Tuesdays Stink (and other miscellaneous thoughts)

Really, they do.  You don't have the "glow" of the just-completed weekend anymore, and the next weekend is still far off in the future (or so it feels, anyway).  I have always hated them and I still do.  I remember that as a kid, I used to routinely "get sick" and end up in the nurse's office on Tuesdays, to the point where it was a running joke at my elementary school, and my late mother threatened me that unless I was near death, I was NOT going to be allowed to come home early from school, and even then, she wanted to speak to a doctor first.

I'm still a sports fan, but as I've gotten older, my interest in it has really dropped off.  Growing up, and even into my twenties and early thirties, I would often plan my life around sporting events (when my favourite teams were on tv, etc.).  Now, I often don't even bother to watch when those teams are on tv.  Is that typical?  Don't get me wrong, I still have teams for which I cheer, and those against whom I cheer just as strongly, but the outcomes don't really affect me the way they did in the past.  I remember in 1988, when I was still in my early twenties, the Montreal Canadiens lost a playoff series to the Boston Bruins, and it was the first time in 45 years that that had happened.  I was devastated for weeks, and it was just as bad the next year when Montreal lost to Calgary in the Stanley Cup Finals.  Now, when the Habs lose, it bothers me, but my attitude is more of a "Oh, well", a shrug of the shoulders, and life goes on.

One of the "joys" of getting older is seeing the people with whom you have interacted vanish from your life. In the past few weeks, four people (one judge, three lawyers) with whom I had dealt regularly all passed away.  It really is depressing.  Three of them were older, so their passing wasn't entirely unexpected, but one of them wasn't much older than me.  It really makes you think.  Good Lord, I'm turning into Billy Crystal's character at the beginning of the first City Slickers movie...................

I get that people aren't happy with the way President Obama has responded to the Ukraine crisis, and one thing that hasn't changed in the four years that passed during my blogging hiatus is that I continue to be a critic of his foreign policy.  However, what exactly SHOULD he be doing?  Do people want us to intervene militarily in the Ukraine, and if that's what they want, are they prepared for the consequences of such an intervention?  We would almost certainly lose, given that Russia is right next door and we have no large numbers of military forces nearby.  The world economy would tank.  Oil prices would double (or worse). The Europeans will not help us, given that they are completely dependent on Russian gas to heat their houses. And, then there's that little matter of all of those Russian nukes, which a despot like Vladimir Putin might be willing to use.  So, again I ask, what exactly should President Obama do?  Don't give me talking points; I want specifics.

I've been asked fairly often over the years why I am such a strong supporter of Israel.  Well, there are "macro" and "micro" reasons.  Dealing with the "micro" reasons first, I have friends and (distant) family there. The "macro" reasons are a bit more complex.  There is a total of around 14,000,000 Jews on the planet, at least as of 2012, the last year for which I could find a statistic.  Over 82% of them live in Israel or the United States.  Especially after the Holocaust, I view it is one of my responsibilities as a Jew to ensure that my fellow Jews will always have somewhere to go in the event of war, discrimination or intolerance. Fortunately, here in the U.S., it seems as though "our place in society" has largely been accepted.  In Israel, the only Jewish-majority country on the planet, that "place in society" is under attack, both militarily and socially. No, there are no large-scale military invasions of Israel under way, nor do any appear to be imminent (the fantasies of Iran's mad mullahs notwithstanding), because the Arab world has come to realize that more insidious forms of non-military warfare such as attacking Israel in international organizations (such as the odious United Nations) and the "BDS" (Boycott, Divest and Sanctions) movement, which has successfully turned the image of Israel into that of a modern-day South Africa--even though that is simply a lie--are far more effective. Hatred of Israel is at an all-time high, and hatred of Jews in general is following suit.  What does it say that the sole country in the world which is the target of such a movement is the world's only Jewish-majority state?  Not China, which has oppressed Tibet and the Uighurs for closing in on 70 years. Not Russia, which has already violently taken over part of Georgia and is now occupying part of the Ukraine.  Not Morocco, which has engaged in a virtual war of extermination against the native inhabitants of the Western Sahara, to the point where the natives of that region are now a minority in their own land.  Not Saudi Arabia or Iran, which practice gender apartheid and still stone people to death for adultery or "religious blasphemy", and which ban other religions (in the case of Saudi Arabia).  I could go on and on. Nope, only Israel is worthy of world opprobrium--and then people wonder why I am convinced that the BDS movement is by and large anti-Semitic?

