Bending or just stetched? *and* Russia reaches into the North African honey pot


Juicy Jane's tells us of attrition in the arsenal of liberty...

George W Bush's administration has requested USD125 million in Fiscal Year 2007 (FY07) to convert nuclear-armed Trident ballistic missiles into vehicles carrying conventional warheads. It is estimated that the programme could cost up to USD500 million over six years.

According to the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), the US Department of Defense (DoD) will change a small number of these missiles for the conventional 'prompt global-strike' (PGS) mission under which the US is seeking a capability to strike high-payoff targets anywhere in the world at very short notice.

Under the new plans, the US Navy is reportedly looking to equip 24 Trident missiles with up to 96 conventional warheads. With two submarines in overhaul and 12 deployed at any one time, this could mean two conventional missiles per submarine, with four warheads on each missile. The remainder of the missiles would carry nuclear warheads, and the submarines would, presumably, continue to stand alert and patrol in the areas consistent with their nuclear mission.

Anyone remember when Clinton used up all the cruise missiles on Yugoslavia or some dump? Perhaps surface military asset placement has become too high profile for the US armed forces to sneak in and whack the shit out of the more clever amongst the US's policy challenges. Maybe this is the tell-tale sign that the US Armed Forces now must seek more mileage out of what they have, rather than holding out for more. No Military expert am I, but don't imagine that this is their first choice. But I guess as long as ULF can't be intercepted by the NYT, there's a better chance of who's next of Uncle Sam's shit list not getting the Fox News Alert on that...

Still, it seems to me rather than letting our troops be butchered Iraqoslavia and Afghanistan, we should have been giving these fuckers a cup of shut-the-hell-up: red mercury style. Given that this weapon has been around since 1960, communist aggresion could have been checked cheaply, humanely, and effectively on every continent it threatened.

**********

Also from Janes, Russia raises the ante on its bid to be tomorrow's energy supplier,

Moscow’s agreement to supply military equipment valued at USD7.5 billion to Algeria includes arrangements under which Russian oil producer LUKoil and gas group Gazprom will gain access to the North African states' oil and gas reserves.

It is likely that the proceeds from exploiting the energy fields will be split between the Russian producers and Algeria, giving Algiers a revenue stream with which to pay the remaining cash element of the deal.

In addition, it was revealed that Russia will write-off Algeria's USD4 billion Soviet-era debt (as widely anticipated). This will account for a quarter of Algeria's total foreign debt.

Under the deal, which was concluded following three months of negotiations, Russia will deliver 36 MiG 29SMT fighters, 28 Su-30MK interdiction aircraft and 16 Yak-130 Mitten combat trainers, plus the upgrade of 36 older MiG-29s, supplies of ground-based radars, and pilot and technical training.

Huh, I was initially baffled by Russia not doing more to inculcate repute and sembalance of the rule of law for their state owned energy units. Now I'm starting to realize they can just kick back and wait for the world to come to them. Becuase they know that the world will soon enough, anyway. A rogue's gallery of Algeria, Lybia, Iran, and pertinent former Soviet states under a Russian Federation umbrella of policy could probably ring the knell of OPEC's total marginalization. Perhaps the ultimate question becomes who's currency would this hypothetical new oil cartel be traded under? Were it the Euro or the renminbi (Russia of course be wise enough to peg its ruble with favorable leverage to the new lion-currency), this could also spell the martial reduction of America's inluence in the world. Land mass placement puts Russia in the supreme position to vend energy to the world biggest emerging markets: Europe, India, and China. The money is pointing at the East getting real cozy at the expense of the West. Start hedging your bets...

Financial Fig Leaf


The Pink Avenger tells us the ships are looking for harbor,

Foreign investors lifted holdings of gilts in 2005 by about 44 per cent, from £78.37bn ($136bn) to £112.98bn ($197.5bn), says the Office of National Statistics.

This means that the proportion of foreign holdings has jumped to 27 per cent of the total, up from just 21 per cent a year earlier. In the fourth quarter of 2005 alone, the latest for which figures are available, foreign investors added nearly £7bn to their holdings. Moreover, foreigners increased their share while the market expanded rapidly, growing 14 per cent in 2005 to £417bn.

This trend has played a key role in fuelling a strong appetite for gilts. It also occurs at an opportune time for the UK Treasury because gilt issuance is set to reach a new high of £63bn in 2006-07 to fund rising financing needs. The demand has helped to keep government funding costs relatively low.

