Friday, 5 June 2009
Light News....
Britain on the Brink. H/T Nebraska Bob
Early results suggest Labour heading for a rout after furious voters boycott the ballot box. A government in meltdown.
Betrayed by Britain: Tragedy of 'brilliant' French students tortured by psychopath who should have been behind bars. Heads must roll for this.
America is not - and never will be - at war with Islam: Barack Hussein Obama courts a billion Muslims. Bulls**t.
Dutch far-Right comes second in European Parliament election. Good for Geert.
D-Day 65 years on: My return to Normandy. A veteran's return.
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Thursday, 4 June 2009
News.....
English Channel Swim on D-Day. Wish them luck.
Obama's Coming from Double Tapper
What, no Condiments? from Mitchieville.
PM fights to survive: Reshuffle paralysed by ministers refusing to budge as rebels plot cyber-coup. Cornered rats.
Disgraceful: BBC is lashed by MPs for trying to keep the huge pay packets of its radio stars a secret. They forget who pays their wages.
BT to roll-out 'super-fast' broadband to all 5million customers at no extra cost. About time.
UK leads Europe on food price rises: Shopping bills up 8% while elsewhere they're falling. You have only got to look a supermarket profits to know why.
Glad to be back home... but why did minister Bob Ainsworth break his promise and not greet RAF heroes returning from Iraq after 18 YEARS? Because is is a jerk.
Osama bin Laden tape overshadows Barack Obama's attempts to engage Middle East. Isn't he dead yet!
CIA 'plot to kill Hugo Chavez'. He is deranged.
Children should be taught Christian values, says new Archbishop. No s**t.
Jacob Zuma promises 500,000 jobs as recession hits South Africa. Only by expanding the state sector.
Pictured: Royal Navy defeats pirates armed with grenades. Should have blown them out of the water.
Mess hall diets play a key role in the War on Terror in Afghanistan. They deserve to eat well.
and finally....
Name that Tractor at Maggie's Farm (NSFWish)
10-Minute Leadership Course. at Jules Crittenden's.
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5 Miles A Day ...............
Don't you think it's time we all became more physically active? Beginning June 15th, a few friends & I will be riding 5 miles every day.
If any of you would like to join our Bike Club, please let me know and we can make arrangements.
I think it would be appropriate to ride somewhere between 4:00 and 7:00 pm. We can call it happy hour, and pick you up on the way. Let me know if this works for you.I have attached a photo of my bike.
H/T Shelly
Wednesday, 3 June 2009
Obama In The Middle East
Here's Alan Caruba's take on the US Presidents trip:
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Obama's Magical Muslim Tour
By Alan Caruba
In life as in international affairs the rule is to never show weakness. It tends to awaken a bloodlust and too often leads to the worst outcomes.
In the Arab culture this is especially true. They are a pretty cowardly bunch as people go. Their weapon of choice these days is the suicide bomber; some dimwit who thinks 72 virgins are awaiting him. As 9/11 demonstrated, they have perfected the sneak attack to perfection and, not surprisingly, the word “assassin” comes from Arabic. Arabs prefer to wage war on the weak and that usually means each other.
They tried destroying Israel in 1948, 1967, and 1973. They failed. They were especially unhappy with the protection and friendship America extended, but now they have less reason to be unhappy. They have, they suspect, a Muslim in the White House. A lot of other people suspect that as well.
They have spent decades using their fellow Arabs, the so-called Palestinians, as a wedge to pry loose land from Israel in exchange for a peace that never occurs.
The Israelis withdrew from southern Lebanon in May 2000. Hezbollah made war on them from southern Lebanon in 2006. The Israelis withdrew from the Gaza strip in 2005. Hamas used it as a platform for 10,000 rockets, an act of war punished in recent months. One wonders how Hamas found the time when they weren’t making war on Fatah, another Palestinian group.
Other acts of Arab “courage” include Iraq’s Saddam Hussein using poison gas against an Iraqi village of Kurds. When not slaughtering other Iraqis, he waged war against Iran for eight fruitless years, settling for a truce. Then he invaded Kuwait. And people keep wondering why, after chasing the Taliban out of Afghanistan, George W. Bush decided that the Middle East would be better off without Saddam Hussein. If you ask the Saudis or the Gulf State sheiks, they would agree.