Where our oil money is going

It's not towards anything useful. Nope, the money we send everyday to Saudi Arabia is going to fund terrorism and Wahhabi-oriented schools who teach their students to hate us. The money we send to Dubai goes to palm leaf-shaped islands and constructing buildings that are over half a mile high: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/global/2008/10/06/noindex/dubai.xml&source=EMC-exp_06102008.

Isn't ANYONE troubled by this neverending transfer of wealth? Isn't anyone worried about the money we keep sending to countries that hate us?

The Meltdown is only beginning

The dominoes keep falling, and no one seems to care, or even notice. We have the government proposing a bailout of the mortgage industry that will cost--best case scenario--$700 billion (roll that number around your heads for a while), though I think that it much more likely that it will go well past the trillion dollar figure. We have a dollar that was in freefall until a couple of months ago, when it finally levelled off. We have a deficit that is already absurd and which, if this bailout plan is finally passed, as seems likely, will reach a level from which it be impossible for us to recover, and I really do mean impossible.

How will this impact all of us? In the following fashion. Our dollar will collapse. Completely: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/global/2008/09/24/noindex/dollar.xml&source=EMC-exp_24092008. And what will the effect of THAT be? Let me put it in terms to which everyone can relate:

1) Remember those $4/gallon gas prices from just three months ago? Well, keep in mind that oil is purchased and sold in dollars, so a dollar worth a lot less means that it will cost a lot more to buy a lot less of it. That's Economics 101. By the time prices stabilize, we'll likely be looking at gas which will cost $5 a gallon (at a minimum), and more likely $6/gallon, if not more.
2) I have four kids (and those three commando basset hounds). They cost money to feed, clothe, etc. So, that gallon of milk that you have to buy? It's now going to cost you $4. That American cheese you buy for the sandwiches? Get ready for $3+ per pound, as opposed to the current $1.99 a pound you pay on sale currently. The two litre bottle of Coke, the one that used to cost 99 cents a bottle? It'll now set you back $1.50 a bottle or more.
3) We all need clothes, shoes, etc. That pair of Levis, the one you get at BJ's Wholesale Club for $20, will now cost $25. The New Balance tennis shoes will jump up in price by at least 20%, and probably more.

I think that you all get the picture. A Dollar collapse will hit us all, everywhere. It will affect every aspect of our lives, from the way we live to, in some extreme cases, whether we live. Am I being alarmist? Maybe, but it would seem foolish on our part not to at least consider the scenario I have outlined. We can't overcome a problem by ignoring it, though too often that is exactly what our government (which is merely an extension of us) does. Can the collapse of the dollar be avoided? I don't know, but I have to hope so, because the future is frankly to scary to contemplate if it does.

Maybe so, but.........

An Op-Ed in today's Wall Street Journal has a perfectly valid explanation for the increasingly bellicose behaviour of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez., to wit, "It's the economy, stupid.": http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122143547989234217.html?mod=djemEditorialPage. Simply put, Venezuela's economy isn't doing so well right now, despite the billions in oil revenue that the country is taking in, and its ally in Bolivia is doing even worse.

HOWEVER......that doesn't mean that we should take Mr. Chavez lightly--by cozying up with our old Cold War enemy, Russia, he has indicated unequivocally that he will be a thorn in our sides, and with that oil revenue, he can be much more of a menace than Fidel Castro ever was.

When obscene just isn't enough

OPEC ministers have decided to cut oil production by 500,000 barrels a day, because the billions in oil revenue they have been raking in for over half a decade now apparently aren't adequate: http://finance.comcast.net/www/news.html?x=http://www.origin.comcast.akadns.net/data/news/2008/09/09/1054942.xml. Of course, there will be grumbling about this, but for the most part, the reaction on the part of the West in general and United States in particular will be..............nothing. I suppose that the inevitable response is "Well, what can we do?" The answer to that is, "We can drill here", everywhere and anywhere. We can do whatever it takes to find new sources of energy. Unfortunately, oil (like just about everything else), has become just another issue over which Republicans and Democrats can spar. Neither of them accomplishes a damned thing, nor do they care to do so.

