OldSouth

$52,409 For Every Man, Woman And Child In The US: Rick Santelli Does The Math

2012-01-31T00:23:00.000Z

But, hey! Who's counting?

Ricky Ricardo Reports On The Latest News From MF Global

2012-01-30T16:48:00.000Z

LOOOOCY! Dih' Munney! It vaporized itself!

Ai Caramaba, Looocy! Wha' happun?!?!

Or in more staid English, the opening paragraph of the Wall Street Journal coverage this morning:

Nearly three months after MF Global Holdings Ltd. collapsed, officials hunting for an estimated $1.2 billion in missing customer money increasingly believe that much of it might never be recovered, according to people familiar with the investigation.

As the sprawling probe that includes regulators, criminal and congressional investigators, and court-appointed trustees grinds on, the findings so far suggest that a "significant amount" of the money could have "vaporized" as a result of chaotic trading at MF Global during the week before the company's Oct. 31 bankruptcy filing, said a person close to the investigation.

Many officials now believe certain employees ...

He'd also not go unchallenged when he tells the world, 'Gollee-Gee, Beaver! I don't have any idea where all that money vaporized to!'

Every so often, OS flips through channels on the way to basketball games, and sees snippets of documentaries on street gangs. They are scary people, covered in tattoos, wielding guns, loyal only to their own tribe, completely disinterested in the fortunes and lives destroyed around them. Fearless. Ruthless. Nihilistic. Many have bought off or scared off any semblance of law enforcement. They rule the street, and aren't shy about letting the world know.

Please inform OS, someone, how these people differ from the upper tiers of our political and banking worlds? Except, perhaps, for the tattoos?

I asked Ricky. He just shrugged his shoulders and slunk back to the 1950's, grateful to be gone, and told me not to call him again. He's got his bridge game scheduled with Fred and Ethel, and doesn't wish to be disturbed.

27 January 2012 OS Reflects On His Month

2012-01-28T02:56:00.000Z

There hasn't been much time or energy to write during this first month of 2012, due to schedule and a nasty nasty nasty respiratory bug that traveled home with Mr and Mrs OS from their vacation in England. Yes, flu shots were administered last fall, and it didn't seem to make a bit of difference this year.

Still, some wonderful moments occurred, such as a trip to Louisville to hear the Royal Philharmonic with Pinchas Zukerman on the podium, and performing the Bruch violin concerto as well. Brahms 4 occupied the second half, featuring flawless string playing, and inspiring work from the principal flautist. A piece like this is the musical version of wire-walking in one's BVD's--if it goes well, no one notices, but if things go slightly pear-shaped it's immediately evident. The highlight of the evening was Zukerman's 'pep talk' to the audience after the main concert, followed by an inspired performance of Elgar's Nimrod. He reminded the audience of his first visit to their fair city in 1969, and urged them to get their orchestra underway again. The packed house cheered for him as he spoke.

It may take a long time, given the bitterness in the air. This bit of labor rant, complete with every device of class envy the author could muster was published in response to this perhaps ill-time and advised public pronouncement by one of the Louisville Orchestra's board members. Turns out that the orchestra members had been claiming unemployment benefits, on the basis they had been locked out. The State of Kentucky had recently ruled that, in reality, the musicians are on strike. Not only are they not eligible to collect, they owe the money they collected back! Not a happy situation, to say the least.

The turnout at Royal Phil was impressive--every seat filled. There is an audience for this music, but not for a snake-bit situation as exists locally. The solution may be to have other orchestras play in Louisville while on tour for the next 3-5 years, put the LO on ice, let tempers cool and reason have a chance to reassert itself.

It was also a month that included one of those frustrating 'customer representative' experiences with OS's wireless carrier, Verizon Wireless. They sold him a phone that didn't work, after assuring him all was well. It cost many hours to straighten out the snafu. The worst experience was with Danny, who didn't see the logic in making an adjustment in the bill that might begin to faintly recognize the chaos created. Danny, and presumably Verizon, are perfectly happy to let thousands of dollars a year from a long-standing customer walk out the door, while informing his friends and family of the shabby treatment.

OK, Danny. You win. Verizon must not need customers, so OS is happy to recommend his readers shop elsewhere, as he plans to do as well. The money for your salary, package and pension will miraculously materialize from somewhere as the customers snap the checkbook shut, so don't-chew-worry-yohself-one-bit. You're Danny, from Verizon. Nothing bad could happen to you.

Finally, the election fever is upon us. Never have words seemed to mean less, or the stakes been higher, or the world situation more fragile. So, that's why we follow Newt's ex-wife breathlessly, and pore over Mitt's tax return (500 ***** pages? That's a tax code we can live with?), debating whether he pays enough taxes. How's about instead we allllll learn how to build substantial worth by honest means?

Herman Cain seems like a footnote now, but OS rues his absence. There is something about the man that frightens people like Obama, Mitt, Newt, McCain, Biden. His approach is simple, he's basically come back from death's door in recovering from cancer, and he knows how to relate to people.

But life is looking up--baseball spring training begins soon, and the NCAA tournament and The Masters aren't far behind. Today's round in Abu Dhabi with Luke Donald, Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods in the same threesome brought joy to the heart, as did Louisville's wins at Pittsburgh and at home.

Still in recovery mode. Till next time.

OS

We Were The Obama Generation

2012-01-27T05:46:00.000Z

If anything deserves to go viral, this is it. These kids don't talk about social issues, or race, or birth certificates, or the Middle East, or Solyndra, or Fast-and-Furious, or GM, or...

They just talk about the math they face, left them by Obama.

Publish Post

B'Bye, Timmy! Don't Let The Door Hit You On The Way Out

2012-01-25T22:18:00.000Z

The critters begin to depart the ship as it begins its really serious list...

He'd be gone before now, except that Himself would not be able to get anyone willing to endure the confirmation process in order to serve until next January, and not even Obama thinks he'd get away with some bogus 'Recess Appointment' nonsense. The markets (especially the US bond market) would hit the 'risk off' button and hold it down the day after he tried that.

Next up? Lessee, who is most likely to be a subject of discussion in the fall campaign?

Oh, Mr. Holder, let's talk about that Fast and Furious operation, why don't we? Or...maybe not...

OS Has A Question: Who Are The Afghanis Captured By Border Patrol In South Texas, And What Pray Tell Were They Doing In McAllen?

2012-01-24T20:51:00.000Z

The local newspaper article is very short on details, but the bare facts of the story are chilling enough.

McALLEN — U.S. Border Patrol officials confirmed three Afghan nationals were detained this week in the Rio Grande Valley.

Border Patrol confirmed the detentions, but would not say where or when they occurred.

Enrique Mendiola, assistant chief Border Patrol agent for the Rio Grande Valley sector, said "with the current decline in illegal cross border activity" human smugglers may see moving people besides Mexican nationals as a "business opportunity."

"Average smuggling rates for other-than-Mexican nationals far exceed those of Mexicans and Central and South Americans," he said in a statement.

Mendiola noted the Department of Homeland Security is working with governments in Central and South America to "identify and disrupt transnational smuggling organizations and routes, that sometimes can span the globe."

Federal court records showed no arrests involving anyone accused of smuggling Afghan nationals. No further information was available late Friday evening.

Hmmm....perhaps they were just poor innocent souls seeking a better life NorthOfTheBorder. Isn't that the constant meme of The Left, explaining to us all ever so patiently why border security doesn't matter, illegal immigration is no problem?

Or, perhaps, they traveled here for some other reason.

How did they get into Mexico? Whose money was spent to get them halfway across the world? How many more are there, the ones who weren't captured?

Planet Gore Asks Mr. Obama re Keystone Pipeline: Which Side Are You On?

2012-01-18T20:56:00.000Z

Well, at the least, it's not just OS asking why Obama seems to be siding with those who wish to see the West destroyed.

At a time when the need for action to deal with the threat of the Iranian nuclear bomb program demands that the government do everything in its power to assure supplies of liquid fuel from non-mideast sources, the Obama administration is doing the exact opposite.
Instead of seeking to create energy security, it is maximizing our energy vulnerability.
Instead of seeking to reduce oil prices, it is acting to increase them.
Instead of seeking to expand our economy, it is acting to contract it.
Instead of seeking to stop the Iranian nuclear bomb program, it is acting to protect it and help fund it.
Instead of seeking to strengthen America and weaken our enemies, it is acting to weaken America and strengthen our enemies.
The question that needs to be put to the Obama administration is this: Which side are you on?

November cannot come quickly enough.

OK, Lemmee See If I Understand Correctly...Reviewing ObamaThink

2012-01-17T02:36:00.001Z

Now, the Iranians are making noises about disrupting the sea lanes in the Persian Gulf, through which much of the current oil supply for the West travels. In response, the US has dispatched two naval carrier strike forces, which is a lot of tonnage and firepower in a pretty small corner of the world.

It seems to OS that this would be an expensive undertaking, seeing that we are 15 TRILLION dollars in debt, and Obama will demand to raise the debt ceiling. Hell, he may just tell Treasury to sell the bonds, Congress be damned!

The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff is booking it to Israel to consult with our ally, who managed to ratchet up tensions in the area by doing something proactive about Iran's plans to build nuclear bombs and use them to kill Israel.

That means we may have a war on our hands already, in reality. That's expensive, seeing as we are 15 TRILLION dollars in debt.

If we were self sufficient for all our energy production, oil, coal, hydro, nuclear, whatever--then we wouldn't neeeeeeed to spend much money or mental energy on the Iranians. We could tell them to take their oil and brew it into tea and consume it themselves.

So, this would explain why Obama won't allow the construction of an oil pipeline from Canada to our Gulf Coast, right? Why, that might make us more self-sufficient, wouldn't it? And, private monies would be spent on its construction, as opposed to public monies spent on carrier groups patrolling the Persian Gulf, right?

This would also explain the EPA's efforts to shut down one of America's most productive coal mines as well, correct? Isn't it cheaper to employ private money to mine and ship coal than to have carrier groups watching over oil tankers at taxpayer expense, seeing as we are, well, 15 TRILLION dollars in debt?

So, we have to sit back and wonder: Is Obama a blithering idiot, is he simply not able to hold more than one thought in his mind at a time, or is he deliberately attempting to torpedo the future of this country? Or is he perhaps corrupt, in the pay of some and not in the pay of others because they bid too low?

It appears to OS that there aren't many alternate explanations. The situation makes no sense, and is deeply dangerous.

This is how wars get started. This is how people get killed by the tens of thousands and millions.

This is really what we can't afford.

This is why we must have grown-ups at the helm. November 2012 cannot come soon enough.

Another Iranian Nuclear Scientist Blown Up Before He Can Blow Up The World

2012-01-11T16:09:00.001Z

HT Marathon Pundit, who shares this news from Yid The Lid. (Now that's a blogger-name, ya'll...)

Earlier today, two guys on a motorcycle attached magnetic bombs on the car of an Iranian scientist who just so happened to be the deputy director at Natanz enrichment facility killing him and wounding two others, the Fars news agency reported.

The magnetic bomb which was planted by an unknown motorcyclist under the car of Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan Behdast, a professor at Tehran's technical university, also wounded two other Iranian nationals in Seyed Khandan neighborhood in Northern Tehran.

Ahmadi Roshan, 32, was a graduate of oil industry university and a deputy director of Natanz uranium enrichment facility for commercial affairs.
Coincidentally the killing of Roshan was similar to previous assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists (amazing how that happens), and it happened almost two years to the day after a another Iranian nuclear scientist participated in an explosive finale.

On January 12, 2010, nuclear scientist Masoud Ali Mohammadi, a senior physics professor. He was killed when a bomb-rigged motorcycle exploded near his car as he was about to leave for work. In November 2010 it was two for one day in Iran, a pair of back-to-back bomb attacks killed one nuclear scientist and wounded another. Both scientists were involved in Iran's "peaceful" nuclear program.

An just six months ago, a motorcycle-riding gunmen killed Darioush Rezaeinejad, a scientist involved in developing high-voltage switches, a key component in setting off the explosions needed to trigger a nuclear warhead.

Vice-Chairman of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Mohammad Kosari blamed the usual suspects the US and Israel, saying said, "In this case the footprints of the Zionists and the world arrogance are seen too."

The Chair of Vice Mr. Kosari is being a bit too rash. Since the Iranian government claims to be developing their nuclear technology for peaceful use, the CIA and Mossad agents should be very aware of their intentions and would never assassinate a scientist who is developing a way to generate clean energy.

No, this must all be a horrible coincidence....hey accidents do happen and the Iranian scientists should be more careful.

Personally, OS concludes that Iranian physicists must have some sort of innate allergy to motorcycles.

Either that, or we can attribute the phenomenon to Global Warming.

Or blame it on those Tea Party fanatics.

Or George Bush.

Given the horrific evil that is a daily phenomenon of life in Iran, and the refusal of the Obama (Could we please have our drone back?) Administration to back the efforts of the Iranian street protesters and dissidents, we should rest easy knowing the US had no role in this removal of intellectual assets from a regime who vows to develop nukes and use them on us.

If You Run Unopposed, And Still Only Get 82% Of The Votes...You Might Be Up To Yer Hips In Trouble

2012-01-11T06:25:00.001Z

Really, ya'll.

Amid the hoopla of Mr. Romney's monumental 39% of the New Hampshire GOP primary, it is quietly noted that TheWinnerOfTheNobelPeacePrize, TheOne, Himself, the Duffer-in-Chief managed to draw his own crowd to the Democrat primary, 18% of whom trudged to the polls to vote against the incumbent.

It would be interesting, would it not, for the traditional Democrat voters of South Carolina, Florida, and the Super Tuesday states (and there are a lot of those voters out there) to register their disaffection with TheBelovedLeader in their primaries by writing in a candidate of their choice from their party.

Yesterday's event will be dismissed by TheGreatAndGood, attributed to New Hampshire cussedness. But what if 20% or more of the Dems in each state going forward decided to make a statement in their primaries?

Just sayin...it could make life interesting...

The SEC Attempts To Paper Over Its 'Rakoff Problem': Rolling Out The Big Guns--Press Releases!!

2012-01-08T01:15:00.000Z

OS spent Saturday late morning doing the weekly grocery-pharmacy-dry cleaner-liquor store shopping run with the sainted Mrs. OS. Jet lag began to catch up to him, rather delayed after attendance at a fabulous Westminster Choir College concert last night. More about that another time, if the spirit moves. However, if any of OS's readership are in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, eastern Tennessee, or West Virginia these next few days, it's worth the drive to hear these young people--a completely inspirational evening of music.

In the parking lot, the humorous moment of the morning: A car, owned by a Tea Party member, with the window display announcing 'You can't cure stupid, but you can vote it out of office.'

It did provide a grin, and food for thought as OS shopped for groceries.

At the next election, this country desperately needs to elect grown-ups, people who will demand (and make happen) certain basic truths take hold, such as Judge Rakoff is insisting upon: Banks who defraud investors, customers and the country at large, walking away with $700 million, cannot be asked to settle for pennies on the dollar with no admission of wrongdoing. The defrauded never are compensated, and the truth is never known. The government becomes complicit with the criminals, and essentially charges 'protection tax' to keep the whole corrupt game in play. It's a recipe for tragedy, sooner or later.

Mish, Heaven bless 'im, continues to track the Rakoff v. Citigroup and it ally, the SEC, who has decided to issue press releases to douse the fires of public disdain.

He points out that the last person prosecuted and jailed for securities fraud by the SEC was (drumroll please...) Martha Stewart.

Really.

While essentially ignoring billions of dollars in repeated fraud allegations against Citigroup, the SEC brought full weight down on Martha Stewart over (drum roll please) ... $45,673.

Martha Stewart went to prison and was fined $30,000. Since then, no one has gone to prison or even been criminally indicted in $trillions of dollars of fraud in the global financial crisis. And unless someone does admit criminal action, the SEC reserves the right to do more whitewashing without seeking admission of guilt.

OS continues to follow and harp on this and the MF Global scandal, because they strike at the heart of this country's ability to function. If the Martha Stewarts and those more humble go to jail, and firms like Citigroup and individuals like Corzine go free after surrendering their pocket change, we will one day reach a tipping point, where the citizenry decides to either simply sit on its hands and refuse to participate in a fixed game--which may already be occurring--or it (more ominously) blows up, or some combination of the two in sequence.

