Canada Bids Kyoto Accord Farewell

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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

 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.

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

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

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.