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."

Monday, June 29, 2009

US foreign indebtedness increased 62% in 2008

Back to the future?


As bad as that sounds, and it is, the situation is far worse for our significant others:

15. United States - 95.09%
External debt (as % of GDP): 95.09%
External debt per capita: $44,358

Gross external debt: $13.627 trillion (2008 Q3)
2008 GDP: $14.330 trillion

14. Norway - 114%
External debt (as % of GDP): 114%
External debt per capita: $118,353

Gross external debt: $551.59 billion
2008 GDP: $481.1 billion

13. Finland - 116%
External debt (as % of GDP): 116%
External debt per capita: $62,579

Gross external debt: $328.56 billion (Q4 2008)
2008 GDP: $281.2 billion

12. Sweden - 129%
External debt (as % of GDP): 129%
External debt per capita: $73,245

Gross external debt: $663.58 billion (Q4 2008)*
2008 GDP: $512.9 billion

T-10. Spain - 137.5%
External debt (as % of GDP): 137.5%
External debt per capita: $57,091

Gross external debt: $2.313 trillion (Q4 2008)
2008 GDP: $1.683 trillion

T-10. Germany - 137.5%
External debt (as % of GDP): 137.5%
External debt per capita: $63,767

Gross external debt: $5.25 trillion (Q4 2008)
2008 GDP: $3.818 trillion

9. Denmark - 159%
External debt (as % of GDP): 159%
External debt per capita: $107,026

Gross external debt: $588.7 billion (Q3 2008)
2008 GDP: $369.6 billion

8. France - 168%
External debt (as % of GDP): 168%
External debt per capita: $78,070

Gross external debt: $5.001 trillion
2008 GDP: $2.978 trillion

7. Austria - 191%
External debt (as % of GDP): 191%
External debt per capita: $100,787

Gross external debt: $827.49 billion (Q4 2008)
2008 GDP: $432.4 billion

6. Switzerland - 264%
External debt (as % of GDP): 264%
External debt per capita: $171,478

Gross external debt: $1.304 trillion (Q4 2008)
2008 GDP: $492.6 billion

5. Netherlands - 268%
External debt (as % of GDP): 268%
External debt per capita: $145,959

Gross external debt: $2.439 trillion (Q4 2008)
2008 GDP: $909.5 billion

4. Hong Kong - 295%
External debt (as % of GDP): 295%
External debt per capita: $93,539

Gross external debt: $659.93 billion (Q4 2008)
2008 GDP: $223.8 billion

3. Belgium - 327%
External Debt (as % of GDP): 327%
External debt per capita: $155,362

Gross External Debt: $1.618 trillion (Q4 2008)
2008 GDP: $495.4 billion

2. United Kingdom - 336%
External debt (as % of GDP): 336%
External debt per capita: $153,616

Gross external debt: $9.388 trillion (Q4 2008)
2008 GDP: $2.787 trillion

1. Ireland - 811%
External debt (as % of GDP): 811%
External debt per capita: $549,819

Gross external debt: $2.311 trillion (Q4 2008)
2008 GDP: $285 billion

Source CNBC

U.S.'s debtor status worsens dramatically

Foreigners hold 50 percent

By David M. Dickson Washington Times | Saturday, June 27, 2009

In the midst of the longest, and probably deepest, postwar recession last year, the U.S. investment position with the rest of the world sharply deteriorated.

At the end of 2008, America's net international investment position was minus $3.47 trillion, the Commerce Department reported Friday. That represents the difference between the value of U.S. assets owned by foreigners ($23.36 trillion) and the value of foreign assets owned by Americans ($19.89 trillion).

At the end of 2007, the U.S. net international investment position was minus $2.14 trillion. Thus, America's net indebtedness with the rest of the world increased by $1.33 trillion, or 62 percent, during 2008. It was by far the biggest annual increase in data that go back to 1976.

Foreigners now hold nearly 50 percent of the federal government's publicly held debt. If foreign investors significantly reduce their purchase of future U.S. Treasury debt securities, without even dumping their current holdings, U.S. interest rates could soar and the dollar could collapse, analysts fear.

