Insanity At The Gates

[NOTE: First, I apologize for not visiting or consulting more blogs this past week, but my computer and internet connection are not cooperating. My HP zd8000 laptop has, for some arcane reason, decided to not recognize every 3rd or 4th keystroke and it is maddening (for I am a very rapid typist, courtesy of Mrs. Lefkow's 7th Grade typing class!) when I have to continuously backspace in order to add the requisite letters or spaces between words.

In addition, my dial-up seems to have gone on vacation. It comes up as 54.6 kbps, but a simple and graphics-minimal site such as WorldNetDaily takes a good 1 to 1.5 minutes to completely load. Your blogs, some with many videos, can take up to 4 or 5 minutes to load. I simply don't find myself having the patience on some internet sessions, what with the connection and the keyboard issue -- not to mention the connection deciding, at a whim, to disconnect itself. Three or four more paychecks (some very serious fiscal issues had to be addressed recently, leaving me with no budgetary room) and I'll be ready to divest myself of the PC world and purchase my very own iMac. After that, I'll be seriously (fiscally) investigating a satellite internet connection.]

THOUGHTS ON ISRAEL:

After the second Lebanon War, the Olmert Party is barely holding together a country. Olmert is doing nothing for his nation and nothing in Gaza.

Condoleezza Rice isn't helping either. Our state position on Israel isn't helping. Pressure from Washington isn't keeping Israelis secure in their beds at night.

It isn't poverty, it isn't settlements, it isn't a country, it's simply about the state of Israel being allowed to exist. Acknowledging its presence and its future. And Arabic interests are doing their best to ensure Israel dies. I repeat: it isn't about "Palestinian" "poverty" or "no power" or "no water" or "the wall" -- it's simply about the total and complete elimination of Israel. Anything less is unacceptable and damn the casualties -- on both sides.

Yassar Arafat set the precedent: whilst filling his own personal coffers with briefcases full of cash sent to offshore accounts, Parisian housing, he portrayed himself as a fighter for, in truth, those sufficiently stupid and gullible to buy his "common man" act. And an act it was; he refused to accept, under President Clinton, lands offered by Israel for "Palestine"; he wasn't satisfied. He wanted all of Israel offered up on platter. Anything less was insufficient.

Arafat couldn't have cared less for the average "Palestinian" and neither does Hamas, the force behind the recent Israel school slayings. The young "Palestinian" assassin was a driver for the school and, as a "trusted" employee he managed to bring his AK-47 there. A Hamas flag flies over the assassin's mother's house. This is called a "clue." Hamas has already claimed responsibility.

But what is being done? The Israeli government said:

Mark Regev, spokesman for Olmert, said that "tonight's massacre in Jerusalem is a defining moment." He said that "the same warped and extremist ideology behind tonight's massacre is also behind the daily rocket barrages in the south."

A defining moment. This attack occurred on Thursday night; I write this late Friday for a Saturday publishing. And nothing is yet done. "Defining moment" indeed.

I can only ask: how long will Israel continue to exist when it has not the collective will to actively defend itself? And how long will the populace continue to allow itself to be undefended?

A True Defender of Israel, Yoni Tidi (at Yoni The Blogger) writes:

Jews are murdered but the peace talks must move on.

It makes about as much sense to me as if someone during the Holocaust indicated that the only thing they spoke out against was the environmental impact caused by all the smoke.

Shame on Bush, Rice and Olmert for standing by whilst innocent blood, both the blood shed yesterday and that which will be shed in the future, is shed on the altar of the Idol called Peace.

THE U.S. RECESSION:

We are in a recession. Its definition simply indicates so with two contiguous quarters. This economy has to be allowed to run its course. And until credit and capital starts to move, we won't be climbing out. Even Toyota is down. Popular car sales are softer.

In a positive (as I wrote last week) we can already see signs that homes are darned near at the bottom. Spring will bring about national upwards movement.

However, in Fornicalia, proposed Demorat tax increases will kill the state. Arnold doesn't have it in him to VETO. The Fornicalia economy is definitely in a recession. It could actually go into a full fledged depression.

There need to be SPENDING LIMITS -- an external DISCIPLINE which allows politicians to point to a particular bill and "gets them off the hook".

PETROLEUM:

President Bush says we need to get off the petroleum nipple. But what does he do? It doesn't matter what you say; it matters what you do.

• Building new refineries?
• Deciding to tap oil reserves in ANWR?
• Oil shale in Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota?
• Building more electrical generation stations?
• Deciding to build nuclear power?
• Erecting oil platforms for drilling off our very own shores?

ANY indication that we are even remotely attempting to become the slightest bit independent?

NONE.

Oil is at $104+ the barrel.

I paid $3.63 for gas at my local Sierra Nevada station two days ago.

Diesel fuel is more expensive than gasoline now, impacting railroads, trucking, farmers, fire departments.

Gasoline already costs $7.50 per gallon in Germany today.

U.S. CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) regulations indicate that Amercan vehicles must achieve 35 mpg by the year 2020. Get over it right now: the only way to achieve this is to create an entirely new wave of microcars, none of which can weigh over 2,000 pounds. Your SUV is gone. Your station wagon is gone. Your Accord-like vehicle is gone. Your pickup truck is gone. Get used to the smartForTwo prototype vehicle.

We are competing with India, China, Europe and Russia for fuel.

I predict $5.00 per gallon fuel by this time next year. For my 2007 4WD Toyota RAV-4, which is much larger, much faster (0-60 in 5.9 seconds, 280 hp) and gets better mileage (my best is 31 mpg, average of 23) than my former dinky 2003 Subaru Outback Sport AWD (best mpg of 24, average of 19 to 20), this would cost me $85 per fill due to my 17-gallon tank.

This will simply kill our economy. If it goes that way I'll forward my retirement and sit back, observe. I have a 69 mile commute per day because I REFUSE to live cheek-to-jowl with illegal Mexicans, black gangbangers, Vietnamese with their chicken shacks, continuous rooster howls, people who refuse (and whose lesser languages are accommodated by my government) to speak English. Call me a racist, sexist, generationist, futurist, I couldn't care less. I want to be with people who look like me and speak like me in my dotage. Imagine that.

And still we'll beat our breasts when we have the answers at our very fingertips -- killed by our own stupidity.

To quote Kurt Vonnegut (1922 - 2007): "and so it goes."

BZ