Traders say the most recent burst of buying by non-UK investors has been by hedge funds.  “Hedge funds were not so interested in the gilt market before,” said one gilts trader. “But the amount of hedge fund activity has increased dramatically right across the board and that accounts for a lot of overseas action.”... But both traders and other gilt market specialists say that a large chunk is being bought by overseas central banks – including those from emerging economies – seeking to diversify foreign exchange reserves.

Seeing as how bonds are about as sexy as watching paint drying, it should tell you that the bad boys are shoring up their portofolios for something coming. Perhaps more telling, central banks are trying to sink their holdings elsewhere. Stay tuned...

The Environmentalist's Mind at Work



Chiggy chiggy Channel Four did an interesting story about Clyde's neck of the woods,

Crops grown to provide raw material for biodiesel fuel are potentially hugely destructive, according to environmentalist George Monbiot, and "no solution to the energy crisis."

Monbiot writes in The Guardian today: "The biodiesel industry has accidentally invented the world's most carbon-intensive fuel."...

Biodiesel producers are looking for crops that grow quickly and can easily and cheaply be synthesised into oil. Palm oil has already proved successful. Monbiot quotes research by Friends of the Earth claiming that between 1985 and 2000, the establishment of oil-palm plantations led to 85% of deforestation in Malaysia. In Sumatra and Borneo, around 4m hectares of forest has been cleared to make way for palm plantations, with a further 6m hectares scheduled for clearance in Malaysia and 16.5m in Indonesia...

The entire region is being turned into a gigantic vegetable oil field", says Monbiot. "The orangutan is likely to become extinct in the wild. Sumatran rhinos, tigers, gibbons, tapirs, proboscis monkeys and thousands of other species could go the same way. Thousands of indigenous people have been evicted from their lands and some 500 Indonesians have been tortured when they tried to resist."

Remember, these are the assholes who said we have to turn all the rainforests into international UN bio preserves. Remember these are the assholes who take scientists crying wolf for funding as the gospel of Global Warming. Remember these are the assholes who are trying to rid the world of the scourge of the SUV. Remember these are the people who want wind power, but go NIMBY when they try putting wind farms up in earshot of them. Oh behold, behold the leftist mind at work...

"Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, whom is the smartest of them all?"


From The Times, via Lew.

"Jane Angela, you ignorant slut..."




The Pinkadocious One tells that like always, Germany doesn't make mistakes; except for the big ones,

With Germany's fledgling recovery having yet to generate jobs, and with private consumption still in the doldrums, even government economists are becoming worried that lifting VAT from 16 to 19 per cent could nip the rebound in the bud - especially if combined with higher interest rates and energy prices.

"The increase will have the same cyclical effect as a 50 per cent oil price shock," one civil servant told the FT yesterday. "But it will come, because the finance ministry is not interested in the cycle."

The recovery in corporate tax revenues after four lean years could also make it harder for Mr Steinbrick to defend a tax increase he has said is needed to fix depleted government finances.

Alfred Boss, head of public finances at the Kiel-based IfW institute, said: "If tax revenues continue to improve and consumption remains under pressure, the government would be well advised to reconsider the VAT rise and start thinking about spending cuts instead."

I was really hoping this broad would be a breath of fresh air after Schroeder. I guess it didn't dawn on her that maybe the reason the CDU got back into power is because Germany is tired of having their economy in the toilet and unemployment at Weimar republic rates. This bullshit of trying to instutite Pax Helmut Kholana v2.0 has two major variables not present in the v1.0's equasion: East Germany and an ECB.

If ever there was a case for buyer's remorse, it's the subsumption of the state and it's debts oustanding of East Germany by West. Yes, "follow the Moskva down to Gorky Park" and such, it was a continental circle jerk as the reason for Europe having to kiss America's ass crumbles. Still, Helmut Kohl's West Germany was a tightly wound, highly leveraged economy with an acompanying sophistication of understanding. Yes folks, economic farfinugen. But as the Austrians demonstrated years ago, power does not equal knowledge. And no amount of justly-derived political power can insturment the reconstruction of an economy as delapidated as East Germany's. At least, not in one fell swoop by daisy-chaining it to your own economy. That's the economic equivelent of hooking a garbage truck up to a VW bug engine: ain't gonna work so well. West Germany subsumed the responsibilities of East Germany's entire welfare state, including the universal-style pensions that had not paid-in under the contributions-oriented Keynesian style pension system of West Germany.

The second obsticale facing Germany is the ECB. Of course, many would chuckle that Germany is the ECB, and that the rest of Europe is just hitching a ride. But wait, hear me out. Now, West Germany was a finely tuned little sports car motor of a socialist economy because of its tightly-wound economy. Part of this tight winding stemmed fom a tight control of the interest rates. But, as the case stands, Germany has to now deal with the extrinsic variables that balancing the economies of other sovereign nations entails. In short, the Marshall plan didn't get you out of squalor, and bankrolling a broken clock isn't going to be anymore effective.