At minus $3.47 trillion, America's net debtor status with foreigners represents nearly 25 percent of U.S. gross domestic product, the highest level in history.

"Three decades of massive [trade] deficits have converted the United States from the world's banker - able to 'pay any price and bear any burden in the cause of freedom' - to the world's largest debtor, utterly dependent on China and other foreign interests," said Charles McMillion, chief economist of Washington-based MBG Information Services.

Essentially, America's net international investment position is driven by what the United States borrows from the rest of the world to finance its ongoing trade deficit, said Brad Setser, a fellow for geoeconomics at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Over the 2003-07 period, however, foreign equity markets outperformed the U.S. stock market, and the dollar steadily depreciated. These two factors reduced the annual deterioration in America's investment position that otherwise would have been dictated by massive U.S. trade deficits during this period.

"Both of those factors reversed themselves last year," Mr. Setser said. The dollar appreciated, and foreign stock markets suffered bigger declines than America's. As a result, America's net debtor status worsened significantly more during 2008 than its nearly $700 billion trade deficit would have dictated, Mr. Setser explained.

Over the years, America's status as a creditor or debtor has changed enormously. In the early 1980s, America's net international investment position averaged $350 billion, or 11 percent of GDP, making the United States the world's largest creditor. Today, it is the world's largest debtor - by far.

As recently as 1996, America's net debtor status was minus $456 billion. Since 1996, it has increased by more than $3 trillion, or 660 percent, as America's 12-year cumulative trade deficit soared by $5.7 trillion.

Foreign governments have taken notice - in particular, China, which now holds more U.S. Treasury debt than any other country. In the 12 months through April, China's portfolio of Treasury debt securities has soared by more than a quarter of a trillion dollars to nearly $800 billion.

In its annual financial stability report issued on Friday, China's central bank once again declared there were serious problems with the global monetary system's reliance on a single dominant currency - the dollar. An estimated 65 percent to 70 percent of China's $2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, the world's largest stockpile, is held in dollar-denominated assets.

The People's Bank of China also warned the United States on Friday about its very expansionary monetary and fiscal policies.

"We are so deeply in debt and this money is so liquid that it hamstrings our monetary, fiscal and trade policies," Mr. McMillion said. "We've really mortgaged our financial future."


74 comments:

  1. Hey, money doesn't grow on trees...then again, maybe it does...

    There is one bright spot: When all that paper is redeemed, it may make a great source of ethanol.

    ReplyDelete
  2. If the Chi-coms hold US denominated debt, who is holding that of the EU countries and in what currency is it payable? That debt, which is, proportionatly, so much higher than what the US owes.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Washington Post - Noor Khan - ‎57 minutes ago‎
    AP KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- President Hamid Karzai accused Afghan guards working for US coalition forces of killing a provincial police chief and at least four other security officers Monday, and he demanded that American forces hand over ..
    .

    ReplyDelete
  4. The Chi-Coms manage their economy on the basis of Capitalist Truths.

    While the US of LaRazaOblahbah Institutes Soviet Era Central Planing.

    ReplyDelete
  5. 16. Dave the Kapampangan:

    As the Inuit say:
    Live Real,
    or you can’t recognize the polar bear when it comes to bite you on the ass.

    ReplyDelete
  6. In case anyone did not follow Linear's Link in the previous thread:
    ---
    Media nervous on new Duke U. rape case (updated)
    ---
    Frank Lombard is the associate director of Duke's Center for Health Policy. The university administrator was recently arrested by the FBI and charged with offering up his adopted 5-year-old son for sex. I tried to contact Frank Lombard over the weekend to probe his expertise regarding the health benefits of raping small children. So far, he's declined to comment.

    University administrator Lombard is accused of logging on to a chat room online and describing himself as a "perv dad for fun." The detective who wisely looked into the suspicious screen name says that Lombard admitted to molesting his own adopted son. All this was before allegedly inviting a stranger to travel to North Carolina from another state to statutorily rape his already-molested adopted son.

    It gets worse. The allegations are stunning and sickening. Adams spares us what he says is the worst.

