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."

Sunday, April 03, 2011

When You are at Peak, Which Way is Next?

To appreciate the amount of oil that we consume I have added a video (two years old, but not much changed) that illustrates the amount. I have also  added a thoughtful analysis on the current demand for housing in the US. Gasoline at the pump is rapidly increasing to the $4 per gallon mark. Oil price reachesd to a new 30-month high of $108 per barrel. Where is this going? Where do you think?

______________________________________





US peak profits warning from Chris Mayer
Posted on 02 April 2011 Arabian Money

Rising star of the US financial newsletter world Chris Mayer has a stark warning for readers in his latest issue of Capital & Crisis. Profit margins in the US have reached unprecedented levels and can now only fall as commodity price inflation hits home.

‘One of the vulnerabilities in today’s market is that profit margins are near peaks’, he says. ‘Investors tend to like companies with fat profit margins, but high profit margins are like honey pots that attract competitors. They are rarely sustainable for long’.

Top ten crisis

If you take a list of the top 10 technology stocks in the US Nasdaq market then the average net profit margin is around 25 per cent, and similar high profit margins are also seen across the S&P 500 stocks. The boost to profit margins has come from cost cutting in the downturn, mainly in the form of job cuts that do nothing to boost domestic consumer demand.

‘Today, though, I doubt many of these firms have much more to cut,’ suggests Mayer. ‘Instead, the focus is now growing sales and taking business from competitors or defending an existing business. The focus, too, is how to deal with rising raw material costs. All of these put enormous pressure on margins. We should expect to see them fall.’

That of course is the contrarian view. It is not what the bulls of Wall Street are saying. They see a recovery in the US economy that is raising all boats.

If the Wall Street consensus is again wrong then the reverse will be true and all boats will sink. Mr Meyer is stock picking to locate the boats that will stay afloat, so at least he is thinking in the right direction. But the tendency always is for the good to get cast down with the bad, particularly if the numbers are overwhelming.

Naturally this situation is most dangerous when company profits have recovered sharply and the domestic economy is still in the dumps. And what do US auto and house sales figures quite clearly show us?  The domestic US economy is still in a depression with activity well down on the boom years.

Domestic depression


(US auto sales down 19% last year and that’s for smaller cars)
(US disposable incomes drop for the first time since September)

Now if domestic demand is not rising, and indeed consumer personal disposable income is falling  then what prospects are there for pushing up company revenues to keep profits surging ahead? You have to look to exports and repatriation of multinational income.

Yes but does the world not have a few worries of its own right now? To briefly summize: Japan just had its worst earthquake in history and nuclear reactors are leaking plutonium; the UK is facing three years of austerity; the eurozone has a massive debt crisis; and the Middle East and North Africa is in a state of revolution, civil war and protest that has pushed oil prices to a two-year high.

Will Asian sales hold up under these circumstances? Or will stocks sell-off and the dollar rally, making US exports uncompetitive again? This peak profits warning is very well timed.

101 comments:

  1. .

    Testing

    Testing

    Testing


    al-Habib

    .

    ReplyDelete
  2. .

    A week or so ago I mentioned that I would be taking a vacation to England/Scotland in about six weeks.

    The trip is still on but as you can imagine with the weak dollar this baby is going to cost me a bundle.

    Therefore, I have contacted one of my old employers, Soldier of Fortune Magazine(SOFM), and been given a contract to do an in-depth expose on the clash of civilizations there between the sharia pushers and the socialist.

    This is a black-ops deal to assure plausible deniability. I will be travelling under the cover name al-Habib. The photo journalist they are sending with me, Rick, will travel under the name Aldo Cello.

    SOFM expects to be able to market this investigative piece to one of the Big Three networks (Dicovery, History, or the Travel Channel). It should blow the lid off the current crisis in Great Britain.

    Now SOFM may get a little pissed but I plan on sending periodic dispatches to the EB providing some of the background, color, and excitement of this adventure.

    Therefore, in about 6 weeks time, start looking for posts from al-Habib.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  3. What they don't know won't hurt them.

    On my sacred honor, I take the Elephant Vow of Silence.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Why do the call it the ivory Coast? Because they slaughtered elephants to sell their tusks. This was incidental to their selling captured losing tribes in unending war and violence.

