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Friday, December 26, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
Bail Em Out?
Back in 1990, the Government seized the Mustang Ranch brothel in Nevada for tax evasion and, as required by law, tried to run it.They failed and it closed.
Now we are trusting the economy of our country and our banking system to the same nit-wits who couldn't make money running a whore house and selling whiskey.
Friday, December 12, 2008
It's Going to be a Bright Night!
The full moon tonight is the biggest and brightest of the year.
Generally unseen by the average observer, the size and brightness of the full moon ebbs and flows as it circles the earth in an elliptical orbit. Unless you are an astronaut trying to land on the moon I imagine you really don't care or notice. Except tonight!
This full moon will be 14% larger and 30% brighter than the lesser full moons we've seen this year. That's because the moon is at it's Perigee. That's astronomer talk for the closest point in an elliptical orbit. The opposite position, Apogee, is when the moon is at it's furthest point in its less than perfect circle of an orbit.
Here's a side-by-side photo taken of the Apogee and Perigee moons in 2002.
Combining this brighter than usual moon with the higher position of a winter moon should really light up the landscape. And double that if you're lucky enough to have some fresh white snow on the ground. It'll be a good time to bundle up and take a stroll through the neighborhood, looking at the beautiful Christmas decorations and having your way lit by the Perigee Moon!
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
A New World Government?
There's some ominous signs out there that the Obama administration is going to start moving toward a New World Government.
Obama has already said in his book, The Audacity of Hope, “When the world’s sole superpower willingly restrains its power and abides by internationally agreed-upon standards of conduct, it sends a message that these are rules worth following.” And he has appointed one of his top aides, Susan Rice as UN Ambassador and has elevated it to a Cabinet position. So he's already moving toward a more conciliatory and amenable position in the world stage. That in and off itself isn't all bad.
But here comes some disturbing news. Gideon Rachman, writes in a column for Financial Times;
A taste of the ideas doing the rounds in Obama circles is offered by a recent report from the Managing Global Insecurity project, whose small US advisory group includes John Podesta, the man heading Mr Obama’s transition team and Strobe Talbott, the president of the Brookings Institution, from which Ms Rice has just emerged. (Also on the advisory group is Sandy Berger, Clinton's National Security advisor that stole classified docs in his pants and socks to hide Clinton's failures to stop Bin Laden and the terrorists!)
The MGI report argues for the creation of a UN high commissioner for counter-terrorist activity, a legally binding climate-change agreement negotiated under the auspices of the UN and the creation of a 50,000-strong UN peacekeeping force. Once countries had pledged troops to this reserve army, the UN would have first call upon them.
These are the kind of ideas that get people reaching for their rifles in America’s talk-radio heartland. Aware of the political sensitivity of its ideas, the MGI report opts for soothing language. It emphasises the need for American leadership and uses the term, “responsible sovereignty” – when calling for international co-operation – rather than the more radical-sounding phrase favoured in Europe, “shared sovereignty”. It also talks about “global governance” rather than world government.
But some European thinkers think that they recognise what is going on. Jacques Attali, an adviser to President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, argues that: “Global governance is just a euphemism for global government.” As far as he is concerned, some form of global government cannot come too soon. Mr Attali believes that the “core of the international financial crisis is that we have global financial markets and no global rule of law”.
Keep an eye on this, it could quickly gain footing if the world economic crisis worsens.
Obama has already said in his book, The Audacity of Hope, “When the world’s sole superpower willingly restrains its power and abides by internationally agreed-upon standards of conduct, it sends a message that these are rules worth following.” And he has appointed one of his top aides, Susan Rice as UN Ambassador and has elevated it to a Cabinet position. So he's already moving toward a more conciliatory and amenable position in the world stage. That in and off itself isn't all bad.
But here comes some disturbing news. Gideon Rachman, writes in a column for Financial Times;
A taste of the ideas doing the rounds in Obama circles is offered by a recent report from the Managing Global Insecurity project, whose small US advisory group includes John Podesta, the man heading Mr Obama’s transition team and Strobe Talbott, the president of the Brookings Institution, from which Ms Rice has just emerged. (Also on the advisory group is Sandy Berger, Clinton's National Security advisor that stole classified docs in his pants and socks to hide Clinton's failures to stop Bin Laden and the terrorists!)The MGI report argues for the creation of a UN high commissioner for counter-terrorist activity, a legally binding climate-change agreement negotiated under the auspices of the UN and the creation of a 50,000-strong UN peacekeeping force. Once countries had pledged troops to this reserve army, the UN would have first call upon them.