Neither option is desirable, each leads to poverty, despair, decline. It is not the kind of world we wish for our children and theirs. Unlike some more nihilistic souls, OS spends his energies begging that these things not happen.

One thing that struck OS on his vacation in England was that much of the peaceful and prosperous way of life he witnessed there, and enjoys here, is due to a robust system of banking. Currency gets exchanged, card transactions complete within seconds, goods get imported and exported and onto the shelves while fresh, and at reasonable cost. Cash and credit, borrowed and paid back, lubricates the intricate machine. If the banking system is crippled, everyone loses, the farmer, the merchant, the employer, the employee, the school, the church, the charity, on it goes. It's happening already, in ways great and small.

The Citigroups and the Corzines, the SEC, the Fed, and all the lawyers and politicians will end up blowing the system to bits. It will never operate perfectly, but it doesn't need to in order to work wonderfully well. It needs to operate in a culture that assumes honest dealing underpins the system.

You can't cure stupid, and you can't rid the world of all the Corzines--but you can vote for grown-ups, and insist they insist on governance where virtue is rewarded and crime punished.

It's not that much to ask of them. If they do that one thing, a lot of the other problems will sort themselves.

Turning Toward Home: Vacations' End, 2012's Beginning

2012-01-04T01:39:00.000Z

Bags are packed. Cab is called for the morning. The folder with the last round of reservations and itineraries is sorted and placed in the carry-on. The final small gift bought, the final meal before cleaning out the apartment's fridge.

Time for the vacation to end. Time to go home. Already, since yesterday, OS feels himself get into gear for life back home. Tomorrow includes a business meeting in London, even. The time off was so sweet while it lasted.

England is quite a place. The alarming headlines, even if true, don't tell the story of the people who live here. They are resilient, mainly cheerful and good-humored. I visited small houses, with small kitchens, lived in by people who drive small cars. The walls are lined with books, the small gardens are often small masterpieces of design. They don't understand places like Brentwood, Tennessee, with its square miles of big brick boxes with pick-ups in the driveway driven by people who haven't read a book in years.

The old WWII sign 'Keep Calm and Carry On' (and variations) has popped up again, on shirts, mugs, fridge magnets, etc. It summarizes what OS has seen here--a determination to muddle through and be happy anyway. They have seen worse, and their parents and grandparents much much worse. It's not hard to spot where the Luftwaffe did its dirty work seventy years ago, and one hears old East London accents well away from the old neighborhoods, as the inhabitants had to be relocated in the war's wake. Each little church and school seems to have a plaque recording the names of the boys lost to the two world wars--and the lists stretch on and on.

As far as the recession goes, if the streets full of shoppers are any indication, there's not that much of a downturn still in place. Groceries brim with fresh everything, and prices there are pretty reasonable. People aren't driving old cars, the trains are full but not overrun, and run on schedule. And with rare exception, people here seem uninterested in staying aboard the EU ship while it scuttles itself. A cabbie refused a Euro coin proffered, half in jest, saying, 'No mate, not interested. It won't be worth anything soon enough.'

Again, this is the south of England, in a university town, so the impression may be skewed. But morale seems pretty high, which OS did not expect.

So, home again, to the wild wooly United States, and OS's beloved small-town life.

He will miss this place as he departs.

The Day After The Day After Boxing Day, Thoughts From England

2011-12-28T08:41:00.001Z

OS has enjoyed his quiet days here in a university town in England. There is nothing like looking at different real estate and faces to help calm the mind and give some perspective. OS, being on vacation, has no dramatic insights to offer, but he has been impressed by scenes, anecdotes, vignettes, and shares them here.

1. If there's a recession on, it's hard to tell by the Christmas shopping. The stores have been packed here, and the reports from London about the shoppers on the 27th tell of eye-watering sales figures. Now, granted, a university town is more prosperous than many other places, but the majority of the people I encountered on the streets are only indirectly attached to the university--faculty, staff and students have all bugged out on holiday.

2. It's uncanny to observe how American popular culture and mores have penetrated the UK over the years. OS and his sainted bride were serenaded while standing in queue for a concert by a choir singing 'Rudolf', 'Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire', and 'Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas', all three songs amongst the most-played songs in American history. OS also walked the streets and heard buskers playing dixieland music, and one gent singing Hank Williams songs.

3. Inspirational moment of the year was an episode of 'The Choir', following Gareth Malone as he forms a choir made up of the wives of British servicemen on deployment in Afghanistan. They learn to sing, begin to bond, and Gareth gains their trust enough for them to share the letters they write and receive to/from their husbands. From this, he consults with a composer to create an anthem for them to sing to the Queen in Royal Albert Hall. Anyone not in utter tears from viewing this has no soul.

It is the number-one single on the UK pop charts. Wonder if the purveyors of that aural pornography known as rap will take notice? This is where the culture is, people returning to the marketplace to buy records that move them.

Moh, latuh, ya'll. Traveling to other parts of the island today for lunch with friends.

This is a great place, a great people. The headlines, per usual, don't begin to tell the story.

Christmas 2011, An Interlude

2011-12-24T11:38:00.000Z

OldSouth is on extended holiday, as it is referred to here in the UK. He is here to visit family and friends, to walk the streets of a university town, to eat, drink, read, spend time with the sainted Mrs. OldSouth, to slow down and reflect on a momentous year.

He is about to head out the door to walk the streets of that university town, and looks forward to services today and tomorrow in churches that sing the Christmas carols in full voice. He arrived two days ago, to end the day at one of those services with over 2,000 others, singing in full voice. It's quite a sound, full of hope and cheer, and it struck OS once again that the carols were written for us to sing, not for pop artists to mutilate and sell to us.

So, OS wishes all who are kind enough to visit and read his scribble a most Merry Christmas. He may or may not write over this holiday, because, well, he's on holiday.

It is a dark world, run by idiots and crazies, always has been, and now more so than ever. Our hope is not here, but he did break in upon us in that birth, and in his life and death, The idiots and crazies killed him stone dead, and he defeated death in the process.

Merry Christmas.

Vaclav Havel, The Playwright Who Led 1989's 'Velvet Revolution,' dies at 75

2011-12-19T03:43:00.002Z

For those of us alive in 1989 and paying attention, witnessing the unraveling of the Soviet Empire was heady stuff. After all, we born into a world where the long barrier that cut Europe in twain, in order to keep the East enslaved and the West on constant alert, was just a fact of life.

Then, suddenly, it disintegrated, that barrier. And along with it, the regimes that held that part of the world under their collectivist thumb. And Havel was one of the people who brought it about.

Those of us who remember 1969 remember the terrible fate that befell Alexander Dubcek, who had attempted much the same, only to see the Soviet tanks roll in to Prague to crush all hope. We feared for Havel, and cheered when the citizenry flooded the streets, and freedom won the day.
A few months later, he stood before a joint session of Congress, attempting to explain what had occurred, admitting he was at a loss for words himself.

But the words he chose were pithy, and eloquent for our day:

The communist type of totalitarian system has left both our nations, Czechs and Slovaks, as it has all the nations of the Soviet Union and the other countries the Soviet Union subjugated in its time, a legacy of countless dead, an infinite spectrum of human suffering, profound economic decline and, above all, enormous human humiliation. It has brought us horrors that fortunately you have not known.

It has given us something positive, a special capacity to look from time to time somewhat further than someone who has not undergone this bitter experience. A person who cannot move and lead a somewhat normal life because he is pinned under a boulder has more time to think about his hopes than someone who is not trapped that way.

What I'm trying to say is this: we must all learn many things from you, from how to educate our offspring, how to elect our representatives, all the way to how to organize our economic life so that it will lead to prosperity and not to poverty. But it doesn't have to be merely assistance from the well-educated, powerful and wealthy to someone who has nothing and therefore has nothing to offer in return.

We, too, can offer something to you: our experience and the knowledge that has come from it.

OS hopes we take his words to heart.

Crossing The Rubicon: A Must Read Post From Jesse--Pay Close Attention

2011-12-17T16:56:00.000Z

The unwitting customers of MF Global, if they held gold and silver in their accounts, will now have their hard assets seized from them, liquidated, and thrown into the pool of settlement cash.

Not the stockholders of MF Global--the customers of MF Global.

Which eventually means, of course, that under the right circumstances of breathtaking fraud, no asset is safe unless it is stowed out of sight, location known only to the owner. Gold coins buried in the back forty, and the farmer armed at all times. Now that's how a nation builds a vital economy--destroy all trust between parties in a transaction!

We've always believed it could never happen here, that we live under the Rule of Law.

Dem daze iz gawn, brethrun. Today, it's MF Global. Next year, it may be the community bank down the street.

The final line of the article Jesse reprints is especially charming, recalling the Red Chinese tradition of summary execution, in which the authorities bill the deceased's family for the ammunition expended to murder their loved one.

Sweeeet....

JDA Says It Best: Why Didn't We Untangle Ourselves From Europe THREE YEARS AGO?'

2011-12-16T00:46:00.000Z

OS' favorite potty-mouth economist sez it all. No comment necessary.

The Crooks And The Cops Lock Arms: The SEC Plans To Appeal Judge Krakoff's Ruling In The Citigroup Case

2011-12-16T00:22:00.000Z

Time was, when the crooks, in this case Citigroup (who ripped off everyone in sight, including every taxpayer in the US for generations), got caught and lost their case in court, they appealed their conviction/loss, proclaiming that they were the real victims, etc. etc., and that theft isn't theft because it was done with computers by white people in suits, not black people holding up liquor stores with guns--you know, real criminals, the kind you put in jail, to keep white folk like us safe on the way to the country club...

Them daze iz over, ya'll. Merry Christmas!

OS's readers may remember a couple of earlier posts, here and here, in which he recounts how one federal Judge Rakoff had decided he had had enough, and that he would not rubber-stamp one more sweetheart deal between the SEC Enforcement Division and the banks they were supposed to be, well, enforcing the rules on. His intent, obviously, was for the SEC to go back, and extract real penalties from Citigroup for having blatantly ripped the world off for some 700 million dollars, and come back to him.

To quote John Belushi: 'But NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooo......'

The SE frigging C plan to lock arms with the crooks, and appeal the judge's ruling!!!

They have no intention of (a) ceasing to make sweetheart deals with crooks, and (b) exposing the inner workings of the machine that makes these sweetheart deals by actually litigating them, because that would open them up to adversarial process, which includes (drumroll please) Discovery!

So, instead of spending their energies enforcing the law, they'll spend their energies arguing that they shouldn't have to enforce the law, even though that's what they were instituted to do, and are paid to do, and (by innocent souls like OS) expected to do.

This is Alice Through The Looking Glass, pure and simple.

It is maddening, but no longer surprising to read of it. We're at the point where the cops don't even need to pretend to uphold the law.

By the way, if anyone thinks those MF Global clients, including all those farmers who didn't even know they were MR Global clients, have a prayer of getting their money back, this should disabuse them.

The cops now protect the crooks--it's the Chicago Way--the world of Al Capone, Eric Holder, Tim Geithner...

Complete Incompetence Department: 'Could We Pretty-Please Have Our Drone Back?'

2011-12-13T14:52:00.000Z

Horrifying? Yes.

Surprising? Not at all.

From ABC News, who no longer even attempts to pretend TheOne has a shred of credibility:

The Obama administration has delivered a formal request to Iran for the return of a U.S. surveillance drone captured by Iranian armed forces, but said it is not hopeful that Iran will comply.

President Barack Obama said Monday that the U.S. wants the top-secret aircraft back. "We have asked for it back. We'll see how the Iranians respond," Obama said during a White House news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Monday.
In an interview broadcast live Monday night on Venezuelan state television, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said nothing to suggest his country would grant the U.S. request.

"The Americans have perhaps decided to give us this spy plane," Ahmadinejad said. "We now have control of this plane."

Speaking through an interpreter, Ahmadinejad said: "There are people here who have been able to control this spy plane, who can surely analyze this plane's system also. ... In any case, now we have this spy plane."

He added, "Very soon, they're going to learn more about the abilities and possibilities of our country."

At this point, mounting a raid to retrieve it, or attempting to destroy it would be futile, as it has certainly been disassembled, and is now being gone over piece-by-piece by the Chinese.

Perhaps it really doesn't matter to Himself that the worst people on the planet now possess one of our most sophisticated pieces of military technology, delivered to their doorstep.

Maybe he's decided that they're on the winning side in this generation, and has decided to just go with the flow of history.

Maybe he really does sympathize with the Islamists, and although not intending to turn this over to them, saw an opportunity to help his brethren in the situation?

How to explain this inexplicable behavior?

Why does Hilary Clinton remain at State one more day? Her resignation would blow the Obama Administration sky-high. Same for Leon Panetta at Defense. Why does he remain, since this occurred on his watch, and his Commander-in-Chief just sold every person in uniform down the river?

Nothing explains this incident.

Ronnie and Margaret, we miss you.

That Worked Well...NOT! BofE QE Achieves Almost Nothing...No One Surprised, Except The People Operating The Presses

2011-12-13T13:53:00.000Z

HT Adam Smith Institute...

The BoE claimed that the £200 billion it printed in 2009 onwards, resulted in the yields on five and ten years gilts being 100 basis points lower than they would otherwise have been. It claimed that growth was boosted by between 1.5 and 2%. On the basis of this, it enthusiastically decided to print another £75 billion this October.

Not so, says the highly authoritative (and not personally interested) Bank for International Settlements in its latest quarterly report. The real effect was about a quarter of what the BoE claims. Yields were on average 27 points lower.

The BIS also doesn’t agree with the BoE’s belief that new stimulus will have a similar effect. “It may be harder to achieve the same degree of effectiveness as with the initial programmes once the surprise or novelty element wanes”, it states in its conclusion. This basically means that financial movers realise that the money printing results in inflation, and that they therefore add that future inflation into their behaviour.

Canada Bids Kyoto Accord Farewell

2011-12-13T03:08:00.000Z

They're admitting the obvious: It's bogus, unenforceable, and detrimental to their interests.

'The whole affair is complete theatre, of course.': Detlev Schlichter

2011-12-12T17:25:00.000Z

This article has been making the rounds, and deserves to be shared. Schlichter cuts through the verbiage, the grandstanding, and the blatant falsehoods, and succinctly tells us the truth.

The problems around the world are essentially the same. After decades of ongoing and generous expansion of the fiat money supply, of artificially low interest rates and cheap credit, banks are hopelessly overextended, asset markets are distorted, and sovereign states are bust. I sometimes get pushback on the last point. Are they really bust? – Yes, most of them are. They have acquired debt loads and spending habits – now very deep-rooted and practically impossible to eradicate – that require constant new borrowing at fairly low interest rates – cheap credit forever. Obviously, that is not going to happen. The end of the forty-year credit boom has arrived. The private sector is no longer playing ball.

Remember OS's meme about culture shaping economy? We have a culture that assumes that we all will have unlimited access--it's our right--to all good things of life, and somebody else somewhere sometime will foot the bill. Thus, our present conundrum.

That being said, 'nuff said.

This is unsustainable. Math is math, and TheGreatAndGood refuse to acknowledge it, believing themselves to be immune from its inexorable consequences.

Thus, either there is a God in charge, whose providential will is in the process of being worked out via this human folly, or there isn't. OS thinks we are on the verge of finding out, one way or t'other. He's not predicting TheEndOfTheWorld, but we are in for a very rough slog here in the West, and for his part, plans to work for its preservation in a healthy form, for the restoration of Christendom.

In the meantime, he has work to do, much travel ahead, and a long-anticipated Christmas to enjoy. He hopes his readers do the same. A few entries in the next few days, and then likely silence over the holidays.

OS suspects there will be much to discuss in the New Year.

Ya'll take care of yohselves, and love on yer luved onez reaaaallll good.

Merry Christmas To The Thugs Who Run North Korea

2011-12-11T15:36:00.000Z

HT Outside The Beltway-Steven Taylor

From the BBC, droll as always:

North Korea has warned South Korea of "unexpected consequences" if it lights up a Christmas tree-shaped tower near their tense border. The North's state-run Uriminjokkiri website said it would amount to a form of "psychological warfare".

Seoul's annual tradition of lighting up a Christmas tree tower was suspended in 2003 following a warming of ties. However, the South lit a tower last year as relations deteriorated between the neighbours.

The Associated Press quotes a defence ministry official as saying the South has agreed to allow Christian groups to light a further two towers this year.