    This is an African thing and not our Problem. This is how we ended up with African slaves in the US in the first place. African tribes have been killing, raping, plundering and enslaving each other for ever. The Portuguese and Spaniards rediscovered what the Romans knew and travelled to ports where slaves from rival tribes could be had for a fish cake. It was an African thing. The Spaniards and Portuguese, great multiculturalists that they were, did not have to chase them through the jungle and take them down with nets. They bought them from Africans and Arabs, happy to get rid of them.
    We are not going to change the African culture. Go to West Philadelphia on a Sunday summer night and you will see the results of four hundred years of African-American multiculturalism and our modest influence.

    US 'deeply concerned' by violence in Ivory Coast

    US Video

    WASHINGTON (AP) -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says the US is "deeply concerned" about the situation in the Ivory Coast and reports of human rights abuses and a massacre of more than 1,000 people.

    In a statement Sunday, Clinton called on Laurent Gbagbo (luh-RAHN' BAHG'-boh), the entrenched incumbent who lost a November vote, to step down immediately. She also says forces loyal to the internationally recognized President Alassane Ouattara (AL'-ah-sahn wah-TAHR'-ah) must respect the rules of war and stop attacks on civilians.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Human rights abuses in Africa.

    There is a find. When did that happen? Whoda thought?

    ReplyDelete
  6. The were just sitting there singing kumbaja till the
    white man showed up and turned paradise into the law of the jungle.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hagar grew up dirt poor in Fontana CA.

    After the Kaiser Steel Mill shut down, his alcoholic dad was out on the streets.

    Still was when Hagar started making millions with Montrose and Van Halen.

    Sold 80% of Cabo Wabo Tequila Co for 80 Million!

    ReplyDelete
  8. My god, there are human rights abuses and massacres in Africa! Wherever next, Intercourse, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania?.

    On their way to redeem food stamps no doubt

    ReplyDelete
  9. The worst housing crash in history is official: Lesson from the Great Depression Part 29.

    New home sales fell 80 percent from 1929 to 1932 and fell 82 percent from 2005 to 2011.

    This is now officially the worst housing crash since the Great Depression.

    Putting aside hyperbole new home sales fell 80 percent from 1929 to 1932. Those years, if you know a bit of history were not model years for the U.S. economy. In fact, the economy imploded in spectacular fashion at that time thanks to time honored Wall Street speculation and massive debt leverage. So a fall of new home sales by 80 percent during those years would be expected. Over this duration the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 89 percent.

    Now compare this to our current situation. New home sales from their 2005 peak have now fallen by 82 percent!

    However the Dow Jones is only off by 13 percent from the peak reached in 2007. The big difference in this crisis is that we had a Federal Reserve that bailed out big banking interests under the pretense of saving the housing and consumer market.

    Yet how can you save a housing market that by definition is too expensive for the immediate population?

    Going on four years of this crisis I’m sure many now understand the finer points of crony capitalism.

    Hope Now, HAMP, foreclosure moratoriums, and other methods of saving the housing market were largely cover for a bigger bailout scheme and most of you were not included.

    ReplyDelete
  10. You need people to balance the Federal Budget? This group will do just fine. they will know exactly where to cut.

    I can just see the headline: Amish Commission Stuns Washington.

    ReplyDelete
  11. luh-RAHN' BAHG'-boSun Apr 03, 09:03:00 AM EDT

    To whom much is given, much is asked. It is a hard job but someone must do it.

    You try keeping these people in line.

    Sincerely,

    ReplyDelete
  12. luh-RAHN' BAHG'-boSun Apr 03, 09:06:00 AM EDT

    My people have many such deluxe duplex accomodations like Hooverville, Sacramento.

    ReplyDelete
  13. WASHINGTON (AP) -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says the US is "deeply concerned" about the situation in the Ivory Coast and reports of human rights abuses and a massacre of more than 1,000 people.

    Too bad there's no oil there, or we'd have another no fly zone.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Good God if I'd said all that I'd have been called a, a, a .... racist.

    luh-RAHN' BAHG'-bo said...
    must be Habu.

    In all fairness to the good people of Ebony Coast, isn't part of the problem the muzzies?

    The Amish are all right, been through there.

    Melody once said "They're all lazy", which isn't true, and wasn't called a racist.

    Life isn't fair.

    a/bakadwr

    ReplyDelete
  15. The most amazing non-barking dog story of the last 6 months in my humble opinion has been the relative calm in Nigeria.

