting it to bed without supper. Unfortunately, I'm afraid "Pops" is a bit of a wimp, and is going to forego the "ass whipping, and to bed without supper" part.
mats, the genocide advocate...
ReplyDeleteRat,
Speaking of Canada and the US I just read this opinion piece over lunch. I thought you might find it interesting:
"Their deficit, our perspective
JEFFREY SIMPSON
From Friday's Globe and Mail
January 9, 2009 at 12:00 AM EST
Close your eyes. Assume that, in just over two weeks, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's budget warns that the country faces deficits of around $100-billion "for years to come."
It would be a nightmare scenario for Canada. Deficits at that level would eclipse by far what Canada experienced at its worst deficit years in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It would mean deficits much higher as a share of national income than in those years.
We all should remember or learn what those deficits that stretched from the mid-1970s and ended only in 1995 brought or contributed to Canada: higher taxes, lower government spending, huge interest payments, lower private and public sector investment, stagnating productivity.
Year after year, until the Liberals stopped the deficits in the mid-1990s, governments pledged to dig Canada out of the fiscal hole, only to dig an even deeper hole. Every budget during those years, Liberal and Conservative governments pledged to restrain, reduce and eventually eliminate deficits. They never did.
The $100-billion figure would be the very rough Canadian equivalent to what president-elect Barack Obama is proposing for the United States. Mr. Obama warned Americans this week to get ready for "trillion-dollar deficits for years to come."
What a long way Mr. Obama has come in such a short time. In the dreamy days of summer, and throughout the fall election, he promised much new spending and tax cuts for all but the rich and eventually a balanced budget. Now the dreaminess of his analysis has smashed against an even more dire reality than he could have imagined.
"Change," his favourite word, he now interprets to mean the desire of Americans to curtail deficits at some point - which, of course, is not at all the meaning he gave the word a little while ago.
Think about a trillion-dollar deficit not for a year or two, but for "years to come." At $1-trillion, the deficit would represent about 7 per cent of national income. The deficit could easily be higher, once Mr. Obama's "recovery" package is added to the mix - at which point, the deficit ratio could rise to 7.5 per cent or beyond. And "for years to come."
The world's biggest debtor nation, therefore, is about to become, quite massively, an even bigger debtor nation, with consequences for itself and the whole world.
The dominant country of any era does not remain the dominant country indefinitely on borrowed money. At some point, money talks, in the sense that those with it begin to flex their muscles vis-Ã -vis those who need it.
We are therefore witnessing, and will continue to witness, a slow relative loss of influence for the United States, the debtor, against those from whom it must borrow. After all, Americans cannot possibly finance these new debts themselves, since they could not even finance the old ones.
Canadians will have a particular perspective on this slow relative loss of influence, since no country is more closely tied to the United States. We have put almost all of our economic and foreign policy eggs into the U.S. basket, thinking very little about Asia.
We might also have a perspective - or at least could offer one, if asked - about the challenges the United States will eventually confront now that the country faces deficits for "years to come."
What Canada learned was that the slaying of deficits involved a mix of higher taxes and reduced spending - and almost nothing else. There were lots of alternative ideas, from an industrial strategy to injecting massive amounts of additional public spending into the economy to slashing taxes. The mix that worked was that of higher taxes (at least for a while) and reduced spending.
Canadians also learned that it was much easier to talk about reducing and then eliminating deficits than actually doing something, which is why the deficits endured for so long. It took considerable political courage and an impending sense of genuine crisis to create the political conditions for action.
It also took a turn in public opinion, because after years of higher taxes and stagnant incomes, people found less money in their pockets and fewer government services, and then became receptive to explanations about what had happened and why.
None of these conditions appears even on the horizon in the United States, a country where the issue of deficits was barely raised during the 20 years of Republican rule when the government ran a deficit every year. The recession has turned everyone into big spenders and deficit financers, which is acceptable for a while but not over the longer term.
As Canadians learned, getting into deficits is easy, even alluring; climbing out of them is difficult. The means Canadians eventually used combined tax increases and spending cuts that almost no American is willing to even contemplate today."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090108.wcosimp09/BNStory/politics/home
Oops, that should have been: 10 Year Bond auction (not 10%.)
ReplyDeleteThat Simpson article will probably interest you too Rufus.
ReplyDeleteThank God, she didn't get in cause if I had to listen to the squeaky, whiny voice the next four years, I'd have to hang myself.
ReplyDeleteNah, Ash, just the snippet you posted convinces me that he's just a writer that doesn't know com'ere from sic'em. As I posted earlier, borrowing cheap, and lending dear isn't "running a deficit."
ReplyDeleteObama's just setting up a Giant Straw Monster for the ritual slawing, and celebration afterwards.