Only frightened thugs react in this manner to a Christmas tree. That being the case, OS proposes the South Koreans and the US proceed to put the afterburners to the Christmas spirit:

We've got every square inch of North Korea mapped--every hill, hamlet, fishing village and farm. Let's put up Christmas trees and mongo-sized creches within sight of any and all on the border, and on the SK-controlled islands as well. Then, let's turn those lights on, and play Christmas carols from dusk til dawn. Don't have to fire a shot--Christmas trees are a lot cheaper than artillery shells and choppers. Let's spread some hope and cheer, and cut the legs out from under those criminals in Pyongyang.

It sounds like the NKs have an incipient Christianity problem--strange how the gospel manages to take root in those dark corners, and little churches spring up like weeds under the feet of the despots.

Reminds one of the story of a baby born in a barn all those years ago, right under the noses of the Romans...

They also have a grinding and obvious poverty problem...this is a satellite shot of the region, taken at night a few years back. That's Japan on the right, Manchuria and China at the top and, South Korea at bottom left, and that black hole in the middle is, well, North Korea--Worker's Paradise.

NLRB Drops Its Bogus BS Case Against Boeing Plant In SC

2011-12-09T18:40:00.000Z

Finally, although with much humphing and grumphing in order to save face.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Labor Relations Board on Friday officially dropped its high-profile case challenging Boeing's decision to open a nonunion aircraft manufacturing plant in South Carolina.

The board acted after the Machinists union approved a 4-year contract extension with Boeing earlier this week and agreed to withdraw its charge that the company violated federal labor laws.
Lafe Solomon, the board's acting general counsel, said he had always preferreOrd a settlement. The agency settles about 90 percent of its cases.

Under the deal, Boeing promised to build the new version of its 737 airplane in Washington state. The Machinists also agreed to drop allegations that Boeing opened the South Carolina plant in retaliation for past union strikes.

Both Solomon and the agency had come under intense criticism from Republican lawmakers and South Carolina officials for bringing the case. Republicans and business groups claimed the agency was setting a dangerous precedent by interfering with a legitimate business decision about where to locate workers.

But Solomon said he was simply following the law and might do it again if faced with similar facts.

Or, alternatively, The NLRB and the Obama Administration were caught in the act of extorting Boeing, and decided, with 2012 on the horizon, that they might not wish to have this particular outrage linger into the New Year.

In any case, congrats to Boeing and South Carolina. In 2013, it will be time to put the NLRB on the list of 'agencies consigned to Oblivion'.

Bank Of England Breaks Out The Firehoses

2011-12-08T16:03:00.000Z

Courtesy of Paul Twigg, who is adept at noticing these things.

The BofE, having decided that the Euro is toast, has announced it will break out the liquidity firehoses to do what it can to protect UK banks when the European kitchen fire begins in earnest.

Of course, as always, they say things much more politely...

In a crowded neighborhood, when fire breaks out, some fire crews spend their energies on putting out the blaze, and others on spraying water on the roofs of the neighboring buildings. In the US west, when a brush fire breaks out, they bulldoze firelines to clear brush, and keep close watch on the wind as they set backfires to consume the fuel in the fire's path. In short, the effort is to save what they can, and let the fire burn itself out. The art and craft of it all is to stay ahead of the path of the flames...

OS wishes the BofE well.

Watergate Hearings Redux: Corzine Will Claim He Doesn't Know Where 700 Million Of His Customers' Money Is...

2011-12-08T15:15:00.000Z

OS's best guess? In private accounts, accessible from wherever his Gulfstream will eventually carry him.

The claim will be--Geez, I dunno where it all went!

This man is one of the minor deities of Wall Street. He took Goldman-Sachs public. He was governor of New Jersey. He was a US Senator. He spent his lifetime knowing where da' munny iz, hunny!!

Why does this man still possess a passport? And access to a Gulfstream?

Bernie Madoff must be belly-laughing today! Maybe he'll decide to start talking to the Feds about Jon.

Jon S. Corzine's statement to the House Agriculture Committee

MF Global Quote Of The Day: Amy Klobuchar (D) Minnesota

2011-12-08T02:08:00.000Z

The MF Global scandal will eventually take its place beside Lehman, Enron, Merrill-Lynch, GM, Goldman-Sachs and the rest. Its tentacles reach far beyond Wall Street and City of London. It is landing, like an enormous cow-pie, into the lives of farmers on the American prairie.

There are legitimate participants in the commodities markets, doing legitimate business for good reasons. One reason is to stabilize feed costs for livestock producers.

From the Minnesota Star-Tribune:

Dennis Magnuson is a farmer, not a gambler. He trades in the commodity futures markets hoping to stabilize the cost of feed for the pigs he sells. The Austin, Minn., resident said he would never put his money into bonds issued by European countries flirting with economic collapse.

But the now-collapsed MF Global Holdings Ltd. may have done that for him.

Magnuson is among more than 100 Minnesota farmers estimated to have assets frozen as a result of MF Global's bankruptcy filing and an estimated $1.2 billion in missing customer funds. Most of the farmers didn't choose to do business with the huge brokerage house that has become one of the biggest financial failures in U.S. history. They invested through brokers or financial advisers who eventually used MF Global to clear trades.

On Thursday, members of the Senate agriculture committee, including Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchar, grilled the heads of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over apparent loopholes in rules that allowed farmers' commodity trades to end up in risky European bonds.

What??!!!???

The article is horrifying to read, but OS hopes you read it. The final paragraph is out quote of the day:

"I don't have a scandal meter," she said. "I just think it's another example of why we just can't let these financial firms run roughshod over people on Main Street or people who are doing nothing but growing crops or raising pigs. They should not have to know every in and out of the regulatory system to protect their money."

Ya'll--if Corzine and company don't go to jail for the rest of their lives, then Bernie Madoff is owed an apology. This is just the front end of the woes to befall this country from MF Global.

Remember who Corzine is, and who his HomeBoy in the White House is. Less than a year to go until we get to register our opinions at the ballot. OS just hopes someone can staunch the financial blood loss sufficiently until then.

Before this is over, Corzine will have loaded up the Gulfstream and high-tailed it to somewhere like Paraguay. He still has his passport, and access to all sorts of cash and assets everywhere.

Heaven help us.

After 27 Years, The Exoneration Of An Innocent Man, Thomas Haynesworth.

2011-12-07T16:58:00.001Z

HT Doug Mataconis, a voice of reason in a world of flame-throwers.

Imagine, a the age of eighteen, walking into the local grocery purchase bread and sweet potatoes for dinner, being arrested for heinous crimes you never committed, and spending the next twenty-seven years in the Kafka-esque world of a southern state criminal justice system. Oh, by the way, you are black...

This is exactly what happened to one Thomas Haynesworth in 1984 in Virginia. Yesterday, the state reluctantly concluded, that yes, this man was innocent of the crimes he committed, and it would be a good idea to issue him a writ of actual innocence, wipe his slate clean, and let him get on with his life--now that he's forty-six years of age!

Even with overwhelming evidence of his innocence, four of the ten appeals judges thought he should rot in prison anyway--

“The victims have not recanted, no one has confessed, and there is no direct evidence that Haynesworth did not commit these crimes,” Judges Larry G. Elder and William G. Petty wrote in a dissenting opinion. “The Attorney General has merely expressed his opinion that Haynesworth is innocent.”

Therefore, even though Virginia's case against the man was proved a complete web of lies, it's up to the guy rotting in state prison to provide direct evidence of his own innocence from 1984.

Kafka lives in Richmond, ya'll.

Blessedly, Haynesworth finally is a free man. How many more like him, however? OS suspects many, many more. There is a chilling quote from a Virginia AG in the 1990's, Mary Sue Terry, buried in the article: “Evidence of innocence is irrelevant.”

Contemplate this, ya'll...

“Evidence of innocence is irrelevant.”

“Evidence of innocence is irrelevant.”

“Evidence of innocence is irrelevant.”

The only things that stand between prosecutors, cops and judges who would gladly send innocent people to prison and death row are juries and state legislatures that insist that truth matters. The situation in Tennessee is egregious, with some 3,000 complaints in the system against judges, all handled in secret, by other judges. They were indignant that the legislature (now controlled by the GOP) would dare break in on their comfortable way of doing business.

Using Tennessee’s Open Records Act, Tennessee Watchdog found only 23 public actions – reprimands, censures, suspensions or agreed orders – by the COJ against Tennessee judges forthe last 10 calendar years. That total represents less than one percent of the almost 3,000 complaints lodged against judges in the last decade.

OS reminds his readers--vote, and communicate with your state reps and senators. Vote in that local DA election. Do jury duty when called, if you possibly can. Play possum with the prosecutor during the voir dire. Then, if you even smell a hint of a lie from the cops and prosecution (who cheerily suborn perjury daily), hang that jury. Remember, the defendant will be crushed under the wheels of the state unless one juror stands tall.

And you, or your eighteen-year-old kid, could well be next. For them, truth matters not a moment, only the collecting of scalps in the pursuit of the judge's robes, or that partnership in the high-powered firm, or that governorship, or all of the above.

You are just a piece of meat to grind along the way.

“Evidence of innocence is irrelevant.”

“Evidence of innocence is irrelevant.”

“Evidence of innocence is irrelevant.”

How Wars Begin: Argentina Begins To Turn The Screws On The Falklands

2011-12-06T23:03:00.000Z

The UK doesn't have the resources to defend their islands.

They sold their Harriers to the US Marines.

Obama and Hilary will side with Argentina (and Chavez's Venezuela, by the way).

We miss you, Mrs. Thatcher and Mr. Reagan.

It’s My Birthday, And I’ll Blog If I Want To

2011-12-06T22:48:00.002Z

OldSouth celebrates a birthday this week; today, as a matter of fact. This is not urgent news, as it appears to be an annual event for every soul on the planet.

The bad news is that OS realizes he is one year older, and feels mortality breathing down his neck, especially as he sees those born in his year (and even those younger) called to their reward. The good news, of course, is that he is alive and healthy and alert enough to experience these moments of neurotic self-absorption, and hopefully in good enough mental frame to have the presence of mind to laugh at his own navel-gazing.

To have been born in 1955 is a real privilege. OS remembers a childhood those even ten years younger cannot remember, before the assassinations, the upheaval of the late 1960's, TheWar(that one in Indochina, not the Middle East), Johnson's grandiosity, Nixon's paranoia, Ford's well-meaning attempts to right the ship, Carter's ineptitude--before drug use became a major problem, before the single-parent family became commonplace; before, before, before, before the wheels began to come off the culture.

To his own children, 1955-1965 may well as well be 1890-1900, so removed is their experience from that of their father. OS and his sainted bride did all they could to form a home life that replicated that sweet and safe time, centered around books, friends, music, church, home-cooking, small-town bucolic life. The little county in which they settled is, in many ways, a time warp back to 1957, and it has been (with its many failings) a wonderful haven in which to raise the kids, both of whom now prosper wonderfully as young adults. Still, with all that, they spent formative years with the television discussing the odd sexual proclivities of a sitting president, his intern, and his cigar. It couldn't be completely banished, nor would it have been wise to do so. The world is what it is, and they had to be equipped to live effectively in it. They learned that no outrage is sufficient to merit removal from a place of responsibility, as long as one has power to share, favors to trade, money to shower in the correct directions. (Think Bernie Madoff, Jon Corzine...) They learned that virtue is indeed its own reward, but that given the choice between virtue and power, power wins the day for most people. And that the pursuit of virtue is the only sane course to chart in life. OS is unspeakably proud of them both.

In this Anno Domini of 2011, OS has felt keenly that the cultural ground has shifted under our feet, perhaps in some ominous direction. His friends report that same experience from different corners of the world. He notices that he spends less time writing in this blog, perhaps wishing to spend his energies more directly and face-to-face with family, colleagues, students, and friends. He has become rather less diplomatic of late, sensing that time is short, and he best say what he means while still he can.

All is not darkness, and this not a day to despair; unless of course we believe that this Vale of Tears is all there is to life, that we don't live in the context of Eternity, that if there is a God he walked away from his creation. Those folks are not only mistaken, they are doomed to hopelessness, and thence to madness and cruelty.

OS once heard a grizzled old Calvinist preacher drive home three points during a dark year of these past fifty-six. It still keeps him going, all these years later.

1. God's in charge.

2. He always finishes what he begins.

3. He never leaves himself without a witness.

That being said, OS has a birthday gift for his readers--the story of a boy from El Salvador who refused to die, refused to quit, and extraordinary people who came alongside him in his fight for his life and his future.

OS hopes his readers take a moment to read this account of tragedy, love, perseverance, generosity and ingenuity, and take the time to share it with their circle of family and friends. Hopefully, we'll each have opportunity to participate in just such an inspiring life during the time remaining to us.

What The Heck, Let's Just Flood The World With These Fresh Dollars We Conjured Up. What Could Go Wrong?

2011-12-01T02:38:00.002Z

OS didn't check the news til late afternoon--DJIA up 500 points in one freaking day.

And we thought we were all in deep doo-doo, what with most of the Western World in debt to the tune of trillions of dollars, which of course will be mathematically impossible to repay.

So, solution: Just print up some more, throw it at the stock market. That will make everything just a-o-k!

Why didn't we think of this earlier?

Well, actually, Virginia; look up 'Weimar Republic' to see what occurs from massive money printing....eventually they ended up with a little guy with a funny mustache and a messianic belief in himself. That worked out, ok, didn't it?

Well, didn't it?

Judge Rakoff Tells The SEC and Citigroup He's Had Enough, Refuses To Approve One More Slap On the Wrist

2011-11-29T04:29:00.004Z

As OS noted last month, the judge seems to have located his huevos.

Today's new's comes as confirmation that, indeed, he has.

From the New York Times, this evening:

Taking a broad swipe at the Securities and Exchange Commission’s practice of allowing companies to settle cases without admitting that they had done anything wrong, a federal judge on Monday rejected a $285 million settlement between Citigroup and the agency.

The judge, Jed S. Rakoff of United States District Court in Manhattan, said that he could not determine whether the agency’s settlement with Citigroup was “fair, reasonable, adequate and in the public interest,” as required by law, because the agency had claimed, but had not proved, that Citigroup committed fraud.

As it has in recent cases involving Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, UBS and others, the agency proposed to settle the case by levying a fine on Citigroup and allowing it to neither admit nor deny the agency’s findings. Such settlements require approval by a federal judge.

While other judges are not obligated to follow Judge Rakoff’s opinion, the 15-page ruling could severely undermine the agency’s enforcement efforts if it eventually blocks the agency from settling cases in which the defendant does not admit the charges.

The agency contends that it must settle most of the cases it brings because it does not have the money or the staff to battle deep-pocketed Wall Street firms in court. Wall Street firms will rarely admit wrongdoing, the agency says, because that can be used against them in investor lawsuits.

'Well, Duh!' to quote Snookie. Beside, the lawyers at the SEC, who sheltered Bernie Madoff all those years, were too busy with their online porn to actually check to see if Citigroup were engaging in massive fraud. That would resemble...well...work! Besides, if you want a job at Citigroup or J.P. Morgan after your exhausting five years at the SEC, you best not piss those bankers off by actually doing your job.

In his decision, Judge Rakoff called Citigroup “a recidivist,” or repeat offender, for having previously settled other fraud cases with the agency where it neither admitted nor denied the allegations but agreed never to violate the law in the future.

Citigroup and other repeat offenders can agree to those terms, the judge said, because they know that the commission has not monitored compliance, failing to bring contempt charges for repeat violations in at least 10 years.

Ten years, at least ten years. No attempt to monitor compliance of known fraud artists. Billions lost, businesses and neighborhoods in ruins. Words fail.

It's time for the lawsuits and indictments, ya'll. Somebody needs to go to jail, or we need to apologize to Bernie Madoff and let him go home to Ruth and get back into business. Why the hell not? Either we prosecute massive frauds or we don't. At least, let's be honest and admit that we don't, if we don't intend to.

Here's hoping his ruling stands, and that he doesn't waken one morning with the decapitated head of a horse on the foot of his bed, left as a friendly warning about what happens to uppity judges.

So, Where Does One Go To Sell Worthless Loans On To Unsuspecting Buyers

2011-11-27T03:23:00.000Z

Seems the word has gotten out about the European banks--desperate for cash, with boatloads of worthless paper for sale.

Does anyone out there really believe the Euro was a good idea?

It's going to be an interesting week and month to year's end...