    Nigeria exports about the same amount of oil as Libya, and would have been High on almost anyone's list to blow apart during this particular stretch of history. That it hasn't almost seems miraculous.

    ReplyDelete
  16. http://www.zimbio.com/Candice+Berner/articles/RO0J_C1MLN7/Teacher+found+dead+wolves+blame

    Woman attacked by savage elk in Alaska ....


    Read an article on wolf killings of humans. Not so many in the USA from our records - low hundreds - but in Europe from records going back six, seven hundred years.....thousands. Lots in Russia, too.


    Why the difference?

    2nd Amendment. The peasants in Europe had what to fight them off? Pitchfork, maybe.

    We here are training the wolves to be unfraid of humans. They are smart. Get shot at a few times, they learn the two legs have the miraculous ability to reach out and touch a member of the pack.

    Humans are the only predators so stupid as to turn over the entire lunch counter to a competing predator but that's what we've done here. The wolves are at the head of the line at the Elk Lunch Counter.

    No meat? Apply for food stamps.

    al-Habib is really going to Sweden on a sex tour.

    a/bakawdr

    ReplyDelete
  17. Why did the Norse starve to death in Greenland when the little Ice Age hit? The Inuit, next door, didn't.

    The Norse were, definitely, not "Stupid" people. Couldn't they see the Inuit surviving on fish, and seal, and whatnot, and keep themselves alive when their fields were under snow, and their cattle, and sheep froze?

    Could the answer be that it happened too quickly? That they, not having seen it coming, were in too weakened a state to garner the knowledge, build the equipment, and hone the techniques for "living off the sea?"

    Are we in the same situation with "peak oil?"

    ReplyDelete
  18. http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/04/shrugging_off_atlas_shrugged.html

    Shrugging off Atlas Shrugged

    a/bakadwr

    ReplyDelete
  19. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/02/libyan-conflict-descending-into-stalemate


    Now what?

    Separation and divorce is a viable option.

    a/bakadwr

    ReplyDelete
  20. Here is an excellent youtube video (the best I've seen - short, sweet, and informative) explaining what all the fuss is about.

    We are at Peak.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Keep in mind, we're not really seeing the full effects of the shutdown of Libyan production, Yet.

    Iran had about 25 Million Barrels of oil sitting on tankers that the U.S. had successfully embargoed. With the onset of the Libyan crisis Iran was able to quietly move that oil onto the market. That offset the lost Libyan production for almost a month.

    Now, in the next month we will start to see the Libyan War start to take hold.

    BTW, Saudi Arabia increased production about 300,000 bbl/day back in November, and December in response to the higher prices. That oil started getting shipped March 15.

    No further action from Saudi Arabia is anticipated.

    So much for the old "Millions of Barrels of Spare Capacity" meme, eh?

    Gabon just took their 225,000 bbl/day off the market. Big protests about "Western" Workers in their Oil Fields.

    ReplyDelete
  22. If either Nigeria, or Algeria blows, now, there just isn't any telling where the price of oil goes.

    Or, the quietest of all African nations, Angola.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Being totally dependent on these people to run the world's economy ain't no way to run a railroad, folks.

    BTW, where would we be right now WITHOUT that 2.0 Million bbl/day of global Ethanol Production?

    ReplyDelete
  24. The Philadelphia School district says their deficit now stands at $629 million, and they need to make some big time cuts.

    Among the cuts, the central office will be cut in half. That translates to a loss of 413 positions. there will be reductions in transportation and full-service meals. Art, music and gifted education funding will be slashed. Class size will increase.

    ReplyDelete
  25. The reasons wolves killed people is because people killed wolves and wolves fought back. The lore about people and wolves goes back way before firearms. People hunted in packs as did wolves. People have memories, so do wolves. People hold grudges, so do wolves. People distrust others outside of their pack, so do wolves. So far the score is that wolves are no match for people.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Humans are the only predators so stupid as to turn over the entire lunch counter to a competing predator but that's what we've done here.

    Take a walk down any American Street and you will see enough people that look like they ate the whole lunch counter by themselves.

    No one is more adept at killing people than other people.