    However, identity politics are probably also involved in understanding the media response. Again, Adams:

    The Associate Press (AP) did not mention the fact that the five-year old offered up for molestation was black. Bringing that fact to light might be damaging to the political coalition that exists between blacks and gays. Nor did the AP mention that the adopted child is being raised by a homosexual couple. Bringing that fact to light might harm the gay adoption movement.

    I am afraid that as far as the media and academic communities are involved, it is not the crime itself that matters, but rather whether the alleged perp is a member of an "oppressor" group. Although white, Lombard is gay, so in the interest of avoiding unpleasant stories involving homosexual adoption, the media is anxious to shut down public interest in the affair.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Update: Thomas Lifson notes that Stanley B. Chambers of the Raleigh News and Observer (hat tip: C. Edmund Wright) brings is the following nugget:

    Lombard, a licensed clinical social worker with a master's degree in social work, is a health-disparities researcher who studies HIV/AIDS in the rural South.

    This means that Lombard toiled in fields of the victimology industry, mining data for correlations that would underwrite government favoritism of victim groups.

    A victimologist victimized at least one child in the most heinous way. The ultimate victim(s). And the media see no hypocrisy, and want to make sure the public doesn't either. Nothing to see here, move along.

    All this coming in the wake of another highly publicized incident at the same prominent university? I don't think they can suppress this one.
    The conservative media have the power to put this case on the national agenda.
    It is too dramatic.

    ReplyDelete
  8. This site is so wonderful site why because this site cleared my problem.
    ---
    For me to know.
    For you to find out.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Bob lives in the
    Night of the Living Dead.
    (Where else would you expect him to hide out?)
    ---
    10. bob:

    The names in Ledger’s ledger seem heavily weighted on the male side of the sexual divide.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Dowd at her best:

    - Genius in the Bottle -

    As in all great affairs, Mark Sanford fell in love simultaneously with a woman and himself — with the dashing new version of himself he saw in her molten eyes.

    ReplyDelete
  11. 10. bob:
    Work is the curse of the drinking class.
    Supreme Court Has Overuled Sotomayor In Firefighters Case
    ---
    That's GOTTA Be al-Bob.
    Now I gotta search the archives to see which of you degenerates ran him off.
    (bettin on 'Rat!)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Dr. Strangelove and I have a thing for Bomarc.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Ever since Ogden AMA became prime depot for four top AF missiles (Bomarc, Snark, Genie, Bull Goose), employees at Hill AFB have been going around as though reacting to a shot of enthusiasm in the arm. Leaving work at night, they drive home to all sections of Utah to eat, sleep and talk missiles.

    Nor are they the only ones. The Utah newspapers are doing it too. The magic of missiles makes interesting reading, especially when the news can be gathered right in their own front yard-with maybe a few feedlines thrown out by the information services office at OOAMA.

    The sociological result is that the missile fever in Utah has spread to the public-at-large. A by-product of this is a minor form of press-agentry which one might expect to find in Hollywood or on Broadway, but not necessarily in Utah.

    An eye-catching example of these local symptoms of missile fever (and press-agentry) appeared recently in Utah newspapers in the well-formed form of "Miss Bomarc," who, underneath it all, was Fran Frost, a blonde native missile from Kaysville who was an attraction in Utah much before the Bomarc got there. The story behind Miss Bomarc shows how missile-mindedness, originating within the AMC family, can manifest itself in the most unexpected of places (also see AMC FAMILY, p. 16).

    It started when the Utah State Beauty Operators announced a hair-styling contest to be held in Salt Lake City. It so happened that one of the member operators was Audrene Yates, a Layton beautician, who had caught the missile fever from her husband Jay, who works in maintenance engineering at OOAMA. Taking her inspiration from the Bomarc, Audrene dreamed up an original coiffeur which promptly won first prize. As state winner, her hairdo (preferably on Fran Frost) will represent Utah in the national contest this summer.

    But Audrene wasn't the only AMC family member to contribute to the story and the ensuing publicity. To set off the striking coiffeur, Margaret, wife of Captain Robert Alger of AMC's 28th Logistic Support Squadron at OOAMA, designed a black full-length sheath dress styled after the Bomarc and fitted it to Fran's facile frame.