Hooked On Energon


This little nugget of knowledge from the the badboys at Just Facts,

As of 1998, there are 30 taxes on a gallon of gas amounting to 54% of the final purchase price. There are 18 taxes on a pizza.(17)

Remember that shit when some twat on the TV or in Time magazine sings the heralding of high gas prices as the sign of gas running out...

Yuaned if I'd be worried...



The Pink One tells a tale of scabbard-rattling in the US Senate,

The administration of President George W. Bush will face mounting pressure to take tougher action against China over the value of its currency with the introduction on Tuesday of legislation that would all but force the US Treasury to brand China as a currency manipulator.

The proposal, drafted by Senator Charles Grassley, the chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, and Max Baucus, the committee’s leading Democrat, would threaten new sanctions against countries that are found to have “currency misalignments” with the US, according to people with knowledge of the proposal...

The Grassley-Baucus legislation is likely to receive wide support in Congress and is intended in part to draw away support from more draconian legislation that would impose 27.5 per cent tariffs on all Chinese imports to the US.

Senators Charles Schumer and Lindsey Graham, the sponsors of that measure, have scheduled a news conference on Tuesday with John Snow, the US Treasury secretary, at which they are expected to announce a willingness to continue delaying any Senate vote on their proposal. The two senators recently returned from a trip to China

The US Treasury has angered many lawmakers by refraining from branding China a currency manipulator in its twice-yearly reports to Congress on exchange rates and trade. Frustration has been building in Congress over the administration’s gentle, diplomatic efforts to convince China to revalue its currency.

"gentle, diplomatic efforts" is columbian jounrnalism news-speak for "You've got us by the balls with your financing US war debt. So I guess we'll do it your way..." I wouldn't worry if I were the Chinese, they've played us like a fiddle for the last 16 years, at least. In that short time, they've gone a country that couldn't keep a setellite in orbit to a country with ICBMs aimed up the ass of every major American city. All with the help of your US Governemnt, under both the current and previous administration.

The Avenger goes on to note the Chinese statement,

"The congressional action comes ahead of a visit to Washington next month by Hu Jintao, the Chinese president. China has sent signals that it is willing to respond to US concerns over trade issues such as piracy of US intellectual property, but has said that no significant revaluation of the renminbi is likely in advance of the trip.

And why should they? The devaluation of their currency in raltions to the US dollar is what financed their going from smelting ovens in peasent's front yards to single-handedly replacing the manufacturing base of the world's largest economy. Still, I'm convinced the the open markets will end up forcing what the vendee nation of the US government. So getting ready to buy up 'em Yuans now.

FUCK THE REVOLUTION!


Communism is a joke. Communism is a sham. Socialism is opiate of the intellectuals. Socialism is the trompe de la bourgeoisie to succor their indolent guilt and fufill their wish to effect their blessings upon the world through a marxist magic wand instead of the invisible hand. It's the childish, albeit perhaps sincere hope of the benighted that this magic wand can do the hitherto impossible: control the spontaneous deviation from the norm to create circumstances inherently desirable. It is not the working classes that clamor for socialism. For why would they? They are the ones who embody the strivation for self-sufficiency and are cut the the deepest by the regressive exploitation that nationalization of the economy represents. So inherently inimical is big buisiness to demands of the free-markets, that as Maurry M. Rothbard points out on part two of his tome, A History of Money and Banking in the United States, they devised the following,

Fortunately for the cartelists, a solution to this vexing problem [free-markets] lay at hand. Monopoly could be put over in the name of opposition to monopoly! In that way, using the rhetoric beloved by Americans, the form of the political economy could be maintained, while the content could be totally reversed...For this intellectual shell game, the cartelists needed the support of the nation’s intellectuals, the class of professional opinionmolders in society. The Morgans needed a smoke screen of ideology, setting forth the rationale and the apologetics for the New Order. Again, fortunately for them, the intellectuals were ready and eager for the new alliance. The enormous growth of intellectuals, academics, social scientists, technocrats, engineers, social workers, physicians, and occupational “guilds” of all types in the late nineteenth century led most of these groups to organize for a far greater share of the pie than they could possibly achieve on the free market... And the intellectuals were ready for it, having learned in graduate schools in Germany the glories of statism and organicist socialism, of a harmonious “middle way” between dog-eat-dog laissez-faire on the one hand and proletarian
Marxism on the other.

