That is it. I have died and gone to hell.
Ben Bernanke is the world's "top thinker." He is "Zen-like"
Foreign Policy's First Annual List of the 100 Top Global Thinkers | Foreign Policy
Monday, January 31, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Frances Fox Piven and Glenn Beck: A call for protest ignites a call to arms - latimes.com
Barbara Ehrenreich, a depressingly boring leftist, reminds me again why it is a good thing that I and the great unwashed are armed. Bottom line is, they fear us. Revolutionary Leftists/collectivists do NOT fear an armed constabulary. They have enough influential people in power that they could actually re enact the Greek riots that Francis Piven called for in THE NATION and get away with it, mostly. What they fear is NOT the Justice Department. They have so redefined "justice" that they have been able to completely cow and intimidate the media and government that they can talk about riots mayhem and destructive violence as a tool of justice and the fed just blinks and ....., nothing. Maybe they go to confession and ask forgiveness or absolution of guilt or something. They certainly do NOT react like they would to some right wing paramilitary figure with armed raids and helicopter assaults. The left knows that they have nothing to fear from the organs of the state. They are, after all, family. One is just the crazy cousin who has to be hushed up a bit.
Ehrenreich's hysterical column shows, though, who they DO fear. They fear an armed, determined populace, as every tinpot dictator or dictator wannabee in history has. They know that we, the plaid shirt, pickup truck, gun toting, NRA belonging, Wal Mart shopping, church going, politically skeptical rubes out here in flyby are NOT going to react like the effete Peggy Noonan, cowering in fear in urban digs praying desperately that the police will save them from 33 round "clips".
Plain and simple, if Eherenreich and her merry band of communist idiots lead a "revolt," we are going to shoot their ass. Not that I think that is going to happen soon. Most of the loons Babs appeals to are middle class college kids, frustrated that the poor don't seem to have much motivation than collecting another government check and getting their nails done. However, they recognize the truth of the fact that we won't cut them the slack the government will if things go south. It makes her head spin around in frustration, wailing about "tyranny." It is also why redistributionists are always on the forefront for gun seizure laws.
Frances Fox Piven and Glenn Beck: A call for protest ignites a call to arms - latimes.com
Friday, January 21, 2011
S. Korean Navy frees hijacked cargo ship, kills Somali pirates
ARMING the cargo ships that cruise the Somali coast just seems so self evident a solution to this mess. The dunderheaded idiocy of the UN just defies imagination.
These pirates are not stupid. This is a money making operation. They weigh risks vs rewards. As long as the rewards outweigh the risks they will continue with piracy, and the world will wring its hands in horror and wail in indignation at the barbarity of the pirates.
Look folks, the world is an EVIL place. Sometimes you cannot reason with evil. You just have to kill them. Sorry to burst the bubble you live in.
GO SOUTH KOREA.
S. Korean Navy frees hijacked cargo ship, kills Somali pirates
These pirates are not stupid. This is a money making operation. They weigh risks vs rewards. As long as the rewards outweigh the risks they will continue with piracy, and the world will wring its hands in horror and wail in indignation at the barbarity of the pirates.
Look folks, the world is an EVIL place. Sometimes you cannot reason with evil. You just have to kill them. Sorry to burst the bubble you live in.
GO SOUTH KOREA.
S. Korean Navy frees hijacked cargo ship, kills Somali pirates
Palin and Emotional Extremes
I have said before in several forums that I am NOT a supporter of Sarah Palin for president. I have a variety of reasons for this, not the least of which is that she is both a militarist/statist AND that she falls prey to the Christian Right's fantasy that with “godly leaders” and good laws, we can transform society.
That said, I am also bemused at the howling at the moon unhinged nature of the left's obsessive hatred of Palin. All you have to do to find it is find a friend on a public forum (Facebook, for example) who is fairly leftist, find a thread which references politics (or Palin) and make a statement about her that is something other than contemptuously dismissive. Watch the fireworks.