Lincoln's Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, 1863

2011-11-24T02:35:00.000Z

It took an extraordinary soul to pen these words, three weeks after the dedication of the military cemetery at Gettysburg.

October 3, 1863

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the everwatchful providence of almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and provoke their aggressions, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict; while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the most high God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United Stated States to be affixed.

Why Would Anyone, Anywhere Think The EU Is Remotely Good Idea?

2011-11-20T04:00:00.002Z

From the same minds that brought us the Euro, and insist it live, and freedom die:

EU officials concluded that, following a three-year investigation, there was no evidence to prove the previously undisputed fact (that water consumption prevents dehydration).

Producers of bottled water are now forbidden by law from making the claim and will face a two-year jail sentence if they defy the edict, which comes into force in the UK next month.

Last night, critics claimed the EU was at odds with both science and common sense. Conservative MEP Roger Helmer said: “This is stupidity writ large.

“The euro is burning, the EU is falling apart and yet here they are: highly-paid, highly-pensioned officials worrying about the obvious qualities of water and trying to deny us the right to say what is patently true.

“If ever there were an episode which demonstrates the folly of the great European project then this is it.”

OS asks his British cousins: Why do you not absolutely make your MP's life a living perdition until such time as Parliament votes to withdraw from the EU--immediately?

Why did your parents' and grandparents' (and great-grandparents') generation make such frightful sacrifices?

For this? Life under the thumb of Brussels and the banksters?

Really?

Creepy Charlie Gilmour Gets Out Of Jail Free, Four Months Of Sixteen Served

2011-11-20T00:17:00.000Z

Peter Hitchens tells the sad tale in his Sunday article--all of which, as always, is well worth reading.

Quote Of The Day: James Koutoulas On MF Global

2011-11-19T23:59:00.000Z

HT Jesse.

James Koutoulas is CEO of Typhon Capital Management and recently founded the Commodity Customer Coalition (CCC), comprised of over 7000 customers of MF Global. As an attorney and spokesperson for the CCC, Koutoulas has an inside persective on the legal maelstrom that has erupted in the wake of the MF Global bankruptcy scandal -- he's leading the charge for the commodities trading community.

I want to show the American people that no matter how connected you are, no matter if you were the Governor of New Jersey, no matter if you were a senator, if you break the law you should go to jail. And quite frankly, I think it's a disgrace that no one went to jail over the crisis in 2008.

All the people who gave triple-A credit ratings to essentially junk securities, none of them went to jail, none of the people who sold those went to jail, none of the people who committed mortgage fraud went to jail - I think it's ridiculous. If [Corzine] did commit a crime, I want to see him behind bars."

OS perhaps dwells on this too much--but--this crime strikes at the heart of the culture. If Corzine and company skate on this, then eventually nothing will prevent TheBankerDownTheStreet from stealing customer assets, except that he knows many of those customers know who he is, where he lives, and own guns. Even that may not be enough to overcome temptation, if he knows he'll never even face a court appearance for his crimes.

Nigel Farage: 'We Now Live In A German-Dominated Europe' (And That's Just The Polite Part Of His Speech!)

2011-11-18T16:18:00.000Z

Farage lets fly, and the cameras record the smirks of the targets of his words. Their shamelessness and amusement say as much as he does about our situation. They as much as admit that Farage speaks the truth, but what does truth matter when one has accumulated that sort of power? It reminds OS of Nancy Pelosi's dismissiveness toward any who dared object to the Obama spending orgy of 2009, or the health care debacle of 2010. It reminds OS of George Bush's slimy deal with Teddy Kennedy to ram through a huge immigration bill in the dead of night just before Memorial Day 2007, voters be damned, all those people who voted for him, contributed to him, worked for him, endured abuse for him--screw 'em all.

Power trumps truth. Mammon reigns.

Cranmer adds his thoughts to this speech, which may be a watershed moment.

It was encouraging to hear other delegates cheer Farage on, in contrast to the calm smirks of the New Lords Of Europe.

'We Need A Christ'--Archbishop Fulton Sheen, 1958

2011-11-18T01:59:00.000Z

OS spotted this posted on Ms. Barnhardt's page, a few posts before today.

Well worth reading:

It may very well be that the Communists, who are so anti-Christ, are closer to Him than those who see Him as a sentimentalist and vague moral reformer. The Communists have at least decided that if He wins, they lose; the others are afraid to consider Him either as winning or losing, because they are not prepared to meet the moral demands which this victory would make on their souls.

If He is what He claimed to be, a Savior, a Redeemer, then we have a virile Christ and a leader worth following in these terrible times; One Who will step into the breach of death, crushing sin, gloom and despair; a leader to Whom we can make totalitarian sacrifice without losing, but gaining freedom, and Whom we can love even unto death.

We need a Christ today Who will make cords and drive the buyers and sellers from our new temples; Who will blast the unfruitful fig-trees; Who will talk of crosses and sacrifices and Whose voice will be like the voice of the raging sea. But He will not allow us to pick and choose among His words, discarding the hard ones, and accepting the ones that please our fancy. We need a Christ Who will restore moral indignation, Who will make us hate evil with a passionate intensity, and love goodness to a point where we can drink death like water.

-Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen  "Life of Christ", AD 1958

Ann Barnhardt, Cattle And Grain Futures Broker, Keeps Her Soul And Walks Away From Her Business

2011-11-18T01:49:00.000Z

It's gotta hurt, after years spent building a successful business, based on integrity and and ethic of service.

In the wake of the MF Global scandal, Ms. Barnhardt concluded that she could not look her clients in the eye and suggest they invest their funds into a rigged market. The market has risks enough, run on a fair and competent basis. But if the dice are loaded, the cards marked, if the fix is in--then it is time to go home.

Today, Ms. Barnhardt sent this message to her clients (OS quotes in part--and urges his readers to read it all.)

Dear Clients, Industry Colleagues and Friends of Barnhardt Capital Management,

It is with regret and unflinching moral certainty that I announce that Barnhardt Capital Management has ceased operations. After six years of operating as an independent introducing brokerage, and eight years of employment as a broker before that, I found myself, this morning, for the first time since I was 20 years old, watching the futures and options markets open not as a participant, but as a mere spectator.

The reason for my decision to pull the plug was excruciatingly simple: I could no longer tell my clients that their monies and positions were safe in the futures and options markets – because they are not. And this goes not just for my clients, but for every futures and options account in the United States. The entire system has been utterly destroyed by the MF Global collapse. Given this sad reality, I could not in good conscience take one more step as a commodity broker, soliciting trades that I knew were unsafe or holding funds that I knew to be in jeopardy.

This isn't like shutting down a mom-and-pop retail store, when MomAndPop have decided they've had enough. People like Ms. Barnhardt love their line of work, know that only a handful of people are good at it, and know if conducted properly, customers benefit from her work. And, it's lucrative!

That is hard to walk away from, turn out the lights, close the door, close all positions and hand the money back to the clients. It's walking away from a life's work, a goal achieved, a dream come true. And, yet, she did, and informed her clients as to her reasoning.

Everything changed just a few short weeks ago. A firm, led by a crony of the Obama regime, stole all of the non-margined cash held by customers of his firm. Let’s not sugar-coat this or make this crime seem “complex” and “abstract” by drowning ourselves in six-dollar words and uber-technical jargon. Jon Corzine STOLE the customer cash at MF Global. Knowing Jon Corzine, and knowing the abject lawlessness and contempt for humanity of the Marxist Obama regime and its cronies, this is not really a surprise. What was a surprise was the reaction of the exchanges and regulators. Their reaction has been to take a bad situation and make it orders of magnitude worse. Specifically, they froze customers out of their accounts WHILE THE MARKETS CONTINUED TO TRADE, refusing to even allow them to liquidate. This is unfathomable. The risk exposure precedent that has been set is completely intolerable and has destroyed the entire industry paradigm. No informed person can continue to engage these markets, and no moral person can continue to broker or facilitate customer engagement in what is now a massive game of Russian Roulette.

The lady is unashamedly Christian, and decided to heed the words of the Master who admonished: What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and yet lose his soul?

Her entire blog page is fascinating to read...OS leaves it to his readers to explore.

OS understands, although does not compare himself to her. There was a time, though, when he had to walk away from a business he had always dreamed of building and owning, because it had turned evil. He knew it would fall of its own weight once he stepped away, and it did. It hurt--a lot. The memory is still tender to the touch.

But, upon turning away, the real adventure began.

Here's wishing Ms. Barnhardt well, and hoping her tribe increases.

Jon Corzine On Public Integrity: 'Hold Me Accountable'

2011-11-16T01:02:00.001Z

Sometimes, life just just throws us a hanging curve ball. Jon Corzine, Obama's man on Wall Street, former governor of New Jersey, blows up a major commodities brokerage, and a whole-bunch-a-munney-hunney is missing from the customer accounts.

Let's listen in on Mr. Corzine's conference call...

Oooh, now where did that 700 million dollars go? I had it just here...silly me, after all that stress and strain ~~screwing over~~ serving New Jersey, I seem to have lost it. Now, Barry, really; you're not going to get upset over mere 700 million in customers' funds are you? All you have to do is hand that sum over from the Treasury and all will be well. Besides your campaign could certainly use an infusion from those accounts in Costa Rica, right?

Then, let's contrast that with his inaugural speech in 2006...

Across this state, across our nation and around the world, New Jersey sets a high bar. We are proud that Supreme Court Justices, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Cabinet officers, Chief Executives, singers, rappers, writers, scientists, and entrepreneurs all hail from New Jersey. Our children graduate from our schools at higher rates than anywhere else in the nation, and our income and education levels are among the very best. In their own lives and in their own hopes for their children, our people do not settle for less than excellence.

Today -- I pledge to you that as your governor, I will never settle for less than excellence.

****
(It gets better...)

Public integrity is not just about reputation or principles, as important as each of those is. What's at stake is social justice and fiscal responsibility. Every dollar squandered in violation of the public trust is a book not bought for a classroom, a prescription drug with a higher co-pay, meals-on-wheels not delivered, a road or science lab not built. With a multi-billion dollar structural deficit, mismanagement and misappropriation cannot and will not be tolerated.

To earn the public trust, we must act, but we also must trust the people with the truth. We cannot build a financial future on the crumbling, papered-over foundation of a recurring fiscal crisis. Too often, for too long, under both parties, fiscal gimmicks have been invented, recycled, and reapplied to mask fiscal realities. As Governor Codey said in November, thanks, his transition report can be summed up simply: "the state is pretty much broke."

The games are over. New Jersey must put its fiscal house in order. The time of one-shot budget fixes is past. It's time to balance the books.

(And, finally, he ended this classic speech by saying....drumroll please....)

And, in turn, I ask you -- the citizens of New Jersey, hold me accountable.

Thank you.

Is that the sound of a Gulfstream warming up on the tarmac?

OS has yet to hear of any judge demanding Mr. Corzine turn in his passport.

The Broker At The Local Diner And DanHan Both Come To The Same Conclusion

2011-11-14T17:16:00.001Z

OS recently treated The Sainted Mrs. OS to Saturday brunch at the local diner on Main Street, and they passed part of their time in conversation with a local broker who has strong family ties in Europe.

OldSamTheBroker told us, 'Europe is headed for a dictatorship, it's inevitable.' There was no joy in his voice.

Daniel Hannan comes to the same conclusion in today's Telegraph.

No joy in his voice, either.

Merkel's campaign for a 'New Europe' echoes much the same propoganda employed in the 1930's and '40's. She's not a crazed messianic little guy with a mustache, to be certain, and there's no intent to equate her with him.

However, the temptation to reassemble a Greater Europe seems to never lie far from the door.

By the way, this can only end in tears, math being what it is.

Finally, A Judge Locates His Huevos, And Asks The Obvious Question

2011-11-10T06:18:00.001Z

'If Citibank steals some 700 million dollars, why does it only have to pay 160 million back?'

Well, hot-damn, ya'll! If that's the case, under the Citibank Rule, OS should give up his honest attempts at labor, and start sticking up local convenience stores, liquor stores, and jewelry shops! He gets to keep everything, except for 23%! Such a deal!! He doesn't even have to admit to any wrongdoing, and he always walks out to make it home by dark.

So, what's wrong with this logic?

(HT Mish)

OS at Midweek 9 November

2011-11-09T19:52:00.003Z

Other and better minds than OS are covering the comic opera of Europe in breathless detail. In summation, though, the consensus is: They're screwed. We're screwed, maybe, as well.

It reminds of OS of those ensemble scenes in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, where everyone simultaneously sings to the audience while the orchestra grinds away, each proclaiming his/her own side of the story; but not one of the characters will actually bother to tell one another the truth of who they are and what they're attempting to accomplish.

Chaos ensues, comic chaos in Mozart's opera, something less amusing in real life today.

It isn't like this obvious sort of unraveling wasn't something unexpected. After all, if government debt is 120% of GDP (Italy referenced here), and yields climb above 7%, well then, you're screwed. The students can riot in the streets, the unions can strike, the religious fanatics can preach, the politicians can speechify forever. The math is the math is the math--it is inexorable.

They're screwed.

Enough about that. We now get to witness the proverbial other shoe drop in our generation, and wonder what will arise to take hold of the situation. And how much of the bill we here on Main Street will foot for the great welfare state experiment of post-1945 Europe.

Closer to home, this has been one of those weeks, one in which OS notices that it has become increasingly laborious to get simple stuff of life done. The firms he has encountered this week, in different industries, all seem to suffer from 'too much work/too few employees' syndrome, or 'internal conflicts of interest' syndrome, or 'failure to think ahead' syndrome, or 'failure to think pragmatically' syndrome.

It's been frustrating. Yesterday afternoon, OS just had to take a break and go for a walk, to calm down. He called a couple of friends who helped restore perspective. It's good to have friends.

Today, he's back in harness, pulling his load into the stiff headwind of the culture of the United States.

No great insights to lend, no news to report, no scandals to incite. OS is simply tired.

One bright spot however, comes from BBC Radio 3 this week. The Choral Evensong from Ely Cathedral was glorious this morning. The broadcast repeats Sunday afternoon, and then in podcast for a week after that.

Papandreou Resigns: Gulfstream Warming Up On The Tarmac

2011-11-06T13:19:00.000Z

Having won a vote of confidence, he finally admits that things have spun out of control, and he's getting of Dodge while he can, before anyone notices the missing bullion stowed in his luggage.

A quick stop-off in Zurich to lighten the luggage, and thence to the manse in Scotland, away from prying eyes.

Remember, ya'll. ThePeopleInChargeOfSuchThings have been assuring us allllll along that they have the situation firmly in hand.

Nothing to see here, move along. Ball games to enjoy, Dancing With The Stars to follow.

What's All This Bother About A Geek Referendum?!! Geeks Don't Deserve A Referendum! They Don't Have Lives, And They Hoard All The Good Grades From The Rest Of Us!

2011-11-03T19:34:00.000Z

Never mind...

Wish it were actually a funny situation.

The Herman Cain Dust-Up: A Couple Of Additional Questions

2011-11-03T15:13:00.002Z

ABC News asks a cogent question: Who, exactly, are Cain's accusers?

Another good one is: Where are they? After all, if we are to be about the business of tarnishing the reputation of a public person, seems that going public would be the thing to do. A good rule of thumb would be: If'n yew don't wantcher pictcher in the paper or alllllll over the internet, don't deliberately say and do stuff that creates media interest. Sorta' like, don't cover yerrself in hunney and walk into a big anthill.

So, here we are, with the wheels coming off Europe, riots ginning up in California, the professors of Southern Illinois University on strike (Really, ya'll! Why do folks with tenure go on strike?), another trading firm gone tits-up with 700 million of the clients' dollars missing, run by one of Obama's ardent supporters (Jon Corzine, former senator, former governor of New Jersey), large swaths of the Middle East in chaos, Iran working on a nuke--so let's spend our time obsessing about....drumroll please/the envelope please....what Herman Cain did or didn't do in the 1990's (the age of, ummm, Bill Clinton).

Hmmm....

So, OS has another question or two as he scratches hiz ole' grey head in puzzlement: Let's assume, fer the sake of argumint, that all those tarrrible thangs they sayin' 'bout Herman iz true! Does it disqualify him from running or taking office? Really?

Remember the stock phrases about Bill Clinton?

It's not about character, all that matters are his policies.

This does not rise to the level of an impeachable offence.

It's his business what he does with that cigar and that intern, none of ours.