In short, big buisiness came to co-opt revilement against them as the very subterfuge needed to get their way. Hats off to that marketing coup. And marketing it is, all the talk and fairy tales of utopia and social justice come down to a few preying on the good intentions of they many.

All this is illustrated clearly by Delfín Fernández, a former body gaurd to Fidel Castro, in this interview, via Sludge,

'The initial idea of Fidel was good. Batista was an assassin,'' Fernández said. ``What happened was, the course he took with the revolution was wrong. It has dissolved into this unstoppable, insatiable corruption without limits, a vast lie. The people are in misery. Cuba's people have been enslaved as cheap labor for foreign businessmen.''

I ran into an acquaintance from my freshman year right before graduating. She told me about her semester at sea. They stopped off at Cuba, and had a lavish reception waiting for them. Castro delivered a two-hour prolix, pool side, at his. She was nonplused by this pool. She described it long, winding nature and how amazing it was. Meanwhile, his people live in abject squalor.

Behold (once more) your revolution you goofy commie fucks.

Curtain Calls for WND on my DnD...


One of the most fascinating stories that will never be told, is that of the implosion of World Net Daily. It's the story of a brilliant, well meaning man who went from trying to beat the legacy media to trying to beat the legacy media at their own game. Back before Bonnie Prince William was rubbing dildos with the swank and fabulous, he was hitching his star to Joseph's. His wasn't the first "conservative" news site, but it was one of the most bold and daring. He seemed like he wanted to bring muckraking to the establishment left. He seemed like he wouldn't compromise. But just like the portrait of Dorian Grey, things change over time. I'm not sure if it's the quest for money, power, or what. But it seemed that in the last, say, oh 5 or 6 years (coincidental time frame, of course), there's been something amiss around WND. For one, the editorial direction has drifted astoundingly. Where as once the editorial ethos was grounded in simply countering the NYT echo resonating throughout the legacy media, slowly it seeped into the need to toe a bland evangelical line. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad someone reports on the atrocities being committed against Christians in Asia and Africa. But in becoming beholden to this agenda,

• You end up resorting to the same crappy columbian journalism dialectic that ruined the legacy media. In essense, simply replacing the agenda and co-opting the shoddy journalism tactics

• You lose the integrity that the founding fathers charged the press with upholding when they endowed that industry with the sole guarantee of a free makert in all the US

For example, this is so beyond contempt that it simply speaks for itself,

The ending of 'V for Vendetta' celebrates terrorism when the movie's three most sympathetic characters carry out an evil plan to blow up England's Parliament building, one of Western Civilization's most enduring symbols of democracy and republican government with a small 'r,'" he wrote.

Wow, I mean. That's funny, becuase I still remember clearly, despite the fog and void of drugs and wear of years on memory, my 3rd or 4th grade social studies book listing off the nature of governments of nations in the world (at the time). Despite all the cramming of the term democracy in in my mind, I was rather puzzled that America was listed as a "federal republic". While North Korea, China, East Germany, and other despotic commie hellholes had the catchy tag line of being prefaced with "People's Democratic" and such like. But what brought this memory gurgling up from the recesses of my mind is the fact that Britain is a Constitutional Monarchy!!!! Much like virtually the rest of Western Europe. Even the term "constitutional" is a misappellation, because Parliament is sovereign... unless the Sovereign were to intervene, which in theory is still possible (small "s'/big "S", I can be clever too!). But my point is this: Why would you give someone who fails to pass a third-grade understanding of political science the time of day in your newspaper? Especially when you're only giving them a platform because you're sympathetic to their view, in the first place?

Perhaps worst of all is that it forced a man with seemingly insoluable integrity to utter these words,

I should not have pulled the lever for George W. Bush and I should never have urged others to do so.
Even my wife, who coaxed me to break my vow never to support a candidate who doesn't honor the Constitution, agrees now it was a mistake.

Dunno, almost seems to me like it'd be easier to respect him if he didn't pull these weasely words. Don't get me wrong, his mustacheoed-ness has graciously answered a few of my emails personally, usually just to ask me to subscribe to his email updates. I do. I also filter and delete them instantly. I hope he still gets the penny or whatever for the advertising. But this crap is the bottom line:

I can disagree with someone without dismissing them only so long as I respect their caliber of intelligence demonstrated. If he's hiring copy editors and fact-checkers this dense, than there's not much more to say...

Dreams come true...



No string of explitives-in-exuberance can begin to encompass the joy we should all feel. It seems the Patomac Playpin is in buisiness for only 97 days this year. I mean, I thought getting hired back at the touchtone terrorist centre was good news. But man, this is like almost physically arousing!