    I am always amused at the religious nuts that think everything on earth is for the benefit of the chosen bipeds, that look the most like them, to do with as they choose with no respect for generations of their own kind before and after their own pitiful lives, and shocked, simply shocked that anyone should question their entitlements given to them by their own special god.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Leno: "Obama’s approval ratings are so low now, Kenyans are accusing him of being born in the United States."

    ReplyDelete
  28. Ivory Coast, which won independence from France in 1960, is one of west Africa's leading powers and, historically, had been one of its success stories.
    It's a young nation: 40% of its 21.5 million population are under the age of 14, while only 3% are older than 65.
    During the late 1990s, Ivory Coast enjoyed an economic boom thanks to market liberalization and reform. Large numbers of economic immigrants flocked to the region to work in cash crop industries including coffee, palm oil, rubber and especially cocoa (Ivory Coast generates 40% of the world's cocoa crop.)
    But when the bubble burst, civil war followed, with economic migrants among the victims.
    The country was unofficially divided in two. The government-held south is centered around Abidjan, the biggest city and commercial hub. It's a strongly Christian region and home to many Gbagbo supporters, who have traditionally held positions of wealth and power in Ivory Coast In contrast Ouattara hails from the rebel-held north, which is dominated by Muslim immigrants who have become key businessmen and traders.

    ReplyDelete
  29. The first thing any sensible alien race would do would be to kill all the humans.

    We have to be a blight on the universe.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Nine killed and 81 injured in Kandahar in protests against desecration of Qur'an by Florida pastor..

    There were no wolves spotted in the crowd.

    ReplyDelete
  31. How big is Libya?

    680,000 Sq Miles

    Over Twice the size of Texas.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Algeria?

    920,000 Sq Miles

    3 1//2 Times the size of Texas


    with 35 Million people

    ReplyDelete
  33. If I have this figured right, Solar Panels on 6% of the surface of Algeria would provide enough energy to replace ALL of the Energy used in the World, Today.

    ReplyDelete
  34. And, the main ingredient in solar panels? Silicon. :)

    You suppose they have any of that?

    ReplyDelete
  35. Saw it written the other day that Saudi Arabia is going to invest $100 Billion in Alternative Energy.


    Do you suppose they know something we don't?

    ReplyDelete
  36. Oh, as for the question:

    < adapt or die >


    our choice

    ReplyDelete
  37. <--adapt-- or --die-->



    that's better

    ReplyDelete
  38. Coburn, and the oil lobbyists/sockpuppets are fighting ethanol with every breath in their body.

    Which side would you put Them on?

    ReplyDelete
  39. .

    The Romans and Egyptians saw the wolf as a creature representing valor, and made the wolf a guardian of many sacred temples. Joseph Campbell points out that these guardians serve a universal function around the world of protecting the unprepared from entering the sacred temenos or space.

    It is only the Swedes and those unfamiliar with Cambell's work that fear the wolf.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  40. .

    The current brouhaha over the budget is ridiculous. What they are arguing about is the 2011 fiscal year budget which was supposed to be (by law) completed by the end of last September.

    The year is half over.

    On Tuesday, the first shot will be fired over the 2012 budget. Paul Ryan will put out his budget proposal. We already know it will have major cuts in entitlement programs. It remains to be seen what it will have to say about military spending, discretionary spending, etc.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  41. The current brouhaha over the budget is ridiculous. What they are arguing about is the 2011 fiscal year budget which was supposed to be (by law) completed by the end of last September.

    Then I'd say the GOP has the Donks over a barrel. They can cut billions in pork, and the Donks can take it or leave it. If they leave it, the government shuts down and no one gets to spend anything.

    ReplyDelete
  42. This is interesting. I stubled onto this graph by accident. It shows two different projections for the Soc Sec Trust Fund. The one made in 2008, and the one made in 2009.

    You will notice that the one made in 2008 has been fairly accurate so far, and the one made in 2009 is off by a country mile.

    Forget the "Grain" of salt. You have to take all projections about the economy, and tax collections with a whole "Salt Mine" of salt.

    Neat Little Graph

    They couldn't call it within a country mile from One year Out. Now they're going to call it out to 2047? Fuuuuck.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Very effective post, Rufus.

    Now apply the same logic to peak oil.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Quirk,

    All the best on your expedition.

    I was hoping for some Parisian notes and photos... Have economics caused you to cut that portion of the trip?


    .