Ask them why all the hate, and they'll say it is because she's a moron....., about a woman who ran against JOE BIDEN???????????? Nah. She is not very articulate at times, and at times is really bereft of intellectual coherency (look at the recent YouTube where Fox Business asks her about economics..... painful). But crap. By that standard, they would be dragging Biden, Kerry, and Obama all three out into the street with a hangman's noose. Talk about STUPID! No, it is something different.
Some of the elite mock her state education. After all, she did take 5 years to finish a mass comm degree, and it wasn't even from Yale, or Stanford. That kind of tripe only comes from pretentious snots who posture that titles are a substitute for competency....., you know, the brilliant band of Ivy Leaguers who have guided this country into the current economic status we enjoy. Even then, it is just surface carping.
The emotional intensity is VERY sex specific. Conservative men tend to like Palin. Ask them why and they will usually lead with or at least mention how easy she is to look at. Ha. It is just men. We often substitute testosterone for cranial activity. Rant about it all you wish. It just is. Leftist men are more passive and manipulative in Palin bashing. They usually drop sneering attacks as a way to score cheap points with the women in their lives. Or, they will drop some sexually charged remark they could NEVER get away with in mixed company in any other context. Kind of like being able to repeat a sexually contemptuous joke you heard that would get you a night on the couch (or worse!) in any other setting. However, neither group of men have the emotional reaction to Sarah you find from women.
The essence of hatred from the left is similar to the heart pounding, almost worshipful adulation from elements on the right. Both come primarily from women. I believe it is because Sarah is a living symbol of the division over what standards women use to define themselves.
No area in this division is more central than that of children; conceiving, gestating, delivering, and rearing them. Many modern women have made choices regarding sexual activity, pregnancy, abortion, careers, etc. which make them “equal” with men, but must, by definition, put them at odds with women who define themselves more traditionally. The division between the Christian Right and secular women is the sharpest and most contentious here. It is filled with emotion, precisely because it is a huge chasm over what “feminism,” or the definition of “who I am” is in the first place.
Sarah Palin is a symbol to both groups. She is important, not because of who she actually is (she actually does not fully fit the representation of either group), but what she stands for. Conservative women adore her because she represents what they all long to be: skilled to use her feminine traits to lead, attractive but not slutty, devoted to her husband, faithful to God, loyal like a tigress to her family, gracious in the face of moral failures of her children, decision to bring a mentally challenged baby to term and love him. Put her in the prez office and correctly or incorrectly, she is perceived as one who “has it all.” Liberal women hate her for precisely the same reason. She got there not only without them, but by rejecting the very core values they have adopted.
The deepest hatred comes from Sarah's position on abortion rights. This is – I believe – because Sarah has dared to rouse questions of guilt and discomfort women had buried under layers of what they called “feminism” but was actually just secularism and a re-definition of what constitutes a living being. What is more offensive, she has actually made large and significant choices in her life (and guided her daughter) that reflect those values. Parading her in front of the American public is tantamount to saying “YOU DID NOT HAVE TO GO THAT ROUTE!” to millions of American women. The message is there, whether she says it or not......, and she certainly says it. Not only does she say so, she enjoys baiting her detractors. Because of the deep nature of the issues involved, this drives women on the left into a head spinning orgy of venom spitting hatred. This is why I believe she will never be president. She actually capitalizes on the divisions and drives her negatives higher than just about any other politico.
When you define Sarah in that light, it is no wonder that the emotional reaction is so strong. Conservative women who have defined themselves PRIMARILY in terms of career sacrificing (they will never be interviewed, much less a talking head or politico) choices to devote themselves to God, family, motherhood, etc., those women see Sarah as a vindication of who they are. Liberal women see her as a challenge to the core values they have used to define themselves. It is unimportant whether Sarah is consistent with either one of these images. This “symbol” of what it means to be a woman is going for the jugular, and women from both sides of the aisle know it.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
You're insane if you don't own gold, investors told - Telegraph
Robin Griffiths, a technical strategist at Cazenove Capital, told CNBC: "I think not owning gold is a form of insanity. It may even show unhealthy masochistic tendencies, which might need medical attention."
He added that the dollar was heading for "oblivion".