    *Note to unsophisticated male readers: The late Antoine was a bird-like, somewhat more than middle-aging New York hair stylist who wore his own hair in a curly swirl of dyed purple and frequently slept (while still alive, that is) in a lavender-satined coffin. Any time he came out with a new hairstyle it was a Cape Canaveral event for millions of women.
    But to most men he was a destruct.
    ---
    'Rat's Family pulled strings to bring the Snark to Utah.

    ReplyDelete
  14. We import something like 12 Million Barrels of oil, and oil products (net) every day. At an average of $70.00/bbl that comes out to about $840 Million/Day, or $300 Billion Every Year.

    It will soon be $600 Billion/Yr (again;) and, not long after that we will we will be firmly ensconced on our slide into impotence.

    Not to scare you folks, but we're getting into some deep shit, here.

    ReplyDelete
  15. rufus:
    It will soon be $600 Billion/Yr (again;) and, not long after that we will we will be firmly ensconced on our slide into impotence.

    Not to scare you folks, but we're getting into some deep shit, here.

    add on to that the cost of military aid to arabia and the other oil producers, the costs of 2-3 carrier groups to protect the shipping lanes for oil and you are close to a trillion a year all going to the most backward people on the planet...

    ReplyDelete
  16. The Pentagon is right to study Israel’s hybrid war against Hezbollah. But it should also give equal attention to America’s own flailing history in Somalia. During that time a long list of strategies has failed to achieve the U.S. government’s security goals. What the OSD policy office learns from that and what lessons it may need to apply someday to Afghanistan or ungoverned spaces elsewhere seems just as timely as hybrid warfare.

    Posted by Robert Haddick

    ReplyDelete
  17. A trillion a year, to fuel and secure America's energy needs.

    On a $14 trillion USD economy, that's 7%. Not that outlandish, at all.

    Which is not to say that those monies would not be better spent, at home, on renewable liquid energy.

    But as an expense catagory, that 7% is not outlandish.

    ReplyDelete
  18. WiO: the costs of 2-3 carrier groups to protect the shipping lanes for oil

    Are you talking about the Straits of Hormuz and Malacca? That's the shipping lane for European, Japanese, and Chinese oil. How many carriers do they have in the poker game?

    ReplyDelete
  19. ...back in the day, our social studies books had these neat graphs comparing meaningless stuff - like how tall would be a stack of 1 trillion, $1.00 bills...don't know...don't care...However, $1,000,000,000,000.00 would pay for about 5,600,000 single family homes, at the median. How many barrels of ethanol could be produced from the digestion of 5,600,000 single family homes, I leave to rufus to determine ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  20. The Carrier Groups are one reason the U.S. Dollar is the World's "Reserve" Currency.

    However, w/o our dependence on Mid East oil we could, easily, get by with two, or three less.

    Anyway, all that aside, we'll be running low on oil (worldwide) possibly as soon as the end of the recession. Of course, without an "expanding" supply of oil we might stay in and out of recession for a long time.

    This deal hasn't, actually, hit the collective consciousness, yet; but it will. It may get ugly, fast.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Air Force tests missile in launch from Calif coast

    Associated Press - June 29, 2009 8:24 AM ET

    VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) - The Air Force has successfully launched an unarmed Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missile from the California coast to an area in the Pacific Ocean some 4,200 miles away.

    Lt. Raymond Geoffroy says the ICBM was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 3:01 a.m. Monday and carried three unarmed re-entry vehicles to their targets near the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

    The missile, configured with a National Nuclear Security Administration Test Assembly, was launched under the direction of the 576th Flight Test Squadron.

    The Air Force says the launch was an operational test to check the weapon system's reliability and accuracy, and the data will be used by United States Strategic Command planners and Department of Energy laboratories.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Maybe, they just wanted Li'l Kim to see what a "real" missile looks like.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Since "he" doesn't have a missile defense, you know?

    ReplyDelete
  24. Kim's missile defense is Seoul. That is going to be a tough nut to crack, even if undertaken in earnest.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Allen: Kim's missile defense is Seoul. That is going to be a tough nut to crack, even if undertaken in earnest.