They would also agree that their next big problem is not the United States, nor Israel, but Iran. Iran is composed mainly of Persians, not Arabs, and of Shiites, the minority sect of Islam where the Sunnis are used to calling the shots. Rumor has it the Persians have a low opinion of Arabs.
As for Muslims in general, ask any nation where they have or begin to gain a majority population status and you will discover a combination of antipathy and fear. Arab Muslims always insist on their rules, not yours. They neither trust, nor like each other much.
Israel knows how essential it is to show no weakness. Bibi Netanyahu did not genuflect to President Obama during his recent visit and dismissed U.S. demands about West Bank settlements. Israeli’s have no intention of withdrawing into six blocks of Jerusalem or Tel Aviv. Lately, they have been practicing nationwide war games in preparation for another attack from Hamas and/or Hezbollah.
The most interesting news out of Israel was Avigdor Lieberman’s statement after a recent three-day visit to Russia. The Foreign Minister said that Israel had no intention of bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities, adding that Arab nations in the region should be even more concerned about a nuclear-armed Iran than Israel. I have met Lieberman and he is a very soft-spoken man, almost inaudible, but his words have sent a very loud message to the United States, the Arab states, and the world.
“We do not intend to bomb Iran, and nobody will solve their problems with our hands. We don’t need that. Israel is a strong country. We can protect ourselves,” said Lieberman.
We shall see now how Israel’s projection of strength contrasts with whatever President Obama has to say in Cairo. If the Arabs hear a message of weakness from Obama, he will have opened the door for more attacks on the homeland and our allies.
You can be sure that President Obama’s failure to say one word thus far about this week’s Muslim jihadist murder of a U.S. Army recruiter in Little Rock, Arkansas, is being examined like the entrails of a chicken or goat for its greater significance, nor is it lost on his Arab hosts that he is not going to visit Israel on this trip.
President Kiss-Up needed to go to Turkey to tell Muslims that America is “not a Christian nation” and one can only wonder what other absurd thing he will say in Cairo, Egypt. If he sounds weak and apologetic, we shall all pay the price for his Magical Muslim Tour.
Jonathan Gabay on Bing
Soultraders author, Jonathan Gabay on British TV's Channel 4 talking about Bing.
Surf's UP - 3 waves.........from Rico
By now we are all aware of the 1st wave...the housing speculators going "bust" and very well aware of the 2nd wave...the subprime borrowers going tango-uniform in such grand style.
Anyone watching the 3rd wave yet? These are the main-stream homeowners. "Safe" borrowers with sound credit and boring/conservative fixed-rate mortgages. HUH?
- For the first time these homeowners account for the largest share of NEW foreclosures.*
WHY? Job losses are the major reason once safe borrowers are now in trouble. With unemployment continuing to rise (I expect it won't peak until after 2010) the prolem is only gpoing to get worse...and the bad housing market, banks, and the whole credit system is not going to be "fixed" anytime soon as a result.
This=BAD NEWS for the equities markets and our economy.
Homeowners who are "underwater" cannot borrow against their houses, and with a growing number of people unable to borrow because of impaired credit means the economic "consumption spending engine" known as the American consumer will be kept on "idle" for a long time to come. Perhaps long enough for the Weimar-cum-Zimbabwe hyperinflation whammy to hit us full-force.
Am I over-reacting? Here is some perspective (* see above):
- From 2000-2006 PRIME borrowers accounted for 2.7% of distressed mortgages.
- The number of PRIME mortgages in default (or behind by 30 days, read: distressed) was 9.1% last quarter and should go over 9.2% this quarter. Most of 2010 will be similarly ugly.
I'm largely ignoring the "Money Honeys" (you know, Maria B and the rest) at this point, as well as Jim Cramer. There are no 'green shoots' of recovery, and I'm awfully tired of seeing market news containing words like "markets rise on HOPES of recovery" and similar drivel. They can whistle past the graveyard, but I'm not buying into any of this "we're about to turn the corner" baloney and walking with them.
We are still in the house of pain, and everything the Government has done to date has assured that we will remain there much longer than we otherwise would have had to and that the pain wil be deeper for all.
I'm now looking to see if the surf is going to break both left-and-right simultaneously while watching for the NEXT wave which I expect to be rising defaults in business loans and commercial real estate loans.
Movie Review: 'Star Trek'
Short Review: Anything that can possibility offend Trekkies and get them hyperventilating through their retainers is okay by me.
Read Scott's full review HERE
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