You're insane if you don't own gold, investors told - Telegraph
He added that the dollar was heading for "oblivion".
You're insane if you don't own gold, investors told - Telegraph
"i did not think there would be ....applause.....
Robert Gibbs, commenting on the political rally held by O, complete with Tee shirts to emphasize our solidarity.
"I will say that I read the speech several times and thought that there wouldn’t be a lot of applause if any. I think many of us thought that. But I think there was a celebration, again, of the lives of those who had been impacted. Not just at that grocery store but throughout the country. And I think that, if that is part of the healing process, then that’s a good thing."
So how come you were flabbergasted at the spontaneous outbreak of applause if YOU CALLED FOR IT ON SCREEN? This outfit disgusts me to no end. EVERYTHING is cynically political, even feigned surprise at applause at a memorial.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
500 dollar an ounce silver? Sure! That is a conservative number!
What happens when, during the next year, "inflation" starts to become a normal part of our vocabulary?
It is already finding its way into the articles of rhe mainstream press. What happens when it becomes the topic of bull sessions at the office, and instead of swapping hot stock tips, people start swapping stories on how to beat the declining value of the dollar? One very common sense result will be that silver will become an INVESTMENT item to normal schlubs like me and you. Not to investment bankers, and hedge funds (they are already playing), but little people, with mortgages and college tuition and car payments and 401 K plans. When THAT public faces the fact that our earning power is on a toboggan ride downhill, then the investing public will wake up and start buying silver to protect from inflation. This will occur in stages, of course. So, long before 10-20% of people buy silver, at least 1% of the American public will buy silver. So, let's look at what would happen to the silver price when one per cent of the American investing public enters the silver market.
The amount of money in US Banks is about $18 trillion. 1% of that is $180 billion. Let's make an assumption that this 18 T is owned equally by the public (nowhere close, actually, but skewing the numbers here won't mess up the illustration, you get relatively the same numbers if you say that every household in America drops in 2,000 dollars). So, 180 billion dollars of money goes shopping for silver.
So, how much silver is here to buy? Very little, in fact. Silver is an industrial metal. 600 million ounces is consumed annually, and about 700 million ounces is mined. In fact it's mostly all been consumed, so most of what is available to buy each year is the annual new mine supply which is 700 million ounces..... ASSUMING ALL THAT GOES TO INVESTMENT AND NONE TO INDUSTRY.
So, we have $180 billion (or $180,000 million) chasing 700 million ounces of silver. Divide that by 700 ounces of silver and we have a price of $257 per ounce, ONLY ON INVESTMENT DEMAND FROM 1% of the US populace.
But that price would mean that there is no newly mined silver left over for any industrial use, and that nobody else outside of the USA could buy any of the world's newly mined silver. Clearly that can't happen; those two groups would continue to buy silver, competing to buy, and driving up the price even more. That is AT LEAST a double, or over $500 an ounce.
Oh, by the way, the 1980 high for silver was $50/oz. That was when M3, money in the banks, was about $1.8 trillion. Today, the monetary base has increased about ten times higher. Thus, the true inflation adjusted peak for silver would be $500/oz.
There is still room to buy. Don not listen to that crap about gold OR silver being in a "bubble." We are nowhere near that place yet. We have a great deal of economic pain to endure before we get there.
It is already finding its way into the articles of rhe mainstream press. What happens when it becomes the topic of bull sessions at the office, and instead of swapping hot stock tips, people start swapping stories on how to beat the declining value of the dollar? One very common sense result will be that silver will become an INVESTMENT item to normal schlubs like me and you. Not to investment bankers, and hedge funds (they are already playing), but little people, with mortgages and college tuition and car payments and 401 K plans. When THAT public faces the fact that our earning power is on a toboggan ride downhill, then the investing public will wake up and start buying silver to protect from inflation. This will occur in stages, of course. So, long before 10-20% of people buy silver, at least 1% of the American public will buy silver. So, let's look at what would happen to the silver price when one per cent of the American investing public enters the silver market.
