The Tale of the Three Princesses

Passengers clapped and whistled as three princess from the family of Quatar’s Emir were escorted off a British Airways flight from Milan, when they refused to sit next to men they didn’t know.

OK, you’re travelling on public transportation (in Business Class) and you want others to have to move and split their traveling parties so you don’t have to sit next to an unfamiliar person? Sorry, not a good reason. But thank you ladies for once again showing that these people, as Western-loving as can seem to be (they were on a one-day shopping trip) aren’t Westerners. They are not our friends.

One of the more interesting aspects of the state of our world today, is how we seem to think that Arabs of any kind are friends of America. They are not. As in the case of Saudi Arabia, they may sell us oil and help keep the price down, but don’t forget the oil companies that pump and process Saudi oil were owned by U.S. companies until the Saudi government nationalized (stole) them (okay, threatened to nationalize them until they were granted tax breaks that led to their gaining control of the company – very slick operators). Why would we think Quatar is any more our friend than Saudi Arabia, where 19 of the 9/11 hijackers came from?

My only question? Why were these princesses flying via British Airlines? All the Quatar Royal 747s already engaged?

Dow Troubles – Do they mean anything?

The DOW has lost over 4% of its value in the past two trading days. This, on the heels of much backslapping and highfiving over an invincible economy, evidenced by the index clearing the 14,000 mark. Now these same pundits (mostly on the Fox News Channel) fail to ever mention the fact that when inflation is figured in, we’re a long way from a new all-time record. Sure, we’ve hit a nominal record, but a real record? Sorry.

Gold has taken a hit, but according to Dan Norcini on Jim Sinclair’s site, it took "humungous" effort on the part of the buyers, with an enormous number of gold transacted to do it. Already, the price of gold has rebounded a bit. Sinclair sees Gold over $1,000.

The dangers in this market are many. Our debt, both personal and public is immense, and growing daily. From Treasury Bills to the credit card that gets whipped out several times a day, someone holds the note on each of those debts, and expects to be repaid. Unfortunately, no one seems to be making an effort to pay off those debts, and everyone knows it. Every single stock on NYSE and NASDAQ is dependent on someone buying something, a product, service, or information. When people don’t have enough money, they don’t buy as many things. When they have a lot of money, they buy and have expectations to buy in the future. While housing prices were rising and interest rates were falling, it looked like free money was everywhere. Refinance your house, take out some cash and your payment’s lower. Wow. Free money.

No.

Those dollars were taken out, spent on plasma tvs, big vacations, new car payment support, etc. Now the housing bubble is starting to (depending where you live) burst or deflate and the value of those same houses are falling, often past the amount level of debt attached. Every day, homeowners in different regions of the country are finding that after one or two refinances, they now owe more on their house than the house next door sold for. That’s a bad situation for everyone, and is only going to get worse. The future ability of consumers to buy stuff will translate to a lower DOW. Remember, all those companies SELL stuff.

A gathering of troubles

Kunstler on the "Psychotic Break" at work in the oil and financial markets. In other words, the financial markets are sailing along, seemingly setting records (if one doesn’t count inflation and the CPI) while oil production is heading for a situation when oil producers stop exporting because the oil demands in their own countries have grown so much.

It’s a dangerous situation that according to Kunstler might bring about a catastrophe as early as this fall. Add to that the web bot prediction of an "emotional release" period in the fall (as chronicled on Urban Surival) where there are sudden "travel restrictions" and it looks like dark clouds are on the horizon.

Nuclear Messages

Inside the Ring, Bill Gertz’s column in the Washington Times with a chilling bit of information (or maybe dis-information?).

International radio operators picked up large numbers of coded Air Force communications being sent around the world on June 26 that indicated some type of military activity was about to take place.

A U.S. military official said the radio traffic was monitored from the Air Force Global High Frequency System (GHFS) that some observers regarded as "extraordinary" because of the unprecedented length of messages. They were sent to Air Force commanders at Andrews Air Force Base; Wideawake Airfield on Ascension Island; Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska; Andersen Air Force Base, Guam; Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii; Lajes Field in the Azores; Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska; Salinas Air Base, Puerto Rico; Thule Air Base, Greenland; and Yokota Air Base, Japan. All are sites of GHFS ground stations.

The messages appeared to be emergency action messages, coded communications sent by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to U.S. Air Force strategic nuclear forces.

The messages sent June 26 included 174 characters, much longer than normal 30-character messages, and amateur radio monitors say they have not seen the size of this message since the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

Air Force Maj. Tom Knowles, a U.S. Strategic Command spokesman, said there were no large-scale exercises going on that would account for what were likely "routine" messages.

"We routinely exercise that capability to make sure of the readiness of our forces," he said.

A retired Air Force general said the strategic nuclear forces also dispatch command action messages that are part of a nuclear command system that requires force commanders to respond within two minutes.

via FreeRepublic.com

Car bombs and a Happy 4th

Admittedly, belated on both counts, but we’re on vacation, and after all, this blog is in its infancy.

In Britain, security forces stopped (with help from seemingly incompetent terrorists, it would seem) a series of car bombs designed to create chaos and kill a lot of people | Coverage of thwarted plot |. Britain’s seen its share of terrorist attacks, and will undoubtedly see more, while we in the U.S. still wait for our first Islamo-terrorist car/suicide bomb attack (though some claim the Oklahoma City attack was the work of Middle Eastern terrorists).

These would-be attacks in the UK are a bit of a mystery. How could an organization with the reputation of Al-Qaida be so incompetent? How could a group that can’t seem to blow up three cars in the West possibly import, assemble and detonate a nuclear weapon, as so many people fear? Or were the people responbible for these failed attacks simply amateur freelancers following some misguided sense of mission? Either way, they need to disappear in a deep, deep hole, never to be seen again.

Whatever the case, our enemies still plot, but their weapon seems to be more PR than explosive, at least here in the U.S. and another celebration of our nation’s independence passes with little to mar the festivities.

Happy Birthday, America.