Marginal Utility

I'll probably email the Edwards campaign with a suggestion. I can see the staff somewhere in Iowa sitting around a folding table at their lap tops waiting a good idea to come in.

Well here its "Marginal Utility". The economic justice arguments (sounds soft even to me) can best be made employing this phrase. It has the ring of scientific validity*, and appeals to common sense. I'll even propose an illustrative comparison. Scrooge McDuck and his nephew Donald. An extra ten dollar bill for Scrooge goes into that big vault where it does no good what-so-ever, except for when Scrooge feels like taking a dip. An extra ten dollars for Donald goes to fix the flat tire on his jalopy, so he can drive to work. Hell, you could come up with hundreds of illustrations/anecdotes that would resound with folks.

*more economic validity than the specious "Laffer Curve" which President Reagan used so effectively to rationalize income tax cuts in the early eighties.

Obama Watch

The night after announcing his candidacy Barak went to a party in Chicago thrown by Penny Pritzker and walked away with a million dollars in campaign funds. On the twentieth of this month he'll go to a party in Hollywood hosted by Spielberg, Geffen and Katzenberg where he could collect twice that much.
For all his popularity, Barak didn't have much in the way of funds. He's taking care of that little problem, but at what cost? If he's sliding into that "bought and paid for" swamp, it sure won't be the Palestinans who hold all his IOU's. So much for the new vision.
The pro-Israel folks will keep a foot in both camps, contributing "generously" to both Clinton and Obama. Makes me like John Edwards even better.
One guy to keep an eye on is Rahm Emanuel. He chairs the Democractic Congressional Campaign Committee - not a bad gig for a congressman first elected in 2003, but he's known to be the guy who decides which candidates get Jewish financial support in their primary and election campaigns. He even goes out and recruits candidates who support his pro-Israel, pro-big business ideology.
If he cozies up to Obama, Hillary will be very, very upset. It would almost be worth the pain of seeing Obama selling out to see Hillary's apoplexy when she gets the news. Oh, look who's on the guest list for the Hollywood party - Rahm's brother, Ari.
PS If you think I'm "making it up" about Emanuel, Google his name and check it out.

Barak Obama

Just saw Obama's announcement of his candidacy. I've been skeptical because of his short history on the national scene; I haven't had time to figure out if if he's bought and paid for and if so who owns him. So far, in my mind, he's only slipped up once - when he criticized Senator Durbin for comparing Guantanamo to the Gulag.

I still think I favor Senator John Edwards, in terms of having both the ideals and the organization, but Obama continues to impress. I'd like to see both my guys whack away at the AIPAC candidate, that cold conniving political knife fighter. How come the media is so ready to annoint her, and provide her so much (favorable) coverage. Probably because they share her strong devotion to the state of Israel.

Bad News, but HFC probably deserves it.

I think the weakening in the stock market this past week was largely a result of the following announcement. (There was also some bad news about "flash" technology that hurt the chip manufacturers.)

HSBC Reports Rise in Troubled Loans

('http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/08/business/worldbusiness/08bank.html');

HSBC Holdings said its charge for bad debts would be more than $10.5 billion for 2006 because of problems in its mortgage portfolio.By REUTERSPublished: February 8, 2007

LONDON, Feb. 7 (Reuters) — HSBC Holdings, a bank based in Britain, said on Wednesday that its charge for bad debts would be more than $10.5 billion for 2006, some 20 percent above analysts’ average forecasts, because of problems in its mortgage portfolio.HSBC said in a trading update late on Wednesday that slowing growth in house prices was being reflected in accelerated delinquency trends across the subprime mortgage market, particularly in more recent loans.Analysts had expected HSBC’s 2006 loan impairment charge to be $8.8 billion, according to the average of 11 analysts’ forecasts, the bank said.That figure is now expected to be about $1.8 billion higher, or about $10.6 billion.


In a nutshell, mortgage defaults are rising.

As I commented before, this is bad news for the housing industry, because fire sale prices on foreclosed homes undercut the market for other sellers. It's bad news for the banking industry, too.

The banks have been trying to get away from default risk on their loans by selling them to other investors. The banks now write the loans, collect the fees, bundle 50 $200,0000 loans together and sell the bundle to some pension fund for a million dollars. I suppose the buyers of the bundle insist on some buy back provisions if the borrower defaults within a the first two or three years. So the banks aren't entirely off the hook. And a lot of these mortgages that are being defaulted on are loans written in 2005 and 2006 when home prices were high and lending practices were relaxed.

HSBC (Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Company) decided to get into the American mortgage market by buying Household International, a lender with the worst of reputations, so their problems are popping up first but this is just the beginning of the mortgage default trend that's got a long way to go.

The folks who hold these bundled mortgages think of them as secured loans and may not appreciate the risk level. Also credit insurance is available and has been fairly cheap for these big investors, but the problem isn't always in getting insurance. Often it's collecting on the insurance. A lot of the insurance they have is written in the derivative market by hedge funds. The insurers were betting nothing bad would happen, and nobody knows if they have the money to pay off if they lose the bet. The harder I look at these insurance policies (credit risk swaps) the more confused I get. This is the old "counter party risk", and it's very hard to quantify- which means its probably worse than you think.. (See Enron)

Weird Week

Steffo told me she thought the moon was in Libra this week, and she thought that meant I would have a good week. Well, so much for astrology.

Wednesday my Nissan wouldn't start so I drove Janett's Buick to work. It steered funny. A couple of weeks ago I told her the allignment was bad, and it seemed to get worse. I checked the tires because turning at low speed it felt as though I was driving on a flat. On ice and snow on the way home it felt even worse. like I was slipping and sliding, and that I could even have slid into the wrong lane. Also, I forgot my lunch. Also my glasses broke at work. When I got home I ran the battery down on the Nissan tryng to start it and then I couldn't get the hood open to recharge the battery. Thursday I didn't go to work. Pretty much sulked the day away.

Lou's mom died Monday. The wake was Thursday evening. Kim gave me a ride because I wasn't going to drive the Buick, and the Nissan still would not start. Lou and his kids seemed to be OK. Sally's health had been deteriorating for some time. I worry abouy his dad.

When we got home Kim helped me open the hood on the Nissan and I charged the battery. then I got the damn thing running. They say since the invention of electronic ignition you're not supposed to pump the accelerator to start the car. Well I ended up pumping it alot, and eventually holding the pedal to the floor to get it started.

So, today things got better. I went to the memorial service. Then Janett, Kim and I went to a fun lunch Then we dropped by the hospital so Janett could make arrangements for a test on Monday. then we stopped at a mall for some light shopping. Oh, and Janett found my spare glasses,

Yeah, Baby. ND #1

We don't have frats, but we got our Bluto: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZiuzbRj5_I

(I'm having trouble linking)

Ron Zook's Recruiting Success

From SMQ Sunday Morning Quarterback

Read it all, or start halfway down to learn Coach Zook's recruiting secret.

"In his ongoing effort to expand his knowledge and passion for the usually ignored, slightly disconcerting and irredeemably corrupting meat market of college football recruiting in its final hours before Signing Day, SMQ tracked down Illinois commit Arrelious Benn in the nation's capital for his perspective on the trials and triumphs of the recruiting process.

The 6-foot 2-inch D.C. native played both ways at Dunbar High last year and starred at linebacker, but signed with the Illini as the number two prospect in the nation at wide receiver and the twelfth-best overall recruit by the online service Scout.com after catching more than 100 passes for 1,139 yards and 25 touchdowns over the last two years. Benn sat down with SMQ over light tuna and coconut ceviches with avocado at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial overlooking the majestic reflecting lake on the Washington Mall to talk about his decision to attend Illinois, overcoming adversity in a rough urban neighborhood and his expectations within the Illini offense as a freshman next fall.

SMQ: Okay, first of all, I have to know: where does the name come from?

Arrelious Benn: [Laughs] Yeah, yeah, I get that a lot. 'Arrelious,' I don't know. My mom just liked it, I guess, I hadn't ever asked her. People ask me, I'm just like, "Damn, I don't know. Get off me," so it's not something I really think about. But there's only one Arrelious.

SMQ: Well, obviously your talent and your play over the last couple years speaks to that. You're moving away from home, though, pretty far from D.C. How's that adjustment going to work?

AB: Well, you know, the weather's a little different, it's just like, a different sorta town, know what I'm sayin'? D.C. is like, a straight city, right? But it's different to go to a place that's more like a campus-type environment, which is totally different than what I know here. But I'm excited. I'm looking forward to the challenge of competing. Football is football. I'm just gonna go out and do what I do. Big players make big plays in big games.

SMQ: You have a 3.25 GPA, which is better than me in high school, let me tell you. How much did academics factor into the decision?

AB: Aw, grades were huge, definitely, the school part is a big deal. I could have wound up somewhere else where maybe I could have played a little earlier, maybe had it a little easier in the classroom, but my mama wouldn't have it. Wouldn't have none of it. She said, "You going to a place you can get a degree people will respect," and there was no arguing with that.

SMQ: Did Coach Zook make any promises about playing time?

AB: No, no, definitely not. I know what a competitive situation it is there. I'm excited to compete with a couple of the guys they got coming back at receiver to compete for the job. I was excited that I might have the opportunity to run the ball a little bit by what they're doing, opening it up a little more, I think. I don't expect it to be easy at all, but they're making the transition to a more athletic quarterback who might be a little bit better fit in the offense, he's just going to be a sophomore. So he'll be getting better, and we're all adjusting with one another and we'll have a couple years to keep getting better and better and in sync.