    ReplyDelete
  45. Yes, there IS a Medicare Trust Fund, paid for by FICA Taxes, and, yes, it IS solvent, and yes, it is projected to run out of money in . . . . . .. . .. pick a year, any year - the projections are revised UP, and Down annually.

    Medicare


    Remember, Salt Mine.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Two entirely different deals, T.

    One has to do with Science, the other with Politics.

    ReplyDelete
  47. When I see prices Triple, (2005 to 2011) with no increase in Production, T, I sit up and take notice.

    ReplyDelete
  48. In fact, it's a foregone conclusion, now, that this will be the 6th year in a row that production has been below the 2005 level.

    ReplyDelete
  49. And, a blind man can see that the only thing that can stop the steady rise of oil prices, now, is another Recession.

    I Was thinking next year; now, I'm thinking the last quarter of This year.

    ReplyDelete
  50. .

    I was hoping for some Parisian notes and photos... Have economics caused you to cut that portion of the trip?

    No. However, Soldier of Fortune was unwilling to contribute to that part of the trip. We have a couple extra days at the beginning of the trip and a couple of us are taking the high speed train from London to Paris.

    I hope to get a picture of my garden gnome alongside the Mona Lisa, a boat trip up (down? not sure) the Seine, and a few bottles of wine at some outside cafe. Whatever else we get in will be a bonus. I've never been to Paris before.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  51. Quirk,

    I had a tangential encounter with Robert K. back in the (forever being mined for memories) 70s.

    He was being approached to do a takeover of Haiti... Sort of a Wm. Walker type thing. Were you around during those daze?

    I'm thinking, with your Deetroit background, you might've been attracted to Baby Doc's replica Formula One track...


    Hazy memory, can't remember the details of where the money was s'posed to be coming from...

    But, looking back, could it have been worse for the Haitians?


    .

    ReplyDelete
  52. If telling the truth makes one a racist…then was is a person that fears telling the truth?

    ReplyDelete
  53. I just read an interesting proposition. What if Egypt, who is already "arming" the rebels came in with force?

    They could roll through Gaddafi in a New York nano-second.

    Everyone would win, except the "Khaddafi Tribe."

    ReplyDelete
  54. The awesomeness of Haitian possibilities stuck with me though.

    First a little background.

    Back in '68 in Chicago my traveling partner got a job in the kitchens in the basement of the Conrad Hilton. I never visited but he said it was amazing; huge operation with workers going 60 miles an hour...

    With one exception... It seems there was this caged off kitchen with in a kitchen. Where the kosher meals were prepared. My friend Put (from "putting around") said that outside the gate to the kosher kitchen cage sat a rabbi... Who did nothing but read newspapers... And "bless" the meals as they came by on their way upstairs to the restaurants...


    That vision stuck in my mind.


    .

    ReplyDelete
  55. ...sat a rabbi... Who did nothing but read newspapers... And "bless" the meals as they came by on their way upstairs to the restaurants...

    Nice work if you can get it, Gnossos.

    :)

    .

    ReplyDelete
  56. It is not racist, Deuce, to tell the truth, across the board. It is racist to see the defects in just one race, and not the others.

    Whether it is race, creed or national origin that is the factor that changes perception.

    To be enraged by the Black Panthers, but uncaring about the Aryan Brotherhood.

    To be concerned about Islamic extremists, but dismissive of radical Christian anarchists.

    To dismiss the dangers of white males that fly airplanes into Federal offices or bomb Federal buildings, while "setting up" black adolescents into terrorist plots with paid informant/enablers.

    Ignoring, even denying, for political gain, one set of truths, while promoting another set, based upon the race, creed or national origin of the miscreants.

    ReplyDelete
  57. .

    ...He was being approached to do a takeover of Haiti... Sort of a Wm. Walker type thing. Were you around during those daze?

    I was around; however, I didn't hang in those circles. Back then, it is unlikely anyone would share invasion plans with me.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  58. Golly, rufus, I mentioned that Egyptian option a couple of days ago.

    It is one of the few viable options, considering the political realities.

    ReplyDelete
  59. Some years later I found myself thinking of that rabbi and the possibilities that Haiti offered for off shore manufacturing...

    The idea I had was to set up a condom factory... Maybe some "toys" as well.

    The angle would be that they'd be "blessed" by a Voodoo witch doctor as they came off the line...