He wasn't lying when he denied 'having sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky', now was he? All that stuff they were engaging in in that bathroom off the Oval Office, that wasn't really sex, you know.

So, Bill is lionized, with all his actual misbehavior documented in detail. Herman is vilified, based upon anonymous allegations.

Which leads to another question:

Is there one set of rules for white Democrats, and another for black Republicans?
(Remember the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court confirmation hearings? This all feels soooooo familiar to those of us alive to have witnessed that dog-n-pony show.) It was a replay of the Robert Bork debacle, only with the hoods and burning crosses on display for good measure.

Which leads to another question, which OS refers to as the 'Homer Simpson Question':

Is there anyone alive, who has really engaged the world, attempted to get stuff done, worked with all manner of people, who hasn't had a few Homer Simpson moments along the way?

OS can certainly look back to more than a few moments of 'Dooooh!'. He actually owns up to a 'Decade of Doooooh!' He works diligently to not create more of them, to put another day of distance between him and them with every day that passes. But he, like everyone else alive, is not immune. It doesn't mean he doesn't go out and engage the world today.

Herman deserves the same consideration, in the humble of opinion of a life member of the 'Dooooh!' fraternity. Last time OS checked, Herman only smokes his cigars, and didn't illegally take 700 million of his clients' funds and lose them on the roulette wheel of the European sovereign debt casino.

That, ya'll, is an actual 'Dooooooh!' event.

Who Sez President Obama Doesn't Plan For The Future?

2011-11-03T04:46:00.003Z

After, he'll need a hobby to keep him occupied after January 20, 2013...

The Wheels On The Greek Bus Are Coming Off...

2011-11-01T13:10:00.003Z

As always, there's the bad news at the lead of the article, and the really grim stuff is saved for the final few paragraphs.

Merkel, Sarkozy and company chased David Cameron off, and struck a deal to 'solve' the GreeceProblem. Problem is, they didn't check in with the Greeks...

When a country that's lived on credit cards for decades gets news that the bank wants at least part of its money back, well, folks gits all upset, and they may decide to tell the bankers and the rest of Europe to go hang. Bankers and Northern European politicians just hate dealing with uppity Southern Europeans, 'cuz no matter how you try, they just won't sit still and play nice. Why they ever decided to issue national credit cards to Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and let's not forget the Irish, OS will never know. The Euro is a Fig Newton of the central bankers' imaginations, the proverbial round peg in the square hole of each nation's culture.

This droll read of the situation from BBC's Paul Mason is worth a read.

He is cynic enough to suggest that the entire exercise of late has been designed to encourage the Greeks to leave, and hopefully not have the door hit them in the keister on the way out. Of course, since any true effort to do more than paper over the mess has been a kick-the-can-down-the-road exercise, Greece's departure will be exceedingly ugly. Actually the ugly has already begun:

Anecdotal evidence suggests that the Greek elite are buying up property in London just as fast as they can find berths in Poole for their yachts. They are voting with their spinnakers, on the basis that the game is up. In any future Greece on offer, they will have to start paying taxes and they do not want to.

One banker told me the Greek super-rich have mostly left.

The one thing governments have that investment banks do not is intelligence services with the power to wiretap people. If you ever wonder why serving politicians go grey so quickly, it is in part because they see the intelligence. So Mr Papandreou may have looked at the file and said, I can't sell this to my party, nor to my voters, and the business elite are emigrating en masse, so throw the dice.

Last week's market euphoria (nice Greek word, that) has stalled. As the world runs back to the dollar, the US markets will sink again, because the entire rally since 2009 has been fueled by devaluation of the dollar.

Oops.

At October's End, 2011

2011-10-31T14:54:00.000Z

The hardwood forests that cover most of Tennessee beam with color, especially as the sun's light slants in at dawn and dusk. Contrasted against the bright blue of the skies, they are a glory unto themselves. The walk on the golf course is more about the visual than the sporting during these days,and it is hard to focus on the little white ball with such beauty pressing in from all sides.

This week, OS hopes he remembers to enjoy these days. The work load and schedule, the responsibilities (for which he is grateful, in the main) will ramp up shortly.

The silliness, craziness and venom of the 2012 elections is upon us already. It arrives now sooner with each cycle. Remember when things really didn't get underway in earnest until Labor Day before Election Day? What has happened to us? The free-floating anger is palpable, and shows up in the strangest places--at a jazz concert OS attended this weekend, in pulpits (not too surprising there), everywhere. At least the golf course is exempt in the main. Hard to hit the little white ball whilst obsessing on the latest news.

This week, OS hopes he can set that aside, and recover another day wasted in his mis-spent youth, instead of wasting another of the depleting inventory of days he has left.

Have a good week, ya'll.

Oakland Police Throw Flash Grenade At Protestors Attempting To Aid An Injured Colleague

2011-10-28T04:40:00.000+01:00

For those of us old enough to remember the murder of students at Kent State University in 1970, this is disturbing. Very disturbing. The violence and thuggery emanate from the people with the badges.

Does OS agree with the OWS movement? Nope.

Should the kids have gone home that night instead of occupying the streets? Yep, because that much adrenaline freely roaming the streets creates a hazard for everyone.

But this is The United States, governed by a Constitution that guarantees free assemble for the redress of grievances, and prohibits the police from also serving as judge, jury, and executioner. This is the country where the same law that governs us governs the police. Otherwise, we have a Police State.

This will not end well. A threshold has now been crossed, blood has been drawn, and to quote Nixon's old advisor, 'You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube.'

Now, to see if the rule of law applies to law enforcement in California, and in the United States.

Joe The Plumber Announces His Run For Congress in 2012

2011-10-28T04:08:00.001+01:00

Now, wouldn't that just be a kick in the ol' huevos for Obama, to see Joe The Plumber elected to Congress on the same day the country sends TheOne packing?

Joe made the mistake of confronting Himself during the 2008 campaign, and Oprah'sBoyChild did not appreciate actually having to have a conversation with an informed citizen. The Left and its shills in the press made Joe's life a living hell in the days that followed, even to the present day. His visit to Madison Wisconsin earlier this year was cut short by death threats from the union types.

Here's hoping Joe gets his revenge, in the old-fashioned way: Served cold, and at a distance. Here's hoping he and his family stay safe until that day.

OS will keep an eye out for Joe's campaign site, and that little ol' 'Donate' button.
It'll feel good to send money Joe's way, and serve up a little of that cold/distant souffle from Tennessee.

'Shirtloads Of Money': Clarke And Dawe Strike Again

2011-10-27T16:26:00.000+01:00

Another moment of black humor from Down Under. About 2:30, and very funny because very true...

Especially apropo to the week, in which additional 'shirtloads of money' are being created to paper over the results of our collective follies.

Laffer WSJ Essay On Cain's 9-9-9 Plan

2011-10-25T14:53:00.000+01:00

OS in the midst of a long season of grinding work on little details--these seasons come and go. It is so good to look at them in retrospect, however, rather like the author who declares' 'I love to have written.'

In the meantime, OS will try to keep sharing tidbits of insight from better minds than his, in this case, Arthur Laffer's WSJ essay in support of the Cain 9-9-9 plan.

Laffer was a key advisor to President Reagan, and architect of the economic revival that finally took hold in the 1980's. For those who lived through 1980, we remember just how grim it was, and all of it-all of it--a direct result of governmental venality and ineptitude. This article is worth the read.

One of the grinding tasks of these weeks has been the family tax return. It is complex, laborious, depressing work. At the bottom of the form 1040, the summation of all the other forms, is the signature line. It states that the taxpayer, under penalty of perjury under the federal tax code, certifies that the return is accurate. OS and Mrs. OS signed, and we both sleep well at night over the declaration, but there is really no way to know whether the return is inside or outside the lines of the law. It's too complex, and the numbers can be sliced any number of ways. The productive time robbed from the family in compliance with the tax code is galling.

All this to say: OS loves his country, and is grateful to pay taxes to it. Even if 9-9-9 increases his tax bill, if it reduces the administrative burden as advertised, it is a wonderful trade-off.

Please, take 9-9-9 for the privilege of citizenship. Otherwise, leave OS alone, and let him go make more money to extract 9-9-9 from.

If You Think The Europeans Are Going To Sort Their Problems Out By Wednesday...

2011-10-24T03:09:00.001+01:00

...you believe in the Great Pumpkin.

Chin-straps on, ya'll. This could get eventful.

Robert Peston provides a more droll summation of the conundrum:

The maths goes like this. After a recently approved expansion, the EFSF has €440bn to disburse. But €133bn of this has already been allocated to propping up Greece, Ireland and Portugal. And as I mentioned yesterday, yet more EFSF money may have to go to Greece to prevent it defaulting.
Turn away now

So right now there is just under €290bn left in the EFSF kitty. Which could go down to less than €250bn if Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy draw on it to recapitalise their respective banks.

If you don't want to be scared, turn away now.

Italy needs to borrow €250bn next year just to refinance its existing debts that are coming due for repayment - and not including the new money it will need to borrow.

Or to put it another way, if Italy is shut out of markets - which is not impossible - then the EFSF in its current form will not have even enough money to tide Italy over, let alone keep alive any other eurozone governments that run into difficulties.

Which is why it is so vitally important, as I've been banging on about, for the resources of the EFSF to be massively increased.

And that is why the failure of eurozone governments, and Germany and France in particular, to agree on how to expand the EFSF is so troubling.

So as you can presumably now see, a full-scale eurozone financial crisis can't be averted by any individual initiative but requires a whole package of remedial measures, of which strengthening the banks and enlarging the bailout fund are the two most crucial.

It requires, in other words, a level of cooperation that would be difficult to achieve amongst nations ruled by saints.

And Now, A Word From Our Friendly Despot To The South, Mourning Ghaddafi's 'Martyrdom'

2011-10-23T02:59:00.000+01:00

The chaotic images, with glimpses of the bloodied and dazed old man, sensing that he has run through his last ally, in the hands of those who despise him, and with just minutes to live, have flashed across the screens of the world repeatedly. It was a real-world re-enactment of the final minutes of Richard the Third, with the defeated king pleading for a horse to escape the inevitable: 'A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!' As if, by that point, he had a kingdom to grant.

Not everyone, naturally, welcomes such news. The Russians bleated a protest about the illegality of it all. They were stone silent in 1988 when Mohamar sent his agent to blow up a PanAm flight with hundreds of innocents aboard, but OS digresses...

On a hunch, OS looked up references in the Venuezuelan press to the week's events, and he was not disappointed. Chavez, Ghaddafi's home-boy, issued a vigorous condemnation of his buddy's demise, translated below by Google.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez said on Thursday, counter to the majority of opinions around the world, Muammar Gaddafi's death was an "outrage" to life and said the ousted leader will be remembered as a Libyan "martyr. "

Gaddafi was killed by Libyan fighters he called "rats" for injuries suffered, some apparently after his capture at the Battle of Sirte, his hometown and last bastion of support.

Chavez, who on Thursday claimed to have overcome cancer that was detected four months ago, maintained a friendly relationship with the Libyan leader characterized by his military background, leftist economic ideas, antagonistic relations with the United States and membership in OPEC.

"A Gaddafi was murdered, is an outrage is more to life (...) remember him as a fighter, a revolutionary and good, as a martyr," Chavez said in the western state of Tachira, where he went to thank a picture of Christ for his speedy recovery.

"This story is just beginning in Libya because there's a village, no dignity, rule yankee (United States) can not dominate this world," said the president.

Gaddafi was overthrown by rebel forces on 23 August, a week before the 42 th anniversary of the coup that brought him to power in 1969.

Gaddafi's death itself became perhaps the most dramatic since the riots of spring that have toppled Arab rulers in neighboring Tunisia and Egypt and threatening to the leaders of Syria and Yemen.

One has to wonder how well Hugo is sleeping these days, as he contemplates these images. He can keep the Gulfstream fueled, but there are fewer places to land with his buddy Muammar no longer available.

Please, Rick Perry, Go Back To Texas And Leave Us Alone

2011-10-19T08:55:00.000+01:00

OS has played the night owl tonight--too much coffee, too much writing and the mind still buzzes. CNN is carrying the debate from Las Vegas.

Rick Perry has no business outside of Texas. Shrill, arrogant, angry, insufferable, bickering, alternately going for the jugular and running for cover, taking his venom out on Romney, mainly.

In other words, a horse's ass. Not anyone who should be allowed near the White House.

Go home, Rick.

Stay home.

Take Michelle Bachmann with you...holy cow...

Why OS Misses Margaret Thatcher, In Less Than Ninety Seconds

2011-10-16T03:46:00.001+01:00

This gem from PMQ's--in which The Iron Lady slays Labour--declaring 'they have no competence on money', and battling against any encroachment of the EU upon British sovereignity.

Her words were prophetic. Had she been heeded, we would not be witnessing Europe coming apart at the economic seams.

Where is her successor? Cameron is a failure and a fraud, and we need a strong Great Britain as never before.

Daniel Hannan, step forward. Please.

Herman Cain's 9-9-9: Denninger Does Math, OS Does Brunch

2011-10-16T00:13:00.001+01:00

There is an increasing public conversation about Herman Cain's proposal for a radical restructuring of the US Tax Code, known as 9-9-9: 9% personal rate and corporate rate, 9% capital gains rate, 9% national sales tax.

The reaction to Cain ranges from the dismissive to the hysterical, but Denninger discusses the math.
To be sure, this gent gets wound up about everything, but get past that, and he makes sense, because he does know how to do math.

OS thinks this approach holds much promise, if coupled with dramatic reductions in government expenditure.

And, on a visceral level: OS loves his country, and knows that it takes money to run it. That's why we should levy taxes--to raise money to run the country. The present tax code is so completely Byzantine that when OS signs on the line above the phrase 'Under penalty of perjury, etc.', he honestly does not know with complete certainty whether the return is truly correct or no. All he can do is make his best effort and hope. It eats up days of productive time each year, and creates huges worries.

President Cain could sign 9-9-9 into law, and OS would cheer. Every time OS has money arrive, he can multiply the income by .9, and send that much in to Uncle Sam.
A one page tax-return is all that would be required.

If 9-9-9 isn't enough, make it 10-10-10, or 12-12-12. Just take our money, spend it wisely, and leave us alone otherwise. We'll all prosper thereby, as OS was relating to his young friend the RestaurantOwner, over brunch this morning...

RestaurantOwner employs twelve people, and has other business interests as well. The Federal gubbmint is beating him around the ears financially, while proclaiming 'it's all about job creation, yadda-yadda-yadda.' RestaurantOwner is attracted to Cain as well, because it will allow him to work and expand his business, and have time for his wife and family.

Increasingly, OS thinks Cain laps the field of the other candidates. His ideas are long overdue. We're headed over the cliff unless we change direction.

US Boots On The Ground In Uganda: Isn't This How Vietnam Got Going?

2011-10-14T21:05:00.000+01:00

W. T. F.???

Obama is committing troops to chasing down a war-lord in the interior of Africa. But, don't worry, it's just 100 'advisors', no worries.

President Barack Obama is sending about 100 U.S. troops to Africa to help hunt down the leaders of the notoriously violent Lord's Resistance Army in and around Uganda.

"I have authorized a small number of combat-equipped U.S. forces to deploy to central Africa to provide assistance to regional forces that are working toward the removal of Joseph Kony from the battlefield," Obama said in letter sent Friday to House Speaker John Boehner and Daniel Inouye, the president pro tempore of the Senate. Kony is the head of the Lord's Resistance Army.

U.S. military personnel advising regional forces working to target Kony and other senior leaders will not engage Kony's forces "unless necessary for self-defense," Obama said.

"I believe that deploying these U.S. armed forces furthers U.S. national security interests and foreign policy and will be a significant contribution toward counter-LRA efforts in central Africa."

One hundred troops on the ground in Central Africa requires naval support, air support, signals support, intelligence support, resupply by helicopter, vehicles, medical team, on and on it goes--just to keep the one hundred fed, protected, and able to do some sort of work in pursuance of a mission hundreds of miles from anywhere.

Isn't Uganda a former British colony? Isn't this their bailiwick, since they would know the country, the culture, the terrain, the people much better than a hundred SEALS or Rangers dropped in by chopper?

Where did this nonsense come from? This sort of move has to be planned ahead, which probably means we've had boots on the ground, in secret, for some months now.