SMQ: All things considered, your commitment was somewhat of a surprise. How did Coach Zook bring you on board?

AB: Coach Zook, man, that man is a trip. They see he's got one spped - 100 miles and hour, and he goes that fast all the time. And they ain't lyin'. He took me out, like, jet skiing and that kind of thing, you know. On my visit...


...he took me out on this huge ass lake and we just tore it up in this little boat he had. Coach Z was cool, he was cool, definitely. Introduced me to some girls on campus, took me out on the field and had all the lights on and we tossed the ball around and he was acting all like he was the P.A. guy, throwing it and making me run routes and the whole thing, calling it, like "Benn at the 15, at the 10, Benn's gonna go!! Touchdown, Arrelious Benn!" And he'd do the crowd noise with his mouth and run up to me in the end zone and do the chest bump and everything. He made me douse him with Gatorade. That was kinda weird. But he was kind of more like a buddy than a coach, not like some of the coaches I talked to who felt like they'd be looking over my shoulder all the time. He definitely made me see myself in the orange and blue.

SMQ: It was a bit of a surprise that you chose to go to Illinois, which is a team that has historically struggled and hasn't won recently...

AB: Wait, man, say what? I'm going to play for Ron Zook at Florida, dawg.

SMQ: Wait, I thought you committed to Illinois. [Looking through notes]

AB: Naw, dawg, naw, Florida, man. National champions.

SMQ: But...you signed with Ron Zook.

AB: Yeah. Florida. Tim Tebow, baby.

SMQ: Ron Zook's the coach at Illinois.

AB: No way, he was decked out in Florida shit, we were in the Swamp. Florida cheerleaders huggin' on me with their little garters way up the thigh.

SMQ: Are you sure?

AB: They had little Florida uniforms on...but they were a little pale, come to think of it. And they did call him 'dad.' And the old one had a sweater tied around her neck. [Long pause] He's where?

SMQ: Um, Illinois. The Fighting Illini? He was decked out...he didn't mention he got fired at Florida, like, more than two years ago?

AB: The Fightin' what? Where the hell is that?

SMQ: Illinois? It's...Illinois.

AB: [silence]

SMQ: They were, um, 2-10 last year. Last place in the Big Ten.

AB: This be some bull shit.

Arrelious Benn is rated as the second-best wide receiver prospect in the nation by Scout.com.

Letter to the Editor

Today (Friday Feb 2) The Chicago Tribune printed a letter to the editor that read something like this:

If an actual colt went up against an actual bear, the bear would win.

That was it. It took me several moments to recognize the letter for what it was, a sly commentary on the content of the Trib's editorials on the page next to the letters to the editors. The writer was attempting to mimic the wisdom and integrity of the Tribune's editorial staff.

It used to be that in the rest of the newspaper you found the facts, in the editorials you found the truth. Now you find Opinions. That's how the Tribune titles their editorials: Opinions. And whose opinions? Two right wing ladies
so lightweight they must carry rocks in their purses to keep from blowing away on their way to the Tower, one black lady for local color, a "historian" from the Hoover institute who features his middle name so prominently he may be an aspiring assassin, and that poisonous toad from the New York Times.

And they wonder why readership is declining. I am a loyal (daily) reader. When they lose me they can turn out the lights, and they're almost there.

And the Red Bull ran close behind...

Look Kids , it's The Last Unicorn. Recommended to all, and a great read too, if you can find the book.

Edited for remembrance:

In college I first read I See by My Outfit, then A Fine and Private Place wonderfully innocent yet knowing books in a troubled time. I wanted more Peter Beagle and got The Last Unicorn - more than anyone could have hoped for.

That makes me think of William Goldman. I was reading him too about then.
His first was good, Temple of Gold, but even better to me Soldier in the Rain, Boys and Girls Together, and Your Turn to Curtsey, My Turn to Bow - It's as though these books confirmed what I was learning about relationships at that time. William Goldman hit the real big time, going to Hollywood and writing the screenplay for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and guess what else? Give up? The Princess Bride.

What a great time to be a reader. Pynchon, Kesey and Wolfe were informing me as well. Boy. I never read stuff like that anymore, but I've heard The Color of Light is really, really good. Maybe I'll get a copy.

Sunday Evening

Whew, I'm kind of tuckered out. We've had a lot going on. Some good, some not so good. The good part was a visit from Janett's Minnesota children, Valerie and her husband John with their children; Hannah and Logan, and Nate and his wife, Angie with daughters; Gabi and Allie. They were all beautiful. As usual, you'll have to go to Janett's site for photos.

The visit took our minds off the news last week that Noah wouldn't be returning from Afghanistan next month, but would be there for an indefinite period - probably four more months. Lauren came to a pizza and pool party at Nate's motel Friday evening. Unstoppable her was driving Saturday to Champaign-Urbana looking for a house to buy for she and Noah to live in when Noah gets home, leaves the army, and enrolls at the university.

The other preoccupation of late has been Jannet's diverticulitis. To say she's had some discomfort lately would be an understatement. Her wonderful doctor Gassert had the same problem and had surgery a couple of years ago and is hooking her up with his surgeon. Janett's going to meet the surgeon Tuesday. Dr. Gassert has been expressing concern over the risks of letting the problem going untreated, but I'm reluctant to see her undergo surgery. I just see myself in the waiting room, having the nurse tell me, "The doctor will be out to see you in a few minutes. The re-sectioning went well, but we're having a little trouble stopping the bleeding." Now I'm being a bummer, sorry, but better than to pretend to be oblivious.

On a happier note, Wednesday is Janett's birthday , and we'll probably go to The Red Lobster and try to eat our way through a gift card Dean sent us for Christmas. Well maybe half way through.

Love

Justin who?

Kyle McAlarney, 19, starting point guard for the Irish basketball team was dismissed from the university last week with the right to apply for readmission next summer. McAlarney was arrested by state police on Dec. 29 after marijuana was discovered in his car during a routine traffic stop a few blocks from campus. The arrest came hours after he scored a career-high 21 points against Rider.

In a possibly related event Justin Tratttou, 4-star high school defensive end from NJ, withdrew his verbal commitment to accept an ND foofball scholarship and accepted a scholarship offer from the Florida Gators. Hell a drug bust in the SEC probably gets you suspended from practice for a couple of days.





As I promised: ND Hockey

Notre Dame comes into the weekend with a 20-5-1 overall record and a 14-3-1 mark in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association, good for 29 points. Miami is 18-8-2 overall and 13-5-2 in the conference for 28 points with Notre Dame having two games in hand on the RedHawks.

They are 9-1 against teams ranked in the top 15 at the time they play them. That could improve to 10-1 if they complete the weekend sweep of Miami (OH) tonight. The only loss came at Michigan State the night after we beat them. They are also in first place in the CCHA by three points with two games in hand.


2006-07 CCHA CONFERENCE STANDINGS
CONFERENCE OVERALL
GP W L T Pts. GF GA W L T GF GA
Notre Dame 19 15 3 1 31 69 35 21 5 1 103 47
Miami 21 13 6 2 28 75 55 18 9 2 101 77
Michigan 19 13 6 0 26 84 59 18 9 0 116 87
Michigan State 19 12 6 1 25 58 44 16 8 1 83 62
Nebraska-Omaha 19 9 8 2 20 72 59 12 11 6 112 87
Lake Superior 19 8 8 3 19 48 49 14 10 3 74 64
Western Michigan 20 9 10 1 19 63 73 11 13 1 83 93
Ohio State 19 7 8 4 18 59 56 9 11 5 80 82
Northern Michigan 21 8 12 1 17 55 60 11 16 2 73 81
Alaska 19 6 10 3 15 53 66 8 13 4 73 85
Ferris State 19 4 13 2 10 43 72 7 17 3 71 96
Bowling Green 20 3 17 0 6 35 86 5 22 1 52 115


.

Re: The Bears

I gave credit to Thomas Jones, the defense, and Darrien. Let's see who did I forget?How about a big Chicago thank you to that tumbling fool, Reggie Bush.

Matt LeVoir?

I was wrong, I think the Bears do have one ND guy - a back up offensive lineman. I bet the Patriots wished they still had David Givens last night, (Cliff Branch might have helped as well)

The Bears

How many minutes into the 3rd quarter was the safety. Half way through? So the Bears got fired up and beat the Saints by 21 points over the last quarter and a half. Wow, I don't know to whom to give credit, Thomas Jones or the defense - but that was a great catch by Darrien for the score. Game balls for everyone.

Now I'm watching Pats vs Indy. Pats look good, but if the Bears can keep the high they finished with today - Look Out.

The Bears

OK, I'm pulling for the Bears. But the Saints may have more offensive muscle than anyone else the Bears played this year. But if the Bears dont win it wont be because of the "worst to first" or "Rebuilding the city" mystique. It will be because the Bears dont have any Irish, and New Orleans has three. Jeff Faine, a tough guy center, John Carney, the venerable kicker, long of the Charger fame, and a tight end named John Owens who didn't get to play much at ND. So, I guess if I had to project a score, it would ne Saints by three.

Malachy

I havent seen my granson Malachy in a week and I really miss him. Malachy if you read this give me a call.

Funny, I was thinking about love this week. That it's more important to love than to be loved. Because love is your yearning to get closer to goodness. That understanding applies easily to God or to your spouse, and I guess it applies to 2 year olds.

Who is that guy?

What a turn around. This is the guy who sponsored the motion to rename French Fries Freedom Fries in the congressional lunch room...



The Jones Resolution For
Avoiding War With Iran
By Patrick J. Buchanan
1-16-7


Mr. Bush, Meet Walter Jones ...