    "Our Voodoo hexes delight both the sexes..."


    .

    ReplyDelete
  60. Ryan's full of shit. His plan is "Lower Taxes on the Rich - Raise taxes on the poor."

    ReplyDelete
  61. I must have been out on a "walkabout" that day, DR. you might have been ahead of your time. :)

    ReplyDelete
  62. Deuce said...
    The reasons wolves killed people is because people killed wolves and wolves fought back.


    :):):)

    O come on!


    Deuce said...
    If telling the truth makes one a racist…then was is a person that fears telling the truth?

    Agree with that, why was I called a racist when I moaned about the inner city?

    Quirk said...
    .

    The Romans and Egyptians saw the wolf as a creature representing valor, and made the wolf a guardian of many sacred temples. Joseph Campbell points out that these guardians serve a universal function around the world of protecting the unprepared from entering the sacred temenos or space.

    It is only the Swedes and those unfamiliar with Cambell's work that fear the wolf.

    Very, very good Quirk. However especially in Oriental temples the function is usually not carried out by wolves. And what valor is there in hunting in a pack, picking on the old, the young, or the disabled, and then letting the meat go to waste, and where did you come up with a word like temenos?

    I don't fear the wolf, not with my .243 with night scope.

    If I only had a pitchfork, I definitely would.

    If you go downtown Detroit I assume and hope you are packing.

    I urge Gag Reflex, now we don't have any elk, to come to Idaho County for a wolf hunt, we have plenty of those. Don't have to buy a tag either.

    a/bakadwr

    ReplyDelete
  63. I read an article by those that study these things, that if you are a full grown elk with good antlers your best bet when being set upon by a gang of fangs is to stand your ground, not run, for the wolves respect the antlers, and want to make you run, which they are very good at, to tire you out, make you pooped, and easy prey. You'd think evolutionary pressure would by this time have evolved an elk that would always stand its ground, or maybe form a defensive circle with some pals, like the musk ox (?) with the young ones inside, but maybe I'm not accounting for the contrary evolutionary pressure coming from the humans, who hunted with bows and arrows and spears, where your best bet would be to get the hell out of there. Evolution presents some quandries.

    a/bakadwr

    ReplyDelete
  64. .

    I prefer the heroic vision of the Romans to the timorous trembling of the Swedes.

    And what valor is there in hunting in a pack,...

    Are we supposed to take this criticism seriously when it comes from the valorous Swede who proposes poisoning as a solution.

    The Lucrezia Borgia of the gentlemen farmers.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  65. http://www.israeltoday.co.il/tabid/178/nid/22731/Default.aspx

    Goldstone Bloods Libel Unmasked

    I remember rat chortling about that organ harvesting episode.

    a/bakadwr

    ReplyDelete
  66. It's called efficiency and intelligence, and you can watch the NCAA Finals while chemistry does the work. It's called ergonomics.

    ReplyDelete
  67. We sacked Rome.

    Viking Conquests.The Vikings sack of Rome.
    Well not actually.
    The Vikings besieged and captured "Luna" in Italy. which no longer exists.
    They were so impressed because they thought this walled city of about 5000 was Rome.
    Oh well it's the thought that counts.
    But the Viking exploits took them to every corner of Europe and beyond.
    Combining the campaigns of all Scandinavian Vikings.
    The list is impressive.
    Britain and the British Isles, Ireland, Scotland, Orkney, Shetland, the Hebrides, Isle of Man.
    France, Frisia, the Baltics, Belgium, Germany. Sicily, Italy. as well as Spain and Portugal
    where they fought the Moors and the Arabs.
    They beat the Moors no problem. The battles with the Arabs was pretty much a draw though.
    They are determined and don't give up easy.
    Except in that 6 day War with the Jews right!
    In fact the Vikings got their asses whooped in 844 ce in the battle of
    "Quintos-Maarfir" in Spain by those damn Arabs.
    Added this just to show we are not biased and think the Vikings were invincible.
    In fact they lost quite a few battles. But it was the effect there
    attacks and raids had, you never new when they were coming.
    As it is known England became a unified nation because of the Vikings.
    All Brit tribes had to band together as one to survive the onslaught.
    Through Russia to the Black and Caspian Sea to Istanbul and all the way to Baghdad.
    Look how things go full circle.


