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

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

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

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?

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

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'

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

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

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.

Lest We Fail To Remember: September 1, 1939

...in which the world plunged into madness. Officially, the war ground to a halt in August of 1945. OS is the son of a Marine who was being prepared for the ground invasion of Japan. In the wake of the battle for Okinawa, which claimed so many lives, the estimates were that it would require many many more men, and the campaign would stretch into 1947 or so.

So, that horror was avoided by the use of another horror, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and here sits OS, pecking away as a result.

(No, he's not guilty of that horror, but he is a bit haunted by the thought that he is its beneficiary.)

It was madness, completely avoidable madness. A world deciding that 1914-1918 had not spilled enough blood, that a do-over was necessary.

And, after August 1945, we found ourselves in a world forever on the verge of war, mainly in the name of some Utopian scheme or another, be it racial, religious, political, economic, national, or some toxic blend of elements of the list. For the most part, at least here, not outright war, but most certainly an uneasy quasi-peace.

So, here we sit, seventy-two years later, praying for wisdom and grace to not be dragged down that dark tunnel once more. As the parent of a young man, watching other young men born in his same year, returning in coffins to shattered parents, OS prays for mercy for us all; that somehow Providence will provide us grown-ups in positions of leadership, sober souls who understand (and care) that the decisions they make mean death or life for millions.

Bank of International Settlements Report: Ya'll It Ain't Just The Tea Party Types Warning Us About The National Debt!

HT Adam Smith Institute, who do a great job each and every day.

On a daily basis now, it seems, the attacks are being launched against those of us who insist that our government is out of control, and that the spending and borrowing path we are on will destroy the culture. The 'racist' word is a popular one, followed by 'redneck', 'ignorant', 'hateful', 'stupid', all delivered with that particular "I graduated from an Ivy League School, therefore you dare not question me." sort of sneer we've all come to accept as simply part of the package from Duh Left.

However, Adam Smith Institute passes on to us word of a scholarly study commissioned by the Bank For International Settlements, in effect, the mother-ship of central banking.

This paper, entitled The Real Effects of Debt, was delivered at Jackson Hole last week. While the world was waiting breathlessly for word from Helicopter Ben about whether he intended to climb back into his Chinook and scatter more funny-munney-hunny upon the gathered crowds, these geeks were delivering the unvarnished truth about the children in charge of our governments, both in London, Washington, and the capitols of Europe.

Stephen G Cecchetti, M S Mohanty and Fabrizio Zampolli are not redneck, racist, ignorant, unwashed, stupid AstroTurf TeaBaggers. They are scholars, presenting the plain truth that neither Obama, LittleTimmy,or most of Congress wish to hear: this simply cannot be allowed to continue without destroying our civilization.

It's not about race or class, ya'll. it's about simple, inexorable math.

Given the benefits that governments have promised to their populations, ageing will sharply raise public debt to much higher levels in the next few decades. At the same time, ageing may reduce future growth and may also raise interest rates, further undermining debt sustainability. So, as public debt rises and populations age, growth will fall. As growth falls, debt rises even more, reinforcing the downward impact on an already low growth rate. The only possible conclusion is that advanced countries with high debt must act quickly and decisively to address their looming fiscal problems. The longer they wait, the bigger the negative impact will be on growth, and the harder it will be to adjust.

Here's hoping that Biden will open his yap and call someone a bad name after they quote this paper, and then use the paper to finally humiliate him into silence.

Until we insist upon a culture that will not tolerate this irresponsibility from its leadership, we will struggle as an economy.

Let's git after it, ya'll. No time like the present.