America is four years into a bloody debacle in Iraq not merely because Bush and Cheney marched us in, or simply because neocon propagandists lied about Saddam's nuclear program and WMDs, and Iraqi ties to al-Qaida, anthrax attacks and 9-11.

We are there because a Democratic Senate voted to give Bush a blank check for war. Democrats in October 2002 wanted the war vote behind them so they could go home and campaign as pro-war patriots.

And because they did, 3,000 Americans are dead, 25,000 are wounded, perhaps 100,000 Iraqis have lost their lives, 1.6 million have fled, $400 billion has been lost and America stands on the precipice of the worst strategic defeat in her history.

Yet, Sens. Clinton, Biden, Kerry and Edwards-all of whom voted to give Bush his blank check-are now competing to succeed him. And how do they justify what they did?

"If only we had known then what we know now," they plead, "we would never have voted for the war." They are thus confessing to dereliction in the highest duty the Founding Fathers gave Congress. They voted to cede to a president their power to take us to war.

Now they wash their hands of it all and say, "It's Bush's War!"

And now George Bush has another war in mind.

In his Jan. 11 address, Bush said that to defend the "territorial integrity" of Iraq, the United States must address "Iran and Syria."

"These two regimes are allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq. Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops. We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We will interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq."

The city sat bolt upright. If Bush was talking about Iranian agents inside Iraq, he has no need of a second aircraft carrier in the Gulf, nor for those Patriot missiles he is sending to our allies.

But does Bush have the authority to take us to war against Iran?

On ABC last Sunday, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, while denying Bush intends to attack Iran, nonetheless did not deny Bush had the authority to escalate the war-right into Iran.

George Stephanopoulos: "So you don't believe you have the authority to go into Iran?"

Stephen Hadley: "I didn't say that. That is another issue. Any time you have questions about crossing international borders, there are legal questions."

Any doubt how Attorney General Gonzales would come down on those "legal questions"? Any doubt how the Supreme Court would rule?

Biden sputters that should Bush attack Iran, a constitutional crisis would ensue.

I don't believe it. If tomorrow Bush took out Iran's nuclear facilities, would a Senate that lacks the courage to cut funds for an unpopular war really impeach him for denying a nuclear capability to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? Bush's lawyers would make the same case Nixon made for the 1970 "incursion" into Cambodia-and even a Nixon-hating Democratic House did not dare to impeach him for that.

Bush's contempt for Congress is manifest and, frankly, justified.

Asked if Congress could stop him from surging 21,500 troops into Iraq, Bush on "60 Minutes" brushed aside Congress as irrelevant.

"I fully understand (the Congress) could try to stop me from doing it. But I've made my decision. And we're going forward." Asked if he had sole authority "to put the troops in there no matter what the Congress wants to do," Bush replied, "In this situation I do, yeah."

Is Congress then impotent, if it does not want war on Iran?

Enter Rep. Walter Jones, Republican of North Carolina.

The day after Bush's threat to Iran, Jones introduced a Joint Resolution, "Concerning the Use of Military Force by the United States Against Iran." Under HJR 14, "Absent a national emergency created by attack by Iran, or a demonstrably imminent attack by Iran, upon the United States, its territories, possessions or its armed forces, the president shall consult with Congress, and receive specific authorization pursuant to law from Congress, prior to initiating any use of force on Iran."

Jones' resolution further declares, "No provision of law enacted before the date of the enactment of this joint resolution shall be construed to authorize the use of military force by the United States against Iran."
If we are going to war on Iran, Jones is saying, we must follow the Constitution and Congress must authorize
If Biden, Kerry, Clinton and Obama refuse to sign on to the Jones resolution, they will be silently conceding that Bush indeed does have the power to start a war on Iran. And America should pay no further attention to the Democrats' wailing about being misled on the Iraq war.

To find out more about Patrick Buchanan, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.

http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/cgi-bin/buchanan.cgi/

Interesting background re Ethiopia/Somalia

Gwynne Dyer:

A new war in Africa


Gwynne Dyer
Saturday, January 13, 2007

“The Ethiopians now are advancing, but that is not the end,” Omar Idris, a senior official of Somalia’s Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), told the BBC on Wednesday. “We know what happened in Iraq, the experience of the Americans... I think this is very, very early to say that the Islamic Court forces were defeated.” The war is starting in Somalia, but it may end up being fought in Ethiopia and Eritrea, too. Together, the three countries contain almost a hundred million of the poorest people on the planet.

On Thursday, the Ethiopian army took Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, and the UIC, the closest thing to a government that Somalia has had since the country collapsed into anarchy fifteen years ago, retreated south towards the border with Kenya. Ethiopia has tanks, jet fighters and the tacit support of the United States; the UIC has only light weapons and the support of Somalis who distrust Ethiopians (i.e. almost all of them). So the UIC will probably win in the end, but it will take a long guerilla war.

This is a war founded on a misconception and driven by paranoid fantasies. The misconception was the US government’s belief that the Islamic Courts, local religious authorities backed by merchants in Mogadishu who wanted someone to curb the warlords, punish thieves, and enforce contracts, were just a cover for al-Qaeda. So the US instead backed the warlords who were making Somalis’ lives a misery.

American support is the kiss of death in Somalia, so the warlords were finally dislodged in Mogadishu last June by an uprising led by the UIC and supported by most of the population. The warlords fled to an American ship offshore, their clansmen went to ground, and the UIC rapidly took control of most of southern Somalia, bringing order for the first time since 1991. But the US immediately started plotting its overthrow.

Washington’s principal instrument in this enterprise was Ethiopia, Somalia’s giant neighbour to the west. Ethiopia’s 75 million people outnumber Somalis by more than seven-to-one — but although the Christians of the highlands have always dominated Ethiopia, almost half of its people are Muslims, like the Somalis. In Ethiopia’s sparsely populated eastern desert, the Ogaden, most of the people are not only Muslim but ethnically Somali. This is where the paranoid fantasies kick in.

Most of Ethiopia’s Muslims are too busy scratching a living to challenge the Christian near-monopoly of power in their country, but the last thing Ethiopia’s rulers want to see is an Islamic regime next-door in Somalia. To make matters worse, the Ethiopians suspected that their enemies, the Eritreans, were sending troops and arms to help the Islamic Courts regime in Somalia.

Ethiopia has fought and won two wars with Somalia over the Ogaden, in 1964 and 1977 (back when Somalia had a government and an army). It fought a bitter border war in 1998-2000 with Eritrea, a breakaway province that won its independence in 1993. (Ethiopia has rejected the decision of an independent panel on the border, and that war is just waiting to start again.) So over the past year, Ethiopia’s paranoid fantasies have come together with Washington’s.

The official American position, stated last week by Jendayi Frazer, assistant secretary of state for African affairs, is that the UIC is now “controlled by al-Qaeda cell individuals. The top layer of the Court are extremists. They are terrorists.” Even US diplomats in the region privately reject this assertion, but it is now an article of faith in Washington.

Ethiopia accuses the UIC of “threatening Ethiopian sovereignty,” which merely means that senior UIC members make the same claims about the Somali-Ethiopian border that all Somali nationalists of every party have always made. No UIC troops have even approached that border — but just after the UIC took control of Mogadishu in June, Ethiopia started sending troops into Somalia.

The Ethiopians said they were there to support the so-called “transitional government” of Somalia, a body led by Abdullahi Yusuf, a Somali warlord who is a long-standing ally of Addis Ababa. But the “transitional government,” which emerged from UN-backed talks between Somali factions in 2004, lacked popular support and never controlled much except the town of Baidoa, near the Ethiopian border.

In early December, Islamic Court troops moved on Baidoa with the declared intention of driving the Ethiopian troops out. On 24 December, Ethiopia responded with the offensive that has now taken Mogadishu. With overwhelming material superiority and US-supplied satellite surveillance data, the Ethiopians have won an easy victory, and already the warlords who used to dominate the capital are reasserting their control under the shelter of the “transitional government.”

But this is just the start of a long guerilla war that will sap the strength of the Ethiopian army, a Christian-led force backing unpopular warlords in a Muslim country. It will radicalise the Islamic Courts and turn them into exactly the extremist force that Washington and Addis Ababa fear. It will probably radicalise Ethiopian Muslims and start insurrections there. It will almost certainly trigger a new war between Ethiopia and Eritrea (which has sent troops to Somalia to back the UIC).

The Ethiopian invasion is illegal, unjustified and deeply, deeply stupid, but it has Washington’s strong support. From the same folks who brought you Iraq....

Curmudgeon

I haven't looked up the word to find if it has some positive connotations. I think it means a person who is cynical, grouchy, and perhaps even overbearing in presenting negative views. I don't know if the word implies advanced years. That would make "old curmudgeon" redundant.

Allow me to stipulate that I am entirely grateful for everything I've been given.
I have and have had the most wonderful wife, children and grandchildren, grandparents, parents, brothers and sisters, and friends a with whom a person could have been blessed.

I was raised in a secure loving environment of comfort and gentility among people who respect the virtues of responsibility, integrity, and faith in God. I was given the best of educations and developed a love of learning. All of this in the United States of America in the second half of the twentieth century, arguably the best place and time for a person to exist in the history of creation.

Lastly I came into the world with a nice appearance, a friendly smile, and an agreeable disposition. I may be the happiest person any of us know. My only concern is that on judgment day God may say "I gave you everything and what did you do with it?" I have to hope a lot of little kindnesses which came naturally will make up for a lack of singular accomplishments which I would have had to work for.

Love to all.