    Seoul will only take shelling for a few days while our smart bombs take out the "Y" emplacements one by one. If the Nokos lob a single chem shell Pyongyang is forfeit. You don't hit a WMD-armed coalition that can hit you back with WMDs the instant you cross that line.

    ReplyDelete
  26. OK, we tested an unarmed missle, which could easily be armed (nuke or otherwise). We have all the attachments (nuke or otherwise) and claim our right to have them.

    Should we expect outrage from Chavez, Kim, Putin, Castro, and everyone else Obama is bowing to these days? I'm just sayin'

    ReplyDelete
  27. teresita,

    Somehow, I don't think the South Koreans are quite as sanguine. Victory is as cold as defeat for the dead.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Welcome back, T.

    What advice do you have for putting Ubuntu into a partition on a 320G drive, the other side running Vista?

    Are there any problem with doing the partition after Vista is installed by the mfr (Dell)?

    Any comments appreciated.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Allen,
    What's a few days shelling to a town of 20 Million?
    No way they're gonna git em all.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Found while looking for something else.

    Laser Gunship Fires; ‘Deniable’ Strikes Ahead?.

    August 13, 2008

    The Advanced Tactical Laser, weighing twelve thousand pounds and mounted in a Hercules transport plane, is intended to give Special Forces Command "ultra-precision strike capability" against a wide range of ground targets. Its power is somewhere in the hundred-kilowatt range.

    According to the developers, the accuracy of this weapon is little short of supernatural.

    ...

    This precision should make the ATL a highly effective anti-personnel weapon, able to target (or "assassinate," depending on your politics) a specific individual in a group with sniper-like precision. A request for the Advanced Tactical Laser to be deployed to Iraq lays out the benefits:

    Precision engagement of a PID [Positively Identified] insurgent by a DEW [Directed Energy Weapon] will be a highly surgical and impressively violent event. Target effects will include instantaneous burst-combustion of insurgent clothing, a rapid death through violent trauma, and more probably a morbid combination of both.

    It is estimated that the aftermath of a sub-second engagement by PASDEW
    [Precision Airborne Standoff Directed Energy Weapon] will also be an observable event leaving an impression of terrifyingly precise CF [Coalition Force] attribution in the minds of all witnesses.


    ---------

    Setting: Debriefing interview
    Locaton: Cave, NW Pakistan

    Allah willed it, boss...really!

    ReplyDelete
  31. Postscript from the article:

    The injury might resemble a lightning strike more than anything else.

    ReplyDelete
  32. A friend at OSU back about 1974-75 had visited a classmate from Stanford who was working down at Sandia Labs. His second hand comment was "...they have stuff under development down there that is mind boggling." Thirty-five years ago.

    ReplyDelete
  33. If the NorKs used artillery delivered mustard gas, in SouK, with a casualty count above 100,000 but below 500,000 dead civilians, would the US retaliate with nuclear ferocity, or try to ignite lil Kim Jr in a spontaneous fireball of concentrated protons?

    I do not think that Mr Bush would have responded with the nuclear option and I do not think Obama would, either.

    I'd not place much faith in spontaneous combustion, doubt lil' Kim Jr would ever see the light of day, to be targeted.

    ReplyDelete
  34. A Widowmaker is nothing in the hands of a dressmaker.

    ReplyDelete
  35. It's just like energy. We don't lack the basics. We lack the will to develop the one, and use the other.

    Historian philosophers must have a quote to define the outcome of that combination.

    Time is not on our side in this with naifs running the merry-go-round.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Honduras Defends Its Democracy
    Fidel Castro and Hillary Clinton object
    .

    While Honduran law allows for a constitutional rewrite, the power to open that door does not lie with the president. A constituent assembly can only be called through a national referendum approved by its Congress.

    But Mr. Zelaya declared the vote on his own and had Mr. Chávez ship him the necessary ballots from Venezuela. The Supreme Court ruled his referendum unconstitutional, and it instructed the military not to carry out the logistics of the vote as it normally would do.

    The top military commander, Gen. Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, told the president that he would have to comply. Mr. Zelaya promptly fired him. The Supreme Court ordered him reinstated. Mr. Zelaya refused.