These are the kind of ideas that get people reaching for their rifles in America’s talk-radio heartland. Aware of the political sensitivity of its ideas, the MGI report opts for soothing language. It emphasises the need for American leadership and uses the term, “responsible sovereignty” – when calling for international co-operation – rather than the more radical-sounding phrase favoured in Europe, “shared sovereignty”. It also talks about “global governance” rather than world government.
But some European thinkers think that they recognise what is going on. Jacques Attali, an adviser to President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, argues that: “Global governance is just a euphemism for global government.” As far as he is concerned, some form of global government cannot come too soon. Mr Attali believes that the “core of the international financial crisis is that we have global financial markets and no global rule of law”.
Keep an eye on this, it could quickly gain footing if the world economic crisis worsens.
It's Been a While
For all my loyal followers out there I want to apologize to both of you for not posting in a while. This new venture I'm involved in is taking up way too much of my blogging time. Hopefully I'll be able to get back at the blogging on a more regular basis soon.
In the meantime I really don't have any real updates to post, just a comment or two.
I am really ticked off at the politicians and the inane antics they are doing about saving this industry and that industry. I really feel it's a lot to do about nothing, as that's really what the end result will be.... Nothing! Our economy and the two biggest segments of it, auto and home building, are driven by consumer spending. If there's no spending, no buying, then nothing Congress can do will pull them out of the tailspin they are in. And right now the consumers in America have closed their wallets. They are spending only for the necessities and aren't buying the big ticket items. So builders and auto makers, and the ancillary industries that support them are all going to feel a big pinch for a while.
It won't matter how much the media and Wall Street and the politicians talk about hitting bottom and that things are now coming back. The consumer won't start spending again until they are confident their jobs and income are back on steady ground. And that's not going to happen for months yet. The layoffs and downsizing really has just gotten into full swing right now. I hardly know of any working family that hasn't been affected already or are very worried about their jobs. And as much as I hate to say it.... it's going to get worse before it gets better.
But, all is not gloom and doom. As in any situation there are opportunities that arise in times like these. And there are still a lot of folks employed. What's going to happen now is consumers will come down from the crazy spending spree that they've been on for the last decade or so and will get back to the basics. Who knows, maybe a few more conversations will be had at the dinner table, maybe a book will be read, maybe someone will volunteer at a charity? Stranger things have happened.
On a side note, a couple of sites I like to read have been saying there are a couple of big earthquakes coming in the next few days. They say they should hit around Dec 10 -15 with some major damage from them. They don't give the locations but say that they'll be generally opposite the globe from each other. So if one is in China, then the other will be on the opposite side of globe in, say the US. It's going to be interesting to see how accurate they are in their predictions. They claim that they have accurately predicted earthquakes and other physical occurrences in the past. Let's see how good they are on this one.
In the meantime I really don't have any real updates to post, just a comment or two.
I am really ticked off at the politicians and the inane antics they are doing about saving this industry and that industry. I really feel it's a lot to do about nothing, as that's really what the end result will be.... Nothing! Our economy and the two biggest segments of it, auto and home building, are driven by consumer spending. If there's no spending, no buying, then nothing Congress can do will pull them out of the tailspin they are in. And right now the consumers in America have closed their wallets. They are spending only for the necessities and aren't buying the big ticket items. So builders and auto makers, and the ancillary industries that support them are all going to feel a big pinch for a while.
It won't matter how much the media and Wall Street and the politicians talk about hitting bottom and that things are now coming back. The consumer won't start spending again until they are confident their jobs and income are back on steady ground. And that's not going to happen for months yet. The layoffs and downsizing really has just gotten into full swing right now. I hardly know of any working family that hasn't been affected already or are very worried about their jobs. And as much as I hate to say it.... it's going to get worse before it gets better.
But, all is not gloom and doom. As in any situation there are opportunities that arise in times like these. And there are still a lot of folks employed. What's going to happen now is consumers will come down from the crazy spending spree that they've been on for the last decade or so and will get back to the basics. Who knows, maybe a few more conversations will be had at the dinner table, maybe a book will be read, maybe someone will volunteer at a charity? Stranger things have happened.
On a side note, a couple of sites I like to read have been saying there are a couple of big earthquakes coming in the next few days. They say they should hit around Dec 10 -15 with some major damage from them. They don't give the locations but say that they'll be generally opposite the globe from each other. So if one is in China, then the other will be on the opposite side of globe in, say the US. It's going to be interesting to see how accurate they are in their predictions. They claim that they have accurately predicted earthquakes and other physical occurrences in the past. Let's see how good they are on this one.
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