Mild Rant

With all the goofy stuff going on, I haven't had much time for foreign affairs lately. So just a passing nod to more manifestations of the decider's ineptitude.

Having the Ethiopians invade Somalia - the guy can always make a bad situation worse.
Presumably he's looking for a cheap win in the war on terror. He's going to radicalize the Islamic Courts and create another "haven" for you know who. I's sure the Somlians appreciate the hell out of our putting the warlords back on top.

Letting the Israelis leak plans for a nuclear strike on Iran. Duhhh, do you think the Iranians weren't already factoring in that (remote, I hope) possibility? Now we've given them justification for their push for nuclear weapons, and given the Iranians something to talk to the Russians French and Chinese about regarding their cooperation in torpedoing UN sanctions

The Surge. Too stupid to even talk about.

Turning the miltary/diplomantic/intelligence organizations upside down by shuffling bodies around. This is worse than rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. This is final days in the bunker stuff.

Oh and don't get me wrong, there was nothing special about this week. A list like this could be composed every week. Could anybody speak the phrase "America's prestige in the international community" without an awkward pause and an embarrassed blush?

Oh Noooo

The Irish opened their Big East basketball season with a loss to Georgetown. I think the baseball and fencing seasons are yet to come. We could be pretty good at those sports. Wait, I'm forgetting - we've got a pretty good hockey team. I'll let you know how they're doing.

Sell in May and go Away

This old market axiom got me out of gold OK, but did'nt keep me from shorting the Dow which was an expensive mistake.

In my "Interesting" post last week (down towards the end, for those of you who didn't get that far) I said the Fed was creating a lot of money to fuel the economy, but that the money wasn't going into productive investments, but into the stock market, thus explaining the markets continued rise in the face of an uncertain economic situattion.

I went about twelve pages deep in Google looking for commentary on this phenomenon, but didn't find it. So let me explain in my own inimicable style.

Private Equity Funds and Leveraged Buy Outs are investment opportunities for the very wealthy (and pension funds). The managers collect money from investors, pick out an investment they like, borrow maybe ten or twenty times as much as the investors ante'd up and buy the investment.

The managers figure they can run the company better than the old managers, make higher profits, and then sell their investment for more than they paid for it.
The borrowing part is important. Thats's where leverage comes in. Say the managers buy a company that makes a profit of 50 million a year for five hundred million.
The investors had contributed 50 million and 450 million was borrowed. The managers try to sell off a couple of divisions of the company for 200 million, paying off part of the loan, but keep the pieces where they think they can increase profits the most. Maybe the sold off divisions contributed 20 million in profits. So they have an operation making 30 million a year. They shut down operations that are only marginally profitable and lay off a lot of people to reduce expenses and concentrate on what they think can be the most profitable operations. So in three years the company is making 50 million a year, and the managers sell it for 500 million. They get a good price for a smaller company because now the company is trimmed down and concentrating on its high growth, most profitable operations. So if the 200 million from selling the spun off divisions paid off part of the loan there is still 250 million to pay off, leaving a profit of 250 million. The managers take 20% of the profit (50 million) leaving 200 million for the investors. In most cases the managers would have paid investment bankers and lawyers 50 million in fees, so that would reduce investors profits to 100 million on the 50 they invested, still a very nice profit. Perhaps too optimistic, but that's how investors hope thing's will work out. It's even conceivable that the officers of the slimmed down company would come up with 50 million and borrow 450 to buy the business themselves. That way they insure they keep their jobs and no doubt believe they can make the company even more profitable. The bank is willing to go alomng because it's been a good deal for them so far. So thats where the Fed's new money is going - to lend to the managers to finance these deals.

Thats what's been going on for a few years. Snags can arise. Maybe the managers can't sell off the divisions they thought they would. Maybe interest rates go up, making the loans more expensive than planned, maybe the competitive circumstances or the economic environment change making it harder to increase profits. In such cases the managers, investment bankers, and lawyers still got their fees, but the investors lose their money. That hasn't been happening lately but it has happened in the past and will again.

A more predictable problem is that good takeover targets get scarcer because the good ones have already been taken, but people keep signing up to contribute their money and become partners, and the managers still have to go out and find (less attractive) companies to buy out. Pretty soon some of the deals are going to go bust and the banks will lose some of their money and the partners will lose their investments.

Remenmber about a year ago I was looking for a good water company to buy and both Hinkley and Schmitt and Culligan had been brought up? So I had to look for other stocks to buy that maybe I didn't like as well. Like I say, all this Fed money going into stock investment is holding the market up and I don't know where it's going to stop. (but it will)

GO IRISH

We're going to Steffy's to watch the Sugar Bowl I'm bringing the brats and micro-wavable tamales (like you used to see at the school caffeteria). Lou got me a bottle opener that plays the fight song and Malachy figured out how to make it play. Provides great atmosphere, but everytime he plays it he expects me to get up and march around the room with him.

Love

Malefactors is OK

I checked

"malefactors" in last post

Is that a word? Did I spell-check? Was I tired? I should have my posting privileges revoked for a day. I'm trying to figure out how to link to Janett's My Space.
It's a lot of fun, but I'm not a my spacer yet. I've reached my limits - I cant remember any more passwords.

Forgive me, but

Squeaky Fromme is to assassin as Gerald Ford is to president.

Pardoning President Nixon was a message to all potential malefactors "Worst case you get caught, and we get you a pardon" See Irangate for a case of implementation of this strategy. How many times do we hear criminal politicians propose that "For the good of the country we must put this episode behind us and get on with the work of serving the people of our great nation". Big Daddy in Tennessee Williams play says it best. "Oh, the mendacity." Thanks Gerry for the corruption of the system.

But that's not what cost him the election to Jimmy Carter, any more than Chevy Chase's impersonations of him tripping over his own feet and falling down a lot. He lost that election because he said in a televised debate that the Soviet Union did not and never would dominate Eastern Europe. Jimmy Carter, the moderator and all of America were too shocked to speak, but the word DUMMY in neon letters flashed in everyones' minds simultaneously, and we all said a silent prayer that election day would arrive before the next serious problen hit his desk.

But the reason to abhor Gerald Ford is that he was J Edgar Hoover's man on the Warren Commission and that he changed the wording of the Commission's report as to where the bullet entered the presidents back. He changed the report to say the bullet hit the president in the neck, Which allowed the commision to conclude that the bullet passed through and hit Gov Connelly in the shoulder, an impossible trajectory from where the bullet actually hit the president. The single bullet lie was neccessary to keep the number of shots fired to two rather than three because Lee Harvey Oswald couldn't have fired three shots from his supposed vantage point in the time that the president's limousine was in his line of sight. I'm sure Mr Ford rationalized this deception with the thought, "For the good of the country we must put this episode behind us and get on with the work of serving the people of our great nation". Oh, the mendacity.

Interesting, Very Interesting

From a blog called "The End of Money" by Dr Chris Martenson

"However, as you know I am a huge critic of the way that our government collects and reports inflation numbers and I think the stock market is making a huge mistake in believing the ‘official inflation numbers’. For example, in the most recent GDP announcement it was reported that food costs are up 2.4% over the past year.

Hmmmm. Could they have forgotten to include the cost of orange juice which is up not 2.8%, not 3.9% not even a horrendous 9.2% but rather 66.0%(!!) over the past year?

In fact, this is not an isolated example. The following links to charts of all the major grain types reveals similar patterns. I wonder how food costs can be said to be up 2.4% when the actual price increases are up over 15 to 30 times that amount? A fair question, to be sure.

Corn (up 87% over the last year)

Wheat (up 58%)

Oats (up 44%)

Continuing into other basic materials I cannot find any that even remotely correspond to the government’s numbers

Oil (Unchanged)

Copper (up 60%)

Silver (up 75%)

Aluminum (up 39%)

These charts show, in frightening and graphic detail, that inflation is running at anything but the ~3.3% that the government recently reported."



Traditionally, the purpose of economic regulation and the central banking system has been to insure enough money/credit is available to fund economic activity and some growth in the level of economic activity. When the growth in the supply of money
(including money you can borrow as well as money you have) exceeds the increases in the production of things to buy, you have "more money chasing fewer goods" and the price of the goods are bid up. This is what we think of as inflation, and this appears to be occurring now. It is "strange" that the government's numbers contradict the market price changes Dr. Martenson observes.

One aspect of the problem of inflation is that a period of inflation can lead to a period of deflation. For instance, if the price of houses have been inflated, people might decide they can't afford to buy a new house right at the moment. Demand for new houses decline as the supply continues to grow. Sellers reduce their asking price slightly, but this creates a new problem. Potential buyers get nervous about borrowing to buy something the price of which is falling and may fall further. So they wait to buy to see if the price falls further. Now the builders are getting squeezed - they not only reduce prices further, they stop building more houses. Now economic activity is curtailled, people are getting laid off. In this part of the cycle, the Federal Reserve can make more money available, and thereby lower interest rates a little but people are now not only expecting prices to keep going down, they're afraid the ecomic slowdown might cost them their jobs, or at least cost them their raises and bonuses, and so they are reluctant to borrow until they feel more confident about their prospects.

Meanwhile the people who have been laid off are trying to sell their houses at lower and lower prices. Many times they will find they can't sell their house for enough money to cover their mortgage, so they'll leave their house on the market until they can't make their monthly payments and the "bank" forecloses. Now, the house goes on the market for a real bargain basement price, further reducing the price others can hope to receive if they sell. At this point, the builders have practically shut down, and more and more people are being laid off.