The amount of money in US Banks is about $18 trillion. 1% of that is $180 billion. Let's make an assumption that this 18 T is owned equally by the public (nowhere close, actually, but skewing the numbers here won't mess up the illustration, you get relatively the same numbers if you say that every household in America drops in 2,000 dollars). So, 180 billion dollars of money goes shopping for silver.
So, how much silver is here to buy? Very little, in fact. Silver is an industrial metal. 600 million ounces is consumed annually, and about 700 million ounces is mined. In fact it's mostly all been consumed, so most of what is available to buy each year is the annual new mine supply which is 700 million ounces..... ASSUMING ALL THAT GOES TO INVESTMENT AND NONE TO INDUSTRY.
So, we have $180 billion (or $180,000 million) chasing 700 million ounces of silver. Divide that by 700 ounces of silver and we have a price of $257 per ounce, ONLY ON INVESTMENT DEMAND FROM 1% of the US populace.
But that price would mean that there is no newly mined silver left over for any industrial use, and that nobody else outside of the USA could buy any of the world's newly mined silver. Clearly that can't happen; those two groups would continue to buy silver, competing to buy, and driving up the price even more. That is AT LEAST a double, or over $500 an ounce.
Oh, by the way, the 1980 high for silver was $50/oz. That was when M3, money in the banks, was about $1.8 trillion. Today, the monetary base has increased about ten times higher. Thus, the true inflation adjusted peak for silver would be $500/oz.
There is still room to buy. Don not listen to that crap about gold OR silver being in a "bubble." We are nowhere near that place yet. We have a great deal of economic pain to endure before we get there.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
It is People vs Pundits..... AGAIN
Gun sales have skyrocketed after the events in AZ. This tells us what the reaction is from common folk to seeing the recent tragedy in Tuscon. They reason that if crazies like Loughner can demonstrate such obvious mental instability in so many venues and remain at large, then Joe and Jane Public should have the capacity to defend themselves. So, they buy the BEST deterrent to personal attacks that exist on the market, firearms. They reason that if Jared Loughner did not have a gun, he would have had a pipe, or a hammer, or a knife, or even a screwdriver. Those things will make you just as dead as a gun will. Moreover, if you are NOT a public figure who can afford a phalanx of paid security and are like me, over 50 years old, you might want something to even the odds if confronted by a gibbering lunatic or even a common thug who is say, early 20s. Unfortunately there WAS no phalanx of security at the recent tragedy. Sheriff Dupnik of Tuscon, although aware of the howling dementia of the shooter, was evidently preoccupied with finding incendiary remarks on talk radio and unable to bestir himself to address the situation.
Dupnik though has since raced to the limelight and displayed his prodigious intellect in highlighting the REAL problems here. The people have it wrong AGAIN. The real problems here are that we are stupid and taken in by hate filled screeching bomb throwers in the media. It has created an ocean out there of paranoia, distrust, and such a seething hostile attitude toward government that it makes it almost impossible to take over any new areas of our lives without some crazy at a town hall meeting making elliptical remarks about people SEIZING power from them in the name of something called the "Constitution." This ocean of hostility just creates a bad ENVIRONMENT. It pushes crazies like Jared Loughner (who did not listen to right wing radio or TV news, and did not even VOTE in the last election) into an ecstasy of hatred and violence. So you see, it is NOT the fault of Pima County Sheriff's dept, nor the law enforcement division of the Community College, for not sending BATF a note that this individual was mentally unstable. Although that simple act would have derailed any firearm purchase from a retailer, it is the ATMOSPHERE which is to blame.
Clearly the way to address this problem (after we re institute the fairness doctrine and get that damned Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh off the air!) is to drop a heavy iron fisted blanket on GUN SALES. Never mind that law enforcement had FIVE OPPORTUNITIES to send a simple note to DC to prohibit this deranged person from firearm acquisition. It didn't work, and the crack, elite team of Sheriff Dupnik need help or the crazies are going to take over. We need more restrictive gun laws.
See, once again the public is simply stupid. THEY think that rushing down and arming themselves is a good idea. We are so very lucky to have a group of scribbling pundits who can correct our errors and lecture us how the true problem is the atmosphere of hate and the laws, which are already responsible for too many guns on the street.