The story, via the sludge report, comes from USATODAY, whose continued existence, much like the Utah archway of liscense-plate renown, defies explanation. Without soiling your mind's pallete with too much with it's contents, I'll begin by quoting the articles opening.

"WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives is on track this year to be in session for fewer days than the Congress Harry Truman labeled as “do-nothing” during his 1948 re-election campaign. "

Gosh Harry, where to begin? Maybe they should have declared another war so you could have dropped another atomic weapon? Like that shit-eating grin on your face is telling of, that "do nothing" congress was doing something right, because that campaign angle barely squeeked your ass back in. Further, although it quites tragic, in the course of Congress's deliberation, the real world managed to eek out a spontaneous solution and subsequent end for the Great Depression. By the way, "do nothing" is Francois, c'est pas do nothing non due for "lassiez faire"... Or some shit. (tres chic!)

The article closes with,

Critics contend Congress needs time to discuss important issues. “The Tuesday-to-Thursday work schedule is a detriment,” says Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Calif., who served five terms in the House during the 1980s and returned last year.

Sources in Heaven, close to Barry Goldwater, tell Gault's Slue the former Republican Presidential candidate and fellow Calfornian of Rep. Lungren is quoted as saying, "Nigga say whut?"

Oh yeah, in a thinly veiled and perfunctory attempt to appear "aloof and objective", the paper threw in this last-line appurtenance,

Some experts think an absentee Congress is not bad. “I don't think there's anything wrong with them being out of Washington,” says John Samples of the Cato Institute, a think tank that favors limited government. “They might be better representatives.”

Trailer for Aaron Russo's America: From Freedom to Fascism


I admit, I'm a little aroused here. It's going to Cannes. Russo is a big enough name in the entertainment world that his clout alone should get the flick traction. Michael Moore has imploded. Morgan Spurlock has cashed out his chips. There's still a few more years to bash Bush and the documentary genre gives otherwise dullards a sense of being hip to politics. And this will seemingly be ammo for them. There will be some initial cognitive dissonance with dimestore-intelligentsia, because it will be critical of America, yet smack somehow of conservatism. But perhaps on top of making their teeny-weeny brains hurt with the pangs of Oliver Wendell Holmes' proverbhial new dimensions, that and V: For Vendetta will make individual liberty, and all that shit seem tres chic enough to shill to bovine America.

Hedley Lamarr: Qualifications?
Applicant: Rape, murder, arson, and rape.
Hedley Lamarr: You said rape twice.
Applicant: I like rape.
(Miscellanea by any other name)


Ah, nothing like hunting for a job; nothing like hunting for a job when you're desperate; nothing like hunting for a job when you're desperate and knucklehead like myself. Maybe if I was a canucklehead, I would have an easier time getting me a job. No, that's just insulting to my countrymen. And besides, what the hell is a canucklehead, anyway? The crap with insurance-cum-bank-cum-whore that sits on many waters went tits up. I ended up looking an ass because I was late. I was late because I didn't know where to go. I didn't know where to go because I didn't bother asking where to go in the first place. I didn't bother asking where to go because I was so excited at the chance to have a real job, for a change. Back to life, back to reality... Anyways, up theirs. Going to be giving this job hunting thing both barrels all week. So the posting should be light, accordingly. Your prayers and well-wishing are welcomed (and most likely needed).

At any rate, Slobadown, Saddam to go. The night the butcher of Belgrade assumed room temperature, I was discussing the unliklihood of Saddam making it to sentencing, in order to save face of our fair-minded European friends from having his blood on their hands. My thoughts briefly turned to Slobadon. The next day he was found dead. I immediately suspected his end was not a natural one. But start hedging your bets around Saddam having the same to look forward too. I also imagine we won't know the whole story of Slobadon and just who all was pulling his strings, until I'm putting my kids through college. That was one of the most blurry wars in history. Even a proffesor of Int. Law at Edinburgh Uni. told his students he didn't know what the hell was going on there, as it was happening. The most in-depth I've gotten into it was just through the movies "Savior" and "No Man's Land". Of course, his departure from this mortal coil could be a smoke-screen for something else lurking in the world. Someone let me know if my paranoid predilections are on the money...

Even a broken clock is right twice in a day...



Short news reports,

In January, 2002, Joseph Frederick unfurled a banner reading "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" across the street from the school he was attending. The school suspended him after the incident. The banner was an attempt to get on TV as the Olympic torch passed by. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, overturned the decision of Alaska's Federal Court, which ruled that Joseph Frederick's free speech rights were not violated by suspending him. Friday's ruling backs Frederick.... his ruling also allows Joseph to seek damages.