We're getting close to this point in the cycle. What can the government do?
Encourage the Federal Reserve bank to make more money available to help consumers buy more? That policy becomes has become less effective since confidence has become eroded. The failing housing industry is particularly a cause for concern because (I've read) that 30% of the job creation in our country in the last ten years have been linked to the housing industry, and these are the jobs that pay relatively good wages as compared to jobs in the "service" industries. As this employment is eliminated the prospect of economic contraction brcomes almost inevitable.

Of couse, the Fed is well aware of these risks and has been making credit available to keep the economy afloat. My opinion is that the money is being borrowed, but not to buy houses, but by hedge funds and venture capitalists to buy stocks. This would explain why the stock market keeps going up while the economic environment is deteriorating. I've stopped predicting the fall of the stock prices because, wirh this flood of Fed money going into the market rational expectations do not apply. But I will say this, when the market does start to fall there's going to be a lot of hedge funds trying to liquidate their very large holdings in a very short period of time.

So what's the good news? Got me.

The day after Christmas

We're having a quiet morning at home. We're lucky, we're not travelling home from somepace. Steffy and Mark left for Iowa this morning. Kim's in North Carolina with Ross and his family, Noah's in Afghanistan, but should be back at Fort Drum NY in a month or two.

Janett's not feeling well. Uh Oh - another diverticulitis flare up? We were at Steffy and Mark's yesterday, and since they were leaving home today we got the lion's share of the left-overs. I don't know how to bring up the subject of chowing down when she's not feeling good.

We turned on the TV, and caught the very end of My Friend Flicka, but not too worry - Thunderbolt, Son of Flicka is coming on next.

Don't forget about Baby Jesus.

LOve to all.

On a happier note

ND plays in the Sugar Bowl on Jan 3. Here's hoping for a win. Then we can root for the Irish basketball team to getback to the NCAA's for the first time in what seems like five years. As a last resort, Irish fans can fall back on coverage of reported Leprechaun sightings. "Who all see the Leprechaun, say Yeah"

OK , you asked for it

I've refrained from posting a lot of negative thoughts and forebodings and I shouldn't get onto that track in this happy week, but I had a weird realization on Sunday. I was talking to Lou about the trade and fiscal deficits, the enormous debt being incurred in both the private and public sectors and I began to worry about an impending collapse. It's hard to imagine the impact of the consequences on the American people, particularly because so many trust in the substance and structure of the res publica.

I imagined decent trusting people, many losing their pensions, many losing their homes, many losing their employment and their income, wondering how God could let their world collapse around them. So, the question popped into my head, "Does God care whether we die from cancer or starve to death?" If He wouldn't let us starve to death, does that mean He likes us better than all those people who He does allow to suffer such deaths?

My sense is that God does not like us better and in fact he may feel that those others are closer to Him than we. I guess my point, if there is one, is that God wills us to have spiritual abundance, not neccessarily material, and that suffering adversity with faith glorifies Him more than enjoying comforts with faith.

Still, I pray that He spares us the worst of what I can imagine unfolding.

I dont think I'm rushing the season

I think I have to shift my thoughts from the newborn in the manger to the Infant of Prague. Christ as a child, but wearing a crown and royal robes, holding the globe of the earth in his left hand, right hand raised in a blessing.

'The Little King has been enthroned as the Great King of the world to assist His subjects in their trials, difficulties, and crosses. He Who Himself has suffered so much desires to assist those who come to Him. He wishes to attract all hearts to His own through the attractiveness and simplicity of His Divine Infancy.'

Ho Ho Ho

It's been kind of a slow week for posting, not just me, everybody.

Maybe folks are distracted by shopping and decorating and such.

Well, I had to drop in and mention that the ND basketball team beat number 4 ranked Alabama this week and number 24 ranked Maryland last week. The Irish have one loss, and I don't even know to whom they lost. Kind of early for me to be looking at round-ball, but these are good vibes.

Janett's diverticulitis has been acting up this week, so we've been kind of laid back. We did get to Louie's house last night to see the kids and give him a hand starting on the Chrismas decorations. Today is the anniversary of Meg's passing, but they all seem to be OK. I'm sure they feel her absence acutely, as does Janett. Me too, I guess...but I'm a weird kind of mix of lover and loner. I'm too busy dealing with other peoples' feelings to acknowlege my own. Remember last Christmas' blog with the Infant of Prague? Maybr I'll go there again this year.

FANtastic football clips No. 33 - Armando Allen

This one is shorter but better in quality. The kid runs by, around, over, and through people.

Armando Allen Highlight

Armando Allen announced today he'll accept a scholarship at Notre Dame, and enroll this winter so he can attend spring practice.
We've already got a couple of quite good running backs coming up in James Aldridge and Munir Prince, and I hope we can utilize their talents as well, but this guy may the kind of game breaker that Tim Brown and Raghib Ismael were.
AND bringing the best running back in Florida the same year he brings in the best quarterback in California is a monster success for Charlie Weis.

Oh Boy

Well, the Irish stunk up the joint last night. You can go to the ND board linked here to read the litany of complaints by fans about their performance. Essentially, it seems the Irish were out-performed in every aspect of the game, except QB and even Brady Quinn, while determined was not flawless.

Coach Weis, I'm sure, is discouraged. His recruiting classes are frosh and sophs this year and he got to recruiting the sophs late - after the Patriots won their last Super Bowl and he was free to take the Notre Dame job. So now he has a good freshman class, an OK sophmore class. And juniors-to be-seniors, Willingham's last class? Five scholarship players. That's right, five true seniors on scholarship next year. A max of twenty-five scholarships can be granted in a year, so how do you end up with five seniors on scholarship? By half-assed recruiting and ending up with a bunch of under achievers and flakes. Thanks again, Ty.

By the way, for any lingering Willingham apologists out there: Did you know Ty was already negotiating his Washington contract when ND fired him? That was a violation of his ND contract but he still got something like a 6 million dollar go away present from ND as a buy out. The guy's a weasel, and we're lucky to be shed of him, but we're still payng a price for letting that sh*t-head near our program, and the final payment comes due next year.

So, instead of returning home with the team, Coach Weis is staying out west trying to tie down some talent for next year's freshman class. Good Luck, Coach.

Pressure

We want to see a lot of Vic Albamiri and Derek Landry tonight

On a more serious note...

James Baker's commission is evidence that the new world order boys are taking back power and influence from the neo-cons, and provides scant hope that morality or justice will prevail in policy and decision making in this or future administrations. I'm sure the Baker boys are looking for a few old Baathist and Sunni generals who they can empower to lead the reaction to the Shiite ascendancy in Iraq. Tariq Aziz, Hussein's foreign minister, has been kept on ice for the last several years. Maybe they'll trot him out to head some kind of "law and order" government.

In a not-entirely-unrelated development, the release of the Bobby movie about RFK's assassination was the occasion for an English talk show to review the circumstances of the RFK assassination, circumstances such as Sirhan standing in front of RFK when the fatal shot was fired from behind the victim. The fuel the news show added to the fire was photographic evidence of the presence of three CIA operatives being at the hotel where the killing occurred on that day. If you believe the CIA was complicit in JFK's assassination , as any sane person does, then you know the CIA could not allow RFK to ascend to the presidency.

And who's the mystery man who can be placed at the nexus of the JFK assassination?
George Herbert Walker Bush, but that's a story for another day.

Saturday Night - Game On

Oh and by the way

I skipped the whiskey yesterday, I never drink alone. I also skipped the brats and potao salad, but fixed myself a steak with saffron rice and green beans - yummm.

Skunkbears

The wolverines of Michigan lost yesterday, and incidentally put a bow on the Heisman and delivered it to Troy Smith. Typically, they're whining about a rematch. Hey Conquering Heroes, Shut the Hell Up!

Shell shocked

Mark and I went to see Departed tonight. Janett doesn't like gangster movies or violence or sociopathic behavior in general, so this was my chance and we took it. Just guessing, about twenty people got killed, the plot was suspenseful, and the story was entirely plausible in the context of Boston's Irish underworld. But one comes out of the theater numbed.

I'm not really good at recognizing or remembering actors from one movie to the next. Was Matt Damon in The Bourne Identity? I liked those movies too.

Big day for college football tomorrow. I trust ND will be OK against Army. As one poster put it at Rock's Hous,e Charlie's not going to hang 50 points on a service academy if he can help it.

I think we want Michigan to win by twenty over Ohio State. Could happen. I don't think TOSU had played a defense like Michigans this year. I guess I hope Michigan not only wins, but makes Troy Smith look bad. You know the Heisman Trophy for Brady Quinn sort of thing.

Then we want Southern Cal to beat the Berkley Bears, so that if ND can beat USC, ND will move up to second or third in the BSC. Another loss for FL and Arkansas down the stretch would also help. And West Virginia maybe could beat Rutgers next week.

When a college team loses a game a lot of things have to happen to get them into the championship game. I'd say we have maybe a 1 in 6 chance.

Tomorrow morning I'll clean up a little, go shopping for brats and potato salad, maybe some Irish whiskey to celebrate or mourn the outcomes, then hunker down with Janett's cat and the channel changer to see how the situation develops.

Oh and another thing...

Do you think Notre Dame will deat Southern Cal on the 27th?

Do you think they coud be invited to The Fiesta Bowl to play the winner of the Ohio State-Michican game?

Du you think they'd get killed in a championship game, or do you think Brady Quinn could play the game of his life and win a high scoring shoot out?
Do you?

Is this thing on?

Wednesday night. Janett and the girls and little Malachy have been gone since Monday, heading down to GA to see her brothers. You'd think they'd be there by now, but driving through the rain was so bad that they had to stop in Atlanta, short of Macon. Hey, better safe than sorry.