Yes, the warlord in question is a brutal, horrible, bad actor. Does this justify us putting troops into Uganda? Saddam Hussein was a small-time Stalin, and OS remembers The Left howling that this did not justify our involvement.

Will the streets now fill with indignant peace marchers over the opening of yet another war by TheWinnerOfTheNobelPeacePrize?

Anyone got an answer?

(Sound of crickets chirping...)

Uncertain As To Which Percentile I Belong To

2011-10-14T16:41:00.000+01:00

A blog by a thirteen-year old has attracted a lot of attention, and the responses have been varied, from vitriol to adulation.

She creates her own responses to the Occupy Wall Street folks, writes them on a legal pad, posts them, and waits for the fur to fly. And it does.

OS emailed her as well, but in the interests of time, publishes his thoughts here.

I’m not certain which percentile I belong to, the 1% or the 99% or the 53%. I do not like crowds, so I’m not a candidate for attendance at anyone’s rally.

I don’t think I can ‘let the hatred flow’, although I do understand your sentiments. It is frustrating to work as hard as you do, and see people marching, demanding that your earnings be seized from your family and given to them. It may be time to think your response through just a bit. When you're thirteen, everything is concrete, nothing is nuanced. Believe me, these lessons will come later. In the meantime, a few thoughts to share with you.

I am so grateful to live here, in America. On its worst days it beats places like Zimbabwe and Poland, Venezuela and Cuba (on their best days) to pieces.
I have been poor here, and prosperous, and prosperous is better. It’s a potty little life, but my dear bride and I love it, even though it feels like all we do is work in order to have it. Only in America (and a few other places still) is this possible, and America is the best of the lot, still.

I am so grateful for my family, my church, my little town, my state, my friends, my work, my health, my hobbies, all of them imperfect and very modest. We drive old cars, and are grateful for our mechanic. I am grateful for the books and music and mutts and kitties that grace our little house. I am grateful we live in a society that allows people to gather in places like Wall Street, bang drums and act silly without fear of being put in a train to a camp far away. I am grateful we have a Constitution, and work to keep it in place with my votes and contributions, even though it means silly stuff happens from time to time.

I have seen friends struggle, and friends of our children struggle as well, and it is difficult to watch. None of them are hippies, I assure you. They did not create the lunacy that brought everything crashing down. I can’t call them names because they got caught in the downdraft.

Perhaps you should rethink doing this as well, just saying.

God bless.

Happy Birthday, Margaret Thatcher!

2011-10-13T22:28:00.003+01:00

Classy, courageous, patriotic, fearless, eloquent.

Oh that we had fifty more of her for our time.

Hank Williams 'Keep The Change': An Object Lesson For TheGreatAndGood

2011-10-13T17:21:00.001+01:00

...that lesson being, 'Don't screw with someone like Hank Jr., who has a large and loyal audience, deep pockets, a good business team, the ability to write good songs quickly, and access to recording studios. He'll kick you in the behonkus. Every time.'

Far from harming Paris, Tennessee's most famous citizen, the brouhaha stirred up by Fox News and ESPN has put Hank's career on afterburners.

Whew, lawdy--do not tick this man off!

October 12, 2011--Little Shortages Here, Firesale Prices There...

2011-10-12T15:31:00.002+01:00

OS is in the midst of several deadlines, so he hasn't had time to think, much less write, anything he feels is worth any of his loyal readers.

But, anecdotes here and there are instructive regarding where we seem to be just now.

A routine visit to the mechanic yesterday, oil change and service for Mrs. OS's auto. The mechanic (CamShaftBob) is a small-shop guy, has cared for the fleet for years, old-school. OS drove his pickup truck over for the transport of the second driver home, and was chatting with CamShatBob, who spotted the old truck with its recently installed set of tires and mused--'I hope those tires last you a long time on that truck, the last set ran 60,000 miles, and I can't get any more for you. They stopped making them.'

Late last week, listening in on an NPR program discussing shortages of medicines reported by hospitals, including some chemotherapy treatments.

Earlier this year, chatting with the vet about arthritis treatment for OS's venerable old dog, and was told the pharmaceutical that has worked so well is now out of manufacture. OS bought up the practice's entire inventory on the spot. The vet reported that his staff spends more time each month attempting to keep medicines stocked than ever before.

Don't know if it's a huge pattern, but shortages seem to be appearing here and there, in unexpected places. And some prices are beginning to spike, like milk, bottled water, bread.

On the other hand, merchandise shows up at Marshall's, a secondary retailer of last year's LatestAndGreatest that OS would never expect to see, at prices that are profoundly discounted. Coldwater Creek and Chico's are pushing merch on sale to Mrs. OS at deep-deep-deep discount, free shipping, and not last season's items, either.

It's like the hands reaching across the table of the market are having a hard time locating one another...

Again, not a 'global view', but something seems afoot.

God Save The Queen, She's Come To Our Rescue

2011-10-09T23:31:00.000+01:00

One of OS's Facebook friends from Blighty passed this gem along. In a world full of glum news, it is a joy to stop and share a belly-laugh with our friends.

Authorship is unknown to OS, but the creator is definitely brilliant, and thanks and apologies precede the republishing of this piece. It's just too funny not to share.

*****

To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen... Elizabeth II:

In light of your immediate failure to financially manage yourselves and also in recent years your tendency to elect incompetent Presidents of the USA and therefore not able to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. (You should look up 'revocation' in the Oxford English Dictionary.)

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas , which she does not fancy).

Your new Prime Minister, David Cameron, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections.

Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated sometime next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'colour,' 'favour,' 'labour' and 'neighbour.' Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters, and the suffix '-ize' will be replaced by the suffix '-ise.'Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up 'vocabulary'). (I love that one)

Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as ''like' and 'you know' is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as U.S. English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter 'u'' and the elimination of '-ize.' ' (I love that one too)

3. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.

4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can't sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you're not ready to shoot grouse.

5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

6. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

7. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.)

8.You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.

9. The cold, tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. New Zealand beer is also acceptable, as New Zealand is pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of the British Commonwealth - see what it did for them. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.

10. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one's ears removed with a cheese grater.

11. You will cease playing American football. There are only two kinds of proper football; one you call soccer, and rugby (dominated by the New Zealanders). Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies).

12. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America . Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the Australians (World dominators) first to take the sting out of their deliveries.

13. You must tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us mad.

14. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).

15. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 p.m. with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.

God Save the Queen!

Yea Verily, Stupidity Has Descended Upon Blighty: The Blackberry Picking Prohibition

2011-10-07T05:07:00.002+01:00

File under, Just can't possibly make this nonsense up. Gubbermint Workers just keep getting stupider faster than Normal People can keep up with.

Alan Gibson, 47, who organises "foraging picnics" to collect wild fruit and nuts, says he was ordered to stop by officials because it was bad for the environment.

When he questioned further, he said he was told that the activity posed a risk to newts.

As well as blackberries, he was told hazelnuts, apples and chestnuts were also out of bounds.

Mr Gibson, who writes an internet blog on collecting wild food, was organising a “foraging picnic” on Southampton Common as part of an autumn harvest festival event.

Staff at the council-run Hawthorns Urban Wildlife Centre told him that blackberry picking was prohibited because the common was a Site of Special Scientific Interest and home to endangered great crested newts.

Well, really, no, that's not the reason at all...but you still can't pick blackberries, 'cuz we say so, and we're duh gubbermint.

Hawthorns centre staff later admitted that was not the case, but Mr Gibson says a manager insisted the blackberry picking ban stood.

He has now launched a case against the “ludicrous” advice to establish blackberry pickers’ rights at Southampton’s ancient people’s court, the Court Leet.

The court, established hundreds of years ago, has no power to punish but now exists as a forum for grievances which are passed on to the council for a formal response and decision.

Mr Gibson said: “It came as a shock to me and my family and I think it would to most people. Picking fruit is a healthy, child-friendly activity.”

A council spokesman said “large scale blackberry or nut collecting would be inappropriate” as it might damage plants or habitats protected by wildlife legislation.

In the States, hunting regulations in many states are now so detailed as to make it nearly impossible to harvest game, lest a regulation be violated. And, in many instances, if caught in violation, the hunter loses his license, his gun, his vehicle--on the spot--and then has a court date set for his prosecution. The roads here are littered with deer carcasses every fall, because there aren't enough hunters. Mr. and Mrs. OS were nearly killed two years ago by a nine-point buck that would have normally been harvested and turned into venison for some family's freezer. Instead, he was harvested by the family Volvo.

There are some 47 million mourning doves flying around the country. They live perhaps two years. Hunting is down, and perhaps two million are harvested. The other 45 million simply die of natural causes. They're damned hard to shoot, by the way
.
The hunting regs are endless, protecting a species that everyone admits is never in danger of becoming scarce. Rather than lose the family pickup to the game warden, hunters just stay home. We're overrun with them. Same with Canada geese, by the way, endangering commercial aviation. Turkey are becoming a nuisance, raiding cattle feeders.

It's time, long overdue, to send these clowns on their way, and let us get back to blackberry picking, hunting, fishing...living.

Simon Johnson Weighs In Again: OS Wishes Someone Would Listen

2011-10-06T16:00:00.001+01:00

Simon Johnson is one of those reasoned, credible, experienced voices that keeps repeating, 'No, no matter how much money you print up and throw at places like Greece and Italy, this will not solve the problem. It's not a money problem, it's a cultural problem.'

At least the New York Times prints his words, still.

Lech Walesa famously remarked that it was easier to make fish soup from fish than to do the reverse. So it is with fiscal crises — once fear prevails and markets start to think hard about the stress scenario, it is hard to solve the problem simply with reassuring words or financial support that never needs to be used.

Crisis veterans like to say, quoting former President Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico, that when markets overreact, policy needs to overreact in the stabilizing direction. But what really matters is not overreacting; it is making sure you do enough.

In Europe, the first thing peripheral governments need to do is stop accumulating debt, and quickly. Italian fiscal plans to balance the budget in 2012 look implausible, as they assume unrealistic growth. The planned Greek debt restructuring and increased taxes will not turn that economy around, nor prevent Greece from accumulating further debt. Despite all the reported austerity, the Irish government is still running a budget deficit near 12 percent of gross national product in 2011, while nominal G.N.P. actually declined in the first half of 2011.

Good advice for us, only insert 'state governments', 'federal government', 'Congress', 'White House', etc.

Steve Job's Passing Announced By His Family

2011-10-06T01:32:00.000+01:00

Statement by Steve Jobs’ Family

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Steve Jobs’ family today made the following statement regarding his death:

Steve died peacefully today surrounded by his family.

In his public life, Steve was known as a visionary; in his private life, he cherished his family. We are thankful to the many people who have shared their wishes and prayers during the last year of Steve’s illness; a website will be provided for those who wish to offer tributes and memories.

We are grateful for the support and kindness of those who share our feelings for Steve. We know many of you will mourn with us, and we ask that you respect our privacy during our time of grief.

******

Condolences to his family and friends. An American success story, an adopted child who rose from obscurity to transform the world. Perhaps our greatest genius since Edison.

Only in America, and here's hoping and urging we remain the kind of nation that will allow the next Jobs to emerge.

Obama's Declaration That His Presidency Is 'A One Term Proposition' On Feb 9, 2009--And Why He Was Prescient

2011-10-06T01:15:00.001+01:00

This video from Minnesota Majority tells all, in Obama's own words.

Worst President since James Buchanan, who occupied the office for four years and watched the country unravel from 1857-1861.

Photographic Evidence of Obama Marching With The new Black Panthers in 2007: How Can This Be Explained Away?

2011-10-04T04:00:00.000+01:00

Breitbart posted it today.

The NBPP is virulently anti-Semitic (always a bad sign). Had any GOP candidate marched with a KKK rally...think of the outraged reactions from near and far.

Hit the link and decide for yourself.

How is this explained away?

OS On The Road: Jackson TN

2011-10-04T01:51:00.000+01:00

Business travel took OS to West Tennessee, to a lovely and overlooked small city east of Memphis--Jackson.

He stopped in for breakfast at a restaurant chain he enjoys, and found a middle-aged man turning in an employment application to the manager on duty. He was at the point of begging for any job, and in a way needed someone to talk to that morning more than anything else. It was the manager's turn. There were no positions open, and OS observed that this gent was far from the first in his position to come into the restaurant, needing a job and needing someone to talk to. She was kind, but had neither a job nor a listening ear, with customers waiting to be seated. OS felt tears well in his eyes, remembering what it was like to feel that lonely and desperate. He regrets not reaching in to grab a twenty from his wallet for the gent, but the moment passed before he could gather his wits about him.

Meetings went swimmingly, a visit to Marshall's for a few household and kitchen restocks. Quite a few shoppers in the store, no one making a big purchase, but a steady trade nonetheless.

On the way home, a stop for fuel and a visit to 'the facilities'. Over the years, OS has seen all manner of graffiti in truck stops, and won't take time to describe it. Before today, he had never seen scrawlings on a stall cursing the President of the United States. It was chilling to read, a sense that some line has been crossed by someone somewhere.

Home all week, grinding out a tax return, resenting every moment spent justifying his existence to a government out of control. The thought of golf next week keeps him going.

Marathon Pundit: McConnell Statement On Obama Sending Free Trade Agreements To Congress

2011-10-04T00:28:00.001+01:00

File under: Complete ineptitude

File under: So in love with Chavez, he'd rather we starve than trade with Colombia

File under: November 2012 cannot come soon enough.

What kind of clown urges Congress to pass a treaty he never sent to the Senate?

The kind of clown this country elected in 2008.

Colombia, let us remember, actually has waged a successful campaign against narco-terrorists cum gangsters, and ran the bad guys (supported by Chavez) to ground. This, of course, is an unforgivable sin in ObamaLand, where the crooks win and their victims are derided for defending themselves.

In any case, it's a trade treaty that might actually help foment some productive business activity (also highly suspect). But count on Obama to sign this one in public, surrounded by Democrat Senators, and you can bet money he'll take credit for having negotiated the deal. Which of course, will be a bald-faced lie. Which of course matters not a whit in ObamaLand.

Coda: Assets Of Syracuse Symphony Divided Among Thee Local Institutions

2011-10-03T01:55:00.007+01:00

It's over.

The Orchestra entered Chapter 7, a liquidation bankruptcy proceeding. The bank, the primary creditor, recovered what it could, and in an act of goodwill, distributed some of the most important assets to local organizations.

M & T Bank has closed the books on what’s left of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra.

The bank’s regional president Allen J. Naples announced the dispersal of the SSO’s assets to three community groups at a news conference this morning at the Onondaga Historical Association. The bank was the main secured creditor for SSO assets when it filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in May.

Naples said the orchestra’s instruments, including a Steinway piano, and computer and electronic equipment would be donated to the Cultural Resources Council of Syracuse and Onondaga County. The SSO’s sheet music, considered to be the most valuable asset, will be given to the Setnor School of Music at Syracuse University. Onondaga Historical Association will receive the orchestra’s archives, albums and paintings.

Rightly, the music library was seen as the most valuable asset. Without it, it would be impossible to ever re-assemble another orchestra in the future. A lot of that music is long out of print, and the years of musicians' markings on the parts (which in effect create a local edition of a piece) are irreplaceable.

The bank did the right thing, for the city and for themselves. They took their haircut, to be sure, and left the door open for something else to assemble itself in the future. The bank also bought a good deal of that intangible asset--goodwill--so difficult to build, so easy to destroy.

Once again, OS sez: 2012 cannot come soon enough. It will take sober grownups to set the country in motion and productive again, so that profits can be made to spend on important items like a local symphony. Until then, it's chinstraps on. We haven't reached the end of the orchestra closures yet. Louisville has yet to get back underway, and Philadelphia is still in BK. Whoo'da'thunk'it that the great Philadelphia Orchestra would wind up in BK court?

Colorado Symphony may be next.

Pastor Nadarkhani: Faithful To Christ, A Threat To The Mullahs, Sentenced To Death

2011-10-01T16:09:00.001+01:00

OS hardly knows what to say, except that the Iranian diplomatic mission is located at:

2209 Wisconsin Avenue Northwest,
Washington, DC
(202) 965-4991

Apparently, the Iranians intend to hang Pastor Nadarkhani for the crime of being Christian.

And, for good measure now, they've decided he's a Zionist and a rapist, or is that a rapist Zionist? No matter, any lie will do as we hustle him to the gallows.