As much as I've often wish a spleen would momentarily re-evolve into the collective innards of congress long enough for them to lance this bolshevik boil from the face of judiciary, this is one time they got it right. Surely for the wrong reasons, but still... About the only thing that irks me more than that lot is this bullshit Orwellian mind-frame that public skrools inculcate in the minds of children. A japanese news-site elaborates that,

Joseph Fredrick, then 18, was looking to catch the attention of television cameras converging on the event outside Juneau-Douglas High School in 2002. He was among students who had been let out of class to see the event.

So he held up a banner that read "Bong Hits 4 Jesus." The school principal suspended him for 10 days, saying the banner violated the school's anti-drug policies. A bong is a pipe used to smoke marijuana. Juneau school district officials expressed disappointment.

"My concern is that (the court's ruling) could compromise our ability to send a consistent message against the use of illegal drugs," Superintendent Peggy Cowan said.

Cowan said the school board will decide whether to appeal the latest decision. (AP)

decide whether to appeal? Hmph, some dogs just don't know when to let go of that bone. If this wasn't a typical indictment of how myopic and skewred the priorities of your typical government school is, this'd be hillarious. To begin with, the kid was an adult by this point and was entitled to hold up whatever banner he like. Further, anti-drug or no, this sounds to me more like trying to criminalize a thought than it was anything else. God forbid the children should begin thinking for themselves, after all, we all know what that leads to... The only parties that should be punished here is the school board that hired this anal-rententive hun in the first place.

I give credit to whomever this shortnews.com outfit is, because of the standard-issue columbian journalism I've seen cover this, they're the only ones to reveal this deeply telling detail about the minds of the troikia that serves to save the west coast from it's own lack of enlightenment,

Judge Andrew Kleinfeld wrote "Public schools are instrumentalities of government, and government is not entitled to suppress speech that undermines whatever missions it defines for itself."

Insturmentalities of government and all this time I thought they were there for the kid's sake...

TrainCamelspotting


Watching a Channel Four special on something you don't often think of, junkies in Iran. The little blurb accompanying video stream goes,

Liberal drugs policies are usually associated with liberal countries. So it may be surprising that a strict Muslim state such as Iran not only has the world's worst problem of heroin addiction, but is now tackling it with enlightened techniques.

There are three and a half million heroin addicts in Iran, and their sharing of needles is fuelling a soaring rate of AIDS infection.

Of course, when these guy's say liberalization, they're talking one fucking giant leap for mankind. Up until recently, two grams of heroin was grounds for execution. Mongering smack is sitll grounds for the death penalty. Despite the fact the death penalty has loomed over the society, nearly .5 percent of the population still chooses this shit. Yes drug-worriors, your work is cut out for you indeed.

Other reports on here discuss how Iranian engineering and manufacturing flourished in the wake of the American embargo. It's specifically this advanced engineering base that the West cites as the danger in giving Iran uranium. The channel four reports, while being a touch of a fluff-job, still provide insight you wouldn't see on Fox news. Iran, and Shi'ite Islam has a peculiar parallel to the Anglican Church in that it seems to want to stay hip to the times. For example, Homosexuality is punishable by lashing and even death, but transexuality is OK.... Hmm... Not sure to think of the Persians. On one hand, there's interesting parallels between them and the West. For one, they borrow their God from Semites they'd rather not have much to with, otherwise. Iranians consider themselves Aryans, in the proper sense of the word, and don't think highly of their semetic neighbors. Just like Europeans worshiping the God of the Jews, and not having much use for the folks who brought them their God in the first place. In this, we're in a unique position to relate to them. At the end of the day, the US reaped the whirlwind in it's propping up of the Shah. What the correct response to this is, I don't know.

Alba and America


This one's for Will. America is just as much a product of Scotch design as it is an English one. In some ways, culturally and spiritually, especially in the South and Midwest, it's even more so Scottish. No real commentary, just something I hope you'll enjoy reading.

(Button-)wooden nickel?