    Calculating that some critical mass of Hondurans would take his side, the president decided he would run the referendum himself. So on Thursday he led a mob that broke into the military installation where the ballots from Venezuela were being stored and then had his supporters distribute them in defiance of the Supreme Court's order.

    The attorney general had already made clear that the referendum was illegal, and he further announced that he would prosecute anyone involved in carrying it out. Yesterday, Mr. Zelaya was arrested by the military and is now in exile in Costa Rica.

    It remains to be seen what Mr. Zelaya's next move will be. It's not surprising that chavistas throughout the region are claiming that he was victim of a military coup. They want to hide the fact that the military was acting on a court order to defend the rule of law and the constitution, and that the Congress asserted itself for that purpose, too
    .

    ReplyDelete
  37. While this fellow, Roberto Lovato, likens the situation in Honduras to that in Iran.

    ReplyDelete
  38. "I do not think that Mr Bush would have responded with the nuclear option and I do not think Obama would, either."
    ---
    Speaking of "Mr Bush,"
    I was just thinking, if we had had a real president, a real man, or a real conservative, or, all of the above, instead of "Mr Bush," the President of the United States would have VETOED any legislation that gave massive sums to outfits like ACORN and LaRaza.
    ...but we didn't, and "Mr Bush" didn't, and here we are.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Obama condemns Honduran Presidential Ouster..

    President For Life Obama, His Royal Highness, Messiah, The ONE that we have been waiting for, has expressed support for the currently out of place President of Honduras, who had sought to change the constitution by bypassing the constitution...

    Those that seek to use psuedo-democratic processes in order to subvert and destroy democratic societies of the west may be upset when those entrusted to protect and serve the constitutions of those nations legally fight back..

    ReplyDelete
  40. I hope the Army doesn't show up with case law books instead of AK-47's.

    ReplyDelete
  41. "The injury might resemble a lightning strike more than anything else."
    ---
    I doubt it.
    Lots of folks don't look all that bad following a lighting strike.

    ReplyDelete
  42. One person looks shocked, the other cooked, parboiled, burned, and exploded.
    Other than that...

    ReplyDelete
  43. Send in the Senator to check for tan lines.

    ReplyDelete
  44. The truth is ,rat's an ass hole. He doesn't even know why he is so anti-Israel.

    He is an illeterate poorly read fellow, God Bless him.

    Rat's a moron, just like Habu said, though I would come up with diferent reasons.

    Having a truely great vacation--take care all.

    It's you, Teresita, has shut down the internet on these American Motels.

    Shame on you, good Lady.

    Shame, shame on you.

    ReplyDelete
  45. What is the casualty threshold for a nuclear response?

    We know that 4,000 dead US residents does not meet it.
    If it did, well then, Tora Bora would have had been ground zero for a tactical air burst.

    250,000 dead in Darfur does not merit much of a response from the whirled, let alone US, much less a nuclear counterstrike against Khartoum.

    So, realisticly, how many SouKs would have to die, before a nuclear response threshold was met?

    A million?

    ReplyDelete
  46. Speaking of Widows, Allen, reminds me of old Silver Tongue Jones.

    When Smith drowned on a fishing trip, the guys sent Silver Tongue to give the tragic news to Mrs. Smith.

    When she answered the door, he said,
    "Hi, Widow Smith"

    She said,
    "I'm not a Widow"

    He said,
    "The Shit you ain't!"

    From the good old days when Larsen ran amuck @ BC.

    ReplyDelete
  47. I'm no more anti-Israel than I am anti-Libyan, bobbie.

    Hold them both in about the same esteem.

    Thought the Libyan attempts to annex parts of Chad were illegal and ill advised, and said so.
    That they have redeemed themselves in the eyes of the civilized, enlightening. The Romans, Brits and Franks leading them on the way to their conversion from terror and nuclear proliferation.

    Paying restitution for their evil deeds against the innocents over Scotland.

    ReplyDelete
  48. But then I still think of the "Rape of Nanking", when I see a Honda cruising the streets.

    In that regard, buy Kia or Hyundai, if you're buyin' any Asian imports.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Any nuclear capable country that does not subscribe to the NPT is a rouge and should be sanctioned until they come into the norms of civilized behaviour.