Welcome to the party, Wall Street Journal!

I've blogged previously about how the United States in general benefits greatly from a strong dollar. To me, this seems fairly obvious. A strong dollar means that it is worth more, which means that it buys more. We all benefit. That simple logic seems to have escaped the powers that be in Washington, however, and we have been subjected to (as the Journal describes it) years of "malign neglect" of the dollar: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122048621675397153.html?mod=djemEditorialPage. This is so true and SO dangerous. Look at these basic facts: As the dollar was in freefall earlier this year, we saw commodity prices in general and oil prices in particular rise to previously unseen levels. That's when gasoline rose above $4 a barrel, and the cost of living went up for everyone. Fuel prices were just the most visible example. However, the collapse of the dollar also caused a spike in food prices (just to cite a prominent example).

The greenback has come back somewhat in the past few months--and, surprise surprise, commodity prices have fallen commensurately--but it's still a long, long way from what could be considered to be a healthy range. The next President, be it John McCain or Barack Obama, NEEDS to make sure that the dollar is strong. If they don't, the voters may very well be looking for a replacement come 2012.

Of course

There is a great column in today's Wall Street Journal on how the Federal Reserve's short-sighted fiscal policies have led to the worst inflationary pressure this country has seen in over 25 years: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121910289433951323.html?mod=djemEditorialPage. Gee, ya think? The Fed's policies are nothing short of stupid, and they have led not only to inflation but to a collapse of the dollar. Yeah, I know that the dollar has gone up of late and oil prices have come down from their absurd highs in July, but that's a function of the market correcting itself, nothing more. You know what happens after the correction is complete? Prices go back up again, of course, usually to levels even higher than they were before the correciton began.

History is full of examples of what happens when we do not manage our money wisely. Why do we seem completely incapable of learning from those examples?

They don't get it

The Democrats apparently feel as though $4.00 a gallon (and $8.55 in that unfortunate Alaskan town) gasoline isn't expensive enough. So, with oil still hovering in record territory, they are proposing a HIKE in the gas tax: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,386643,00.html. Honestly, how can people see them as being better handlers of the economy? Their response to people who are struggling to pay the current price of gasoline is to ask them to pay more????

And what exactly do the Democrats plan to do about this?

Gas in one particularly remote Alaskan town has hit the absurd price of $8.55 a gallon: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080718/lf_nm_life/gasoline_alaska_dc. The Republicans, agree with them or not, are at least trying to propose some options. What are we getting out of the Democrats? Nothing other than obstruction and almost a "let them eat cake (and ride their bicycles)" attitude.

My job takes me all over the state, and I lug a big trial bag around wherever I go. Sorry, but a bike's not an option for me, nor is public transportation. The Democrats, as usual, offer me nothing in terms of viable ideas or solutions to the increasing cost of fuel. Their sole gesture seems to be to say "no" to everything; No to more drilling; Not to shale oil; No to more clean coal development; No to more nuclear power; No to everything, in fact. Just how do they propose that we get the cost of energy to go down? Do they even want it to go down? Or, with typical liberal self-hatred, do they think that we deserve to pay higher costs for fuel?

Pole dancing for gasoline

Someone should send this to James Taranto at the Wall Street Journal, for his "The World is Spinning out of Control" series: http://www.wafb.com/global/story.asp?s=8684852.

S0rry, maybe I'm just a hard-hearted jackass, but I'm having a lot of trouble taking this story seriously...........

What goes down must come up

Oil prices fell today by over $6 a barrel, over concerns that it is overpriced, among other things: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080715/ap_on_bi_ge/oil_prices. A couple of perspective checks here. One, it is still just as expensive as it was last week. Two, the U.S. dollar continues to plummet, reaching new lows on almost a daily basis. This guarantees that the price of oil won't fall far, if it continues to fall at all. So, don't get too excited.