So, the little people, the common folk, hoi polloi, you are wrong, AGAIN. Short sighted, ignorant, bigoted, easily swayed and manipulated tools of Dick Cheney and Sarah Palin. Don't you think it is time you listened to your betters, before more people die?
Dupnik though has since raced to the limelight and displayed his prodigious intellect in highlighting the REAL problems here. The people have it wrong AGAIN. The real problems here are that we are stupid and taken in by hate filled screeching bomb throwers in the media. It has created an ocean out there of paranoia, distrust, and such a seething hostile attitude toward government that it makes it almost impossible to take over any new areas of our lives without some crazy at a town hall meeting making elliptical remarks about people SEIZING power from them in the name of something called the "Constitution." This ocean of hostility just creates a bad ENVIRONMENT. It pushes crazies like Jared Loughner (who did not listen to right wing radio or TV news, and did not even VOTE in the last election) into an ecstasy of hatred and violence. So you see, it is NOT the fault of Pima County Sheriff's dept, nor the law enforcement division of the Community College, for not sending BATF a note that this individual was mentally unstable. Although that simple act would have derailed any firearm purchase from a retailer, it is the ATMOSPHERE which is to blame.
Clearly the way to address this problem (after we re institute the fairness doctrine and get that damned Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh off the air!) is to drop a heavy iron fisted blanket on GUN SALES. Never mind that law enforcement had FIVE OPPORTUNITIES to send a simple note to DC to prohibit this deranged person from firearm acquisition. It didn't work, and the crack, elite team of Sheriff Dupnik need help or the crazies are going to take over. We need more restrictive gun laws.
See, once again the public is simply stupid. THEY think that rushing down and arming themselves is a good idea. We are so very lucky to have a group of scribbling pundits who can correct our errors and lecture us how the true problem is the atmosphere of hate and the laws, which are already responsible for too many guns on the street.
So, the little people, the common folk, hoi polloi, you are wrong, AGAIN. Short sighted, ignorant, bigoted, easily swayed and manipulated tools of Dick Cheney and Sarah Palin. Don't you think it is time you listened to your betters, before more people die?
Sunday, January 09, 2011
Jared Loughner and the "Political Culture of Violence"
The spate of political and cultural sermonizing has, of course, begun. They began unctuously rolling down from the pulpits of todays divines (the media pundits, mostly) almost immediately. WAY too early to determine whether the deranged kid had actually been MOTIVATED by anything political, or simply prodded by alien voices he heard in the Venus static music jangling around between his ears. You see, it is important to get the message out there that "our side" has the moral edge surrounding this poor kids descent into lunacy and the bloodbath that followed. It is important that we show we are "sensitive to the violence" and aware of the dangers of the poisonous rabble out there preaching treason and violence. I call Penn and Teller.
Fact is, "scopes" and cross hairs, talk of bull's eyes and "nailing" your opponents has been a part of political talk since the first presidential election I can remember. "Radical" and "violent" language of targeting, smashing, wiping out, attacking and [gasp!] "killing' have been a part of dialogue AT LEAST since Barry Goldwater vs LBJ, and George Wallace vs Ryan DeGrafenried. Now the weird thing is that not ONCE was I ever motivated to jump up and grab my dad's lever action 30-30, charge into the street, and assassinate some politico. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME? My God, all that inflammatory language swirling around me and I never once went on a murderous rampage? Was it something in the water?
Not only was I immune, but all of my friends, and even my political friends were immersed in this bloodthirsty language. We had rambunctious, heated, angry debates that were loud, forceful, vitriolic, sarcastic and vicious..... and NOT ONCE did we settle them by pulling out a Glock 9 (the handgun of choice for both the shooter and the Congresswoman victim today, both owned one) to blow each other away. I am almost ashamed to admit it but THE THOUGHT NEVER OCCURRED TO ME. I have gotten furious at the callous wickedness of men and women in power....., furious enough to believe with all my heart that they deserved to die for treason (still do believe so!) without stirring up a howling mob to shoot up Capitol Hill, or even cap a local judge.