Monday night I did the dishes, made iced tea and watched the news.

Last night I did laundry and went through some business papers. Didn't turn on the TV until I went to bed. Ended up watching a John Wayne calvary movie. His character was called Colonel York, but it seemed like a badly written rip-off of the John Ford classic.

Tonight I went to our friends'(Missy and Phil) house. Missy fixed tasty appetizers and a really good roast. After dinner she cut my hair a little. Janett offered to do it before she left, but I wasnt in the mood that day. So things are going good for me.

I brought a big bottle of Lambrusco to dinner, and when I was at Dominick's picking it up I was looking at their brochures for prepared Thanksgiving dinners. Janett wont be home til the day before Thanksgiving and may not feel up to pulling together a big family meal.

They have a turkey dinner and a ham dinner. So here's my plan - we get both.
That way you get mashed potatoes and scalloped potatoes, green beans and corn, apple pie and pumpkin pie, ham and turkey. All for eighty bucks and lets face it if I went shopping for all the fixings for a big holiday dinner, I'd spend that much, and someone would still have to spend the whole day preparing it all. Also, at work I got a twenty dollar gift certificate from Jewel for Thanksgiving. So tomorrow on the way home I'm going to stop at Jewel and see if they do the same kind of thing and whether I can use my gift certificate.

Sure it's easy to envy me, but not everone could live this life.

Do You Love Me

Dave Clark Five - Do You Love Me

Apologies to the Isley Brothers, but this was a fun band. OOOPs I checked, I can't find this song among the Isley Brothers credits. I find it as done by the Contours. Hmmmm

Delaney, Bonnie & Friends - Comin' Home

A trip back in time. These folks hooked up for a tour back in the early seventies. They rocked, but they did so much dope Joe Cocker had to drop out of the tour early, and is still recovering. Leon Russel was there too. Score yourself some trivia points if you remember Bonnie got a gig on Roseanne Barr's TV show twenty-five years later. I don't think they let her sing.

Right angles

I turned a corner at work today and started down a hallway and all the right angles jumped out at me, floor, ceiling, ceiling tiles, light fixtures, doorways, windows.
Everything was sharp lines and not too friendly. Not scary, but unnatural.
Was it in Zen and the Art of Motorcyle Maintenance the man said nature doesn't feature straight lines? Even the horizon curves. Recent pretty fall days may have lulled me into a comfort zone. I drive a pretty route to work and home again, maybe I'll ty to relax and enjoy it.

Cogent comments

Knowlegable comments from this site

At least from the US Neo-Con perspective the political goal of the strategy was always about the end-state shape and position of Israel. I don't really give GWB credit for imagining that political goal, but he willingly bought into it.

Ever since President Jimmy Carter negotiated the Camp David Agreements, one version of the end-state settlement of the political borders of Israel have been clear -- a series of bi-lateral treaties with near neighbors, First Egypt, and then during the Clinton Presidency, Jordan, and Clinton worked on Syria to the point of just a hundred yards or so of border lands. Lebanon was temporarily settled with the exception of the Sheba Farms and a few other minor areas, but it lacked any real economic basket. At one time these were the outlines in Camp David, then they became Oslo, and at the end of Clinton's days they were Taba. The problem is -- the Neo-Con's hate it, as does the Israeli Right, and no Palestinian Leader, Arafat included, was prepared to present it as a political settlement, as the Hamas Faction would (and has) promised civil war as a result.

Where does Iraq fit into this? -- well, during the Saddam days it was a Sunni controlled and highly militarized state that supported the Palestinians who are also predominately Sunni. Arafat supported Saddam during the first Gulf War, and Saddam supported Palestinians who took violent action against Israel. I don't claim Saddam and the Palestinians have great love for each other -- but they have long had a coalition of interests in the ancient dispute between Sunni and Shias and thus the line-up within various Middle East regional coalitions. In the 20th and I would imagine the 21st centuries, part of the ground of contention between Sunni and Shias is who materially supports the Palestinian cause vis a vis Israel. Military defense, or at least the capacity to defend against Israel, if not the willingness to spill blood, is currency in this Sunni-Shias competition. Saddam's Iraq was understood as the Arab State most likely to take on this project -- and I would contend this is the deeply buried WHY behind the 2003 Invasion and taking down of Saddam's regime. That is probably the ultimate reason why Breamer's first actions were to eliminate the Iraqi Army and the Civil Command structure. The idea was to move Iraq off the table as a potential partner for Palestinians, and any other faction that potentially threatened Israel as expanded into the West Bank territory at the expense of the Palestinians. In this respect and from an American perspective, this is the anti-Camp David, anti-Oslo and anti-Taba grand plan.

I actually doubt if Oil was a leading element of the design -- it was more like frosting on the cake, a way of doing this strategic surgery cheaply, and then selling the oil to pay for the project's costs.

So what went wrong? First of all, I don't think we have actually had the open and honest American Debate about our own National Interests. Is a "Greater Israel" from the Jordan to the sea really a strategic American Interest? -- or is a political settlement creating a viable Palestinian State perhaps semi-integrated in economic terms with Israel (as understood in Camp David, Oslo and Taba) much more in our overall interests? How does either construction "fit" with national interest positions on the part of the states in the neighborhood work? (in effect, does it fit with Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria's understanding of their interests?) Can it be done somehow without upsetting traditional Sunni-Shias balances in the region? (that conflict is 1400 years old, and probably should be assumed to be underlying for the next 1400 years.)

Our American public discussion of Iraq suffers terribly from the failure of our political leaders to present us with an honest and clear description of Iraq. My guess is they barely understand it themselves. (I think it was the Times that recently started asking Administration leaders to sketch out the difference between Shias and Sunni -- and most flunked that basic test.) We really don't understand Iraqi complexity -- a society that includes Family, Clan and Tribal loyalities as essential birthright, a society with ethnic and linguistic divisions -- Kurds are not Arabs, Arabic is not their first language, but most are Sunni, and yes, in addition they have tribal divisions. And yes, their ethnic cousins also live in Syria, Iran and Turkey, and ultimately they hope for their own inclussive, ethnically defined state. The Iraqi Shias are Arabs, and speak Arabic, yet by religion and religious institutions, are linked with Iran. Politically, they have never been linked. The border of the Ottoman Empire was the current border of Iran-Iraq. Historically they have a far stronger link with Shias tribes in the NE corner of Saudi Arabia, and the Shias Saudi's are an oppressed minority faction.

I really don't have a clear idea of how to sort this all out -- I do know I have a far greater appreciation of Gertrude Bell today than when I first read Janet Wallach's biography of her perhaps eight years ago. Ultimately of course she helped create a Constitutional Monarchy, backed up by a strong Sunni Military culture, an Iraqi version of Sandhurst, and a weak representative government with few powers. At the beginning of the 20th century she found it impossible to find persons or institutions that could cross tribal and ethnic and religious cultures -- and I would suggest that Bush's little experiment with "Democracy" as he understands that term, is equally inapplicable today. Until institutions are available that have meaningful civil society values on offer, it is irrational to expect people to "vote" across tribal, ethnic, linquistic and religious lines. In effect, the Marxist idea that bourgeois political organizations represent, in part, the substitution of class interests for place and status ascribed at birth -- is a useful concept in understanding why this kind of Democracy Building is unlikely to succeed. But given that the Bushies don't seem to know the difference between Shias and Sunni -- I highly doubt if they paid much attention back in college days when Political Science class included the fundamentals of Marxist Class Analysis. The Soviet Union may have been an ultimate bust, but many of the underlying Marxist concepts remain quite useful. I simply cannot think of any society in history that was once a complex tribal structure, that then created directly something we would recognize as a Democracy, without first evolving a class system based on life choices, education, merit, opportunity, etc, and not birthright ascription of place and status. It is the ability to make political choices (vote) based on interests that stem from achieved class that in the end makes democracy as we understand that possible. In reality it is our American inability to sustain a fairly sophisticated conversation around such sociological, historical and political concepts that allows for the space in the public square to be occupied by the essential idiots that brought us this war and the problems we now face. We've shown ourselves as unable to loudly critique the Armageddonists, who wish to base Foreign Policy on a sectarian interpretation of Scripture, We can't talk honestly about US National Interest vis a vis Israel, We elect a President we want to have beer with instead of one who knows the fundamentals of international relations, diplomacy, and the very cautious use of military power, we allow the political spokespersons, media and pundits to totally confuse religion and politics, and treat membership in a party as a matter of "Faith" and not of clear interests and choices.

So why are we surprised Iraq turned out as it did?



I was interested inthe posters reference to Gertrude Bell, one of the British Arabists who at the end of World War I brought to bear knowlege and wisdom endeavoring to superimpose national states on tribal cultures, a fascinating woman.

The Stanford Game

Saturday was a strange day. Good thing the weather was beautiful and we won. Otherwise I could be a little bummed. First of all, we got a late start. I'd told Lou that we should leave around eight AM, so he shows up around ten, then the expressway's a mess so we get to South Bend around a little before one, Chicago time, then we park and walk to campus. I knew that travelling west to east you lose an hour, but I got confused and turned it around in my head. Maybe my subconscious was protecting me from freakking out. So, I was surprised to realize it was 2:40 South Bend time and we had missed the kick-off.

We got to our seats in time to see the first touchdown, a completion to Samardzjia which capped a long drive. Three more touchdowns, one each by McKnight, Walker, and Carlson and one field goal gave ND 31 points. Sranford got 10, one on a touchdown pass that I think should have been called back because the Stanford receiver pushed off the d-back at the goal line. But except for dropped passes Stanford would have scored earlier, So the final score was pretty representative of the play of the game.

