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

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?

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

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

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

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!!

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

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

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

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

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.