As Cranmer reminds us:

We were evidently even unwise to believe the written judgements of Iran's Supreme Court, which stated:

He has frequently denied the prophethood of the great prophet of Islam and the rule of the sacred religion of Islam. And he has proven his apostasy by organizing evangelistic meetings and inviting others to Christianity, establishing a house church, baptizing people, expressing his faith to others and, denying Islamic values.

OS is tempted to say at this point--the next time some 'Islamist Rights' group, such as CAIR, beats their chest about how shabbily they are treated in the West, let us inquire of them what they did, in public, loudly and unequivocally, to protest this crime by an Islamic government. We'll be waiting as the crickets chip in response.

But, above and beyond that, this is a contemporary example of the horrors that descend when the preachers and the politicians decide to get joined at the hip, so that everyone ends up unsure about where the ecclesia and the state begin and end. Both religion and politics attract a fair number of narcissists, lazy about work, hungry for power, and bereft of conscience. It's a recipe for disaster, in many forms, across the ages, when they link up. The recent examples of Hitler, Mao, the Perons, the Japanese cultists who led that nation over the cliff in the 1920's to '40's--on and on it goes--should give pause. It's being played out in Iran now, with a nuclear program underway to boot.

There are no secular messiahs.

The state or nation, when worshipped, ends up eating its faithful.

Encounter any preacher or politician who tries to convince you otherwise? Run screaming away from them as fast as your little legs will take you. These people end up bathing their worlds in blood. Like Iran is now doing.

So, in the meantime, OS, a devout Christian, urges one and all to call that phone number listed above.

And to think for themselves.

Washington Post coverage here.

Al Gore And His High-School Physics Cookie Jar: The Sound Of Credibility Swirling The Drain

2011-09-28T20:41:00.000+01:00

HT James Delingpole.

Lawdy, have muhcy. Missah Goah may have really stepped into it this time, as Anthony Watts at WattsUpWithThat presents a close analysis and attempt to replicate a 'scientific demonstration' presented as factual truth by the former Vice President.

Long story short--if the Gore presentation is not a fabrication, it is at the very least one of the sloppiest and un-credible jobs of presentation of science imaginable.

Since the world is being pressured to change absolutely everything about the way live is lived based upon Mr. Gore's assertions of science, it is up to him to provide credible evidence. He hasn't, and can't, because his hypothesis is simply not true.

Wonder if the folks who awarded him that Oscar will ever getting around to calling him and demanding it back?

Herman Cain Swims With The Sharks: American Thinker

2011-09-28T19:36:00.001+01:00

Admittedly, and before the first paragraph, we learn, to the author's credit, that he is an associate of Herman Cain. But given that, this article is still an excellent read.

C. Edmund Wright shares his thoughts on why Cain may not be such a long shot, and the comments from readers tend to be thoughtful, not the hysterical rants of people who are JustFedUpAndWon'tTakeAnotherMinuteOfThisNonsense.

A quick sample from the essay, which OS shares in hopes his readers will click that link above.

He says only glowing things about the people who are competing with him for the job he wants now -- which is the job of opposing Obama. He was clearly the favorite opponent of all the candidates. He no doubt would win the "he's my second choice" sweepstakes among conservatives. That is related to the "I would support him if I thought he could win" crowd. Cain wins those hands down.

OS repeats his earlier premise, yet again: In times like these, where it feels like things are coming a bit unwound, exactly what we don't need is some messianic figure riding in over the horizon on his white horse proclaiming 'I'm a' gonna' fix it all, fer' sure, and right quickly, too!!' That was Obama's ploy, and here we are. That's Rick Perry's language and manner, and Michelle Bachmann's.

As a matter of fact, that person on the white horse does not exist, except in romance novels, TV shows and movies. Those of us who were blessed to live during Reagan's terms look back with great fondness, sometimes forgetting what a hard, grim slog it was to retrieve the country from the decade of Nixon and Carter. Reagan looks messianic in retrospect, but he did not appear that way in prospect, 1980 landslide or no.

When the building is burning down around you, what's needed is a calm, experienced grown-up who knows where to hook up the fire hoses, where to tell the crew to direct the water, and where to look for the folks trapped inside. The operative words being 'calm' and 'experienced'. Hand out medals later--that's a memo to the Nobel Prize Committee, by the way. The white horse is completely optional.

So, while OS isn't just outright cheering for anyone yet, he has been interested enough in Mr. Cain's efforts to kick small amounts of cash into his till. While the question of his eventual victory remains wide open, he and his ideas deserve to be heard--and at this stage of proceedings, that's all anyone can expect.

If any of OS's readership are interested in doing likewise, that link is here.

Trader Alessio Rastani on BBC: The Markets Are Toast

2011-09-27T20:49:00.001+01:00

Mr. Rastani's comments really rattled the normally unflappable BBC interviewer (and evidently, her colleagues) with his candor. It is shocking to listen to at first, but it is hard to disagree with much of it. His candor about his role was honest and bracing: I'm a trader, it's my job to make money.

This is no ordinary 'talking-head' moment--well worth a look.

Good news for asthmatics: Obama administration set to ban over-the-counter inhalers to save ozone layer

2011-09-25T00:30:00.000+01:00

Good news for asthmatics: Obama administration set to ban over-the-counter inhalers to save ozone layer.

Really. That's what's proposed.

And, it does not take much digging to find that asthma afflicts a lot of kids from poorer families, where the stresses can help trigger the condition...

These people are completely out of control. November 2012 cannot come soon enough. Bachmann's proposal to turn out the lights and lock the doors of the EPA looks more and more reasonable.

OldSouth On The Road: Portland Oregon And Environs

2011-09-25T00:15:00.002+01:00

Business has taken OS to a part of the country he hasn't visited in years, for which he truly and humbly repents in dust and ashes.

It is utterly, breathtakingly beautiful here. Words fail. The poet who penned 'America the Beautiful' caught it best: '..purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain.'

These folks know how to eat, and the local wines and beers are every bit as good as rumors describe them. OS will be back, with the lovely, sainted, and longsuffering Mrs. OS at his side next time. (He still doesn't understand why she tolerates, much less loves, OS.)

One item did surprise him, however. This has a reputation, on both sides of the Columbia River, for being a Blue State area. OS did see one 'Obama 2012' bumper sticker on the several hundred cars he encountered. He avoided speaking of politics, 'cuz a good house guest doesn't bring it up, or religion either. His hosts did, however, and they were good people he expected would be loyal Democrat voters. The only choice they now ponder is which of the GOP candidates would serve the country best.

They are still in a bit of a fog, and the prospect of Rick Perry is worrisome (which shows they have good instincts). Still unsure of Romney, but of all people, Herman Cain does hold their interest, as a person who knows how to run businesses and manage people. A grown-up who can do math.

It is beautiful here, but it is obvious the economy here is ailing seriously. Houses can't sell, because home values have dropped 30-40%, and show no sign of recovering. Foreclosures everywhere, which aren't clearing, and many more in the pipeline. Banks won't lend into a deflating market, even though they are bearing the costs of maintaining the houses they foreclosed. As one person familiar with the situation said: 'If you walk in with cash, you are golden.' OS asked him what it will take to turn it around, and all he could say was 'Time', and 'God's in charge, He'll do something on his timetable.' This guy won't be pulling the lever for Obama again, either, here in this blue-blue-blue-blue state.

Most unexpected. Most surprising aspect of the visit. But if OS sees this anecdotally, someone amongst the polling pros for the Dems have got to be seeing it as well.

Obama cannot win, he has passed the point of no return. The only question that remains is if he will run, and how much damage he'll leave behind to clean up.

Well, Yes, Virginia: Obama Really Truly Is An Idiot

2011-09-22T23:00:00.000+01:00

Doug Mataconis tells the tale clearly.

The One, The Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, decided to stage a campaign event/PassThisBill shtick in Cincinnati, Ohio, with the bridge that carries I-75 over the Ohio River in the background. He addresses his friendly crowd of union types, declaring that the bridge needs repair, and calls upon Boehner and McConnell to PassThisBill!! so it can be repaired.

There's a problem--the bridge doesn't need repair, and an additional bridge to handle the unanticipated growth in traffic is already in the normal pipeline. Even if Congress does PassThisBill (they won't), it won't change a thing about the bridge in Cincy.

There is, however, a bridge in Louisville spanning the Ohio to New Albany Indiana, that is closed, because it needs repairs. It carries I-64 traffic, which connects to St. Louis and points west--pretty crucial item, with the national UPS hub located in Louisville.

Neither Obama or his staff can get their facts straight. He's down to pure BS now.

Hell, they can't even read a ******!!!!!????!!!! map!

November 2012 cannot come soon enough. OS begins to doubt if Himself will even be on the ballot.

Karma Can Be Cruel: Assange Criticises Unauthorised Wikileaks Memoir

2011-09-22T05:46:00.002+01:00

"Somehow, one has difficulty feeling a moment's sympathy for the man...

Harvard Business Review Survey: Only 31% Of Execs In The US And Europe Plan New Hires Next Year

2011-09-22T05:22:00.000+01:00

Hope 'n Change, ya'll, Hope 'n Change...

To get a better glimpse into where these decision makers stand at this perilous moment in history, we launched the Harvard Business Review Economic Survey earlier this month and contacted 1389 executives — the majority director level and above — from the U.S., UK/Europe, and Asia. We focused on three areas of questioning: Their confidence in the global economy this year and in the next decade, whether or not they were confident their companies would hit their revenue targets this year and next, and whether they anticipated increasing their hiring in the next fiscal year.

The news — particularly around hiring — is not good: Only 31% of respondents in the US and UK/Europe said they planned to increase their hiring efforts next fiscal year. The news out of Asia was slightly better, with 41% planning to increase hiring. This general trepidation most likely can be explained by respondents' fears of an impending second global economic recession: 70% believe another global economic recession is either somewhat or very likely in the coming months. Also telling is the respondents' estimates of their own companies' performance, with only mixed confidence in their near-term organizational performance.

It's not just folks like OS on small-town main street that says we're headed in the wrong direction at about 100 mph. The GreatAndGood at places like NBC, NYT, CNN, and the White House call us ig'nrant rednecks when we suggest things aren't going well and a change is needed. What names to they plan to call these 1389 respondents?

Actually, they won't call them any names at all. They'll simply ignore the fact that the survey was taken or published, even by HBR.

That'll make everything ok. No worries. Just keep on watching 'Dancing With The Stars'...we've got this all under control.

Language, Image, Film Technique, Message, And OS's Sense Of Disquiet: The New Rick Perry Ad

2011-09-21T16:00:00.002+01:00

Here's the new ad:

It's really quite something, not the least for the amount of money and time necessarily burned to create it. This isn't Darryl-Bob living in his momma's basement with all his worldly goods tied up in his Mac gear. It takes a real studio that can edit and flow together all those images (from all those sources) and sounds (from all those sources), including a clever piece of scoring. It takes a real film-maker to put this together. There aren't that many good ones out there (lotsa wannabees, to be sure), and they don't come cheap. It takes a good deal of expensive time to create this, a lot of thought and planning. Video runs at 30 frames per-second, and can be edited within frames. Not one half-frame of this piece was not thought through carefully, and this probably is the twentieth rendition of the piece--the one released to the public.

It's obvious the famous LBJ campaign ad that so effectively hung the prospect of nuclear war around the neck of Goldwater was studied closely.

This piece intended to scare the living daylights out of the viewer, and OS must say, it does the job--in the second half, where the 'reveal' of Rick Perry as the solution to our national ills takes place. The words he speaks are lifted almost verbatim from Reagan; if you must crib from someone, the Gipper is a good place to visit. He speaks in a Texas accent, in a voice just a few tones deeper (bass-baritone vs. tenor) than George W. Bush, that same direct style and blunt use of short phrases of English. (That was chilling by itself, as we found out in early 2005 that Dubyah didn't really believe in most of what he was saying in 2004. It was really a downhill journey from there.)

In short, the whole thing is what we who work with copyrights call a 'derivative work', like Alan Sherman's comic lyrical treatments of classical tunes, or Wierd Al Yankovic's send-ups of pop tunes. It is work that draws its life by its references to other, earlier, creations. Nothing inherently immoral about it, happens all the time, but there is the moral hazard implicit that both creator and listener forget to remember the sources, and then we're off to the races in a fog of uncertainty. There are people of my generation who hear the famous 'Dance of the Hours' (by Ponchielli) and begin singing 'Hello, Muddah/ Hello, Fadduh/ Here I am in Camp Granada...', thinking Alan Sherman wrote the entire piece.

So, OS is left with the question after the ad: Is Rick Perry as incapable of original thought as the present occupant of the White House? Does he operate in images or language as he goes about his daily rounds? Can he clearly articulate in PlainEnglish what he thinks, and intends, and communicate that?

Or are we supposed to embrace Governor Perry as a Messianic hero coming to ride to our rescue?

Just like so many embraced the present occupant of the White House...remember 2008, anyone?

We need grownups who can do math, manage people, mentally operate and communicate in PlainEnglish, not images and emotion. Someone who can make rational decisions, and stand up to a world replete with mass murderers in charge of nations.

That's why this video scares the bejeezuz out of OS, and why Herman Cain continues to hold OS's interest.

A Drunken Sailor Protests His Shoddy Treatment

2011-09-19T02:49:00.001+01:00

HT Doug Ross:

A brief letter to the editor in Wyoming earlier this year:

I object and take exception to everybody saying that Obama and Congress are spending money like a drunken sailor. As a former drunken sailor, I quit when I ran out of money.

Bruce L Hargraves,
USN Retired

Number 438 (Daniel Hannan) Gives Voice To What The EU Refuses To Hear--'You're About To Find Out'

2011-09-16T17:41:00.001+01:00

Need to create a football cheer here, ya'll:

Gimme a big 4! FOOOUR!

Gimme a big 3! THREEEEE!

Gimme a big 8! EEEEIIIIIGGGHHHHT!

Wha'duz'THAT spell?

TRUTH! TRUTH! TRUTH! TRUTH! TRUTH! TRUTH! TRUTH! TRUTH! TRUTH!

Go, Dan! Go, Dan! Go, Dan!

Remembering The Brave Boys Of 15 September, 1940, Who Saved Western Civilization

2011-09-15T17:30:00.000+01:00

OS posted a full essay a year ago in honor of the day, and he's gratified to see it still attracting a steady stream of readers.

We need people of that mettle and spirit now, because the danger is at least as great. In 1940, Hitler's bombers could be spotted, attacked, downed, and chased away.

Those who seek to destroy the culture now sit in our seats of power.

Heaven aid and protect us all, on both sides of the pond.

Daniel Hannan: The EU As Homer Simpson

2011-09-15T17:22:00.000+01:00

If we could just amend the Constitution to allow us to lease DanHan for eight years...

His analogy of Homer to the GreatAndGood of Europe is priceless. It applies to the GreatAndGood on this side of the pond as well.

Enjoy--only about a minute long.

Tin Cup McAvoy As Mythic Figure And Object Lesson

2011-09-14T15:40:00.000+01:00

OS saw another re-run of Tin Cup last night. The movie holds up under repeated viewings, because it is so well-written, and is such a true parable about life itself.

It made OS review his post from Spring of 2010, discussing the misadventures of Roy McAvoy, who demands a 3-wood for an obvious 7-iron shot, and the chaos that follows. Funny, painful, painful, funny. The stuff that causes sleepless nights, and nightmares even when sleep descends.

So, here we are, in the Fall of 2011. No one pulled his 7-iron out of the bag, and chaos looms. OS gets the feeling that TheGreatAndGood are simultaneously working to keep a cheerful public face going, while paddling madly to both keep things from coming unwound and searching for ways to ensure the taxpayers of the world bear the costs of the debacle. It's getting tougher to do with each passing week. If the public listens to them at all, they assume the GreatAndGood are lying.

Because they are.

Think 7-iron, ya'll. 'Cuz the GreatAndGood are incapable of that behavior.

You Know You're In Deep Trouble When....(Results of NY 09 By-Election)

2011-09-14T15:18:00.002+01:00

when...the New York City district that gave us Geraldine Ferraro and Anthony TheWeiner votes 54-46 to elect a moderately conservative GOP candidate.