Nevertheless, there are a group of men who have become such timid sheep, such trembling quivering estrogen buckets, that they get their kotexes all twisted up and bleat and wring their hands and beg us not to speak plainly. Any assertion of rights, any Jeffersonian allusions to resistance to tyranny, any talk of defiantly saying "NO" to a metastasizing DC, whether by State or local governments, is met by hand wringing and nervous "hush hush"-- ing lest we awake the sleeping murderous demons inside a Jared Loughner. Now that one of these loons has roused himself off his antipsychotic meds and killed someone, these clucking old women raise the chorus "SEE!!??? SEE!!?? VIOLENCE.... AND YOU STARTED IT!"
To which I respond again, "PENN AND TELLER, baby."
You people can drop your bloody testicles in the bucket by the door after you have finished the job on yourselves. I am sure you will sing a beautiful soprano of peace and democratic process. As for me, I refuse to be infantilized lest you be fearful that some crazy person do what they would have done anyway.
If anyone out there wonders if this is for you..... it is.
Fact is, "scopes" and cross hairs, talk of bull's eyes and "nailing" your opponents has been a part of political talk since the first presidential election I can remember. "Radical" and "violent" language of targeting, smashing, wiping out, attacking and [gasp!] "killing' have been a part of dialogue AT LEAST since Barry Goldwater vs LBJ, and George Wallace vs Ryan DeGrafenried. Now the weird thing is that not ONCE was I ever motivated to jump up and grab my dad's lever action 30-30, charge into the street, and assassinate some politico. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME? My God, all that inflammatory language swirling around me and I never once went on a murderous rampage? Was it something in the water?
Not only was I immune, but all of my friends, and even my political friends were immersed in this bloodthirsty language. We had rambunctious, heated, angry debates that were loud, forceful, vitriolic, sarcastic and vicious..... and NOT ONCE did we settle them by pulling out a Glock 9 (the handgun of choice for both the shooter and the Congresswoman victim today, both owned one) to blow each other away. I am almost ashamed to admit it but THE THOUGHT NEVER OCCURRED TO ME. I have gotten furious at the callous wickedness of men and women in power....., furious enough to believe with all my heart that they deserved to die for treason (still do believe so!) without stirring up a howling mob to shoot up Capitol Hill, or even cap a local judge.
Nevertheless, there are a group of men who have become such timid sheep, such trembling quivering estrogen buckets, that they get their kotexes all twisted up and bleat and wring their hands and beg us not to speak plainly. Any assertion of rights, any Jeffersonian allusions to resistance to tyranny, any talk of defiantly saying "NO" to a metastasizing DC, whether by State or local governments, is met by hand wringing and nervous "hush hush"-- ing lest we awake the sleeping murderous demons inside a Jared Loughner. Now that one of these loons has roused himself off his antipsychotic meds and killed someone, these clucking old women raise the chorus "SEE!!??? SEE!!?? VIOLENCE.... AND YOU STARTED IT!"
To which I respond again, "PENN AND TELLER, baby."
You people can drop your bloody testicles in the bucket by the door after you have finished the job on yourselves. I am sure you will sing a beautiful soprano of peace and democratic process. As for me, I refuse to be infantilized lest you be fearful that some crazy person do what they would have done anyway.
If anyone out there wonders if this is for you..... it is.
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
Defending inflation
James Bullard, president of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, states that "it's important to defend inflation from the low side as we would on the high side."
O gives us a definition of leadership failure.
"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies." Barak Obama in 2006
Saturday, January 01, 2011
TrimTabs: "No Amount Of QE Will Be Able To Keep The Current Stock Market Bubble From Bursting" | zero hedge
If I could pick only one person to read about financial matters, it would likely be Tyler Durden of ZEROHEDGE.
TrimTabs: "No Amount Of QE Will Be Able To Keep The Current Stock Market Bubble From Bursting" | zero hedge
TrimTabs: "No Amount Of QE Will Be Able To Keep The Current Stock Market Bubble From Bursting" | zero hedge
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