    Anyway it's my French part I identify with.

    a/bakadwr

    ReplyDelete
  68. :) heh, being a pussy, being an airhead rather.

    a/bakadwr

    ReplyDelete
  69. Thank you god thank you .i think she likes me.thank u sir deuce,u were right ,at 21 i have a lot to hope for

    ReplyDelete
  70. Some parts of the world use Facebook to overthrow evil dictators. Me? I just want you all to know how delicious my sandwich is.

    ReplyDelete
  71. Calling all Romans and people from Detroit -

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8424588/International-pillow-fight-day-celebrated-worldwide.html


    International Pillow Fight Day Celebrated Worldwide

    Just threw a pillow at my dotter.

    a/bakadwr

    ReplyDelete
  72. .

    The Vikings?

    And what valor is there in hunting in a pack, picking on the old, the young, or the disabled?

    I guess they should have just poisoned them.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  73. youtube -

    musk ox form defensive position gainst albino wolves

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb6Rke7jiTc

    break and run, a fatal mistake

    a/bakadwr

    ReplyDelete
  74. The wolves have evolved white coats up there in the Arctic.

    a/bakadwr

    ReplyDelete
  75. Many people who claim to be at least part gentle Irish are actually of Swedish descent all through. Stubborn, mean sometimes, unforgiving ..... like my cousins.

    The Vikings founded Dublin.

    Why I appreciate my French part.

    a/bakadwr

    ReplyDelete
  76. Four or five wolves against one musk ox calf, sheesh, valor, I'm goin' to WalMart before the prices rise.

    ReplyDelete
  77. .

    Four or five wolves against one musk ox calf, sheesh, valor...

    And thus does the modern day Swedish farmer try to rationalize the atavistic fear of Fenrir passed on to him through the generations from his misbegotten anscestors.

    .

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  78. Three-year-old boy falls to his death from rollercoaster

    What kind of idiots let three year olds ride a roller coaster like this?

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  79. Darwin Award Parents by Proxy.

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  80. The Ruskies trained the Wolves by throwing those not worth their weight to the Wolves as decoys/bait/offerings, allowing the rest of the riders to travel on unmolested.

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  81. Unremarked upon so far here is the effect of the Welfare State on the Black family.
    In a word, profound.

    Not to mention EPA and other regulatory agencies putting thousands of small black businesses out of business.

    Not to mention the Monopolist educrats teaching hate Amerika first.

    ...but hey, this is the official GOP bashing spot with the latest talking points from the MSM.

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  82. Quirk said...
    .

    BTW, in 2008 we collected $304 Billion from Corporations, and $658 Billion from Social Security.

    The little guy always takes it in the ass Ruf. Yet some here say that when we ask people to pay a fair share of taxes we are 'eating the rich'.

    Go figure.


    ---

    I post an article titled eat the rich and you run off you MSM/Michael Moore talking points.

    Wnen, in fact, the point of the post was simply that spending is WAY out of control, and no amount of taxation could solve the problem.

    Better to repeat worn out GOP Bashing points in order to deflect attention from the coming bankruptcy brought to us by the Dem/Public Union Racketeers.

    ...not to mention that BHO/Geithner and Co are the baddest ass Crony Capitalist Enablers ever to have come down the pike.

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  83. Having destroyed the Black Family, turned off multiple generations to the the American Dream, the liberal educationists, welfare statists turned their sights to "hispanics"

    Turning hard working religious patriots into consumerist parasitic America loathing breeders.

    But hey, let's get back to bashing the GOP and pretend that they are better cronies and more responsible for this mess than the Dems.

    My Ass.

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  84. Buy chocolate now, prices are rising. The chief buyer for WalMart says all their prices are rising and the transportation costs are skyrocketing. Just sayin', inflation is here.

    Spokane, and C d'Alene too have all sorts of streets named after the Viking heritage.

    home again, home again, rub a de dub.....

    a/bakadwr

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  85. The Viking used to go through the British Isles and stop in Ireland to take slaves including woman to row to Iceland. Today you can see Irish and Swedish faces in Reykjavik.

    Good for you Sudheers, enjoy it!!!

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  86. Rufus says he's seen it all before, and CA will come back again.

    One more thing for Rufus to be wrong about.

