Wednesday, 19 October 2011
News............
Ontario's unaffordable energy policy
What every budding Alinskyite needs: The "I'm Getting Arrested" Android App
A state sponsored revolution ...
Stacy Keibler and George Clooney: I Blame the Dentist
BLACKFIVE: From 2004: Blackfive's Exit Strategy from Iraq and Afghanistan
Not so smart
Property is Theft « Neptunus Lex
Iraq, the Forgotten War
The mechanics of a 131-mile battalion relocation
Coup « Neptunus Lex
CDR Salamander: There Goes Your Curve
Maliki's office: U.S. forces withdrew all batteries on the air
Iranian Revolutionary Guard Operating in Baghdad
Obama's 'Responsibility to protect' is to us
Ground Abort « Neptunus Lex
My New Hero–Myotis Sodalis Shuts Down Wind Farm « SOYLENT GREEN
19 « Neptunus Lex
Clinton in Libya to offer new aid package
Most illegal immigrants deported last year were criminals
Web commerce hack attack may 'happen again'
'Follow the Red Flag!'
Chasing Whiskey
Venezuela's Chavez upbeat over Cuba cancer checks
An Obama Teleprompter is missing
Can Herman Cain survive being taken half-seriously?
5 things learned from GOP presidential debates
Hopes high for Europe summit
Social Security to hand out first raises since 2009
Obama administration 'bailed out' GM salmon firm
A.D. 2041—End of White America?
"Hicks In Iowa Shouldn't Pick Next President"
U.S. Debated Cyberwarfare in Attack Plan on Libya
Animated Map: Battle of Trafalgar
Did 2008 Come True?
Should Israel Have Agreed to Exchange Terrorists for a Kidnapped Soldier?
Palestinian militants vow to abduct a 'new Gilad Shalit'
Moving horses long distances makes them faster as scientists discover 'Jet Nag'
How the Arab Spring sprung Gilad Shalit
US forces 'massing on Afghanistan-Pakistan border'
Asylum claims increase in UK as refugees flee Libya war
US elections 2012: Barack Obama's tour bus stolen
Al-Shabaab launches Mogadishu car bomb attack as Kenyan assault intensifies
Buddhist nun sets herself on fire as Tibet protests intensify
Tibet suicide-protests: force will never solve Tibetan problem for China
Journalism? No, cruelty and propaganda
and finally.....
BBC reporter not quite sure why a terrorist was in prison
Tuesday, 18 October 2011
Kiss the European Union Goodbye
In Paris on October 15th, a group of finance ministers and central bankers known as the G20, representing major nations, gave the European Union until October 23red to find an answer to the financial crisises that are tearing apart the EU and its monetary structure.
Don’t hold your breath. If not now, at least in the foreseeable future, the EU will collapse for the oldest reason, national sovereignty and national self-interest.
If you visit Wikipedia and enter “European Wars”, it will kick out a list that’s several pages long in small print starting with the Trojan Wars, 1193-1184 BC. The Romans conquered everyone for a while. The Spanish tried to invade England. For a while Napoleon was invading everyone. There were the hundred year wars, thirty year wars, and wars for the hell of it. Suffice to say the Europeans have a long record of going to war with one another.
World War One impoverished its participants and led to World War Two. After the devastation of World War Two and with the threat of the Soviet Union to the East, European leaders concluded that the only option to avoid future wars or being overrun by the Russian bear was to form a kind of United States of Europe.
For people like me who thank a merciful God that Internet banking makes it possible to actually know my checking account balance, Overtveldt’s book is both a blessing and a challenge because it deals with some very complex issues of finance. He also provides some very useful history with which to understand the past and predict the future.
My knowledge of history was sufficient to have huge doubts about the formation of the European Union and it looks like I am about to be borne out in my pessimism. “While efforts at European integration have without question contributed to peace on the continent,” Overtveldt points out, “at least three other factors are also at play.”
“First, broader international cooperation and consultation” have been the order of the day since the end of World War Two. “Second, the presence of American troops throughout Europe, and certainly in Germany, helped maintain the military status quo. Third, the sense during the Cold War of “a common, non-democratic enemy increased cooperation and cohesion among Western European nations.”
Then Overtveldt identifies the central weakness of the European Union. “History teaches us that, in particular, the lack of real political union is a major barrier to the durability of a monetary union and its single currency.”
The problem of the EU and the euro “is the loss of an independent monetary policy” because what works for Germany does not necessarily work for France, Spain, Italy, and the other EU members.
This has become abundantly evident as Greece totters on default of its debts and the contagion of a sovereign debt crisis threatens to spread. Simply said, the Germans are not inclined to want to “bail out” the Greeks because the Germans have a wide conservative streak when it comes to the conduct of their financial affairs while the Greeks were inclined to fudge the books and run up a huge debt.