Our friends at Rense, normally happily occupied with seeing how many cases of disease-du-jour and particles of depleted uranium they can fit on the head of a pin, bring us an interesting note conveniently ommitted by most Columbian jounalist, who feel it more imporant to stay hot on the trail left by Paris Hilton's slimy ass-crack across the globe. It seems this is cause for concern for the author. She starts with an archeology of events that have seemingly lead up to this. The article starts with a misleadingly narrow purview of factors that brought on the stock market crash and ensuing depression. The twenties had corrections (recessions) on par with what we take for granted today. The 29 "Crash", itself, was not much more drastic than previous corrections, but with the positing of extensive economic architecture in the forms of wage-controls, high-tariffs, in addition to the reasons listed by author. Not to mention, the author, like nearly every other non-Austrian economist, fails to recognize that the so-call "new deal" was neither first initiated nor devised by Roosevelt. but in fact originated with the "do nothing" President Warren G. Harding. Roosevelt ran a campaign that vaguely opposed Harding's Administration's policies. However, upon assuming the Presidency, Roosevelt kept and augmented these interventionist policies into the economy, on a scale never scene before in peace-time. The author's treatment of the Bretton Woods agreement is a little over the top. The fiat debt-gold hybrid system still had a gold bedrock which kept some solvency to the currency. But like Gresham's law teaches, artificially over-valued commodities will replace artificially under-valued commodities every time. Hence Nixon's lurch off Bretton Woods.

The Author goes into a half-hazard assessment of the monentarist revolution of the eighties. Most notably, her assertion of a sudden and seemingly instantaneous 2 trillion USD suddenly circulating around the globe. It seems she omitting the existence of Euro-dollars... Anyway, the author goes on to lament the opening up of the market for the acquisition of debt. This phenomenon is why corporations evolved to begin with. Put simply, when risk and reward can be assumed over a greater scale of parties, than the likelihood of investment and R/D is increased in positive corrolation to the number of investors entering the arena. Hence, this seems over-all benevolent.

Eh, overall, the article finishes in a slew of non sequitors, which don't seem to have a grand deal of bearing on the fact the NYSE now is traded publically itself. The world already has an "international" currency. It's called the Dollar Standard. Yes, this is more of a de facto reality than a du jure one, but the "internationalization" of equity she alludes to wouldn't be possible without a formal disolving of the sovereignty of nation-states. Maybe the article is just simply above my head. But it seems to me that she's confalting the healthy free-flow of capital between private parties, of all walks of life, with government control. In my opinion, the most damning thing is the fact that through corporatism inherent in central-banking, that governments can at will siphon off people's wealth without their consent, in the form of interest rate manipulation and out-right inflation.

While I certainly appreciate tin-foil jounralism demosntrated at Rense and with others, the inconsistencies of it all reveal a lacking quality. I appreciate it because virtually no one with more than a single-digit spread of neurons firing believes the mainstream press is either objective or has the interests of the public at hand. That said, in disenfranchising the mainstream press of their monopoly on shaping non-local reality, we're left with scant little to replace it with, save smaller-scale and equally subjective reporting. This scale of reporting usually has it's own agenda, and pretenses it's seeking to justify from what it culls from events. It's initially refreshing, kind of like switching to a new beer, but eventually ends up developing it's own variety of bad after-taste. Even my own respective bias, Austrian economics, has a shortcoming in it's complete dismissal of monentary inflation. A small, nearly fractional amount of inflation can and would go unnoticed in the grand-scheme of things. By adding the dimension of time to finance. and the generation of new wealth over that time period, a limited amount of elasticity could and would stimulate sound investment and ground. Thus, at the end of the day, the books would balance. However, the problem of course with this is the slippery-slope of greed causing this to get out of control. The Austrians of course see no inflation as the only measure to keep it in hand. And the Keynsians see no problem to begin with. Trying to strike the balance in schools of thought so far has been the Chicagoans, but even they seemingly slip into much of the Keynsians fallacies, by virtue found in the follow-through of their train of thought.

Now, returning to the socio-political arena of reporting. Most of us can percieve something rattling and shifting behind the proverbial movie-screen that everyday "reality" is projected upon in the papers and the mainstream media. But what the nature of that object (or objecets) is, so far, beyond the scope of proper speculation as to it's nautre. And the more specific one's assertions (Jews, central-bankers, illuminati, Jesuits, masons, communists) are, as to what one cannot percieve but only vaguely infer being there, the more absurd one ultimately sounds. Hence a grain of truth, at most, to the run of the mill stories you see at Rense. Put differently, unless one is a direct party/witness to whatever "conspiracy/conspiracies" is/are taking place, then only in the aftermath of these events can one draw evidence as to their existence.

Take for example this crap with the American ports and whoever in Dubai wanting to buy them. Were there a hypothetical, uniform, top-down hierarchy controlling major events, the US federal government, and the media in the world, than I cannot imagine while this would get out in the first place. If it was important to begin with whoever/whomever was controlling all things, than they would have supressed the story from getting out in the first place. If it it was an event outside their hypothetical interest, than why bother letting their man Bush catch the flack? Thus, I just can't believe there's been some earthly force guiding and molding history continously over the past centruies. Atomized conspiracies? Of course. But a single hand pulling the strings? Nah. History is to disjointed to draw an over all patern existing. Even if someone was to stumble upon "The Truth", I imagine that person would sadly be made to dissapear long before their revalation could be communicated to a borader audiance. Thus the ultimate short-coming of Rense and such. It's best just to kick-back and take it for what it is: National Enquirer for the moderately educated.