After the game we went to the bookstore to pick up a birthday present for Malachy.
The tradition tee shirt wasnt avalable in toddler sizes so I got him a child's small which he can use as a night-shirt. I also selected an Notre Dame Athletic Dept Football tee shirt which will fit him better. We also picked up a few personalized ND shot glasses, one for "Andy" one for "Lou" and one for "Sue", since they didn't have a "Janett".

Having missed out on the campus walk around, I thought dinner at the South Dining Hall would be a nice thing, but of course it wasn't the same as I remembered it.
First of all it was $17.50 for a "candle-light buffet". And then, the old caffeteria line was gone, and the "renovated" dining hall featured islands for different kinds of food-none of which would you would have chosen to spend $17.50 for, and it was terribly crowded.

Being at the game was nice, but to tell the truth, I'm happier watching on TV at home.

Ooops, Janett's calling. I have to go now.

Happy Birthday to me

Last week I celebrated my 61st birthday. Steffy and Mark hosted a party. Janett prepared Russian Pie made with layers of sauteed cabbage, cream cheese, mushrooms and hard-boiled egg sliced up, all baked in a pie crust. It was this recipe that introduced Janett to taragon. Yummm, And strawberry shortcake for dessert.

We played Settlers of Cataan (sp?)after dinner, but I kind of eased myself out of the game after fifteen minutes because I was doing so badly. I received nice gifts, several several bearing the Notre Dame logo, including a Jeff Samardzjia game shirt.

And this week Lou and I are going to the Stanford game. Weather forecast is 70 degrees and sunny, just liked I'd hoped - except for not being undefeated. I'll report on our trip next week. Who wants to lend me a camera?

Maybe, I'm not posting much because I'm in suspense awaiting the bad stuff I said was coming. I guess it was postponed til after the elections.

Hi

I knows its been a week, and I'm sorry. I got another assignment at work. I'm cycle counting inventory at a plastic factory. So, I'll be getting familiar with another module of the ubiquitous Peoplesoft software. But it involves running all over the plant looking for stuff. Plus I have to wear steel-toe'd boots which are kind of heavy compared to other shoes. I'm sure the exercise is good for me, but I'm tuckered out at the end of a day. So I've just been chilling in the evening.

I didn't want you to think I was avoiding you because I didn't want to make a prediction on the Notre Dame MSU game. I was nervous about it, however, and would have included some if's and but's. It was important to win because the Spartans are so obnoxious, and because they usually fall apart half way through the season losing four out of their last five games - so they hurt the strength of schedule computation when it comes to bowl selection time.

Besides it's being another stressful game, we had to listen to Boob Davie, the disgraced former Irish coach, now a "color commentator" for ABC, second guess coach Weis all night. He's the guy who planted his blade in Lou Holts's back, to get the head coaching job when Lou was forced out. You may have heard ND lost seven of the last nine games to MSU. Well, you can lay four of those losses at Boob's door. Jerk. Oh and somebody please get Brent Musburger, the ABC play by play guy (and big ten homer) to a twelve step meeting.

By the way, I was a junior the year of the game of the century, and I don't like the spin the Spartans try to put on that game - ie Ara played for a tie, not trying to pass the ball on the last Irish possession. If the Spartans were the tough guys they like to remember that they were, how come they punted the ball away with two minutes left in the game. Hell, Charlie went for it on fourth down at least three times last night, and made two of them. In fact, Samardzjia's touchdown in the 4th quarter was on a fourth and five.

I don't know if we'll be 11 and 1 this year or 10 and 2, but I'm happy for the players that they didn't quit on themselves, and I continue to be really impressed with Coach Weis.

Here's a couple of pictures of the coach, first hugging Terrail Lambert who intercepted for the winning touchdown. Last week Terrail got burned several times in coverage against Michigan, and a lesser guy than Charlie would have thrown the kid under the bus, replacing him in the line-up to show he was "doing something" to address the weaknesses displayed last week. Charlie stayed with his guy, and Lambert came up big.

The second in Charlie hugging his twelve year old son as time ran out for Spartie.

Oooops

Remember me? I posted before the game predicting a 14 point win.
Three tortured hours later, I'm tempted to unload on BQ, for throwing a lot of bad passes. But I think what really happened was Michigan decided to cover our receivers and let us try to beat them with the run. Darius is great but he's not the kind of runner who can take over a game.

I haven't looked at Darius' numbers but was his longest run six or seven yards? He can catch and block. Maybe he should be a fullback and we should give Prince some OJT at the running back slot.

Not that it matters now

Game Day

Folks on ND bulletin boards have been getting nervous the last couple days, predicting a clse game or even a loss. I understand they're afraid our linebackers are going to get pushed around and Hart is going to run for a lot of yards, enabling Michigan to play a ball control game and keep ND's offense on the sidelines.

Well, if they know that, and I know that, Charlie Weis knows that too. Penn State couldn't figure out was happening to them last week, and I think Michigan is going to feel the same way today.

Last week ND beat PSU 41 to 17. Michigan beat Central Michigan 41 to 17.
How do you think Penn State would do against Central Michigan?

Prediction ND by two touchdowns

OK, OK, one more, but just a short one

A Michigan fan was sitting at a table reading the Newspaper, The headline read: "12 Brazilian Soldiers Killed." He shook his head at the sad news, then turned to the man sitting next to him and asked, "How many is a Brazilian?"

Stop me if you've heard this one

A Notre Dame fan in a bar leans over to the guy next
to him and says, "Wanna hear a joke about Michigan Wolverine
fans?"

The guy next to him replies, "Well, before you tell that
joke you should know something. I'm 6' tall and 220 pounds
and I'm a Michigan fan. The guy sitting next to me is 6'2"
tall, 240 pounds and he's a Michigan fan, and the guy sitting
next to him is 6'5", 280 pounds and he's a Michigan fan, too.
Now, do you still wanna tell that joke?"

The Notre Dame fan says, "Nah, not if I'm gonna have to explain
it three times."

A Joke about Michigan Coach Lloyd Carr

A Notre Dame fan, on his way home from the game last year in Ann Arbor, came to a dead halt in traffic and thought to himself, "Wow, this seems much worse than usual." He notices a police officer walking between the lines of stopped cars. The officer replies, "Lloyd Carr is depressed, so he stopped the team bus and is threatening to douse himself in gasoline and set himself on fire. He is tired of losing to Notre Dame every year and the university has cut back on his recruiting budget. We're taking up a collection for him." The Notre Dame fan asks, "How much have you got so far?" The officer replies, "About 75 gallons, but a lot of folks are still siphoning."

As you've probably noticed I'm pumped a bout Notre Dame this year, and if I begin to resemble the kind of "arrogant" ND fan other schools' fans hate, you gotta remember the eight years since Lou Holtz left have been really depressing and I'm on a high I plan to enjoy all the way through January.

My Irish cousins down under

I know my children don't feel particularly Irish, but I do.

The Clancy Brothers, jokes that make you cry, devotion to the Blessed Virgin and getting scrappy when drunk all resonate with me.

It's now been proven that you can take an Irishman, plop him down anywhere in the world and a century and a half later his descendants will still be Irish.
From The Times On Line

At least ten stingrays have been found dead and mutilated on Australia’s eastern coast in the last week in what conservationists believe could be revenge attacks for the death of Steve Irwin, the popular naturalist and television personality.

Checking in

Vacation was great. The first evening I was sitting on the porch with a book on my chest wondering how long it had been since I was that relaxed. I mean I didn't worry about a thing all week. I don't think I ever felt grumpy, though I'm sure Janett could think of at least one occasion. We were happy and nice to each other the whole time and even the rainy days were nice. Janett and Kim and Steff would visit the little shops in South Haven and St Joes and Mark and I would trail along. Mom was still the mom, but the girls are grown up now, so it great seeing them enjoying each other as adults. Malachy was precious and precocious and we got to spend a lot of time together. We have a cute video of the little guy getting hit in the head with a basketball - funnier than it sounds. Maybe Steffy will post it. See Steffy's site for photos.(The Stangers link)

We got home to see Noah before he went back to Afghanistan. I don't know what to tell you about that. I enjoyed being with him, but my antennae were up and twitching trying to understand how and what he was feeling. He seemed like the same guy, and I don't think he's suffering any really bad feelings, but Noah isn't always easy to read. Anyway, when you're away and you come home, it's nice to feel that everyone loves you like you remembered that they did, and I think Noah felt that way.

Okay, ND only beat the Yellow Jackets by 4 points. And BQ didn't take charge of the game. His passes were a little off, maybe because Georgia Tech was getting a good rush and he was throwing off his back foot. We expect better things tomorrow against Penn State. I'm throwing in a picture from the last Penn State game in South bend, the Snow Bowl, 1988 I think. Penn State got a first down on ND's three yard-line and Notre Dame staged a great goal line defense. The Lions settled for a field goal and Notre Dame ended up winning the game by a point.

Busy

Hi everybody,

Sorry not to have posted in a while. Been busy. Busy at work with a couple staff on vacation, busy with family (Yay, Noah's in town), busy with investment decisions and trying to find a broker, busy with car problem and repairs, busy trying to find tickets for the Stanford game...Busy, busy, busy, How do I do it? And now we're busy going away to Michigan for a week at the dunes. Love to all

Another Interesting Englishmen

The last couple paragraphs from the Wilkpedia article on Malcolm Muggeridge

Conversion to Christianity
Having professed publicly to being an agnostic for most of his life, he found his Christian faith, publishing Jesus Rediscovered in 1969 and Jesus: The Man Who Lives in 1976. In A Third Testament, he profiles seven spiritual thinkers, or God's Spies as he called them, who influenced his life: Augustine of Hippo, William Blake, Blaise Pascal, Leo Tolstoy, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Søren Kierkegaard, and Fyodor Dostoevsky. In this period he also produced several important BBC documentaries with a religious theme, including In the Footsteps of St. Paul.

