Theo Spark

Thursday, 5 January 2012

News...........

Dear Yankee Pundits: I Apologize

BLACKFIVE: The Definition of Insanity

Vince Buckles Leaves Sons of Guns?

Georgia Court to Hear Obama Eligibility Challenge on Merits: Mainstream Media Remains Silent

Witch Hunt in the Heartland

Where to Put Your Money in 2012

Video: The boys discover golf can be cool.

H/T
I Suck at Golf

Texas Police Kill 8th-Grader Carrying Pellet Gun

I can't imagine what people were thinking.

There's a video at the link: "Police Kill Eighth-Grader in Texas."

Video: What Does Hebrew Teach us About Faith?

H/T Amnon

Wednesday, 4 January 2012

Video: Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think

H/T Amnon

Dead fiat walking.............from Rico

For my Keynesian fiat money-zombie friends...nothing lasts forever, especially reserve currencies.

First, step back and take the very long view while considering this chart of world reserve currencies.

Then consider the wisdom of MIT economist Rudger Dornbusch:

"Crisis takes a much longer time coming than you think, and then it happens much faster than you would have thought."

Hillbilly wisdom.............from Rico

Even in the best of times (and these are not those times, btw) a politician's "job" is typically to make a bad situation worse as expensively as possible.

One cannot expect ANY top-down 'solutions' from them. There are none.
- Neither can you expect them to leave you in peace to get done what needs to be done.

Only interference ever comes from the top-down, usually in the form of heavy-handed regulation.

"We'll never get the water to clear up until we get the pigs outta the creek."
- Hillbilly wisdom

Late News..........

December Leaf & Volt Sales

Kim Kardashian targeted by California tax campaign

Obama to make recess appointment

10 great places to make the world your oyster

2011 wasn't a bad year for dictators

Free drinks, female bonding

China tycoon 'ate poisoned cat-meat stew'

How GOP Can Easily End Unemployment

GM silk worms make Spider-Man web closer to reality

How do they do that? « Neptunus Lex

In major blow, EU agrees embargo on Iranian crude

Submarines torpedo compartment was on fire

Security Slightly Improved In Iraq In 2011

Romney? really?

Bits of Russia space probe set to fall Jan.15

Bedtime Totty..............

'Cheeky Girl' Rachel McAdams Shows Some Tush for Glamour Magazine Photo Shoot

She's a classy woman.

And that's a smokin' photo shoot.

See: "Hot Rachel McAdams Photo Shoot for Glamour Magazine."

Must Reads!!

Admin seeks to forge closer ties w/Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood
Four major Pakistani insurgent groups join w/Haqqani network
F. Kagan: Hesitancy over Hormuz would be the real provocation
China takes aim at US naval might (WSJ sub req)
Wings Over Iraq: Daily World Briefing
US: Mideast weapons sales part of long-term plan
Iranian establishment factions face off in March 2nd vote
US, Pakistan planning for period of limited cooperation
Sectarian struggles may doom Arab Spring
Think tank: N. Korea has edge in beginning of a possible war
Taliban to open office in Qatar to allow for direct talks

Iowa, meh!.............from Rico

Look, all the RINO candidates are Statists and little different than Obama and the progressive Democrats (C).
- It's hard to get 'excited' about ANY of them. Romney is virtually the same as Obama, for example...except he has a Birth Certificate he can produce.

With a field of candidates like this, it's a certain 'bet' that no matter who 'wins' in 2012 nothing is significantly going to "change" ...well, at least not for the better, anyway.
- What a win/win (or lose-lose depending upon whether you support the Constitution or Karl Marx) deal this is looking like to me.

And IOWA?
- Please. Does anybody still remember that Huckabee fella? He 'won' Iowa, too. Iowa meh!

Video: Singing Tweets - Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra

To help warm up the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra Chorus this season, we asked Calgarians to tweet their tips on how to keep warm in Calgary's winter wonderland.

H/T Pete H

Video: "2012 Sabotage?" - Wild Bill

Cartoon Round Up....

Video: Yosemite Nature Notes - Winter Moments

Pic Dump..........

"New" reality.............from Rico

Over the years I have come to conclude that (1) software 'upgrades' aren't always...they are just "new" same-old/same-old with different bugs, this leads to the conclusion that (2) "new" is not always better, it's merely different.

The media had been yakking about the "new economy" but when that didn't quite work out, they shifted the meme to the "new normal" (a nicer way of saying we're all screwed).

There is another "new" that has so far not been mentioned, the "new retirement." That is just another way of saying "no retirement" in the hopes no one will 'notice' until it's already too late. For many retiring and soon-hope-to-retire "boomers" it is already too late. The reality for them will be "no retirement."

About 1-in-3 boomers have ZERO savings. None. Bupkis. Nada. Broke. When you spend your future for 'now' stuff and do not save, and when you borrow more than you can pay back, this is a problem.
- Most now rely upon Social Security as their 'retirement plan' (only 20% of boomers have access to a retirement plan today). This is two things, (1) a BAD plan, and really (2) NO plan.

Their "new reality" will be NO retirement, a huge paradigm shift from how things used to be.