    Those countries currently include Israel, India and Pakistan.
    As well as Iran. Iran does not hold any special spot in the proliferation sweepstakes. In fact they are far behind the leaders through curve of rouge nuclear States.

    ReplyDelete
  50. "But then I still think of the "Rape of Nanking", when I see a Honda cruising the streets."
    ---
    You could be a Supreme!

    ReplyDelete
  51. Lucky you don't live in Hawaii.
    They've run the joint since the
    442nd came back.

    ReplyDelete
  52. What are YOU going to do about it? !

    Well, if the Alamo was a sore point for a fella, living in Phoenix would be a tad uncomfortable, Santa Annaistas, everywhere you look.

    Why Walmart even built a store que es solo Espanol, aqui en la ciudad Phoenix.

    ReplyDelete
  53. That the US has followed a path of appeasement, with all the nuclear proliferaters, just plain piss poor policy.

    ReplyDelete
  54. desert rat said...
    I'm no more anti-Israel than I am anti-Libyan, bobbie.

    Hold them both in about the same esteem.



    that says it all...

    too easy....

    ReplyDelete
  55. LinearThinker:

    What advice do you have for putting Ubuntu into a partition on a 320G drive, the other side running Vista?

    Are there any problem with doing the partition after Vista is installed by the mfr (Dell)?


    Windows Vista already has two partitions, orn for Vista and the other one is about 9 GB and it contains the two DVD's worth of information required to install Vista. Use the Windows application to burn this information off onto a couple DVDs and save this as your restore disk set (the manufacturers could have done this for you but they're being cheap). Then install Ubuntu to the little partition, that is plenty of room for the OS, you can use the Windows partition for your files if you run out of room there, because Linux can see it and write to it, but Windows can't see or write to Linux filesystems (by design).

    ReplyDelete
  56. DR: If the NorKs used artillery delivered mustard gas, in SouK, with a casualty count above 100,000 but below 500,000 dead civilians, would the US retaliate with nuclear ferocity

    Yes, and it would become the Obama Doctrine. Any use of Chemical, Biological, or Nuclear weapons against our Allies is cause for retaliation using the same. If Obama rolled over, it would set a precedent. Tehran would feel free to start firing biologicals at Tel Aviv. China would start hitting Taipei with Sarin. If Obama failed to protect our allies, then in 2012 he would be wide open to charges of being too weak to lead a superpower.

    ReplyDelete
  57. DR: Why Walmart even built a store que es solo Espanol, aqui en la ciudad Phoenix.

    And the ATMs there say:

    1> Presione Uno Para El Español

    2> Prensa Dos Para El Inglés

    ReplyDelete
  58. Then after you install a bunch of software, Linear, make a restore disk with "Acronis," it then takes less than half an hour to run again, instead of a week's worth of updates, software re-installs, conflicts and domestic mayhem.
    $69
    You weren't here, T, but my Genius son could not get me back up and running w/ubuntu, and dumb old me got it back to good as new in 20 min w/Acronis.
    ---
    ...for some reason we couldn't get the format to finish in my new Seagate drive.
    ...got all the way to the end, but would never say it was done.
    Any idears?
    (I ran the Acronis restore on that "incomplete" format, however)

    ReplyDelete
  59. "If Obama failed to protect our allies, then in 2012 he would be wide open to charges of being too weak to lead a superpower."
    ---
    Yeah, but he'll have already achieved his primary objective of eliminating Israel, and will be a Saint to Rev Wright and Jew Haters the World Over.

    ReplyDelete
  60. Doug, download a Live CD version of Gparted, it has only a quick and dirty Linux kernel and a partition editor. Then do all your formatting with that. And don't PAY for backup software, use the following command in a Linux terminal (assuming you're "in" a hard drive, say an external one, that's bigger than the one you're backing up):

    dd if=/dev/hda of=backup.img

    To restore the backup just reverse it:

    dd if=backup.img of=/dev/hda

    ReplyDelete
  61. Deuce, of all the countries you posted in this article, the US has the lowest per capita external debt and the only one that is less than 100% of GDP, and tiny Ireland has $549K per head, yet its the US which has a problem?