Partially right

Mort Kondracke is a pretty straight shooter, so when he discusses a subject, I tend to listen (or read) very carefully. He has an article on Realclearpolitics which gets it largely right in discussing the high price of oil, though he too misses one major cause--the collapse of the U.S. Dollar: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/07/whos_to_blame_for_4_gas_both_d.html. For the record, I lay that collapse (of the dollar) largely at the feet of President Bush and a seemingly clueless Federal Reserve. Their collective mismanagement has resulted in an economy which is far from healthy (though I'm not prepared to scream that the sky is falling, as the MSM would have use believe).

Finally!

Maybe the Christian Science Monitor has columnists who are monitoring my blog (if so, they are likely the only ones!), but one of their writers has echoed what I have been saying for months now. If you want to see oil prices drop, the value of the dollar MUST go up: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0627/p03s01-usec.html. It's not coincidental that oil today raced by the $140 a barrel mark, in conjunction with remarks by Libya that it is considering cutting production (gee, thanks Libya) and yet another decline in value by the dollar against the Euro after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke (does the analogy "Nero fiddles while Rome buns" ring true to anyone else?) declined to hike the prime interest rate. And, of course, President Bush remains completely silent on this issue.

We are flirting with economic disaster and no one in D.C. seems to even notice that there is a problem, let alone care................

What oil money can buy

It can buy you, for example, skyscrapers which rotate: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,371223,00.html. Where are these towers planned? In Dubai and Russia, two countries flush with oil cash.

Isn't it nice to know that that $4/gallon gas money is being put to good use?

We continue to enrich them

Agence France Presse is reporting that the Arab Gulf Staes will take in no less than 1.3 trillion dollars in oil revenue over the next two years: http://www.gulfinthemedia.com/index.php?id=411065&news_type=Economy&lang=en.

Let's see. They hate us. They fund people who want to kill us. And we pour dollar after dollar into their piggy banks (oops, sorry, how politically incorrect of me to use that analogy)...................

Lost in the shuffle

Lost in the media euphoria yesterday and today over Barack Obama's clinching of the Democratic Party's Presidential nomination (more about that in my next post) were the comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke which appear to suggest that maybe, JUST MAYBE, someone at the Fed has finally realized that yes, the collapse of the dollar is playing a part in the rise in prices here in the U.S. (the cost of a barrel of oil being the most obvious example): http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/06/bernanke_backs_king_dollar.html. More importantly, it looks as though some steps may finally be taken to strengthen the Greenback.

I'm no economist, and yet I realized this long ago. What took the eggheads at the Fed so long?

Exactly!

I have been screeching (with no one listening, apparently) about how the collapsing dollar is at the root of many of our current economic problems, the cost of oil among them. Finally, it appears as though others are starting to pick up on this idea: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121150088368615927.html?mod=djemEditorialPage.

When you think about it, it really doesn't take a genius to figure this out. As the dollar drops in vallue, it takes more of them to buy things. Pretty elementary, if you ask me. So, why isn't Barack Obama talking about this? Why isn't Hillary Clinton? Why isn't John McCain?

I have the answer to this question

The article asks, "What do the Saudis want?": http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/05/what_do_the_saudis_want.html. Aside from money, I think that the answer is fairly obvious. How about the death of all Americans (especially Jewish ones), or at the very least their conversion to Islam? Isn't that what Wahhabist Islam teaches?

My point exactly!

I blogged about this just yesterday, and as soon as I go into Yahoo! this morning, what do I see? Another article on how oil prices continue to skyrocket BECAUSE OF THE FALLING DOLLAR: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080509/ap_on_bi_ge/oil_prices.

The evidence is right in front of us. Why can't our idiot politicians, either Democrat or Republican, see it? Why can't the Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, see this? Why can't anyone in the Bush 43 Administration see it?

Someone who sees it the way I do

I have blogged incessantly about the dangers of the falling dollar, and how the collapse of the Greenback has ramifications both short- and long-term on all of us, ranging from how much we pay for a tank of gas (don't blame the oil companies for the cost of that fillup. Blame a dollar that buys about half as much oil as it did just three or four years ago.), the cost of that flight to L.A., etc., etc., etc.

Well, I just came across this gem from Lawrence Kudlow, and I apologize for not putting it on m blog earlier. It's a piece he wrote in early March on how important it is and was to all of us that we have a strong dollar: http://www.townhall.com/columnists/LawrenceKudlow/2008/03/04/resurrect_king_dollar?page=full&comments=true.

Please read it all.