BTW, nothing personal towards Jeremy. I NEVER read foreign writers in regards to the U.S. They are, without exception, clueless.
ReplyDeleteLet me explain. Economics IS NOT a "science." It's a form of gambling, and sociology. You can't possibly have a prayer of understanding the economics of a country without understanding the "people" of the country.
ReplyDeleteAmericans are as opaque to Europeans (and, Canadians, I'm afraid) as the Japanese are to me. And, trust me Bubba, that's pretty damned opaque.
I'd rather get my American Economics from any old boy down at the coffee shop than from the most brilliant scribbler in "Socio-land." And, I can enjoy a barbeque and tea while I'm at it.
I dunno Rufus, a little distance can give some perspective. I agree with you on the Economics isn't a science bit fer sure!
ReplyDeleteAnyone heard from Deuce since the quake? Did it affect the region where he resides?
ReplyDeleteJoe will give a better write up than the New York Times, or Pat Buchanan, Mat. Better than Blitzer.
ReplyDelete==
I understand, Bob. I prefer no writeup at all. This story needs to die. 60 years of this crap is enough. Time to send these Jihadis packing.
I understand, Bob. I prefer no writeup at all. This story needs to die. 60 years of this crap is enough. Time to send these Jihadis packing.
ReplyDeleteWe agree, mat.
But no story line removes the motivation. No publicity to help Zippi, et al.
Plenty of motivation, you say? Sure. So why'd it take until a few weeks before the election to do the obvious? Nothing's happened yet that wasn't justified two years ago, or longer. It's politics driving the show. Unfortunately. And it's politics that will end it. Same as always.
Wait and see.
Fuck you mildew, you're talking about my Lady.
ReplyDeleteIt's politics driving the show. Unfortunately.
ReplyDelete==
Politics tied to economics. The politics and economics of oil. And that story needs to die as well.
Fuck you mildew, you're talking about my Lady.
ReplyDelete==
Oh boy, I've haven't seen Bob like this in a long time. Is Sarah Palin Irish? :D
Some people vote on tone of voice!
ReplyDeleteWell, if she'd won, an added benefit, mildew would be swinging.
Sarah Palin's Ancestry: Solid New England
ReplyDeletehttp://genealogy.suite101.com/article.cfm/sarah_palins_ancestry_solid_new_england
.
.
Palin's Multiple Royal Ancestry
Palin, Obama and McCain all claim William 1, King of Scots, as an ancestor. Her descent in this Carolingian line is via ancestor Edmond Hawes (1612-1693) of Yarmouth, MA, who held many local offices. She also descends from Henry III of England by way of ancestor Edward Raynsford, who died in 1680 in Boston. He is alleged to be a Plantagenet descendant of Charlemagne.
One of her more interesting ancestors is the Rev. John Lathrop/Lothrop, a 1605 Cambridge University graduate who was ordained an Anglican priest in England, but joined the dissenters, heading a secret congregation in London. After he was caught and imprisoned, he was fortunate enough to be released on the condition that he and his family immediately leave for America. He may have gotten off lucky because he came from a family with a noble background. His grandfather had married into the Aston family, whose pedigree includes Charlemagne and other European monarchs.
Some people vote on tone of voice!
ReplyDelete==
I like her can do attitude. She's a born fighter. A lioness. And very people friendly, which I always admire and envy.
I'm related to the King of Sweden.
ReplyDeleteLeast that's what dad told me once.
I'm related to those related to Princess Sarah. Pharaoh tried to take her, but she taught him a lesson or two. Unfortunately, other Pharaohs never seems to learn their lesson.
ReplyDelete:)
ReplyDeleteOn my mom's side I might be related to the German Kaiser Wilhelm, and the Queen of England, too.
I just can't prove it yet.
Spookfish Sees Things Like Nobody Else Ever Has
ReplyDeletehttp://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/01/mirroreyes.html
I'm sorry, Bob, did I hit a bad nerve there? I would get all the facts before using words you can't uphold. I never said, I didn't like her.
ReplyDeleteOh, and MLD, most certainly does not stand for mildew.
Deuce
ReplyDeleteI was wondering the same thing...are you guys ok? Also nice article about Costa Rica in the USA Today today...
Doug said...
ReplyDelete"If the Chinese stop taking dollars , the US will simply stop buying Chinese goods. "
---
WHY does that necessarily follow el-Deuce
i will do a post, promise
Costa Rica was hit hard, but all is OK Joe. Thanks for asking.
ReplyDeleteteletica on earthquake news in San Jose
ReplyDeleteWas a little testy I admit, MLD. Read a couple articles lately about Palin being mistreated by the press, while Obama and Company waltz. Ticks me off. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteI should have known you were a little partial when you used her picture as your avatar for months. I'll be a little more sympathetic next time I...never mind, I just won't talk about her again.
ReplyDelete