    This is what liberals have done to half the state:

    Two Californias

    In two supermarkets 50 miles apart, I was the only one in line who did not pay with a social-service plastic card (gone are the days when “food stamps” were embarrassing bulky coupons). But I did not see any relationship between the use of the card and poverty as we once knew it: The electrical appurtenances owned by the user and the car into which the groceries were loaded were indistinguishable from those of the upper middle class.

    By that I mean that most consumers drove late-model Camrys, Accords, or Tauruses, had iPhones, Bluetooths, or BlackBerries, and bought everything in the store with public-assistance credit. This seemed a world apart from the trailers I had just ridden by the day before. I don’t editorialize here on the logic or morality of any of this, but I note only that there are vast numbers of people who apparently are not working, are on public food assistance, and enjoy the technological veneer of the middle class. California has a consumer market surely, but often no apparent source of income. Does the $40 million a day supplement to unemployment benefits from Washington explain some of this?

    Do diversity concerns, as in lack of diversity, work both ways? Over a hundred-mile stretch, when I stopped in San Joaquin for a bottled water, or drove through Orange Cove, or got gas in Parlier, or went to a corner market in southwestern Selma, my home town, I was the only non-Hispanic — there were no Asians, no blacks, no other whites. We may speak of the richness of “diversity,” but those who cherish that ideal simply have no idea that there are now countless inland communities that have become near-apartheid societies, where Spanish is the first language, the schools are not at all diverse, and the federal and state governments are either the main employers or at least the chief sources of income — whether through emergency rooms, rural health clinics, public schools, or social-service offices. An observer from Mars might conclude that our elites and masses have given up on the ideal of integration and assimilation, perhaps in the wake of the arrival of 11 to 15 million illegal aliens.

    We hear about the tough small-business regulations that have driven residents out of the state, at the rate of 2,000 to 3,000 a week. But from my unscientific observations these past weeks, it seems rather easy to open a small business in California without any oversight at all, or at least what I might call a “counter business.” I counted eleven mobile hot-kitchen trucks that simply park by the side of the road, spread about some plastic chairs, pull down a tarp canopy, and, presto, become mini-restaurants. There are no “facilities” such as toilets or washrooms. But I do frequently see lard trails on the isolated roads I bike on, where trucks apparently have simply opened their draining tanks and sped on, leaving a slick of cooking fats and oils. Crows and ground squirrels love them; they can be seen from a distance mysteriously occupied in the middle of the road.

    In fact, trash piles are commonplace out here — composed of everything from half-empty paint cans and children’s plastic toys to diapers and moldy food. I have never seen a rural sheriff cite a litterer, or witnessed state EPA workers cleaning up these unauthorized wastelands. So I would suggest to Bay Area scientists that the environment is taking a much harder beating down here in central California than it is in the Delta. Perhaps before we cut off more irrigation water to the west side of the valley, we might invest some green dollars into cleaning up the unsightly and sometimes dangerous garbage that now litters the outskirts of our rural communities.

    VDH

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  87. Fore I hit the road - so Quirk can keep his months straight -(dotter was looking this up)

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_days_hath_September

    Scroll down the the knuckle part, Quirk :)

    a/bakadwr

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  88. Better to repeat worn out GOP Bashing points in order to deflect attention from the coming bankruptcy brought to us by the Dem/Public Union Racketeers.

    ...not to mention that BHO/Geithner and Co are the baddest ass Crony Capitalist Enablers ever to have come down the pike.


    If you actually read my statement you'll see it says nothing about parties. Instead it is a general statement of disgust with a D.C. establishment that is bought and paid for by big business.

    It is telling that you automatically assume it was directed solely at the GOP.

    .

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  89. Let's do an over/under on how many more times Doug pastes that VDH piece.

    How do you write elebenty gazillion?

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  90. I've never seen a pineapplehead that was so obsessed with Kaliforneeyah.

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  91. Fred Thompson: "Dems claim GOP budget cuts would kill 70,000 kids. Let me guess - as soon as Obama gets the OK from the UN, he's ordering airstrikes on RNC Headquarters."

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  92. I read Doug's post. What will we do about it? Who is we?

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  93. What are WE going to do about it? Who, exactly, is this "we" you speak of, white man?

    I am going to have a beer.

    I believe California can do without my ignorant, redneck ass worrying about them.

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  94. "Sawdust" didn't stop the Radiation Leak. Go Figure.


    How did that crew ever FIND Pearl Harbor?

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