The district, artfully gerrymandered for perpetual Democrat control, includes portions of both Brooklyn and Queens. In Brooklyn , it wasn't even close, 67/33, although there were many fewer votes at stake there. In Queens, Bob Turner lost by 51/48, (1472 vote margin as of this morning), but to even come that close on what has been a Democrat planation since 1923 was historic. All those Queens voters helped put him over the top. They gotta be passing the antacids around the morning staff meetings in the White House, and in MizNancy and MissahHarry's offices over on Capitol Hill. That's a lot of New York votes gone in 2012, and the GOP and Conservative Parties of New York now smell blood in the water. Who knows, maybe they retire a bunch of the machine Democrats all at once next year.

Turner is a native of the district, has lived there his entire life, a successful businessman, who has created significant wealth and a lot of jobs in his years. Just the kind of guy Obama and company love to hate. He's no Tea Party person, no wild-eyed guy wearing a George Washington costume at a rally. He's a sober adult, unlike the previous occupant of that district's seat.

Congrats to Mr. Turner, and to the folks in NY 09. As OS repeats, we need sober grownups who can do math and speak plain English in the years ahead. It's not going to be easy, even with the grownups in charge.

A view from Tim Stanley, across the pond. You know you're deep in ka-ka when a normally small event like this pops up on the world's radar.

In Normal Times, A Democrat President Would Be Campaigning In NY 09 Today...

2011-09-13T21:39:00.000+01:00

...but these are not normal times.

Anthony TheWeiner was a stalwart warrior of the Left, and of all things Obama. His (polite cough) very public downfall would not normally deter a President like Obama from sending in his operatives, and making a last-minute public appearance on behalf of the Democrat standing for election.

It's like...well...they're pretending this by-election isn't taking place today. And Welprin, the Democrat candidate, is pretending Obama doesn't exist. Like the last thing he'd want is a visit from The Beloved Leader on the eve of the election. Not normal times.

Obama was in Ohio, getting a crowd of high-school students and teachers to chant 'Pass this bill! Pass this bill!' Only MSNBC, all-Obama-all-the-time, even bothered to carry the event live. CNN was discussing fashion trends. This morning, his staff was blustering 'It's all or nothing!', and by the afternoon the view was, 'Well, if they want to pass it piecemeal, he'll sign the portions they send his way.'

Not normal times, not at all. NY 09 may well fall into GOP hands tonight. OS will be interested to see if the White House even makes mention of the occurrence in the morning.

James Kwak On Why Social Security Is Not A Ponzi Scheme

2011-09-13T13:10:00.000+01:00

Kwak is a bright man, and this is (on the whole) a reasoned discussion.

OS lost his temper in the comments. Ignore that bit, at least the temper part.

Worth reading and considering, especially with the rise of the Rick Perry phenomenon.

Listening To The Names, Ten Years Later

2011-09-11T15:49:00.000+01:00

OS hardly knows where to begin. How to put in words this scene, hearing the names of the murdered intoned by the survivors, many of them young teenaged children who lost parents while in infancy? How to describe the tears of the family members touching the names of their loved ones engraved around the fountain, taking pencil rubbings of those names--something tangible to take home with them, a tiny piece of what had been stolen from them by vicious evil people half a world away? How to describe the pain and pride in the voices of those who read the names, adding their own memorials?

Well, of course, words fail-at least any words this poor schlub could compose.

But, blessedly, that Moment of Grace arrived, that moment of clarity when the heavens opened, and comforting insight arrived.

Just after Mayor Bloomberg spoke, Yo-Yo Ma played a movement from one of the Bach Cello Suites. Time stood still, as he both played and listened in that strange state of transport that sometimes occurs when the performer himself seems to disappear. It was just Bach, a tiny moment of the music of the spheres, picking up where words fall to impotent silence.

And the insight arrived: The dead-end religion and cultures that produced the monsters that committed these murders are incapable of producing a Bach, or a Yo-Yo Ma, or a cello. They can't create anything resembling a culture worth preserving, and they are actively about the job of destroying what little they do have. Even the archeology that preserves what we know of their history is an invention of the West. They can burn the world down around them, but they can't create anything. They don't look forward, because they can't. They can only refight wars of centuries ago, and bathe the world in blood.

So, here we are, ten years later. As Bonhoeffer noted in Christmas 1942, ten years is a long time:

As time is the most valuable thing that we have, because it is the most irrevocable, the thought of any lost time troubles us when we look back. Time lost is time in which we have failed to live a full human life, gain experience, learn, create, enjoy and suffer...These last years have certainly not been like that Our losses have been great and immeasurable, but time has not been lost.

The names continue to be read. The music continues to play, Bach on the cello and violin, guitar, Amazing Grace on the flute (talk about something Islam can never produce!), James Taylor singing 'You Can Close Your Eyes', Paul Simon singing 'Sound of Silence', string quartets, and memorials continue to be read at a beautiful memorial, raised from the ashes of unspeakably evil acts. The West can do this. Islam can't, because it won't, because it can't, because it won't.

It is a blessing that the SEALs did send Osama bin Laden to his reward, in the manner they did, that the Navy had the privilege of firing the shots that dispatched him. Justice served provides comfort to the bereaved, and puts the world on notice that we can are patient, and people like him will never escape.

So, what now?

If we'll step back and look, we see the world of Islam burning itself down, from Algeria to Pakistan and beyond. It's tempting to say, 'Good. Serves 'em right, let 'em burn.', but there's a bigger thought to express in that direction: You are free to burn yourselves down, we won't stand in your way. When you've had enough, you may with to consider the twin gifts of the West, those being Christianity and the Enlightenment. In the meantime, the only part of the world you get to burn down is yours. Look us up when you've had enough.

OS has a personal list of ThingsToDo in honor of this tenth anniversary, some of which he has began to undertake.

He's playing golf with his friends, and will do a lot more of that, because he wants to build friendships for the next decades.

He's making sure his kids knows he's outrageously proud of them. Because he is.

He's making sure the Sainted Mrs. OS knows she's loved and honored. Because she is the very best person he has ever known.

He's going to continue to encourage young women to pursue their educations and lives, because Islam hates and degrades women, and Christ loves and dignifies them.

He's going to create in his own voice, because it's the one God gave him.

And, today, especially in honor of the day, he's going to do two specific things:

1. He's going to play music, especially the music of Bach, because the fundamentalist monsters of Islam hate music.

2. He's preparing pork roast for dinner, because he knows that would piss off Osama Bin Laden.

God bless us every one, and God bless and preserve the United States of America.

While The World Chatters About Obama And Greece, Israel's Credit Rating Goes UP

2011-09-09T15:36:00.009+01:00

It's too good not to mention on a Friday.

International credit rating agency Standard & Poor's announced on Friday that it has raised Israel's credit rating from A to A+. The company said that the decision reflects the government's responsible economic policy. Company officials said they do not believe the national budget will explode despite the mass social justice protests demanding reformed economic policies. Standard & Poor's is the same company which, in August, lowered the credit rating of the United States.

The news is full of Greece's meltdown--how'd you like to have to borrow money at 80% interest for one year, just to keep the lights on?

Lots of chatter about Himself, including this bit from Doug Mataconis, who is no fire-breathing conservative.

The mosques in Syria will conclude services in a few minutes, and the bloodshed will pick up where it left off last Friday after prayers and wing-nut sermons, and more mothers will bury more of their children on Sunday. Nothing new here.

Libya is now being divided up amongst its various tribal warlords, including some very interesting-looking jihadist types. Are we surprised? Egypt is choatic, no news here. Gold is spiking, as is silver, but OS has decided to get out of the way of all the oncoming freight trains proceeding through the tunnel in his direction.

The world is so busy chattering about the turmoil, that they will barely notice this nugget of good news. The logical question is, of course, 'What are the Israelis doing right that we aren't?' it's a dangerous question, but it is the logical question.

The weather is lovely. The migration of mourning doves from points north has begun, and OS is cheerily leaving them cracked corn in abundance, to welcome them back. There is a very nice roosting area on an abandoned farm property behind OS's house, and ponds, and gravel roads for craw.

OS played a fun round with an old friend at an unfamiliar course yesterday. Luckily, his order of new golf balls was in his mailbox when he returned home. It's the weekend. OS has time, Mrs. OS, a few things to get done, and an immense sense of gratitude for his life. He will be looking for Israeli bond funds during the day, though.

Barack Obama, Winner Of The Nobel Peace Prize, On The Subject Of Civility In Public Discourse

2011-09-07T21:06:00.000+01:00

Really, ya'll, he spoke these words a few months ago:

"At a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized, at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do," the President said at the time, "it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds," he said.

Not a peep in the wake of Hoffa's hectoring of the crowd, telling them to '...take these sons-of-bitches out!', referring to members of the Tea Party.

OS concludes the rules must change when it gets to be election season, at least for Obama.

Yes, Indeed, Mr. Hoffa Said Those Ugly, Menacing Words

2011-09-06T05:03:00.001+01:00

Video's here, if you must see it, yet again.

Mr. Hoffa did say:

"We got to keep an eye on the battle that we face: The war on workers. And you see it everywhere, it is the Tea Party. And you know, there is only one way to beat and win that war. The one thing about working people is we like a good fight. And you know what? They've got a war, they got a war with us and there's only going to be one winner. It's going to be the workers of Michigan, and America. We're going to win that war," Jimmy Hoffa said to a heavily union crowd.

"President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march. Let's take these son of bitches out and give America back to an America where we belong," Hoffa added.

Given the loooong relationship between the Teamsters and elements of the Cosa Nostra, these are pretty chilling words, the kind used by people like Gambino, Gotti, Luciano, and company.

Surely, it gave a thrill to the crowd. And, oddly, it may have given a thrill to those who identify themselves with the 'sons-of-bitches' Mr. Hoffa wishes to 'take out.' The 'See-I-Told-You-So' thrill, the 'Let's-Make-Sure-We're-Packing-From-Now-On' thrill.

Old South, as horrified as he is by those words, and as scared as he is by what those words mean, really urges his readers, and everyone in general, to take a deep breath. Calm down. These are challenging times, and adrenalin does not help one think.

Hoffa is an idiot, a goon. Obama is a desperate man to stand on the podium with Hoffa at all, much less to not immediately take the high road and repudiate those words and the man who spoke them. Immediately, on the spot. He could have simply walked off and left when Hoffa staged his rant, which would have been the most effective course of action. But he didn't. And that was a tragic moment for him, and for the country.

But, still, everybody. Calm down, be thoughtful. Someone out there may think it would somehow be heroic to do violent things to union members, especially to Teamsters, to somehow 'get back' at Hoffa. It isn't. A face floats in OS's mind just now, a Teamster who is the gentlest soul for miles around, whose kindness forever contributed to OS's family. Other union members, in other unions, come to mind--good good people, who do not share Hoffa's view of the world. They don't deserve to get killed or injured in political violence.

In the movies, and on TV, we view fictionalized violence every day, knowing that the rounds fired are blanks, the blood is fake, it's all edited later, and after the scene is film, everyone gets up and goes home at the end of the day.

Real violence is not like that. It scars victims and aggressors both. People die, and leave shattered families behind. Gunshot wounds maim body and soul for life.

Calm down, everybody. Don't take Hoffa's bait, don't play in his sandbox. And, when you decide about who should be in office next, think about that poor politician who so desperately wishes to hold on to power that he will countenance even a Jimmy Hoffa's poisonous calls to violence. These kind of people, we don't need in office, at any level, from the county courthouse to the White House.

Calm down, and think about how to face what lies ahead for us all.

Perhaps THIS Is One Reason Gibson Guitars Was Raided?

2011-09-05T04:18:00.001+01:00

By armed agents? To seize rosewood? Not meth, not guns. Rosewood and guitars.

The link contains the official statement from Gibson.

Doug Ross, who provides this statement to us, also notes:

As an aside, Gibson is a non-unionized shop while its competitors are largely unionized.

And Gibson's CEO is a Republican donor while his competitors -- who import the exact same wood without complaint from the government -- are Democrat contributors.

But I'm sure those are all just coincidences.

Before the twilight falls upon us, let us shed as much light as we can.

The CIA/MI6 And Colonel Gadaffi: Ifn' Yew Lize Down Wif Dawgs, You Gits Fleas

2011-09-04T17:04:00.001+01:00

John LeCarre's secret of success is that he simply relates rather more polite versions of the idiocies that are carried out in our names.

(The release of the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing seemed unexplicable at the time. Now, the event is, well, perhaps, plausible and understandable. The governments of the US and the UK left the families of the victims hung out to dry. After all, the reasoning might go, that thing occurred in 1988, you know. How bad can the loss of a child to a terrorist murderer still hurt after all those years, and we have bigger fish to fry, and...)

From the BeeBeeCee, ever the bearer of glad tidings:

US and UK spy agencies built close ties with their Libyan counterparts during the so-called War on Terror, according to documents discovered at the office of Col Gaddafi's former spy chief.

The papers suggest the CIA abducted several suspected militants from 2002 to 2004 and handed them to Tripoli.

The UK's MI6 also apparently gave the Gaddafi regime details of dissidents.

The documents, found by Human Rights Watch workers, have not been seen by the BBC or independently verified.

But, wait, there's more, and more to come!

The papers outline the rendition of several suspects, including one that Human Rights Watch has identified as Abdel Hakim Belhaj, known in the documents as Abdullah al-Sadiq, who is now the military commander of the anti-Gaddafi forces in Tripoli.

The Americans snatched him in South East Asia before flying him to Tripoli in 2004, the documents claim.

Mr Belhaj, who was involved in an Islamist group attempting to overthrow Col Gaddafi in the early 2000s, had told the Associated Press news agency earlier this week that he had been rendered by the Americans, but held no grudge.

Riiight.

What could possibly go wrong?

Zero, Zilch, Nada, Jobs Created In August--Likely Jobs Lost--Please, No More Blather About 'Jobs Saved Or Gained'

2011-09-02T23:10:00.000+01:00

It's September 1, 2011. Obama took office two years eight months ago, plus a few days.

It's his economy, not Bush's.

From the Bureau of Labor Statistics, today:

Nonfarm payroll employment was unchanged (0) in August, and the unemployment
rate held at 9.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.
Employment in most major industries changed little over the month. Health
care continued to add jobs, and a decline in information employment reflected
a strike. Government employment continued to trend down, despite the return
of workers from a partial government shutdown in Minnesota.

Household Survey Data

The number of unemployed persons, at 14.0 million, was essentially unchanged
in August, and the unemployment rate held at 9.1 percent. The rate has shown
little change since April. (See table A-1.)

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (8.9
percent), adult women (8.0 percent), teenagers (25.4 percent), whites
(8.0 percent), blacks (16.7 percent), and Hispanics (11.3 percent) showed
little or no change in August. The jobless rate for Asians was 7.1 percent,
not seasonally adjusted. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) was
about unchanged at 6.0 million in August and accounted for 42.9 percent of the
unemployed. (See table A-12.)

The labor force rose to 153.6 million in August. Both the civilian labor force
participation rate, at 64.0 percent, and the employment-population ratio, at
58.2 percent, were little changed. (See table A-1.)

Oh, by the way, the final paragraph of the report shares this gem with us:

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for June was revised from
+46,000 to +20,000, and the change for July was revised from +117,000 to
+85,000.

20/46 is....43%. Thus that was a 57% miss on the estimate.
85/117 is...72%. Thus that was a 38% miss on the estimate.

There are people who went out and bought stocks based on those 'estimates'-- damn ya'll, there was euphoria in July!

November 2012 cannot arrive too quickly.

Quote Of The Day, From Jesse

2011-09-02T22:20:00.000+01:00

There are moments when his prose turns luminous.

There are no sidelines, for everyone serves something, even if by default. The most significant choice we make is whom we serve, and to whom we therefore gradually bind ourselves. It is a terrible choice, with profound implications, but so often made with little thought, lightly, without a view to the consequences. We live on forever with whom we have served in this world.

Present-Day Brownshirts Disrupt BBC Proms Concert Conducted By Zubin Mehta

2011-09-02T09:06:00.002+01:00

And we'll get to see if the Beeb bows to pressure from thugs.

Since no one was arrested for repeatedly disrupting this concert that so many had been so eagerly awaiting, and paid good money to attend, it appears we have the answer already.

This isn't free speech or political expression.

It's thuggery, pure and simple, with the aim of seeing Jewish artists shunned, lest the poor downtrodden Palestinians disrupt and vandalize even more brazenly. There is a time for the billy clubs and handcuffs to be employed. This is one of those times.

Rather ironically appropriate that it occurred on 1 September, the last time a rabidly anti-Semitic regime decided to start a war and bathe the world in the blood of the innocents.