[edit]
Subsequent conversion to Roman Catholicism
In 1982, he surprised many people by converting to Roman Catholicism at the age of 79 along with his wife, Kitty. This was largely due to the influence of Mother Teresa. His last book was Conversion, published in 1988, and describes his life as a pilgrimage - a spiritual journey.

Muggeridge was a controversial figure - known as a drinker and womaniser in early life. However, his best work came as a result of finding his faith late in life and fighting energetically for moral issues. He is affectionately remembered as St. Mugg. From his book, Jesus: The Man Who Lives, he says, "If the greatest of all, Incarnate God, chooses to be the servant of all, who would wish to be the master?"

A Literary Society in his name was established on March 24th 2003, the occasion of his centenary, and publishes a quarterly newsletter called The Gargoyle

The Israeli Peace Plan

A post to Arianna Huffigton's blog site on Israeli posture in tehe Mid-East:
(I was going to delete number 25 because the source seemed questionable, but the book, the author, and the quote appear accurately attributed.

1. "There is a huge gap between us (Jews) and our enemies ­not just in ability but in morality, culture, sanctity of life, and conscience. They are our neighbors here, but it seems as if at a distance of a few hundred meters away, there are people who do not belong to our continent, to our world, but actually belong to a different galaxy." Israeli president Moshe Katsav. The Jerusalem Post, May 10, 2001

2. "The Palestinians are like crocodiles, the more you give them meat, they want more".... Ehud Barak, Prime Minister of Israel at the time - August 28, 2000. Reported in the Jerusalem Post August 30, 2000

3. " [The Palestinians are] beasts walking on two legs." Menahim Begin, speech to the Knesset, quoted in Amnon Kapeliouk, "Begin and the Beasts". New Statesman, 25 June 1982.

4. "The Palestinians" would be crushed like grasshoppers ... heads smashed against the boulders and walls." " Isreali Prime Minister (at the time) in a speech to Jewish settlers New York Times April 1, 1988

5. "When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do about it will be to scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle." Raphael Eitan, Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defence Forces, New York Times, 14 April 1983.

6. "How can we return the occupied territories? There is nobody to return them to." Golda Maier, March 8, 1969.

7. "There was no such thing as Palestinians, they never existed." Golda Maier Israeli Prime Minister June 15, 1969

8. "The thesis that the danger of genocide was hanging over us in June 1967 and that Israel was fighting for its physical existence is only bluff, which was born and developed after the war." Israeli General Matityahu Peled, Ha'aretz, 19 March 1972.

9. David Ben Gurion (the first Israeli Prime Minister): "If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been Anti - Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault ? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?" Quoted by Nahum Goldmann in Le Paraddoxe Juif (The Jewish Paradox), pp121.

10. Ben Gurion also warned in 1948 : "We must do everything to insure they ( the Palestinians) never do return." Assuring his fellow Zionists that Palestinians will never come back to their homes. "The old will die and the young will forget."

11. "We have to kill all the Palestinians unless they are resigned to live here as slaves." Chairman Heilbrun of the Committee for the Re-election of General Shlomo Lahat, the mayor of Tel Aviv, October 1983.

12. "Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that . . . I want to tell you something very clear: Don't worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it." - Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, October 3, 2001, to Shimon Peres, as reported on Kol Yisrael radio. (Certainly the FBI's cover-up of the Israeli spy ring/phone tap scandal suggests that Mr. Sharon may not have been joking.)

13. "We declare openly that the Arabs have no right to settle on even one centimeter of Eretz Israel... Force is all they do or ever will understand. We shall use the ultimate force until the Palestinians come crawling to us on all fours." Rafael Eitan, Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces - Gad Becker, Yediot Ahronot 13 April 1983, New York Times 14 April 1983.

14. "We must do everything to ensure they [the Palestinian refugees] never do return" David Ben-Gurion, in his diary, 18 July 1948, quoted in Michael Bar Zohar's Ben-Gurion: the Armed Prophet, Prentice-Hall, 1967, p. 157.

15. "We should prepare to go over to the offensive. Our aim is to smash Lebanon, Trans-Jordan, and Syria. The weak point is Lebanon, for the Moslem regime is artificial and easy for us to undermine. We shall establish a Christian state there, and then we will smash the Arab Legion, eliminate Trans-Jordan; Syria will fall to us. We then bomb and move on and take Port Said, Alexandria and Sinai." David Ben-Gurion, May 1948, to the General Staff. From Ben-Gurion, A Biography, by Michael Ben-Zohar, Delacorte, New York 1978.

16. "We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population." Israel Koenig, "The Koenig Memorandum"

17. "Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist. Not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahlal arose in the place of Mahlul; Kibbutz Gvat in the place of Jibta; Kibbutz Sarid in the place of Huneifis; and Kefar Yehushua in the place of Tal al-Shuman. There is not a single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population." Moshe Dayan, address to the Technion, Haifa, reported in Haaretz, April 4, 1969.

18. "We walked outside, Ben-Gurion accompanying us. Allon repeated his question, What is to be done with the Palestinian population?' Ben-Gurion waved his hand in a gesture which said 'Drive them out!'" Yitzhak Rabin, leaked censored version of Rabin memoirs, published in the New York Times, 23 October 1979.

19. Rabin's description of the conquest of Lydda, after the completion of Plan Dalet. "We shall reduce the Arab population to a community of woodcutters and waiters" Uri Lubrani, PM Ben-Gurion's special adviser on Arab Affairs, 1960. From "The Arabs in Israel" by Sabri Jiryas.

20. "There are some who believe that the non-Jewish population, even in a high percentage, within our borders will be more effectively under our surveillance; and there are some who believe the contrary, i.e., that it is easier to carry out surveillance over the activities of a neighbor than over those of a tenant. [I] tend to support the latter view and have an additional argument:...the need to sustain the character of the state which will henceforth be Jewish...with a non-Jewish minority limited to 15 percent. I had already reached this fundamental position as early as 1940 [and] it is entered in my diary." Joseph Weitz, head of the Jewish Agency's Colonization Department. From Israel: an Apartheid State by Uri Davis, p.5.

21. "Everybody has to move, run and grab as many hilltops as they can to enlarge the settlements because everything we take now will stay ours... Everything we don't grab will go to them." Ariel Sharon, Israeli Foreign Minister, addressing a meeting of militants from the extreme right-wing Tsomet Party, Agence France Presse, November 15, 1998.

22. "It is the duty of Israeli leaders to explain to public opinion, clearly and courageously, a certain number of facts that are forgotten with time. The first of these is that there is no Zionism,colonialization or Jewish State without the eviction of the Arabs and the expropriation of their lands." Yoram Bar Porath, Yediot Aahronot, of 14 July 1972.

23. "Spirit the penniless population across the frontier by denying it employment... Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly." Theodore Herzl, founder of the World Zionist Organization, speaking of the Arabs of Palestine,Complete Diaries, June 12, 1895 entry.

24. "One million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail." -- Rabbi Yaacov Perrin, Feb. 27, 1994 [Source: N.Y. Times, Feb. 28, 1994, p. 1]

25. "We Jews, we are the destroyers and will remain the destroyers. Nothing you can do will meet our demands and needs. We will forever destroy because we want a world of our own." (You Gentiles, by Jewish Author Maurice Samuels, p. 155).

26. "We will establish ourselves in Palestine whether you like it or not...You can hasten our arrival or you can equally retard it. It is however better for you to help us so as to avoid our constructive powers being turned into a destructive power which will overthrow the world." (Chaim Weizmann, Published in "Judische Rundschau," No. 4, 1920)

Happy Days are Here Again

Coutesy of Hannah and Friends

Waiting

I sold a gold futures contract last night. I was up a couple hundred and was tempted to wait for a run up. But, with all that's being going on, it should already have moved up. Something is not right, so I'm going to play it safe for now.

We get to see Noah on the twentieth. He and Lauren have been really gracious about trying to give us a day. (mild sarcasm). We're also looking foreward to a trip to the Michigan dunes at the end of the month which will be a great family get together, even if Noan and Lauren are too busy do join us for a day or two. (irony)

Then when we get back the Irish will be kicking off against Georgia Tech.
ND #1, YEAH BABY! My friend Louie hasn't relented in his determination to go to a game this year, so i've been scanning the ticket brokers. Damn, about three hundred dollars each for bad seats (in the corners of the stadium-two hundred fifty for end zone). He's shaming me into it. I tell him its goofy to pay that much and he answers "Don't worry about it, I'll get the tickets." If I'm going I'm paying, and I guess I'm going.

The prices I quoted are for the Stanford game. October 7, after Georgia Tech and the 4 Big 10 opponents and before a by week. If the lads are undefeated at that point it'll be a real scene, and I'm thinking Oct 7th could be a beautiful day for football.. OK, I'm too excited to type any more right now. Love to All.

I'm sure I got something to say

It's just too hot too think.

Oh, I know. Janett was watching the local bulletin board scroll past on cable TV and thinks she saw that Pink Floyd is scheduled to appear at Hemmens auditorium.

Sounds like something that would happen to a stoned person. Who else would be watching the local bulletin board in the first place. But she doesn't get high, that's just my little angel.