But that still doesn't fully address the question of Jon Ronson's proverbial "them" and rather or not they exist. Is there a genuine New World Order? I don't think so, yet. The pieces are fomenting, but it doesn't seem there's anything poised to galvanize them under a single hand. For now, we're still blessed with diseconomies of scale keeping liberty at least temporarily safegaurded. But with a cell-phone in nearly every pocket, a computer just like this helping to keep track of the thoughts of all with much power to do anything, and things we've yet to be shown still around the corner, only time will tell...

Today was a Good Day (to blog)... (Miscellanea by any other name)


Afternoon every one. Man, I'm still fucking hung-over. Went out with Benihana last night. Shot some snooker. It's like pool, only the balls are smaller so I kept over-exerting my shots. My aim was still alright. Any rate, seeing as only I had a thrice round of Pints, I imagine the source of this subtle grating on the back half of my brains stems from the bootyhash smoked last night in a spliff. I was told the soapbar was found on the ground, after it was spotted falling out of the owner's pocket. Hmph. Back in my American Presidents class, a kid sitting next to me had his box of Winstons fall out. He was unaware, and I picked up the box. Much like gaydar and the spidey-sense the immortals in Highlander have when they draw nigh, I knew a fellow stoner when I saw one and I knew what was in the box. Naturally, I cracked a peek to confirm my suspicions. And lo and behold, there was a fat nug. I just laughed to myself, and caught him walking out after class and handed it back to him with a smile. He smiled knowingly back. We chatted occasionally, but sadly never got to spark it.

You might wonder what kindled such excesses. Actually, you probably don't. But still, I had my reasons. Earlier that I had a two hour interivew with Standard Life. Police interrogators could probably take lessons off the chicks. My fucking brains got beatten to pancake batter, fried, and subsuequently tossed in the dust bin. Grant you, I'm proud for how much the bullshit oozed freely for one of those interviews where they ask you bullshit like, "Tell of of a time you showed leadership". You have no idea how much I hate doing that shit. Nobody in their right mind dwells on their job, trying to extract vignettes of leadership, grace under pressure, customer-service, and whatever else. Normal people repress the preceding day at work with drugs, alchohol, and diassociation of pop-media, unless you're a porn star or a successful entertainer. May the prick who came up with that shit be lightly baby-kicked in the balls for eternity.

Speaking of which, I had to download both Raw and Delirious just to clense my pallete of that karmic sewage. Anyway, after cranking out that long on the bullshit-flavored play doh flower playset I need to be honest. I need to be honest, anonymously, well as anonymous as one can with an IP address broadcasting worldwide...

Smoking Cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo... (Miscellanea by any other name)



Greetings for the week, skinny dippers. The quest for taxable income has me hot on a lead for a sales position at an insurance company. You may mock, but the redeeming thing about such a vocation is that you'd be rewarding people's responsibility, as opposed to most other things bought. At least that's the bullshit I cooked up to help convince the HR dude that I have any buisiness even doing the job to begin with.

Oddly enough, having not gotten stoned today, I'm feeling a sudden burst of motivation. Natrually, this rarified event was met with circumstances that have led to its being squandered. Namely, in the form of having to wait for a furniture delivery that is in theory to arrive sometime between now and the the store concluding it's hours of operation....

*UPDATE*

Now it's here. Now where the hell to put it...

*EVEN MORE UPDATE!*
Now it's put. But what will the Missus think?(!!!)

RIP Harry Browne



From UPI, via Sludge,


Harry Browne, Probably had the single-most hand in glavanizing my libertarian nature. While the pieces had been laid there by my family, my cultural background, and el Rushbo, it was reading The Great LIbertarian Offer that gelled with clarity my understanding that liberty was an end, and not a means, of a just society. With it, marked my departure from the GOP, and a pursuit of understanding about pre-political, unalienable natural law that was endowed upon civilizations by their Creator.

I, like many, mocked Harry Browne when he was one of the few voices on the right that warned early against letting the federal government lead us blindly after the shock of 9/11. Now even the most staunch Bush supporter is being dragged into the light.

Lovers of liberty, regardless of political affiliation, owe a debt to this man. The Party of Principle has lost it's best spokesman yet. God rest him.