In addition to Greece, Portugal and Ireland are likely to find that they have no choice except to leave the EU and Spain, Italy, and Belgium have their problems, too. For that matter, add France to the list.
The U.S. financial crisis no doubt sped up the process, but our government bailed out the banks for the simple reason there never was a choice not to. One or two big investment banks were allowed to fail, others were forcibly merged, but a nation without a functioning banking system is nothing but lines on a map.
In a recent column by Patrick J. Buchanan, titled “Is the New World Order unraveling?” he notes the rise of “economic nationalism” in Europe as well as warning against the foolish American trend of signing away our sovereign rights by joining globalist organizations from the United Nations to the World Trade Organization, along with a slew of treaties and agreements.
The export of whole U.S. industries has been one result “while emerging powers like China, India, and Brazil are demanding to be exempt from restrictions developed countries seek to impose.” The world is a nasty place in which to live. The Moon and other planets, however, are less habitable and do not have cable TV.
As Americans vainly look to their Congress to redress its own authorization of the spending excesses of present and past administrations, the rest of the world, protected by our military strength and moral values, has decided it no longer has to pay us the attention it did in former times.
So we shall surely witness the end of the euro and the European Union as that continent returns to its normal levels of national self-interest that one might argue are not a bad thing in a competitive world. So long, of course, as those nations do not decide to declare war on one another.
© Alan Caruba, 2011
News.............
Britain scrambles to avoid future blackouts
Great news: OWS now endorsed by both Communist and Nazi Parties
No resolution on U.S. troops in Iraq, Iran threat seen
45 Seconds « Neptunus Lex
Tuition assistance slashed by 75 percent for Marines
Iraqi Forces create long range refueling capabilities to enable future operations
Iran-US tension rising ahead of elections
A good bye to dan wheldon, who died racing automobiles ...
Rounding Error « Neptunus Lex
Eastern Oregon soldiers get heroes welcome
Libya government says its flag flies over Bani Walid
Budget cuts claim hundreds of thousands of county, city jobs
Fliers still get tangled in web of airline fees when searching sites
'Militarized urbanism' chokes U.S. cities
Cain gets slammed for border fence 'joke'
Poll: More blame Washington than Wall St. for economic woes
FBI’s DNA database upgrade plans come under fire
Banks bristle at Greek haircut plan
Supreme Court takes dispute over lying about war heroism
Why US Military in Uganda?
New Documents Highlight Differences in Bush-Era, Obama-Era Gunrunner Investigations
Three Petty Officers of the United States Navy
Obama preoccupied? W.H. with the '99 percent'-ers
Proof! Wall Street protests no 'spontaneous uprising'
Starbucks pickpocketing poster called ‘racist’
Protestors should try occupying reality for real change
CDR Salamander: The POM Bomb
Army eliminating vehicle registration decals at stateside bases
Freeing Gilad Shalit will boost Hamas and hurt Fatah. So why is this deal a good idea?
Al-Shabaab warns Kenya of reprisals if Somalia deployment continues
Colombian women end 'crossed legs' abstinence protest for new road
More than Half of Afghans See NATO as Occupiers
False narratives................from Rico
The mass of the American Idol-Jersey Shore watching proletariat has fallen for several false narratives in a big way.
The average daily wage for Americans has gone from $28 in 1964 to about $152 in 2010, but in terms of Gold has gone from 60% of an ounce of Gold in 1964 to just under 13% in 2010.
- The Dollar narrative is that we're earning more today than in 1964.
- The Gold narrative is that we're earning less today than in 1964.
Which is the truth? [Clue: It's not the Federal Reserve!]
The radical far left which is using the OWS (Occupy Wall Street) as a Trojan Horse to promote their agenda has its own narrative.
- All of our problems are caused by the Private Sector and the Free Market. It's Capitalism's fault!
Clearly 'missing' from this Leftist fantasy is ANY discussion of Government 'interference' in both the Private Sector and the (once) Free Market. Communists do not like any dialogue, just toe the Party line and STFU.
But, NOT being considered by John Q. Public, and surely NOT what our over-reaching and increasing;y-corrupt Government and their MSM BJ-hacks want us to even 'think' about, much less discuss, is the fact that our Central Bank...yes, the Federal Reserve...is the primary cause of our current situation.
- Hey. dummies! Occupy the FED!
Monday, 17 October 2011
Lord's Resistance Army
via the girls at GrEaT sAtAn"S gIrLfRiEnD featuring Misty
A Person who has made a difference in your life..............
At a recent wedding party, someone yelled,
"All the married men please stand next to the oneperson who has made your life worth living."
The bartender was crushed to death.
H/T AJD
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