    ReplyDelete
  62. Thanks, T.

    Your short paragraph probably more valuable than you can guess.

    Yes, Doug. I'm grateful to you for your snarky help, too [So you don't sulk].

    $69 for Acronis! That's a lot of jelly beans...ain't there sumpin cheeper? What if I take the Acronis 2wk free trial, and run my backup onto DVD. Will it work in the future, or will it behave like a MS product, scrambling the eggs while their still in the carton?

    ReplyDelete
  63. Bob, you're back!

    Was worried here you'd fallen in Mel's Hole, or some other dire fate known only to us Art Bell fans.

    What a relief. My bar fight jones needin' satifaction and all.

    Bar's been damned quiet for a spell, no fault of Allen, WiO and Trish. [...and Doug too, so he don't sulk some more]

    And T returns the same day! You two in cahoots?

    ReplyDelete
  64. ...use the following command in a Linux terminal (assuming you're "in" a hard drive, say an external one, that's bigger than the one you're backing up):

    dd if=/dev/hda of=backup.img

    To restore the backup just reverse it:

    dd if=backup.img of=/dev/hda
    .

    Got a reference to a book for that code [that I might understand]? Other than 'Linux for Dummies'. I loathe that series.

    ReplyDelete
  65. Never mind, Doug. T saved my jellybeans. I'm not effluent as you who live in paradise.

    ReplyDelete
  66. T, the irony did not escape you, now crack the code.

    ReplyDelete
  67. I am flabbergasted at the external debt of Ireland and the UK. I remember reading about Ireland being a Celtic tiger economy, but now it seems they only got that way by increased state spending, and not any real sustainable economic growth.

    The pols in both Ireland and Singapore said stuff about the similarity between us and Ireland, but based on this, I'd say we have very little in common.

    I'd also note that the only Asian country on the list is Hong Kong. Hmmm... interesting...

    ReplyDelete
  68. Supreme Court: White Firefighters Unjustly Denied Promotions...

    Monday, June 29, 2009 10:11 AM


    WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court ruled Monday that white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., were unfairly denied promotions because of their race, reversing a decision that high court nominee Sonia Sotomayor endorsed as an appeals court judge.

    New Haven was wrong to scrap a promotion exam because no African-Americans and only two Hispanic firefighters were likely to be made lieutenants or captains based on the results, the court said Monday in a 5-4 decision. The city said that it had acted to avoid a lawsuit from minorities.

    The ruling could alter employment practices nationwide and make it harder to prove discrimination when there is no evidence it was intentional.

    ...

    In dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the white firefighters "understandably attract this court's sympathy. But they had no vested right to promotion. Nor have other persons received promotions in preference to them."

    Justices Stephen Breyer, David Souter and John Paul Stevens signed onto Ginsburg's dissent, which she read aloud in court Monday.

    ...

    Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said Sotomayor should not be criticized for the unsigned appeals court decision, which he asserted she did not write. "Judge Sotomayor and the lower court panel did what judges are supposed to do, they followed precedent," said the Vermont Democrat who will preside over Sotomayor's confirmation hearings next month.

    Leahy also called the high court decision "cramped" and wrong.

    ...

    The white firefighters said the decision violated the same law's prohibition on intentional discrimination.

    Kennedy said an employer needs a "strong basis in evidence" to believe it will be held liable in a disparate impact lawsuit. New Haven had no such evidence, he said.

    The city declined to validate the test after it was given, a step that could have identified flaws or determined that there were no serious problems with it. In addition, city officials could not say what was wrong with the test, other than the racially skewed results.

    "The city could be liable for disparate-impact discrimination only if the examinations were not job related" or the city failed to use a less discriminatory alternative, Kennedy said. "We conclude that there is no strong basis in evidence to establish that the test was deficient in either of these respects."

    But Ginsburg said the court should have assessed "the starkly disparate results" of the exams against the backdrop of historical and ongoing inequality in the New Haven fire department. As of 2003, she said, only one of the city's 21 fire captains was African-American
    .

    ReplyDelete
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